Fantasy Baseball Today - Oneil Cruz Heating Up, Kyle Wright Crushed & Joe Musgrove's Struggles (9/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 7, 2022

Both Kyle Wright and Cole Irvin got crushed on Tuesday (1:00). Can Irvin be dropped? ... Oneil Cruz is heating up (6:00)! ... Joey two hits stays hot (11:26). Is there anything there with Lewis Brinson? ... Rank Mitch Keller, Jose Quintana and Eduardo Rodriguez (18:40). ... Jesus Luzardo and Aaron Nola were both great (22:17). ... News (27:40): the Mets should provide an update on Max Scherzer Wednesday. ... What's going on with Joe Musgrove (31:47)? ... Randy Arozerena is on fire (38:30)! How do we judge Seiya Suzuki and Cedric Mullins this season? ... We wrap with bullpen updates and streamers (53:03). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question, email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 7th. Frank Stamphill joined. Hi, Scottie Dubb. Scott White.

Today on the show, O'Neill Cruz, looks like you might be heating up. We had a couple of pitchers get rocked out in Oakland, and we've got WaverWire moves and much more, but let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my goodness gracious, Scotty. A standout. Who you got? Are we each doing a pitcher from that game in Oakland?

I will mention whichever one you don't. I have another player that I want to talk about. Because there's one that kind of understandably going to do well, and another that kind of kind of. shockingly didn't do well. I'll take the one who shockingly didn't do well, which is Kyle Wright, did not look right at all,

considering he was facing. One of the worst lineups in baseball, of course, the athletics. It's been a matchup we've picked on time and time again. And it was in Oakland, too, a really favorable place to pitch. Kyle Wright was coming off an 11-start stretch

with a 245 ERA. Of course, he's been great all year, very reliable. one of the, does he lead all of the majors and wins? I think he did. I think he does coming into this game. I think he has 16 or 17, something like that. Yeah.

So, yep, that led the majors with 17 coming into this one. And fortunately, he was spared a loss, but he did not get a win because he allowed eight earn runs in four innings to that athletics lineup. Allow two home runs, too, in that big ballpark. Very strange. And I think that's all it was. It was a very strange night. You know, his control seemed a little off.

He walked three, so that didn't end his four in his four-ending, so that didn't help matters. But he had 12 swinging strikes on 75 pitches. That's certainly a good rate. The curveball velocity, which has been a key to his breakthrough this year. It was nice and high, actually higher than usual. And, you know, even during that 11-start stretch, I mentioned where he had a 245 ERA,

there was one pretty awful start against the Mets, but still a six-earned-run-run start, and then the other 10 starts during that stretch were great. So it happens. I mean, it's an awful time to happen. And I was whining to you about how it impacts my chances of winning the consolation Bracken in the Skywhite Dynasty League. I really needed a good start from Kyle Wright,

but it didn't happen this time. I don't think this is a cause to sit him in his next start or anything. I just think that's baseball. season. Yeah, I think so too. It was a rough outing for both pitchers in this one. Kyle Wright and Cole Irvin on the other side. We'll get to him in just a minute. But four home runs total hit in this game, three by the A's, one by the Braves. And watching that game, the ball was really flying there. I tweeted about it and someone told me that it's really hot out in the Oakland area. So I guess, you know, that might be cause for the ball flying as much as it did in this

particular game, but nonetheless, it was a pretty rough start for Kyle Wright, who I started in a few heads ahead playoff matchups as well. So not great there. And not great for his counterpart. Cole Irvin, who gave up nine earned runs on the other side. Over four and two-thirds innings pitched. He gave up 13 total base runners, nine hits, four walks in this one. And over his last, let's see what we got here, five starts. Cole Irvin has allowed 24 earned runs over 29 endings pitched and that amounts to a 7.45 ERA. Scottie still 81% rostered

and his next two matchups won this weekend. So, I mean, if you start him on a two-star week, you've already locked in, but he's going up against the White Sox this weekend and the next week, it looks like he's at the Houston Astros. So I think Cole Irvin can be dropped. Yeah, I'd say the shine is worn off even with a favorable matchup next time against the White Sox. If you're in a daily lineup league. You could probably move on. His ERA has risen from

292 to 378 during that five-star stretch, and of course that's with little strikeout potential, bad supporting cast. I think a high 3 ZRA, assuming it stays there, is not attractive enough. And basically right about the time I pointed out that Cole Irvin was magical at home, at home. We were probably like more than halfway through the season and he had yet to allow a home run there.

Well, that's all gone out the window too. Obviously, this start was at home allowing nine earned runs. And two turns ago at home, he allowed five earn runs, three home runs between those two starts. So, yeah, I'd say Kyle Irvin has reached his expiration date for fantasy baseball purposes. So you just called him Kyle Irvin, Scott? You just kind of.

Cole Irvin. mended together both terrible outings, Kyle Wright and Cole Irvin, for a combined 18 earned runs. It's truly terrible stuff. You hate to see it this time of year, especially again in those head-to-head playoff matchups. So Cole Irvin, he can go. I've got a few not so great we have a wire pitchers, but we'll get to those a little bit later on. And whether or not we would drop Cole Irvin for any of them. I want to talk about O'Neill Cruz, Scotty.

Oh my goodness gracious for me, he went three for five with a double and he hit his 13th home run. one that I think still might be flying Scott. I mean, line drives are not supposed to go that far. I went all the way out. I've seen. And they've still been rising as it cleared the bleachers in right field. And you know what's so crazy about that? So many of his home runs look that way,

where it's an upper deck shot, but it doesn't look like it's even on its way down yet. It looks like it's just still going out, which is crazy for a lot of these hard hit balls, these home runs that O'Neill Cruz is putting out right now. I've seen home runs clear PNC before, but nothing like that. I mean, that was just crazy stuff.

Well, if you get a chance to see the clip of this, whether it's on Twitter or wherever else, like the sound that this ball makes on the bat is just, it's a beautiful sound, that classic crack that just echoes throughout the stadium. And especially where the pitch was, too, Sky, you know, it's like down and in. O'Neil Cruz's feet are all.

over the place. It looks like he didn't really even get a hold of it that well and it still just went out of hurry. It's crazy stuff. Over his last 12 games, O'Neill Cruz is hitting 283, four homers, 10 RBI, his average exit velocity, and this is before Tuesday's action, 96 miles per hour, and he's elevating the ball better. So earlier on in the season, you know, for a lot of the year, he had a ground ball rate up over 50%, which is not great for someone who we depend on for power. During this last 12-game stretch, 36% ground ball rate.

The problem, the strikeouts are still really bad. It's got 33%, but, you know, if he's elevating the ball and hitting it this hard, even with a 33% strikeout rate, we should still be able to get some results here. So what do you think about this recent stretch? 76% rostered that probably just accounts for all points leagues. I don't know if he needs to be added,

re-added in those leagues. Yeah, I don't. I don't know either. Obviously, their small line-ups, shortstop is a deep position. Would you rather have O'Neill Cruz or Gunner Henderson? I would say with the way he's performed so far, Gunner Henderson. But, yeah, it's just so enticing the upside. And, yeah, Aaron Judge, he's become a much better,

he's become much less afflicted by strikeouts at this stage of his career. but remember the first three years of Aaron Judge's career. I'm bringing up Aaron Judge because that average exit velocity you gave for O'Neill Cruz was basically Judge is the only other player on that level. And the first three years of Judge's career, he struck out more than 30% of the time in each of them. And the first four year of his career, he hit 52 home runs.

So, like, that's... I don't know that O'Neill Cruz necessarily has to cut down on the strikeouts that much to... to be a massive contributor in fantasy. He needs to make better swing decisions overall, I'd say. Even on this home run, yeah, he wasn't swinging at the best pitch to swing at. And that's kind of to his credit too, right? Because if he can hit, if he doesn't need it right, you know, right in his wheelhouse to do that much damage on it.

We've seen it time and time again. A couple home runs in spring training even stand out. then, I don't know that he needs to make the world's best swing decisions even. So I'm pretty bullish on O'Neill Cruz from a long-term perspective, just because the talent is so in your face. But I still don't feel that great about starting him rest of this season, Unless you're talking to like a standard roto lineup where, you know, extra middle infield spot and tons of hitters being started all around,

then I think there's definitely a case to start Cruz. But even then, I don't think it's automatic. Yeah, I agree. Long term, I mean, the prospects, the upside of O'Neo Cruz is just tremendous. But I wouldn't be surprised. It looks like he's, you know, starting to figure it out slowly here. So, you know, maybe he can have a monster final month here. And that will certainly drive.

That will certainly drive his price up for next year in drafts as well. Scott, would you rather have O'Neo Cruz or Nico Horner, who had a pretty good game himself here? He went two for three with a walk, three runs scored, and his 17th steel. He has slowed down a bit recently,

but he's still hitting 283. He's got eight homers. He's got those 17 steals. He's 69% rostered. So they're kind of in a similar roster range here. What do you think about Cruz versus Horner? Cruz. I got suckered in on Horner

during his best month of the season, which was June. And he's been pretty forgettable since then. He's given you 10 steals since June ended. So that's not nothing, I guess, but basically nothing apart from that. Yeah, I think it's a floor versus ceiling kind of play here. What obviously Cruz is being the ceiling, the upside play, and Horner is more of the safer floor kind of guy. But I'm with you.

I would take O'Neill Cruz as well. Let's take a look at some other waiver wire hitters here, Scottie. And four outfielders who stood out from Tuesday. I believe Tommy Pham was one of your sleeper hitters this week. So kudos to you, Scotty. And he had another home run here, one for four with his 16th homer. In 31 games with the Red Sox now, he is hitting 267 with five home runs and 23 runs scored. That is a 24 homer, 111 run pace over 150 games.

Tommy Fam, 71% rostered. Joey Menesis went two for four with two more doubles. he is up to 50% rostered. Jake McCarthy, he just keeps on running. Honestly, the Diamondbacks are just running. In the second half, Jake McCarthy has 13 steals that leads Major League Baseball. Second is Josh Rojas with 11.

So the Diamondbacks just have the green light right now, and they're making the most of that. Jake McCarthy is 60% rostered, and then Randall Gritchick went two for five with a double dong. He's now up to 15 homers. And in the second half, he's hitting 318 with six home runs. the strikeout rate looking a little bit better, hitting the ball hard, but a lot of it on the ground for Randall Gritchick.

He is 53% rostered. Scott, how do you rank those for? Fam, Manessus, McCarthy, and Randall Gritchick. So let me double check on Gritchick because it feels like his playing time has diminished as he's gotten hotter. He sat out the, or he at least was out of the starting lineup for the two games prior to this one. Was it for any specific reason? it doesn't look like it. So,

you know, the Rockies are mixing in younger options. They've basically stopped playing Connor Joe completely. And- So Gritchick didn't play on Monday. He played both games of a double-heder on Sunday. Saturday got rained out. And it looks like he started all the games before that,

at least as far back. But he started one of the games of the bell letter. He didn't start the other, judging by baseball reference anyway. All right. But, yeah, no, he's... So he's been playing a lot more often than not, I would say. Yeah, I guess he's probably useful again.

Okay, so let me look at the whole list you threw out there at me. Richick, okay. Yeah, so Joey Maness is cleaning up all our messes. He had three hits on Monday and then two doubles here on Tuesday. and is now batting overall. Joey Meneses is batting, I believe, 370-ish, 3-7-no, 34-4, sorry. 3-44 with a 957 OPS, 7 home runs already.

And, like, not slowing down. So I think I have to go with him as the top choice here. Close call between Tommy Fan and Jake McCarthy. Obviously, if you need stolen bases specifically, McCarthy's the choice there. FAM's probably going to give you more power if you need that more. And Gritchick would be fourth.

We have a few first baseman as well. Well, let's start with Tristan Kossis. He went one for four hit his first career home run. We spoke about him yesterday. He got called up by the Red Sox over the weekend. 39% rostered is Tristan Kossis. And, Scott, I believe you do your rankings update on Wednesday. Where do you foresee Kossis kind of dropping

in the first base ranks. It's a tough position to break into. I do like Kossis. The home run, he also struck out three times. And hasn't done a lot yet. It was a home run. I mean, I don't want to take it away from him,

and it's obsess about the stat cast data. But the data wasn't great on the home run, 96.7 miles per hour, 3171 feet. You know, it's not like he totally cream. the ball. So, you know, still waiting to see something from Casas, I would say, as much as I like him. And trying to get my rankings open here so I can see exactly where he'd slot in. Throwing a lot of surprises at me today, Frank. I think, I mean, so I threw him at 31 for now, but that mid to late 20s range in the first base

ranks, that looks about right. I'd go higher myself. Okay. I could get him inside the top 25. He would have to be behind guys like Vinny Pasquantino, Rowdy Tellez, which, you know, the fact those guys are that low, you know how much I like Pasquantino,

and Telez has almost 30 home runs this year. So it shows you how deep first base is. That's about where I'd slot Casas, yeah. Okay. Ellie Huris Montero has been playing for the Rock he's recently. He went two for three with his fifth home run in just 37 games played. He strikes out a lot. He's got a 34% strikeout rate. But he hits the ball hard and he puts it in the air, which seems like it would work out very well in Corse Field. He's 15% rostered. Do you think that number needs to be higher, Scott?

L.A. Huris Montero? No. Not yet. Okay. So he's been pretty pretty cold prior to this game. Yeah. More of just a corner infielder in deeper leagues for now. And then one name that you mentioned before we started, and I'm calling this one the Nando Defino special because as long as I know Nando, he loved this player and he actually just picked him up in the Scott White Dynasty League. That is Lewison,

who followed up his double dong on Monday with a lead off homer on Tuesday, which came off of Tyler Anderson, so a pretty good pitcher in his own right, and Lewis Brinson has now let off three straight for the Giants. And this season in the minors, he was playing really well.

$2.99 batting average, 22 homers, a 9th, OPS, he's 1% rostered, Scottie. What do you think about Lewis Brinson? In deeper leagues, of course. Yeah, it depends how deep. My expectations are very minimal.

Of course, he's a former top prospect. We've seen him put up big numbers in the minors before. We've seen him get hot in the majors before. And it never lasted long. As productive as he was in the minors this year, still not especially disciplined. of a hitter and I'm not ready to believe

that anything's changed from plus on the Giants I mean you can't you can't anticipate the playing time being that regular but the Giants have been known to work their magic on these randomers so they have he's a name to watch you know obviously the season's coming to a close

but you know if there's anything here maybe he's just a name to remember for next season but obviously NL only and very deep five outfail leagues. Lewis Brinson, just a name for you. I'd go for somebody like Jose Siri, who's barely rostered over somebody like Lewis Brinson. Yeah, I agree to give you an alternate name there.

Yeah. Waverware pitchers. So I've got three names here. Mitch Keller makes it two straight quality starts. He was up against the New York Mets. He went six shut out with only two strikeouts. That's coming off of a 10 strikeout performance his last time out. And his last start, he featured a bunch of four seam fastballs, which was different than what we've normally seen this season. But this one, he got back to his normal mixing in both the four seam and the sinker.

That is Mitch Keller. He's 23% rostered. And it looks like his next two starts are against the Cardinals and the Mets. Jose Cantana got back on track, a solid start up against the Nationals. He went five innings, one run, five strikeouts to zero walks. And in seven starts with the Cardinals, he has a 3.17 ERA. He's 70% rostered. He's at the Pirates this weekend, and he's got the Reds next week.

And then Eduardo Rodriguez looked like it was going to be a real rough start. He gave up three solo home runs in his first two innings of work, and then just really settled down. He was at the Angels. He went seven innings. Gave up those three runs, four strikeouts, zero walks. Fastball velocity was down a little bit in this one for Erod. I'm still skeptical, not getting swinging strikes. Walks have been up.

It's been a problem. But Erod is widely available, 47%. Scott, what do you think about these three? Keller, Kentana, Erod, and would you drop Cole Irvin for any of them? I would drop Cole Irvin for Kintana, and that's probably it. I mean, I'm not that motivated to hold on to Irvin anymore as we talked about. I just think we're... I just...

I don't think this is a better class of pitcher overall. Jose Cantana clearly has a better supporting cast than Irvin, clearly better than Mitch Keller and Eduardo Rodriguez for that matter and so that's the main thing that sets them apart also I mean he's got the best ERA at the bunch right

still has the same issue he had with the pirates of just not working deep into games at all I believe this makes it five straight with less than six innings for Jose Kentana and so you know it's hard to be effective that way

even if your supporting cast is good but he's the one who I feel best about, even if you include Irvin in this group. Okay. Let's compare Cole Irvin to some of the most added starting pitchers, and Hunter Brown is number one on the list. We spoke about him yesterday. We don't know if he's going to remain a starter.

Would you drop Cole Irvin for Hunter Brown? Yeah, I think so. If particularly, if you're talking like a 12-team context, I'll take the shot on upside. Okay. Would you drop Cole Irvin for Trevor Rogers? Yes. Would you do it for Patrick Sandoval?

Yes. Would you do it for Ryan Nelson? No, I got big questions about Nelson. Okay. And Ken Waldichuk, last one I'll give you. No. I mean, if Waldichuk lights the Braves up in his upcoming star,

then it'll change, but haven't seen enough from him yet. I don't think that's very likely considering the Braves. Because he's not facing the race. All right, who's he facing? No, no, no, he is. But the Braves are really, really good against Lefty. So I think it's probably not going to be a great start for a good old Ken Waldichuk. Well, but if he is, that's what I'm saying.

Yeah, no, that's fair. Even more impressive, that would be. Indeed, it would. All right, we do have a few pitchers duels I wanted to mention Scottie, so let's do it. Jesus Lazzardo at Aranola is first up here. Lazzardo at the Phillies went seven innings, two runs, nine strikeouts in that one. He had 19 swinging strikes.

Velocity was back up a little bit compared to where he was recently. And we did see more changeups and curveballs. Account for over 50% of Jesus Lazzardo's pitches, which Scott, you know, we just love to see. More of the secondary stuff for Luzardo, obviously is a good thing. And then Aranola on the other side, He went six and two thirds, one run allowed, 10 strikeouts in that one. He had 16 swinging strikes on 97 pitches, and he lowers his ERA down to 3.35.

Obviously, he's had a few hiccups recently. Anything on Noah or Lazzardo. Yeah, nice rebound performance from Nola, as we were expecting. Luzardo, I mean, I was actually a little disappointed in the pitch selection for Luzardo, because for the year, the curveball and change-up are his two most-used pitches. And they were still... They were both behind the sinker in this one.

So I think it could still stand to optimize it beyond what he did in this start. Though, yes, the four-seamer especially needs to go for him. You know what? The sinker actually gets hit harder. In any case, it got a good result against a tough lineup, even in spite of that. And looking at his numbers since returning from the IL and seven starts,

Jesus Lazzardo has a 291 ERA, 0.92 whip, 8.5 strikeouts per nine innings, you'd like the strikeouts to be higher. But even so, it's hard to complain too much. Frank, I got to complain for a second, though, because in the Scott White Dynasty League, where I'm competing in the consolation bracket for the first pick, in the minor league draft next year. I had three starts today.

I had Aaronnola against the Marlins, Kyle Wright against the A's, and Framper Valdez against the Rangers. That sounds pretty good to me. And they combined to go 0 and 1. No wins between them. Just one big old loss. And it wasn't even right who gave me the loss.

It was Fromper Valdez. So that was not, that did not go as expected, and I am disappointed. Yeah, you got to combine 27 and a half fantasy points from three starters, three, you know, top 30 starting pitchers in really good matchups. Yep. I hear you. I understand the frustration there, Scotty. So keep it coming. Vent as much as you'd like.

Johnny Quato was at Logan Gilbert. This was our second pitcher's duel of the night. and Quato was great. Once again, six innings, one run, three strikeouts to three walks. I still don't really know how Quato is doing it, but he's doing it. I think he's suited very well for this environment,

and he lowers his ERA to 2.87. He has just 85 strikeouts and 135 in 135 innings pitch. That is Johnny Quato. And then Logan Gilbert, with a very strong start. He went six shutout with nine strikeouts to zero walks. He had 18 swinging strikes, and that is now three straight quality starts, back-to-back scoreless outings for Logan Gilbert.

I know before this recent run, Scott, Gilbert was really, really slowing down. So it's nice to see him get back on track here. Obviously a good matchup, but this is what you're supposed to do and a good match. Yeah, I mean, two good matches. The previous one was against the Tigers. He got nine strikeouts there on 17 swinging strikes.

We were like, eh, was it just the Tigers, or was Logan Gilbert bouncing back? I'd feel better about it being the, the latter scenario, even though this was against the White Sox, two starts of that level of dominance back to back. And the five starts that preceded those two, Gilbert had just 5.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

So I was definitely getting concerned, but I think you can feel good about him moving forward. All right, let's take a quick break, and when we return, we'll get to the news and notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes, the Mets will likely decide on Wednesday, whether or not Max Scherzer will make his next scheduled start. He left his start over the weekend with side soreness, and he also was on the IL earlier this year with an oblique injury. So it wouldn't surprise me if the Mets, you know, kind of play it safe here, although they are in a

very, very close race in the NL East right now. Shea McClanahan felt good after throwing 15 to 20 pitches off a mound on Tuesday. He received a cortisone shot over the weekend and seems to be responding well. He could be back in the minimum stay, which is 15 days, and that would, it's probably early next week or something like that. But once we get more info on Shane O'Mac, we will let you know. Tony Gonsolin is not progressing as quickly as the Dodgers had hoped. Dave Roberts is still optimistic.

Gonselin will have time to build back up and return this season, though it may take longer than they originally thought. Fernando Tate's Jr. underwent surgery on Tuesday to repair the labrum in his left shoulder, so now he will be returning from that. Obviously, the wrist injury, which he was close to returning from before the PED suspension. Just a lot of question marks for Fernando Tutsis heading into next year. And he will be a fun one to evaluate, of course. Stalling Marte exited Tuesday's game after getting hit by a pitch in his right hand.

I believe I saw that they won't have an update until Wednesday, the Mets. He got an x-ray done, but they don't have the results yet. So we'll see what's up with Starling Marte. Luis Robert left after getting hit by a pitch in his left hand. The same hand slash wrist he's had issues with recently. X-rays were negative for Luis Robert, but I would have to imagine he's going to miss time once again here. It's been a really, really frustrating season for Luis Robert.

Xander Bogartz left his game due to back spasms. Wander Franco got treatment and took 40 to 50 swings during Tuesday's off day at AAA and is expected to play. again on Wednesday, which seems a little aggressive. Wilson Contreras was placed in the IL with that ankle injury retroactive to September 3rd. Anthony Rizzo was placed in the IL with that lingering back injury of his, but it was also reported that he's dealing with headaches. I don't know where that came from.

Ronald Guzman will be called up on Wednesday for the Yankees. It's just getting better and better in the Bronx. Double-header, by the way, because Tuesday's game got rained out. We've had some nasty weather here, Scott. Not the best. Ryan Presley's neck still does not feel right, so he did not make his return on Tuesday, as long as he's out.

Raphael Montero will be the supposed closer of the Houston Astros. Drew Rasmussen was scratched from his start on Tuesday and was placed on the paternity list for the birth of his child. John Gray will throw live batting practice. So I've got four potential stashes here, Scott. We're going to rank these in a second.

John Gray will throw live batting practice Wednesday, and he could return without a rehab assignment. He was pretty good earlier on in the season. I remember we were, our excitement for John Gray was growing as the season went on. He is 59% rostered. Mackenzie Gore threw 37 pitches over two simulated endings on Tuesday, and he should begin a rehab assignment soon. He's 48% rostered.

Braxton Garrett, we thought his season was over. He's dealing with a right oblique strain, but he will start up a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday, 25% rostered. And the last name here is Bailey Ober, scheduled to make his second rehab start on Tuesday at Single A. He's been out three months with a groin injury. 20% rostered is Bailey Ober.

How do you rank those four, Scott, in terms of stashing? John Gray, Mackenzie Gore, Braxton Garrett, Bailey Ober. I will go, John Gray, distant number one, then Braxton Garrett slightly ahead of McKenzie Gore. and Bailey Ober, a distant fourth. I have no interest in stashing Bailey Ober, except maybe in an ALE-only league.

Okay, but the first three, would you actually look at stashing them or just more so for deeper leagues? Oh, John Gray, definitely. Okay. I mean, I say definitely. It depends if your league offers IL spots or not. If it does, I imagine he's one of the better choices to stash

at any position. Garrett and Gore, less of a priority. Ramon Luriano returned to the A's on Tuesday, and he is 42% rostered. Scott, where does he fit among that group of outfielder as we mentioned earlier? Pham, Manessus, McCarthy, and Randall Gritchick. He fits fourth among that group after Menesis and then Fam and McCarthy are basically even. and then Luriana would be fourth. All right. Franchi Cordero was placed in the IL

with sprains on both sides of his right ankle and is expected to miss the rest of the season. Let's get into some pitching standouts here from Tuesday's action. Shane Bieber has now gone seven plus in six of his last eight starts. He was at the Royals. He went eight innings, one run, seven strikeouts in that one. Corse Field, no issue for Brandon Woodruff.

He was great. Seven innings, one run allowed, five strikeouts in that one. and in 13 starts since coming back from the IL, he has a 2.68 ERA and a 14% swinging strike rate. Framber Valdez, he did it, kind of. He makes it 23 straight quality starts. He's won away from tying the single season record, which is set by Jacob Grom,

and Framber Valdez went six and two thirds. He gave up four runs, but only two of them were earned. So still a quality start here, had 11 strikeouts, a season high 24 swinging strikes on 107 pitches. and he did that by fading his sinker a little bit, mixing in more secondary stuff. The curves, the change-ups, the cutters. He had all of it, I guess kind of working,

at least from a strikeout perspective, control was a little bit iffy here for Framber Valdez. Anything you'd like to add, Scott on him, Woodruff, and Shane Bieber. So Shane Bieber's velocity was up a little bit in this start. I don't know if he mentioned that. It was, and we saw this from a couple turn. ago, too. He averaged 92.2 on his fastball in this start. Last year, he averaged a 92.8

on his fastball. So it wasn't all the way back up to last year, but it's kind of trending up here late in the year, which is a very encouraging sign, I think. You know, he's talked about, there's been talk since the season started that Cleveland and Bieber himself thought he could get the velocity back with some mechanical tweaks and maybe he'll be able to hit that harder in the offseason getting it right. He's managed to have a great season in spite of it. But anytime the velocity is up for him, I like to see it. Scott, what's going on with Joe Musgrove? He was roughed up once again. This time he was at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks. He gave up five runs. Four of those earned over four and a third, nine hits, two walks, 11 base runners in this one. His slider

velocity was down 1.4 miles per hour. His curve was down 1.4 miles per hour. Now over his last 13 starts, so we're basically looking at half the season for Joe Musgrove. He has a 4.85 ERA during that time. Obviously, some really good starts mixed in there, but some pretty bad ones too. I mean, to have an ERA near five for more than half the season, it's, you know, there's something going on here. So what do you think is what's up with Joe Musgrove? Yeah, some good starts during that stretch, as you said. He had just last time out, he had 11 strikeouts. So, you know, it seemed like hopefully he was trending the right direction.

I think the main things are that early on this year prior to the she cited, he was obviously overachieving. What was the number you gave? what ERA over four in his last... So last 13 starts, a 4.85 ERA for Joe Musgrove. Yeah. So even with that rough stretch, his season ERA is up to only 316. So he's still outperforming the FIP, the X FIP.

Actually, not the XERA. The XERA is right there with his ERA. So that's interesting. So that's part of it is just... he was due for some regression and it's kind of slowly happened, gradually happened. The other thing is, and we've said this about Joe Musgrove before, when you have six pitches, you kind of create an obstacle for yourself in terms of which pitch needs to be featured most that day,

determining what's working for you that day. can be a bumpy process. And I think that's, I mean, that's a theory more than anything else. We've kind of seen it from you, Darvish over the years too. Just stretches where he struggles to figure out what he wants to do. I don't think there's physically anything going on with Musgrove. There are no velocity issues. I don't even think control has been, you know, he's always been such a good control pitcher.

I don't think that, yeah, there's walks have not been up for him. So I think it's mainly those two reasons. We overrated him early on, and he kind of beats himself by having such a varied arsenal. I do think something you mentioned in there is just kind of natural regression. He had a sub two ERA for the first half of the season, basically. And you just see it. It's again, it's just in the margins. The swinging strike rate is down a little bit.

The hard contact is up a bit. the home runs are up, the bat up is up. So all of those things combined is how we get to this point for Joe Musgrove. I will point out, this is now two seasons in a row, Scott, where he has kind of faded in the second half of the year. So I don't know if that's, it's hard to say that it's a trend, but I guess it could be. He could just be one of those pitchers that kind of tires as the season goes along.

I thought maybe last year it was because we were coming off the short in 2020, but I don't know. Maybe this is just something we have to deal with when it comes to. Joe Musgrove. Perhaps. All right, let's get into some hitting leftovers here from Tuesday's action. Randy Arosurana.

This dude is just red hot right now. He went three for four with his 19th home run. Scott, did you see this homer? I did. Wait a second. I think maybe I did. Yeah. It like smashed a camera in the outfield. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I did see that. It was pretty cool. In the second

half now, a Rosarana is batting 301 with seven homers, eight seals in 41 games. That is a 25 homer, 29 steel pace over 150 games. It's been great. Bobesha. And I'll point out for Randy a Rosarina. So now he's batting 268 with a 461 slug.

His expected stats, 236 batting average, 390 slug. So 268 is the actual batting average, 236 expected, 461 actual slug, 390 expected. Very similar to last year. I think we can ignore that going into next year because that was part of the reason I think we all considered Randy a Roserina a preseason bust to some degree. Chris included, right?

Like none of us were high. All of us were lower than the consensus on Randy a Rosarena and we've been proven wrong. Yeah, I never had him as a bust technically. I was just kind of neutral. Like earlier in the offseason, I liked him quite a bit.

And then, you know, we do some, many podcasts together. It's like the group thing just kind of starts to seep in. True. Yeah, I didn't wind up as much of Randy as

I guess I wish I did because based on how how great of a season he's having. I agree. I mean, I think we just kind of

throw the expected numbers out the window right now for Randy or Rosa Rana. Boba Chet went four for five with his 22nd home run. He added four runs scored and two RBI is now two massive games in a row for

Bobaette. We could be looking at a big finish for him, which would help. I mean, obviously, he's been a letdown for most of the season, but, yeah, it looks like he is getting hot.

Once again, that is Boba Chet. Sayas Suzuki, Scott, we haven't talked about him in a while, and I just kind of want to get a read from you on his season, right? Like, how do we judge Sayas Suzuki's first year? He went one for three with two walks and his 11th home run. In 54 games since coming back from injury, he returned on July 4th. He's hitting 272 with seven homers, five steals,

a lot more contact, a 20% strikeout rate. Average exit velocity's fine, 89 miles per hour. Nothing crazy. He's hitting a lot of ground balls, 46% ground ball rate. But the pace, those pace numbers, 19 homers, 13 steals, over 150 games. It seems like he's made a conscious decision

to make more contact, Scott, and I think as a result, it might be affecting his power. What do you think about Sayas Suzuki's first season? It's been disappointing, I would say, Is that tradeoff worth it? I mean, probably. If he can be a 20-home or 15th steel guy,

obviously that's going to have some value. Particularly after that first week, I think we were hoping the ceiling was higher than that even. And it's still a big if that he can sustain that over the full season. I mean, Chris Towers, if he was here, his logic would be, well, his numbers are, I can't remember. exactly how Chris puts it, but I guess the full season stats

are more indicative than the partial season stats, right? Basically, you see what his numbers are. That's what I make of say as Suzuki's first season. It's 28 years old, and I feel like we've seen this, if there's a notable exception, then

feel free to point it out, but players coming over from Japan, you know, it's always their numbers always look great over there. and we're never really sure how that's going to translate. And usually we know right away how it's going to translate. It's not like there's this really awful first season where they're adjusting and then they figure it out.

It's pretty much they are who they are right away. I guess the biggest one that comes to mind is Otani, right? He was good as soon as he came over, but now he's evolved into an MVP level player. Wow, I mean, he's, yeah, he's pretty much just been great. since he came over. Yeah, it's pretty much been great. There were playing time issues. He didn't start as much as he should have as a hitter at first.

And then, of course, he had the Tommy John surgery, but he looked great as a pitcher prior to that. And he was younger than typical, too. Right. Yeah, Eltony had a 925 OPS as a rookie, which I didn't even realize he was that good. But wow, yeah, he was awesome. And he still is.

Kyle Tucker had two hits and two more steals. He is now up to 22 steals on the season. I don't know if any of us saw this level of speed coming for Kyle Tucker. They've been aggressive as a team this year, Scott. I know L-Tuvays, stolen bases are back up the season as well. So good on the Astros. I mean, the only one is Alex Bregman. He's not running, but I think we can kind of put that behind him at this point.

Kyle Sucker, I trust it. Christian Yelich hit his 12th home run, and it was a moonshot. 499 foot homer hit the third longest in the statcast era. and post-all-star break for Yelot, he's hitting 278, four homers, three steals, hitting the ball really hard, Scott, but on the ground. 57% ground ball rate. And I think in this environment,

if he puts the ball on the ground that much, then we're probably not going to see another big power output from Christian Yelich. Yeah, and putting the ball on the ground that much was a problem for him in his Marlins days too. He didn't become that. MVP caliber player

till he joined the Brewers he put the ball in the ground even more in his Marlins days than he is

currently. And yet he was more productive in those Marlins days than he is now higher

batting averages. I think even the home runout but overall was better than we've seen from Yelich

the past three years. So it's a little tough to figure like I hesitate to put it all

on the ground ball rate because of his production with the Marlins, but he's hitting the ball plenty hard enough. So I don't know what else the issue is for him. Well, he's been in and out of the lineup with the back injury, right? So those things could be related,

lofting the ball, maybe somewhat related to the back injury. So that's why we see the elevated ground ball rate. I'm just speculating, by the way. I don't know that for a fact, but it kind of makes sense in my mind. Regardless, he's been a pretty useful fantasy player. and much better than Cody Bellinger. So I guess that settles that preseason debate.

Hunter Renfro went one for five with his 25th home run. Mike Trout hit his 31st homer, and he's looked great since returning. Christian Walker hit his 32nd. Cedric Mullins went two for four with his 30th steel. He is batting 262 with 13 home runs as well. Obviously has those 30 steel, Scott. How would you grade Cedric Mullins this season overall?

I would give Cedric Mullen's season a B. A B. He hasn't lived up to, well, has he lived up to a third round price tag? In Roto, probably. Yeah. Yeah, a B. I mean, obviously he hasn't lived up to last year's numbers, but he wasn't being drafted expecting another 30-30 season from him.

The power production has dropped off notably, but it has for a lot of hitters this year. And he's continued to be a prolific base dealer. So yeah, I'll give Mullins a B. The only thing that stands out for me is he has been dreadful against lefties, 204 batting average 557 OPS. And I know for a while he was losing some playing time

against left-handed pitching. It's not like the Orioles have a ton of talent where they can afford to do that, but just something to monitor overall for his value. Jeremy Pena went two for four with two steals and he has just one home run since July 26th. He's batting 254 with a 694 OPS.

It was good to see the steals here, Scott. I think there is a player there with Jeremy Pena. He's obviously got some stuff he needs to figure out. But as we've mentioned before, I don't know that he needs to be as rostered as he is which I believe is 79% when I checked. I agree.

He doesn't need to be that rostered. Yeah, 79%. Probably doesn't need to be rostered. in points leagues at all, to be honest. I'd rather have, I'd rather have cruised than pain you if it came down to it. Yeah, I was just going to say the same exact thing there. Max Muncie went three for four with a double dong.

He is now up to 18 home runs, and I was trying to pull up his last 30 games. Well, he'd been struggling leading up to this. Previous 12 games, 146 with just one extra base hit, a double. That's Max Muncie we're talking about. Now, if you include all of August, all of September, things still look pretty good. But I'm chopping it up a little more, and it's been, you know, this, I'll just say this performance was encouraging because Muncie looked like he might be fading again. Yeah, no, that's a good point.

The last 30 games overall, Scott, 268 batting average, nine homers, and a 920 OPS for Max Muncie. So, you know, the larger sample, I guess, over, it's not really the largest sample. because I guess the larger sample is just the full season, and that's not good for Max Muncie, but... It's larger than the previous 12 games. Yes, that is a fact. I didn't even get a chance to check in on the final box score of this Braves-Oaklin A's game,

but I guess we could just kind of go through this together. Matt Olson, his first game back in Oakland, he hits a three-run homer, his 28th of the season. Someone emailed in that he was slowing down recently, which I guess that's fair. He's batting 247. like it's a bit of a letdown, but 28 homers and 90 RBI. That's pretty good.

That's basically standard Matt Olson stuff there. It's not a 2021 Matt Olson. No, no, no, no. I can tell you who's been better than Matt Olson this year. Who's that? Freddie Freeman. Spot on. Spot on, Scotty.

Vaughn Grissom bounces back here. I know he was slowing down a little bit recently, Scotty, And he goes four for five with four singles in this one, two RBI for him. So nice to see Vaughn Grissom get back on track. He's still hitting 337 overall, OPS over 900. Someone tweeted me that Marcel Ozuna's back. He did have two hits in this game. He went two for four with two RBI.

And I believe he's now started four straight for the Braves, Scott. I guess let's throw him in. Let's throw him in that mix as well from earlier. Where does Marcel Ozuna fit in? Yeah, he's started four straight. I would put him behind everybody, but Randall Gritchick. I'll put him ahead of Gritchick. Like I mentioned before, I guess yesterday when we talked about Ozuna,

Grissom's going to keep playing. I have to imagine as well as he's performed when Ozzy Albies gets back and his return is imminent. So I suspect Grissom will be getting those Ozuna starts and left. field sooner than later. On the other side, the big one that stands out is Sean Murphy. He's been really, really good. He went one for four, hit his 18th home run.

It was a three-run homer. He added a walk and now has a 778 OPS on the season. And I believe he's a top five catcher in points leagues this year. Sean Murphy has been really, really good. Yeah, and I don't have the exact numbers now, but last time we talked about him, I pointed out how much both the strikeout rate and walk rate had improved over the course of the season.

Catchers looking as strong as it has in a long time. I think eight deep, you know, next year, eight deep of genuinely attractive options. Eight deep in players that could potentially finish number one at the position, I guess I would say. Is Sean Murphy in that mix or no? Yeah, I'm including Sean Murphy in that mix. I'm not including either of the Braves catchers.

but you know, you could include them in the overall depth at the position. And then you even have somebody like M.J. Melendez, who has had a really strong rookie performance. I would put him in that mix, Scott. Melendez? I think it's a top nine. And it wouldn't surprise me if, you know, he improves a strikeout rate and he could go out and hit, you know, 30 plus home runs. That would put him in contention to be the number one catcher. So I was very much about taking the number one overall catcher heading into this year,

which is Salvador Perez. because I thought he was that much better than the rest of the position. And that's been rare over the years that I felt that way about a catcher. But I think definitely not going to feel that way going into next year. I'm just going to take, I mean, ranking this group is going to be a nightmare. And I'll probably just take whoever nobody else wants. Yeah, just take whoever falls of that top nine, basically. I feel pretty good about all of them.

And we mentioned it over and over again. The catcher position is going to be. getting a lot better because we've got prospects coming. You know, Shea Langliris has flashed a little bit here, but he's not even the biggest name. I mean, we've got- Gabriel Moreno, Francisco Alvarez. We've got Austin Wells with the Yankees. Yeah, I'm not sure he's going to last as a catcher, but...

True. Yeah, I'm kind of blanking on who else is out there, but I know there's more, of course, the Pirates' number one overall pick two years ago. What was that? Henry Davis. Yeah, I couldn't think of that. the name. It's very, to,

uh, it's a pedestrian name, Henry Davis. I know. He doesn't, he does not have pedestrian skills. Logan O'Hoppy is someone who got traded to the angels at the deadline for Brandon Marsh.

And, um, I know he's been on a tear in the minors recently as well. So there is no shortage. Uh, catcher's about to be really, really good. Let's get into some bullpen updates.

And we'll start with the Cardinals. Ryan Helsie gave up a hit and a walk, but picked up his 14 save for the, for the, The Guardians, after working three straight days, Emmanuel Class A was unavailable. James Cairn-Chack struck out two for his second save of the season. For the Orioles, Felix Bautista, worked the final two innings.

He gave up a run, but picked up his 12th save. For the Rangers, one-run game, they go with Jose LeClerc, who picked up his third save. Jonathan Hernandez last pitched on Sunday, so theoretically should have been available, but he did get beat up pretty bad last week. Scott, do you think this is indicative of what we might see moving forward with the Rangers? Jose LeClerc, in for the save.

Even before the save for LeClerc, I had a feeling they were leaning more toward him. He's gone in each of their last two now. And entering this game, LeClerc had a 311 ERA, 106 whip, nearly 10 strikeouts per nine innings. So he has the numbers to back it up to. A guy who, you know, not too many. years ago looked like he was the long-term planet closer. They even signed him to a long-term deal. But then there were some control issues, some health issues. He's looking good now, Jose LeClerc. So I think I feel safe swapping Jonathan Hernandez out for him in fantasy.

And he is, LeClerc is 3% rostered. So widely available for those who play in, excuse me, deeper category leagues. For the Brewers, they took lead in extras, they had a one-run lead in the bottom of the 10th. Taylor Rogers came in. He proceeded to give up four runs, three earned runs, and took his eighth blown save and seventh loss of the season. For the Braves, Kenley Jansen picked up his 32nd save. For the Mariners, Paul Seawald picked up his 18th. For the Dodgers, Craig Kimbril picked up his 22nd. And then for the Diamondbacks, Ian Kennedy came in with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs and took his sixth blown save and seventh loss of the season.

Do I have this right? Is Craig Kimbril changed his closer entrance music to let it go? Am I being fooled by an internet meme? The Frozen song? Yeah. I don't know. I hadn't seen

anything about this. Hmm. Let me see. So John Boy Media tweeted out a video of him entering to that. But I don't hear any crowd noise, so I'm wondering if I've been had. Yeah, I don't know.

No, no, it seems to be, no, this is legit. He enters to let it go now. Wow, I mean. Kingdom of isolation and it looks like he's the queen. And all the best closer entrances that have emerged recently, I mean, I've got to say, let it go for Craig Kimball. That's some top-notch stuff. John Smoltz used to enter to Dancing Queen, the Abba song. He didn't like that.

That wasn't his choice. They just started playing it for him for some reason. That's pretty good, though. I like that. Have you seen Ryan Helsley's entrance with the Cardinals? No. I saw it for the first time today, and I tweeted out a picture of it.

Well, I retweeted a picture of it. They shut out all the lights in the stadium, and they just put, like, flame on the big Titan-Tron. Not Titan-Tron. The big screen in the outfield, and he just like runs out to that. I think there's like some ACDC playing in the background, but it looks pretty awesome.

I'm a big fan of these crazy closer entrances that are going on recently. It's good. It's good for the game. To stream or not to stream, let's start with Wednesday. We've got Ken Waldschuck up against the Braves, Patrick Sandoval against the Tigers, Bailey Falter against the Marlins,

Trevor Rogers at the Phillies, Domingo Hermann versus the Twins, and Dean Kramer versus the Blue Jays. Well, we will, well, I would say, who did I say yesterday when we're talking about Wednesday? Bailey Falter against Miami is my second choice to Patrick Sandoval against the Tigers. I agree. I don't even think I should read Thursday, Scott. I feel like you're just going to yell at me.

But I'll do it anyway. There aren't many games, so. No, I think there's only six or seven. It stands to reason there wouldn't be many streamable pitchers. Yeah, I mean, it is the opening game of the game of. the NFL season. So I would imagine most baseball teams don't really want to compete with that. On Thursday night, we've got

Adrian Samson against the Reds, Jacob Junus at the, I wrote at the Giants, that's definitely not true because he pitches for the Giants. And then James Carpillian versus the White Sox. Giants are facing the Brewers. The Brewers. On Thursday? I think we just

skip Thursday, huh? What do you say, Scott? Is it Caprillion? I thought I saw that Caprillion was out of the rotation. I saw that as well. And then I think I saw another update that said he's going to get another shot. Well, in any case, no. Let's not

do any of those. Yes, get your streamers in on Wednesday. Yeah, six hours ago, James Corpillian returns to the rotation. All right. Wow, efficient show there, Scotty, good stuff. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.