Fantasy Baseball Today - Orioles Promote Heston Kjerstad! Max Scherzer Injured & Pitcher Matchups! (9/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

With Ryan Mountcastle hurt, the Orioles are promoting Heston Kjerstad (4:46)! ... Kris Bryant has looked good since returning (14:12). ... Cristopher Sanchez just racked up a career-high 10 strikeouts (17:23)! ... Hunter Brown and the Astros nearly combined for a no-hitter (22:19). ... Max Scherzer will miss the rest of this season (26:12). ... Let's rank some waiver wire pitchers based on their matchups (34:37). ... Do we start or sit Eduardo Rodriguez and Jordan Montgomery (40:46)? ... News (46:48): Shohei Ohtani was out again. ... Nolan Jones keeps raking (52:31). ... Who will win the NL Cy Young award (59:10)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:04:05). 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

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 league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. How about one more prospect promotion? Can we get it?

I think so. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, September 14th. I am, for example, joined by Scott White. and the Welsh. Today on the show, the Orioles are promoting one of their top prospects, but which one is it?

Max Scherzer is out for the year. We'll talk about that. What's the latest on the National League Cy Young race? It's heating up here, Blake Snell, another great start, Spencer Strider, striking everybody out.

Justin Steele still has those awesome numbers. We'll talk about all that as well. 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, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Do you guys remember what happened last time this exact trio was together here on the podcast? Yes. No. I do remember. I found out what Chris Welsh's real last name is. No, it wasn't that.

That did happen later off the air. What happened? Now I'm curious. But no, that was when Shohay, that was when Chris Towers hopped in to break the news to us that Shohay Otani had a torn ACL. or UCL, excuse me, and then crash the podcast after that. Hold on to your butt. Something's going to happen. Well, so all I'm going to say is, oh, no.

I actually came across it like three days ago. And sometimes I'll, like, go down my own timeline to, like, copy something for a tweet or whatever. And, like, it just came across it. And then I get into those instances where I have to, like, rewatch them and then listen to the audio side of it. It was an all-time moment. I was a part of it.

So, like, in my mind, it was like, the most ridiculous thing that's ever happened here. There was a couple great ones you guys have had. Not you're doing a season reflection or anything like that, but it had to be a top three moment of this podcast in 2020. So keep your head on a swivel here. Make sure you don't send out the link to Chris Towers because I don't need them hopping in here

and then shutting the podcast down or anything like that. I'm going to get a custom hat, an oh no custom hat. You know what? That's going to happen. I'm getting it. Oh, I'm going to get you and me one, Frank. And you know what? I'm going to get three.

Frank, you can bring it back to Sky. Scott and when you come out here for first pitch, we're going to just have oh no hats that we can wear. All right, so let's get things started with this latest prospect promotion. The Orioles are promoting one of their top prospects. This time it's Heston Kierstad. If you're wondering how to spell that, don't worry, I'll help you out. K-J-E-R-S-T-A-D, that's how you, A-D.

You know, I'm like trying to help people out here and I'm just doing a bad job. Off to a good start. No, I was going to do the same thing. because I've noticed this, I've been listening to the fantasy football today podcast recently with fantasy football season starting up and me not really having my finger on the pulse there. And, you know, they spout off all these names and I have no idea how to spell them. So I just like try to plug in the name phonetically when I'm seeing if the player's available. And it's like, ah, it's not coming up.

No. Heston Kyrstad, not to be confused with Kestin Kyrstad, which is somebody who, doesn't exist. Again, Keston, Er. No, now I've confused myself. Heston Kirstad, K-J-E-R-S-T-A-D. That is how you spell it. And why is he being promoted?

Well, Ryan Malkastel exited on Wednesday due to left shoulder discomfort. He's day-to-day. Sounds like it could be a little bit worse than that if they're willing to call up one of their top prospects. He's 24 years old, former second overall pick back in 2020. He dealt with about with myocarditis, I think following COVID that he was dealing with. And then I believe he had a severe hamstring strain in the following year. So it took him a while to get going.

But once he did, he really got going. This year in the minors, 303 batting average, 21 homers, a 904 OPS. Welsh, we saw him out at first pitch Arizona last year in the Arizona Fall League. Big left-handed batter, big leg kick. There's big power here as well. Welsh, what are you expecting from Heston, Q, your set. Yeah, I loved Heston Kirstad when we saw him in the

NFL. He hit an inside the park home. He actually was part of this crazy game where him and Cal Conley teammates hit inside the park home runs within three innings of each other. And it's like one of the few games in any type of baseball that there had ever been that. And he actually did it again this year. Inside the Park, another Inside the Parker. He's got some

kind of sneaky power. Huge, huge, big bat speed pull power that he's got. There's a big leg kick in there which makes him a little bit susceptible to strikeouts, which was kind of a problem in general. But one thing that he ended up seeing kind of across his minor league career, which has been very short from the beginning of last year through AFL to this year, was he's cut down those strikeout rates, 15% in AA, around 20% in AAA.

Here's another one. Ground ball rate dropped every single level he has played at. The guy likes to lift the ball. He's a sneaky athlete. And he's hit for average. That was the big key. He was the MVP of the AFL last year. hit 310 and double a this year, hit $2.99 in AAA.

I mean, this is, even though he profiles as this, you know, big bat with, even though it's not showing on paper, there are some strikeout potential issues because of that leg kick. I mean, this is like a numbered four hitter that has just got just pure, you know, hit skills. I love him. Like, we can go and we can look at all the stuff. Like, I was thinking about this beforehand. It's so funny where, you know, sometimes I just, I'll just want to just like off the cuff talk about like, hey, listen, this guy's got incredible bat speed, makes really good decisions.

But sometimes that doesn't quantify. So you've got to go in and we've got to be like, well, you know, he had a 42 plus percent pull rate at both levels, which shows he's cognizant of that. The ground ball rate drops. Like these are things to quantify, which something you can just see with your eyes, which you saw, which I saw was this guy's MVP. He has light tower power and he can actually surprisingly run. Would not be shocked in the major league's long term if this is like a 30 home run hitter

who's 10 to 15 stolen bases, even if he's playing some first base. But we're going to see him in like a. a monster of Lee small sample size here, which is still fun. He's probably the last of the prospects that we're going to see with the timetable. Double A ends in like five days, AAA ends in like, I think two weeks or something like that. So this is probably it, how appropriate for the Welsh Wednesday. I think he can be a sneaky good ad. And I think he also is a guy that they don't bring up to just throw him like at eight. They might. But I think you might see him at like six or five in a lineup very early on. And if you're chasing power, I'm in. I'm in.

And the low strikeouts kind of speak to points leagues as well. So I'm obviously a big fan of Heston Kirstad. I am a big fan of Kirstad too. And, you know, you mentioned how the strikeout rate he cut down on those this year. I didn't even have him in my preseason top 100 because, you know, the myocarditis to kick off his career. And it seemed like there were strikeout concerns. And then he takes this big leap forward as a contact hitter to go with those existing power skills. and so now I have them in my top 25, much less top 100.

One of the biggest risers among already good prospects for me this year. But what stands out to me for Heston Kirstad beyond just the improved strikeout rate, you look at his zone contact rate. It's 89.7% since reaching AAA, which is, you know, compared that to give you a frame of reference for that, some major leaguers with a zone contact rate in that same range. Corey Seeger, Kyle Tucker, Juan Soto. What it says is that when Heston Kirstad swings at a strike, he doesn't miss, really.

And that is a sign of a really good hitter. You know, if you have monstrous power, you can overcome a lows on his own contact rate, and Kirsteat has pretty impressive power on top of it. But just in terms of being a pure hitter, he rates pretty high on that for me, too. the reason why I'm less likely to invest in him now. So that's kind of the long-term outlook for Kierstad.

But right now, okay, so Ryan Malkastel's going on the I.L. Ryan O'Hern is also a left-handed hitter, first baseman, has had a good year, has been good recently. I don't know that Kyrstad's going to get all the playing time at first base over Ryan O'Hern. And maybe there are times they both play with one at DH. I think they both can play some outfield. But it's still kind of a crowded situation. And just like there's two and a half weeks left. So what's it going?

What do I need to see from the Orioles in their handling of Kyristat? And what do I need to see from Kyristad himself that I'm going to actually want to put them in my lineup at any point? I think that's a great point, by the way. I just wanted to add, like, I agree with you on that. Like, I don't know if any of these young guys, like, Lawler was wrong. Maricio looks right. Like, Pig Crow defensively looks awesome, but he's not hitting. Evan Carter's working out, like, you know, two weeks left.

Unless you're put in a situation where you, like, really, really need to depend. You're like, oh, my gosh, I have to get, you know, for a categorical, I've got to get power. Okay. Probably not running to pick up. If someone drop Loller, I'm not trying to go and pick him up. Even if Maricio was out there, like, I don't think you need to be super. hyper aggressive with any of these prospects at this point like that Pete Crow is I would just I would hand up like I would be aggressive with him though it hasn't worked

out or manifested into hits or anything like that same thing would go with Heston like if you're chasing power sure but probably not something with a week or two left in the year if Kyrstadt has a first weekend like Jason Dominguez had then I think that's the scenario that's the scenario where I can make room for Kyristad in my lineup the final two weeks but anything sure can you imagine putting it a rookie like that in your championship week you're like yeah he had three good games now I'm going to put them in in my weekly lineup set for the finals in the play. I mean, that's, that's a pretty big ask. Yeah, as we've said with the other recent promotions, Evan Carter and

Pete Crow Armstrong, it's mostly for deeper leagues. It's also for people who play over at the NFBC because these prospects don't become available until they play their first game in the majors. So, you know, in 15 team leagues, really anyone who has a pulse is viable, but especially someone who might have a little bit of upside like some of these prospects at this point. He's 16% rostered, outfield eligible for now, but very quickly could gain some first-based eligibility. Again, that's Heston Kirstad. Just give me a quick ranking here. We'll start with Scott.

If you're looking to pick up one of these names, how do you rank Kirstad, Evan Carter, Pete Kroa Armstrong? I think I have to go Carter number one. And then I think I'd go Kirstad over Kro Armstrong. I'm not confident enough in the offensive profile for Kroa Armstrong, who still has yet to get a hit, right? Yeah, he does not. I would go with Carter because he is hitting. I would go with Pete Crow. Pete Crow's defense has put him in a position where he can play every single day

and they're going to feel comfortable with it. I am very confident about his hitting profile. I mean, I might eat my words. Long term, doesn't mean this year, but it's just I believe in him. And I think the defense is going to get him out there where you already kind of laid the stage where I'm not really sure what Heston's going to look like as far as playing time. So Carter, because he's doing it, Pete Crow in pure speculation and Kerstad for, you know, big power chasing.

All right. Again, the Orioles promoting Heston Kirstad, the former second overall pick from back in 2020. Let's get into the rest of Wednesday's action. Can you believe it? Wow. Scott, you're up. Player of the Night.

My player of the night is Chris Bryant. Remember him? No. Yeah, he's hardly played this year. He's hardly played since first putting on a Rockies uniform. So I don't blame you for forgetting Chris Bryant. But not so long ago, Chris Bryant was not only a fantasy standout, but for a while there.

He was a first rounder in fantasy. Well, since coming off the IL, he has now homered in back-to-back games. I believe those were his second and third games off the IL. So Wednesday here he homered. Both of those home runs came at home in Cores Field, which is a great place to hit. It's part of the reason why we've been hoping for a Bryant resurgence the past couple of years is because he signed with the Rockies.

Next week, the Rockies won't be at course field. They'll be on the road. But the final week of the season, seven games at home. And so given that Chris Bryant is an outfielder, a position that a lot of people need, given that he's Chris Bryant and we know what he's capable of based on his track record, given that he seems to be in mid-season form right now, homering and back to about. games. And given that he has those favorable home matchups in what could be your league's championship week, the final

week of the season, I think he is a priority pickup right now. He's available in about a third of CBS Sports Leagues. I imagine even more in Yahoo and ESPN. You know, even if you can't use an outfielder, it wouldn't be a bad defensive pickup if, you know, to keep your opponent from picking up Brian because there's a chance he could do a lot of damage that final week. I did not realize he was dropped in as many leagues as he was. So yeah, you're right, 64% rostered for Chris Bryant.

He's been playing first base for them too, so he could gain that eligibility. You could move him around, corner infielder, a utility bat, that final week of the season, whatever it might be. And I had this written down just for later on in the show. Chris Bryant is a classic example of a guy who is going to go on just like a super hot stretch here to end the year. And then we'll remember him for next season, right? It'll be just enough to be like, you know, Chris Bryant's. in Corse Field. I think we're going to get excited about him again, you know? Something like that. Could happen. I hope it doesn't because I don't want to draft Chris Bryant anymore. I'll probably fall in a little bit.

Like, I remember that little thing? Colorado. And I mean, you can also chalk up the injuries that this guy has been facing over the last two years since he's been there and the lingering possibilities of it and a offseason to recoup. But this is one of those guys that's got to come at like big old discount. Like we have to make sure it's a whole league of we like we all get together and we're like, all right. We're all out on Chris Bryant in the top 150, right? All right, team break. And then we can kind of decide like, all right, 180, 200, something like that. Yeah. It could be next year's Cody Bellinger, right, if he goes late enough. Because basically people were out on Bellinger this year. Yeah.

And he became Cody Bellinger again. Sure did. That contract, by the way, whatever Cody Bellinger gets is going to be very interesting. I'm very excited to see what he gets this offseason, as well as Blake Snell, who we'll talk about in just a little bit. Welsh, you are up your player of the night. I'm going with another Chris. We're going with Christopher Sanchez in a long line of Chris's.

So this is just letting everybody know this is on Frank to continue the Chris's. Will he be able to do so? Christopher Sanchez, he did give up four, but he struck out 10. And the pitching profile has just been really fascinating this year. It's a relatively friendly baseball savant page. If you're looking as far as high percentiles on chase rates, really, really low walk rate, 4% on the year and expected ERA that sits around the 3.5 range. Ground ball percentage has been up there. There's a lot to like about him. 22% K rate. The highest of

his career walk is extremely down the pitching profile as well in how he's able to cover the zone. His change up covers the entire lower half. He can get the slider on the outside. He's got a 30% whiff rate across both of his non-fastball slash sinker pitches, which is really, really great. And he has this really trippy split. And I don't think it's counting today, by the way. It's not that trippy. I mean, we see this plenty of times. But he's got like a one, two, nine.

Let me look at what it is where it went. It's a one two nine home ERA this year with a 407 away ERA. So at home, he's been a great get. And he had not given up more than three earned runs since August 5th until tonight. And the strikeouts have been there. He's low low walk. with really kind of low risk, and I think he's kind of a good bet,

and the 10 strikeouts are exciting. Yes, and just to add to everything you just said, there's even some more exciting details from Christopher Sanchez to start here, one of them being it came against the Braves, a historic pitcher wrecking crew of a lineup. So I can forgive the four earned runs, considering Christopher Sanchez got a career high 10 strikeouts and went a career high seven in a third inning.

That's like equivalent to two-run runs versus like an average team. Exactly. By the way. By the way. By the way. By the way. By the way. By the way.

The most whiffs of any pitcher today at 21 out whiffing strider. 21 and 18 of them came on the change up which she threw 49% of the time versus the usual 30%. The velocity on all three of his pitches was up like a mile per hour and a half. So like especially given the given, given all those improvements with the pitchers, pitch selection and velocity and that it came against such an awesome lineup. I think it was the second most strikeouts any pitcher had against the Braves this year. If Christopher Sanchez, with his great walk rate, with his ground ball rate that would be second among qualifiers, ahead of Framber Valdez, ahead of Sandy Alcantara and Bryce Elder, if he also becomes a

strikeout pitcher of any standing, there could be a lot of upside here. He's been very surprising because his minor league track record seemed like, you know, was nothing to write home about. And he just seems to keep getting better and better. Now, here's the problem. Phillies are talking about piggybacking him the rest of the way. Piggybacking him and Michael Lorenzen the rest of the way. Get out of here.

So was this the last hurrah? He lines up. So if they do go from six men to five men by piggybacking those two, Christopher Sanchez would line up for two turns next week, one against the Braves again, one against the Braves. Mets. But would he be limited to four innings five in a best case scenario? He'll probably appear on my sleeper pitchers list for next week, but he'll probably be

pretty low because of that piggyback concern. Piggyback, though, piggyback with the ratios, you know, if you do get, if you were to even just get two starts in a piggyback form, still might not look too bad, especially if he comes on the back turn of one of those with a potential win. So, yeah, it's a lot to pay attention to. for sure. And I'm guessing, did you happen to see, are they both on the road?

Or is it at Braves and home against the Mets? It's at Braves, home against the Mets. Yeah, okay. So, I mean, that home game split is going to look really good on the back end. But yeah, something to be concerned about. I still think it was worth going in all that detail about what Sanchez did in this start,

just from like a 20-24 scouting perspective. Because he raised his stock a lot in my eyes with this performance. I keep waiting for his control to get worse, because if you look at before the season, he was not a good control pitcher, but he's at 1.4 walks per 9 on the year. And if you look at his last five starts, he has two walks total, two walks over his last five starts. So that control has just been amazing.

The change-up has been awesome for Christopher Sanchez. I notice the same things. He's 41% roster, but it's kind of hard to figure out the schedule for a lot of pitchers right now, but especially tough here for Christopher Sanchez. My player of the night, I'm going to go with Hunter Brown. Sorry, there was no Chris available. I was looking around the rundown. I couldn't find anything.

But Hunter Brown and his teammates took a combined no-hitter into the ninth inning of that game against the Oakland A's. Hunter Brown through five no-hit innings, two walks, seven strikeouts, had 13 swinging strikes on 78 pitches, just leaned all the way into his four-scene fastball

in this start. He toured 69% of the time. But his previous four starts before this, he had a 956 ERA. and a 206 whip. So as great as his performance was, he's my player of the night. Shout out to the Astros. Great game for them.

I don't really think I want to do anything with this. The final three starts look like there, if he makes three starts. It's against the Orioles, at the Mariners, and at the Diamondbacks. So Scott, great start. Round of applause, Hunter Brown, but I don't think I'm doing anything for fantasy.

Yeah, I don't think so either. I mean, obviously Oakland is who he was facing. It was interesting that he threw his fast, ball 69% of the time, supposed to the usual 45% just seemed like he really wanted to simplify after all those struggles in recent turns. And same thing happened with Jordan Montgomery, actually.

He threw seven shutout innings at the Blue Jays after three bad starts. He threw his sinker 65% of the time. So it just seemed like kind of a recalibration for those two struggling pitchers. I think there's more to like about Jordan Montgomery down the stretch, who, might be the Rangers ace now that Max Scherzer's done for the year.

Brutal. But yeah, Hunter Brown, I'm not counting on him being of much help over the final two weeks. All right, let's take our first break. When we return, we will talk about that Max Scherzer injury right after this. Welcome back in and the big news from the day outside of the Heson-Cyrstad promotion. Max Scherzert was placed on the aisle with a low-grade strain of the Terrace major muscle. muscle in his right shoulder, and he'll likely miss the rest of the regular season as well as the playoffs. Assuming the Texas Rangers get there, I think they will.

But his season ends with a 377 ERA and a 1.12 whip across 152 and two-thirds innings. Age looks like it's starting to show up here in a major way for Max Scherzer. The injuries continue to add up as well. Well, not much from a fantasy perspective here, but it does suck for the Rangers who, you know, they invested this year. going in, they spent the money, they lose Jacob de Grom, they trade for Max Schurz. And now they lose Max Scherzer. So overall from a baseball perspective, it just kind of sucks for them. It's horrid. And the team has been on like such a down tick. You know, you say we think they're going to, just want to point out, they are a, at least if this has not updated or

hazard, I don't know, but it's a half game above Seattle and only a game above Toronto right now. So I mean, that loss is absolutely critical. Now, it is a three-horse race because it's Boston's seven and a half behind. So it is these three teams vying for the two spots. But you know what? I bet they'd love to have Cole Regens back right now. They could use a pitcher like Cole Regans that they had traded off. That would probably help making that wrong move.

But it has been a disaster pile of, you know, if this were the race and young pitchers, we'd be like, oh, what's going on with Texas? And it's like, well, they're just taking just old guys that are breaking down left and right. and trying to put their hopes on Evaldi. But yeah, this was my sleeper team of the year. It's a bad look for next year for Max. A lot of these pitches, I talked about this earlier in the week, actually. I don't know what it is, and I'd love to figure out of like a consistency guide

to the last two months of the year for pitchers because it's the old pitchers, which you could just obviously figure out their bodies are breaking down. But these like up and down start seem to be more prevalent in a lot of these old guys. Not just the old guys. like Corbyn Burns is actually like my number one example when I was trying to work through this where you'd have a start where you give up six earn runs and then you go seven and strike out eight and then you give up five and go five and then you know and what is it and trying to identify who these players are going into next year which might not have a long term.

I don't think there is a common thread. Well, and I don't know if there is a common thread, but I would love to identify all of them and then just stare at them in the off season because it's probably not going to be like, oh, well, Corbin Burns was this. so now he's off, but maybe it is the difference between him and one other guy making a really tough decision. Maybe it's the difference between Corbyn Burns and Zach Allen, who's also been inconsistent? Trying to find out and identify those players that are not just putting up like a bad second half, but are having these starts where you're frustrated and you put them out and then they stink,

and then you don't put them out and they're good, and it doesn't help anything. And I don't know what that is, and I haven't workshopped through it enough, but I just, I know where to go with it. And Max and Verlander were the impetus to this of players that have 100% exemplified this. And it's not going to be good or in why I'm going to want to invest in them next year, not only the injuries, but the inconsistencies. Well, if you do find a common thread, I'd love to know about it. So give me in the loop on that. My theory, since it seems to be happening to everybody, is just that when things start going wrong because there are more base runners, because there's more action on the action on the.

the base paths. When things start going wrong for a pitcher in a start, they just snowball easier than they have in recent years. And so what, you know, a bad outing in the past may have been four or five earned runs and it's turning into like seven, eight earn runs this year. And everybody seems to be falling victim to it. And it's very frustrating in Roto especially. I don't, it doesn't bother me as much in points leagues because the, the damage is isolated to that one week as opposed to affecting your season stat line. But it's, it's been very frustrating. And I think it explains why my roto teams have by and large done much worse than my

head to head teams this year. There's a part of me that wonders like maybe what I do and maybe if you can't find the correlation because you're right, like, I'm sitting here thinking like, well, Garrett Cole is someone I feel like that's kind of broken that train. Like he's just been relatively consistent. But there's not a ton of those guys that we can really pinpoint that maybe the play. You know how we do this thing where we're like, oh, look at all these starting pitchers. injured, I'm not taking starting pitching at the back of half, uh, the beginning of the drafts

next year. Maybe the move is going to be leading up into the, uh, the all-star break. You want to start trading your starting pitchers and you want to start moving off of those high, even if you have high-end guys, you want to start moving off of pitchers and prioritizing more depthy type of pitchers and getting positional players to stock that up and moving those players off. If it's, if we're going to look and see like a, a common thread of 65% of top 25% of top 25 SPs all the sudden just become wild cards, then why not just move off of them and, you know, take your hand at streaming and really watching the wire and picking up the middling pitchers? I know that it might not be a happy answer to you. So is your contention that it's been

more prevalent in the second half? Because I feel like this has been going on all year. I think I know. That's kind of, that's kind of played into my glob theory at starting pitcher where unless you get and it's unclear exactly how many of these there are, I think between a dozen and two dozen, And unless you get a true ace or two at the top of your staff, the next 60 starting pitchers or so, just like, okay, maybe you can single out a few upside guys there, but otherwise, like, I'm just not going to care who much. But I'm not talking about, like, the 30 to 60 guys.

I'm talking about, like, the top 25. Like, I, and again, this might be recency. It literally is just an open thought that I haven't sat and dug into. But it feels like the guys that you were really putting the back of your team on have had some really wild swings. I mean, like, Alcantra was that the whole year, so that doesn't really count. But Burns has been wonky and Verlander and Scherzer.

That's not all the guys. Strider, Gallen, these guys have all kind of come apart. That it's like, that's fine if you want to make this case for those globy pitchers. But what if you can then go and take, you know, you've got all these stats from Strider in the first half. I'm just picking on Strider, Best Pitcher and Baseball. And then you were able to go and get a top flight hitter and then a globy pitcher. And maybe I just want some 30 to 40 guys that are going to also have some in-com. Consistence starts if my aces who can recoup top value are also going to be falling apart in the back half

Which could be to age. It could be to the pitch clock to stealing to higher offensive numbers. It could be to the shift It could be a gajillion things that are going on with it. But if we see a case where the top flight pitchers are more inconsistent than in the past, which I might just be making up right now, that maybe trying to find a strategy of being a little bit more aggressive in moving those players might be a way to take advantage of the back half of seasons where it's like Cole Regens has outperformed Verlander and Scher and all these guys. And obviously you have to hit on those players.

So again, it's just a bigger thing that maybe people can kind of sit and think about as we are going to move into next year that look at some of the pitches you're going to be counting on in your playoff run this week and next week. It's probably not what you thought. You thought you'd have your Kershaw

and now you're counting on Ryan Pepio. You thought you would have, you know, Sandy Alcantra and you're now banking on. Jordan Montgomery. It's weird. So sorry I took us in a different direction, Frank, but that's been on my mind with Max specifically. No, I think it's a good conversation point. And I know people come here to find out answers, but I don't know that there's an answer right now. I think when we get to the offseason, we really got to dig in and try and see if there's a common thread there. But right now, it doesn't seem like it, because you just rattled off a bunch

of some of the best pitchers in baseball. Spencer Shrider, even he's been inconsistent. He has a 373 ERA on the season, right? So, and I consider him the, best pitcher in baseball skills-wise. So it has been very frustrating. I just don't know that there is like a rhyme or reason as to why this has happened this season in fantasy baseball. Congrats to the Braves. Your brave, Scotty. They clinched their six straight NLEs title and the first team to clinch a playoff berth here in 2023. No surprise. They've obviously been a juggernaut all season long. And they did it. The only way they know how. Ronald de Cunia, three for five with his 66th stolen base and Austin Riley two for three with his 35th home run of the year.

What do we do with these pitchers? So I got I got a couple of different categories. I got some waiver wire guys. I got some, you know, globy pitchers and we'll run through some of their matchups really quickly here. I'm going to throw a lot of names your way, a lot of matchups your way. So if you're listening, I don't know, break out the notepad, write everything down. You drop in all, you drop Max Schurzer for all these guys. Just pointing that out. You dropped probably Clayton Kirschoff for all these guys. Just want you all to know that. Let's go. Ryan Pepio, he did struggle with the long ball here against the Padres. He gave up two home runs. He gave up four runs over six innings. He had five strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes.

More whiffs than we've seen recently from Ryan Pepio. He's 69% rostered, and it looks like his final three starts are against the Tigers, the Giants, and then at the Giants. Next up, we have Mike Clevenger, who turned in another quality start against the Royals. Six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts for him. He had 12 swinging strikes, 60% rostered. and his last three matchups look like they are at the Nats, at the Red Sox, and then home against the Padres. Logan T. Allen, he was okay at the Giants. This is like the Logan Allen line.

This is basically what he gives you. Five innings, one run, eight base runners allowed, five strikeouts. Like, he gives you a strikeout per inning, but he doesn't go very deep into his starts. He is 56% rostered his last three, the Royals, the Orioles, and at the Tiger. So the matchups are actually pretty good for him.

Scott, we'll start with you. I gave you some names. I gave you some matchups here. We could throw Christopher Sanchez in this mix, but we don't really know when or how he's pitching. How would you rank these for? Pepio, Clevenger, Logan Allen, and Christopher Sanchez. Well, I do want to stress that the particular time of year that we're in

with very little calendar left goes a lot into the order here. I am high on Christopher Sanchez's skills for the reasons we already laid out. He would be fourth on this list just in terms of how usable he is for the rest of the season. Two of these guys were in my most recent column, 15 players to pick up for championship week. One being Ryan Pepio. You mentioned the three great matchups there, Kansas City and San Francisco next week, and then San Francisco again the final week. So he's number one.

Clevenger was not on that list, but given the way this start against the Royals went, maybe he should have been, because I'm going to put him number two here, his matchups, at least for next week, it being a two-start week. Let's see. I'm not seeing them here in the notes.

Did you have the matchups for? It looks like at Washington and at Boston for next week. Okay, so one good matchup, one bad matchup, but the point is he's going to be making two. And three of his last four starts now have been nothing short of awesome. Like the strikeouts have been there. He's allowed hardly any hits or walks.

the one start that wasn't awesome, he gave up Bader and runs. So it just fits like just what we were talking about with every pitcher having these blow-up starts. Clevenger has one of those mixed into what's otherwise been an awesome stretch. And so hopefully you get more of the good than bad with him next week, especially with that one matchup against the national. So I'm going to put Clevenger second. And then Allen third, he has pretty good matchups down the stretch, but limited to five innings for the first.

most part, might give you six and one of those starts against the royals or the tigers, but limited upside. He's one of the ones I put in that 15 pickups for championship week. He's one who I said, it doesn't really make sense to pick him up for defensive reasons because I don't see him hurting you that much by the other team starting him. But if you just really have a needed starting pitcher, Logan Allen could fill it for you admirably. And then that leaves Sanchez fourth. I will point out with Pepio, you mentioned two home runs, four earned runs, zero walks again. So this guy has gotten the control thing figured out, and that's very exciting. And I think he did a nice job of salvaging the start for giving up four earned runs.

Yeah, Ryan Pepio now has just two walks over 27 innings with the Dodgers this season. I was watching that game, and the broadcast mentioned that apparently he changed his arm angle slightly this year and it's closer to where he was prior to 2020. So last year his control was all over the place and yeah, change his arm angle. Ryan Pepio has pitched a lot better this year, specifically when it comes to the control. This next group includes players that I don't think that I could trust pitchers rather. I don't think I could trust. Hunter Brown was one of them. Welsh, the other one is Kyle Harrison. And outside of that one awesome start, which was great, 11 strikeouts, I think it was 6 and a third shot.

out innings. He really hasn't been that good. So he was facing the Guardians here on Wednesday, typically a good matchup for left-handed pitchers. And Kyle Harrison allowed five runs. Three of those earned over four innings. Only had three strikeouts in this one. His velocity was down a little bit as well. He's now made five starts and he's got a 518 ERA and a 140 whip. Looks like his last three starts are at the D-backs, at the Dodgers, home against the Dodgers. There's no way. With those matchups, I would be okay dropping Kyle Harrison in redraft leagues for any of the names we just talked about. And Christopher Sanchez that I know got kind of dismissed in this. I would take Sanchez over Kyle Harrison.

I still feel like I would do it over the Hunter Brown situation because I feel like with the cappy innings, not wanting to go deep. Like this was like the perfect scenario where he was going to be able to he was going to be able to go five and he's been kind of wearing down. It's like, if you're going to get four, if you're going to get four out of any of these guys, Sanchez, Hunter Brown, Kyle Harrison, who would you want right now if you're only going to get four? I would want Chris Sanchez. I don't. I mean, Hunter Brown's on the best team, but I think he's wearing down. So I'll take Sanchez over either one of those guys. Kyle Harrison is the biggest no of noes.

He's going to destroy your ratios or might even give you negative points. Like two games against the Dodgers. No thanks. All right. Let's talk about three pitchers that are very firmly in the glob when we'll kind of. Go rapid fire here. We'll rattle off each one. Eduardo Rodriguez has really lost his control recently.

He gave up five walks in this start against the Reds, and he now has three plus walks in five of his last nine starts during that stretch of 433 ERA and a 144 whip for Eduardo Rodriguez. Scott, your first up here. The final three matchups for Erod at the Dodgers and at the A's that comes next week. So one great matchup, one really bad one. And then the final matchup looks like it'll be up against the Guardians. Yeah, I mean, if you could have gotten the A's and the Cardians in the same week, that would be really interesting.

But that's not how it lines up for Eduardo Rodriguez, who I don't think has looked the same since coming back from that finger pulley injury. He was probably overachieving before the injury. That's part of it. I could see starting him at the Dodgers and at the A's in a points league where you're not having to protect the ratios, but in a category. I'd be reluctant to do that. Jordan Montgomery bounced back with a great start at the Blue Jays, seven shutout innings with three strikeouts. And that one, as Scott mentioned earlier, just leaned all the way into that sinkery

towards 65% in this start. He had given up 14 earned runs in his previous three starts. So it's kind of been an up and down situation here for Jordan Montgomery. Welsh, his final three matchups. Next week, it's going to be against the Red Sox and the Mariners. And then the final week at the Mariners. Your thoughts on Jordan Montgomery. I was hoping for a little bit better of a run.

I mean, you know, this most recent kind of blowup, it's actually been more anomaly than anything for Montgomery. This is a second month where he is registered in over 60 RA, but the rest have been threes and under, and he's been consistent. I like the idea of him leaning into that sinker because then it might be telling to say, hey, listen, I don't have big strikeout stuff.

His actually, his strikeout prop today was three and a half. I mean, that's where we're at. Even though he has struck out like four, I think, in freaking every start in the last six years. seven games. Like, there's not a trust level in that he's able to strike out guys. So leaning into your sinker, just, you know, let your offense and then let your defensive carry you and then your offensive pick you up. I would rather him over Eduardo Rodriguez. I think Rodriguez is super inconsistent. And I think Jordan Montgomery has got a little bit more going on. I think he can

build this confidence and he's had a better track record over the season of being able to hold this. And, you know, a groundball pitcher in general. So I'm going to go with Jordan Montgomery over Eduardo, and I think you can do this, even though it's not like the best matchups. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with that, Montgomery over Rodriguez. Yeah, he's just a much higher floor pitcher. I know he's had some blowups recently, but there's not much else out there, right? So I think if you got Jordan Montgomery, you're just kind of rolling with him over those, these final two weeks.

The last name here is Braxton Garrett. He turned in a great start at the Brewers, six shutout innings with seven strikeouts in this one. And, you know, it's not always pretty, but Braxton Garrett has allowed three earn runs or fewer in nine straight starts. So there is a level of consistency there. He's got a 367 ERA and a 116-whip. The last three matchups are against the Mets and Brewers next week as a two-star pitcher. And then the final week is at the Pirates.

So Scott, I kind of like it for Braxton Garrett, man. He's 80% rostered. So he's a little bit too rostered for like a waiver wire pitcher. But I do think it's worth pointing out, you know, as much as we talk a lot about potential waiver pickups, potential two start options, potential streamer options on this podcast because it's applicable to the masses, right? Like if we talk about guys who are too rostered, there's not much people can do with that. But I do think there's a danger in putting so much emphasis on it that people think it's the best thing to do.

The best thing to do is not have to start anybody. you could pick up off waver wires right off the waiver wire right now and if you're in the championship game it's very likely that you don't have to pick up anybody um braxton garrett based on those matchups next week a two-star week he'll probably be among my 10 sleeper pitchers for week 26 but i'll remind you we talked a bit about him as a two-start option for this current week clearly that didn't happen if that doesn't like if something happens to push him back next week as well and he doesn't end up making two starts where you're going to probably feel pretty bad about starting him. And so that's another reason to think twice about doing it. Yeah, no, I think that's a fair point. And I guess we're just, I am hedging my bet for all of us here on this podcast. Take everything we're saying with schedule analysis and matchups with a bit of a grain

of salt because it's just really hard to know right now. We're giving you this information to the best of our knowledge, to the best of our ability. But yeah, things kind of go haywire this time of year. Teams might start like manipulating. There was already a conversation. about the Diamondbacks if they were to make the playoffs that Merrill Kelly and Zach Allen would not both not be eligible to start the first game and it's just like you know if that's a play-in game like teams might really start thinking about what's in front of them whether there are teams that are out of it that might want to get a look at one guy or do bullpen games it's the Wild Wild West at this point and I'd also point out one little thing Scott had me thinking about this with like you know the situation of not starting any of these guys sometimes I have to think like what will hurt me more taking you a risk and putting in a guy that screws me or not putting in the guy that I thought I should and then them being really good on my bench, like which one hurts more? At the end of the day, I think for me, it's putting in a guy that just destroys the week where I feel like I can bounce back off of making just a bad decision on taking a big risk. You'll know when you need to

take the risks inside of your championship week or your playoff run, maybe it's not going to have to be with guys like Braxton Garrett and guys that are early in the week as well. All right, let's quickly hit some news and notes. Shohei Otani has now missed 10 straight games with right oblique discomfort and I'm just waiting for the notification at this point that, you know, he'll be shut down. Obviously it's not great for baseball, but I mean, for his own sake and for the money and the contract he's trying to get this off season, I think that probably makes the most sense at this point. Sandy Alconsohn. Played catch on Wednesday, his first time throwing a baseball since he landed on the IL with a right UCL sprain. Joe Musgrove continues to play catch, but has

is yet to throw off a mound as of Tuesday, given where the Padres are at. I don't know that it makes much sense for Joe Musgrove to return this season as well. Can I say just real quick? Yep. There's a little bit more worry with the Sandy stuff than we just rattled off. I just want to point out like, we're talking like Tommy John concerns are looming right now. They're saying there is a tear. They're not telling us the severity of the tear. It could be a partial or a full, but there are rumblings that we might be finding out really soon about something we are all going to hate. I'm going to hate because I traded for him early in the year on the very cheap that this might not just be like, hey, he's throwing the ball and stuff.

This might be, hey, he's throwing the ball. Get him under the radar right now. Oh, yeah, this thing is shot. And it might not be a point where it is going to be resting to get there and it might take going under the knife. So I just want to point that it might not want to cause panic about it, but that is looming right now. Yeah, no, that's, I'm glad you brought it up because it is, it is, you know, this is, I think a bigger deal even than the Max Scharzer injury if it does lead to that. Maybe it won't. I mean, Zach Allen had a UCL sprain a couple years ago and never ended up needing Tommy John surgery for it.

But it shouldn't surprise anybody if we hear soon that Alcantra is going under the knife. The other thing I want to point out with this is, you know, it's not always clear where these. when these tears begin. Often inexplicable struggles for a pitcher is a precursor to Tommy John's surgery. And I've had a hard time figuring out what exactly is wrong for Sandy Alcantara all year. So this might explain it. There could be a silver lining in that. All right, Shane Bieber allowed two runs over three and two-thirds innings in his first rehab start at AA on Tuesday.

Trista McKenzie was cleared to begin his rehab assignment at AA on Wednesday night. So, you know, when we're recording this, I haven't checked to see, but I assume Triss McKenzie made his rehab start. Jazz Chisham was removed with an apparent leg injury. I think it's a knee that he's dealing with there. Yeah. No surprise. He's always hurt. Christian Yelich has now missed five straight due to lingering back stiffness.

Mark Hanna was also out with left wrist soreness. Yandy Diaz was back in the lineup after suffering a testicular contusion on Tuesday night. Ouch. There you go. I got it. I'm proud of you for saying it, Frank. I got you. Scott went on this rampage yesterday.

He wants everyone to start talking about testicles. I don't know what's going on. I don't know why legitimate news organizations are so squeamish about said. Like, it's just weird. But they're all uncomfortable or they don't want to say the word because I get. You know, they call it like lower body injury or groin injury. And it's like, well, that's not really what it is. Like it's, it is just a part of the body.

Like, you're, are we grownups or are we not grown? Oh, I like that. I like adult Scott. This is Dad Scott. Like, listen, it's the bird's bees. Let me talk to you about testicles. Sometimes they get contused and this is what happens. I 100% am not an adult here. So I'll go with what I said last night, the family jewels or whatever it is. Wilson Contrais was out of the lineup with a right hand contusion.

Nolan Gorman was placed in the aisle with a grade two right hamstring strain. Byron Buxton was given a cortisone injection in his injured right knee on Sunday. And he's currently dealing with Pateller 10 to 9. Kenley Jansen was placed on the COVID IL after testing positive for the virus. He'll have to stay away from the team for at least seven days. Chris Martin and John Schreiber are likely to pick up any saves in the meantime. Starling Marte went through a full pregame workout Wednesday and told reporters he's aiming to return before the final week of the season.

Well, thanks Starling Marte. Michael Conforto is expected to be activated at some point during the Giants' next series against the Rockies. Bailey Oberg could start Friday against the White Sox, as the twins currently have a TBD listed for that day. And Jose Miranda will undergo surgery on his injured right shoulder on Thursday. Let's take our final break when we return.

I do have some quick waiver wire hitters. We'll have a discussion about the battle for the NL Sy Young Award. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's run through some waiver wire hitters. No surprise. Nolan Jones continues to hit well, one for six,

with one for six, one for four with a two-run homer. It was his 16th home run of the season. He also has 13 steals. We've talked a lot about him recently. He's 76% rostered. The problem, Scott, for next week, the Rockies have those six road games. There's two lefties on the schedule.

So if he's still available, or if you have them on your team, I don't know that Nolan Jones is a must start on the road. But again, for that final week of the season with the seven home games, I would want Nolan Jones on my team for that. I mean, his road numbers are, almost as good as his home numbers.

He's had better splits than most Rockies hitters. In a three outfielder league, I might not go as far as to call Nolan Jones a must start on the road, but he's startable. And in a five outfielder league, he probably is a must start. And either way, if he's out there, you need to pick him up. I think it's as close to, like, a must add hitter that exists right now that would be on a wire. So, yeah, I agree. I think another hitter in that same vein is Mitch Garver.

And we've also talked a lot about him recently. He stayed hot. He went two for five with his 17th home run. Since the start of August, 36 games. Mitch Garver is betting 315 with 12 homers, 25 RBI. The dude plays every single day. He's 66% rostered. Obviously, you know, catcher eligibility. I moved them up to like fifth or sixth in my catcher rankings of rest of season. Well, a question that keeps coming up is Sean Murphy. He's had a rough second half. He's not playing every day. It's like basically every other day. Maybe it's even less now that the Braves have clinched. Would you drop a Sean Murphy at this point for Mitch Garver? I would. I mean, I think I've been pretty steadfast every time I've come on here and we talk about catchers. I'm pretty fluid with catchers. Give me the hot hand.

There's enough guys that are performing at similar levels. And really the big thing, I think that's the most important here is it's like a week and a half to two or whatever it is right to the end of the season if you're playing in Roto. There's not much time left. What is the incentive for the Braves to push Sean Murphy out there? The Rangers are playing Garver every day, and they are fighting toothing up until the end of the season for this. So yes, I really do think you can make that move. You can be fluid with your catcher spot and Garver.

Kind of a no-brainer, so knock yourself out. I mean, obviously, I'm doing the Keeper League, but redraft, sure. Well, I mentioned on the Monday show, I'm starting Mitch Garver over J.T. Real Muto against you, Frank. Yeah. And the podcast points league. I really wish you didn't do that, too, because. Yeah. No, I mean, I'm glad I did.

I didn't go as far as to drop J.T. Real Muto. I might have to next week to clear up a spot. But, you know, a lot of the concern with Garver's injury risk, which is it's hard to worry about this late in the season. And when we say he's been playing every day, 25 of the Rangers last 26 games. Like, that alone would make a catcher eligible player a stud. And then the guy we're talking about has a better home run rate for his career than Will Smith.

So he's like, injuries and inconsistent playing time have kept him out of the elite discussion in fantasy, but in terms of his skill as a hitter, he's absolutely elite and he's healthy and he's getting the playing time now. Let's catch everybody up, by the way. We're facing off in the semi-final of the podcast Listeners League, and this is a slug fest right now. I am up three and a half points, and you had Zach Allen kind of crap the bed today. But I got players dropping left and right. I got Ryan Mountcastle in the lineup.

I got Max Scherzer in the lineup. I got Kenley Jansen in the lineup. So I think this one's going to come down to the wire, Scott. There's a one week? Like, it's going to end on Sunday? Yeah, but it was a two weeks. This is in week two. Yeah, it was a two-week matchup.

Yeah. So it's super close right now. We'll see. And I also have a bone to pick with Chris Welsh because we faced each other in the semifinal round of the consolation bracket in the Scott White Dynasty League, the competition for the number one draft pick next year.

And you had like four dead lineup spots, and I thought it was going to be a cakewalk. And I just had a terrible week, and you beat me. So now you are competing with RJ White for the top pick next year. I can live without the top pick. I really just have to get one of those top three picks. I am competing for the number three pick against Michael Herkum right now. And I'm beating him, but I'm nervous about it because I made a lot of bad pitching decisions.

Didn't start Walde-Chuk started Kyle Wright instead. And I got to win. Like if I end up having to pick fourth and not get what of Paul Skeen's, Dylan Cruz, and Wyatt, Longmore. Scott does not know this guy's name. Wyatt Langford. Longmeyer, yes, the cowboy, Longmeier. It sounds like the character for Ozog, but it's not quite that.

That's funny. I'm going to be upset. I would be upset too. About that, about getting one of those three players in the Dynasty League, then I do winning the podcast league championship. Nothing against the podcast. I do want to point out just real quick in mentioning that. I love the format of what Scott does in this,

where when you're not in the playoffs, you then have to try to win to get the first pick. I think it is a great format. Also want to point out when you say have dead spots, it is not out of not caring or paying attention. It is also that there are very strong strict rules about certain things. I have picked up, holding on to some players for next year that are important. And like, I have Jordan Wicks, who I did not want to bring up and start his clock. So like,

I had player. So I mean, I was in a weird spot, but luckily I will get one or two and I will get Ryan Longmeyer or I'll get Dylan, Dillon, Dylon Craig. What was our character name? It was, it was Wyatt Langmore. Right? A lot, the Langmore's. Yeah. And then the player is Wyatt I don't know about, yeah. And I try to like merge the two names. No, I love it. I think it's a better name for him. All right, let's wrap up here.

I had one other hitter I wanted to mention waiver wire name. Evan Carter, we spoke about him a little bit earlier. He went two for four with a run and an RBI. His first six games with the Rangers here. He's five for 14 with a home run and two steals. And he actually got the start on Wednesday against a lefty and you say Kikuchi. So I like that. I like the way it's trending.

Evan Carter, 29% rostered. They have six games next week, zero lefties on the schedule. So I'm a big fan of that. I think if you're playing a five outfielder league, I'd be looking to pick up Evan Carter for next week. Let's have a quick discussion here about the battle for the National League,

Cy Young. And as of now, the betting favorite is Blake Snell. He's followed by Justin Steele. It's actually pretty close between those two. And then there's a huge drop in the betting odds. You get down to Zach Allen and Spencer Strife. Blake Snell dominated the Dodgers here on Wednesday, six shotout innings, one hit, one walk, eight strikeouts.

He is on a crazy run right now. Three earned runs or fewer in 21 straight starts. That's dating back to May 25th. So that is just a crazy long time. 243 ERA leads baseball. He also leads baseball with 93 walks. It's like the craziest stat leading baseball in ERA and walks. It's shout out to him.

He's still getting it done. Other names here, Justin Steele, we know what he's done this year. He's got a 249 ERA. That's second in all baseball. Spencer Shrider, Spencer Shrider had a great start at the Philly. Seven innings, one run, nine strikeouts for him. He leads baseball at 259 strikeouts. The next closest is Kevin Gosman at 217.

And then unfortunately, Zach Gallen, he was hit hard at the Mets here, five innings, seven runs allowed, six of those earned. Welsh, if you're handicapped it right now, Who you got, the battle for the NL. Sayung. Well, I want everybody to know, Scott Offair told me that if Justin Steele won the Sayyong, he would shave his head because it's so ridiculous that he would ever win. He would grow a Davis Schneider mustache.

That's what we're trying to get. I did not even mention that. You were totally blindsiding me with this. I shared with the Welsh beforehand about the hubbub I caused on Twitter. Yeah. It made me happy. Yeah, with Cubs fans getting upset at me because they feel like I indirectly slided Justin Steele. Go ahead.

I just thought I was dying to say that. I'm not shaving my head or growing any mustache or anything. I liken the people that freaked out to the same people that would be like, well, a guy can't win the MVP if they're not in the playoffs. Like people, you get very defensive. People get very defensive about specific things and stuff. And it's like, Justin Steele's fine. There's a bunch of good pitchers out there. I think it's, I think Zach Gallen

ended his potential off of this start. Even though he went nine before, I think it's too far gone. You've got a almost 300 strikeout pitcher, and I think you've got Blake Snow, and I think that's it. And, you know, because fans could be mad. Justin Steele's been phenomenal.

There's no doubt about it, the wins and everything, but the stretch of what Blake Snell has done, all while bucking every pitching person that's like, don't throw that change up, and he just continuously throws it. It's 18% of the time and he gets strikeouts. I think it's going to be, I think it's going to be Blake Snell. Well, you know what?

No, I think it's going to be Spencer Strider. I want to say, I think it makes the most sense for it to be Blake Snell because I think he has the best combo of wins to ERA to strikeouts. But I do think if Strider can have three good starts to end out, bring that ERA right at that 3-5 range, close into 300 strikeouts on a Braves team that has just been otherworldly. I think he might edge out Blake Snell, but I understand why Snell is the betting favorite. And I think he makes the most sense,

but Strider might be that whole season long, like this is a team that's in the playoff type of move. But I think it is a two-horse race is what my main point is. I'm rooting for Strider, and it really has nothing to do with me being a braves fan. Maybe a tiny bit. No, no way. No way.

It's more just, I think he's been, I certainly from the perspective of, fantasy. He's been a much more exciting and helpful pitcher. He is a Sy Young winner I could feel good about in a year where there's not a lot of those. There's not a lot of candidates on either side. I think Garrett Cole's a very easy choice in the AL and a deserving choice. I think the NL. Strider would be an easy choice if not for that pesky ERA. And so I'm hoping he gets it down enough that the voters can overlook it. Can you do one thing for me, Scott, real quick? Sure. And we're all going to be quiet. Will you say,

I'm Scott White and I approve this message. Just do that real quick. I'm Scott White and I approve this message. How you said... I don't know why I put a question mark after you. Yeah, how you said he's a candidate that like we can believe it. That was the most political I've ever seen. Someone has to cut that up now and put like highlights and Scott White talking.

And then right at the end, that was, that is a perfect, perfect video to be made there. Good job on you. And I could say this because I'm not the Braves fan on the podcast, but I agree with you. I want Spencer tried it to win it. That's who I'm rooting for. I don't think that's actually going to happen, though. I think Blake Snell is actually the one that's going to wind up winning the National League Cy Young Award here.

A few leftovers. I did want to mention Luis Castillo, whatever. He's good. He did his thing, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, yada, yada, yada, yada. You know, I thought about it earlier today. I was like, well, if Garrett Cole didn't exist, Luis Castillo has a pretty good, you know, case for being a Sy Young pitcher as well. But, yeah, I think Garrett Cole has pretty much locked to the game.

up at this point. Two names in much deeper leagues we didn't get to earlier. They probably don't matter, but I just want to mention what they did. Maybe you guys have some thoughts. Maybe you don't. Drew Rom, a revenge game at the Baltimore Orioles. He pitches for the Cardinals in case you don't know. Five and a third shot-out innings with seven strikeouts and that one, his velocity was up. It seems like he was pretty pumped up for this start, but the numbers are not good. The minor league numbers are not great either, so don't know that there's much there. And then Joey Luke Casey with the Mets he threw seven innings, one unearned run, three walks to two strikeouts. He's actually pitched pretty well with the Mets this year, just like on a surface level basis.

There's not many strikeouts. I don't think he's very exciting either. Scott, anything with these two, Drew Rom, Joey Lucasey? I'm just going to say no as late as we are into this podcast. Fair enough. Because probably not. All right. I had a whole segment plan for like hitters that did interesting things today and like a hey real quick question about their

your 2024 draft status, but guess what? We're out of time. We don't have enough time to do that. So maybe we'll do that in the next coming days here. We don't have a very heavy schedule here on Thursday. So we can get a little creative on Friday's podcast. Let's get into the bullpen for the Rays P. Fairbanks has been used a lot recently, so he was unavailable in this one. Colin Poshay got the first two outs in the ninth inning with a one-run lead.

Robert Stevenson got the final out for his first save of the year. For the Rockies, Tyler Kinley got the final. five outs for his third save. Kinley blew a save on Monday. Justin Lawrence got the save on Tuesday. And then, boom, back to Kinley on Wednesday. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz struck out two for his 13th save. For the pirates, David Bednar gave up an unearned run, but picked up his 34th.

For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley struck out two for his 10th save. And he now has the last three saves in a row for the St. Louis Cardinals. He's 58% rostered if you're looking for saves or a reliever in a points league at point in the season. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz struck out two for his 36th save. For the Braves, Reisel Oglacius was unavailable. Kirby Yates picked up his fifth save and for the Marlins, Tanner Scott, struck out one for his eighth save. He's 54% rostered. Welles, who would you rather have Ryan Helsley or Tanner Scott? Ooh, I would go with Ryan Helsley, but I could be swayed either way, but I'll go with Hellsley. All right. I'm going Scott. That's where you. Battle. Battle of, okay, there you go. There's

the bet. Shaved head, whoever has the least saves. How about, um, no cub? Whoever loses has to be called Scott for the day. Oh, okay. And we both call, we both had Chris's earlier today too. So how about the other person has to be the other name? No. You'll be Chris White and I'll be Scott Welsh. No, I think the, I think this is a pretty good idea. That's, definitely not going to be confusing for me hosting this podcast. Let's get it. Let's wrap up to stream or not to stream. On Thursday, some names that stand out here. Kentomai at the White Sox. We have Josiah Gray at the Pirates, Reese Olson versus the Reds, Michael King at the Red Sox, Clark Schmidt at the Red Sox, Tanner Hauk versus the Yankees. I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah, we didn't like this yesterday when we looked through it. And I don't like it anymore today. I think Michael King just based on the way he's pitched recently. And the fact he hasn't lost any velocity being stretched out over a starter's workload is, I think, notable and speaks well of his future in that role. Not thrilled with it, but he would be, if you have to pick somebody to stream on Thursday, I would pick Michael King. I know that Ken Tamayeta has not pitched well recently. At the White Sox, I don't know. I could be talked into it, but... Me too. I was kind of like peeking around at that one. I like to pick on white socks, I guess, at this time of year.

I could do it if I was chasing, you know, maybe your ratios are a little bit in question or something like that. You're just trying to pick up points. I could go with Kentimata. All right. And then on Friday, not too many names here, but we've got Griffin Canning against the Tigers, Wade Mealy against the Nationals, Johan Oviedo against the Yankees. I don't think we could do Brandon Fott against the Coneys. Cubs. I would skip Thursday to get Canning now, so I have him for Friday, for sure. Yeah. I know the nationals are pretty good against lefties, but, you know, Wade Miley is fine. I much prefer Griffin Canning and maybe even Maid over him as well. But yeah, just a few names

there for to stream or not stream. We're going to wrap there for The Welsh and Scotty Dubbs. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fancy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.