Fantasy Baseball Today - Prospect Promotions, Waiver Wire Moves & Are These Players Back?? (9/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

Payton Tolle and Jonah Tong had impressive debuts (4:00)! ... Sandy Alcantara is back (9:05)! ... Juan Soto is possessed right now (12:42). ... Rosters have expanded and thus, we got a bunch of prospect promotions (16:19). ... News (25:41): MacKenzie Gore went on the IL. ... The Dog of the Week goes to Brandon Woodruff (35:44). ... Who are the latest waiver wire hitters (42:22)? ... What's the latest on rookie pitchers (50:55)? ... Any interest in these waiver wire pitchers (57:27)? ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER on these pitchers (1:05:31). ... Are these players back (1:09:02)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:18:05). 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, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. Four days of baseball to recap, what can go wrong? Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today, and welcome to September.

Here we are, the stretch run. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Chris. towers. Today on the show, rosters expanded. So we have a bunch of prospect promotions. We had a few fun prospect debuts to talk about. Are these players back for the stretch

run? And much more. Chris, great job hosting while I was out. I listened to the Bold Predictions pod and it was a lot of fun. I appreciate the help. I think we had fun with the episodes we did. I think it was pretty good. Yeah, but glad you're back for

the next two episodes. before you leave again. And I will be, you know, who needs sleep, right? Yeah, overrated. This time of year, we've got a month left, you know? We just got to get through it. It's like 27 more days of the season. We're good.

It's the stretch run. Playoffs. Let's go. Yeah. So I will be here for today's podcast, tomorrow's podcast, and then got a wedding to go to Best Man, Speeat. that I have to write so very nerve-wracking time right now but uh I feel you should have started writing it already oh no it's it's good to go it's good to go oh okay I

just have to like practice it and get all my nuances down and all right try not to cry and all that fun stuff so it's crying's good all right well we got a lot to talk about let's do it oh my goodness gracious all right Chris why don't you get us started with uh Peyton Toll that was fun I paint and Tollie I think It's the way it's pronounced. And he's fun, man. He is gigantic. He is built like a tight end.

He's got a sick mustache. And he's got what looks like it could be one of the best fastballs in the majors already. And he threw that pitch 60% of the time. He got, I think, nine whiffs with it. In his debut, it averages 96 miles an hour. He gets a ton of extension with this. pitch it's got good movement characteristics the rest of the arsenal didn't really impress me all that much but the fastball might be good enough to just carry him to fantasy relevance the rest of the

way while he figures out what else works um i think it is noteworthy that the pirates didn't even try to put a lefty in the lineup against him and i think this dude is just going to eat lefties alive and it's going to just come down to how much can he hold his own against righties with the rest of the arsenal. But I think Peyton Tolly looked really good in, you know, in comparing him to Jonah Tong, Tully had the better debut. I think Tully, I think Tong is still the more talented player, but there's not a ton of daylight between the two of them.

Tong's role in the Mets rotation seems more secure right now, but I don't think either of them is going to lose their job. Yeah, we'll talk about Tong in just a second, too. Totally agree. And you know, I feel like such a new because I actually watched the highlights for this start multiple times and just forgot that his name was Toley.

But yes, it is Peyton Toley and he was electric man. That fastball was amazing. He kind of looks like a character from the 1920s or something. Like someone you would see in Red Dead Red Dead Redemption, right? Or something like just old style the way, but he is...

Or like a 70s offensive lineman or something. Yeah. Just very animated. He was like snarling after his show. strikeouts and stuff. He was, I loved his energy. That was awesome stuff there to watch from Peyton Toley, who no surprise is one of the most added players on CBS from the weekend. And I'll wait until later on so that we can kind of compare and contrast them to other, you know, most added pitchers. A lot of young pitchers that have emerged lately, but it was a

great debut. It was a very good debut for Jonah Tong as well. So he faced off against the Marlins on Friday. I mean, what a night of baseball, right? You get him and Peyton totally there together. Five innings, four runs allowed, one earned run, some bad defense behind him. Six strikeouts to zero walks here for Jonah Tong. Seven whiffs on 97 pitches. And look, obviously we didn't get a ton of whiffs here, but overall, you know, you like the strikeout to walk ratio here.

He averaged 22 inches of IVB on his fastball. I have never seen that from a pitcher before. I mean, this is part of his mystique, right? is his delivery and kind of the ride that he gets on that fastball, and we see it here represented in the IVB here with this pitch. So he's up to 65% rostered. If we're just talking rest of season, right? Final month, Chris, who do you like more?

Jonah Tong or Peyton Toley? I think I'd still go with Tong over Tolly. I think both were very impressive. You know, Tong defense let him down, and he ran into some trouble in that fifth. inning, but I thought he was very good for the most part. I think it was a lot of uncomfortable plate appearances, which is what you would expect from a guy with such a unique delivery and release point. You know, that super high ride fastball, in part, that's just because he's coming so

over the top that it's a super, the spin efficiency on the pitch is super high. So it's all backspin, which it's going to be really difficult for opposing hitters to catch up to it at 95, 96 miles an hour. I think he got up to 98 at one point, sat around 95. And yeah, I think there was a lot to like for both Tong and Tolly. I think the big differentiator is both of them look like they have kind of outlier fastballs. I think Tong's change up and potentially curveball might be better than anything Tolly has. I think I'll give him the edge because of the depth of the arsenal, but Tolly's fastball might be the single best pitch that any of them,

either of them has. Yeah, it's just, it's such a fun time right now because between these two and we've talked a lot about Cam Schlittler lately, who had another great start, Hurston Waldrop had a good start, Luis and Morales is emerging here as well. Parker Messick had a hiccup here over the weekend,

but man, it's just a really, really interesting time. with a lot of young, I can't say great yet, but pitchers that look like they have a lot of upswing talents for sure. Yes, for sure. Let's stick with the pitchers here. And Sandy Alcantara, last week I asked Scott or you, is he back? It's no longer a question.

Sandy is back. Sandy. Me about it. This time, Sandy was at the Mets this weekend, an offense that is on fire. Seven innings, one run, six strikeouts to one walk, had 17 whiffs. on 104 pitches for most of this season, Sandy could not generate whiffs, and he would give up a ton of hard contact.

Those two things are kind of reversing now, and that's why we're getting this great run here. Four quality starts in a row, seven innings in three of those for Sandy, and in that four-star stretch, it's a 167 ERA, 0.70 whip, 9.7K per 9, 1.7 walks per 9, getting ground balls,

11.8% swinging strike rate, the stuff plus is through the roof. He's throwing strikes. He's limiting walks. He's back up to 85% rostered. Only 51% started. He has the Phillies on the schedule this week. But with the way he's pitched and the talent we know he possesses,

I almost want to say that Sandy is close to must start again. What do you think, Chris? Yeah. And look, the Mets have been crazy good offensively. I love that the Marlins took three or four against the match. at City Field this weekend. And I went to the one game where the Mets scored a franchise record 19 runs in a home game.

Which game was that? That was the Friday night game. You got to see Tong. That's cool. I got to see Jonah Tong. And the best moment, Mets bring in Louis Torens to pitch the ninth inning. The Marlins hit back-to-back-home runs. I start standing up and cheering the entire section's booing me.

Incredible moment. Loved it. Lived for it. No, I mean, look, doing this against the Mets right now, they have been the best offense in baseball since the All-Star break. Sandy Alcantra, I believe, has a 318 ERA since the All-Star break now. He's gone six innings, I want to say six out of eight starts in that span. I know it was five out of six in the month of August, four out of six, at least seven innings. And I think, you know, I made a joke back at the beginning of August that I think it was when he had that six earn runs and six runes and seven

innings start on April, August 3rd or something. And I said, you know, even the bad starts are kind of starting to look like the old bad starts for Sandy Alcantra. And that ended up being kind of prescient because he's now managed to go deep into his games very consistently for about two months now. Even the bad starts, he's going six or seven innings. The control has been much improved. You start to look at the, you know, kind of stuff plus metrics.

I was surprised Sandy Alcantra's stuff plus is actually the highest it's ever been this season and his location plus is the lowest it's ever been. Yep. That makes perfect sense. That fits in. I don't quite buy that this is the best his stuff has ever been. I think, you know, he hasn't had the feel for his slider, especially. His sinker and foresemer have gotten hit hard.

But it was clear all along that it wasn't a question of stuff for Sandy O'Contra. It was command. And now it seems the command has locked in. Doing that against the Mets, yeah, I think you got to trust him against the Phillies. I think he looks really, really good. And I'm kind of expecting a load amid three ZRA the rest of the way for Sandy Alcounter. He looks great. And speaking of that Mets offense, I have to mention Juan Soto is a man possessed right now.

Just since Friday, it's seven hits, four homers, 11 RBI, and three steals. He did all of that in a four-game stretch here. I think it was four games. But yeah, it was a career-high, six RBI here on Monday for Soto. And he just finished up in August with 10 homers, 11 steals, and an OPS over 1,000. 11 steals is wild. 36 homers, 26 steals on the season for Juan Soto. Like, where did this come from?

This might end up being his best fantasy season. even with the 257 batting average. It might. Because what was his career hiring steals before this? 11, 16, something like that? That sounds, let's see. It is 12. There you go.

So, yeah, I mean, he's going to end up with a 40, 30 season out of nowhere. He's going to hit probably 265, 270 by the end of it. Yeah, he's having a great season. Don't worry about superstars when they struggle. they're gonna figure it out. And all of a sudden, he's the sixth best player in fantasy this season. There you go. Even with the 257 bat.

Him and Julio Rodriguez both just storming up those charts at the end. Yeah, Julio's all the way up to 15, and we'll talk about him a little bit later on as well. Reminder that if you haven't signed up for the FBT newsletter at this point, I mean, what are you doing? It's September, the season's almost over, but if you haven't, sign up. You can scan the QR code if you're watching on YouTube. You can go to CBSports.com slash newsletters, and you can sign up for free. You'll get a newsletter delivered to your inbox every weekday of the rest of the season.

And big thanks to those watching live on YouTube. Make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the YouTube channel if you haven't already. Let's take a break. When we return, we'll talk a little bit about roster expansion. We've got a ton of prospect promotions. We'll hit the news and notes. We'll do all of that right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball Today.

Here we are, September. Rosters expanded to 28, which means we got two promotions, two call-ups for every single team in baseball. Not every one of those was notable, obviously, but we did get a lot of big names as well. So the debacks were called Jordan Lawler. This actually came on Friday before September started, and he did start two games over the weekend. He went 0 for 4 in both of those, but he is still a top prospect in baseball. He was crushing it in the minors, 35% rostered with shortstop and 3%. third base eligibility.

Chris, where, if anywhere, should you be looking to add Jordan Lawler for the final month of the season? I could see maybe in a 12-team points league, not wanting to add him, but I think any categories league and any 15-team or 14-team league, you've got to add Jordan Lawler.

I feel like there is some, like, growing skepticism because he's been around since 20-23 at the major league level. He hasn't done anything at the major league level, league level. I understand that prospect fatigue is a real thing and some of you may not want to hear about Jordan Lawler anymore, but he really hasn't gotten a chance. Like he's never gotten consistent plate appearances at the major league level. He's got 64 total. 64 plate appearances basically tells you nothing about a player and he has a near 9, a near 1,000 OPS in his career at AAA. He's still only 22, I believe.

there is still a lot of reason to like Jordan Lawler and be excited about him. If he's available in any categories, I think you've got to go at him. Now, there are some questions about where he's going to be eligible next season, and I'm going to be fascinated to see how that shakes out because he has second base and shortstop eligibility right now.

I would guess he's not going to play much second base or shortstop with the guys that they have. We probably won him at third base for fantasy for next. Well, yeah, I think that might be the best case scenario for him is if you just place third base the rest of the way. So I think there's still a lot of reason to be excited about Jordan Lawler. Don't let his struggles at the major league level so far distract you or take you away from adding him.

I think he should be rostered pretty much everywhere. He actually did play here on Monday as well. He went 0 for 3 in that game too. So 0 for 11 since returning. And I'm reading here that he got lifted for defense. So that doesn't seem great either. So all right, look, growing Pays. but I think there is still a bunch of upside for Jordan Lawler.

Maybe it doesn't happen this season. I think it's probably going to happen at some point. Maybe it's next year for Jordan Lawler. The Reds promoted infielder Sal Stewart. Notice infielder. He kind of plays all over the place here, but he was in the lineup at first base batting sixth on Monday. He finished one for three with a run scored.

He's 21 years old, a first round pick back in 2022. This season in the minors was batting 309 with 20 home runs. 17 steals and a 907 OPS between AA and AAA, 23% rostered. He's second base eligible for now on CBS. Chris, any interest in Sal Stewart? A decent amount of interest. Yeah, he's had a very good season

at the minor league level. He was a first round pick. He's not old at all. I just, I don't quite know if he's going to play every day for the Reds because Brian Hayes has been much better. at third base. He's one of those guys that if the bat is just passable,

he will be a very useful player. That's Cabrian Hayes. And it has been since, yeah, it's more than passable since he got there. So, you know, that, that seemed like the place where Sal Stewart was going to end up. I think one of first or second base should be Sal Stewart's the rest of the way.

Just see if he can do it because they're not getting a ton from Spencer Steer. They've gotten basically nothing from Matt McLean all season. why not see if South Stewart can be a lineup mainstay for 2026? I think that's the most important thing for the Reds right now. So hopefully he plays and any 12-team Roto League or deeper. Again, points, it's probably too shallow for him to matter, but any 12-te-Roto or deeper, I would take a shot.

Yeah, I actually picked him up in Tout Wars, 15-Team mixed-Roto with O-B-P and, yeah, threw him right in the lineup there. So I'm excited. based on what he did in the minors, look, sometimes it takes these guys a couple of months of scuffling to figure things out, but, you know,

playing in that ballpark, you never know. We'll see what South Stewart can do, but he is a very exciting prospect. The Cubs promoted outfielder Kevin Alcansra and sent Owen Casey back to AAA, and Alcansra is 23 years old, huge raw power, but that hasn't really translated to big production in the minors.

Not really sure how much he's going to play, So for me, Chris, this is more of, let's see how much he plays. Let's see what he does when he's in there. But it's more of a kind of scout team and let's see what happens. Yeah, just kind of the same issue with Owen Casey, right? There's nowhere for him to play. And Owen Casey's the better prospect. So if he wasn't playing, I doubt Alcounter is going to play much.

Yeah, same could be said for Harry Ford, who was promoted by the Mariners. He is a catcher prospect 22 years old, first round pick back in 2021, was having a strong season in the miners, 283, 16 homers, seven steals, 868 OPS, very athletic for a catcher. So at some point, if he has catch eligibility and, you know, he could swipe a few bags. Obviously, that's very intriguing for fantasy. But the Mariners have this guy named Cal Raleigh. So. Yeah, that sounds right.

Yeah, don't really know how Harry Ford's going to play. Yeah, Harry Ford has played a very small amount of outfield this season. eight games there before that he had never played any other position in the minors so i don't know he had he was one of those guys who had a lot of hype a couple years ago last year really fell on hard times and you know maybe it's really hard with catchers right like you have to be so good to not be a catcher to be a catcher as a prospect and not play catcher in the majors if that makes sense um i don't know if his bat has quite that much juice maybe the athleticist is gives him a chance to play at some other position,

but I think it's going to be hard for him to matter for fantasy right now, at least. Yeah, a couple other casher prospects here that also got promoted. The Royals called up Carter Jensen, who is 22 years old, a third round of pick back in 2021. And this season in the minors, 290 with 20 homers, 10 steals, 878 OPS. Again, not really sure how he's going to play. First Base DH catcher, all filled by Salvador Perez,

Vinnie Pasquantino, and Jack Caglione, who just came off the IL and the Cardinals promoted catcher prospect Jimmy Crooks who actually started on Sunday hit his first career home run it's a little bit more open here Pedro Pahez is there and you know he's been starting but Cardinals are a team I think more so looking towards the future and and maybe they could get a little bit more playing time here for Jimmy Crooks any deep league interest in either of those Carter Jensen Jimmy Crooks well you know they're not going to play him part time because there's no such thing as halfway crooks. Hey, yeah, I don't think either Jensen or Crooks is someone you need to add right now,

but I would lean towards Crooks having a better path to playing time. It's just his minor league track record's not so impressive that I think you need to get ahead of it. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think either of these guys is likely to matter very much for fantasy. Yeah, I think all three of, Crooks, Jensen, and Harry Ford. Their names in deeper two catcher leagues, 15-team Roto, where, I mean, you're scraping the bottom of the barrel.

If you lost a player to injury or just have really bad production from that second catcher, but yeah, it's mostly just kind of a wait and see on those three names. And the last one here, the Guardians promoted former top outfield prospect, George Valera, who was once upon a time ranked as a top 50 overall prospect. he's dealt with a bunch of injuries, lack of production. He's now 24 years old, played 44 games this season in the minors,

hit 318, 7 homers, 938 OPS. He actually was in the lineup here on Monday for the Guardians, and maybe the path is a little bit more open for him. Any deep league interest in George Valera? I think there's definitely a chance he plays pretty regularly for the Guardian, so that helps. It's a kind of profile where it's like the bat feels a little fring you know, like the exit

velocities are decent right around 90 miles an hour, max ex velo right around 112. So it's not like there's no pop. There's like above average pop. Is there enough if he's not going to hit for a high batting average? Is there enough if he's not going to steal any bases, which he hasn't done this season?

I think this is definitely a wait and see kind of situation. All right, let's get into the news and notes from the weekend. A bunch of injuries and things to update. you on. Mackenzie Gore went on the aisle with left shoulder inflammation. He said he intends to pitch again this season, but I would bet against that. Probably not going to happen for McKenzie Gore. Edward Cabrero went on the aisle with a right elbow sprain, which might explain some of his recent struggles. Hopefully it's not a worst case scenario that requires any type of surgery. I think the obvious answer is for the Marlins to call up Robbie Snelling, but they

just pass on him once for Adam Majer. So not sure. Yeah, I mean, I guess they've had three starters go on the IL in the past week, I think. Ryan Weathers did make a rehab start here on Sunday, I believe, and looked very, or Monday. It's Monday. He probably needs one more, but I would guess he's back in the rotation fairly soon. And then they've got guys at AAA. I don't know if they, you know, if any of the guys at AAA,

make sense to call up instead of Robbie Snelling. I kind of think it should be him, but I don't know. Yeah, I don't know who else it would be, though. Because they've, Thomas White is at AAA for the end of the season. So is Dax Fulton, but neither of those guys should be called up. They're further away and struggling this year in Fulton's case. Anybody in the bullpen?

No, I mean, you're right. They probably just go bullpen game for, another turn and then call up Weathers. That's only if they don't want to promote Robbie Snelling for whatever reason. Yeah. Yeah. Weather's made a rehab start on Saturday. Two in two-thirds innings, two runs, six strikeouts to two walks. So he does need a little bit more time to get built up there. Corey Seeger went on the IL after undergoing an appendectomy last Thursday. He's hoping to return for the final couple games of the season. Fernando Tatez Jr. felt a little hamstring tightness on Sunday. And then he was scratched from the

lineup on Monday. So that is something to watch there with Tatis. Cole Reagan's completed a 40 pitch bullpen on Saturday. He's supposed to face live hitters this week and then hopefully go out on a rehab assignment, but we are, we're up against it here. It's September 2nd. Maybe we get, you know, two or three starts from Regens, you know, the final couple weeks of the season, something like that. Pablo Lopez was excellent in his final rehab start at AAA this weekend and is expected to start this week against the Royals. Wherever I had Pablo Lopez, I just put him back in the lineup, Chris, because he's usually a must-star pitcher and he looked really good on his rehab. So I would expect that. Yep. Yep. Zander Bogarts went on the IL Friday with a non-displaced fracture in his left foot.

Jose Iglesias has been playing shortstop in his place. Trevor McGill, who is on the aisle with a flexor strain, has a bullpen scheduled for this Thursday. And when he first went on the IL, he said he's going to do everything he can to be back when first eligible. So we'll see if that's the case. Looks like he's got a chance. That's surprising, but yeah. All right. Nick Kurtz has missed three straight with oblique discomfort.

It turns out Randy Rodriguez needs Tommy John surgery, which is a bummer for one of the breakout relievers this season. He's now likely to miss all of next season as well. So if you have picked up Ryan Walker, my guess is he's just the closer for the rest of the season. A roll of this Chapman and the Red Sox agreed to a one-year 13.3 million extension with a vesting option

for 2027. Let me see what happened here on Monday. He pitched again. He did not allow a hit. I'm pretty sure Chapman has not allowed a hit in the past month, Chris.

I saw it was like 15 straight appearances as of yesterday. That's pretty bonkers. This is the best that he's pitched in his entire career. And he is 30. seven years old. It's pretty wild.

I mean, I heard the broadcast talking about Hall of Fame. I mean, the resume is there, but I mean, there are some other extracurriculars, you know? On the mound, I think he's absolutely in the discussion. I think the off-field stuff is going to make it more difficult for him. Yeah.

Just, wow. Crazy, crazy season for a roll of Chapman. MLB and MLB Players Association announced that Emmanuel Class A. and Luis Ortiz will remain on non-disciplinary paid leave until further notice while they continue that sports betting investigation. Max Scher pitched through upper back tightness on Sunday, which probably contributed to his rough outing there.

We haven't really heard an update so far, so I don't really know if Scherzer is starting this week or not. Wherever I had him, I took him out of the lineup, just because, you know, he's dealt with a bunch of injuries the past couple of years. And he's not... He's been useful, but he's not so good that you need to run the risk of getting a zero there. He was pitching really well from a results perspective, but some of the underlying stuff hasn't been great for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. Taylor Ward left Sunday after a scary collision in the outfield with the outfield wall. He was out of the lineup Monday, and my guess is he'll miss the next couple of days as well. Lord Escobreel was carted off the field Monday while trying to avoid Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch in the outfield. Adelis Garcia also left Monday with an apparent leg injury. Kodi Isanga might be removed from the Mets rotation as they tried to hold on to a playoff spot here in September.

And he allowed five earned runs over four and two-thirds against the Marlins this weekend. And in nine starts since coming off the aisle, 590 ERA 169 whip, still 85% rostered. I understand, Chris, that there are some teams at this point that are just not paying attention, you know, football's starting up, you might be out of it. Kodi Senga might be part of the reason why you're out of it right now. But he should not be 85% roster.

Not at all, no. It's been clear for a long time. He was never pitching as well as his results before the injury. It's kind of frustrating that the injury is the dividing line between like a sub 2 ERA and what he's become since then. Because I think there are going to be a lot of people who, say, well, before the injury, he was an ace. And I don't think he was pitching like that,

even though the results were there. The peripherals did not back it up. So, yeah, I think he's droppable in almost every league. Emmett Sheehan is having his next turn in the rotation skipped. The Dodgers currently have a six-man rotation, so they can afford to give Sheehan the extra rest there. Jason Adam left Monday with a ruptured left quad tendon, and that is just brutal.

You hate to see it. Big loss for the Padres bullpen here. For the Orioles, their pitcher Tyler Wells is set for his season debut on Tuesday. He's working his way back from elbow surgery. And six rehab starts at 249 ERA, a 111 whip. And he was pretty good back in 2023. 3% roster, deep league name here. Chris, any interest in Tyler Wells?

Deep league interest. Yeah, I think 3% roster is too low. you know those like Parker Messick types I would guess Parker Messick has a little more upside but that's I think the kind of range you're talking about where it's not a must roster in all leagues but 15 team leagues you should probably take a flyer on Tyler Wells and just see I don't think he's likely to be as good as he was in 2023 but a 380-ish ERA and 8K per 9 that seems reasonable for Tyler Wells if he's right The Phillies signed Walker Bueller to a minor league deal after the Red Sox released him last week. The Braves claimed Hassan Kim, who was placed on waivers by the Rays. And if he gets playing time, they don't really have a shortstop. He's a name to look at an NL-only league's there. Again, that's Hassan Kim who signed with the Braves.

Riley O'Brien has been shut down from throwing after undergoing an MRI on his sore right shoulder. Kyle Leahy picked up the save on Saturday that's spelled L-E-A-H-Y, if you're looking for that. with Jojo Romero pitching the seventh and eighth innings. I still think the Cardinals' bullpen is pretty fluid. There's no kind of set closer right now. But I think Romero's at the top, and then maybe it's Kyle Leahy just behind him right now. Kyle Harrison could make his Red Sox debut this week.

And 11 starts with the Red Sox AAA affiliate, 365 ERA 156 whip, 11% rostered. Anything here, Chris, with Kyle Harrison? I have never been a Kyle Harrison believer. It's a fastball heavy approach with a fastball that's not that good. The Red Sox have a decent reputation for developing pitching, but I didn't see enough in his minor league rehab assignment to think that they changed that. Substantially, his command has always been bad.

Look, I just said Tyler Wells is somewhat interesting. I think Kyle Harrison is more talented than Tyler Wells. So if those are your options, I would take a flyer on Kyle Harrison. but my expectations are not especially high now. The Blue Jays claimed Isaiah Kiner Folefa off waivers. He'll serve in a bench utility role. The Cubs picked up Carlos Santana after he was cut loose by the Guardians. Santana will also likely just serve a bench roll here.

And a bunch of other players who went on the aisle this long weekend, Alec Berluson with right wrist inflammation, Jonathan India with a left wrist brain, Carson Wisenhunt with a back strain, Tyler Anderson with a left oblique strain, Ryan Gusto with a right shoulder inflammation, impingement, Dane Myers with a right oblique strain, and Miguel Vargas with a left handspring. And with that, Chris, I will throw it over to you for the dog of the week.

And the dog of the week is Brandon Woodruff, who, you know, we were really skeptical when he was coming up. And coming back from that shoulder injury, he was averaging like 93 miles per hour, but the results were good. He comes up. First five starts, results are incredible. looked like he hadn't missed a beat. And I was fully ready to say I was wrong about Brandon Woodruff. Then I don't know what happened. There was that one start where he pitched on four days rest. And it's just been everything's gone poorly since then for him.

This weekend, he was at Toronto, tough matchup, four and a third innings, 10 hits, five earned runs, two walks, three strikeouts. Average fastball velocity was down a full mile per hour to 92 miles per hour. He has not, I think he has one start in his last five. with more than five innings or at least five innings finished. He's been pulled in the fifth inning and two of the other three. I don't know, man. It's, I don't have a good explanation for why it's gone wrong, except he was getting away with it before the last few starts,

and now he's not getting away with it. That doesn't feel like a compelling explanation, though, because if you just look at August, like, the four-seem fastball expected stats, expect Wob was still around 300. Same for the sinker. The whiff rates are okay. They're not terrible. They're about, I think it's like 28% still for the four-seamer in the month of August.

I don't think he's as bad as he's been lately. I think he's probably not as good as he was early on either. Yeah, it's a tough one. I kind of go back to that same start that you were talking about that he made on four days' rest, against the pirates on August 13th. Four shutout innings with four strikeouts, but he was okay in that start, and then they just kind of pulled him early.

I think it was like after 65 or 70 pitches. Yeah, it was his first start on four days' rest. That's what they said. And they said afterwards that it was planned to be that way. But, you know, with a guy that's still coming back from a shoulder injury, I always have a little bit of skepticism there in mind. And in the three starts after that,

It was an 816 ERA, a 181 whip. I think there has been some unluckiness involved. A 413 BABIP, 45% left on base percentage. But look, he was like a 200 Babbup and a 90% strand rate. Yeah. So those things were going to regress, but I think it went too far the other way now. And it's not like he's giving up a ton of hard contact overall. So I think you just look at the overall numbers and it's a 369 ERA and a 355-5.

Yeah. I mean, it kind of feels right. Like, okay, he's not an 11k per 9. That's probably still going to regress a little bit. But if he's, you know, 10K per 9 and a good whip and a useful ERA, that's probably what I expect from Brandon Woodruff, but I don't feel very comfortable starting him this week. I don't know what the matchup is. That was the next question.

Actually, no, the schedule is really good for him coming up. It's like the pirates. Yeah, I think it's Pittsburgh, St. Louis. and there's one other easy start in there. Let me see if I can find it real quick. Angels. Yeah, next three starts of pirates, Cardinals, Angels, and then I think it would be his last start of the season

is against the Cardinals again or someone. So the schedule's pretty helpful for Brandon Woodruff was just kind of not helpful because you'd feel better if you could just sit him right now. I'd lean start against the Pirates if I have to make that decision right now. Yeah, yeah, I agree. That was, if you're not starting him at the Pirates,

why are you holding him up? Why are you holding on to it for the final month of the season, right? So, look, these last three matchups have been a little bit tougher too. So I think at the Pirates, perhaps Woodruff could get back on track. If he struggles in that one, then I think maybe we have to have a more serious conversation about just not using him or maybe even dropping Woodruff

because there's just not that much time left in the season. Chris, my final question to you, who was worse this weekend? Woodruff or Bill Belichick in his North Carolina head coaching debut? Man, there's just no way this is going to work out. This is a 73-year-old man

coaching at the college level for the first time. I love that he did his like, I'm not going to release my depth chart. They printed out a blank depth chart in the press box, and it's like, dude, that's not why you were good. This grumpy, like, er, like, I hate performance. formative grumpiness. And the Belichicks are the most performatively grumpy people in America.

So I will be rooting for their downfall this season, unfortunately. All right, let's take our final break. I think I have, I don't know, 20 more pages of notes here on the rundown. So we'll get to that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's run through some waiver wire hitters. A lot of names that we've talked about recently, but they continue to hit well. shallow league third baseman.

Colson Montgomery hit two more home runs this weekend. He's up to 16 homers in 47 games. We keep saying he can't keep getting away with this, but somehow he's kind of still getting away with this. Royce Lewis has been much better of late last 14 games, hitting 250 with five homers, two steals, and OPS around 850, and Jorge Polanco homered twice this weekend.

And the last 10 games for him, 333, four homers, one steal, 93.1 average exit velocity. Pretty good stuff there from Polanco, Chris. How are you ranking these three? Montgomery, Royce Lewis, Polanco. I guess in that order. I don't believe in Colson Montgomery. I think in the bold predictions episode,

I said something about how he's going to be overdrafted next year. I'm not going to really have a ton of interest in this all-or-nothing profile that he's brought to the table so far, at least for 2026. But right now, there's not enough season left, so I'm fine with just riding the hot hand. seeing if he can avoid the regression. I think it's going to be pretty ugly when the home run stop, and he's got like a 24% 25% home run to fly ball ratio,

which is the kind of mark that only truly elite hitters manage. Now, he's got some stuff going for him. He hits the ball to the pole side in the air a ton. He hits the ball pretty hard, although not like elite power. So I think in the long run, it's going to be a pretty ugly, overall line for Coulson Montgomery, but just ride the hot hand. I think it's fine. All right, some medium-sized third base eligible players.

Caleb Durbin, a big game on Monday, one for four, with a sock and a shoe, his 10th home run, his 12th steal. Last 20 games for him, he's hitting 260 with five homers, two steals, and OPS around 800. And Josh Young looks like he might be coming back to life again. Last nine games, he's hitting 474 with two home runs, massive exit velocities as well. I realized I wrote medium-sized third baseman.

And then put Caleb Durbin. Yeah, like Caleb Durbin's a pretty small dude. He's a very small-sized third baseman in medium-sized leagues is what I meant to say. I was going to say something about that too. Who do you like more between these two, Durbin and Josh Young? I have more faith in Josh Young as a power hitter. I guess Durbin's got a little more well-rounded of a skill set, but I don't really buy him as an above-average major league hitter. He's another guy who's doing the pull-air thing

that's helping him get the most out of what is frankly well below average power. So I don't know, the brewers have some kind of organizational magic going on and they have a ton of these same type of like middling to poor power middle infielders who somehow can hit for a little bit of power. I think I'd take Young over Durbin. All right, some shallow league outfielders here. Trent Grisham continues his tear.

Last 30 games, he has 11 homers, a 375 on base percentage, a 932 OPS, crazy exit velocity's for him. He's up to 70% rostered, but kind of just feels like that number should be 100%, the way that Trent Grisham is playing right now and, you know, leading all for a Yankees offense that's hitting pretty well. And Josh Lowe is waking back up for the raise. Two for three with two homers on Saturday. He had two more hits on Sunday. last 10 games for him, 308, two homers, four steals. Chris, who do you like more between Trent Grisham and Josh Lowe?

Unless you need steals, it's absolutely Grisham. He's been significantly better this season. Frankly, Josh Lowe hasn't been very good since 2023. I know there have been a lot of injuries, but he's been on the field quite a lot this season now, and he just has not been very impressive. So I think in a Roto League, Josh Lowe's an okay outfielder, but I don't have much interest in him outside of the stolen base upside. All right. Next up, Kyle Manzardo keeps on hitting home runs.

He had three home runs over the weekend. Last 38 games. He's hitting 272 with 11 homers, 28 RBI and OPS over 900. And he is up to 24 home runs for the season. 44% rostered. Chris, do you think that number should be higher for Kyle Manzardo? I think so. I get why it's not because he still doesn't play quite every day.

I guess in August he probably played a lot closer to every day. So I see he got 96 plate appearances in August that was matched his season high. I don't know. The batting average has been a little better 269 since the start of the second half. But it's still a pretty all or nothing profile for Kyle Manzardo. You know, it's like a 28% strikeout rate. So, yeah, I think as a corner infielder in a Roto League, he's an okay ad, but probably still just a hot hand play. Nonetheless, I don't know what happened there, man.

If I'm reading this correctly, Kyle Manzardo has started against one lefty since the end of June. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. Maybe they just went on a run where they just played a bunch of righties here in August. But, I mean, to his credit, he's taking advantage and he's doing some good things there. So if you need power in a league with corner infielders or whatever, Kyle Manzardo is definitely a name that you should look at. Some deeper league names here. Brian Hayes, who we mentioned earlier, actually hitting better with the Reds.

29 games since joining the team, 274, three homers, two steals, and OPS near 800. Drew Gilbert, who came over to the Giants in the Tyler Rogers trade with the New York Mets. He had a three-hit game on Sunday and then a four-hit game with a home run here on Monday as well. Blaze Alexander is doing some nice things for the debacks. Last 28 games, 253, seven home runs and OPS around 900. Luis Matos has looked great since rejoining the Giants. 432, batting average, three homers, two steals, and 10 games since coming back. And a gentleman named Jeremiah Jackson, who plays for the Orioles, is,

making some noise here. He hit a home run on Saturday, another home run on Monday. He has started 12 straight games. He has hit second in all 12 of those, and he is a former second round pick way back in 2018. So finally getting a chance to play, mostly very deep league names here, Chris,

but any of that stand out to you, Jeremiah Jackson, Luis Matos, Blaze Alexander, Drew Gilbert, Key Brian Hayes. I actually think Jeremiah Jackson might be the most interesting here, which sort of tells you how interesting the rest of the group is. But, you know, Jackson has good bat to ball skills.

It's been around a 20% strikeout rate in a little higher, 25% strikeout rate. It's gone up over the last couple of days. But it was like a 14% strikeout rate at AAA. Average exit velocity, 91 miles per hour. So there is a little bit of pop here. I could see Jeremiah Jackson settling in as like a useful, you know, in the Orioles perspective,

more like a Jorge Mateo type who just kind of plays every day somewhere. But for our perspective, there could be like a 15-15 with a decent batting average upside here, which matters in a 15-team Roto League. I don't have a ton of faith in the rest of these guys. Like Blake's Alexander, we've seen good couple of weeks stretches from him before, but it never lasts. I don't think he's an especially impressive. talent. I guess he's going to play a lot of DH if Jordan Lawler is playing third base. I know

that was the way they had it today. It was Alexander at DH and then he replaced Lawler at third late in the game. And then Luis Matos has been really good. There's a little bit of prospect pedigree there. So I think Jackson, Matos, and Alexander are all kind of interesting hot hand plays, but not more much more than that. And I think even in 12 team leagues, none of these guys really matter. All right, let's get some updates here on these young pitchers that we've been talking a lot about lately, rookie pitchers, Cam Schlittler and Hurston Walser. Two more good starts for these two. Schlittler at the White Sox, six innings one run, eight strikeouts. And that's three quality starts in a row with eight strikeouts in each. And last six starts, 160 ERA, 0.98 whip here.

much better control as well for Cam Schlittler. Hurston Waldrip at the Phillies this weekend. Five and two thirds, one run, nine strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 102 pitches. That have been a little bit more hiccups here lately with Waldrip. You know, the walks were a problem in this start. Well, not really a problem because the final line was okay. They were.

For the whip, you know, like a 155 whip or whatever it was in this game. That's not super helpful. Yeah, Schlitler, that fastball is awesome. And if the cutter can be a legit swing and miss pitch like it was today, that's huge because it so far it's kind of just been the fastball that's looked up to it. And that can get you far, but I think it can lead to some problems as well, especially pitching in a good home park for hitters.

But what we've seen from Klam Schlittler so far, the stuff looks really good. The command has been better than expected. I don't see a lot of holes to poke in Kams Schlitler. So I'm pretty excited about him moving forward. I might put him ahead of Hurston Waldrop, who seems to have plateaued a little bit over the past couple of starts, two starts ago. The results have still been good.

I think it was one run in each of the last two starts. But two starts ago, I think it was one strikeout or zero strikeouts from remembering correctly. And then this one, the strikeouts were there, but the walks were really high, four and five and two-thirds innings. And he basically didn't have anything but the splitter. And that's been the concern for him. He has this expanded arsenal right now. It's been working for him.

But as the scouting reports get out, as hitters see more of him, does the rest of the arsenal have enough? Or does he really have to rely on that splitter? The problem there being, even the pitchers with really, really good splitters historically, you think of someone like Kevin Gosman, has always struggled with consistency because that's a really tough pitch to throw for strikes, especially. So if that's your only good pitch and you fall behind 2-0, all of a sudden you can't really throw your splitter. Or you kind of have to try to float it into the zone, and that can get you into trouble.

So it's a tough approach to make work. And I do think I'd give the edge to Schlittler right now. All right, a couple other rookie pitchers. Luis Morales, another strong start. This one at the Cardinals, 5 in 2 thirds, two runs loud, eight strikeouts to one walk. And over his last four starts, 23 and 23. two-thirds, four runs allowed, 26 strikeouts to five walks.

He has been really, really good lately there for the athletics. Ian Seymour, a mixed start, his second timeout at the Nationals. Five innings, four hits, four runs, but only one of those earned eight strikeouts to one walk, 16 whiffs on 82 pitches, and he's looked really good since joining the Ray's rotation. Not sure that they'll let him throw more than five innings regularly, but the skills look really, really nice there for Ian Seymour. And Parker Messick, it turns out he's human, after all, a rough outing at the Red Sox, three and two thirds, nine hits, three runs, two walks and two strikeouts.

Did not have his fastball or changeup working, and those are his two best pitches. So it was not a good start for him. Chris, how are you, what are your updated rankings of those three there, Morales, Messick, and Ian Seymour? I think I'd still go Messick, Morales, Seymour. Messick, I think a lot of it just came down to he didn't have the change up. And if he doesn't have the change up, I think it's going to be really tough for him. Just being a lefty with not great stuff, you know, he's going to have to have that change up to keep righties off balance.

I still don't quite get Luis Morales' success so far. I think he's talented. I like watching him pitch. He's not really missing a lot of bats. It's 8.4% swinging strike rate. The overall whiff rate when you go pitch by pitch, the slider is high, but it's a very small. I mean, it's a very small sample size all the way across.

But I just don't quite know what to make of this success because he wasn't great at AAA either, Luis Morales. I don't know. I'm struggling with it. Obviously, the results are great. And if you want to just ride it and play the hot hand and keep going with that, I think that's reasonable. And the Monday start did see him miss a lot more bats with the sweeper and slider,

which I think is probably the way it's going to have to go. He gets a ton of lateral movement on his sweeper especially. Like we're talking like 20 inches plus with that pitch. And so that should be a very good swing and miss pitch. Both should be. And if they can be, I think there's a lot to like. I don't know if I trust the command. I don't know if I trust the fastball.

but I'm fine riding him. He's got a good matchup against the Angels this week. I think it's fine to use Luis Morales for that one. All right, so let's take this group of five and we'll add Peyton Tolly and Jonah Tong to this list. So now we have those two. We have Schlittler, Waldrip, Morales, Messick, and Ian Seymour. All right, it's a bunch of names here, Chris, but...

So all the ones in this section, or did we include... All, one, two, three, four, five? in this segment plus toli and tong. Tong toly Schlittler Waldrip as a top tier. I don't specific order in that tier

I think I'd go Tong tolly Schlittler at the top with Waldrip 4th, but if you want to go Waldrop at the top, I can't argue too much I think that's a tier. Then I would go Messick Morales and Seymour is the last one. I think Seymour there's a gap just,

a lot of it's just the raise of it all. Like we know they're going to get a lot out of him. We also know there's going to be a limit to how much they get out of him because they're only going to throw him five innings. So that's, yeah, I think that's the way I'd go. All right. A couple of their waiver wire pitchers here, two names in shallower leagues.

Christian Javier, a great start against the Angels, six no-hit innings with six strikeouts to three walks. It's kind of been a weird return for Javier. He had that first good start when he first came off the IL. The next two seemed like maybe they were affected by illness. And then there was this start where he was really good again. And the velocity was there. So maybe it was just the illness that kind of messed up those two starts in between.

And Jack Leiter has been pitching better of late. A quality start at the athletics. Six innings, two runs, two walks, seven strikeouts. Had 12 whiffs in this one that's back-to-back quality starts for lighter. 17 strikeouts to just two walks over his last two. So that's pretty notable. He gets the debacks this week. It's a tough matchup, but he's pitching better, Chris.

Any interest in Leiter or Christian Javier? Yeah, any interest? Yes, I think both are pretty interesting. I don't really have a lot of faith in Leiter being more than interesting right now. The change-up has looked good the past couple of starts. It's such a small sample size, and we've seen a lot of him not being very impressive this season that given the number of other interesting young pitchers

out there right now, I don't really feel a need to run out and grab Jack Leiter. He's 69% rostered. Even that relative to other pitchers, he's less than Luis Morales. I think I'd rather just take the flyer on Luis Morales. Then Christian Javier. I mean, this was just a classic Christian Javier start, right?

Like this dude, was it, did he have three no hitters in 2021? Am I remembering that correctly, including the postseason? I think he had, he, or was like part of no hit, like part of multiple no hitters. He definitely had one. He had the, the World Series no hitter. That sounds right. Right? I'm not making that up.

It was a long time ago, you know, Chris. Well, that was a while ago. But I think he was at least part of multiple no hitters. He's just because of the, the, the, way his fastball plays, he avoids hits really well. It always has. I think he's looked very good so far. I've been impressed. The command, the control hasn't been great, but I think a lot of it you can chalk up to that one really bad start. I feel pretty good about Christian Javier right now. I am, I'm digging in. Yeah, they definitely had a combined no hitter in the World Series against

the Phillies. That was back in 2022. and then did he do one by himself? He had a no-hitter against the Yankees that year. In 2022. Seven no-hit innings with 13 strikeouts at the Yankees earlier that season. Yeah, I mean, look, it's been a while since we've seen Javier be this effective, but the velocity's back up.

So there is a chance that, you know, he's not all the way back to that level, but I'm saying there's a chance for, for Christian Javier. Two names in medium-sized leagues here. Shane Smith, another strong start this time against the Yankees, six and a third innings, two runs with seven strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 97 pitches,

and in six starts since returning, 267 ERA.95 whip. And Justin Verlander turned back the clocks. What a weird start against the wheels. Weird start, yeah. Five shutout innings, four walks, 10 strikeouts, 23 whiffs. that's great. 121 pitches to get through five innings.

That is so weird for Verlander. But last eight starts for him, it's a 298 ERA, 128 whip, 10K per 9. Any medium league interest in Shane Smith or Verlander? Shane Smith is purely as a spark, depending on if he has good matchups. At the Twins this week, I like it. Yeah, at the Twins this week.

The problem is it's almost never a six-firm. full-ending start. He's not going to win many games. So I think he's very fringy as a spark in one-start weeks and is useful in two-start weeks. I don't know if the schedule works out. I guess he might get a two-start week two-week two weeks from now. I don't know how the schedule works out, but that's possible. And if he does, I think it'll be useful. But other than that, there are too many interesting pitchers out there right now. Kind of feel the same about Verlander. And I also just really worry that the next start after this,

there's going to be a price to pay for throwing 121 pitches in five innings. That's some like 1998 stuff. I don't know if Justin Verlander even has ever done that as long as he's been around. So yeah, I would guess there's going to be a hangover for his next start. We did have a season debut this weekend as well.

Luis Garcia of the Astros. He returned from Tommy John surgery that he had back in 2013. So it's been a long road back. quality start here against the Angels, six innings, three runs, six strikeouts, zero walks. He looked very good on his rehab assignment. His last full season came back in 2022, where he was pretty effective and useful for fantasy.

27% rostered for Luis Garcia here. Chris, any interest in Luis Garcia? I'm extremely annoyed that there are now three Luis Garcia's in Major League Baseball again. Yeah, that's true. I don't know, he was never a great pitcher. He always maxed out at pretty good. His velocity was way down in this first one. So again, part of it is just if this discussion were happening three or four weeks ago,

when we were kind of going through a fallow period at pitcher, there's these like four weeks swings where we go through like there's a ton of interesting pitchers. And then most of those guys stunk or got hurt. And then there's nobody interesting for a few weeks And we're like, I guess we can stream whatever And now we're in a really interesting stretch With a lot of young pitchers So Garcia would be a pretty low priority for me right now

Two names in deeper leagues Andrew Alvarez of the Nationals Made his Major League debut Five shutout innings with four strikeouts And Martin Perez He's pitching well for the White Sox He's doing it He's doing it six innings, two runs

seven strikeouts against the Yankees here. Any deep league interest in those two? Andrew Alvarez, Martine Perez. I went to Montreal for a friend's bachelor party a couple of weeks ago, and we played roulette. And my friend, who is a really smart dude, kept looking at the little video board next to the roulette table. And I think at one point, I had like, black had won six times in a row,

and he was like, now's the time for red. And I was like, brother, that's not how it works. not. This is literally the gamblish fallacy. Don't do that. Like, Martin Perez is not very good. He's a, he's a major league pitcher who's been around for a long time and goes through these stretches. It has never proven sustainable, especially in the latter half of his career. So if you want to keep betting on black, and maybe it'll come up the next time and it'll work out. But the problem here is Martin Perez has a 464 XERA. When it goes bad, it's going to go really, really bad, especially with the white socks backing him up.

He's not going to get a lot of help. So I just think at some point there's going to be a 1.2 inning seven or run start out there. And it's up to you if you think Martine Perez's upside is worth chasing when you know the downside is out there. And it's going to come at some point. I just don't really do that. Yeah. All right. We are going to go a little bit long here.

No surprise. we're again recapping four days worth of baseball, but let's try and do rapid fire for some of these segments. The dropometer, 1 to 10. Just give me a number, quick analysis here, Chris. Seth Lugo, another rough start. Second half ERA is 751 with a 178 whip. Where is Seth Lugo on the dropometer?

9. He's been bad for a really long time now. Next up, Sean Maniah, who allowed five runs over three and two-thirds inning. The strikeout to walk ratio continues to look amazing, but he's getting hit hard. He's not going deep into starts. He's got a 560 ERA.

Where is Sean Mania on the dropometer? Seven. All those young guys, Luis Morales, even Parker Messick, maybe Ian Seymour, especially in a points league, I'd rather have them than Sean Minai right now. I don't know if I should be asking about this one. I think I brought it up to Scott last week,

and he's like, nope, I still can't drop him. I think I would drop him. Dylan Cese. has gone six innings once in the second half of the season. And he just continues to be very inefficient. He's got a 481 ERA, 134 whip. Terrible year, Chris. 96% roster, Dylan Cease on the dropometer.

I'm not going to do it. I can't blame you if you do. So that's a five if I've ever heard one. Yeah, I mean, you don't have to, it's not like a must drop, but man, if he's like the worst pitcher on your roster and you're trying to pick up one of these young, exciting rookie types. Like, yeah, maybe. He might just have to go.

What about Luis Castillo? Another rough one this time at the raise. Four innings, five runs aloud. And over his last four starts, 19 earned runs, over 17 innings pitched for Luis Castillo. Where is he on the dropometer? I don't think you should drop him, but I think we're seeing that the diminishing skills have,

caught up with him. His velocity in the month of August, I want to say I saw it was like the lowest it's ever been in a month for Luis Castillo. His average exit velocity allowed was also like, it might have been higher than his actual velocity for his fastball. If not, it was like right around 94 miles per hour. So I think he's just a spot starter now. I think he's just someone, if the matchups right, if he's at home, you can use him. But Luis Castillo does not need to be in your rotation every time. And lastly, David Peterson was destroyed by the Marlins. He allowed eight runs over two innings here.

He's allowed six plus earned runs in two of his last four outings. The walks have been a big problem lately. He's mostly been really reliable this season. So it's not a bus drop, but what do you think about David Peterson on the dropometer? Look, I don't believe in it. I've not believed in it for a long time and it hasn't worked out for me. and maybe he'll just continue making me look stupid, but the XERA is 428.

He has outpitched his peripherals by a lot, and Seth Lugo is a good example. You can outpitch your peripherals for a while, but when you're outpitching your peripherals by like a run, that's really hard to sustain for a long time. He hurts you and whip, even when things are going well. I remain unimpressed by David Peterson, but I've been that way for a long time,

and he's been very valuable this season. So if you don't want to take my analysis seriously on that, I totally believe it. I'm not dropping him, but I don't have as much faith in him as a lot of people do. Are these hitters back for the stretch run of the season? I have a bunch of arbitrary endpoints because, of course, that's what I do. Mark Vientos stayed hot last 15 games, 316 batting average, eight homers, a 1201 OPS.

He is up to 79% rostered. Maybe Raphael Devers is finally healthy. Maybe he's just finally getting settled in with the Giants. Because over his last 27 games, he's hitting 306 with 10 homers and an OPS around 1050. Willie Adonis is waking back up. Last 16 games for him, 283, 8 home runs, four seals, and OPS over 1,000. Jacob Wilson looks like he is healthy once again. Nine games since returning.

He's hitting 378 with 2 home runs, 10 RBI, and OPS around 1,000. and Ozzy Albies last 18 games, 324, four homers, 17 RBI, one steel, an OPS over 900. And there was a report, kind of speculation, that maybe his wrist is finally healthy. He had a fractured wrist last year, speculation that it was still affecting him earlier this year. So, I don't know, maybe Ozzy Albies is just finally healthy, Chris. Is this group back? Yes, Endeavors, that's the easiest one. super long track record.

You need to see a lot of struggle from Rafael Devers before you change your view of his underlying talent level and he's probably going to end up having roughly similar numbers this season as he always does. Maybe the batting average will be a little lower because I know he's only heading 250

since getting to the Giants, but it's pretty close to a 30 homer pace with the Giants now, right? He's at 29. It's like, I looked at his numbers today and said, are you kidding me? I thought Devers is having this terrible year. Yeah, it's like a, what, 850 OPS? 264, 29 homers, 94 RBI, 873 OPS with a month to go.

We're probably going to get, you know, 270, 275, 35 homers, and like a 900 OPS from Devers. Yeah, it's, it is really hard to remember it in the moment. But guys with the track record that Raphael Devers have almost always end up with their numbers within a range of their normal outcomes. You know, every season is different. You get highs and lows. Some guys have slumps, but super star caliber players get their numbers. And unless there's a really compelling reason, I think you should just always keep the faith in guys like this. And we already saw Devers pull out of one even worse slump.

So I think he was probably less than 100% for a while dealing with that back injury. But, you know, I think what we said was like, I hope. Hopefully the All-Star break gets him right, and it kind of seems like it did. So no worries there. Willie Adomas, when you're saying back, it entirely depends on how you are calibrating back-o-meter, because he's never going to have a season like 20-24 again. Or 2020-year, yeah, 2024 again. That was outlier career year.

That happens. He's going to end up with basically the same numbers as he always had outside of 2024. It's going to be close to 30 homers. It's going to be useful speed, a low batting average. That's a useful starting player. It's not a top 12 shortstop probably, or at least, you know, he might end up top 12 just because there will be some attrition with other guys, but it's like a very good middle infielder in a Roto league.

Viantos, I don't really have a lot of faith in it, but I just don't have a lot of faith in his skill set. Anyway, I think he's just going to run hot and cold, and he's never going to be as good as his best stretches. He's probably never going to be as bad as his best stretches. I think the overall numbers will end up being, I don't know, high, 700's OPS, a lot of empty power. Wilson looks good.

Very good batting average. Just not going to do a lot else. Albies, we had a lot of discussion about Albies on the bold predictions podcast, I think, or maybe it was on the Thursday show, whichever one it was. But I know Scott said he expects more or less a normal as the Albee season in 2026. And I don't know. I struggle with like his. His second half numbers are now starting to look like a normal Ozzie Albi season.

And it's like, man, I need better than like your best month and a half stretch just being your normal. Right. Like that's kind of what we're seeing with Christian Walker, where he's been good since the All-Star break. But it's like, this is your hot streak. You know, your hot streaks are, but I have a little more faith in Albies than Christian Walker, certainly. And I think that covers everyone in that segment. Yeah. Well, are these pitchers back for the stretch run?

Chris Selle, a great return at the Phillies, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 78 pitches, and Zach Gallen, back from the dead, maybe. He has been pitching much better as of late at the Dodgers, six shutout with eight strikeouts for him, and last six starts, 257 ERA, 109 whip. All right, that's pretty good. What do you think, Chris? Are Zach Gell and Chris Hale back? Zach Allen's definitely not back.

He's relying much more on called strikes than whiffs. The strikeout rate, even during the six-start stretch, is only 7.2 per 9. I think Gallen can still be useful, but no, we're not seeing top 15 gallon again this season. We're not seeing top 25 gallon. Maybe he's a top 50 starting pitcher, but not back. sale I didn't really expect him to struggle coming back from this injury it wasn't an arm injury it was a fractured rib was a freak thing um I understand that his production has been up and down over the past five years but since the start of last season he's got like a 230 ERA 11k per nine

i think Chris sale we talked about it a little bit on one of the podcast from last week I can't remember which one you know kind of who's the number four SPS for 2026 because I think the top three is clearly skein scoble crochet. Not in that order. Scoobles at the top. I think I'd go crochet ahead of skeins, but that's the top three for sure. I think it's wide open after that. And I think you can name like 10 or 12 different pitchers as your number four and not sound

crazy. And I think Chris Sale is among that group. And on a per inning basis, he is really not far from that top three. And so however much you want to ding him next year for being 37 shortly after opening day, and however much you want to ding him for missing time with the fractured rib this year, I think the age is a bigger reason to ding him than the rib. I don't actually care that much about a rib injury. I think Chris Sale might be the SP4 next year.

I think you can ding him enough to get him out of there, but I think he's absolutely in that discussion at least. Yeah, I mean, when you consider his skill level, still at this point and his track record. I think the only argument is page. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, when he's been healthy this year, he still goes deep into his starts, right?

I think Logan Gilbert's an interesting one too, because from a skills perspective, he's right up there with anybody else. The only thing with him is just, if you're comparing him to Chris Sale, one sale's just been better on a per star basis this year, but also... And he's done it for longer.

He's done it for longer, and the injury, that they both had, Chris Sales is much less concerning. True. Logan Gilbert missed time with an elbow injury. It hasn't really affected him since, but that was there.

A forearm, whatever, something in the arm. So I would lean Gilbert at this point just because of youth and because I think the skill set he's shown this year is the strongest it's ever been. But I think sales in the discussion. Yeah. And then you get into Yamamoto,

Hunter Brown. Christopher Sanchez, Hunter Green. The one thing I do want to point out in this discussion is it might need to be a situation where the top three go in the first three rounds or first two rounds, maybe nobody else goes until like the fifth. You know, that might be like the ideal way to play it. That sounds like a good drafting strategy,

but AP definitely will not work out of that way. No, no way. It might be like, hey, if you use it. think the pitcher rankings are really flat after the top three, then you should probably just wait and take whoever's at the bottom of that tier. Yeah. But I mean, yeah, someone like Sale, Gilbert, I think Christopher Sanchez, those will all be like third or fourth round picks. Yeah, I think so. All right, where are we at on these pitchers? Chris, I'll just throw a bunch of names your way. If there's anyone that really stands out that you want to talk about,

go for it. But Bryce Miller, Yuri Perez, Sunny Gray, Spencer Shrider, Jacob Mizirowski. Five names. games that had polarizing in one way or another. Bryce Miller actually was the only one who had a good start on that list. Everyone else was like kind of shaky or just flat out bad. Anyone that you want to talk about from from that group? I think Bryce Miller's pretty dropable. He's been so unimpressive since coming back from the elbow injury. I was willing to give him a chance with the increased velocity, but I don't know. It has not been impressive. Even this one, only two run runs and six innings of quality start. Only seven whiffs. giving up a lot of hard contact i just i have not been impressed

yury i i was watching him warm up for this game on friday at the game and look i'm nobody don't don't listen to me but i was watching him and and even though the you know once he got on the mound the velocity was fine he didn't look right like it i don't know what it was it didn't look like he was like throwing at max max effort or he didn't look and so i i told my wife right before the game start I was like he looks a little weird I don't know if this is going to go well then obviously confirmation bias he gives it five earned runs and two home runs in the first inning I'm not worried but I just think he didn't have it in this one strider I don't know if you want to drop him if you want to rage drop him I get it I there there's

nothing positive to point to right now there were some fastball characteristics in his previous start but it didn't lead to better results obviously it didn't lead to good results here. I just think he doesn't have it right now. And I think Spencer Strider is searching for it. I think he's probably, I get the feeling like there was a report that he had gone to a facility, an off-site facility to work on his mechanics. And I think he's going to be a good pitcher again at some point. I don't think it's likely to be in 2025. And then Mizirowski, I don't know. He's not going deep into games. I think you got to hang. on to him and probably just start him because the upside, you know, he could throw out an eight strikeout and five innings start any time. But if you've got five reliable options, which you might, I can absolutely see sitting, Jacob Mizirazki, for sure, because I don't think he's going to be reliable. I think you're just chasing per start upside right now. All right. I do have a bunch of other things here on the rundown, but we are, we're going pretty long here. So I don't

we think, wow, how can you skip over this thing? We're recovering four days. Yeah, it's just like, I have a bunch of hitters who are shrieking, who are doing awesome things. I have, you know, a bunch of hitting and pitching leftovers here. So just know that I wanted to get to it, but yeah, we're just kind of running out of time here. So not to shortchange all those other things that were great this weekend as well. Do you want to get to some bullpins here from the weekend for the Tigers on Friday. Kyle Finnegan recorded five outs across the seventh and eighth.

and then Will Vest picked up his 20th save. They kind of seemed that's still going more towards Will Vest, but maybe it's like a 60, 40, 70, 30 split right now between those two. It helps the Finnegan's just looked really good since getting into the Tigers, starting that splitter a lot more, and it's really helped him. So I think we're seeing the best version of him, too. For the Twins on Friday, Justin Topa entered in the seventh inning with a runner on first, a five-run lead,

facing the bottom of the Padres lineup. He allowed two runs on a walk and two hits. Cole Sands pitched the 8th and then lefty Cody Funderberg which is an awesome name Terrific. Picked up the save in that one and then on Monday Justin Topa came in in the eighth inning

with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs on three hits took his third blown save and fourth loss so perhaps Justin Topa is not the Twins closer after all. For the Rangers on Friday Sean Armstrong recorded the final five outs for his fifth save

and then he also picked up the save in extra innings here on Monday and he has the last Yeah, he looks like the closer there At least three saves for the Rangers Yeah, he has the last three saves for the Rangers So in deeper leagues I have leagues where I lost Trevor McGill

And I'm kind of scraping together some Some saves right now I kind of think Sean Armstrong is the guy for the Rangers For the... Worth noting Chris Martin was back on Monday But not in the save situation And they've been hesitant to use him there

So yeah, I think Sean Armstrong is the closer there. I mean, for what it's worth, you're right, they did pitch Chris Martin in the ninth inning of this game. And then once they took the lead in the 10th, that's when Armstrong came in. So something worth noting, Martin's numbers have been great all season long. For the Brewers on Saturday,

Abner Arebe got the ninth with a three-run lead. He picked up his fourth save. For the Marlins on Saturday, Calvin Foschet recorded four outs across the sixth and seventh. Ronnie Enrique pitched the eighth. and Tyler Phillips got the ninth with a three-run lead. He picked up his third save. The Marlins do not have a closer, and they never will ever again.

I know it's late, but have we talked about Tyler Phillips on the podcast yet? I don't think so. Doesn't he have a stone cold Steve Austin entrance? I didn't even know who this guy was like a month ago. Have you seen his entrance, though? As soon as they open the door to the bullpen, he walks out and slaps himself in the face as hard as he can three times. They asked him about it after the game.

I know we're long, but it's incredible. They asked him about it after the game. the other day and he said, I'm always, I'm always pissed off. And the reporter was like, why? And he was like, I don't like hitters. And the reporter was like, all right, you're making me nervous. Go to the locker room. It is must-see TV. This dude is electric. I am obsessed with Tyler Phillips right now. This is incredible. That is great. For the Dodgers on Sunday, Tanner, Scott got the eighth ending with a three-run lead. He quickly gave up a three-run homer to Corby and Carroll,

took his blown save, but the Dodgers did wind up walking it off and winning that game. For the Nationals on Monday, Jose Ferrer got the ninth with a two-run lead. He picked up his fifth save. For the Reds on Monday, Emilio Pagan got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed three runs on two homers, took his sixth blown save. The Reds would come back and win that game. But Paghan has blown a save in three of his last four save. opportunities. So I don't think, I think it's a really short leash right now with, uh,

with Amelia Pagan. That home run per nine starting to creep up. It's up to 1.6. His FIP is up to 420. I, yeah, this is kind of what we expected it to look like when Pagong was named the closer. Yep. And then on Monday for the D-backs, uh, Andrew Salfranck. It's actually Salfranc. I heard that on the broadcast. Got the eighth with a two-run lead, clean inning. Lefty Kyle Bacchus started the ninth. He gave up a run. He was relieved by Jake Woodford. who then gave up another run, tie game, the D-backs lose an extras. Their bullpen is pretty bad.

So I think it's mostly a stayaway for the D-backs. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have, ooh, I don't know, Severino and his return at the Cardinals. Yeah, no. Cade Cavali against the Marlins. He got destroyed last time out. Yeah.

I mean, I don't hate it, but. Slate Cicconi at the Red Sox. This is a pretty bad... Simeon Woods Richardson against the White Sox? I don't know. I can't bring myself to recommend anyone from Tuesday, honestly. If I had to, I would say Cavali against the Marlins. There is blow-up potential, obviously.

Yeah. Yeah. And then on Wednesday, we have Jason Alexander against the Yankees. He's been pitching well, and he actually had a really good start against them like a month ago. So I don't buy it. Yeah. Jack Leiter is at the D-Backs. We have Nesser Cortez against the Orioles.

Braxton Ashcraft is pitching well against the Dodgers. Ryan Bergert is against the Angels. Zebby Matthews against the White Sox. Kentana against the Phillies. Jeffrey Springs at the Cargis. I really don't like this group either. I think Springs is okay.

I think I like Zebby and Bergert against each other. No, they're not against each other. Zebby has upside for sure. Bergered, I think is interesting against the Angels. I wish Ashcraft had a better matchup. And then lighter at Arizona is probably fine, given the run he's on.

All right, we're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.