Fantasy Baseball Today - Polarizing Pitchers, Jarren Duran Makes History & A Not-So-Bold Prediction (8/28 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Logan Gilbert deserves more wins than he has (2:40)! ... Sean Manaea has really picked things up (6:50)! ... Jeffrey Springs dominated the Mariners (12:43). ... Jarren Duran made history (15:23). ... The Marlins made an epic comeback against the Rockies (20:20). ... News (23:14): finally some good news on Kyle Tucker. ... Let's take a closer look at these polarizing pitchers (30:45). ... Should Gavin Williams be added (37:53)? ... Dansby Swanson has had a big August (42:27). ... Here's a not-so-bold prediction for 2025 (52:56). ... Jared Jones wasn't great in his return (56:35). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (58:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv 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/ 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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, August 28th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we are going to do a touchdown. temperature check on four polarizing starting pitchers. We've got some waiver wire options. Jaron Duran made history. And I have a not so bold prediction for 2025. But let's jump in. The impossible has happened. All right, Chris, you are up.

Player of the night. I don't like using The Impossible Has Happened drop because that implies that what I'm going to talk about was some kind of crazy outlier performance. And in fact, it was pretty typical for Logan Gilbert who went, what was it, seven innings, six innings, four hits, zero and runs, zero walks, 10 strikeouts. And of course, did not get a win. And that's the part I want to focus on because Logan Gilbert is really having the breakout season

that everyone hoped he could have. He's down to a 310 ERA for the year, a 0.90 win. 171 strikeouts, just 18 short of last year's career high. And he has seven wins. Now, for prognostications sake, we don't care so much about wins and we barely ever talk about them. That might be the first time that any of us has referenced pitcher wins in the, what, 160 episodes of this podcast. We've done this season. But they really matter for fantasy, unfortunately.

And look, it's only holding Logan Gilbert back so much. He's the number seven pitcher in Roto leagues entering tonight's start. But yeah, Logan Gilbert has arguably been absent team context, a top three, top five starting pitcher and fantasy. This season, he has a two, 23 ERA in no decisions this season. it's like a 0.89 ERA in his seven wins because that's what he has to do to get a win on this Mariners team right now. And it's it's very frustrating because he should be enjoying a real breakout season. And instead it's limiting him just a little bit. Now, there have been a few blow-up starts, including the most recent ones, six earned runs in four and two-thirds innings.

He also had one with seven earn runs and two-and-two-thirds innings at the end of July. but on the whole, Logan Gilbert has just been absolutely fantastic. And it'd be nice if he could get to double-digit wins before the end of the season, although that's looking pretty unlikely. Yeah, and some of those blow-ups starts for Logan Gilbert, you know, when you pound in the zone as much as he does, and we've seen this from George Kirby too, I mean, starts like that. Every Mariners pitcher, really.

Yeah, starts like that just could be prone to happening to those guys, I think, a little bit more. Yeah, it's a reflection of the Mariners. and their lack of run support. I heard a stat on the broadcast yesterday that when the Mariners score four runs in a game, they have one of the best records in all of baseball. Four runs is not a lot of runs. And it just sounds like it doesn't really happen that often.

So, yeah, we do not cite wins that often, but it feels like Logan Gilbert should have a lot more. It's obviously been an awesome season for him. Scott, do you have anything on Logan Gilbert? If not, you can go to your player of the night. well i i i just want to note that his walk and strikeout rates are essentially unchanged from last year when he had an era in the high threes it was three seventy three uh and and this year it's in the low threes and so he's he's given up fewer home runs yeah the quality of contact on the whole has been

much better yeah yeah i just i don't know how durable that is oh sure yeah Um, so I'm just thinking, you know, because obviously nobody's doing anything different from what they've already been doing with Logan Gilbert this year. So I'm just thinking in terms of next year, how high should he rank. Uh, and, you know, I generally don't think of pitchers with less than a strikeout per inning like Gilbert has as surefire aces in fantasy. I know Corbyn Burns kind of falls into that category now too. But it's fair to wonder. if he is that. Right. Anymore.

They'll both be top 10 for me because I think there just aren't enough reliable alternatives. But I don't think they're going to be top five for me. I don't think so either, yeah.

Yeah, I think we're in agreement across the board. Scott, your player of the night. I'm going to go with Sean Manaya, who did it again. Sean Mania against the diamondbacks

of all teams. In Arizona, he struck out 11 in six and two-thirds innings. Did allow three-earned runs, but no walks, 11 strikeouts. In my mind, it was a very good start for Sean Minaya. And this makes five of six very good starts for Sean Manai. And when I say very good, I mean that this six-and-two-thirds-inning start was the shortest of those very good starts. The rest were all seven innings. And four of the five of the six good starts.

had at least nine strikeouts. This one obviously double digits with 11. So somehow, Sean Mania has become a workhorse and a overpowering bat misser. And there is something I can point to in the arsenal that coincides with this is basically ditched his cutter. It just wasn't a very good pitch.

I don't know that the rest of his arsenal is strong enough to continue with this. and you know I think of Sean Manai as being really pedestrian for fantasy and yet his roster rate is really high it's it's above the 80% threshold that I usually consider in terms of conversations about adding players so we can't even really talk about shamanai in that context and I'm not going to sit here and say I don't think he's pedestrian anymore, but he certainly doesn't look pedestrian at the moment. And at a time of year when we've all had trouble filling out the pitcher portions of our

lineups, I think Sean Minaya right now is pretty much a lot. He did it against the diamond backs. He is one of nine pitchers with at least four double-digit strikeout addings this season. And it's actually a fascinating group of players. Chris A. and Tyler Glass now have six each, as does Garrett Crochet. It's been a while, but that did happen. Nick Povetta, Blake Snell, Michael King, Kevin Gosman, Dylan Seas, and now Shamania. It's like, those are all good pitchers.

And I think for the most part, they've been guys that we've wanted to start all season. And Kevin Gosman, funny enough, is probably the worst of that group. Maybe Nick Povetta as well. But it's interesting that those high strikeout games have come from such a, let's say hit or miss group, both in terms of the names on the list and just like Dylan sees his ups and downs. Michael King obviously had some really low points. I just found that to be an interesting group of players. I don't know analytically if it tells us much. Isn't that kind of a microcosm of the pitching environment this season, Chris, where it's been so inconsistent where

early on pitching was great. And then once we get into the summer months, it's been a lot more inconsistent and we've gotten more blow-up starts. And, you know, throughout all of that, as you mentioned Scott. I mean, Sean Manaya has been pretty good. And he was one of the four pitchers I had for this temperature check segment a little bit later on. And you highlighted that he's changed up the pitch makes. He's kind of shortened it down. He's only focusing on four pitches now. It's a four seam, a sinker, a sweeper, and a change up. The sweeper is really good. He has a 29% whiff rate on his four seam fastball. That's a really, really good number for a fastball. So, wait a second. Wait a second. It's all coming back to me now.

Mm-mm. Like that's the Navy On song. Wasn't their talk of Manaya driveline this off season? Wasn't that a talking point at one point this spring? Was it this off-season or last? It feels like five years ago. Yeah, it does.

But it may have been just five months ago. Yeah. And the last 14 starts. Like this is a pretty big sample now. Mania has a 293 ERA and a 0.99 whip over a strike upper inning. So I know that we just kind of look. at Sean Manaya as like whatever, a middling innings eater, but over a strikeup or inning during that stretch, really good ratios, good run support with the New York vats.

I kind of think it's time that maybe we give Sean Mania a little bit more credit. It was last offseason, 22 to 2023 that he initially went to drive line. He might have stopped by this offseason. I don't know, but that's funny because he was pretty bad last season in all the typical shamanai a ways where yeah there were flashes but overall he's pretty useless this year he's made this the biggest change that he's made is swapping out his four seamer for his sinker which used to be his go-to pitch early on and i that's usually not a switch that we want pitchers to make but the the sinker on the whole has been pretty good and maybe there's something there where it

plays off the sweeper a little better i don't i don't know i'm just Just looking at this, Frank saying, the four seamers become a genuine swing and miss pitch for Manaya with a near 30% whiff rate, which is new. That's a new development. And the batting average against on it is like 180. So maybe the sinker has offered a different enough look that it's helped to elevate the fastball. And maybe he's locating it differently. He's got a four seamer up in the zone, two sinker down in the zone. I don't know.

Somebody, I'll have to see what Nick Pollack is said about him. Or somebody who really focuses on pitching more than even we do. And see if there's anything more durable there that might suggest Sean Monai is rising to a level beyond pedestrian. I remain skeptical long term. But like I said, he's delivering right now. All right, my player today is going to be Jeffrey Springs, who bounced back with a great start at the Mariners five shutout innings, one hit, two walks, nine strikeout, 16 whiffs on 79 pitches,

and that change-up was amazing once again. Ten of his 16 whiffs came on that change-up, and through six starts, he has a 367 ERA, the whip is a little bit high. I did want to mention, as great as the change-up has been in terms of whiffs, it had a 425 batting average against and a 575 slug entering the start. That was despite a 297 expected Wobah.

think much better days are coming, at least in terms of quality of contact on his changeup, or at least that's what Stackcast says Jeffrey Springs has deserved so far. He is 71% rostered. I feel like we've talked about Springs a lot recently, but he's still out there in some shallower leagues. Chris, how would you rank Arrogatee, Bowden, Francis, and Springs? Because those feel like the best pitchers that are under 75% rostered. I would probably go Arrogetti, Francis and Springs in that order, but I do like them all quite a bit. I think the thing with Springs is just he hasn't gone more than five innings in any start yet, right? And this one was five relatively efficient innings.

He pitched 379 pitches and still gets pulled after five with two walks, one hit allowed. So I just, I don't know. Like, look, it's not like Araggetti or Bowden Francis are likely to. rack up a ton of six or seven innings starts, but Springs doesn't, yeah, Springs doesn't seem like he's going to be allowed to do that. And that, as good as I think he is, I think it does put a ceiling on how valuable he can be. I'm not ready to conclude that Springs isn't allowed to be. It's, it's one thing. We've made that assumption or prediction with Clayton Kershaw, who's at the end of his career and doesn't have any many miles left and wasn't allowed to do

much last year either. I think Jeffrey Springs, the more capable he looks, the more they're going to start to work him deeper into games. And he's looked very capable in three of his last four starts. They've been just like this with well more than a strikeout per inning.

And so I would actually put Springs second of that group. I would go Eric Getty 1, Springs 2, and Bowden, Francis 3, just because I don't have much faith that Francis is actually good. I understand he needs to be picked up at this point, but I just, I don't know that he's actually good. When Springs, I'm pretty confident

is. All right. Did want to give a shout out to Jaron Duran, who made history here on Tuesday, two for four with his 20th home run, the first player in MLB history to record at least 10 triples, 20 homers, 30 steals, and 40 doubles in a season is Jaron, and also just one of four players to go 2030 so far, joining L.A. Dela Cruz, Shoha O'Otani, and Jose Ramirez. Somebody tweeted, tweeted at us that Chris said back in April that he would dye his hair blonde if Jaron Duran went 2030. Chris is that true? Yeah, I don't, what episode was it? But yes, someone found the clip and that's not quite accurate. What I said was it was remember when he died, he bleached his hair in the spring. Yep. I think you, you suggested that I should, I should dye my beard and hair.

And that was going too far. It kind of looked weird if just the hair was blonde and the beard was black, wouldn't it? I think it would look a lot weirder if I dyed my beard. Don't like that at all. But, yeah, March 22nd episode, if you want to confirm right at the end, apparently, or right in the middle, I don't know, whatever. I said if he gets 20 homers, 40 steals, and 100. runs, which seemed like an outrageous thing to suggest Jaron Duran might do.

I said I would bleach my hair. And I am nothing if not a man of my word. So I guess I'm doubling down. And I will bleach my hair and then shave my head if Jaron gets eight more steals and eight more runs. Well, he at least take a picture. Yeah, there will be proof. You have to at least do one podcast with a blonde hair. Come on, Chris.

I mean, there, there. So someone in the chat said Tower's about to pull an Azer. And I distinctly remember on one of the draftathons, maybe four or five years ago, Azer said he would shave his head or his eyebrow or something. If Nando raised a certain amount of money, Nando did it and Adam chickened out. I won't chicken out. I will just look, uh, dumb. Hey.

For an amount of time, I guess. As somebody who said that they would eat their own hat if Fernando Tatis returned after a minimum stay on the IL, and I did not do that, I would give you, you know, so much respect if you actually dyed your hair blonde. So we all have something to rue for now. Jaron, seven more run scored,

eight more steals. Let's get this done. You mentioned Adam Azer and the draftathon. You can support our buddies at Fantasy Football today. Their annual draftathon is actually later today when you are listening. Wednesday, August 28th, starting at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. They'll be live all evening, getting you ready for your fantasy football drafts while

raising money for St. Jude Children's Hospital. They're currently auctioning off some cool experiences at tiny URL.com slash draftathon 2024. You can scan the QR code if you're watching on YouTube. All the money from the auction items will be donated to St. Jude. It's a great cause, lots of fun. Make sure to go support those guys. Let's take our first break.

And when we return, I do want to mention an oh my goodness. gracious game. That Marlins Rockies game was wild. We'll talk about that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's quickly just run through this Marlins at Rockies game before we hit the news and notes. The Marlins wound up winning 9 to 8 in this one. They scored five runs in the ninth inning to come back and win. And I saw this nugget on the Rockies broadcast. This was the Rockies' fourth loss this season when leading by four or more runs in the ninth inning or later. That is the most by any team in a season in the modern era. So yes, they are making. history the Rockies and who blew the game? Scott one day after you give Tyler Kinley a little bit of

credit what happens he's charged with four runs on a walk and three hits and ultimately helped lead to the demise in this one for the Marlins Hazu Sanchez had a big game he's only 17% rostered he's actually been pretty good since the start of july 258 batting average with 10 home runs and three steals and Griffin conine son of jeff conine in his first career start two for three with a walk a double run scored. He's 27 years old. He was having a solid season in the minors. He's 1% roster. I think he's probably an NL only name, but Jesus, does he need to be more than 17% rostered? I was super. He has like nine steals, right? Yeah, yeah, he's run a little bit. I was surprised by that when I went to the Marlins Mets game last week and I was surprised to see that on the scoreboard. I

realized. I, he's been, Hazer Sanchez has been right around like 15% rostered for like two months. I think you could maybe make an argument that he's a little under-rastered, you know, based on how he's hit the last couple of months. It's been, you know, very good underlying stats as well. He just doesn't play against lefties. There's a lot of, like, I think there are better versions of Hesu Sanchez out there. Like, I think, Kerry Carpenter. Jack Peterson. Yeah.

Like there are just other guys who do that with, I think, a little better skill set. But he's not a terrible guy to have around. Is Mr. Marlin a hereditary title? Like, can Griffin be Mr. Marlin like Jeff Conine was? Or is it like an, like, is there like a Mr. Marlins moot where they elect a new Mr. Marlin? Well, I think you have to become a face of the Marlins to be Mr. Marlin. And I'm not confident in Griffin Canning or Griffin Canning, Griffin Conine doing that.

Well, I also don't think it's a very high bar. So if he sticks around for a couple of years, he might be able to become Mr. Marlin. I think there are like four players on the roster who played in last year's playoff series. Oh, gosh. Yeah, that is so crazy to think about. On the other side for the Rockies,

Ezekiel Tovar missed Monday's game while dealing with a sports hernia. Didn't really seem to matter on Tuesday, three for four with a double dong, four RBI. And Tovar has had a really solid season, 274 batting average, 21 homers, four steals, and a 768 OPS. Let's get into the news and notes.

Finally, some good news for Kyle Tucker who began sprinting and is close to running the bases, and apparently once he does that, he should be ready for a rehab assignment. So we haven't heard any dates involved here, but if that happens soon, I don't know, middle of September, we get him back for the final couple weeks of the season.

I think that's probably best case scenario right now for Kyle Tucker. Fernando Tatis will face live pitching soon. He's been out since late June with a stress reaction in his right thigh. And yeah, this is another injury that's just lingered for a really long time. And I haven't heard anything about a rehab assignment, but maybe a similar kind of case, like middle of September, best case scenario. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of what we're looking for for most players on the I.L.

at this point because the middle of September is two weeks away. and so unless they're out on a rehab assignment already and even then if they're a pitcher, still they might need that long to rehab. So, you know, I mean, the minor league season also ends in like 10 days, right? I think some of them end sooner, I think. Yeah, like that there might not be rehab assignments to go on.

But I know Tatease is going to the team's spring complex. So he might be just kind of doing a mini rehab assignments. assignment there, I believe. And I would imagine they probably want him to get a couple of weeks back with the big league team, see some, you know, real pitching, and so he's ready to go for the playoffs. And yeah, we'll see what happens there with Fernando Tatis. Rafael Devers was out of the lineup Tuesday due to soreness in both of his shoulders, and apparently this is something he's been battling the entire summer. Robbie Ray was placed in the aisle with a left hamstring strain. he's eligible to return on September 10th is Robbie Ray worth holding on to.

Yeah, I mean, if you have the roster spot, why not? I think the upside's been been clear there. So sure. It looks like the AAA season goes through the third week of September. So it's, I thought I remembered it was ending later now. But yeah, it's going to be around from. it's going to end one week shy the Major League season ending.

Nick Ladolo was also placed in the aisle with a left middle finger sprain and tame question is Nick Ladolo worth holding on to? Probably not. David Bell mentioned it. There's a good chance it's going to be a season ending injury just given the timeline

Lodolo expressed hope that it wouldn't be but it's going to be real tight and it's not like he was reliable before then we were talking about dropping Lodolo. I will point out though, that in the article on the team's official website talking about this IL stint for Lodolo, the writer pointed out that this sprained middle finger on his left hand was impacting the grip on his curveball and that those grip issues with the curveball actually began with

Lodolo's previous injury, a blister on his left index finger. And so that kind of explains it all, right? Because he just had his since very early in the season, Lodolo's curveball hasn't looked right. And he was able to navigate well enough at first, but that pitch is just too critical to his success, and he eventually fell apart. So that's something to think about when you're making out your rankings next year,

when you're identifying sleeper targets for next year. I think I'm still going to be pretty high on Lodolo. Christian Yelich is expected to need three months of recovery time following a microdiskectomy. That's a fun one to say. which is a spine surgery which removes part of or all of a bulging or herniated disc. Oof, sounds like a tough one. Joe Ryan will not return in the regular season.

He's on the IL with a grade two terrace major strain. Bobauchette fielded grounders on Tuesday. He's been out since late July with a right calf strain. All three of Cotell Marte, Christian Walker, and Gabriel Moreno hit in the batting cage on Tuesday. Grayson Rodriguez threw from approximately 90 feet on Tuesday. He's been on the IEL. It would be nice if I could speak. Since August 7th with a right lat strain,

Brenton Doyle has missed two straight with leg soreness. You Darvish threw a simulated game on Sunday, which included three up and downs. Mike Schilt said the next step will either be another simulated game or perhaps a rehab start. The Rangers are officially recalling Jack Leiter to start Wednesday against the White Sox, and he is 28% rostered,

a name for deeper leagues. We spoke about him on Monday's podcast. It wouldn't surprise anybody if he had a good outing here against the White Sox. Yeah, I'm kind of excited. Let's do it. Stuff has looked really good. He averaged 99 with his fastball the past couple of starts. It's been really up or down throughout his career.

But I don't hate the idea. We usually do to stream or not to stream later in the show, right? At the end, I don't hate the idea of streaming Jack Light. against the white socks. If nothing else, they'll get you lots of strikeouts. I think that'll happen there. Anything else? It's a YOLO move for sure.

Yeah. You literally only live once. Matt McLean is... You only die once, too, for what it's worth. You know, whenever people say that's got that, that's the same reaction I have. Like, yeah, Yolo, but also, you only die once. Yeah, I know. Like, Yolo, be careful with your life because you only have one.

No, once it happens. It happens. It happens. You got nothing to worry about anymore. Don't throw your life away, Chris. Yeah, don't throw those ratios away either. Matt McLean is still undergoing tests to determine the cause of the pain in his side. He suffered a stress reaction in his left rib cage earlier in the month. Michael Lorenzen was removed from his start after a hamstring injury. Cedric Mullins was back in the lineup after missing two games with quad tightness.

Jordan Hicks was placed in the aisle with right shoulder inflammation. And here is a news item for next year. Jeff Passon reported that Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki may not be posted after the 2024 season. He's 22 years old, he throws 100 miles per hour, and is regarded as one of the most talented pitchers in all of baseball. So the sooner he can get to MLB, the better for us

because we get another pitcher for fantasy, but it might not happen. It doesn't make sense for him. Like, it might happen, but it just the way the international money is set up now, there was a story on CBS sports by Dane Perry where he talked about just like all the hurdles. There's a, his team wouldn't get as much money as they could if they waited another year or two. And Sasaki would be capped at like, I think it's like maybe two and a half million dollars for his signing bonus.

So it, you know, look, Shohayotani only got like a couple million dollars in his signing bonus. So it's possible. But I think even then the rules were different. and the posting fee was bigger. So I think there's just a lot of incentives for Sasaki to stay in Japan. And he's also had a less dominant season this time around and has dealt with some injuries as well. All right.

Let's get into our temperature check on four starting pitchers. We already spoke about Sean Mania, who was going to be part of this group. Garrickle had trouble with the long ball here at the Nationals, five innings, three runs, seven strikeouts, two homers allowed, 11 whiffs on 91. pitches and both his forcing fastball and curve allowed some loud contact in this one. His four previous starts were actually all really good.

So I think it's okay for him to have, and it wasn't even like a terrible start, but I think it's all right for him to take a little bit of a step back here. Where are we at on Garrett Cole right now? Because coming back from the injury, we've had some ups, some down, some more injury scares. What do you guys think on Gary Cole? You said that the previous four starts have all been pretty good. But I think his most recent one before this was only two strikeouts, if I'm remembering correctly. Two strikeouts and five walks.

Yes, that one wasn't great. And I think that the issue has been pretty consistent throughout, which is he just doesn't have the slider back. Only two whiffs on 19 pitches in this one. Did a good job of generating weak contact, but that was the problem for the four seamer end curveball, as Frank said. 10 batted balls across those two pitches, 99.5 mile per hour average exit velocity on them. So it's just, I think where I am on Garrett Cole is similar to where I'm at on Kevin Gosman, where if you didn't know their names,

I think they would be relatively uncontroversial, low-end starting pitchers for fantasy. I think they're decent. I think Cole is probably better than Garland. Osmond, but it's only because he's Garrett Cole that we're like, ah, why is this? And it's just based on what we've seen from him so far this season, there have been some highs, but there's just no consistency. And that's basically where I'm looking at him right now is just a guy who's capable of good starts, a guy I'm probably starting more often than not, but he's not Garrett Cole right now. Yeah, I think that's fair for how to use Garrett Cole. I was

going to say something similar. I do rank him a lot higher than Gossmann because my feeling on Gossman is he's just on the decline. He's reached an age where there's there's there's there's not going to be any clawing his way back to what he once was when Garrett Cole. I think it could happen just from one start to the next. Oh, the slider fixed. Here we go.

So there is that that hope. But I think you have to treat that as a as a. as gravy has a nice surprise at this point, not expected to happen, and play the matchups with Garrickle like you would. Any other fifth or sixth starting pitcher on your team? Yeah, that was my next question. Is he a must start? But it sounds like both of you are in agreement there.

He is not a must start and more of a matchups play at this point. That is Garik Cole. Let's skip over Mania and get to Justin Verlander, who was not as good in his second start back from the IL. He was at the Phillies, five innings, four runs, three strikeouts, had 10 whiffs on. 90 pitches. I think it's pretty reasonable that his second start from the IL, he looks a little bit more rusty here, going up against the lineup that has been cold, but they still have lots of really good names in there.

Are we in a kind of similar mindset as Garrett Cole, but just to a much lesser extent? Like Verlander is just, he's more of a matchups play at this point, right? You could put it that way. I think the matchup would have to be really favorable, and I don't think it's beyond the pale. to drop Verlander if that's your way of getting Spencer Erigetti on your roster or who's some of the other guys we talked about. Jeffrey Springs. Yeah, like that's, I just, I think Justin Verlander for the rest of his career,

however long it lasts, is just going to be pretty blah. And there will be some solid starts, good offense backing him up. That's fine. But he's not Justin Verlander anymore. and frankly he was Justin Verlander longer than he had any right to because he's 41 years old. Yeah, I think that's fair. Let's wrap up with Jack Flaherty, who turned in his first quality start since joining the Dodgers, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts up against the Orioles.

He did allow two homers in this one. And in five starts with the Dodgers, 349 ERA, 127 whip, over a strikeout running, but he's also allowed six home runs in those five starts. I don't know if he's, you know, kind of pitching through the back. injury, you know, he's, this is a one year deal, so he probably wants to stay on the mound and prove that he's healthy and, you know, he's trying to get paid in the offseason again. But Chris, he hasn't looked as crisp as he did early on in the season. Where are you at on Jack Flaherty?

Yeah, I think that kind of sums it all up. You know, I was going to actually, when I were talking about Garrick-Cole, Flaherty was kind of the name I was thinking of comparing him to. I know Flaherty has obviously had much higher ceiling this season at times, but since he's come back from the back injury, like you said, it looks more like a good but not great pitcher. And that's kind of where I'm at on him. I think you'll be happy that Jack Flair is in your lineup more often than not,

but it feels, the overall profile feels just a little more fragile than it did initially. All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, we'll get into some waiver wire options. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's get into the. Waverwire pitchers. We already spoke about Jeffrey Springs, who is very clearly at the top of the list. Gavin Williams was solid up against the Royals, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts, had 12 whiffs on 83

pitches. But his previous four starts before this were all pretty bad in the IRA over seven during that span. 64% roster. Looks like he might line up for two starts next week, but I don't really see any way you could trust someone like Gavin Williams right now. No, at KC, at L.A. Dodgers, is two tough matchups, two tough places to pitch. And I just don't think Gavin Williams is very good at this point. So we're calling Kansas City a tough place to pitch now.

Just like three weeks ago, we were saying that's what was killing Vinnie Pasquan Dino because it has to play half of the game. There's been a lot of discussion about this very topic. Eric Hosmer chimed in on Twitter recently, making fun of someone who said the quote was like Kauffman Stadium as a hitter's paradise,

which that was way overstating. But yeah, hyperbole. The thing about Kaufman Stadium is it's a really bad place for home runs and a really good place for offense overall. At least that's what it's been over the past three seasons, the rolling three-year averages. It's like the third best park factor in baseball for runs. Yeah. And like bottom 10 for home runs. So it just, it seems to lower strikeouts.

It seems to the big outfield helps singles, doubles, and triples. It just hurts home runs. So both things can be true, Scott. Both can be true. Okay. Plus Bobby Wood Jr. is cheating at home. Yeah. Well, that's where the discussion has come is that, oh, Bobby Witt's a fake MVP candidate because, oh, he's, it's dumb.

Oh, man. I haven't even heard that controversy. You guys are both too online. Scott, just stay off the internet, man. I don't know what is happening with baseball fans this year. But between this and the Aaron Judge only homers on like pitches in the middle of the strike zone discourse, everybody has been so stupid. Even saying that out loud just sounds so ridiculous. It's it's like when people say like, oh, all Shaq used to do was dunk.

Well, can you stop him? Like, even if it were true that Aaron Judge only homers on middle, middle pitches, you're going to miss your spots and he's going to crush it. Sorry, sorry. It's all good. Let's talk about Mitch Spence. Some names, some WaverWire pitchers in deeper leagues. Mitch Spence at the Reds, five in a third innings, one run, three strikeouts.

He's got a 454 ERA, 134 whip. He does get lots of ground balls. Jacob Junis pitched well in his first red start. He was up against Oakland. Four perfect innings with three strikeouts. Eight whiffs on 43 pitches. That is a near 19% swinging strike rate for Jacob Junis. And Patrick Corbin had a great start up against the Yankees.

He still has a 550 ERA on the year. He did mix in more cutters in this one, and the velocity on that pitch was up almost three miles per hour. So he did something different. There's that. Do any of these names matter in deeper leagues? It depends how deep. an NL and AL only?

Like if it... You can specify. If you think they matter in those leagues, then I'm not even sure Patrick Corbyn matters in NL only. I agree. But maybe Spence an AL and maybe Junis and NL

and if they matter in your league, I think it's going to be obvious to you that they matter in your league. I do like that Spence gets a lot of ground balls and can work deep into games from time to time. Junis has... In the past, he's had stretches

kind of like Albert Suarez where you don't totally trust it to continue and yet he finds a way to do it and his ERA and whip out of the bullpen mostly as a multi-in and a guy are good this year.

Low three ZRA, low one whip. He's been good as a bullpen arm like the last couple of seasons. But ultimately I don't think Jacob Junus is going to save your season. Yeah, all he does is spam the slider. It is a really good slider. So again,

those really deep leagues and I'll only maybe Junis works his way into deeper mixed league conversation. Some waiver wire hitters and one name in shallower leagues who we spoke about yesterday Scott I didn't realize he was actually available in some leagues. Danesby Swanson he's 74% rostered he's homered in back-to-back games and is actually having a pretty big August 276 batting average three homers big counting stats seven seals and 830 OPS the only way he needs to be more rostered. is if you think he needs to be rostered in points leagues.

And I don't know if that's the case. I don't know that it's the case either. It depends. Like shortstop is the deepest infield position. Yeah. And so I imagine he wouldn't represent an upgrade for most people in head-to-head points leagues. But I don't think, when we talked about this yesterday, I don't think the fundamentals for Swanson have changed.

And I think he could bounce back with a typical Swanson season. next year or it could carry over him to September and the final two months of this year will look like a typical Swanson season. So if if he is out there in a deeper league

and I picked him up in a roto league I've picked him up in a 16 team head to head league. I've seen him dropped in some deeper leagues then I think you should I think you should act on that. One thing I do want to point out

is just the Cubs in general have been running a lot more in August. Now, part of that is the, there were eight steals yesterday or two days ago, whatever it was. Pete Crow Armstrong is just going mad right now. But they have 30 steals with four day

or three days left in the month. That's their second most for any month this season in only 23 games. So that, remember, that was a big problem for Nico Horner early on. They only had nine steals as a team in April. Swanson by himself has seven in August.

So that's been one big change for them. And Nico Horner, you mentioned the name. We haven't talked about him much. He's up to 25 steals on the season. So, you know, he doesn't really provide much else. Like, it's a pretty good batting average. And, you know, it's really just speed. But, you know, if you're depending on him for that,

Nico Horner has kind of come through. So just wants to point out. He has eight steals in August, had eight steals in June. Yeah. So maybe it's just Peekar, Armstrong, Nico Horner and Danesby Swanson running. Because I think they might have like 23 or 24 steals. between them in August. But yeah, it is interesting.

Like, Nico Harner, 255 batting average. That's rough. Counting stats, pretty rough. But yeah, steals are going to end up close-ish to where you hope they would be. Three outfielder's in shallower leagues. Dylan Cruz, who we've talked a lot about recently, he's still available in 35% of CBS leagues,

two-for-four with a double and his first career, Steele here on Tuesday. Dalton Varshow has quietly been pretty good lately, hit his 16th home run. Last 28 games, he's betting 283, with five homers, a steel, and an OPS over 800. And Lawrence Butler, looking to get back on track, I didn't realize people just dropped him.

They gave up on Lawrence Butler so fast. I know he has kind of had a bit of a rough August, but his July was so good. And he's coming back around his last six games. He's betting 348. He's got two homers. He's got a steal. I'm surprised people actually dropped Lawrence Butler.

Scott, how would you rank these three? Cruz, Varsho, and Butler. Yeah, I still have Butler as a, top 50, if not top 45 outfielder. So it's a close call between him and Cruz. I'll go ahead and give Cruz a slight edge over Butler. Varshow, he's a distant third just because we've seen so much of him, and I think the limits to his ceiling are pretty clear.

But Butler hits the ball incredibly hard. And even though he had cooled off in August, he kept those strikeouts under control. So his 22 games prior to this one, he still had a 20% strikeout rate. He only hit 200, but two home runs, four steals. So he's got the power and speed there. Lawrence Butler, I think, I'm still open to the idea that he's legit, even though, you know, obviously he couldn't sustain his July surge. So yeah.

Devil's advocate on that one. He had 10 home runs in 20s. RBI in July with a 1210 OPS. He has five home runs and 17 RBI in the other four months so far this season.

And his OPS in July is basically double his high for every other month of the season. He's 24 years old and his stack has pages splashed and red. I don't disagree with the overall. But like,

I don't disagree with the overall. certainly understand why people dropped Lawrence Butler. He's had one good month in his career. But I'm saying they shun it. I would much rather have him than Don Varsho. I want to say this about Dylan Cruz because his first hit

was just a double throttled off Garrett Cole. Very nice to see. He gets to second base and he does this arms over the head hip swivel thing. That's like the thing. Everyone does. Is that a Fortnite thing? Isn't that a Dodgers thing?

Well, yeah, they call it the Freddie with the Dodgers, and Freddie Freeman looks just amazingly awkward doing it. But Dylan Cruz is very smooth the way he did the hip swivel. I just like his second game in the majors, his first time getting on with a hit, and he has the self-assurance to do that in front of 30,000 people. I just find that remarkable because it's one thing when you're like. be a star doing your you're competing as an athlete and so you're not so conscious of all the eyes on you probably i would assume but when you're out there standing alone at second base and just swiveling your hips like i i don't know man that that that that makes me uncomfortable well you know what dylan cruz you keep you keep hitting like that you can swivel those hips as

much as you want, man. Obviously, looking forward to what he could do over the final month of the season. Four names in deeper leagues. Jose Tana, who is someone we've talked about, he actually had a home run off of Garrett Cole. And in 13 games with the Nationals, he's batting 340, two homers, one steal in 856 OPS. Really good minor league numbers as well. It seems like about time the Blue Jays to just play Will Wagner every day. I don't know that they're going to do that.

But three for four with two doubles and his first career home run in this one. Ramon Luriano has quietly been hitting very well for the Braves last 19 games. 348 batting average, five homers, one steel, and an OPS approaching 1,000. And Grant McRae, who I hadn't really looked into, he has been hitting for the Giants. He started 11 straight, and so far he's batting 308, three homers, two steals, a 972 OPS, and some interesting numbers in the minors. He had 52 steals in the minors last year as well. Lots of interesting names here, and they're all under 10%.

set up rostered. Chris, anything you'd like to add or anyone that really stands out to you, Tana, Will Wagner, Luriano, and Grant McCray. We've talked about Tena a few times and I think he's a legitimately interesting talent. Really good AAA numbers especially. I think it's 23 homers, 15 steals and 120 games with like an 870 OPS. Underlying numbers are all pretty solid so far this season. So I think 4% rostered, a guy who's multi-position eligible, that's way too low. Everyone else, I can't say I have too much interest in. And the problem with like Will Wagner needs to play every day is like

Davis Schneider, Ernie Clement, Addison Barger, Spencer. The Blue Jays have like six versions of the same exact guy in my mind. Like I'm not sure that they're all the exact same guy. I can't say that I've ever seen them all in the same place at the same time, however. and I just, I don't know if he stands out enough from the other similar guys that they're not just going to keep mixing and matching. I think he might. I think Spencer Horowitz and Will Wagner,

if those players are the two that should play the most. And Horwitz is playing like every day between second and first and Guerrero. They've had Vladimir Guerrero moving between first and third. And so that allows Wagner to play second Mason. base more consistently if they want him to. And I think if he keeps hitting like this, he'll earn that. Notably, even though he's a left-handed hitter, the times he's sat, it hasn't had much of anything to do with the handedness of the opposing pitcher.

So they seem comfortable using Will Wagner against lefties. They're just mixing in some of those other options. I would say all four of these guys should be rostered in more than 10% of leagues. I think Ramon Luriano, we know he's been a fantasy relevant player in the past, and the Braves seem to have settled on their A outfield when everybody's healthy, which hasn't been very often. Michael Harris flanked by Jorge Saler and Ramon Luriano. He seems to be at the top of the pecking order, or third in the pecking order, I guess.

And so he's been really good since joining the Braves, and he hits the ball hard, strikes out too much. but that's what you'd expect from this profile. Grant McCray, big power speed guy throughout his minor league career, has struck out like 40% of the time so far in the majors, and he can't sustain this if he continues to do that, but he was striking out like 25% of the time at AAA. So I think there is hope that he can cut down on those.

I don't know that anybody is a priority at in standard fantasy leagues, but I do think there's legitimate upside for all four of these players. And I think some of those names could be out there and 15-team mixed roto league. So usually in those formats, you're just looking for anyone that has a pulse and these guys are playing. And I think they all offer some kind of interesting skill set. Again, the names were Grant McCrae, Ramon Luriano, Will Wagner, and Jose Tana.

Let's get back into pitching. And I did want to highlight Spencer Schwellenbach, who racked up a ton of strikeouts, but he was inefficient at the Twins. I was watching this start. He had a lot of foul balls in this one. But four and two-thirds shutout innings. eight strikeouts, 19 wifts on 106 pitches, and he now has seven plus strikeouts

in seven straight starts. He mixes in a bunch of different pitches. Splitter looks awesome, slider, could get wifts on his fastball as well. My not-so-boldt prediction for next year, Spencer Schoenbach will be everybody's favorite breakout starting pitcher. Yeah, yeah, I think this is one where like,

I'm not even sure there's going to be any chance at value in drafts next year for Schoenbach if he keeps this up through the end of the season, which he's, I think they're on 67 more innings than he did last season. So it's a legitimate question how he is going to close out the season. But I, yeah, he's been so impressive. Like, well, first three walks start in his major league career, like this is what counts for wildness. And I think it was like, you mentioned the foul balls. I think it was like 27 for, I mean,

just didn't quite, for a nine strikeout game, didn't quite put hitters away. Yeah. But we've talked about Schwellenbach a lot, 70% strike rate coming into this start, which is George Kirby like, so pristine control in addition to the bat missing ability.

And this start was an exception as far as that goes. But, yeah, it's compared to four. 14 starts. I think it's pretty well established Schwellenbach as an elite strike thrower. So you say you're not sure there's going to be any chance at value there.

Well, it kind of depends how high you think the upside is, right? Because I don't think he's going to be drafted as a top 12 starter. And yet I think Spencer Schwellenbach probably does have the upside of a top 12 starter. I think he probably has the upside, but I think he's going to get pushed.

I mean, look, we're trying to not just project like where we'll rank him but where everybody will rank him and then we're where people will draft him so like it's really but like it just feels like this kind of profile people are going to get really really excited about him in drafts next year to the point where i have a hard time seeing myself being the one to draft him but possibly yeah yeah i think usually the like sp 20 to 30 range is where you see a lot of just the obvious breakout candidates get drafted it's not always the case because Terrick Scouble had a pretty small sample size and he was like a third or fourth round pick

in drafts this year. Like do you think the helium could get that high like a top 50 pick for Schwellenbach? Where was, I would love to see where like Yuri Perez was before the injury. I think he was probably in like the 75 to 100 range. That sounds right.

You know what? Where him and Bobby Miller were being drafted before everything happened with those guys? I can see that's where Schwellenbach will be drafted, like 75 to 100 overall. Let me remind myself where Bobby Miller was being drafted among starting pitchers. 22nd, according to fantasy pros.

Which sounds, yeah, I'm thinking, I think I committed to, what did I commit to? Top 36, but it's probably going to end up closer to top 25. Again, that is Spencer Schwellenbach. Let's talk about Jack. Jared Jones, who was not great in his return, up against the Cubs, four innings, five runs allowed, three walks to four strikeouts. He allowed two homers in this one, and his slider had nothing.

Zero whiffs, 16% CSW, and he's mostly a two-pitch pitcher. You take one of those pitches away, and I think this is what could happen for somebody like Jared Jones. I was thinking about him too for next year. He's an interesting case because he got off to such a great start, but he does give up a lot of fly balls, a lot of barrels, which. obviously could lead to some trouble with home runs, but it's pretty obvious that the talent in the swing and miss is there for Jared Jones.

How do you guys look at him or value him rest of season this year, Jared Jones? It was there, the swing and miss early on, but as you mentioned, it had been gone for a long time before he went on the I.L. I think I'm probably going to rank Schwellenbach ahead of Jared Jones. I'm not sure what Jared Jones has on Schwellenbach at this point. Yeah, I think that's fair. theoretical upside right like you the guy throws 99 so i i think we we tend to ascribe upside uh through velocity but no i agree with you like the the slider and four seamer combo was elite early on

and the whiff rates on both of those pitches have basically steadily declined since then we don't look at it's obviously it's one start and he really hadn't started in the past two months otherwise so we'll see how he finishes the season but i think jared jerry jenn's Jones feels more like in the 30 plus range at starting pitcher where, yeah, there's a lot of upside, but, you know, it's basically been one great month and a lot of mess since. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers, and we will take a look at some pitchers too good and too bad.

Aaron Nola had a great start up against the Astro's seven shutout innings with six strikeouts and Justin Steele, he was all right at the Pirates, five innings, two runs, six strikeouts in that one. Any takeaways here on Justin Steele and Aeronola? I think it's very funny that when you drafted Aeronola, the one thing you probably said was, well, at least I'll get 200 strikeouts. I don't know what the ratios are going to be, especially the ERA. He's having his best ERA season in at least two years. The whip is very good as it usually is. And he's 47 strikeouts away from 200.

He's having his worst strikeout rate since his rookie season. I don't really, like, I think Aaronola kind of is what he is and what he is is a mid-3s-ish ERA with a little bit of fluctuation one way or the other. But I just thought that was interesting that, like, you made a good pick. It just hasn't necessarily gone the way you expected it to. Mm-hmm. Two big names who were not great in their starts. Dylan Cease up against the Cardinals, four-and-a-third innings, four runs, four walks, four strikeouts, could not throw strikes, only through 54% of his pitches for strikes, which is pretty awful. And Logan Webb's great run of

starts hit a bit of a speed bump here at the Brewers, five innings, four runs, two homers allowed. Previous five starts before this one, a 0.96 IRA and a 0.75 whip. He just had nothing. with a changeup going on here. Scott, anything on Logan Webb and Dylan Cease? Yeah, it's concerning that that Webb who seemed to rediscover that changeup in his previous five starts, it played a lot better,

and during that time he had a .96 ERA, so he was dominating, and then he just lost it again in this start, and where did it go, and will it come back? And I don't know how to answer any of those questions. I guess you could, if you want to see the glass half full here, for not having his best pitch, he didn't get throttled.

Like it wasn't, I think it was still a positive score for head-to-head points leagues. But yeah, so I guess Logan Webb is still a must start, is what I'm trying to say. But it is a little concerning the way this happened, given that for so much of this season, he hasn't had that change up. I feel very similar about Dylan Sees, where I'm inclined to just say I don't care about it. but it is now a couple of starts. I think it's 12 walks over his last four starts, which is his highest of any four-star stretch this season.

When things were going poorly for him early in the season, he was not walking people. And so I was at least willing to just, I don't care about it. I only care when the control's gone. Now the control's starting to slip a little bit for Dylan C's. And that's when things get harriest for him. So I'm a little worried there,

but not to the point where I'm benching him. So he did have, and it's easy to forget, in May and June, he had an eight-start stretch Dylan ceased with a 643 ERA, and the walks were up, and it looked like he might be unraveling then. And then he bounced back and was dominant for, like, dominant for the next date starts with a 194 ERA. So he's probably fine, and I'm still, it's funny the way my starting pitcher rankings are. are right now where I can't settle on 10 pitchers who deserve to be top 10 pitchers. And so I

feel like CIS is kind of in there by default. George Kirby's kind of in there by default. But I want somebody better to emerge because they feel like a little less than top 10 pitchers, given some of their inconsistencies. We've had so many injuries this year, Scott. It's kind of a battle of attrition, I think,

at this point, when ranking starting pitchers rest of season. Some hitting leftover as Tristan Kossis has hit well since returning in 11 games. He's betting 357 with two home runs. Sayas Suzuki picking things back up. Last seven games, betting 467 with three homers, 10 runs, and one steal.

O'Neo Cruz has been running a lot more lately in August. He's betting 383 with nine stolen bases and a 989 OPS. Jack Centurio continues his monster second half, one for five, with a sock and a shoe. His 16th home run, his 19th steel, updated second half numbers 331 batting average seven homers nine seals and a 934 ops anything here on turyo cruz suzuki and tris and trisan cassis well cruise has been running a lot more in august nine stolen bases for half a season total i've come in this month and so that's encouraging uh because that should be a part

of his game and we're counting on it being part of his game we're also counting on more power than he's given us so far. And so overall, it's been a pretty frustrating season for those who invested in O'Neill Cruz. And I imagine he's going to go later in drafts next year than he's gone the past two years. But does seem to be doing a lot better to close out the season. Actually, if you look at his numbers since the start of July, so the last two months, O'Neill Cruz has an OPS over 900 is batting over 300. Yeah. So that's nice to see. What is the strike? Yeah, Ray. I wonder if the leg has this gotten healthier over the course of the season.

That's something that they talked about early on, that it was going to be an issue for him as the season went on. And maybe, yeah, maybe he's just feeling a little healthy. I don't know how to square that with the we're moving him to center field bit of it, although he was never a good defender. They were planning. Wasn't there a lot of talk about him playing center field when he first got called up? Yeah, no.

I remember that was the plan, right? He was one of those prospects who most evaluators didn't think he would stick at shortstop. And so it was kind of surprising that he did for as long as he did. But you know what? We could use him more in the outfielded fantasy, so I'm not necessarily crying about that one. It is still a 30% strikeout rate since the start of July, even though he's batted over 300. Yeah. All right.

Again, that was O'Neill Cruz. some bullpen updates for the nationals. Kyle Finnegan recorded the final four outs, but did give up a run on three hits. He picked up his 33rd save. And lots of regression here for Finningin in the second half, 730 ERA and a 195 whip. For the A's, Mason Miller got the ninth inning with a three-run lead.

He gave up two runs on four hits, but picked up his 22nd save. For the Padres, Robert Suarez was unavailable. Tanner Scott pitched a clean ninth inning for his 20th save. For the Braves, Reisel Iglesias, entered with two outs in the eighth, a runner on second, a one-runn lead. He gave up a game-tying single to Trevor Larnick,

but managed to pick up the win because on the other side for the twins, Yohan Duran got the 10th inning with the game tied. He gave up four runs on four hits. You know, interestingly enough, Duran, it feels like his season has been a lot worse. 377 ERA is obviously not ideal. But entering this outing,

his FIP and expected ERA were basically, in line with where they were last year. So I wonder if he's been a little bit unlucky. Yeah, I mean, the XERA is actually slightly lower than it was last season, despite like you said, the strike rate and walk rate both being lower. Quality of contact against is still incredible. And look, we're talking about has even thrown 50 innings, 43 innings, 44 innings. So weird things can happen.

It certainly doesn't feel like Yon Duran has been the same guy as, like, last season. And I think the twins have used him in a way that reflects that they, you know, don't necessarily view him as, like, quite as dominant as he was. And on the pitch level, like the curveball and splitter have both been slightly less good at generating whiffs, although it's like a few percentage points one way or the other. So all in all, I still think, like next year, as long as Yawand Duran looks like he's going to open the season as the Twins closer. I think I'm probably going to rank him as a top 12 relief pitcher. All right.

I want to point out because you mentioned Trevor Larnock got a big hit in this game. Keep an eye on what he's doing because he's had a good August. The playing time isn't as consistent as we'd like it to be. But remember, this is a guy who's cut down on his strikeout rate significantly this year and has always hit the ball. consistently hard. The expected stats are well above the actual stats. And I think there's an untapped potential here for Larnock that he may be showing at the end of the season. For the Marlins, Calvin Foshae struck out the side for his fourth save and for Tampa Bay.

Edwin Useta was used in the sixth inning with the game tied. He gave up an unearned run. The raise would later take the lead and it was Manuel Rodriguez who got the ninth and he closed it out for his second save. Usaeta has now entered the sixth inning two appearances in a row. Rodriguez has two saves. I think that they can mix and match. Like it's Tampa Bay, but I feel like I would bet on Rodriguez getting more saves the rest of the way.

That does seem to be the lean, even though Usaida's numbers are better. In addition to having the two saves, I think the outing in between, Rodriguez is outing prior to this one. He was brought in. to preserve a tie in the ninth. And his last four outings have all come in the ninth.

So it seems like Manuel Rodriguez, who was the eighth inning guy for Fairbanks, seems like he is getting preferential treatment here. All right, to stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Andrew Heaney at the White Sox, Arrogati at the Phillies. Osvaldo Bito is at the Reds. David Fesigets gets the Braves.

Andre Palante gets the Padres. Kyle Harrison at the Brewers and Erod versus the Mets. I think I'd lean Aragetti here, even though Phillies are a tough matchup. I think he's that much better than the other options. Of course, Heaney at the White Sox is definitely one to consider as well. No, it's lighter, or is there a double header? Today's game got suspended. Oh, that's right.

That's right. Yeah, it didn't actually start. Yeah, I think it's just going to be a double-headed. That's right. We didn't mention Gary Crochet didn't even make it four innings this time. He threw four pitches. I know. Those outings keep getting shorter and shorter.

I would throw Jack Lighter out there ahead of anyone except Spencer Ergetty. All right. And on Thursday, we have Bowden Francis at the Red Sox, tough matchup. Ryan Nelson gets the Mets. Also kind of a tough matchup. Aaron Savali and Hayden Birdsong are facing each other. What do you guys sing? I think Ryan Nelson has the best chance of giving you a quality start,

and Aaron Savale has the second best chance of giving you a quality start. And so if that's what you're looking for, those would be my top choices. I don't know that they're going to be exciting quality starts, and the downside may not be worth the upside, particularly in Savale's case. But Birdsong just doesn't even seem to be a five-inning pitcher anymore, so I don't think he's really worth considering. Yeah. There's Bowden Francis here.

Did you mention him? Yeah, it's at Boston. That's the thing is the guys who I like talent-wise, I don't like the match-ups at all. But I think Ryan Nelson's the best of this group. I'm going to go Bowden, Francis, number one. Because it's not like Ryan Nelson's matchup against the Mets is an easy one. I think that's fair.

We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye. Paramount Podcasts.