Fantasy Baseball Today - Ranking Shortstop Prospects & Interesting Waiver Wire Pitchers (8/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 10, 2026

The Twins called up Kaelen Culpepper (2:20)! How do we rank the shortstop prospects? ... Payton Tolle was a monster this weekend (13:10). ... Eduardo Rodriguez used a different changeup (19:47). ... News (25:56): Hunter Greene is having elbow surgery. ... Jackson Jobe is back (36:01). ... Jackson Holliday is walking a lot (53:11). ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter (59:40). ... These hitters are trending up and down (1:08:50). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:15:50).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

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. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August 10th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Tower. Today on the show, we have more prospect promotions.

We will rank the shortstop. prospects in particular. We have loads of waiver wire pitchers from the weekend. I have the Worryometer for four pitchers, two starters, two relievers. So we'll get to that a little bit later on. But let's just get things started here with yet

another shortstop promotion. And this time the twins called up Kael and Cole Pepper and he was having a great season in the minors this year where he hit 271, 367 on base, 14 homers, 17 steals in 845 OPS. Hit the ball hard, pretty good

plate discipline, 23 years old, former first round pick. He is 31% rostered, and he started two of three games this weekend. So, Scott, what are your thoughts here on Kaelin, Cold Pepper, The Prospect, some expectations, rest of season, and then we'll get into ranking

all these fun names. I mean, look, he's been really productive in the minors the last two years OPS, close to 850 each time, 20 Homer, 25 steals. Last year, it was 14 and 17, and only 74 games this year.

And former first round pick, I feel like his, when I look at Kaelin Culpepper and I'm ranking prospects, I always want to come in higher than the consensus. It feels like his prospect ranking has always been kind of suppressed while somebody like,

Anhele Hinau, it's been a little elevated beyond what. And I struggle to understand why. I mean, oftentimes defense explains that, but my understanding is Cole Pepper is a legitimate defender at shortstop and somebody who should stick there. So I don't think that's it. The chase rate is a little high from the data we have,

but not in a way that raises great alarm. You know, strikeout rates are good, walk rate's good, exit velocity's not amazing but good. And there's power speed there. and I don't know why he sat out Sunday. I don't know how often that's going to happen. It's not like they have great shortstop options, the twins apart from Culpepper.

So I think it'll be rare that he sits. But I would say any roto league, he needs to be picked up. I would definitely rank him behind George Lombard. But I think between him and Anil Hannao, it's a closer call. Yeah, I think, so one, Lombards are. already like 61% rostered Hano and Culpepper are both around 30. So whatever explanation you want to go with, Lombard is already much more rostered. And I think he probably should be. I think

he should be ranked first out of this. But I think this is a situation where Cole Pepper is probably them just taking these three guys at face value. Everything we know about them. No roster rates. nothing, no team context, whatever. Culpepper might be the better fantasy prospect of this group. And Lombard and Hano are better real-life prospects, I think, or at least that's the way they're ranked and maybe that comes to defense

or just those guys have really, really good plate discipline, whereas Culpepper has pretty good. I think his walk rate's been around 9, 10% throughout his minor league career. He's never struck out more than 20% of the time, but Lombard and Hainau have been more like 15% strikeout guys, you know, 12, 13, 14% walk rate guys. So, you know, you can talk yourself into those guys being better real life prospects. But Culpepper, I think his profile might have a little more juice when it comes to fantasy,

at least in a roto context. Maybe in a points league context, you can take Lombard. But Culpepper, you know, it's, I think it's 27. let me make sure I have the numbers correct. I think it's 27 homers and 25 steals in like 133 games between AA and AAA over the past two seasons. 25 and 27, yeah.

Like, he might just have a more 5 by 5 friendly profile than these other guys. And part of that's just he doesn't walk as much. And so he's going to have more balls in play, have more opportunities. I said his, exit velocities were decent

Colpepper. I mean, George Lombards are better. George Lombard looks like he has the makings of a of a significant power hitter, while Cole Pepper could be a 20, 25 homer guy. Sure. Lombard hasn't hit for as much power.

He's 21. He moved quickly through the system, but like, you know, just evaluating the talent. Yeah, yeah. But there are things with Lombard that make me think like the he for me at least he's he's kind of more on the passive side of the passive versus patient thing like he his swing rate in zone is very low and that's one that I always highlight a little bit of just does that get flagged by major league hitters or major league puts the ball on the air more than colpepper colpepper's got a ground ball problem but I just think and also I think culpever's going to run more so I think the reason I would put lombard at the top though is best line of the three best home ballpark of the three.

And I think the fewest questions about playing time. Not that I think Hano and Cole Pepper are likely to miss much time or be out of the lineup much. But Lombard is just the guy for as long as he can hack it. And if he can't hack it, then that doesn't matter anyway. But if he's really good, he's definitely playing every day at shortstop for the Yankees. And now we've already seen, I mean, they're trying to shuffle guys out. You know, it looked like when Jose Ramirez might be going on the IL. Okay, that might be the path and then we'll figure it out.

Now, I believe he has played, started every game. Yeah, he has. So it's not actually an issue yet, but it could become one if he slows down. And then Culpepper, I believe it was two lefties, the first two games, and then a righty on Sunday. And he sat against the first righty. Is that anything? I don't know. I'm just looking at.

what they did. It could have just been an off day for a guy who just got called up and, you know, make sure he's not overwhelmed. But that was the one thing I flagged. His primary competition at shortstop for playing time is Ryan Kreidler. I think it's how you pronounce his name. I don't really think that should be much playing time or competition. But that, that's the one thing. I would go Lombard, Culpepper, and Hano in that order. But the thing that I wrote in today's waiver wire is finding waiver wire shortstop all season has basically been a nightmare.

Like if you've lost Corey Seeger or you drafted Geraldo Perdomo and Ricky Bats and you're just disappointed with that you find out of that lineup spot, like who has emerged off the waiver wire at shortstop this season? Otto Lopez really early on kind of nobody else that actually matters

for fans. There's some, you know, Willie Admona got down to like 60% and he's having a fairly normalcy, but like nobody has come from out of nowhere, you know, gone from 25% rostered to universally rostered. And I think all three of these guys more or less should be universally rostered. So this might be your one chance to get a short stop on the waiver wire. So I think you should be aggressive with any of them right now. Yeah. And what makes it a tough call is that they've all looked pretty good so far. I know it's a really small sample size for all three. I mean, Colch Pepper has only started two games, but he homered in his first game, right? Like, it's pretty impressive stuff to see that. Now the twins were facing Miziarowski on Sunday, so perhaps

they didn't want to expose him to the best right-handed pitcher in all baseball, so that would make some sense. But Lombard already has two home runs, and he has five hits total, and now had a four-hit game in his debut. He also homered over the weekend. So these guys have come up. They've hit the ground running so far. And I get why it would be a tough call. I saw the biggest bids in leagues where FAB has already run on Lombard so far in my Tout Wars League, 15 team roto. He went for 275, which is like a massive number at this point in season.

Somebody had too much money left. I saw. I saw another league where he went for 200, another one where he was like around 100. So some big bids at this point in the year. Yeah, I don't think I'm in any Fab league where I have 25% of my budget left still. No, me neither. That seems like a poor... I mean, it worked out if you really needed Lombard, I guess.

But, you know, usually by this point in the season, you have 15 to 20% left, I'd say. Scott, would you rank them in the same order? Is it Lombard, Coal Pepper, Hano for you? Lombard, Colpepper, Hano. Yeah, I said Lombard, clear number one. The other two... The other two, it's harder to say.

I think Cole Pepper has more upside for fantasy, but I'm especially since he sat as third game, I'm less sure about the playing time, and Hannao's going to have looks like multi-eligibility pretty soon here. So that's a point in his favor as well. But I think I'd lean Cole Pepper, everything else being equal over Hano. We did get some White Sox pitching prospects who were promoted as well.

Looks like they're going to work out of the bullpen, so I don't think it's going to matter much for fantasy. But they were some pretty big names. Hagen Smith, who was a former first round pick, top five pick in the draft, and Tanner McDougal. Hagen Smith made his debut on Sunday. He threw two no-hit innings, three strikeouts, but also four walks. And that has been an issue for him at times in the minors. Again, don't really think those guys matter, but we'll be interesting to see just what they do down the stretch.

And then probably, assuming there's a season, used as starters next year or in some kind of, you know, stretched out capacity. So just some names to watch for the rest of the season. Look, the last name to mention, there's no confirmation of this yet, but got to mention him whenever we can. Kate Anderson of the Mariners, he tossed five and a third shutout innings with nine strikeouts to zero walks in his latest start at AA. And lots of people speculating that he will be up at some point this week. Again, that's not confirmed.

But I think it's either August 13th, 14th or 15th is the date when, if a prospect is up from that point forward, they can maintain their rookie eligibility for the final. following season, which a lot of teams care about. So could see Kate Anderson later this week. I don't think you should start him, but hopefully that is the case. We'll see if he's called up next weekend. Again, that's Kate Anderson.

Let's get into some of the big standouts, our players of the weekend. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, let's start with Scott. And look, just massive performance for Peyton Tolly, and you had a pretty enticing tweet to go along with it. Yeah, so 14. 14 strikeouts by Peyton Toley on Friday. He was facing the athletics,

struck out 14, 24 whiffs on 84 pitches. And of those 24 whiffs, five were on the curveball. He threw it 18% of the time. Why am I telling you this? Because he doesn't often throw his curveball much at all. but in those starts where he throws his curveball a decent amount 10% or more is the cutoff I used 10% or more curveball use

Peyton Toley has a 221ERA 0.76 whip 13.3K per 9. That's 7 of his 19 starts on the season 10% or more curveballs 221ERA 0.76 whip 13.3K per 9. The 12 others it's a 3.3K per 9. The 12 others, it's a 380 ERA 131 whip 8.7K per 9.

Pretty, meh. But there's those curveball starts mixed in that obviously make the overall numbers good, give them a 14 strikeout effort like this. Two hits a loud, one run in six innings, by the way. Now, I realize an observation like that, while interesting isn't necessarily actionable because you don't know going in

how many curveballs Peyton Toley is going to throw in a particular start. And there also may be good reasons why he throws his curveball more sometimes and not others having to do with the game plan, having to do with the opponent. It may not be just, it may not be as simple as Peyton Toley,

please throw your curveball more. But I pointed out mainly because I think that version of Toley, 10% curveball use or more. It's not like he needs to make it a huge part of his arsenal. He's obviously new to this. He's a rookie. Obviously still settling into the kind of pitcher he's going to be long term. And when I'm thinking early on here in August about breakout candidates for next year,

as good as Tolly's been as a rookie, I think there is another level here. I think there is genuine ace upside. And I think pointing out those numbers that he has when he makes use of that curveball, I think it shows just how high the ceiling goes for a pitcher. We know he has a great fastball, but there's more there for Peyton Tolly to unlock.

And I am excited about what the future holds for him. I mean, this is a lofty comp, but there's a lot of similarities between him and Cam Schittler, both in terms of the way they pitch. You know, fastball cutter, sinker, 90% of the time, basically, between the two of them. They both do that. They're both, you know, Schittler's strikeout rate is better. It's about 11 per 9, but totally 10.4 per 9, 2.4 walks per 9. the peripherals not that different. Schlittlers are better across the board.

And Schlittler is a better pitcher, specifically at this point in their careers. But it's a comp that doesn't do Peyton totally a disservice. And when you can say that about a guy comparing him to likely, AL-Sai Young, am I forgetting about anybody? At this point, it's probably...

I'd probably hurt in T's maybe. I mean, I'd go with Schlittler myself. Yeah, I mean, either way. I mean, the very similar numbers. But Schlitler's thrown about 30 more innings, it looks like, 20 more innings. So that's not nothing. Yeah. Yeah, I, that's a really optimistic comp for Tolly.

And I think it also works because they both have curveballs that they don't really throw that much. But when they do, good things happen. I mean, Tolly's curveball is a 49% wifery. That's a massive number for the season. It's a 130 pitch sample size or whatever, but that's really impressive. And I think the thing for me with that is it's not just that I'll throw your curveball 10% of the time and you'll be good, but it's more he has a pivot. And I think that's important too, is you're not always going to have your best fastball every day. Can you do something when your best pitches aren't working and that curveball might give him another avenue?

So I think that's very exciting as well. And if you told me the rest of season, you thought Peyton Tolly would perform like a borderline SP2, SP3, top 25, top 30 starting pitcher, I think that's totally fine. Again, like he's flashed upside, big upside this season. He's also, you know, there's been starts where he's been inefficient, not gone deep and stuff.

But I think at this point, we've seen enough to know that Peyton Tolly is pretty legit. And hopefully, yeah, continues to mix in that curveball. I've had some people ask about the innings limits or any kind of concern about that just based on what he threw last year it was 108 innings total last season he's already up to 107 do you guys have any concern about

not a shutdown but maybe a limitation or kind of spreads out to starts he's more than a hundred seven he's up to 122 if you count the minors yeah yeah oh yeah yeah that's fair yeah so 122 and last year 108 yeah yes that is and that's kind of why I framed it more about next year

I mean, I don't know how many more opportunities this year. Peyton Tolly's going to get to have a start like this. Obviously, the Red Sox are fighting for a playoff spot, but they also want some of the, if they make the playoffs, they want Tolly to have some innings available to them then. So it just seems, given that he's already like 15 innings over his previous high last year, at some point they're going to have to mitigate that. somehow and, you know, it might make them frustrating to deal with rest of season.

Obviously, you keep starting them until you see some evidence of that, but I would have that in the back of my mind rest of season that, okay, I can't necessarily count on him starting every fifth day and giving me six innings. All right, Chris, let's go over to your player of the weekend. I know that Eduardo Rodriguez. Yeah, don't make me. He can't keep getting away with it, but what if he makes a change? Okay, so yeah, that's the thing, is.

the version of Edwardo Rodriguez who will not be able to keep getting away with it is not the version that we saw on what was it? Saturday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Sunday. Sometime this weekend against the Dodgers.

He got 17 whiffs in this start, 11 of them on the change-up. He had 11 whiffs on 20 swings against the change-up. He had a 37% called plus-swinging strike rate. on the change-up. Yeah, if that's what Eduardo Rodriguez wants to do moving forward, okay, yeah, he's going to be awesome

because he struck out nine over seven innings. He was awesome in this star, and it wasn't just he did what he typically does and happened to get better results this time. It was his fastball velocity was dead on where it usually is, 0.1 mile per hour down.

His change-up was down three miles per hour. It was different change-up, basically. And he was getting like a different, you know, more drop on it as well. And so you're talking about a guy who's suddenly going from getting around six miles per hour difference between his four seamer and changeup to getting about nine miles per hour on it. And the pitch is moving differently. And so if that's real and that's sustainable and he can miss bats the way he did in this one, then yeah, sure, I'm open to Edward Rodriguez being good. But that's a different question than what we've been talking about for months, which is, can the guy who's striking out three to four batters every start keep running up a low 2ZRA?

Obviously, he cannot. He will not. At some point, that's going to fall apart on him. If he can build on what he did in this start and continue to generate huge swinging strike numbers and, you know, okay, yeah, then I'm open to it. but I suspect this was just a one-start thing, and he will go back to being a very poor strikeout pitcher after this. And I don't know, call me a hater, whatever. I don't know.

I know someone the other day said, I hate the Diamondbacks. No, they just have two pitchers that I don't think are very good who are getting good results right now. It's nothing personal. It doesn't, you don't have to take it personally. Chris, as long as I've known you, I've seen you speed over the Diamondbacks, those Diamondbacks. Too long of a name.

Chris hates the D-bags. Scott hates the Cubs. We know how it goes. I do always think every time I go to Phoenix for first pitch, Arizona, I always think of the King of the Hill episode where Bobby calls it a monument to man's hubris when he goes outside in the sun. So maybe I do hate Phoenix. I don't know.

No, Phoenix is fine. I had a good time. Yeah, look, if he can, like, this is a guy who had a five ERA, the previous two seasons. If there was some magic skill he had that helped him outperform his peripherals, why wasn't he doing it previously? That's not the answer. The answer is just he's had a string of really good luck, and he's pitched really well, and that's fine,

but it's not going to last unless the changes he showed in this start are sustainable. I doubt they are, but it makes me more interested in him than I have been. Let's move on and give a shout out to Jake McCarthy, man. Just what a monster game he had on Saturday, and what a monster year in general. Four for five with two homers, two steals, four runs, three RBI, and on the season,

he is the fifth best outfielder in Roto, the 12th best outfielder in total head-ted points, and 3.3 fantasy points per game is tied for the eighth best outfielder on CBS Leagues. So, just a massive year. I want to give a shout out to Jake McCarthy. That's crazy.

Yeah. All right, let's take our first break. Make sure to hit the like button, subscribe to the channel. If you're watching at this point in the season, you haven't subscribed yet, like, what do you do it? Just subscribe.

Let's take a break. and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes, and we do have some pitching injuries up top to address. Hunter Green was diagnosed with a partial UCL tear in his right elbow and will undergo surgery this week. We don't know exactly what kind of surgery he's having yet,

whether it's Tommy John surgery, internal brace, both. But the expectation is that he will miss a large majority of next season. So that is very, very unfortunate news for Hunter Green. and the Cincinnati Reds. Joe Ryan was officially placed on the IL with a left glute strain, so I don't think it's a season ender, but he's going to miss at least the next

couple of weeks here. Griffin Jacks was placed in the IL with right elbow discomfort. Obviously this one is more worrisome than Joe Ryan, and I thought in a couple of leagues, like, if I really need the roster spot, should I drop Griffin Jax? What do you guys think about that?

The two leagues where I gave that thought, some credence were also two leagues that are points leagues and if he's back and he's a spark and he's pitching as well as he was before I can't take that risk until I know for sure. So I did

I think I kept him out of my drop bids but I definitely gave it some thought. Yeah, I think it's you may not want to drop jacks and that's fine if you have the IL space for it. But I think the odds are against him coming back this season.

it's obviously not definitive. I mean, you just even think about like a relatively minor injury like Carlos Rodon's. He's missed like a month already, right? Yeah. And probably won't be back in the majors for another couple of weeks. So you just start to do the math there.

We have seven weeks left. Yeah. There might not be enough time for him to get built up and he does have experience as a reliever. So if they don't have enough time, they could just say, hey, we're going to put you in the bullpen and we'll use you as a starter again next year. So kind of a tough spot there with Griffin Jackson.

Kyle Harrison, who left his previous start with calf cramps, is listed as the probable pitcher Tuesday against the Padres. So I think you're good to get Kyle Harrison back in your lineups. O'Neill Cruz started a rehab assignment on Friday. He's been out since June 7th with a fractured left hand. So he's been out a while. The pirates are also kind of scuffling, so they need his help. I think he'll probably be back at some point this week.

If you play in a weekly lineup league, unless it's a deeper five-out-out-fieler league, I don't think that I would risk it with O'Neill Cruz. Obviously, if you play in a league where you could set your lineup on Monday and Friday, like in the NFBC, he might be back by Friday. And if you know by then, then you can just put him back in your lineup. Interested to see what they do with their outfield. Because Mangum has continued to play very well. Valdez has gone completely cold since he got hit by that pitch.

He's like three for his last 28 or something. I think he has only one hit in August as Berlin-Faldives. Yeah, it's something like three for 40. since his last home run or something. Yeah, it's been really bad for the last like two weeks. I think they have a spot either way right now. Because remember, they lost Ryan O'Hern. He's not coming back anytime soon,

or has he been ruled out for the season? He's not ruled out. He's not ruled out. Not ruled out for the season, but they also released Marcel Ozuna, which opens up a spot. Yeah, yeah. So DH on Roster Resource currently shows Ronnie Simon. or Ronnie Simone.

I'm not actually sure how to pronounce his name because it's not particularly relevant to anyone. So, yeah, I think, I think, unless they just think as Merlin Valdez is struggling so bad that he needs some time in the minors again, but I don't think the return of O'Neill Cruz is going to force that move. All right, Adlead Ruchman kicked off his rehab assignment

at AAA on Saturday, and there is a chance that he is ready to make his Red Sox debut this week. I saw that he's traveling with the team and they're going to make some determination. So we might know that on Monday. I am trying to pull up the schedule to see if the Red Sox play, and my computer is frozen.

So I will not be able to tell you that. But yeah, I think in two catcher leagues, if you don't really have a great second catcher, you might want to just risk it and put Adley Ruchman in your lineups for this week. Blake Snell will make his return Tuesday against the Royals. He got up to 73 pitches in his last rehab start, and he is 18% started. Would you guys use Blake Snell?

against the royals this week. So I was just looking that up, and my worst pitcher in my starting lineup in Tout Wars is probably Luis Castillo. I think I'd probably... I'd use Snell over Castillo, yeah. Yeah, probably.

The thing about Blake Snell is, like, you don't know which version's going to show up because, like, he'll... The M.O. on him really for like four straight years is half the year he looks like a Cy Young candidate. And the other half of the year, he looks dropable. And so, you know, it's a good matchup in theory, Royals. But he's not, that's not really the point with Blake's now.

It's just sometimes he's on and sometimes he's not. And so it's a gamble. And you just have to run that assessment. Like, is what Luis Castillo likely to give me? am I going to miss it? So it helps It helps that it's a points league. Yeah.

So I feel better about Castillo getting six innings than I do Snell coming off an injury. That would be the main thing holding me back from starting Snell is it's just he could throw 80 pitches in four innings. Yeah. He could throw 80 pitches in seven innings. Like he's perfectly capable of it. And look, Castillo is not a guarantee to go deep in his

starts either, but I do think he's probably got a better chance to pitch deeper into his start than Snell in his very first one. So that that would be the only thing. And plus, I'd have to drop someone if I activate Snell. So yeah, well, that's, yeah, you might as well use it as a freebie and just see what it does the first week. Yeah. Yeah. Especially next week should be a two-star week. So, uh, unless it's a seven game week. Yeah, I guess. Yeah. Now they're running six man. So, uh, Michael Soroka is expected to return on Monday, which makes him a two-star pitcher against the Rockies. That start is in Arizona. And at the Atlanta Braves, he got up to 57 pitches in his latest rehab start. So,

probably 70 to 75 in the first start, I would imagine. He was having a great year. 307, ERA 109 whip. He's still 89% rostered. So we can't tell anyone to add Michael Soroka. But what do you guys think about potentially using him his first week back? So I added him to the points league only section of my two-star pitcher rankings behind Jacob Lopez and Bryce L. ahead of Christian Scott, who has two matchups, but bad ones, and Cody Bradford and Andrew Painter. So that's where I've slotted in Soroka.

I think the only reason you even consider starting him after all that time missed is because he lines up for two starts and the first being the Rockies on the road. So, you know, definitely points league. I'd have to consider it otherwise. Probably not. All right, Carlos Rodan made his first rehab start at AAA on Saturday. He went two and two-thirds innings, three hits, three runs, four strikeouts at two walks.

But his velocity was down quite a bit, and he's coming back from an elbow injury. So it's a little scary. Let's see if it builds up, but his fastball was down almost two miles per hour. His slider was down, slider and changeup were down almost three miles per hour. So something to watch there with Carlos Rodon. Kyle Stowers left Sunday with left hamstring discomfort. He's kind of a fringe player anyway. you have a better option, you might want to go in a different direction.

Max Meyer, who's on the aisle with a neck strain, will be re-evaluated this week. We do have some Padre's rehab updates. Nick Povetta had his rehab paused after leaving his first outing with elbow tightness. And Joe Mosgrove, he made his first rehab start, I believe, on Tuesday or Wednesday, made another one on Sunday, where he threw three and a third, one run aloud, and his fastball velocity was up quite a bit. He averaged 94.7 miles per hour, and the last time we saw him in 20, He averaged 93 on the fastball.

So I think he's getting pretty close. I think in deeper leagues, I'm kind of interested in stashing Joe Musgrove. I think anywhere you have IL space, you should stash Joe Musgrove. I mean, is it worth Griffin Jacks as well as he was pitching? I mean, we know Joe Musgrove is good. I was making a sleeper case for him before the season

before he wound up suffering that setback in spring training. numbers comparable to Max Friede during the years when he's healthy and now a couple re-taps starts in he's pitching well would you rather stash Musgrove in an I.L.

spot than Griffin Jacks who just went down and seems unlikely to return this season. I think so. I think I'd make that swap. Yeah. Next up, George Springer has missed two straight with left shoulder tightness and he has been better over the past month but obviously a big letdown in the season.

so could be a good reason to get Springer out of your lineups. Cooper Pratt was placed in the aisle with a right hamstring strain. Andy Rodriguez has missed three straight with left hip discomfort. It's just so frustrating because I feel like whenever he goes on a little bit of a run and we tell people to add him, he immediately gets hurt again. So it's kind of annoying for Andy Rodriguez. Vinnie Pasquantino could begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday. He's been on the aisle since July 29th with right wrist soreness.

Matt Chapman will undergo season-ending surgery to address a hernia and the Padre signed Austin Hayes after he was released by the White Sox and he made an immediate impact. He had a pinch hit two-run Homer on Sunday night baseball against the lefties. Probably not going to play that much.

Probably doesn't really matter. Waiver-wire pitchers from the weekend. I'll just quickly start off with two-dame, two shallow league names. I know we've talked a lot about, but they could be out there in some Yahoo leagues or if you're playing a 10-team league. Roki Sasaki, another solid start,

six innings, two runs, five strikeouts, just one walk through 66% of his pitches for strikes, and he has looked much better in the second half so far. He gets to Brewers this week. It is a tough matchup, and Ian Seymour, a strong outing at the Mariners, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 98 pitches,

and he gets the Orioles this week. He's also a spark for those who play in points league. So do you guys have a definitive answer on who you prefer a rest of season? Sasaki or Ian Seymour? I mean, I want to say Seymour now again. I think Seymour's better. He kind of, the wind came out of the sails a little bit during that, those two rough outings back to back.

And then the rays were having him follow an opener and wasn't clear where this was headed. But, you know, he's looked really good. Again, this is what now three appearances after those two back-to-back rough ones. I think he's really good. And I hope the rays think he's really good. hopefully we're past that, wondering about the role. Sasaki, though, I mean, four starts in a row where he's been good, where the velocity's been up. I think he's got the mechanics figured out now.

I know that's something the Dodgers has been working with him on since last year. So they're both, they both need to be added everywhere. But I have more faith than Seymour sustaining this than Sasaki. Sasaki, I think there's more that can trip him up. Mm-hmm. Ian Seymour, by the way, on the season, including today, he has a 20% K-minus walk rate among pitchers with 90 innings. That is the 18th best mark in all of baseball. So it's comparable to Sean Burke, Noel McLean, Chase Burns, Brian Wu. So he's, Seymour's good. He's, you know, we've told you this for a while. He's legit good. Welcome back to Jackson, Joe, who looked very good in his return at the Giants. Five shutout innings, one hit, one walk, four strikeouts. He had nine whiffs on 71 pitches. And, and, And his velocity was up quite a bit compared to last year. He averaged 98.3 on his fastball. He touched 100 miles per hour.

In this first start back, he looked good on his rehab. He's 47% rostered. Chris, I'm kind of excited about Jackson Joe. How about you? Yeah, I mean, my biggest concern would be that they're going to Jared Jones him and just limit him to like 75, 80 pitches every start moving forward. I think that's probably more likely than not. But it's not guaranteed.

You know, every team handles their guys differently. I will say the four seamer looked awesome, five whiffs on it. Everything else didn't get that many whiffs, which is kind of the Jackson Job experience. He runs up these massive spin rates and, you know, the stuff looks really good on camera. Looks like he gets a ton of movement and then doesn't actually miss all that many bats. But, you know, if the fastball is going to sit up, you know, a mile and a half, two miles per hour, then that matters less. If he can be a 30% whiff rate guy sitting 97, 98,

then maybe the fact that the slider or cutter, whatever you want to call it, doesn't miss all that many bats can, doesn't matter as much. I think there's a lot of ifs in there. But yeah, I think it's worth being cautiously excited about what we saw from Jackson Job here.

Yeah. Not only was the fastball up in velocity, but I saw a tweet from somebody, I can't find it now. I think it was somebody on the Tigers beat. they said that he was throwing it from a lower arm angle too. I can't verify that on baseball savon. I think they need a few appearances before they give you an average arm angle there.

But he used to have a really high arm angle to Jackson Job, and apparently it's lower now. According to that one tweet that I can't cite, so that's something to consider too. It might just be a very different fastball and a more effective one than we've seen in the past from Job. I wouldn't prioritize him over Seymour or Sasaki, but I'd prioritize him over some of the other pitchers

we've been talking about recently, like Jacob Lopez or Grayson Rodriguez, who had a bad start Sunday, but there were some good signs in it still. I'm not totally out on Grayson Rodriguez. I would, I believe Jacob Lopez is a two-star pitcher this week. Yeah. So I would prioritize him over Job just for that, just because who knows what two weeks from now will hold.

Well, yeah, but I mean, I don't have so much faith in Jack's. Like, to me, it's like, and he's high on my sleeper pitchers list this week, the two-star Jacob Lopez. But it's, I'm starting him with a lot of, a lot of stomach cramps, you know? Like, I don't, like, that could go, that could just be doubly bad, the two-star week rather than a benefit. Yeah, Jackson Job is the second most added starting pitcher on CBS right now. The three that are right around him, Hayden Wesniewski, Cody Bradford, Jacob Lopez,

and all three of them line up for two starts this week. Yeah. Would you take Job over all three? I would take him over all of them. Lopez is the only one that's questionable. Names between 60 and 70% rostered who pitched well this weekend. Bubba Chandler, a strong outing against the Mets, six shutout innings with five strikeouts for him through 68% is,

percent of his pitches for strikes, which is always a key for him. He gets the Red Sox this week. Shane Boz took a very tough loss at the Rangers. Eight innings of two-run ball, nine strikeouts to one walk. And updated numbers last 15 starts. 293 ERA also comes with a 121 whip. He is at the Twins this week. Brandon Fott, who we mentioned already.

He did it again this time against the Dodgers. It is very impressive. Seven shot-out innings, two strikeouts for Brandon Fott, who has turned in four straight quality starts, zero earned runs in three straight. He also has four strikeouts or fewer in seven of eight starts since returning. He's at the Braves later this week.

And J.T. Ginn, another quality start, this one at the Red Sox. Six innings, three runs, one of those earned. Only two strikeouts, but he had 11 swinging strike. So it feels like maybe he deserved better than just two strikeouts. He also gets the Rangers this week.

Scott, how would you rank these four? Honestly, if you just want to go like week by week at this point, I'm fine with that. I do have all the matchups. here in the notes. It's J.T. Ginn against the Rangers. Brandon fought at the Braves, Shane Boz at the Twins, and Bubba Chandler, home against the Red Sox. Well, I think whether you're talking about this upcoming week

or rest of season, J.T. Ginn would be my top choice. Feels like a very high floor pitcher. He keeps coming through with quality starts. But I don't think I'd let him go en rostered in any of my leagues. Shane Baws would probably be my second choice. particularly if he keeps doing stuff like he did this timeout. I don't know. It's a little bit like Eduardo Rodriguez,

where it's like even when he does well, you don't understand why he does well. Obviously he hasn't been as good as Rodriguez this year, but he's been somebody who comes up with quality starts with some regularity. So yeah, I think Shane Boss is fine. After them, I guess I'd go Chandler over Frot because I have no faith in thought whatsoever, sort of like Chris. But to me, those are the two where it would take some extraordinary circumstances for me to start either one.

Yeah, I want to buy in on Chandler and even Boz to a certain extent. I want to believe there's something here. And Boz, I think it's nine of his last 15 starts have been quality starts. I don't really get it. It feels a little Trevor Rogersy, where it's been going on long enough that I do have to believe it to a certain extent. Like the peripherals aren't terrible. You know, it's not a Brandon Fodder or Edrador-Rodriguez situation.

But do I believe these are difference makers that I can count on for, you know, the six innings and two-run runs or seven innings and two-run runs? We've been getting pretty much every time from them. no, I don't have a lot of faith in that, but I don't know, it's, it's not nothing. I just, I don't have a ton of faith in it. Yeah, Shane Bosz does feel like

kind of a high floor pitcher. Feels pretty good in a points league. He's given decent volume this season. And during that 15-star stretch with the 293 ERA, it does come with a 292 FIP and a 379 XERA. So to a certain extent,

like the underlying numbers do buy some of what Baz is doing. Well, it's like a 5% on home run rate? Yeah, the home run. It seems like Boss deserves to have given him more home runs than he has because the contact is hard and very little of it's on the ground, actually. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, that's kind of always been a big

issue for him. Yeah. Yeah. The next tier of names between 25 and 55% roster, Sean Mania had an awesome start. Yeah, he did. On Sunday at the Pirates, seven innings, one run, 11 strikeouts to zero walks. His velocity was up like two miles per hour on his fastball, and that pitch was amazing for him in this one. He,

gets the nationals this week. They are really good against lefties. They're also without James Wood. Zach Thornton, solid outing at the Pirates. Five shutout innings, three strikeouts. He has managed to keep runs off the board, but I don't really buy it. He just doesn't get whiffs.

He doesn't really get ground balls. He's at the Braves later this week. Tyler Malley looked great in his Braves debut at the Yankees. Six shotout innings with nine strikeouts for him. He gets the Mets. And Grant Holmes had a nice start on Sunday against the Yankees as well. Six shot out innings, two strikeouts. He has looked better as of late, not in a completely believable way.

He does get the debacks later this week. They're really bad against right-handed pitching. So Chris, a mix of like Sean Mania, I'm kind of intrigued by the upside on what he showed here. The other names kind of just feel like streamer types, I think. When Mania, we've seen, you know, a big mid-season turnaround from him in the very recent past. I believe it was the 20-20-4. 20-20-starring pitcher in the second half probably that season. He was incredible.

If I could go through the history a little bit on Manaya here because so it was in second half of 2024, he adopted Chris Sale delivery. It was inspired by Chris Sale. He watched him pitch one day and he's like, I think I could do that. So he lowered his arm ankle and he basically put up numbers like Chris Sale over the final two months of 2024 with that new arm ankle. And what also happened during that stretch is he ditched the sinker. The sinker used for the season in 2024 was pretty high. those last two months, he basically didn't use it with the lower arm angle. Then last year, 2025 happens.

He still has that arm angle. He's injured a lot of the year. He struggles when he's healthy. But he still gets huge strikeout numbers. And then coming into this year, I don't know if he felt like he needed to bring that sinker back since 2025 didn't go so well. Because he was throwing it like 20% of the time again until this start. He basically ditched it. They recorded 2% sinker use in this start.

versus the usual 21%. And what happens? He strikes out 11 and 7 innings has to start very much like those final two months of 2024 when he first adopted the Chris sale delivery. So, I mean, I haven't seen him comment on the sinker at all, but I wonder if just, you know, that pitch had a 341 batting average against this year,

the sinker. Like it's done him no favors. And so he ditches it like he did those final two months of 2024. I don't know. has his best start. Maybe there's something here for Manaya. Definitely be interested in taking a shot again. Would you guys rather add Mania or Jackson, Job?

Job. Chris? I have a little more faith in Mania being useful right now. I think so, too. Just because I don't, I think Job, the pitch count's going to be pretty limited. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, obviously this is just a, I'm, I'm, hopeful Maniah can keep doing this,

but it's one time. And so, like, I didn't have any faith in him prior to this start. I think I had him as a two-star sleeper this week because the matchups were pretty good, and so that worked out well. But the success he was having prior to this start, there didn't seem to be much to it. And this is the first start where it's like,

well, if he can do this. I also want to mention Tyler Malley here, because it's back-to-back nine strikeout efforts for him. similar velocity increase in both the fastball and splitter were up about one and fewer he also threw fewer cutters in this latest start by a little bit it's his worst pitch you know if the fastball and splitter are harder and he emphasizes them over the cutter i think tyler mallee may be halfway useful i don't think it's going to be this kind of strikeout rate from here on but there may be something to tyler mallee too yeah i like

the matchup a lot for him this week too. Going up against the Mets. I know their lineup has been a little bit better as of late, but they are 30th in Wobah against right-handed pitching. Still no one side though. Yeah. And his teammate, Grant Holmes, like, I don't buy what Grant Holmes is doing at all, but he gets the D-backs, and they are 29th

in Wobah against Ritey. So if you need a deeper streamer, I think Grant Holmes could be all right. I just want to remind people of the upside for Gage Jump because he had a massive start as well, six innings of two-run ball with 11 strikeouts at the Red Sox, the team, like the hottest team in baseball, over the past month.

And he had 19 whiffs on 100 pitches. I think we need to see a little bit more to kind of like regain trust. I don't even know if trust is the right word in gauge jump. But yeah, he was struggling mightily, but obviously this was a massive start. I mean, you know what it is for him.

Throwing strikes. Well, that, but he also has a 616 ERA at home and a 260 ERA on the road. All right, use them on the road. There you go. Yeah, I mean, the problem is like you're saying, it is also throw strikes. It's not all just giving up home runs in Sacramento,

but that's been a pretty consistent trend in the small sample size so far. His best starts have almost been exclusively on the road. He did a couple other different things in this latest start. So he's had three good starts in his last eight, two were against Boston. He said he reviewed the tape from his previous start against Boston because it went well and came up with a game plan based on that.

he kind of expanded his arsenal, leaned more on his lesser pitches. But getting to what you and I said, Frank, he threw 69% of his pitches for strikes. And he said my plan was to just flood the zone and know where I'll get chase. And you might as well do that every time, dude. Yeah, exactly. If you have that much control over it, like, do it. Yep. All right, let's take our final break.

When we return, I've got some waiver wire hitters. We will fire up the Worryometer for a couple pitchers. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's talk some Waver Wire hitters. And Jackson Holiday is a name that we have not really talked about. He hasn't really done that much, so there's a good reason for that. But on Saturday, he hit his sixth home run.

On Sunday, he had his sixth stolen base. He had two hits in each of those games as well. And he has hit third in the Orioles lineup, three games in a row now. And I just noticed he has been walking a lot more this season. He has 31 walks and 217 plate appearances. It's a 14% walk rate and has contributed to a 350 on base percentage. The Stackcast stuff is not good. But I thought it was worth mentioning at least like the walk rate and the plate discipline looks more this year like it was in the minors.

And there has been a little bit of power in speed. So hopefully he's still only 22 years old. Like we do, we got a lot of late top prospect bloomers. Hopefully it's something that he can build on. Yeah, I mean. You can look at it from two directions, right? 22 is not old at all. How many players do you really see breakout after being pretty bad and honestly mediocre at best

through their first like thousand plate appearances, which I think is around where we're at with Jackson Holiday? It's not nobody, certainly. Heralda Pardoma broke out after like 2,000 plate appearances or something. Jordan Walker? How many did he have? Yeah, probably not that much. any fewer. Luis Garcia.

It's not, yeah. It's not the norm, but. It's the exception. It used to be the norm. Yes, it used to be. Go back 30 years. Yeah, 30 years.

The aging curve was, you know, flat up, down. Now it's kind of, guys, a lot of guys, lead prospects, tend to enter pretty close to their peak and hold steady for a while. Yeah. It's a different aging curve. And so when guys don't hit the ground running, it is a little alarming.

I wouldn't say it's always, but 1,100 played appearances into his career, I'd like to see a little more impact from Jackson Holiday. Yeah. And that's what we really, like, if he's a 15, 15, 15, 260 hitter, that's useful. That's a useful middle infielder, but.

It's like what Jake Croninworth used to be. Yeah, like nobody's all that excited about, I don't know, even Bryson's. Stott, who steals a lot more bases than that, is a pretty 70% rostered guy. He is the prototypical middle infielder. I think every year in every Roto League, I just try to get Bryson Stott as my middle infielder.

Yeah. Yeah, and that's fine. Like, he's a useful player, but, you know, not much more than that. Yeah, so. Jack Gruneworth never stole that many bases. I don't think so. Jackson Holiday is 57% rostered.

I don't think we need to do anything with that, right? No, that sounds about right. All right. Well, let's see where it goes. Clearly, they have some level of confidence, hitting him third in the lineup, and they probably just want to see what he could do for the final six or seven weeks of the season. Stephen Kwan, three for five with a homer on Friday,

and over his last 22 games, he's hitting 414. He also has four steals during that span, and OPS over 1,000. He is back in the lead-off spot. He is 71% rostered. Do you guys think that number should be higher? I kind of think, I know three outfits, points leagues like that's a high bar to meet but I mean Stephen Kwan kind of looks like

Stephen Kwan over the last month historically it's his best format right yeah that's what I'm wondering you might have your team with three really good outfielders and it would in which case it doesn't matter but like let me think I've got one league where I did lose James Wood recently and who is my I don't think I have anybody good there I had to start Kyle Stowers this week he just got hurt if Stephen Kwan was available in that league, I would be happy to start Stephen Kwan over those guys. Yeah, I think even in a points league,

like the way as Merlin Valdez has been kind of slowing down and striking out, sure. Let's go ahead and use Kwan over Valdez, something like that. But yeah, in Points League, that's his best format, and he's looking much better. Names in five outfieler leagues, Jake Mangum, another big weekend, three for five with a steel on Saturday, two for four with a home run on Sunday.

We did talk about, you know, his playing time, how will it shake out if O'Neill Cruz returns this week? I think Mangum has played well enough where he's kind of earned that opportunity to stay in there. And Griffin-Konin had a big game on Sunday. Two-for-four with a double-dong, three RBI. In 52 games, he's got 12 homers and 893 Ops. He's going to play against Ritees.

They have six games this week. There's one lefty. There's one TBD in there. Who do you guys like more in a five outfieler league? Jake Mangum or a Griffin-Conine. I think it kind of depends what you need. Mangum is probably more bankable He's certainly more bankable

He's been doing it for longer He plays every day Conine's platoon And it's been a more recent development But there's definitely power there for Conine I have Conine as a sleeper hitter for this week And if that's what you need more of right now I think it makes sense to give him a shot

He's been really good since he came off the aisle In late June I think So yeah There's MLB talents there for sure for Griffin Conan. One very deep name is Oslavis Basabe of the Giants. He has looked good since being called up. It's only eight games, but in that span, he's got three homers, eight RBI, and a steel. And he has started all eight for the Giants since being called up.

He's 5% rostered, second and shortstop eligible. I think in all of my 15 team leagues, my NL only leagues, where waivers have run already, people, like Pasabe was like, added in all of them. So I think in league's that deep, he's playing and he's doing stuff. Yeah, I don't, I don't think there's much behind it. I mean, you'd look at what he was doing at AAA in 75 games,

268 batting average five homers, 12 steel, 732 OPS. The average exit velocity was pretty low. He peaked pretty high with the EV. So there's some raw power in there. but particularly in San Francisco with that supporting cast, I don't think you should treat this as anything more than a hot start for Bissabe

and only add him in desperate situations. All right, let's fire up the Wuriometer for four pitchers. I have two starters here and two relievers. We'll go one to 10 on the Wariometer. And Zach Wheeler is first up. He's just been off lately. This time against the Blue Jays, five and a third, seven hits, four runs,

five walks. He still had 16 whiffs on a hundred. 16 pitches. The good news is that his velocity was fine. I know there was a start recently on July 27th where his velocity was down quite a bit. But he has a 784 ERA and a 194 whip over his last three starts.

Chris, where is Zach Wheeler on the Worryometer? Three. This was a weird one because did you guys see the drama in this start? Apparently Zach Wheeler doesn't really pitch legally. you're supposed to have your foot on the rubber. It looks like he's a couple inches off the rubber, off to the first base side.

And the Blue Jay said something, and he got mad about it, and he had some pretty mean comments after the game, if we're being honest. But, you know, anytime stuff like that happens, it's always like, how does that affect these guys? Pitchers are such creatures of habit that if you have to start thinking, like it's kind of like we talked about with Noah Cameron, when he now he's throwing his own, calling his own pitches. And it's like, maybe that just kind of like gets him in the right mindset.

And that matters a lot for pitchers. So anytime something like that happens with a pitcher, it's like, is that part of why they struggled? Maybe. But I think for the most part, I don't see anything too alarming, especially since the velocity's been back. One thing to make note of is that Wheeler threw 116 pitches in this start, which is the most he's thrown in a start since 2021.

Wow. Jeez. And... I'm going to get a lot in the sixth inning then. You don't love that with him having just come back from a pretty serious surgical procedure, which I guess is kind of redundant surgical procedure. But, yeah, you don't love it. Hopefully he'll be fine.

He's obviously been somebody who piles up innings for a long time. and can probably take it on, but it's worth noting since it had been five years since he had done something like that. 32 pitches to record one out in the sixth inning. That's rough. Next up we have Justin Robleski, another rough one at the D-backs.

Three to third, six hits, four runs, three walks, three strikeouts. He did allow a homer in this one. The velocity was actually up here, but clearly didn't have his best stuff. Struggle to throw strikes. And over his last three starts, a 1054 ERA 190 whip for Justin Robleski.

Scott, did we get duped? Where is Robleski on the Wuriameter? I mean, the turn for the worse happened right about the time when the underlying numbers started to look halfway decent. And I said I basically changed my stance on Robleski and said he might actually be good. Well, three bat starts in a row. the velocity was down in the first one,

but that hasn't been the case in the last two. Velosti's basically been fine, so I don't think there's much to that. Beyond Hu Robleski is a pitcher, how good he actually is. I think there's ample reason to be worried here just because the Dodgers have a bunch of pitchers coming back from injury.

They just got Terrick Scoobel, and now they're getting Blake Snell back, and Tyler Glass now should be back for too long. And by the way, they have other pitchers and the organization perfectly capable of making a start. Bobby Miller pitched in a game recently. And Rebleski's getting to a point where he needs his innings managed too, based on how many he's thrown historically.

So I think there's ample reason to worry here. I'm not saying you should drop Robleski, but I'd probably put him at about a six on the worryometer. I agree, yeah. And he gets the Brewers this week. They are worse against lefties and they are against righties, but obviously they're a good team and a good lineup. So I would try and my best to get away from Justin Robleski for this upcoming week.

Next up, a reliever. Edwin Diaz got the ninth inning on Friday with a one-run lead. He allowed a walk-off homer to Ryan Walschmidt. And then on Saturday, he got the ninth with a one-run lead. He allowed a run on a walk and two hits. He took his third blown save. He did back his way into a win in that one. But his velocity has looked fine coming back from the arm injury.

It could take him a little bit of time to find like his command and stuff. And maybe that's why he's getting hit here. But Chris, the problem is that there's a really, really capable reliever behind him in Tanner Scott. So where is Edwin Diaz on the Wariometer? What's going to be really fun is the Dodgers are going to sign whoever the best free agent closer on the market is this offseason. And then Edward Diaz is going to be awesome as a setup man. No, I don't know. The sample sizes here are so small.

But he hasn't been good at all since he came back. and has he had a single clean appearance since he came back? I don't think he has. And his rehab assignment was, I think the results were okay, but they just kept pushing him back. Like they weren't satisfied

with the way he was pitching or something. That's just speculation. But it's been a while since we've had something positive to point to with Edwin-D-S. So I don't think the wariometer can be zero and I don't think it can be five. So I'm going to say a seven.

The Dodgers have been willing to take high-priced, high-powered closers and take them out of the roll if they think it gives them the best chance to win. How worried are they about that? I don't really know. I mean, they've been pretty bad for a while now. I mean, a while, like nine days, and they're still seven and a half games up in the division. So. So Diaz has made five appearances since,

returning from the IEL. He's allowed at least one earn run and four of the five appearances. He's made 12 appearances this season. He's allowed at least one run in seven of them. Yeah. So it's been rough. Now, and he had surgery. He had elbow surgery. One example that comes to mind is David Bednar at the start of last year, where he had a stretch where he seemingly couldn't have a clean inning, and then he went on a run of a lot of clean innings, Reisel O'Glasius last year as well. Like, the turnaround can happen quickly. And so I, you know, I'm not, I don't want to be so quick to write off Edwin Diaz.

But as you say, Frank, they have Tanner Scott right there. He was having a great season, perfectly viable closer. And it might just be the least stressful to put him in the role. Yeah. So if you have Edwin Diaz, if someone else dropped Tanner Scott, you might want to kind of handcuff that situation. Or if you didn't drop Tanner Scott yet, don't. because perhaps he could work his way back into the ninth inning.

Chris, I just looked up the highest paid reliever who will be a free agent this offseason is Rysel Iglesias. Oh, good. You could just... I think O'Glaeus and Bednar both, the guys I just mentioned. Oh, yeah, yeah, I think is Benner. Yeah, Benner is a free agent, too, so there you go. There are you.

Why not just sign both? They're both going to be Dodgers in the off season. Speaking of Riceel Iglesias, he is the last name on this list, and he got the ninth inning on Friday with a two-run lead. He allowed two runs on a walk and three hits. He took his third blown save. He entered the game on Sunday with the game tied, and he looked much better. It was a clean inning.

He struck out to the Braves took a one-run lead in the 10th, and it was Tyler Kinley who picked up the save. But Scott, Reiselaglacius has been struggling for the past month or so. Where is he on the Wuriameter? And is there any name to watch in that bullpen? Is it a Didier Fuentes or a Tyler Kinley? What do you think? Well, definitely not Kinley.

He's had his own struggles. Fuentes has been good. Dylan Lee has been good. but, you know, worryometer for Rice-Eleglasis, if you'd asked me yesterday, I probably would have put it as like a seven, but he did look a lot better in a very big spot on Sunday, struck out too.

And, you know, I've tried to figure out what's been going on with him during this rough stretch. I haven't seen much to explain it. And, you know, he had a much longer bad stretch early last year, as I said, and recovered and was dominant for the last several. months of the season has had a very consistent career. There was a specific explanation last year. Yeah, the slider was a problem for him and once he ditched it last year.

But it's, he has started to incorporate that a little more recently, but it hasn't gotten hit hard. So I don't think that's the problem. And overall, his slider usage is still very low. So I don't, I think he's going to be fine. I don't think they're going to make a change there if you wanted to stash Dylan Lee and Didier Fentes in a league where saves are scarce. I think that's fine, but it's probably a waste of a roster spot.

All right, let's move on to hitters moving up and down, trending up and down. And look, I have a bunch of arbitrary endpoints stats here. I'm not going to read them all off. I will just mention the names. And if you have a thought, you can go for it. But Fernando Tatis Jr., he has three home runs in his past five games. He's looked awesome in the second half. Jackson Merrill, basically since the beginning of June, has been great.

Sock in his shoe on Saturday, and he had another home run on Sunday. Jack Sentrio, he had a stretch where he really struggled late June into late July, but he has looked much better over his past 14, 15 days or so. Jack Caglione, a double dong on Saturday, four hits in that game, four RBI. He's picking things back up. He's been really streaky this season. That might just be a part of his game because he chases a lot of pitches out of the zone. Brendan Nimmo, having a great second half so far, looking much better at home

as of late. And Bo Bichette had a five-hit game on Sunday, three runs and three RBI. He's hitting 321 over his last 20 games. That also comes with one homer. So I'm not sure how much he's trending up. And that one homer, you said last 20 games, he's had one homer, just one homer, since June 24th. So there has been no power here from Bo Bichette.

And I am unmoved by this five-hit game considering. Yeah. Do you guys have anything on Nemo, Cags, Torio, Merrill, or Tatis? So Caglione, the launch angle is back down to about seven degrees in both July and August. But in July, the average exit velocity was down to 90 miles per hour. It's back up to about 94 in August. And the whiff rate is way down. I think he's only struck out twice in the month of August. Any time you can say the exit velocity was down to 90 miles per hour.

I think the takeaway there is he's just streaky. Yeah. And until he figures out how to not be streaky, it might just be frustrating. But, you know, you look at what he's doing overall. And I think the numbers are going to end up somewhere that you're pretty happy with. You know, it's a 797 OPS, 20 homers. I guess you'd like close through to a 30 homer pace. But with how hot he's capable of getting, he's not too far off that piece.

You could get there. You can get there. you know, 265 batting average. The runs an RBI. I mean, that's just, that lineup has been pretty bad all season. I know it's gotten better, but yeah. Yeah, I think he's probably just streaky in like a true way. Like, he's still trying to find his level, like figure out where his talent level sits.

But on the whole, I think you're pretty happy with it. And then Fernando Tatis, someone screwed up his swing early in the season. I don't know who it was. Maybe it was just him. But the fact that happened to Mani Machado too, and he went on in. Jackson Merrill was awful for two months and has been really good for two months now. So I don't know because they didn't fire anybody. Like there was no shakeup in the coaching staff or anything.

I don't know. But Mike Petriello of MLB.com posted earlier today a graphic on Twitter. In March and April, Fernando Tati's stance angle for his batting stance was 10 degrees open. In May, it was 15 degrees. Since then, it's been like 35 degrees, which is where it was last year. He just changed his swing for some reason. And he was really bad. And then he went back to the previous swing that he had.

And he's been hitting like Fernando Tatis ever since. He's on like a 25-home or 30 steel pace since the start of June. That's basically what you hoped for from Fernando Tatis. Yeah. You can't say he won't mess with his swing again, but hopefully some lessons have been learned here. Yeah. What's annoying about it too is that he's not going to get all the way there based on where he was drafted. But can he get to 17, 18 homers and like 35 steals?

Like that's a possibility. Again, it's still a letdown based on where he was drafted. But yeah, since the end of May, early June, he's basically been Fernando Tatis. Some names trending down. Kyle Schwerber, massive game over the weekend. He ended the home run drought. But man, he was going through it. It was two homers and a steal.

He had four RBI, he had three walks. It was his first home run since July 18th. 17 games between homers. He was hitting 175 with a 557 OPS and a 38% K rate. Josh Naler had a two homer game on Saturday night. That was his first homer since June 12th. 43 games between homers. He hit 261 with a 644 OPS and a 317 slugging percentage.

Ian Hap, Homer on both Saturday and Sunday. his previous 30 games before that, he was hitting 167 with a 531 OPS. The strikeouts, just way up this season out of nowhere for Ian Hap. And could tell Marte, he homered on Sunday as well, but his last 30 games, 175 with a 559 OPS. So, Scott, anything here you'd like to touch on or anything that actually worries you with Marte, Ian Hap, Josh Naylor, and Kyle Schwerber. Marte still has an excellent expected batting average of almost 280 as is the norm for him

so I think he'll bring that number up it's been going on a long time him underperforming that expected batting average and he has had full years like that before but he's also had years where obviously he's been an excellent source of batting average and I think he's about the same Schwerber's strikeout rate has been way up all year

and at his age you've got to worry about that being a sign of decline. However, normally it's most visible on the fastball. And when you look at his splits against four seamers specifically, it is worse than last year, but he was especially good against four seamers last year. He's having a year more in line with most of his career in terms of how he's hitting or whiffing at fastballs. Plus, he's still working with Kevin Long in Philadelphia. And those two have been together for a long. time and he's like the Kyle Schwabber whisper and I think that's probably half the reason he's the Philly's hitting coach and so it didn't surprise me to see Schwerber get back on track like Sunday. I think in the long run he'll be fine and it's just kind of a weird year for strikeouts for him. But, you know, he's still really good. Marte, I would, I just wanted to look and see if maybe there was an injury because I know he had a couple of minor things that didn't end up being serious across the season, but the timing doesn't

really match up. He had a hamstring injury at the beginning of June. He was awesome in June. And then he had a back injury at the, like, July 23rd. He was bad in July before that. So I don't really think that explains it. So probably want to chalk it up to just stuff happens, I think. Back over to the pitching side. We had four pitchers with new team debuts.

And Kevin Gosman pitched very well, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 96 pitches and has looked better over his last three starts. Jose Soriano, it was a mixed bag in his Blue Jays debut. He was at the Phillies. It was only four and two-thirds innings, three walks, three strikeouts, but I had 18 whiffs on 94 pitches. Robbie Ray, very wild in his Padres debut, five innings, four runs, five walks, and you guys did warn of regression on our trade deadline special. And Clay Holmes, he was rusty in his first start off the IL, also his Cub's debut, four innings, four runs, two walks, one strikeout. But this was his first start since May 15th,

so I kind of feel like we just give Clay Holmes a pass here. He's not going to maintain a 286 ERA, but I still think he'll be good. Just bad first start back. Chris, any thoughts here on Clay Holmes, Robbie Ray, Jose Soriano, and Kevin Gosman? I believe Clay Holmes would be more apt to say dusty. Clay Holmes, wouldn't reel a lot metal in there.

Jason sand. No, Gosman, he threw his... Splittermore in this one. That's always interesting to see when a player changes teams. And given how good that pitch is and how likely it would be to generate ground ball contact, especially, probably not a bad idea with the Cubs defense behind him. So I like to see that. Soriano, I just think it's so funny because at the beginning of the season,

Soriano broke out. And it was like, it's so smart, guys. He's throwing a four seamer now. He's missing bats. And then in this start, the reactions I've seen is like, it's so smart, Jose Soriano is not throwing his foreseemer as much now that he's on the Blue Jays. And it's like, I feel like we just really, really want Jose Soriana to be a thing because the good parts are so good.

And maybe switching teams will get him there. I know the Angels are widely regarded as a laughing stock for good reason. I don't know if the Blue Jays are necessarily the team that I think has a great track record for figuring out pitchers. What I read about that is a couple things. Obviously, the results weren't that good in his first start with him, but it does seem like they acquired him with a plan in mind. Oh, of course.

Because the Blue Jays beat writer wrote about using Pete Walker, their pitching coaches work with Dylan Cease as a model. They think they can get Jose Soriano to be more consistent, particularly in terms of strike throwing. and that's what they're working on with him. We did see a little bit of a change in the pitch mix there. I don't know if it's a permanent one, but part of the success CES has had

is just balancing out his arsenal a little bit. And I don't know, something to watch going forward, but the initial returns were nothing to get too excited about. With Robbie Ray, would you guys drop him for like Sean Mania or Jackson Job? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I don't love Robbie Ray against the Brewers this week, and I don't love Robbie Ray

when he's not pitching in San Francisco. I guess Petco is a very good ballpark as well, but I don't think it's quite as good as San Francisco, and I think he's just not very good. Obviously, Ian Seymour and Sasaki over those two. It's worth saying. But yeah, I would be fine dropping Robbie Ray for anyone who gets me excited on the waiver wire.

Robbie Ready, by the way, just say 9% K-minus walk rate this season. That is fourth lowest among qualified starting pitchers. So he has been getting away with it for quite some time. Pitching leftovers, I have a bunch of them. I'm just going to read off names. You guys tell me if you have anything on these guys, but there was a lot of really good pitching this weekend. The first group includes Jesus Lazardo, Cam Schlittler, Max Fried,

and Drew Rasmussen. It's got anything you'd like to note on Raspisand-Fried, Schlittler, and Lazzardo. Lazzardo is a guy. telling you. It's a young candidate. He had 17 whiffs on his sweeper alone.

He's really good. He's beast. And then occasionally he's really bad. Yeah, so two turns ago he had a really bad start, but even counting that, last 11 starts 204E are a.95 with 12.2K per 9.

Mm-hmm. Yep. Which Slittler, I'll just mention that coming off a bad start, his velocity was up, and obviously he was amazing. strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 96 pitches. But it just seems like whenever he has a bad start,

like bet on that next start because, man, he's really good at bouncing back from bad starts. Next group, we have Parker Messick, Garrett Cole, Sandy Alcansara, and Jacob de Grom who bounced back. He's kind of been going through it. Chris, anything on DeGrom? Sandy,

Garrett Cole, and Parker Messick. Garrett Cole mostly looks like himself. I know the swinging strikes have been erratic. There was a stretcher. really good. The last couple of starts have not been so good, but I think on the whole, he just, he mostly looks like himself. And the fastball has been missing a lot of bats over the past five starts. So I think you feel very good about Garrick Cole. I think the most interesting

one is probably DeGrom just because it has been a slightly shaky season. I think he's kind of maybe aged out of being a true ace. But then you look at all the, a lot of the peripherals. I mean, 10.9K per 9, 2.3 walks per 9. He's getting hit really hard, and that was kind of an issue last season. He had some home run issues as well last season, but man, I feel like there's not a lot of time left. I would definitely take the under on a 387 ERA, the rest of the way for Jacob de Grom.

And if he had a sub 3 ERA the rest of the way, I would not be surprised at all. The one thing that does worry me is that he was dealing with that glute type injury and that forced him to miss a start in early July, and he really just hasn't been the same since then. And he hasn't gotten more than five innings since June 30th. So I just kind of wonder if that is affecting him. And at his age, more susceptible to injuries,

like definitely could be a problem there for DeGrom. Last group includes Logan Webb, Michael King, Kyle Brannish, Matthew Boyd, and Troy Melton. I said there were a lot of names. Scott, there's five names here. Is there anything that you would like to touch on with this group? So I will point out that Melton, the whiffs have actually been really good in his last two starts,

but still less than a strikeout per inning in each. It doesn't seem to matter how hard he throws, how many bats he misses, how many strikeouts he gets. He just, he's good regardless. And I feel like the very best version of him is one that he could bring out more consistently if he needed to, but he's doing fine just as he is.

I'm seeing he's I'm seeing Jared Jones isn't on the rundown so I wanted to touch on him real quick are we to a point where we would consider dropping Jared Jones he just had unfortunately it was a two-star week but both of them were really bad and the velocity has now been down three straight outings just one mile per hour on both the fastball and slider

but when that's all he has I think it's it's sort of like Spencer Strider where a small drop in velocity could make a huge difference. Yeah, and I just I also just come back to it's still the pitch count. Yeah, well, that's, yeah, if he's not going to pitch well

that on top of it. Yeah, like, well, he just, he has to pitch exceptionally well. Right. To be good for fantasy. He has to pitch really well to be useful. And so when you're talking about that slim of a margin for error, yeah, I think it's, you know,

three earned runs and six innings, not great start, but it's not a bad one. Three and runs of five innings, pretty bad start. So, I think that's... And eight of runs in three innings, like you had on... That's bad no matter what, yes. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm not saying you have to drop Jones, but, like... I would drop them for Job or Mania just to see what's up with those guys.

Definitely Job and Mania. I do view... I do view Job versus Jones as kind of... You're just kind of whole, you know, the Spider-Man meme, and you're just hoping you get a good Spider-Man. man for two months out of one of them, but I don't think there's that much difference

between them. I think they're both really talented. They're both likely facing limitations. And I'm not sure either of them is good yet. But Job has proven less that he's not good right now. So sure, go ahead. You know? Yep.

All right. Next up, the call to the bullpen for the weekend for the Nationals on Friday. Clayton Beater got the ninth with a two-run lead. He picked up his 12th save. The Nationals do not have a closer, but I guess the one most likely to get a save is Clayton Beater. For the Angels on Friday, in a save situation,

it was Ben Joyce who pitched a scoreless eighth inning, and then Jose Fermin got the ninth, and he picked up his first save. Sammy Natera Jr. pitched on Thursday, and he threw 23 pitches. So I would still bet on either Natera or Ben Joyce, getting the next save for the Angels. For the Twins on Friday, in a save situation,

Jeff Hoffman got the seventh, Andrew Morris got the eighth, and Joendris Gomez got the ninth, and he picked up his 16th save, and then on Sunday, Gomez got the 10th inning, the Manfred Man on second. He allowed a run on a walk and hit, and he took his second loss. But I still think there's a decent leash there for Yo Andrus Gomez. For the Cubs on Friday, Jacob Webb struck out two in the ninth inning for his seventh save.

For the debacks on Friday, Brandon Garcia entered with one out in the seven. It was a tie game, two runners on. He allowed a single and then got a double play to get out of it. He also got the eighth inning where he allowed a solo homer to Andy Pahez. And then on Sunday, Garcia was unavailable. Kevin Ginkle picked up his first save. It was just interesting because we had only recently seen Garcia

in save opportunities, but if they view him as their highest leverage reliever, I guess he's not just their set closer. He could pitch earlier in the game. What's frustrating is I don't think they've had a safe situation since he got those back-to-back saves. So we don't really know yet. Yeah, I lean in his direction.

On Sunday, but Garcia was on. I wrote that before the end of that game. But Garcia wasn't available, so I still definitely have a strong lean towards Barang Garcia, mostly because I just think he's the best pitcher in this bullpen until Justin Martinez is healthy. And even then, you never know how a guy will come back from Tommy John. Yep.

For the Giants on Friday, Dylan Smith got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He picked up his second save. He's only 3% rostered. And Scott, it kind of looks like Dylan Smith is the guy. So deeper leagues, save option. Yeah, I mean, I guess the Giants have been. Bad. Well, they're bad.

And a couple outings in a row, a guy will get a save. And then they'll use them in the fifth inning next time. And I just don't have a lot of trust in that. You might use them as an opener. I feel like they've done that a few times this season. Yeah. I want to mention with Brandon Garcia, he appears to be the only lefty in the Diamondbacks bullpen other than Philip Abner,

who looks like he's more of a, like more of a mop-up role kind of guy. Yeah, but Garcia has not really been used as like a Lugie or anything. If anything earlier this season, he was being used more in like multi-inning roles. And I don't know if they had another lefty previously. I honestly don't know. It's just usually, you know, usually when there's a couple lefties coming up, you want to have some guy you can turn to. Continuing on with the bullpins for the athletics on Saturday,

Hogan Harris got the final four outs for his 10th save, and then on Sunday he picked up his 11th. So the A's still kind of mix and match, but Hogan Harris is at the top of the list for them. He is 21% rostered. For the Royals on Saturday, Stephen Cruz got the eighth inning with a three-run lead facing the heart of the Cubs lineup, and he got out of it,

and then Nate Pearson got the ninth with and picked up his second save, his first here with the Royals. I guess I would still bet on Cruz getting the next save for them, but another one where it won't always be in the ninth inning. For the Rockies on Saturday, Jordan Romano picked up his 10th save,

and for the White Sox on Saturday, Grant Taylor got the ninth with a three-run lead. He picked up his sixth save. Then on Sunday, Taylor was unavailable. Trevor Richards allowed a run, but he picked up his first save. Grant Taylor is still the main name to roster there in the White Sox bullpen.

To stream or not to stream on Monday. We have Christian Scott at the Braves, Bryce Elder against the Mets. A couple of revenge games here. Dean Kramer against the Orioles. Jacob Lopez against the Rays. Andrew Painter is at the Cardinals, Hunter Dobbins against the Phillies,

and Hayden Wesneski at the Giants. Genuinely do not have any recollection of Jacob Lopez with the Rays. I think he would be my top choice. They're worse against lefties. Pretty good offense overall, but not so great. against lefties.

So I think between that and the way Lopez is pitched recently, that's good. I'd also be fine with Bryce Elder against the Mets and his opponent, Christian Scott at the Brice. All right. On Tuesday, we have Patrick Sandoval

at the Blue Jays, Martine Perez against the Mets. Brandon Young is at the Twins, Bailey Ober against the Orioles, Andre Palante against the Phillies. Mitch Bratt is against the Rockies in Arizona, and Walker Bueller is home against the Brewers.

But I really don't like these options. Brandon Young's most reason start was pretty bad, right? Yeah. And I didn't really buy his successful. Yeah, I didn't really buy it, but I know Scott, you liked him a little bit.

Well, I didn't see a lot of reason to buy into it for the long run either, but I was willing to stream of at least Brandon Young while he was hot. I would go Martin Perez against the Mets over him, I think. Yeah, I think I'd go young, but I really don't

like any of these options very much. Oh, I don't. mind Andre Palante against the Phillies either. He's, he's usually good for, no, usually good for a quality star, frankly. So I think that's, I think that's probably fine. I'd probably go Palante Young Perez in that order on Tuesday. We are going to wrap there for Scott 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-bye.

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