Fantasy Baseball Today - Pitching Risers & Time to Drop These Hitters? (8/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 14, 2026

Braxton Ashcraft had a big bounce back (3:05)! ... Cade Cavalli is a big riser (7:50). ... Payton Tolle is on fire (13:57). ... Logan Gilbert has been awesome for a while now (17:40). ... News (25:00): Jacob deGrom left early with triceps fatigue. ... Shane Drohan or Walbert Ureña (35:00)? ... Luke Keaschall is back to life (45:39). ... Name that player, DROP-O-METER edition (50:39). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:06:03).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome in Tough Fantasy Baseball today on August 14th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had some big old pitching performances. Braxton Ashcraft definitely needed that. Peyton Toley and Cade Cavali are on the rise, and only nine games on the schedule. You know what that means. No, it's not Fantasy Feud.

We're doing Name That Player, Dropometer Edition. So, should be fun. I don't know what that means. But I bet it's going to be a hoot. All right, let's jump in. Maybe we should just call an Audible and make Edwin Diaz our, oh my goodness, gracious player of the night because, you know, for the first time in a while, we're starting earlier than usual and games are still going on.

Edwin Diaz just blew another save. So it's not looking good for him. Don't drop Tanner Scott just yet. Scott, let's go over to you, your player the night. Which pitcher would you like? I would like Braxton Ashcraft. Brashden Axcraft. Yeah, that one.

He was great. It was great at the Marlins. Complete game. On just 85 pitches, by the way. Struck out 10. Really good. And he needed it because in his previous seven starts, he had a 681 ERA.

Things were not looking good for Bracken. and Ashcraft. So how did he do this? Well, even though he struck out 10, I can tell you he didn't get a ton of whiffs. I mean, 10 was the total. Again, it was on 85 pitches, so that comes out to a pretty good rate,

but not like you're expecting when you see the guy had 10 strikeouts. And what he did differently in this one was lean on his sinker. 32%. It was his most thrown pitch in this start. Normally it's 14%. So he more than doubled his sinker usage.

And the reason why I think he tried doing that is the main reason he was getting bombed in his previous seven starts, again with the 681 ERA. It's got a home runs. 2.8 home runs per 9 during that seven-start stretch. In his 16 starts prior to that, what made him a breakout player in fantasy, what made him an all-star,

Braxton Ashcraft, first 16 starts, 307 ERA, only 0.7 home runs per nine. So there was, there's a stark contrast there between the first 16 starts and the next seven, and is really the home runs. How do you avoid home runs, putting the ball on the ground more? What's the pitch that puts the ball on the ground the most? The sinker. I think it's pretty obvious here what Ashcraft was trying to do. I almost called him Axcraft again.

What Ashcraft was trying to do. And it worked. It worked really well. I don't know where it goes from here. Maybe he can keep doing this. I don't think if he keeps doing this, we can expect the big strikeout number that he got and this start to be the norm. But, you know, it's just a sample of one where he's leaning on the sinker this much. he was throwing it more earlier in the season for what it's worth.

So I think getting away from it like he did was part of the reason why things went sideways for Braxton Ashcraft. But it's not like he was ever throwing it as his lead pitch like he did in this start. So curious to see where it goes. I feel like we've had a lot of pitchers this week, do something very different in their most recent start. And for the most part, it's led to good results. but it kind of, it kind of creates this, uh, this resetting of expectations as long as they stick

with this new approach anyway, where, okay, it worked this first time, but where, where does it go from here? I think, I think that we still have to let that play out with Ashcraft. And I would not mind resetting my expectations for Braxton Ashcraft. Again, based on what he did in the seven starts before this. And using the sinker more, he had a 50% crown ball rate in this start. He had a 50% crown ball rate in this start. He did give up 10 hard hits. He still allowed a homer. But for the most part, I mean, if you're getting a 50% ground ball rate, it doesn't really matter if you're giving up hard contact. Well, it matters, but it matters a little, but it's helpful that it's going into the ground. So ground balls tend to be hit harder than fly balls. So if you get more ground balls,

eggs of velocity is probably going to be higher. Yeah. His curve ball was a little bit different as well. I wanted to highlight that. It was good. It had four of his 10 swinging strikes. And it had four more inches of drop in this one. And it got a lot of chase. So, uh, welcome site from Braxton Ashcraft to is 66% started on CBS. I have to assume that number will go up for next week coming off this start. And he is at home against the tigers. Is that just, uh, auto start getting back in your lineups if you didn't? Yeah. Yeah, feels like the right call, watch him revert to what he was doing in the previous seven. Because again, it's, you know, like we've said with some of those other pitchers, uh, Luis Castillo and,

and Sean Minaya looked really good with what they did in their most recent start, but that doesn't mean they're just going to keep doing it. It's putting a lot of faith in a sample of one. But Ashcraft has been by far the best of those three for the entirety of 2026. So I think we can put a little more trust in him. All right, Chris, over to you, your player of the night. Which pitcher would you like to choose? Yeah, I'll go with Cade Cavali, who was frankly almost as good as Braxton.

Ashcraft. He went up against the Cubs, tougher matchup. A shutout innings, 10 strikeouts, two walks, one hit. He got 14 whiffs on 103 pitches, and his velocity was up in a big way. He averaged 98 miles per hour with his four seamer. That is the second highest of his season. I do want to caution on that one that his previous time averaging more than 98 was on June 30th. He average 98.2. He average 96.3 in his next start and 96.4 in the start after that. So like Scott said, you can't always extrapolate one start to the next, but we're going on a lot more than just one start of Cade Cavali pitching really, really well. This is his seventh straight quality start, his fourth start of the season with double-digit strikeouts. And his last 10 starts, he has a 243

ERA, 0.96 whip, 69 strikeouts to 13 walks while averaging almost six innings per start. He gets ground balls on everything in his arsenal except for the four seamer. The four seamers a, it's not a terrible pitch. It misses bats at an okay rate. The expected Wobah is not that bad, but it gets pretty hard and it gets hit hard in the air. Everything else, though, gets a ton of ground balls. And the curve ball is a really good swing and miss pitch. The sweeper has started to come around. He threw that actually the most in this start, I believe. That was his most used pitch, which is pretty unusual. And sorry, it was his second most used pitch. He threw a 23% of the time. You got five of his 14 whiffs with that one. And that whiff rate is starting to get close to 30% now.

And if you have two breaking balls that you can throw 25% of the time and get 30% whiff rates or better in the case of the knuckle curve, that's pretty impressive. So I don't know. The underlying numbers don't exactly back up the breakout for Cavali, especially the XERA. But that's even one where, given the amount of ground balls he gets, the XERA is kind of surprising being 412. The XERA is the same as it was last season, and his strikeout rate is up to 26% on the year. That's a little surprising, and it makes me wonder what's going on there, but I see a lot to like about Cade Cavali. And not, you know, with the exception of the limited track record, I don't see a ton to be skeptical about. Now, the limited track record is a pretty big reason to be skeptical, but this was a guy who at one point was a top prospect.

injuries got in the way, but he's been someone we've been interested in. And yeah, there's a lot to like about Cade Covelli this season. Yeah, I had the same takeaway. I guess it was two or three weeks ago when I wrote about pitchers in the Circle of Trust. And I was trying, obviously, to pick out some pitchers not in the circle of trust.

And, like, honestly, Kate Covelli was the first place, my mind went. Okay, he's been performing well, but I don't really trust it. And I was going to obviously explain why in the article. But then when I went looking into it, I was like, you know, all this underlying data looks a lot better than I feel like it did the last time I looked at it. Especially, I mean, part of it was his controls gotten a lot better over the course of

this season, so you can no longer mark that as a red flag. But that ground ball rate being as high as it did too. I mean, if you're a decent control pitcher with good ground ball skills, and you're getting, he's getting almost 10 strikeouts per 9. 20.9. 28% strikeout rate since the Allster game. I think for a ground ball pitcher with good control like that, 8.9% is great. And he's, you know, and the swinging strike rate is low.

And of course, I love swinging strike rate. I think it strongly correlates with how good a pitcher is. but when everything else is that good, I can look past it. And, you know, the XERA, like you said, is a little high. The FIP is pretty much right in line with the ERA. So that's, I put those two about on equal footing

in terms of how predictive they are. And yeah, I think Kate Kavali is definitely in the circle of trust, I can say for sure now. This was his fourth start with double-digit strikeouts this season. He has a quality start in seven straight, and I would like to highlight that because earlier this season, it kind of felt like he was still a thrower. He threw really hard, but he wasn't very efficient, and the control was not very good. And it feels like right before our eyes, he is developing into a pitcher, like a very refined pitcher who is not walking as many. He's getting more whiffs than he was earlier in the season.

He's getting a lot of ground balls, as you guys have pointed out. and so I I opted the rankings today and I had Cavali at 44 that was before the start I kind of feel like he's just a like top 40 top 36 SP like guys who I have from 30 to 33

Sean Burke Logan Henderson Troy Melton Braxton Ashcraft why wouldn't Kate Cavali kind of be in that mix you know? No that's a fair point I mean you know Melton's been really good but the strikeouts have certainly been inconsistent Burke, I'm just like,

the thing with Burke I'm struggling with is just how much of this, sorry, how much of this breakout is something he can sustain, but when it seems mostly like it's improved command, and that's always a little shakier. Yeah, I think he belongs in that group, certainly, yeah. Yeah, so that would make Cade Cavali a pitching riser and my player of the night, I'm going to call another audible. I'm just going to go with all the pitchers here.

Another pitching riser, that is Peyton Toley, who just had another great start. This one at the Blue Jays, eight shutout innings, two hits, two walks, only four strikeouts, only six swinging strikes on 91 pitches. But he did use that curveball more. Once again, he used it 18% of the time. It was 9% entering, and it was a solid pitch for him. Only had two whiffs, but he got some called strikes. He avoided hard contact on that pitch.

He didn't have the dominant whiff stuff, but he filled up the strike. zone, 51% zone percentage, and he avoided hard contact. So whenever I see that, you could throw strikes, you could throw in the zone, and you're not getting hit hard, that means you're good. That means your stuff is just good. And we've seen that with paint totally. Like, you just watch him pitch. His stuff is awesome.

So his last four starts, it's a 178 ERA, a 0.91 whip, 32 strikeouts to just five walks over 25 in a third innings. The K to walk is great. He's really limiting hard contact, 85 mile per hour, EV during that four-star stretch. So totally is another one. I moved them inside of my top 24 starting pitchers, which there are concerns about the innings and stuff like that.

But I'm not going to, I'm just not going to worry about that too much until it's a thing. And right now he's pitching like one of the best pitchers in baseball. I mean, there are only six weeks left. So when you're talking rest of season rankings, I do think, I do think you have to adjust down for somebody who is, is likely to face some curtailment there,

although they did just let him go eight, so maybe they don't care, I don't know. They should probably care by historical standards. That's, you know, he's obviously a rookie. He's a couple dozen innings beyond his previous high. You would imagine it would become an issue at some point, but so far hasn't. Yeah, he is about 22 innings.

I think it's 22 innings above his career high, which isn't nothing, but you could see another 25 or 30 innings. And how much different is that than what you'd expect from any other pitcher? Yeah, the Red Sox seemed destined for the postseason. And presumably they would hope to go deep in the postseason and presumably they'd want Tolly to be a big part of that. Or would need him to.

So I don't know. We'll see. I just think obviously he's trending up obviously I'm really excited about his future but if you look at my rankings and you're like well why don't you have him ahead of this guy that's why because there I think is a clear

innings concern there but to get back to your point about the curveball for those who didn't listen last time we talked about it or weren't paying attention coming into this start totally in his 12 starts where he threw his curveball

less than 10% of the time. 380 ERA 131 whip 8.7K per 9. Not terrible but not very good. The seven starts where he threw his curveball more than 10% of the time. 221 ERA.76 whip 13.3K per 9. He's basically a god. And this start he threw it 18% of the time.

Now that 13.3 K per 9 number is going to go down because he only had four in eight innings, and that's a little bit of a head scratcher, but overall, I think this continues the pattern of when he treats the curveball like a significant part of his arsenal. He, Peyton totally dominates. Last pitcher I would like to mention before we hit our first break is Logan Gilbert, who you don't need me to tell you, he's great, he's completely locked in,

and he is a borderline ace once again, six shutout innings, seven strikeouts at the Yankees. He had 15 swinging strikes on 90s. pitches. His velocity was up in this one as well, around one and a half miles per hour on all of his pitches. And now over his last 14 starts, a 254 ERA.89 whip and over a strikeout per inning, and six or more innings in 11 of those 14 outings. So that was a problem for him last year. It was a problem for him earlier this year. He was inefficient. He's throwing his fastball more during that stretch, and it kind of feels like everything has fallen into place there.

for Logan Gilbert, who I now have back inside of my top 12 starting pitchers and ahead of Paul Skeens. So Logan Gilbert trending back up into that SP1 territory. Yeah. Yeah, I'm not sure he ever quite left for me, but it was looking a little hairy at times this season. What's interesting is he seemed like he was trending up by emphasizing the fastball. He had a stretch of four starts, I think it was, where he threw it more than half the time. and it was a really dominant four-start stretch, and then he got back to mixing the pitches more evenly,

but this recent success is more about his velocity being up across the board, and it was up the most in this start. Yeah, everything up about one and a half miles per hour. So I don't know how much a velocity bump, how sustainable that is, and so I still don't, long story short, I still don't understand why Logan Gilbert, or maybe the better way to put it is I still don't understand

what the most optimal approaches for Gilbert and if he even understands what's the most optimal approaches. So the one thing I will say is he had gone early on in the season he was throwing a cutter more than ever before.

Is it the cutter? What was that? Or a bug? Just kill another Kill another bug's got. I'm just camping out here, man. Yeah, so he, yeah, okay. He has kind of shelved the,

it's both the sweeper and the cutter recently. And I think that's interesting just because he's a guy with a deep arsenal with a lot of pitches that are very similar. Like you don't see a lot of pitchers who throw both a splitter and a changeup. And he also throws a slider, a sweeper, and a cutter.

And I do wonder when you have so many similar types of pitches, if it can just kind of throw you off, especially when, like, you know, I think the cutter was more of a new pitch for him this season or something that he hasn't used all that often. The sweeper has come and gone throughout his career. And so I just wonder, like, when he was deemphasizing the fastball early on, was that because the fastball just wasn't working as well because he was throwing the cutter? This is the kind of stuff that, you know, there can be some kind of knock-on effects

when you expand your arsenal. I think he has benefited from streamlining things, though. I guess is the way I would put it. Yeah, I mean, don't overthink you, right? Like, I feel like a lot of the Mariners pitchers, sometimes they absolutely overthink things. They try to just add too much stuff, and it's, like, we know what works, man. Yeah, well, I saw there was a piece from James Fegan,

who covers the White Sox for Sox Machine.com. And he had a piece before Luis Castillo's start yesterday, where he talked about Castillo reemphasizing the changeup, which we've talked a lot about when he got to the Mariners. He became more of a four seamer slider guy rather than the change up sinker guy he was. And that's that's a Mariners thing. You know, they have things that they want their guys to do and they want that, you know, they like to experiment and nudge guys in certain directions. And maybe that doesn't always work. It worked really well at first. Because he was kind of, Castillo was kind of slipping in Cincinnati.

He had a good long run of being a borderline ace, but he began to slip towards the end. The Mariners acquired him, tweaked his pitch mix. He got back to being pretty dominant for the first couple of years there. But then he lost a little bit on his fastball, especially, and I think it stopped working and he can go back to doing what he did in Cincinnati, hopefully. That's what happened in that white suck start.

I don't know if you had finished your point. Oh, yeah, yeah, no. But it's just to say that, like, they, as an organization, they have things they want their guys to do. And I think they, they tend to prioritize pitchers who like tinkering as well. I think that's, you know, a symbiosis that they like. But, you know, you can tinker, you can over tinker, I think. And maybe that's what we saw early on with Logan Goward, especially.

Reminder that our week 22 preview, our FBT Express episode will be out on Saturday morning. And Scott's articles will be live on the site on Friday. So if you need to research sleeper hitters, sleeper pitchers, two-star pitchers, you can find all of that on the website, CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball or on the CBS Fantasy app. Let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. And Jacob de Grom left after just two innings with right triceps fatigue.

The velocity was fine. In fact, it was actually up on some of his pitches. The results were not fine. two innings, six hits, two runs, four hard hits, and he allowed five hits in the second inning. The first time, he has allowed five hits in an inning since September 5th of 2017, which is kind of crazy,

but that just goes to show how dominant Jacob deGrom has been in his career. But yeah, look, triceps, pitching arm, Jacob de Grom, lengthy injury history, scary. Yeah, it is. And there have been some kind of inexplicable, struggles of late. This was his third start in five, I want to say. That was pretty bad. So, yeah, it might, it might, uh, it might have been a precursor to a little stint on the I.

I'll see. Yeah, I just assumed he was still dealing with that glute thing that he was dealing with in July, but, you know, now it's triceps as well. So, uh, we'll see. I, I never know how to react to, a fatigue diagnosis, especially just coming out of a start, because what does that mean? Like, is that you're just tired? Like, how do you differentiate between triceps fatigue and

some kind of structural? Yeah, like that. I never know how to react to that. And it's something we talk about it. Yeah, we talk about this sometimes where some teams just call things something and then call other teams might call it something different. So I don't really know how to react to this, but it's certainly not what I want to see from a guy with Jacob de Grom's history.

So did he have, did he have triceps fatigue last year? That's, sorry, I'll look it up, but that actually sounds like something he might have dealt with at the end of last season as well. Yeah, I mean, he's no, he's no spring chicken, right? So it's not surprising that he would be dealing stuff as the season goes on. Hunter Green officially had Tommy John surgery. That is the second of his career, and it's already been reported that he will miss all of next season, all of 2027.

So very tough blow for Hunter Green, his keeper, dynasty managers, and obviously the Reds as well. Freddie Freeman was in the lineup after that nasty spill on Wednesday night, so nice to see that he was back in there. Byron Buxton was activated from the IL. Bryce Tarang was out of the lineup due to left knee pain. he underwent an MRI, and I have not seen an update on those results.

So we shall see with Bryce Terang. That's, after Tuesday's start, there was the situation where Pat Murphy said he hurt his thumb, and he misspoke. It was actually Jackson Churio, but I saw, like, there was like a 12-hour period where a bunch of people on fantasy baseball Twitter were like, hey, there's my day time. And then it was like, oh, no, Bryce Terang's not hurt, and then he gets hurt the next day. That's weird. Yeah.

They can still make Ma De work if they wanted to. Like the whole left side of their infield has been pretty bad all season. But it's obviously a stretch promoting it. Is he 20 yet from a guy 19? He doesn't turn 20 until May of next year. Yeah, he's 19 until next May. He's been good at AA, but since it's double A, we don't have data to see how hard he's actually impacting the ball. And he hasn't been like Juan Soto.

good as he's been good, but it's like a 125 WRC plus, I think it's, which is, look, that's awesome for a 19 year old at double A. But it's not so awesome that you think, oh, this guy just has nothing left to learn in the minors, you know? Yeah. I saw a lot of people talking about Mardi too. Look, anything is possible. I would highly bet against that happening, but it would be fun for fantasy for sure. Tyler Glassnell will make at least two more rehab starts before returning, one on Friday and then another one, likely the middle part of next week, sounds like maybe Wednesday will be his last rehab start,

assuming he makes it through both of those healthy. The Mariners option, Colt Emerson to AAA, and it has been a struggle. In 68 games, he hits us 190 with eight homers, three steals, a 581 OPS, 34% K rate, 86.7 average EV. So it was a pretty aggressive move. I know that they signed them to the extension,

earlier in the season or before the season. But he's still really young. He's 21 years old. And they've moved him up levels like pretty quickly. I guess I'm just making excuses for the guy. But what do you guys, what do you guys think long term about Emerson? I mean, how much does this concern you?

It really shouldn't concern us. Breaking into the majors is hard. He moved quickly, as he said. He's still very young. 21, 25 days ago. Yeah. But what's, going to happen is his fantasy stock is not going to be particularly high until he actually performs well in the majors.

So what I'm saying is I don't know that you can do it right this second, but I think Cole Emerson becomes a great by-low opportunity in a dynasty league especially. Or if you have a fresh dynasty league next spring that's just starting up, he's going to go shockingly late because he no longer counts technically. as a prospect, but he's still, you know, the upside hasn't changed, and he obviously would be a prospect if he hadn't gotten called up this year. I very much look forward to Colt Emerson in my sleeper's column for next season. It is worth noting he wasn't, like, amazing at AAA before his promotion. So, you know, he hasn't been incredibly productive at any level this season, but he's so young. that it doesn't really change my long-term outlook for him. But just for the record, he had a 102 WRC plus in AAA. He was basically an average hitter. Doing that as 20 is very impressive.

There's still a lot to like, but it's been a rough season for Colt Emerson overall. Davis Martin was ejected in the third inning after hitting South Stewart with a pitch in the helmet. And Stuart homered off of him in the first inning of that game. And earlier in that same at bat, Davis Martin actually had another pitch. that went over South Stewart's head.

So, I mean, he seemed genuinely sorry and that he didn't mean to do that, but it's just way too coincidental. Guy Homer's off you, you throw near his head, and then you also throw near his head later in the at bat, and you actually hit him. So very weird stuff, obviously benches cleared and all that stuff, and Davis Martin was ejected from that game.

This is another reminder, if you need it, to drop Davis Martin. Kyle Teal has made progress with his left ankle sprain and could start a rehab assignment by the end of August. Andy Rodriguez was placing the IL with left hip inflammation and Jordan Lawler could be activated from the IL next week. It has been another brutal season of injuries for Lawler who had a broken wrist and then a right hamstring strain

that he is now coming back from. He is 33% rostered, has third base and outfield eligibility. Do you guys have any interest in Jordan Lawler? Let me tell you what's going to happen though. Oh. No matter how well he fits, finishes the season, no matter how well he looks next spring. People will be very angry if you refer to Jordan Lawler as a sleeper or a breakout candidate because for sure he's got the label now. He can't stay healthy. And to this point, he hasn't stayed healthy. So it's not like it's not earned. I just don't think it's the sort of thing you can predict that well, particularly for someone as young as he is. I remember, gosh, it's going to make. He sound old, I guess I'm old.

But I remember Cole Hamels had he couldn't stay healthy, that attached to him. Aaron Noah. Remember Aaronola? I don't remember that with Aaronola. He had a bunch of elbow scares early on in his career. But Cole Hamels did. I think it was mainly his back. And he was an incredibly durable pitcher for the first several years of his career.

And that's pitchers. I mean, hitters obviously have even more opportunities to stay healthy. healthy. So, you know, I'm kind of rambling, kind of wasting time. Probably tired of that, Frank. But Jordan Lawler, I think the upside hasn't changed for him either. And he was actually looking more like he was on the verge of meeting at this year. That's the thing is he's never not been productive. He's just so rarely been on the field. Well, I guess in previous major leagues. But it was never more than 75 plate appearances. Yeah. But any significant plate or significant.

sample size we've gotten. Jordan Lawler has remained incredibly productive. So I'm still going to be interested in him. I just, is he going to play? I, let's see. So he had been an outfielder this year. I don't think he's played much infield at all. They got Newport, D.H.

Max Kepler, yeah. Come on. Yeah, Max Kepler. Get him out. Get him out of there. Dirty cheater. Jeez. But I guess for fantasy, we actually want him more for 30.

base, which he still has eligibility at. Again, I was updating the rankings earlier. Third base is just such a wasteland, man. So it wouldn't surprise me if Jordan Lawler hits the ground running, like boom, he's just instantly ranks as like a top 20 third baseman rest of the season. So yeah, I think in Roto Leaks for short, 12-team Roto are deeper where you have the corner, you have five outfieler spots. I would be pretty interested in Jordan Loller.

Let's get into the waiver-wire pitchers from Thursday's action. And the two shallow league names, Shane Drohan, solid at the Dodgers. Five and a third, three hits, three runs, three walks, had five strikeouts. He actually left the game with one earned run and two runners on base. Antonio Senzatella then gave up a three-run homer. The velocity in the breaking pitches were up on all three, 1.3 miles per hour each.

And Drow in 58% rostered, he gets the Mariners next week. And Walbert Arrania, six shutout innings with five strikeouts here. Actually did not have his best. changeup or sweeper, but still managed to have a scoreless outing. His four seam was great. His sinker was solid. He's 65% rostered. He's a 175 ERA over his last seven starts.

And he is at the Astros next week. Chris, who do you like more from a shallow league perspective? Shane Drowan or Walbert, Arania? I think it's Arania. Drowen has the better matchup next week. So if you want to use that as the tiebreaker, that might be fine. But I think I like Arania a little more, just as a pitcher.

Another one. I'm sorry, Scott. Geez, fine. I see how it is. I missed it. It flew away. I got the flying ones now. Not the earwigs.

We got to start doing the bug counter throughout the podcast. We have one kill, one miss for Scott right now. No, they're both misses. Oh, geez. They're both misses. Oh, for two. Oh, swing, and a miss.

Yeah, one more. I mean, if I, breathe it in like that other one that time when I still lived in Florida then it'll be dead for sure. It's not going to survive in those lungs of mine. Yes,

Drowan and Walbert-Irania should not qualifies potential pick-ups anymore as far as I'm concerned. You can understand a little more in Drowan's case. His last two starts haven't been that good. It's been uncharacteristic control issues,

I believe. Now, they could give you the exact number. His last two starts, Drohan has... Where is he? It's a lot of walks. A lot of walks in his last two starts. Devin walks in his last two starts. In 10 and a third innings, yeah.

But I still think there's a lot to like in that profile. And I'll point out he was facing the Dodgers in this start. And in spite of the walks, he survived. Next matchup, next week's matchup's matchup's really good. he is among the sleeper pitchers going against the Mariners best matchup of all, frankly, for a pitcher.

So, yeah, a lot to like here. Three other... Go ahead. I just remain confused why Wobrador de Rania's roster rate is so low. Like, I guess his breakout happened a little later, but he's been good all season. It could be the

the whip. The whip is still high. Yeah, but like, is there any real difference between him and Jose Soriano? Probably. I mean, his ERA is actually better than Soria. Yeah, it's better. Soriano's been better of late.

Soriano's whip is 125. I think their strikeout rates are right around. Because like my, my sense, I want to be a little skeptical of Wobberd-Arainia's success, but usually when a guy has a sub-3 ERA in August who's been pitching all year, They're 100% roster, and this guy has just never gotten close to it. And I don't really, like, if he was 100% roster and people were like,

how can you not have Walbert-Arania as a top 30 starting pitcher? Well, I'd be like, okay, now I can talk bad about Warburne Rania. But everyone else is more skeptical than me. I don't get it. I'm kind of confused. Usually in these situations, it's because of wins. We don't often get wins because there's no, there's no evaluation. advantage to looking at wins.

You can't really predict how our pitcher is going to perform moving forward. So we don't, you know, a lot of times we're spinning it forward here, so we're not really looking at wins. Orania just picked up his eighth win today. Yeah, him and Soriano were on the same team. I mean, the big difference there is Soriano was really good early on in the season, and that's why he has stuck around 100% roster. But it's just, it's weird that Arania hasn't picked up any real momentum in his roster rate. I'm just surprising. I also think we are at the point in the season

where you probably aren't going to see too much roster movement just in terms of roster rate. You will see some. I'll tell you. There's been a lot in the last couple weeks, players who I put on the sleeper pitcher and hitter list, like Ezekiel Duran, I think, has gone up like 10 percentage points just in the last week.

So it's more than you, maybe not as much as, it used to be, but it's still enough to move the needle, I think. Three other waiver wire pitchers. Aranola racked up the whiffs here at the Twins, five innings, one run, nine strikeouts, no stack has the field of dreams,

so I can't tell you about swinging strikes or anything like that. But he has eight or more strikeouts in back-to-back outings and a 291 ERA over his last four starts. That also comes with a 148 whip for Aranola. K Dare, Mantao, what a weird start. Six and a third shutout. Zero strikeings. Two swinging strikes on 88 pitches, but he has a 322 ERA and a 0.99 whip.

He is at the Pirates next week. Aaron Nola gets the Marlins, and Max Scherzer a solid outing against the Red Sox, five innings, one run, four strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 92 pitches for him. I know most people will scoff, and Max Scherzer at this point, rightfully so you probably should not be interested in him, but he has looked much better in the month of August for whatever that it's worth. He is at the Tampa Bay Rays. Can I interest you guys in any of Scherzer?

Cadear Montero, Aaron Noah. See, like, Montero is almost as widely rostered as Walbert-Ranian. I think he's not nearly as good. He's close to Drohan, too. Yeah, like, that's the one where Monterey just like, whatever, he's 56% rostered.

If you want to add him, Pittsburgh's not a terrible matchup, I guess, but that's one I have very little faith in. So, you know, that's one that I'm, I'm excited to be skeptical about. I don't really have any interest in any of these guys. Like, Montaro, if you want to do the play the hot hand, he's clearly pitching well right now. Like, he's not, it's not a total flu because control's really good. He's getting weak contact.

Like, there's not nothing here. I just don't think he's nearly as good as he has pitched. Scher is that a scoff? How do you scoff? What's a scoff? That sounded pretty good. Pasha, is that a scoff? That's, that is a, no.

I think that's. A true scoff is, is not something you control the sound of. It just escapes from the mouth. Well, that's, that's a barf, I mean. Next time I bring up Max Scherzer, just scoff immediately and I'll just stop talking about. Yeah, I have no interest in that. Nola, I mean, he is looking better lately and he's made some changes to his arsenal. I'm not necessarily sure there are changes that we want him to make

because it's been more changeups, fewer curveballs, but part of the problem is we don't have the stack cast data for this one. And even watching the game, they weren't showing like velocity or pitch data. So even though it was on the scoreboard at the stadium when they would cut to it occasionally, so it's like their data was there. I don't know why they didn't want to include it in the broadcast,

but that's a little annoying. excuses, Chris. But it does make it harder to look at this. You were doing this. this since before 2015, okay? Yeah, but we used to have Brooks baseball. Remember that site? I do remember. I still have a

tab of Brooks baseball open and use it every month or so. Yeah. Yeah, so we have yeah, that's just annoying that we don't have any data for this start because NOLA was kind of interesting, at least from the box score and from watching it.

And, you know, I would love to know if there was something notable in Tage Bradley's pitch mix because he was really bad. that's been a couple of bad starts lately for him, but the lack of data is a little bit of a hurdle. Yeah, I will say this. If we did not have Stackass data, my rundowns would be done a lot faster every day.

I was like, going through Aaron Nolan, Todd Bradley, I'm like, all right, what kind of nuggets can I find? Okay, recent game log, stuff like that. It's like, all right, there's nothing else that I can look into. There's no stack cast stuff. All right, let's take that break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back. Fantasy Baseball today. We'll quickly run through some Waverwire hitters. Then we got name that player.

You want us to move quickly. I know. Luke Keishel, two for three with a walk in his seventh home run. 33 games since the start of July. He's hitting 324 with five homers, 17 runs. Two steals, also three caught stealing. His OPS over 9-60s, 67% rostered, second and outfield eligible. I don't know. Anyone buying back in on Luke Keishel? To a degree. second base is deep. I don't think he's... I guess the power has picked up a little bit,

but he's not stealing bases anymore. So I think there's potential here. I think he's useful. Kishel, I might put him on the sleeper hitters list, some moving forward, but I don't know that he's like must start or anything. Yeah. And anything higher than 67% means he's probably rostered

in shallower head-to-head formats. his game should translate well there but he just doesn't have enough oomph yet he's playing better but I just I think we need more does he play quite every day I believe he does although I'm not sure he should

if you guys saw that Kyle Schwerber home run hit off of his glove and then go over the fence the Marlins had another one today by the way yeah Keishel pretty much he sits out every like sixth game six or seven because I was looking at his game log recently and it wasn't like his play to

parents has felt a little low. He bats low in the lineup more often than not. I do, given that he's hot right now, I guess our hoped for Walker Jenkins promotion shouldn't cost him playing time. But Buxton's back. You know, if we think Walker Jenkins is going to get promoted, you know, maybe they just move Keishel back to second. I think their options at second base have been pretty lackless. Cody. Cody Clemens has slowed down quite a bit. Yeah. So, you know, maybe that's, maybe that's the answer. But that's, that's the one concern I have. where 67% rostered feels okay for Lucichael. A couple of their names here.

Tyler Stevenson, two for three with a walk and his 11th home run. Last 30 games, he's hitting 327 with five homers and a 962 OPS. 41% rostered. Just a name for two catcher leagues, right?

I can't imagine Tyler Stevenson in one catcher league. You said last 30 games. I think I looked at last 42. 92 mile per hour average. velocity during that stretch. He's playing a stretch to be hitting the ball that hard. But, yeah, I mean, catcher, that's the downside of a two-catcher league.

I know everybody's like, oh, why would you do two catchers? It's so bad by the time you get to the 24th. It's because there's no reason to have a second catcher on your roster ever, unlike every other position. So the position ends up being underserved in one catcher leagues every year, but particularly a year like this one. Yeah. Because there have been years where like Tyler Stevenson was a fringe top 12

catcher and it's like, oh, I don't know, but he likes that. Yeah. But he's pretty good. Yeah, he's just, and the main issue is he plays like only two thirds of the time, three quarters of the time. It's real playing time disadvantage there. He sits out like every third or fourth game with Stevenson. That is.

Yeah. Two. Yeah. That's exactly what I said. That's what I said. have Abamelik Ortiz of the Nationals who looks good so far. He went two for four with his fourth homer, three RBI.

He had three hard hits in this game. He has three homers in his past four games. He should play every day against right-hand pitching. Won't play against lefties. But lots of righties on the schedule next week. I don't know. Deep League corner, Abamelik Ortiz?

Power's legit. It's just you can't ever use him against a lefty and that was true in the minors. And nationals seem to be sticking to it in the majors. So you've got to choose your spots with them. But as of now, the schedule for the nationals next week shows no lefties.

So Abamelik Ortiz is among my sleeper hitters. But we've talked about it all season. First base is absolutely loaded. You know, I have Jake Burger at 35, Spencer Torkelson at 36 in my first base ranks. If you wanted to go with Ortiz over those guys just to whatever catch lightning in a bottle, I'm a right back.

So Torkelson has been hot himself. Yeah, he's been better over the first. the past month or so. Then you get it to Josh Bell, who's actually been good for a while now. Thai France has been good. I was looking at it. Like,

Josh Bell's going to end up with like 24 homers and 95 RBI this season. Yeah, he is. It's like, it's been, you know, kind of normal Josh Bell season, but the counting stats at the end of the season,

you're going to be surprised at how good they are. Mm-hmm. And I just want to mention a massive game here for Raphael Flores of the Pirates, two for five with a double dong six RBI. I think he'll get more playing time with Andy Rodriguez going on the I this is the deepest of, like, NL only is, those are the only leagues you need to look at. The numbers in the minors this year were bad,

but they were very good last year. So just an NL only name there for you, Raphael Flores. Name that player, dropometer edition. And these are all hitters. Stats over the last 30 days. It's going to go long. Are we not supposed to have the notes up?

It's going to go longer than I think. No, they're not in the notes. I don't have them in the notes. This show's going to go longer than I thought. But I put a lot of work into this and now I want to do it. Your notes say we should be at the 30 minute mark right now and we're at the 50 minute mark. Yeah, but that's every time. Don't listen to that, Scott.

Literally every single podcast is like that. All right, so name that player. I basically have four or five clues for every one of these players and I will go one at a time with the clues. You guys could just throw out answers and hopefully. It's like taboo. Yeah, pretty much. So here we are. Except the forbidden word.

Are you guys? ready. I've never played taboo. Yeah. What? Tabu's fun, man. What? All right, you know what?

All right, guy who's never seen any movie, don't do that because I've never played taboo, okay? What are we talking about? Let's play name that player. And these are all potential drop candidates right now. First up, I will start with the last 30 days for each of these. Last 30 days, I am hitting 200 with zero homers, five steals, and a 503 OPS.

probably don't know who it is yet. Overall on the season, I'm hitting 282 with six homers, 18 steals, and a 748 OPS. Save your Edwards. Yeah, you got it right.

How did you get it based on those clues? That's a good guess. Way to go, Chris. That Marlins jersey on. That's right. It was like kind of agonizing over Edwards in as much as you can agonize over any, player when you're doing your rankings in August.

He has slowed down tremendously. He's still 97% rostered. He's second base in shortstop eligible. My final clue, my first name is the last name of the professor in X-Men. Oh, that would have. That last clue is going to be to get away, right? Which clue is going to give it away?

Which professor? I think there are several. They're all teachers, you know? Oh, come on. So what do you think? Where is Xavier Edwards on the drop-home meter? Uh, I mean, he's a fringe starter at second base, um, at this point. And not really a viable starter at short stuff, although, you know, he's okay.

I don't think I'd be dropping him for Luke Keishel, who's two-thirds so probably probably not that dropable. A shallow league, it's fine if you want to go with somebody hotter, but you're not going to drop Xavier Edwards and a roto league, certainly. If you wanted to play like a hot hand with Bryce and Stott, who I... In a points league in a head-to-head league, yeah. Granted, Bryson Stott, you're probably more likely to use him

a third base now that he's eligible there. True. Yeah. I think Xavier Edwards is fine. I think he's cold, but that's the gist of it. What about for Zach Gelloff in a roto league? I wouldn't. I wouldn't make that switch.

I don't think I would. I think Gallif needs to be rostered, but that's not the way I'd make it happen. That is intriguing. That is a good question. Next up, last 30 days. I have a 128 batting average. three homers, 14 RBI,

29 strikeouts, and a 509 OPS. Cow Raleigh. Sounds bad. Dude, what? He got it? Wow. Do you have access to my email?

I just noticed that he has been, that's wild. It just keeps getting worse for him. I saw Mike Petriella of MLB.com did a story, um, or I don't know if he published it, but I know he was working on something that he was tweeting about.

And it was, looking at the worst year-to-year drop-offs in MLB history, and his is the second worst ever by WRC Plus. It's him and, like, there was like a Rogers Hornby season back in like the 20s where, like, he had a bunch of personal tragedies befall him and struggled. But this is like one of the worst year-to-year drop-offs we've ever seen. I like how the commentary, which I was, you know, a big part of,

commentary on Cal Raleigh prior to the season. Okay, how would he follow up the 60 homer season? It's like, well, we know the downside is what he was prior to the 60 homer season, which was still a really good catcher who you could pencil in for 30 homers and like, oh, no, we didn't really know what the downside was. We never do. Yeah. So he had that oblique injury earlier in the season.

I just feel like that's probably wrecked everything for him. I mean, he looked terrible in the World Baseball Classic. Yeah. True. You know back half far. I remember people observing that. And like obviously, he's like, who cares? It's spring training.

But in the end, it looked like there may have been something to it. I will not be surprised if we learned Cowralli's going to have some kind of surgery at the end of the season. He's still 97% rostered. My other clues, by the way, second an MVP voting last season. That would have gave it away. And my last one, I've taken a big dump this season. So that was. My last clue there for Cal Raleigh.

I had 97% rostered. I dropped Cal Raleigh about a month ago in a shallow head-to-head points league because I had Liam Higgs and I just didn't want to invest the roster spot on a second catcher anymore. So you can't drop him in a two-catcher league, but... No. I mean... I've moved him... You could.

Francisco Alvarez and Salvador Perez ahead of him and I don't know. Man, I mean, and the underlying numbers are all... significantly worse. Like the overall profile, like the batted ball profile, the strike rate, like it's all a little worse, but it's not so much worse, but he's lost

two miles per hour and average eggs of velocity. His max eggs of Elo is three miles per hour lower than it's ever been. Yeah, I don't know. He's going to be a tough one to rank for 2027. I'm probably going to draft a lot of him, but

because of the price. Just an absolute disaster. And honestly, thinking more about this, if you have Cowrally on your team, that means you probably use a second round pick on him. You're probably out of it at this point in the season. We're being honest. Yeah.

So moving on. We have next up, last 30 days. I am hitting 181 with two homers. 31 strikeouts, a 517 OPS. On the season, I am hitting 226 with 24 homers. Jazz Chisholm. No.

71 RBI and a 731 OPS. Ian Hap? Nope. I am 95% rostered. I have first and third base eligibility. Oh, no, not him. First and third base. First and third base.

Last year, I did not play in the majors and had just an 11% K rate. This year, I have a 31% K rate. What? The guy who made a ton of contact. Not in the majors. Not in the majors. Yeah, not in the majors.

Low batting average power. My name would rhyme well in Kokomo Friday. Was that the easy one? Was that the giveaway? That's the last one. That's the last one I've got. He stumped us on this one. Alec Bo?

No. First and third. It's not a bad guess, though. He has first and third eligibility. He played in the majors last year. I think I got to give you guys this one. How many home runs did you say he had in this year? 24 homers.

Cosmo. Cosmoe. Cosmoe. Yes, yes. All right. Scott gets that one. I just kept thinking prospects. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's. Cosimo Okamoto has slowed down a lot over the past one. Someone in the chat got it a couple minutes before we did. Yep. He is still 95% roster.

Should that be the case? I didn't know he was first base eligible. That was part of that. I just realized today updating the rankings. Because he's third base eligible, probably. Yeah. He probably should be rostered still. I could see dumping him in a shallow points league

just really strikes out so much and just riding a hot hand there. But in any type of- If you swapped him out for Caleb Durbin a couple weeks ago in a points league, I get it. Yeah. I mean, I think I would- Lewis is pretty widely rostered by now.

He's up to like 80% now. But like, Gailoff? Gell off, Bryce and Stott. Aronado's been good over the past film? Yeah, I think any of those are fine. It's not necessarily like I'm excited to make those swaps. But at this point in the season, you don't have a ton of room for Okamoto to turn it around.

And it's been, you know, there were stretches where it was pretty fun, but there have been some really big red flags all season. Yeah. It's mostly the polar rate that's carrying of. It's very, very red. Yeah. Scarlet Red. I actually lied.

I have eight hitters on this list. There's no way we're getting eight hitters. So let me see who I would like to, who makes the most sense. All right, let's do this guy. Last 30 days, I'm hitting 176 with one homer and a 540 OPS. On the season, I am hitting 240 with a 370 on base. seven homers, 65 run scored,

and a 707 OPS. I'm 75% rostered, outfield only. I had... Outfielder who walks a lot. I had 36 homers last year. This year I have seven.

Oh, Taylor Ward. Taylor Ward. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Last clue, I recently traded out bird watching for swimming. Stupid joke. All right, 75% 5% rostered. Where is Taylor Ward on the dropometer?

I think it's a 10 in three outfielder leagues and probably about a 1 and 5 outfielder league, a little higher than a 1 in 5 outfielder leagues. I think he's cooked in Seattle, as we talked about at the trade deadline. I don't think he's going to work out there. I think that number is higher in a 5 outfieler league. You know, Zach Veen getting called up, I would drop him for Zach Neen in a 5 outfieler league. still the playing time issue there makes me hesitate.

Like, I try not to be too confident in any takes, so even though I sound really confident that Taylor Ward's not going to work out in Seattle, he might, you know? Yeah. It's a bad environment. He has a bad history there, but he's also Taylor Ward, and he's been solid contributor for a number of years. Yeah.

All right, let's get to who got that one? Scott got that one. All right, it's two to two. Uh, next up. Last 30 days, I'm hitting 151 with four homers, four RBI, 27 strikeouts, two steals, two caught stealing. Very weird line. 586 Opsis.

Not Ian Hatt. Overall, I'm hitting 218 with a 332 on base, 20 homers, 777 OPS. Still sounds like Ian Hatt to me. Still sounds like Jazz Chesom to me. 62% rostered, outfield only. Uh-huh. I gotta get my mind somewhere other than Ian Hap. I have 20 homers in 92 games, which ties my career high from two years ago.

Hmm. Low average. All right, Chris, look down at your jersey. I was the fourth overall pick by the Marlins in 2019. Oh, gosh, that should give it away. Who did the Marlins pick high and now he's pretty good, but not that good? Oh, JJ Bladay? Yep, it is J.J. Flayette.

He is 62% rostered and has completely plummeted. Where is he on the dropometer? Nine, eight or nine, yeah. Yeah, that's where I was going to. The Reds have eight games next week and five of them are at home, where he's been better as many Reds hitters are. I still couldn't justify putting J.J. Bladay on my sleep. Britters list.

How many lefties in the schedule, Scott? I don't know if you have that handy, but... I do. Three of the eight are lefties. He still plays against lefties, but he's worse against them. All right, last one. This is for all the marbles. You guys are currently tied up.

No. I think I'm up three, two. Three, two. Decker's got it. Oh, all right. Well, we can play two more. Two more marbles. We can and just have like an hour and a half podcast.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I would be the first. Come on. All right. Last 30 games, 224 batting average. Zero homers.

six steals, 28 strikeouts, 587 OPS. Sounds like he's been bad. Overall. Overall, 259, 7 homers, 16 steals, 7-21 OPS, only 81 games played. So 7 homers, 16 steals, and 81 games. Is it Carson Benj? It is not Carson Bench. 70% rostered, outfield only.

AJ Ewing? It is AJ Ewing. Oh, I love that one. Last two clues, I had some of the biggest fad bids as a waiver ad the season. I have the same last name as a New York Knicks legend. I got it. I got that fly. Just with this.

It was on my monitor. I just did this thing, this little fingernail. Got it. Hey, Taylor Ward could work for that last one, too. Yeah, that's true. Charlie Ward, Taylor Ward. New York Knicks legend. That's right.

AJ Ewing has slowed down a lot. He's 70% rostered. Where would you put him on the dropometer? I just wish he ran more. And there was a stretch where, you know, around July where it looked like he was starting to run more. But only 15 steals in the 81 games. I mean, look, that's a 30 steel pace.

You'll take that. And overall, it's a 15-homer 30-steel pace. Like, that's pretty awesome. But I don't know. I'm not inclined to drop him, but in a points league, it's probably like a six and then in a roto league

I think it's probably like a one Agreed? Yeah, that sounds good I you know Scott was hunting I'm still really high in Ewing overall but he is a rookie

and he's gonna have his ups and downs and I think if I've outfielder leagues you should still feel really secure with him would you drop him for Zach Veen no I probably wouldn't know

all right that is gonna do it for name that player congrats Chris you took it down You are the winner. All right, let's wrap up here with some leftovers from Thursday. Sal Stewart had himself a big game, two for three with his 26th home run and four runs scored.

He is having a pretty big second half, so good to see that from South Stewart. Caleb Durbin, huge game, three for five with a grand slam and five RBI. Last 66 games, updated numbers. 309, 11 homers, 43 runs, 44 RBI, 10 steals. Again, that is Caleb Durbin. Kyle Schwerber, a double dong, one of them aided by Luke Keishel, so thank you for that. Two multi-homer games in his last five.

He was struggling, but has picked things back up over his last eight games. Mike Trout, three-for-five with a run and RBI, first time with back-to-back three-hit games since May of 2018. How about that, Mike Trout? Max Muncie, a pinch-hit three-run homer. He is now the all-time leader in home runs at Dodger Stadium, which seems crazy to me. That's wild. But hey, look, credit to Maxxie. Max Muncie, man. He's had a very good comment.

He's been a very good hitter for a pretty long time. Yeah. Yeah. Last name here. He actually was also on the list of name that player, but we didn't get to him. Brandon Marsh, two for two with two walks, a sock and a shoe, his 17th home run, his 11th steel. His previous 35 games before this, he was hitting just 160 with a 426 OPS. He's still 83% rostered, man. That number seems very high for Brandon Marsh. Lots of names here. Any thoughts? one I think Brandon Marsh is still

pretty much playing every day against lefties right and that's a problem and I think that the Phillies are doing a disservice to him because he has a 38% strikeout rate against lefties this season like he historically has just been a true platoon guy and he probably just needs to be a true platoon guy and I think that's probably hurting him

Anything else on these other names? The Caleb Durbin stuff is crazy, man. Yeah, it's, I don't really have a good explanation for it. Just because he was so bad early on that it was like, because like when he got traded to the Red Sox, you could see, you know, you could see the case for Caleb Durbin as a pull heavy hitter at Fenway. And then we got, what, two and a half, three months where it was like, oh, no, that's not working, no.

Abort, abort. and then it ended up, it's going to end up working about how we all hoped by the end of the season. And his road numbers are actually a little bit better than his way numbers. The home run today was on the road, yeah. Yeah.

So it's not even. Look, he was productive in the miners. And, yeah, in a way that didn't put him high on prospect lists. And it was less about power, like a lot of it was speed. and walks and that sort of thing, stolen bases and walks,

but I don't know. It's obviously going well enough for long enough that it's like, all right, at a weak position, no less. I don't really care to say anything bad about Caleb Durbin other than to, I'll just say I'm a little skeptical of it,

but not enough to act on it. I think the biggest thing is just, I look at the overall numbers and it's like, you know, like kind of a 15, 15 homer 20 steel pace with a 732 OPS and maybe hope for a little better than the 253 batting average. But if he was like 265, 15, 20, that's pretty reasonable. That's not far off from what I would reasonably expect from Caleb Durbin. I don't think he's as good as this stretch, but he's

clearly not as bad as he was early on. And sometimes it just works out that way. Hey man, at third base, just keep on riding it with Caleb Durbin, because again, It's just a bad position. Brandon Marsh, by the way, has only started against one of their last four lefties, so perhaps they are starting to figure that out. He's 83% rostered. Where would you guys put Brandon Marsh on the dropometer? 10.

I don't. I mean, three outfielder, obviously 10. Five outfielder, it'd still be pretty high. I'd probably go like seven and a half. All right. Some pitching leftovers here. We had two good, too bad, and one. in between. Parker Messick took a tough loss at the Tigers. Five and two-thirds, two runs with six

strikeouts. Max Fried, also tough loss. Five innings, one run, four strikeouts against the Mariners. The bad ones here, Kevin Gosman, got walloped at the Nationals. Four and two-thirds, six runs allowed, seven strikeouts. His previous three starts before this looked like he was kind of getting back on track, but rough one. Tosh Bradley got beat up by the Phillies in that field of dreams game, four innings, five runs allowed, four walks, three strikeouts, two homers allowed. And he gets the Braves next time out, so it's kind of a tough matchup. And then the in between is Roki Sasaki, who struggled with control. He did manage a quality start, six innings, two runs, five walks to two strikeouts.

Also 13 hard hits against. So, oh man, Roki Sasaki, the experience is just, his four starts before this were awesome. And obviously, we've been talking about. Well, I mean, in terms of actual results, this start was still good. Yeah, it was a quality start. It's just, you know, ERA, yeah. Five walks and 13 hard hits. Yeah, three ERA, 150 whip is.

It's not the sort of start that if, you know, it happened in isolation, we'd be saying, oh, yeah, Roki Sasaki, like, it's not. I do think you're not starting next week, though. Who's he got next week? At Colorado. Yeah, no way. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, I think the four starts, the previous four starts being as good as they were for Roki Sasaki in pretty much every way. We'll give him a pass for this one. Obviously, the next start being where it is in Colorado, you can give him a pass by having them on your bench, which makes it even, you feel a little more, even better about giving him a pass. But, you know, if he has a bad start at Colorado, probably got to give him a pass for that one. too, so hopefully he doesn't. And we can feel better about the next one. I think I mostly give Kevin Gosman a pass. I would like to see him start missing more bats,

although he did in this one and he was terrible. So I guess that doesn't really fix it. But the strike out right hasn't been great lately. But I mostly give him a pass for this one. Tosh Bradley, I mean, I've just had so much trouble embracing. Like, you know, the circle of trust idea. I know he's been awesome all season.

I don't know if Todge Bradley could ever be in the circle of trust for me. I just think he's too inherently volatile. just not a pitcher I can ever get to trust with. But he's also starting to look a lot more shaky lately. I think it's more walks and strikeouts and two of his last three. Walk rate has been way, way up lately. I think it was like 5.1 per 9 since the start of July. Let me see.

I had this stat. 5.2 walks per 9 over his past six starts for Taj Bradley. That's. And unfortunately, Todd Bradley does not have an extensive track record of success. He basically has the first three and a half months of this season. So I'm definitely worried about Taj Bradley. Does that mean I'm not starting him next week against the Braves?

I would hope I have better options. I think so too. Yeah. It's just a shame that this was the game without Stackcast. Because Arianola has an uncharacteristically great start. and Tasha Bradley, based on the season is the whole uncharacteristically bad start, and we can't against this. This is the whole intro to tomorrow's FBT newsletters,

me lamenting the fact that I can't really take anything from these two starts because we don't have any of the good data. Yeah. Brooks baseball, guys. I don't know. That won't be available until tomorrow. Yeah. Too late.

Everybody's past it then. Everyone's beyond it. The call to the bullpen for the Tigers, Kenley Jansen, a clean ninth inning for his 15th save for the Mariners. Andres Munoz struck out two for his 21st save. For the Dodgers, as I mentioned.

Yeah, they're in the lead a little bit there. I usually just go in order of the games, but the Dodgers mentioned it up top. Edwin Diaz blew another save. He was charged with three runs on four hits, took his fourth blown save. The Dodgers actually lost the game too. And I just saw this quote come out from Dave Roberts.

Roberts when asked about potentially moving Edwin Diaz out of the closer role give me another option I can't just say change to low leverage I have to have another option Tanner Scott the guy you gave huge money to be your closer last year

like what the fifth largest relief pitcher contract in MLB history Tanner Scott like that guy am I misunderstanding his quote like maybe he's saying what do I do with Edwin Diaz Ewan Diaz, because the wording is weird. I can't just change to low leverage. I understand what he's saying in that, like, it can get awkward when you remove a guy from that role.

But one, that's your job. You make a lot of money to do that. Like, that's, your job is to figure out how to handle that. Like, sorry. It wouldn't be the first time Edwin Diaz was demoted from a closed rule. And also, yeah, this has happened like twice in the last five years with Edwin Diaz, where he has had to do this with Tanner. Scott last year. So like I actually don't I don't understand that at all. Um, he clearly can't be in the closer role right now. He has an 1157 OPS for the season. Actually, that might have been

before to 1157 ERA. Yeah. 1157 OPS allowed maybe. Hey, oh, uh, 249 whip. Jesus, dude. Tanner Scott is a priority. He's 56% officer. Yeah, I think Tanner Scott has to be viewed as as basically a must ad pitcher right now. because, look, I can't say for sure what they're going to do. This is the whole problem with talking about closers is it's not just who's good and who's bad, but who will get the role. But Tanner Scott just looks like a better pitcher right now. Edwin-Dyes has been awful all-season when he's been healthy.

Yeah, and he had surgery. So, yeah, I don't know. He might figure it out. We have seen this before from Edwin-Diaz, but I think the way it's gone, you have to add Tanner Scott if you're looking for saves. On the other side for the brewers, Trevor McGill picked up his 20s. 22nd save. To stream or not to stream on Friday, we have Clay Holmes against the Cardinals, Bubba Chandler against the Red Sox, Jackson Job against the White Sox, Brandon Fott at the Braves,

Seth Lugo at the Angels, Grayson Rodriguez against the Royals, Kumar Rocker at the Athletics Gage Jump against the Rangers, and Landon Roop against the Rockies in San Francisco. Landon Roop's the easy one, and even he's been bad lately, but I still call him the easy one. Rockies actually made us look bad for streaming against them lately, too. Gage Jump and Grayson Rodriguez, I think, have big upside against Texas and Kansas City respectively, but they also have big downside just because they've been highly volatile, even of late. So they're my second and third choices, but you got to really need it.

I don't hate Clay Holmes. It's a good matchup against the Cardinals. I know the first start back from the I.L. bad, but I still think that defense is going to be very good for him. I don't hate Seth Lugo, and I don't hate Jackson Job. This is not the worst night. He's trying to hate him. You know, it's not the worst night for streamers in baseball history, is what I'm saying.

Well, then, what about Saturday? It's actually not so bad. Anthony Kay at the Tigers, Michael McGreevy at the Cubs, Shaw Mania against the Nationals, Brady Singer against the Marlins, Joey Cantillo against the Padres, Hayden Wisniewski against the Mariners Connor prelip against the Phillies and J.T. Ginn against the Rangers. Like Genn?

Again. I always like Genn. Brady Singer against the Marlins. I know the nationals have been good against lefties, but no James Wood. I think Mania is good against them. Yeah, maybe. I don't mind Cantello against the

Padres if you can take a little whip hit. They have the best in the second half. Yeah, they're the best with offense and baseball in the second half. I have no idea how. Oh, well, that's fair. Luis Renhifo, that's how. Yeah, well, no, I think.

Both their catchers have like 900 OPS in the second half, too. I got it like the reason why is, the biggest reason why is Machado, Tatis, and Merrill, all three. We're all full in the first half and now they're performing like they should have been all long. So, yeah, I kind of have to. Tie France, Luis Rehifo. getting all kinds of good seasons

or good stretches from scrubs. It's weird. Then on Sunday we have Brandon Young at the Rays. Patrick Sandoval's at the Pirates, Christian Scott against the Nationals, Andrew Painter at the Twins, Dean Kramer against the Phillies,

Hunter Dobbins at the Cubs, Cody Bradford at the athletics, Jacob Lopez home against the Rangers. Just one thing to note there is that does mean Brandon Young will not be a two-star pitcher next week, which was something we talked about earlier in the week when considering adding him.

that's a little frustrating. Wait, are we sure he's starting Sunday? Because when I was going through the two-star pitcher list, granted there were conflicting sources, but the majority said Brandon Young wasn't going Sunday, and he would be a two-star pitcher next week. Well, then I guess we probably should not suggest.

MLB.com does not have him. I might have pulled that from ESPN, which is, that's more of a guessing games. Yeah, ESPN has a Sunday, yeah. Raster Resource has Young going Monday. I believe CBS has Young going to. Bassett's coming back. Chris Bassett this weekend.

Good call, good call, good call. All right, no brain and. Anyway. No brain and young. Probably didn't need that. Decent two-star pitcher next week then. Tampa Bay twice. That's what he has.

Yeah, I, Jacob Lopez versus the Rangers is my favorite. Yep. I don't love anyone else, but Kramer and Dobbins are... I like what Painter is doing lately. Yeah, he's ditched to Splitter. He's throwing a true change up now. He's been throwing his sweeper a lot more, I think.

So that's interesting. I'm not ready to trust him, though. So Lopez would be my favorite by far, and I don't really like anyone else that much for pitching. But as people, I'm sure they're great. If I had to choose three, I would go Lopez, Painter, and Christian Scott. Yeah, I agree with your three. Lopez is the distant number one. Right.

We are going to wrap there for Scott, Chris, I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again next week. Bye-bye. Hello, and welcome to Plutofo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, The Matrix, Transformers, Rise of the Beast, or Mean Girls. Just stream it for free on Pluto TV.

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