Fantasy Baseball Today - Ohtani Update, Wilyer Abreu's Big Game, Week 23 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (8/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 25, 2023

Shohei Ohtani will hit until he decides on surgery (3:15). ... Wilyer Abreu and the Red Sox had a huge game against the Astros (7:46). ... Is it time to drop JP France (13:10)? ... Ryan Pepiot has looked solid (17:40). ... Zack Gelof and Nolan Jones should not be free agents (26:05). ... Brandon Williamson and Merrill Kelly both put on a show (36:10). ... Kyle Gibson has some interesting underlying metrics (41:15). ... News (43:55): Yordan Alvarez was back with the Astros. ... Let's talk Week 23 sleepers and two-start pitchers (49:52). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:00:22). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And welcome in to fantasy baseball today on August 25th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White. Today on the show, a massive game for Red Sox prospect, Williare Abreu. We had a pitchers duel out in the desert, week 23 sleepers, two-star pitchers, and much more. Before we get started, help us out by liking this video

and subscribing on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. we really do appreciate it. I think even before we get into the players of the night and all of Thursday's actions, Scott, we left off yesterday with the massive news about Shohei Otani

and I think let's catch everybody up because there was an update here on Thursday. Thankfully, we got a bit of an update. And the latest information we have is that Shohei Otani will continue to DH until he decides whether to undergo surgery to repair the torn UCL. So it's like kind of,

much of an update. It's like kind of an answer. Like he's going to DH for now. So I guess that's a good thing. But we don't, yeah, we just, we don't know what's going on in his mind or whether or not he'll opt for surgery. So we wait. Probably, probably under consistent pressure from his representation to stop deaching. Yeah.

I would guess. Mm-hmm. So, you know, yeah, we know it's not going to be tomorrow. But we don't even really know that, right? It could be tomorrow. just we just can't say for sure that it'll be tomorrow. We know he at least wants to keep hitting for now. And maybe it'll be when the angels are officially out of the race that he'll stop and undergo the procedure. I mean, the earlier he has it, the more time he has to recover the

sooner he can come back as a hitter next year. Although, we don't know for sure that he's getting Tommy John surgery, right? That hasn't been confirmed either. I don't know. I haven't seen this anywhere whether or not it's a full tear. They've just said a tear. So it could be a partial tear of the UCL and we've seen other pitchers in the past pitch through a partial tear. I know Masahiro Tanaka was a very popular one and he pitched pretty well through a partially torn UCL. So I haven't seen that myself. I don't know if you have. It usually doesn't go well when pitchers attempt it. Right. I think Irvin Santana is another case of a pitcher who had one and pitched through it for a long time. But so yeah, I'm kind of assuming that's where this is all leading

for Otani. But technically we don't actually know that yet. but the bottom line is for fantasy you hold on to Otani you keep playing him for as long as he's in I've had the chance since last night when we were responding to it live and that was pretty fun by the way I don't know we didn't

I didn't see a lot of feedback from it but it's so rare that we get a chance to react to breaking news especially with a four-man panel like that Chris Tower is coming on so that was you know just such an authentic moment totally off the cuff

and I thought we did a good job. But anyway, I had a chance since then to look up the numbers Otani put up when he was playing. Like the first time he received news that he needed Tommy John surgery, it was late in 2018. It was like the very start of September in 2018. And for that entire last month, Shohei Otani, with the knowledge that he needed surgery to repair his right elbow, hit 310 with seven home runs, four steals, and a 1,0003 open. Yes, I mean, he looked. Wow.

It looked exactly like Shohei Otani. So, like, I'm not expecting, just because that happened, that month of September doesn't necessarily mean that's how this month of September is going to go. But I don't think there's too much reason for concern that this injury is going to impact him at the plate, at least pre-surgery. When he's recovering from surgery, you know, we've seen, it's taken Bryce Harper a few months to get back to his normal level of production. So that might be a different story. But right now, pre-surgery, stick with Otani for as long as he sticks in the lineup. And then we'll cross the 20-24 bridge when we come to it.

But my presumption is if he does have Tommy John's surgery, he's not a first-round pick anymore, just because he'll miss sometime at the start of next year. And as with Harper, might be less than full force when he does. return. It's so interesting, Scott. I feel like every year we have a few curveballs in fantasy baseball drafts, right, that we have to deal with and try and figure out how to evaluate. This year was Fernando Tatis coming back from the suspension and we haven't seen him play in so long. And the year before that, it was Ronald de Cunia coming back from a torn ACL. We're trying to figure out, okay, how to value him and how far. There's always, and we already have one. We already have

our first domino for next year is there's something will happen with Shohei Altani, I think. So we'll see. And obviously, as we learn more, we will let you know the latest on Shohei Otani. Let's get into Thursday's action. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my, let's talk about those Red Sox. Their offense put up 17 runs on 24 hits

against the Houston Astros, led by their lead-off man, Alex Verdugo. Of course, we'll talk about Willi Air Abraou in a bit. But Verdugo, 4-4-7 with his 10th home run, two runs, two RBI, and he had a brutal July, but has bounced back nicely so far in August. And Verdugo, I was looking this up,

he is one of the players that has the biggest discrepancy between points leagues and Roto. He, entering Thursday, was the outfielder 27 in total fantasy points, and he's the outfielder 44 in Roto. So that's a pretty massive difference. The doubles, the plate discipline,

obviously all that stuff matters in a points league. The other one, Connor Wong, went four for six, with his eighth home run, two RBI, and four runs scored. He's been solid in the, you know, deepest two-catcher league kind of sense. He's hit 248 with eight home runs and five steals. Five steals kind of interesting from a catcher.

But the big name that we want to talk about here is Williare Abreu. Four for five with his first career home run for the Red Sox. He was called up earlier this week. He had a walk. He had four RBI. He had four hard hits in this game, all four of them, over 104 miles per hour exit velocity. The home run, 108.7 off the bat, 431 feet,

and in line for six games next week. Scott, I saw a tweet that you said it looks like it'll be all right-handed pitchers on CBS. I think it said one left-handed pitcher, so I could be wrong, but he's 3% rostered. He's out there in every league. Your thoughts on Willier-Abreu.

So to address that discrepancy where it's showing one left-hander for the red side, next week. Probable pitchers are just a mess right now, and I had to spend so much of my day updating them to what I think is right for next week, but of course, it's all very much subject to change. It always is anyway. You know, you're predicting 10 days into the future who's going to be starting for a team, but particularly this time of year with teams going six-man and and they stop going six-man, just on a whim,

as they try to preserve innings. So I will just, you know, I'll stand by what I tweeted out, that as of what I can tell right now, it looks like the Red Sox are scheduled to face nothing but righties next week, which is very good news for Willioreau because he is a left-handed hitter. He started in center field. This game, obviously, Jaron is out. So it's between Abraeu and Adam Duvall who plays center field.

and I suspect they're going to be pretty strict with a brave in terms of only starting him against right-handers. So that's very good news for him. What we've seen so far, I mean, obviously the production in this game speaks for itself, 4-5, home run, double, a bunch of hard-hit balls in the little bit of time he's been up, which is very encouraging because my scouting report on him

was that the power is mostly a product, of him putting the ball in the air a lot as opposed to him hitting the ball especially hard. Well, so far, it looks like he just hits the ball really hard too. I believe that that home run he hit today was up in the second deck. Yeah. For whatever that means to anybody

in the year of exit velocities. Yeah, it broke a lot of power in the miners, show good on base skills as well. I don't think in the long run he's going to be a great source of batting average because he is so flyball-oriented, but certainly is proving that he can have some utility here in fantasy down the stretch is Willier-A-R-Bray-U, especially when the match-ups look as favorable as they do for this upcoming

scoring period. Let's say you play in a deeper five outfielder league, which I think that is probably the format that we're looking at a player like Willier-A-Bray-U right now. Would you take him ahead of the other prospect? Alfielders called up. Everson Pereira and Parker Meadows. Meadows had a good game on Wednesday. I saw Everson Pereira.

He hit a double on Thursday that was like 11.7 exit velocity, so that was kind of interesting. But would you take a Brayu ahead of both of those? Yeah, I mean, look, he just had a four-hit game. Nobody else has done that since being called up. And with prospect call-ups, unless it's like high-high-end prospects, I think you're just kind of taking it day-to-day, seeing who who

proves he belongs in the majors and so far William Brayu admittedly in a tiny sample size has done just that I also think the flaws in Everson Pereira's and Parker Meadows

games are more evident of all of them Pereira has the most upside and so if he gets hot then maybe we'll be all over him at that point But based on what we've seen so far from a trio of outfielders

who were all wait and see in terms of how we approach them in fantasy, Abreu has proven the most. So he's the one I want the most. Which pitcher were the Red Sox facing to do all this damage? That would be JP France. I thought you were going to say Martin Maldonado, who gave up four of the runs, including Connor Wong's home run. I didn't actually, I didn't notice that.

but yeah, they just left J.P. France in there and the guy got clobbered. He recorded seven outs. He gave up 10 earned runs on 11 hits in this one. Even with that, it's crazy to think. His ERA only jumped up to 351, so it's a testament to how well he was pitching before this. A 131 whip as well. He's still 83% rostered. And looks like he's in line to face the Red Sox again next week.

So I don't think anybody will be starting J.P. Francis next time out. Is he someone that we need to hold on to? Do we need to roster JP, France? I'll keep them in the glob. So, you know, whether you roster them or not, kind of depends on the depth of your league, how many other globby pitchers you have. You mentioned his ERA jumped to 3, what was it, 351?

Yep. That was from 275. So it was a big jump. But, you know, 275 was. So low. And part of this, you know, part of it is that JP France is now 20 innings, approximately 20 innings over his previous career high innings. So he might be beginning to tire out. But part of it's just regression to the mean.

I mean, it took us a long time to come around to JP France as a viable fantasy option in the first place because coming into this start, he had a 439 XERA of 453 X-Fit. well, well above, almost two points above what his ERA was at the time. And it may be, it may be he's tiring out, it may just be pure and simple regression, hitting very hard and all at once as it is want to do. And I'm, I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to pay that it's proper. respect because I think it's really tempting.

And I talked about this a little bit yesterday. It's really tempting in a year where, particularly in the pitching ranks, I mean, the whole concept of the glob, things go wrong and can snowball. There's like a snowball effect when things go wrong on the pitching end. Just typical bad starts can become really bad starts really easily. It seems like, I don't know if that's the shift band. the increased number of stolen bases, all of the above. I just get that feeling, and I'm sure we all do,

that that's how the pitcher pool has played out this year. So it becomes really tempting when you have a guy who manages to string together success for as long as J.P. France did, to just say, okay, that's the answer. J.P. France is good. I need to go with him. But is he really a good pitcher?

while the underlying numbers say he's not. And so, like, I don't want to lose sight of that and just constantly chase the hot hand. It's, it's, I'm still figuring out what the right approach is, but, and to a certain degree, you have to chase the hot hand. We talked about this a few times this year, too, where you have a pitching staff to fill out. Who are you going to fill it out with?

There's only so many good pitchers. You know, if you're choosing from somebody in the glob, then you're kind of are choosing the hot hand, right? But I guess you have to do that. You have to go in with your eyes open and understand that J.P. France probably isn't going to be able to keep this up. And when the regression does come, it could be extreme like this. This goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. J.P. France, 83% rostered.

If he is the worst pitcher on your team and somehow Cole Regens is available, please go add Cole Regan's and drop JP France. Reagan's 66% rostered. And of course, we will be talking about him later on Scott's sleeper pitchers for next week. Of course. Of course we will. All right, let's talk about your player of the night.

Who you got? I got Ryan Pepio. I think Ryan Pepio might be an actual good pitcher. And he didn't start for the Dodgers today. It's worth noting. I don't know if we call it a double header. They completed two games. games today. They reached the end of two games today. One was

picking up where they left off Wednesday. Pepio came in in the second game. He followed two pitchers, not just a single opener. He was the third pitcher in the second game the Dodgers played today. That probably would have been the most efficient way to say it. And he went four innings. He was the bulk pitcher in that second game. So technically didn't start, followed a couple of openers, gave them four innings, struck out six. more notably, walked no one.

And now in eight appearances between the majors and minors this year, Ryan Pepio has issued 1.7 walks per nine. Rick Porcelo level of control year. 1.7 walks per nine. His bb per nine rate last year, 4.4 between the majors and minors. So opposite end of the spectrum,

so far from Pepio. And Pepio is a guy with big strikeout numbers in the minors. I mean, really that control was the fatal flaw, and the reason he might not amount to much in the majors might just be a late evening reliever or something like that is because he wouldn't be in the strike zone enough. But so far this year, I mean, 1.7 walks per night. Like I said, it doesn't get much better than that.

I think that it's, I think, think it's probably a little too good to be true, but the point is it's much better than 4.4 per 9. And given the strikeout potential Pepio offers, it's very, very encouraging. Obviously, Tony Gonson's out for the year. So they have this opening in their rotation that Pepio now with back-to-back strong outings. I believe both were following an opener, so neither was technically a start. But he went a starter's length and has been awesome. So I think that spot is his. And I Given the supporting cast, the Dodgers offer, the win potential there, I would say that's an exciting pickup. Obviously not Cole Reagan's level of excitement, but at least Chase Silseth level of excitement.

Ryan Pepio, 25% rostered. What size leagues are you looking at, I'm Scott? Is it 12-team Roto leagues are deeper? I feel like he's probably not ready to impact points leagues yet. I wouldn't be so sure. I might look to Adam anywhere I wanted to pick up an extra pitcher I'm not saying I drop

every gloppy pitcher for him because it's a very big glob but some of the back end globy guys some of those barely hanging on to the glob and on the verge of being shed left in its trail of mucus I don't know I was trying to think of a nicer sounding word than that

left in its trail of slime, yeah, I'd be willing to drop some of them for Pepio, because I think Pepio is much more upside and obviously has all the advantages of pitching for the Dodgers. I hate to keep piling on J.P. France, but would you make that swap? I wouldn't not make that swap. I need an answer. How's that for straddling the fence? I need an answer. Yeah, I think in leagues where you can honestly consider JP France dropping JP France because they're on the shallower ends, then why not? Why not take a shot on the higher upside guy, Pepio? I don't know if you've thought about the actual embodiment of the glob, what it looks like, Scott.

Well, it looks like whatever container it's in. Oh, because I'm imagining flubber, the movie with Robin Williams back in the day, just a big old... That takes the shape of its container, sure. A big old flubber and just inside of it is a little... list of pictures and that's what it is. Well, that's a little, I don't imagine words in it. I imagine it. But no, that's sort of what I was picturing too, where, you know, when it's outside of

a vessel and able to take its own shape, it can take whatever shape it wants, the glove. But probably it's going to sprout arms and legs just so it can function in our world. And yeah, sometimes it, you know, it loses, it, it sheds, you know, it's some of it rubs off. as it's walking across the surface and somebody gets left behind. Maybe JP France is on the verge of that. I just wonder how far can we go with this analogy? We're just going to keep going.

Let's take our first break when we return. We will talk Waverwire hitters. That pitching tool that I mentioned will do that right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. And just a quick reminder to... I want to interrupt your reminder. I'm getting distracted by the commenters.

They are slandering me right now. You offered me the choice of J.P.P.F.R.P.O., and I reluctantly said Pepio. They're saying I said Pepio for Silseth. If you heard that, I did not say that. Do not drop Chase Silseth for Ryan Pepio. But I do think a couple weeks from now, if things go right, we will think of Pepio as being on the same level of Silseth, hopefully. It's not there yet. I think you mentioned Silseth's name somewhere in your analysis. I did.

I think it was that. It was that Ryan Pepio is kind of in that Silseth territory. I don't think you said you would take them over. I wanted to set the record straight because sometimes people just hear names and fill in all the words between them, however they see fit. The reminder. Download and follow fantasy baseball today in five wherever you listen to this podcast. If you are watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code in the top right corner and that will take you right. and that will take you right to the podcast feed.

Probably should have mentioned this much earlier in the season, but we do in extra FBT and 5 every Saturday, which comes out and where we talk about prospects, it gets dropped into the full-length podcast feed as well. So listen to all of it and have fun. Let's talk some Waver Wire hitters, Zach Gelloff. He's just been, him and Kerry Carpenter, I'm just going to keep mentioning their names

until they're up over 80% rostered because why not? They just keep doing stuff. Zach Gelloff, one for four, with his 10th home run, and Scott, we now have a new max exit velocity of 108 miles per hour. Yeah, I know it's the same thing. Just slightly up from the 107.6.

But yeah, he is 73% rostered. Sneak peak, but Scott's number three sleeper hitter for week 23. This is a question I've received multiple times already on Thursday. Would you drop Tommy Edmund to add Zach L off? It's close. I think Tommy Edmund since returning is batting 253 with four homers and three seals.

That's a pretty good player too. Yeah, and it's worth noting that Tommy Edmund hasn't been, hasn't been that big of a deal this year. No. He's been kind of, I mean, the glob doesn't apply to hitters, but if there was a hitter glob, I'd say he was in it. Let me see where I just adjusted my rankings yesterday, moved Gell off up a lot.

And yes, I have him pretty far ahead of Edmund, actually. So sure, I would drop Edmund for Zach Gallowff. All right. Let's move over to Nolan Jones, who went three for four with his 13th home run, added three RBI. Having a pretty big second half here, eight home runs, three steals in 8993 OPS. He's still striking out way too much, but he hits the ball hard enough and he plays in Corse Field. So those things might be able to help him overcome. this 34% strikeout rate,

I don't think he's going to continue to be like a 2.75, 280 hitter. But those things help, obviously. He's 61% rostered. He's got six home games next week and sneak peek. I'm giving away all Scott's sleeper hitters. Nolan Jones is number two on the list for next week. So if you need an outfielder in a shallower league, he's out there. He's your guy.

Yeah. I think he's been overlooked for too long now. there was a point earlier this season where he got over that 80% threshold and then I think they started messing with his playing time and he kind of cooled off and people lost faith in him but he's come roaring back here in the second half

obviously less competition for his at-bats and the Rockies are at home for all six of their games next week so that's the one-hitter in their lineup that I feel confident can tell not the one-hitter in their lineup because I have another Rockies hitter among my 10 sleeper hitters but we'll get to that

Nolan Jones is the... John... Nolan Jones is the Rockies hitter, who I'm most confident to take advantage of those six home games. I assume you would take Kerry Carpenter ahead of him, right? I would. Okay.

Would you take Nolan Jones ahead of both Eddie Rosario and Sayas Suzuki right now? Easily over Eddie Rosario, but also, yes, over Sayas Suzuki. I assume you would also take him over Andrew Benintendi, who over his last eight games is betting 400 with two homers and one steel.

Yeah, it's totally hollow. He's the hollow man. I agree. Looking at his overall numbers, how has he played all season long? In Chicago, which is a pretty good hitters park, he has four homers,

four home runs. Not that good, Frank. Yeah, I think that's probably the answer. He's like Nick Marquake. I mean, I feel like since he's all done, I've been making the Nick Markakis comparison for Andrew Benintendi, and it just continues. He had one season there. I think it was 18 or 20 homers, but I think that was also the last juice ball year. I think it was 2021 with the Royals. Yeah, so did Nick Markechakas. Yeah.

Early in his career. Looks like that is not coming back for Andrew Benetendi. Royce Lewis is a name that we've talked about a lot recently. He went three for three with a walk, a run, and an RBI. And in eight games since returning, he, He's betting 333 with two homers, a steel, and a 1045 OPS. He's 58% rostered. And obviously I like the player, Scott, and I like him, you know, for the rest of this season. But I did notice, and another sneak peek. The twins have bad hitter matchups for next week.

He's facing tough pitchers. Gavin Williams, Tanner Bybee, Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery, John Gray. So as much as I like Royce Lewis, and if you picked him up, obviously, hold on to him. But for next week, it might be a bit of a rough go. Yeah, I might be. Those are my second toughest hitter matchups. You know, if he's your best option at third base or shortstop, he's your best option at third base or shortstop. And they don't particularly shortstop. I'm not sure you're going to find anything better off the waiver wire. But if you do have the choice, you might, you might go

against Royce Lewis this upcoming week, sure. I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this, but if you play in deeper leagues and you're looking for a middle infielder. We got this influx of rookies recently. Nelvie Marte had a big game. One for two with a double, a walk, a run, an RBI, his third stolen base already. The double he hit 1-11.7 exit velocity for Nelvi Marte. He's 31% rostered with seven games next week. And Oslavis Basabi, the guy keeps hitting so far. Two for three with an RBI, his first 10 games with Tampa Bay. He's batting 333. He's batting 333 with one homer and an 885 OPS hitting the ball pretty hard to 90.3 exit velocity but too many ground balls who would you rather have Scott Marte or Basabe or Lewis no no no just

between those two Marte and Basabe it's definitely Lewis if we're including him but I I agree between Marte and Basabe I'd say Marte Basabe just you look at his minorly track record there doesn't there's no power there I understand the average velocity so far has been good, but I don't think that's something that's going to continue. And it is only fitting that on a Kokomo Friday, I have to mention that Connor Joe is actually having a pretty big month of August. He went two for two with two walks of run and RBI,

and so far this month batting 315 with a 441 on base percentage, two homers, eight doubles, a 1015 OPS. He's 6% rostered. You know, this is very deep league stuff. But if you play in a deeper points league, I think that's where Connor Joe excels. So for the, I don't know, maybe 3% of our deep points league's players out there.

Connor Joe, he's roaring back. So this is how interested I am in Connor Joe. Oh, no. My mind was wandering during that whole spiel to what. Because you were talking about how you imagine the glob looking. You imagine it being green based on that description? Oh, yeah. Because I was thinking orange.

I've been thinking orange this whole time. Fun fact, orange is my favorite color. Why weren't you thinking orange then? I was thinking about flubber. Green. Aren't you glad? I didn't think green? I don't know.

Is that dad joke at the night or something? Yeah, that's a punchline to a famous knock-knock joke. You never heard that one? Yes, I have heard it's got. Did you have anything else to add on Connor Joe or was that it? No. Oh, okay. I thought it was going somewhere about Connor Joe.

No. Two deep league catchers. Two catcher leagues. Ryan Jeffers, we have not talked about Ryan Jeffers all year. And I think that's probably a bad job. Because when he's played, he's actually performed very well for Minnesota.

He hit a pinch hit go ahead two run homer for them on Thursday. And he is batting 282 with 10 homers and an 873 OPS. Among catchers with 200 played appearances, Jeffers is second. OPS and first in weighted runs created plus 145 just ahead of Sean Murphy pretty interesting and Shay Langalear is two for four with a double dong for RBI he's having a big week four home runs in four games and fun fact I actually picked him up in a 15 team to catcher league because Scott had the Oakland A's as the best

hitter matchups this week and that's the only reason why I picked him up so thank you Scott I go I got four home runs that's what published those matchups just in case you want to go off the list of 10 sleepers and find your own. It worked out in that case. That's right. In two catcher leagues, I mean, do you have a preference here? They could be out there like a Jeffers, Langalears. I guess I'll throw Connor Wong in this mix.

Yeah. I mean, they're below the group we've been talking about in recent days. Yiner Diaz. Akiva Ruiz. Cowellie. Who else? Mitch Garver. I'd put them behind those, all of those.

Yeah. Behind Logan O'Hoppy. I would say behind behind. Gabriel Moreno too. Yeah. So obviously look to those guys first, but Jeffers has been doing interesting things for a while. And I mean, kind of Garver-like, actually.

Who incidentally, you know, the high points of his career came with the Twins. And he's probably the reason, Jeffers is probably the reason they traded Garver to the Rangers. So that's, you know, it's all coming full circle here. And Langalear's a lot of, prospect pedigree there, a good power hitter in the minors,

maybe finally living up to his potential in the majors. We've talked a lot about how it seems to be taking prospects longer to hit their stride in the majors. Maybe it's happening for Languiliers. The overall numbers still look pretty bad. But if nothing else,

he might be positioning himself to deserve being drafted into catcher leagues next year. All right, let's slide over. to a pitchers duel out in the desert. You know, it's funny. I mentioned this to you the other day, Scott. Someone left us a two-star review on Apple

because they said I play too many sound drops and it wakes them up when they're trying to sleep. I don't know. Why are you listening to the podcast while you're sleeping? That's the funniest. That's the funniest critique to me. Yeah. Because what he's saying is he prefers a,

a podcast that puts him to sleep, which is the exact opposite of what a podcaster tries to do is put you to sleep. So that's funny. That's really funny. Yeah, it's interesting. I will admit, you know, sometimes go to bed very late at night, obviously. I'll be on my phone. I'll watch YouTube videos or listen to some stuff, but I'm not listening with the purpose of trying to fall asleep. I usually just take myself out and go to sleep, right? Let's talk about those pitchers, by the way. Brandon Williamson continues to pitch well. He was at the Diamondback.

Six shutout innings, six hits, one walk with six strikeouts and over his last eight starts, all in the second half, a 313 ERA, a 115 whip, right around a strikeout per inning. Brandon Williamson, 33% rostered in line for two stars next week against the Cubs and at the Giants. Merrill Kelly on the other side, Dominant, maybe the best I've ever seen. Seven shutout innings.

One hit allowed. 12 strikeouts tied a career high. He had 18 swinging strikes on only 86 pitches. He actually came out to pitch the eighth inning and then left with trainers. I didn't actually see an update on what he left with. I know he was dealing with the blood clot recently, so hopefully it's nothing to do with that. It's a cramp in his right hamstring. Ah, okay.

Well, he was awesome in the start. Even with the velocity down, you know, Merrill Kelly has been. Really great all season long. Anything to add or critique on Kelly and Williamson? I mean, obviously we're going to have to keep an eye on this Kelly news. Because if it is just a cramp, then, okay, he'll feel better in a matter of minutes, right? Hours. But a lot of times it's labeled a cramp when they're removed from the game

and then it ends up being a strain that puts them on the eye out. So that would be unfortunate because you're right. He's been very reliable this year. beyond what I thought was possible for Merrill Kelly, who seemed like Joe Glob coming into the year, you know, certainly coming into last year. But he's been great. Yeah, Brandon Williamson, you know,

obviously the results have been good of late. I don't think the ceiling is particularly high, but he did have some impressive numbers in the miners. It was one of those situations where, at times he'd look like the biggest batmisser in the world like in 2021 between two levels high A and AA Brandon Williamson had 14K per 9 but then he followed that up last year with just a strikeout per inning

411 ERA 156 whip at double A and triple A so you know looked amazing in 2021 looked very ordinary in 2022 and even when he was dominating in 2021, it's not like the scouting reports were raving about this guy. It seemed they were skeptical of him. So overall, I think Brandon Williamson is not somebody to get terribly excited about,

but he does have some interesting numbers in his minor league history. And of course, the Reds lineup, even though it's had its ups and downs, I think has the potential to do a lot of damage and could maybe be in for a big September that would obviously benefit all of the Reds pitchers. Scrolling through your two-star pitcher ranking, Scott,

I noticed that Brandon Williamson is way down the list, and I'm not saying that he should be a priority, but I think if you're in a weekly matchup where you have a lot less starts than your opponent, or if you're playing a deeper league and for some reason he's out there, the Cubs and the Giants, Polte teams actually kind of struggle against lefties. Cubs, 17th,

and Wobah, Giants 25th in Wobah. He's pitched well in this environment. It's kind of tough to find reliable pitchers. I don't hate it. I think Williamson next week for two starts, I think it's okay. It's not a must start, but I think it's fine in the right circumstance. Okay. I'm moving them up a couple

spots. I mean, just by virtue of how long it takes me to put together these things, I have to start well before the games are all done Thursday. So sometimes something happens Thursday and it's like, oh, I got to go change that. So I'll bump them up a couple spots. But I still have them in the no thanks section of the two-star pitcher rankings. Fair enough.

Let's talk about a few other waiver wire pitchers that could be out there. Kyle Gibson through a season high, eight innings against the Blue Jays. He allowed three runs with eight strikeouts to just one walk and was not good in his previous two outings. he allowed 13 earned runs total during that time. Some kind of interesting things, you know, under the hood for Kyle Gibson. He has a 49% ground ball rate, a 384 FIP, a 405X FIP. I mean, if he pitched to those numbers,

he would be a serviceable starting pitcher. Yeah, overall, he's got a 489 ERA, so that hasn't been the case, but I don't know. Kind of some interesting things there. We spoke about Ryan Pepio and then Patrick Corbin. We're talking about Kyle Gibson and Patrick Corbyn. Here we are. He now has a quality start in three of his last four outings.

He gave up three runs over six innings at the Yankees. And in his last four starts, he has a 270 ERA and a 116 whip. Any thoughts on Corbyn and Kyle Gibson? Yeah, I mean, Gibson, like Dean Kramer, it feels like a random number generator, who could pay off really well at times because the Orioles offense and the Orioles bullpen makes him, you know, when he pitches well, makes it very likely he's going to win the game.

So those two have been difficult pitchers to manage, but in a way the globiest pitchers of all, maybe that's why I picture the glob is orange because it has such a high concentration of Orioles. That would make sense. It may just be that I'm thinking like the Nickelodeon logo, which is like a free-form shape a lot of, you know, it's presented. it is like a glob itself. But when they do slime time, it's green.

Well, that's true. We'll stick with the Orioles theory. But the point is, um, Kyle Gibson and Dean Kramer both are among my sleeper pictures for next week because they're going against the white socks, bad lineup. And so you hope,

you hope that you get a, you hope that the random number generator is more likely to spit out something positive. But by virtue of it, being a random number generator. How much can you predict that really? They just had back-to-back great starts going against the Blue Jays, and I'm not sure that's necessarily what we would have anticipated. So it's always very dangerous, interesting,

those two with a start and more advisable, much more advisable in a points league than a Categories League, I would say. But sometimes you have no choice. You've got to do it in the Categories League. All right, let's run through some news and notes before we hit our final break. And Yordon Alvarez returned to the Astros lineup on Thursday. He finished one for three with a walk. Ozzy Albies is trending in the right direction,

but remains day to day and is not certain to return this weekend when he's first eligible. Jonathan India traveled to the Reds training complex where he was slated to begin running on an anti-gravity treadmill. That sounds fun. He could return in early September if he suffers no setbacks. Kenley Jansen reported improvement with his injured right hamstring and is confident that he will be able to avoid the IL.

Kyle Wright threw three scoreless innings while allowing one hit and striking out four in his first rehab outing at High A. He is currently 61% rostered. Mason Miller through three scoreless innings while striking out five at AAA on Thursday. I believe that was his third rehab start. He is 30% rostered. Who would you rather have, Scott? Mason Miller or Kyle Wright? I mean, it's got to be right just because he pitches for the Braves as opposed to the A's. And he's more likely to be treated as a true starter when he returns, I think. In addition to just not providing Mason Miller with much help, the A's may not let him go past four innings.

But it is impressive. This rehab start was impressive for Miller. We know he has a lot of upside. and he might be worth adding in his own right. It's just, you know, I'm basically just giving the same, I'm just pointing out the same flaws that Mason Miller, that I was pointing out for him when he got called up the first time, is just how much is he going to win for you?

Is he going to go deep enough to be impactful in fantasy? And I have major questions about that. Though, remember prior to suffering this injury, his final two starts for the A's were seven innings and six innings. So maybe I'm wrong about them limiting them to four innings. And again, his last two starts before the injury were seven innings and six innings. So like why they probably want to save the bullets for next year mostly. Interesting pitcher, but it's long odds, I think, that Mason Miller makes a significant fantasy impact.

Joey Votto was placed on the aisle due to left shoulder discomfort. he is expected back in early September. Alec Manoa has joined AAA to be built back up after a wide range of medical tests cleared him of any major structural issues. Stone Garrett was placed in the aisle with a fractured left fibula. Just a brutal injury we spoke about this yesterday.

He was trying to make a play on a ball in right field in Yankee Stadium and dude had to be carted off the field. It was rough. You hate to see it for Stone Garrett. The raise optioned Curtis Mead back to AAA. He was batting two feet. 50 with zero home runs and zero steals. The Guardians also optioned Brian Rochio back to AAA.

He was betting 258 with zero home runs and zero steals. The White Sox promoted catcher Corey Lee, who came over from the Astros in the Kendall Graveman trade. He is 25 years old, and this season in the minors had 278 with five homers and 13 steals. We spoke about some names in two catcher leagues earlier, Scott. I assume Corey Lee is not in that category. Not right now, no.

And I don't think the offensive upside is that good. But at catchers, particularly if you're talking to catcher leagues, it doesn't take much for somebody to enter into the conversation. So we'll keep an eye on it. But right now, Corey Lee, I wouldn't put much stock in him. And lastly, some bittersweet news as Steven Strassberg is planning to retire in September at 35 years old, once one of the best pitchers in the sport. His career has been cut short following thoracic outlet syndrome.

And this sucks. I mean, there's no other way to say it, right? Like, this guy was at the top of his game. He's a World Series champion. And it just kind of stinks to see him go out like this. Though, I mean, I had the thought seeing that Stephen Strausberg is 35 years old. You know, I thought of the meme from saving private run. where Matt Damon ages before our eyes.

Like, that's how I fest. Steven Straussberg is 35 years old. I remember when this was the most hyped up pitching prospect of our lifetimes. And yeah, I mean, he was, I think he was basically like 31, 32 when he stopped pitching. The funny thing is he just kept getting older. Now he's 35. Crazy. Yeah, crazy indeed. Let's take our final break when we return.

we will preview week 23 here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back and let's talk week 23, the schedule for next week. We have nine teams with seven games and that includes the nationals, giants, Padres, Yankees, Dodgers, Tigers, Reds, Cubs, and Braves, 20 teams with six games next week and one unlucky team with five games. That would be the Tampa Bay race. We mentioned earlier with the Rockies. They have six home games in Cordes Field,

three against the Braves and three against the Blue Jays. So perhaps we'll look at a few Braves or Blue Jays for next week. And let's get into two-star pitchers. Start or sit, there's a lot of names, Scott. I have just interesting names, guys that have either pitched well recently with really bad matchups or the reverse or just globy guys. What do we do with them? Let's start with Jesus Lazzardo, who is,

up against the race and at the nationals next week coming off a great start but his previous four starts before that were awful your thoughts right but he's in line for two starts after seemingly riding the ship last time it would have to be a pretty shallow league for me to consider sitting him all right chris sail in three starts since returning has a 514 er a he is facing the astros and at the royals yeah sort of the same thing it's it's been a mix bag since he returned from the IL, but there have been enough positive signs that I still think he's automatic with the two-star week, especially since one of those matchups is the Royals. Andrew Abbott over his last five starts has a 646 ERA and a 173 whip. He's at the Giants

and home against the Cubs. I don't think he's been bad enough to justify sitting in a two-star week, so I'm going to say yes to Andrew Abbott as well. Charlie Morton is coming off two great starts. How about these matchups? He's in course field and at the Dodgers. Really putting it to the test. Oh, gosh. Eileen, yes, though. I mean, the last two starts were double-digit strikeouts,

walking nobody. Maybe it'll be famous last words, and we'll never want anything to do with Charlie Morton after this. But I think fortune favors the bold, as they say. Some say brave. I think Matt Damon said brave in that commercial. that confused the heck out of you. And now you started saying that.

I think if you Google both bold and brave, bold will come back more, I think. That was fun last year. We used to do the fortune favors the brave two-star picture of the way. But fun for me. Yeah. I hate thing. I hate when I have to give advice that I don't actually believe in.

I don't know if you've caught on to that. Oh, I have. Like you're forcing me to put, to pick somebody from this. category. I mean, it's the whole thing with the streamer pitchers every night. I wouldn't actually do this, but you're forcing me to pick somebody. And so I am

attaching my name to that, like it or not, and I don't like it. Well, how do you feel about Bryce Elder? Because he's got the same matchups at Colorado and at the Dodgers. Yeah. I don't think

the upside is quite the same as Morton. So I would leave Elder for points leagues. Bobby Miller, is facing the D-backs and the Atlanta Braves, both are top 10 in Wobah against right-handed pitching. Yeah, so I'm looking at my two-star pitcher rankings, and I have him just ahead of Elder actually in the... Not only recommending Miller for points leagues,

but I think I'm going to change that. Yeah. I could see starting Miller in a Categories League if you're chasing counting stats, but it's just a little too dangerous with those matchups if you're not. Yeah, I think that's kind of an underrated strategic asset aspect this time of year

is if you play in a Roto League, just weighing, what do you need more? Do you need counting stats? Do you need strikeouts? Do you need wins at this point? Then you probably just need to start a two-star pitcher like Bobby Miller regardless. But if you're protecting the ratios,

if you're first or second in ERR, and whip and it's, you know, it's really tight between the top three or four teams. And you really need to be judicious with which pitchers you're thrown out there and in what matchups. So just keep that in mind. John Gray is at the Mets and home against the twins next week. I would also leave him for points leagues. He's just been too inconsistent lately. Those are, pretty good matchups, though, I will point out. Taiwan Walker, home against the Angels and at the Brewers. I could see doing it in points leagues if you really just wanted to load up on volume. You know, he's a pretty, he's a pretty low-end pitcher and hasn't been pitching well lately.

So I'm, I would rather avoid Taiwan Walker. Lastly, we get Alex Cobb at home against the Reds and at the Padres. Yeah, he's been terrible lately, so no thanks for me. All right. Well, which two-star pitchers can we add and stream for next week? what you got? So the number one pitcher on my sleeper pitchers list is actually a one-star pitcher. But since you asked me about the two-star pitchers, we will begin there. I'm kind of cheating here.

A couple guys who are exactly 80% rostered, Terik Scubal and Kenta Maeda. If you're on the fence about starting them or you play in a shallow league or you play on a platform other than CBS, then you'll definitely want to consider those two scubles matchups. are against the Yankees and at the White Sox are both very good. Kintamayeda against the Guardians and at the Rangers. So one very good and one bad. His last couple starts have been a little shaky. But overall, he's been terrific this year.

A guy who's a little more available is Seth Lugo. We've talked about him so much in recent weeks. His matchups at St. Louis and against the Giants, both pretty good. And then Brian Wu, much further down the list, just came off the I.L. fine in his first start. It was a sure one. But really, it's about the matchups here. He's going against the athletics and then at the Mets.

If you want to get into the one-start options, which I think are a little more interesting, number one on the list. Cole Riggins, of course. He'd probably be number one regardless. There you go. Reagan. It'd probably be number one regardless of who he was facing,

but he's facing the Pirates. So, like, another 11 strikeouts forthcoming. All in your shot. Bold prediction. Gavin Williams, who we haven't talked about him. Not yet. I have a few leftovers here after this. So we'll take care of him now.

He was not so good here on Thursday. Who is he facing? The Dodgers. Okay. So that, you know, give him kind of a pass for that. Five run or seven runs, five earned in four and a third innings. Eight hits allowed. Still struck out five.

The slider velocity was up again. I think it's been a nice long run of the slider velocity being up, but still two shaky starts for Gavin Williams now after back-to-back double-digit strikeout efforts. It seemed like he was coming on, and now maybe he's dropping off again. But the reason I really like him for next week, regardless, is because his matchup is against the twins,

who are a historically bad team against right-hand. at least as far as strikeouts go. They're one of the most strikeout prone teams against right-handed pitchers ever, so that works to Gavin Williams' benefit. Okay, we also have Chase Silseth at the athletics, and he's actually about 50% available in about 50% of leagues. I mentioned Dean Kramer and Kyle Gibson both going against the White Sox,

and then finally rounding out the list, Kyle Hendricks against the Brewers. All right, let's slide over to the hitters for next week, and the best matchups are the Padres, Tigers, Mariners, Blue Jays, and the Pirates, the worst hitter matchups, the rays, twins, guardians, nationals, and giants. With that said, your favorite sleeper hitters in week 23. Well, number one is a gimmie this week.

He's not so available anymore. This may be the last week he qualifies, but Carrie Carpenter, you mentioned the Tigers have the second best hitter matchups. And as of right now, it's nothing but righties. in a seven-day scoring period. Nice. So, Carrie Carpenter, Far and Away, my favorite, Nolan Jones,

who we talked about earlier with those six games at Cours Field, Zach Galloff just because he's been hot, Yiner Diaz, just because he's been hot. Christian Incarnacion Strand, because the Reds do have favorable matchups. Joey Votto's on the IEL now, so they're, I imagine Incarnacion Stran's just going to be

the full-time first basement for now. And he's, he's you know he's he's he's shown some signs of life recently so i like him this week the other i alluded to those rockies hitter uh who i like when they're home as well as nola jones and that's charlie blackman you look at his home away splits he's still a stud at home like ops over 900 at home he returned from the aisle recently and i think he's a fine play this week this is a really interesting one orlando arcia who i've kind of recommended too often in this base, so I'm afraid it's going to be a boy

who cried wolf situation. Everybody's just going to tune it out. But the Braves are scheduled to face four left-handers in their seven games. In Orlando, Arcea this year against left-handers is batting 344 with an 1126 OPS. He is

crushed lefties. So that makes for a really good time to use him. With the Orioles having good matchups, I like Austin Hayes, the Red Sox, I like Adam Duval. And of course, Williour, Brayu, who, as we mentioned earlier, could start every game next week, given all the righties on the schedule for Boston.

All right. Well, let's wrap up here with some leftovers and quickly run through some pitching performances. Justin Steele, yet another quality start. He allowed two earn runs over six innings and talk about consistency in a year where it's been so hard to find consistent starting pitching. Justin Steele has allowed three earned runs or fewer.

in 22 of 24 starts. Awesome. Just awesome stuff. He is actually SP5 in fantasy points per game entering Thursday and the SP5 in Roto. He's been money. We don't talk about him enough. Brian Beow turned in a quality start at the Astros, seven innings, nine hits, three walks.

So lots of base runners. One earned run with four strikeouts. And then Pablo Lopez's streak of five straight quality starts came to an end. of course, when I needed him most in the Scott White Dynasty League playoffs breaks my heart. Five innings, ten hits, five earned runs

with three homers allowed against the Texas Rangers. Anything to add on Lopez, Beio, and Justin Steele? I still don't actually think Justin Steele is a top five pitcher in terms of ability. I understand he's been in performance and that's great.

And I do wonder, is he coming up on innings, concerns here. I remember he was one of the 15 pictures I talked about when I wrote that column over a month ago at this point. So his career high and innings prior to this year is 119.

And now for this year Justin Steele is at 138. So he's over his previous high by 19. You've got to wonder if that's going to catch up to him at some point. So far, not showing any ill effects. And with the Cubs very much in the playoff race at this point,

I doubt they're going to pull back on him. But there may still be some regression coming for Steele. Don't get too. If he can't get comfortable with him, I know it's like, who can you get comfortable with? But I'm saying don't get too comfortable. There may come a point where you're thinking about sitting him.

I don't rank him as a top five pitcher. I don't think he's a top five pitcher talent. And it's nothing against Justin Steele. I think he's very good. But he's probably more like a top 20 guy. And I guess he probably hasn't been valued that way for me. most of the season. You have not howie?

20? I haven't met 23, but I'm looking at who I have just ahead of him. I have Nola, Gilbert, Verlander,

Sandy. It kind of feels like Justin Seal could be ahead of all those names, in my opinion. I mean, obviously he has been so far.

I think there's no doubt in my mind, Sandy Alcantra and Aaron Nola are better pitchers. I have, okay, I have Steel 26.

I have him higher than I thought I did. But, still lower than you. Yeah. A few hitting leftovers here. The Dodgers, we mentioned they finished out two games here on Thursday. Mookie Betts wound up going five for five in that suspended game, and then he went two for three in the second game.

He is now batting 310 with 34 home runs, 10 steals, and a 10-10 OPS. Ronald de Kunya hands down. He's the fantasy MVP. I thought it was just a given. He's just literally running away with the NL MVP. Not so fast. Mookie Betz actually leads baseball in war. 7.1 war.

I think he's making this a close race. I think so too. I still imagine Acuna is the clear favorite. I haven't seen like the betting odds recently or anything. But he certainly owns the narrative. But I have had the thought, you know, whether it's Betts or Freddie Freeman, frankly. I feel like if you remove either one of them from the Dodgers lineup, Betts or Freeman, it suffers more than if you remove Acuna from the Braves line.

I mean, that Dodgers lineup is very good, but it's so top-heavy, mostly on the backs of those two. And I think when the war is close, I know this, it's kind of old-school thinking they used to give the MVP award to the best player on the most surprising team. Like, oh, look, he would have never got anywhere without him. And now we look more to war and it's almost a pure war situation. But I think with a war is close, I do think,

I do think there deserves to be some contextual extra credit there. So, I don't know. Obviously, I'll never sniff an MVP vote in my lifetime. But if I was an MVP voter, I might be reconsidering and maybe thinking about putting one of those Dodgers at the top of the ballot. Don't tell yourself short, Scott. You might get there one day. Well, there's, they, like, to get in the Baseball Writers Association of America, they require you to go to a certain number of games every year. And I just, I got no time for that.

That's fair. Come on. I wish I did. I mean, I've looked into it clearly because, like, being able to vote for Hall of Fame and stuff, that would be awesome. But, no, I can't, I can't, uh, I can't do that. Sorry. A quick glance at the betting odds. Ronald Acuna is still a, pretty heavy favorite, I would say. I don't know that it should be that way. I don't have access to bet on the MVP in New York for some reason, but if I did, I might throw down something on mooky bets.

Jose Ramirez, in that suspended game, he went one for three with a sock and two shoes. He is now up to 19 home runs and 20 steals. The counting stats have been disappointing, but it still looks like Jose Ramirez is going to wind up with 25-25 season, maybe even better than that. And lastly, Giancarlo Stanton, went four for five with his 19th home run.

His first four-hit game since May 3rd of 2021. How about that? The call to the bullpen for the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan allowed a run, but recorded the final four outs for his 23rd save. For Tampa Bay, Pete Fairbanks picked up his 16th save. For the Cubs, Adbert Alzelye gave up an unearned run, but converted his 20th save,

and now has 13 saves in the second half. he has been money. For the Orioles, Felix Bautice that picked up his 33rd save for the Rangers. Will Smith entered in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and the game tied at the time.

He got a double play. And then the next batter, he gave up a two-run homer to Ryan Jeffers. He wound up with the loss. It's been an awful August. My guess, and I think here is too, Scott, is a roll-us Chapman

probably gets the next save opportunity for the Rangers. That is my guess. He has looked like retro a roll this with them and Will Smith has looked like retro Will Smith lately. I don't know if that's fair to him. I mean, he had a, he's had a fine career, but, you know, he hasn't been the most reliable in recent years.

And it's, it's beginning to show the cracks are showing this year. For the twins, Yoan Duran was unavailable and Griffin Jacks converted his second save. For the A's, Trevor May allowed a hit but picked up his 14 save. 14 saves is quite a bit. I was pretty surprised to see that from, you know, an Oakland A's closer. So he's 18% rostered if you're desperate for saves. Trevor May is the guy. And for the D-Backs, Paul C-Wald truckout two for his 28th save of the year.

Let's wrap up with to stream or not to stream. And we will start with Friday, where I believe yesterday we said, Kyle Hendricks at the Pirates, Christopher Sanchez against the Cardinals, and Brandon fought against the Reds. Question. I fought against Faw. Oh. And literally, like, I really did.

I know it sounds funny. It was kind of funny, but I didn't catch the funny until it was already coming out of my mouth. I fought against fought. I don't like that recommendation. Would you use Miles Michaelis at the Phillies over Brendan fought? I might.

I don't want to, but I might. On Saturday. R&G, baby. Who do we have here? Chase Silseth at the Mets. I think that one looks pretty good. I think Javier Assad at the pirates. I know the underlying numbers are not great, but the pirates.

Pirates are bad, man. Yeah. I'm afraid Assad might be too. I definitely like Chase Silseth. I think he's my number one choice of the entire weekend going against the Mets. Any interest in Junjin Ryu versus the Guardians and J.P.C. Sears at the White Sox. I mean, there have been times when I might have said Sears against the White Sox is okay,

but I know he got crushed in his last start, and I just, I'm not sure I'm feeling it. On Sunday, we have some interesting options. Zach Lattell versus the Yankees, Paul Blackburn at the White Sox, Mike Levenger versus the A's, and Graham Ashcraft at the Debex. So of these choices, I think my number one is, Ashcraft. Don't like him as much as that Chase Silseth on Saturday.

But you know, I'm holding my breath every time we start Ashcraft, but he has gotten more whiffs in recent starts. And hopefully that continues. But I don't mind Blackburn. Blackburn at the White Sox, I think that could

turn out okay as well. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into Fantasy Baseball today, please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again next week. Bye-bye.