Fantasy Baseball Today - Rece Hinds On Fire! Lawrence Butler Triple Dong & Garrett Crochet Limited (7/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Rece Hinds has been stupid good since getting called up (2:50)! ... Lawrence Butler hit three homers on Sunday (8:05). ... News (15:10): Garrett Crochet was limited to just 28 pitches this weekend. ... Add Colt Keith or Zack Gelof (27:30)? ... Spencer Schwellenbach is pitching well and Gavin Williams' pitch-mix is weird (35:15). ... Ranger Suarez and Nick Lodolo have slowed down (44:50). ... Gerrit Cole, Luis Gil and Blake Snell all had encouraging starts (49:52). ... Cole Ragans' velo has been down (52:54)! ... Julio Rodriguez and Corbin Carroll have picked things up in July (57:03). ... We wrap up with leftovers and bullpen updates (1:01:24). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. All right, the first half of the 2024 season is in the books. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 15th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we have Waverwire, from the weekend, four pitchers who are slowing down, hitters who are picking things up in July, and much more. But let's jump in. You recognize that voice. That is the Reds TV broadcast. There are lots of baseballs being crushed in Cincinnati right now, Chris. I will turn it over to you, your player of the weekend. I mean, how could it be anybody but Reese Hines, the greatest power hitter in the history of professional baseball. I mean, this guy is just absurdly locked in right now. What is it? Five homers in his first

eight major league games. We knew that he had incredible raw power. What's been impressive is to see how consistently he's put that into action already so far in the majors, five homers and seven, eight games. 11 RBI. He had a grand slam on Friday. And he's not actually. He's not actually. striking out that much seven times in 48 plate appearances. I mean, we are talking across the board, just minuscule sample sizes here. So I don't think we can say anything with certainty about Reese Heinz. But what I will say, and this is something that I wrote in the Waverwire column on Sunday on CBS Sports, is just especially if you are low in the standings, I think you've got to start doing some high variant stuff to try to make up ground. And one of those things would be taking a player like Reese Hines who is showing difference-making potential.

I think Lawrence Butler is also, we'll talk about him shortly, but also another guy that you can say this about where the likeliest outcome is this is another ever state is Aquino. And remember he had 11 homer in his first 16 games, I think it was for Aquino. And it didn't end up lasting. And my best guess is Reese Hines won't be able to make this last. He is chasing on 46% of the pitches thrown out of the zone this year. The major league average is 28%. So really bad play discipline. He's actually not swinging and missing as much as you might expect.

A little more than league average, but really not that bad because he's crushing everything inside the zone. including this is hilarious, breaking balls. You usually see guys get about 50 to 60% fast balls, 25 to 30% breaking balls, and maybe 10 to 15% off speed pitches. Reese Heinz has seen 45% of his pitches have been breaking balls so far this season. And he is demolishing them,

100 mile per hour average exit velocity when he makes contact with a breaking ball. a 1298 expected slugging percentage. It's again, the sample sizes are all way too small to draw any conclusions from, but the power here is legitimately top of scale. And again, while I think that he's likely to see significant regression moving forward to the point where I might say the likeliest outcome with Reese Heinz is in a month, he's less than 50% roster.

But if he's a 35 homer guy and can hit 250 even, that's probably a difference making fantasy player for the rest of the way. I don't know how many more opportunities you weren't going to get to add a player like that. So I think you do have to take that chance on Reese Hines, especially if you need to flip the scripts in some way. Yeah, what he's done so far is just stupid. There's no other way to say it. He hit a grand slam on Friday, as you mentioned.

Two more homers on Saturday. Reese Hines so far, 11 for 26. It's a 423 batting average, five homers, 11 RBI, two steals, a 1656 OPS, incredibly small sample size. The raw power,

according to Fangraph's 70 grade raw power. So the power is legit. He obviously has flashed some speed. It also comes with a projected 40 hit tool on Fangraphs. So, I mean, and just to, like, he was at AAA this year. with a 38% strikeout rate.

I don't think he had a 700 OPS in AAA, despite I think 18 to 20 homers or something like that. So yeah, like again, the likeliest outcome here is probably that Reese Hines ends up swinging and missing way too much to make this work. But right now he's making a ton of contact on pitches in the strike zone. And I think you got to just take the chance and ride it out. We were talking beforehand.

I don't remember seeing any player go from 1% rostered up to 60% this fast in one week on CBS. And weekly waivers haven't even run yet. Yeah, no, he's got to be 90% after tonight. Yeah. I don't know, like, again, the most likely outcome, the strikeouts are going to, you know, they're going to come up, I think. And, you know, that's obviously going to make things a little bit tougher in a points league. I think in categories, any five outfieler leagues, like 100.

100% take a shot. Let's see where it goes. Points leagues, as shallow as they are, you know, I look at some of my points leagues and some of the outfielders that are out there. There's still a lot of really good talent. So I don't know that you absolutely need to go out and add a Reese Hines and a points league, but man, any categories league, anywhere where you're not penalized for strikeouts, if you need power, it obviously makes a ton of sense to be aggressive with someone like Reese Hines.

What about Lawrence Butler, who is also on fire right now, did not start on Friday, but came on, hit a pinch hit home run. then on Sunday, three for six with a triple dong. Three homers in one game, six RBI. He has hit lead off two games in a row. And over his last 13 games, batting 326 with seven homers, 17 RBI, three steals, a 26% strikeout rate. So obviously that's fine if he can maintain that.

That would be an okay level. 93 mile per hour average exit velocity. So another player here where we've seen it in the miners. There are tools. He hits the ball hard. There is speed. It's an interesting combination of, I believe he's played some outfield,

some first base in the minors, probably only going to play outfield here with Oakland. But another player who is red hot, Chris, if you had to choose between the two, who would you go, Reese Hines or Lawrence Butler? I would go with Hines. I think a big part of that is probably just because if you don't add Lawrence Butler this week,

there's a chance he doesn't get claimed in your league. I think it's extremely unlikely Reese Hines doesn't get claimed in any leagues this week. So just from that perspective, I think Heinz is, and also just while there's a lot to like about Lawrence Butler, you know, even before this stretch, he's put up really solid underlying numbers. Average eggs of velocity 91.7 miles per hour. He's a good athlete. He hits the ball hard. He has 22 plate appearances against lefties. And he has struck out nine of them. This is a true platoon bad. I don't think. the A's expect him to grow into anything more than a platoon bat.

They're certainly not treating him as if they do. And so that's going to put a cap on how valuable he can be. But I think Lawrence Butler is certainly someone who, you know, if he finished the season with a 25 and 10 pace, which after this week, he's not that far off. I mean, the homers aren't there, but he's got the potential for it. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a 25 and 10 guy. Yeah, and the roster rates are not even close at this point. As we mentioned, Heinz is all the way up to 61%.

Lawrence Butler is 6% rostered. So he is widely available. He is likely going to be out there in 15 team roto leagues. Obviously 12 team roto leagues with five outfielders. So if you have somebody boring, you know, I was going through putting some of my claims in like a Charlie Blackman. I would go ahead and drop somebody like that for Lawrence Butler, just to see catch lightning in a bottle,

see how much upside is there. But man, what he's doing right now, the Oakland age in general, I mean... Can I share with you the wildest stat in baseball this season? Yes, you can. Here are the amount of games with 18 runs scored or more this season per team. First place, Oakland Athletics, with three. Wow.

In a 29-place tie for second place, every team in baseball with zero. There have been three games of 18 plus runs scored this year and the A's have all three of them. They are 37 and 61. They are 24th in the majors and runs scored. That is insane. Yeah, that is so crazy.

Just think about... I've never seen something like that. 24th in runs scored and they have three games of at least 18 runs. It's bonkers, yeah. I mean, that was my next point is that the A's lineup can surprise you. We're seeing some things from, you know, Zach Gelloff has hit well over the past month,

and Brent Rooker is all of a sudden red hot once again. So, you know, it's not a good lineup, but they can surprise you and they can put up runs here or there. So I think all at all, we obviously expect the Reds lineup and team to be much better context than Oakland. So, yes, I would take Reese Hines over Butler, but, yeah, five outfielder leagues, this is a good weekend to go out and make claims, because I think both of those guys are in play. Quick reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter.

If you haven't already, if you're watching on YouTube, you can scan that QR code. That will take you right to the website where you punch in your email address. You click on the FBT logo first. You punch in your email address, and it's easy as that. You will get an FBT newsletter delivered right to your inbox

for free every single weekday. And I wanted to remind people of the programming schedule for this upcoming week. It is the All-Star Break, but we will still have one podcast per week. We're not going anywhere. On Monday, today when you're listening to this, I will be live with our buddy, the Welsh.

That's right, he's back. We're going live at 4 p.m. Eastern Time to recap the first round of the MLB draft. We will get some thoughts on early first year player draft rankings for Dynasty. And I think overall just names, you might need to know some of these names as soon as next year. I mean, we saw Wyatt Langford and Paul Skeen's get drafted last year. Not that I think there is a Paul Skins in this draft. But there, you know, I think the first seven or eight picks of this draft were all college bats. So we could see some of those names sooner rather than later.

So again, on Monday, the Welsh and I live at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. On Tuesday, Chris, Scott and myself, we will be live on the CBS Sports Network with an All-Star game special. That will be at noon Eastern Time. So you can watch that on the CBS Sports app or on your cable provider. On Wednesday, we will record a redraft of the first two rounds, rest of season. and Thursday we will preview the following week of action and then Friday, boom, we're right back in it. Live games are back and that will be the start

of the second half of the season. Let's take our first break and when we return, some news and notes right after this. Welcome back into the news and notes. Garrett Crochet was lifted after just two perfect innings on Friday and this is a pretty interesting development here, Chris. Manager Pedro Grifold said Crochet would be on a pitch count but we didn't think it would be 28 pitches worth,

so only two innings worth of action there. I wonder if they're just trying to be extra cautious and keep him healthy leading up to the trade deadline. And then if he's still on the team, maybe they kind of, all right, they pull back a little bit, they let him go deeper into his starts. Or if he gets traded to another team, my guess is that team will be more aggressive

and just let him pitch like a starter. Your thoughts. Yeah, it's totally unknowable. I know you're coming to us hoping we have the end. answers to this, but this is one of those things where we can have hunches, we can have guesses, but, you know, Gary Crochet does still have, I think, two years left of club control after this one, so it's not like he's an expiring contract where teams don't have to think about the long term at all with him.

My guess is he's limited either way in some way. And this was frustrating, certainly. Only two innings. That, that's frustrating. We got a lot of panic tweets about it. on Friday evening. And I'm just hoping that it's 85 pitches most of the time is the limit. But there are probably going to be more situations like this where they pull him extra early.

I think with the break coming up, that was obviously a bit of an outlier. But I think there are going to be times when this is pretty frustrating for both Gary Crochet and Louise Heel, you know, I think who should be in a similar spot. Yeah, as we've said all season with Gary. crochet, we figured at some point innings could become a problem for him. He's up to 107 and a third.

Entering this season, he had 73 career innings, 12 and 2 thirds of those just last year. So he's already made a massive jump. We haven't seen it affect his production. He's still been amazing, but I understand why the White Sox are either trying to protect this investment for their future or to protect it

and trade it to someone else and obviously get a huge package there in return. Zach Wheeler played catch in the outfeyer field on Sunday and is expected to make his next start for the Phillies on either July 22nd or 23rd against the twins. Muki Betz has begun taking soft ground balls. According to Dave Roberts, Betts is working his way back from a broken left hand. The Dodgers transferred Yoshinobu Yamamoto to the 60-day IL on Saturday, meaning he

won't be eligible for activation until August 15th. Kodai Senga made another rehab start at AAA on Sunday, four and a third innings, one run, three strikeouts. He had 10 whiffs on 66 pitch. which is fastball velocity was down one mile per hour, but at this point of his buildup period, I think that's within the range of outcomes, and I think it's totally fine.

He's up to 86% rostered. I think we probably see him by the end of July, up with the New York Mets. Devin Williams looked amazing in his first rehab outing at high A on Sunday. He struck out all three batters that he faced, up to 68% rostered. My guess is shortly after the All-Star break,

we could see Devin Williams back with the Milwaukee Brewery. he has to just jump right back into the closer role, right? I mean, someone of his stature, I feel like that has to happen, right? He only really had like a year and a half as the closer, you know? It's not like we're telling by Kenley Jansen or some. But he was arguably. Arguably the best closer in baseball. Yeah, no, my guess would be one or two to work him in, get him comfortable.

That's usually what you see after a long layoff like this. But yeah, I think as long as. Devin Williams looks like himself, I think he's going to be the closer very, very soon. Which is really unfortunate for Trevor McGill because he has had a fantastic season. It's nothing that he's done wrong. It's just, again, Devin Williams has kind of built himself up

to that status where he deserves to get put back into the closer role. Rangers Juarez will not be available for the All-Star game while he recovers from back tightness, but the Phillies expect him to be available to make his first start of the second half, either July 22nd or 23rd. My guess is whichever one of those days, Zach Wheeler does not start. More on Ranger Suarez in a little bit.

Bobauchette has missed three straight due to a strained right calf. Carlos Correa was scratched Saturday due to a bruised right heel, and he was out of the line of Sunday as well. Scares me a little bit, Chris, because he has that history with the foot injuries.

What I saw was MRI did show plantrophesciitis in the right heel. However, it's worth noting it's a different foot than the one that bothered. him last year. And last year, it was very obvious when he was less than 100%. This year, he's been crushing the ball throughout.

So hopefully it's not as serious and something he'll be able to play through without issue. But given him, I think you obviously have to be concerned. John Carlos Stanton won't be reinstated from the IL for the start of the second half on Friday, but he could be activated soon thereafter. Clayton Kershaw tossed three hitless innings at AAA on Saturday, striking out five. he's aiming for four to five innings in his next rehab start. If he throws five innings,

maybe he's backing the Dodgers rotation after that. They are desperate for arms right now, so it would not surprise me. Justin, anything you wanted to add on Kershaw? No, no, go ahead. Justin Verlander threw 25 pitches in a bullpen session Sunday, his first time working off a mound since going on the aisle with that neck injury. David Bednar was activated from the aisle Friday

and immediately recorded a save. Jazz Chisholm started at second base on Sunday, his first start in the infield since 2022. It sounds like teams interested in trading for Jazz want to see that he could still play second base. So I think that makes sense. Didn't we talk about this last week, him possibly playing some infield? Yeah, I feel like we did. We're going to take credit for that. Yeah, I think we have, we inspired this move.

Yeah, makes sense. T.J. Friedel will head to the club's training facility in Arizona this week to increase his baseball activities and is trending toward a July 26th return, 59% rostered. And we did our sleepers breakouts and bust for the second half last Friday now at this point, or I guess two Fridays ago. And T.J. Friedel is one of my sleepers.

So if you need outfield help, I think now is the time to stash him. Rangers manager, Bruce Bochie said Josh Young is aiming to start a rehab assignment following the All-Star break. Young suffered a setback on his surgically repaired right wrist, actually multiple setbacks at this point. Max Muncie is still not swinging a bat and is unlikely to return until at least August.

He's been out since May 17th with a right oblique strain, another one who has suffered multiple setbacks with that injury. Zander Bogartz made his return on Friday, and he started two to three games, so they're bringing him along a little bit slowly here, but could be a nice boost there in the second half. Nolan Jones was placed in the IL with a lower back strain. Jose Miranda was placed in the IL due to lower back stiffness. Heston Kirstad was hit.

in the head with a pitch on Friday and was placed on the seven-day concussion IL on Saturday. This remains a huge issue, Chris. It's not, I mean, we're talking about guys getting hit in the head, hands, wrist. I mean, it feels like every time we come on here, it's, you know, we're complaining about, I think. Rainy situation, like, it was just, I think, a, a worst case scenario in that regard. Luckily, you know, while he is on the IL, it sounds like, you know, I mean, it hit the helmet. at least. So it wasn't the worst case scenario. But yeah, that was, that was pretty scary.

And Clay Holmes has just pretty bad control as it is. So I mean, I don't think there was any intent behind it. But the fact is that these things keep happening. And I remain, you know, they need to pre-tack the baseballs or, or do something and figure this out in the off season because it, it has been a big problem. The Dodgers are expected to promote pitching prospect River Ryan after the All-Star break. And this season in the minors, a 221, ERA, a 0.98 whip, 27 strikeouts over 20 and a 3. so a pretty small sample size.

He has not gone more than five innings. He's only gone more than five innings once, and he's 6% rostered. I think he might pitch out of the bullpen, but anything here, Chris, deeper leagues, maybe NL only River Ryan? Yeah, I think he's worth a look.

I mean, this is a Dodgers team that has, I don't know, six, seven, eight pitchers on the IL right now. Obviously, the rotation could become crowded fairly quickly if Clayton Kershaw. Bobby Miller, Walker Beeler. None of those guys seem like they're too far away from coming back.

But with the way this season has gone, I think anyone who gets in the rotation for the Dodgers has a chance to stick if, you know, certainly River Ryan, who's someone who is very talented, has come on really strong. He was drafted as a two-way player, 11th round picked by the Padres back in 2021. And he really came on fast last year. He's one of the Dodgers top five, top three players. prospects perhaps across the board. So it's, um, I'm pretty interested to see what he looks like whenever he gets his opportunity. But like they let Brent Honeywell go three innings today.

Like this team, which like I'm kind of intrigued by like this is like you got to be in like a 15 team. NL only league. I'm kind of interested in seeing Brent Honeywell starting for the Dodgers. It's crazy. Screwball a bunch today. Well, not a bunch. They're like eight times. They just picked him up off waivers. He was on the, I think the pirates last week. Yeah. So it's just like we said, the Dodgers are desperate for arms right now. So perhaps River Ryan could, uh, factor into some of those deeper leagues. Christian and Carnaccio on Strand underwent surgery to repair ligaments in his fractured right wrist on Thursday. The Phillies released Whitmerryfield on Friday. He was batting just 199 with a 572 OPS. The Orioles option Cade Povich to AAA after walking five on Friday.

It sounds like Kobe Mayo could be up any day now. Orioles GM Michaelias said Mayo is quote very close and will help us this year. And in the minors, a 310 batting average, 22 homers, a 10-38 OPS, and has done a much better job lowering the strikeout rate recently. I think before he went on the IL with that rib injury, Kobe Mayo and the minors, his strikeout rate was around 30%. It's down to 24%. So he's made up some big ground.

47% rostered, big power. I think he's number one in Scott's top prospects to stash right now, and I think that makes a ton of sense. Adding some insult to injury, Chris, I know you saw this one. The Marlins outfielder, Dane Myers suffered a fractured left ankle kicking the clubhouse door Saturday and will miss six to eight weeks, which is unfortunate because he has an opportunity to play right now, and now he just kind of threw that away.

We had a trade. The Nationals traded Hunter Harvey to the Royals in exchange for minor leaguer Caden Wallace, and the 39th overall pick in the MLB draft. My guess is that James MacArthur will remain the Royals closer. What do you think? Yeah, I think it's just insurance and an opportunity to, you know,

bolster the bullpen for an unexpected playoff run. They gave up a lot, though. I mean, this was like, Cain Wallace is a top 10 guy in their system. And then they gave up the 39th overall pick, which is, you know, not a guarantee. prospect by any means, but could should be a top 12 to 15 guy organizationally. That's a lot for a year and a half of a good reliever.

So I don't know. Maybe they do view him as a certainly a potential closer. I don't think he's just going to take the job from James MacArthur, but gives them, you know, a pretty obvious alternative if MacArthur struggles. Other players who went to the aisle this weekend, Luis Medina with a right elbow spraing. Carson Spires with a right. shoulder impingement. He said he's only expected to miss one start, but I don't know. Right shoulder impingement, that's usually a little bit longer. Jose Trevino with a left quad train.

Carlos Norvias was recalled, and I do wonder if Ben Rice gets some looks at catcher moving forward. Some waiver wire hitters from the weekend, we already spoke about Reese Hines. What about these middle infielders? Colt Keith, the guy continues to crush it right now. Three for four with his ninth home run for RBI on Saturday. In July, he's batting three He's got five homers at 1267 OPS. He's been serviceable against lefties, so I think he's going to play every day moving forward. 65% rostered.

And the other name is Zach Geloff. He homered in back-to-back games on Saturday and Sunday. Last 23 games, he's only batting 241, but seven homers, 19 RBI, four steals. He's 55% rostered. Chris, who would you rather have Colt Keith or Zach Geloff? Might be format specific. I think so.

Might be just Keith and head-to-head. points or OBP and Zach Galloff anywhere else. Yeah, sorry. He's like, Gelloff has played 145 games at the major league level. He's got 26 homers, 25 stolen bases. He's hit 235.

That sounds like a pretty reasonable expectation for Zach Gallowff. And that's a super valuable player. It's just there might be some, let's say peaks and valleys along with. the way. When you strike out 35% of the time, I think, yeah, that's, that's definitely fair to say. And that's the problem is like, the hot streak is 241 batting average. That, that's, that's tough to get around. Yeah. And it's all supported by the underlying metrics too, a 17% swinging strike rate, 74% zone contact. I mean, those are some pretty bad underlying plate discipline numbers for

Zach Gelloff. But power and speed, that I do think that he, uh, he will provide. What about if you need a corner infielder. I would say, you know, in a 12-team Roto League, maybe even deeper than that. Two names that are hot right now. A. E. E. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez has picked things up last eight games, batting 3-45 with four homers and 14 RBI. And Michael Tolia, three-for-four four with a triple tongue on Sunday. I think we had three different players with three-homer games this weekend. It's something crazy like that. But Michael Tolia, yeah, three-homer game on Sunday. He has six homers over his last six games. And over his last 28 games. So, basically, the past month,

220 batting average, 12 homers, 21 RBI, two steals, 94.2 average exe velocity for Michael Tolia. Chris, who would you prefer

as a corner infield ad, Suarez or Tolia? This might be cheating, but I believe the Rockies play six games at home to open the second half. So I'll just take Michael Toaglia

because I don't think you're going to want either of them on your roster for much longer than any given week. and totally is at home. So I'll just go with that. Fair enough. What about in deeper leagues?

We already spoke about Lawrence Butler. Some other names that stood out this weekend. Jose Iglesias. Now with the Mets, two for four, with a double dong on Friday. He doesn't usually hit for much power. Four for four with two runs on Sunday. The problem is that he's only started three of the past six games for the Mets.

Peacrow Armstrong had a huge game on Sunday. Two for three with two socks and a shoe. That's two home runs and one steal in a game. He's up to three homers, 17 steals. He started six straight games. And Xavier Edwards for the Marlins has started to pick things up. He had six hits this weekend, including two steals on Sunday. He has started 12 straight.

Any of these names stand out, Chris, in the deepest of leagues, Jose Iglesias, P. Crow Armstrong, and Xavier Edwards. If you are in a league that gives extra points for Billboard number one singles on the Latin digital song sales chart. I saw this. Jose Iglesias does have a minor hit under his pseudonym Candalita. I think two weeks ago,

the Mets won a game on Friday night. Yeah, he performed after the game. And they just had like an impromptu concert. They just handed up a microphone and they let him sing to everybody. He was insane. I love it. No, I don't have much interest in Jose Iglesias

as a fantasy baseball player. I think P. Kerr Armstrong and Xavier Edwards are much more interesting. Kerr Armstrong is one of those guys, like, from both a real life and fantasy perspective, if he hits a little bit, if he's like 10% worse than league average as a hitter, he might be like a five-win player in real life just because of how good his defense and base running is. And obviously for fantasy, the 17 stolen bases and much less than a full season, I think speaks to that. well. It's just he had one homer before this game. So it's hard to to buy too much into him.

Xavier Edwards, though, famously a slap blank hitter or slap blank prospect when the race traded for him. That was Blake Snell's term for him. He's slapping it right now. He's hitting 352. I think it's like five multi-hit games in the last eight or something. He's been really hot lately. He's got speed. I do think in 15 team roto league, Xavier Edwards is, uh, is worth a look. Yeah. No, I like that too. What do you think the threshold has to be like if Pete Kramshund can hit 220 or 230, then he can be a usable player in a five outfieler league is, do you think it needs to be higher than that? I think 230 is probably right. Like that, that, that's, that's,

hurting you, but it's not killing you for a guy with, you know, really at this point, one standout skill. He hit for some power in the miners as well. So, you know, that's something to keep an eye on. But no, I think you're, you're just hoping he's not killing you in batting average and can steal a bunch of bases. All right. Let's take our final break. And when we return, we will talk waiver wire pitchers from the weekend right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk waiver wire pitchers. And the first group includes Gavin Williams, who was at Tampa Bay this weekend, five innings, two runs, one earned, but three walks to only two strikeouts. Ben lively bounced back with a solid start at Tampa Bay, five and a third, two runs aloud with seven strikeouts.

And Sean Mania. And another quality start up against the Rocky, seven innings, three runs, nine strikeouts over his last six starts. He has a 202 ERA, a point 98 whip. Spencer Swellenbach, a strong start at the Padres, seven innings, one run. three strikeouts. He only had four whiffs, but this is back-to-back starts of at least six innings, just one earned run in each of those for Spencer Schwellenbach. Chris, how would you rank this group? Schwellenbach, Mania, Ben lively, and Gavin Williams. I guess I would go Gavin Williams ahead of Schwellenbach, but that's the clear top tier for me.

And then I think there's a pretty pronounced drop-off where both Lively and Mania were, I believe, two-star pitchers this week. And I think that explains most of why they're in the 70% range. I don't see much reason to think Mania or Lively is much more than a streamer, whereas I think I have Williams ranked higher. I might actually be more optimistic about Schwellenbach at this point. He's got, I think it's four quality starts in his last six. The strikeouts, for the most part, have been pretty solid lately. They weren't great in this one.

But if Schwellenbach can figure out a way to generate strikeouts more consistently, and he does have that 44% whiff rate on his splitter. I do think he could put together a really nice second half. Now, Williams, I think, is the more talented pitcher. But what we've seen from him has just been incredibly discouraging. The decision to swap out the slider for the cutter, whatever the thought process behind it is, and I would guess it's just a comfort thing coming off the elbow injury.

He's not, he just doesn't feel comfortable throwing the slider. but it's made him a significantly worse pitcher. The cutter is doing an okay job generating weak-ish contact, but it's not generating any whiffs at all, which leaves him with only the curveball generating whiffs right now. The four-seamer hasn't really been there for him. And so I don't know, I don't want to give up on Gavin Williams because I do think he's talented,

but I don't know if this current approach can work. so Shwellenbach I might have more confidence in even if Williams I think has more upside. I agree. I think it's really close and I know I had Gavin Williams as either a sleeper or breakout heading into the second half. That was before he returned and before we knew that he wasn't going to be throwing his slider. And I think that really changes the calculation here.

I was going to say the same thing as you. I think maybe this elbow injury in the back of his mind, he is thinking, all right, well, I can't just kind of span the slider like I did last year or even with Garrett Cole, we saw something similar. Like he's not using his slider as much either. So two guys coming back from elbow injuries, I think that makes sense. So it's really close. I think I would still give a slight edge to Gavin Williams, the prospect pedigree there.

But Spencer Swellenbach, a 12.2% swinging strike rate so far, I think there are more strikeouts to come in the future. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about him as well. 3.53xERA for the season now. It's good. I know the actual ERA is not quite as. good, but there's a lot to like here, I think. Would you drop Christian Scott for any of those names? He had a rough start this weekend up against the Rockies. Should be a good matchup, but four and a third,

three runs allowed. He gave up two homers in that start. 436 ERA. Would you drop Scott for any of those names? Again, because I'm not all that interested in Shamaniah or Ben lively, it might just depend on what the next matchup for all three of those guys looks like and who has the best one, which we don't quite know yet because teams haven't set their rotations. So right now, I would not. If Williams or Schwellenbach were available, I'd be okay dropping Christian Scott.

But I'm very disappointed in Christian Scott. Sounded like a dad when I said that. I'm not mad. I'm just disappointed. Yeah, I'm not mad. But like, there aren't a ton of great pitching options available on the wire right now. Like River Ryan, we don't know what the role is going to be.

Yarra Rodriguez hasn't thrown more than 85 pitches. Hermann Marquez, I thought, looked okay. But again, not someone we're excited about. So while I'm inclined to be willing to drop Christian Scott, I don't know if there's a lot of guys I would actually do it for him. Hermann Marquez. What's dead may never die. Yeah, he's back.

I have not heard that name in a long time. Curvon slider looked really good today, actually. And the velocity was up. It was his first start back from Tommy John. It wasn't a great start, but it was nice to see him back. Also, I believe, became the Rocky's all-time leader in strikeouts. Oh, start. Would you look at that?

There you go. Let's continue on. Waiverwire pitchers, part two. Jose Soriano turned in a quality start up against the Mariners. Six innings, one run had five strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 87 pitches. Lance Lynn, a quality start up against the Cubs, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. He had 18 whiffs on 99 pitches, 16 of them. of those came on the fastball.

And Spencer Arroghetti, a quality start up against the Rangers, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 85 pitches. I remain, I think there's a pitcher there with Arrogati. It might take longer term for him to figure out the control, because that has been a big problem. But under the hood, I mean, he has like two really good whiff pitches and velocity is solid. So I think there could be a pitcher, but yeah, the consistency has been hard to come by. Any interest in those names, Chris, Arrogati, Lanselin, and Jose Soriano? I think Argeti is the most interesting of them.

And I agree with everything you said. He's not a finished product by any means yet. But I think there's an interesting skill set there. He throws hard. The secondaries have all shown some swing and mess potential. So it's been so volatile, right? We've seen like multiple really, really good strikeout efforts from him. And then we've seen just some absolute.

duds and it doesn't really seem like, has he put together two good starts in a row yet? I'm not even sure we've seen that from Aragutti yet. So I'm, uh, yeah, has not, has not, I guess the most recent two. One was five innings, two earned runs. One was six innings, one earned run. Yeah. That's the best two start stretch we've seen from Aragutti.

So yeah, consistency has been a real issue, but he's, uh, he's certainly the most intriguing talent of this group. The only thing I'll add on Jose Soriano is if you're playing a points league, he is a SPARP, so he has that RP eligibility. Kind of does the poor man's for Amber Valdez where it's not a lot of strikeouts. It's bad control, but 60% ground ball rate. So, you know, you can kind of, you could squeak out some good starts getting ground balls as often as Jose Soriano does. And Waver Wire Pitchers Part 3. Kyle Hendricks pitched well at the Cardinals.

He threw seven shutout innings with three strikeouts. Luis Ortiz of the Pirates. I think he's pretty interesting, too. At the White Sox, five and two-thirds, one run, five strikeouts. His fastball, his four-scene fastball looks pretty good. The slider looks like a good pitch too, and he's pitching well lately for the pirates. Yilbert Diaz, also of the debacks. Their prospect, they recently called up, that back-to-back starts six innings of one earned run or less.

And he was at the Blue Jays at home against the Blue Jays this weekend, where he threw the six-innings, one run. only two strikeouts in this one. Did give up some hard contact, but anything stands out here, Chris. I mean, there's more deeper league stuff, but you know, in those 15 teamers were you putting bids in on Yilbert Diaz or Luis Ortiz? Yeah, Yolbert Diaz, I think,

is somewhat interesting, but probably not a difference maker. Probably the same for Luis Ortiz. Luis Ortiz is doing some interesting things like you mentioned. The quality of contact has been really good so far this season. That's a big improvement from last year when he just got crushed and was walking everybody. Maybe the increased cutter usage is playing a part in that because his fastballs just got destroyed last year.

All in all, I think, like, I don't know if Diaz has enough swing and miss here to be much more than a lower end streamer, but it's interesting, the stuff looks good. It certainly passes the eye test when you watch him. So I think he's a little more interesting than Yober Diaz. And then one thing to note moving forward,

just in case this matchup comes again, I saw like two different Cardinals, writers, like beatwriters and one beat writer, one blogger, who basically said something like, the Cardinals just need to sign Kyle Hendricks so they don't have to face him, because I guess he just owns them. And yeah, something to keep in mind

the next time Kyle Hendricks places the Cardinals for our streamer-not-to-stream segment. Luis Ortiz, by the way, did want to point out his last. Last four games, three of those being starts, 137 ERA, a 0.81 whip over a strikeout per inning, 49% ground ball rate, 14% swinging strike rate. So again, in those deeper leagues, I would be adding Luis Ortiz and just let's see where it goes from here.

Some pitchers who are slowing down. I mentioned Ranger Suarez. Perhaps this is due to him dealing with his back injury, but over his last three starts, he has started to slow down, an 862 ERA, a 185 whip. Walks have been a problem not getting swinging strikes during that stretch. Nick Ladolo over his last three starts, a 623 ERA, a 169 whip. Jake Irvin back-to-back starts allowing six earned runs. He was at the Brewers this weekend where he only went four innings, seven runs, six of those earned.

He's given up four home runs total over his last two starts as well. And Zach Gallen, as soon as I trade for him in Tao Wars, I guess. Thanks, Zach Allen. but three rough starts in a row. He faced the Blue Jays this weekend. Three and two thirds, seven runs, six of those earned. And in July, nine ERA on the nose, a 192 whip, nine strikeouts to five walks over 13 innings.

Any actual concern here, Chris, Gowan, Jake Irvin, Nicola Dolo, Ranger Suarez, all slowing down lately. So I think with Suarez and to a lesser extent, Irvin, I think the biggest thing here is just what we talked about early in the season when we talked about Ranger Suarez, which was like, we didn't really identify an obvious explanation for why he was pitching so well, right? Like it wasn't, he wasn't throwing significantly harder.

He didn't add a new pitch. His pitch movement profiles were more or less the same. And so my take was always, okay, he's just pitching really well. And that's not to say it was a fluke. Like there are distinct things that we talk about and we talk about on sustainable production, right? We talk about guys that I just clearly they're in over their head. And I would throw a Ronaldo Lopez in that discussion where it's just the skill set doesn't match the results. With Ranger Suarez, and I think Jerks and ProFar is another example of this, they are earning what they were doing in the first half of the season.

it was just do I expect them to continue to pitch as well as they were that's where it's like Ranger Suarez I didn't buy the strikeout rate improvements I just didn't see a good reason like that was where for me with Ranger Suarez it was always there was going to be some regression even though I wanted to be clear that I didn't think it was luck he was pitching really well and I just it was hard it was always going to be hard for him to sustain that Lodolo entering this start, he had lowered his curveball usage in his previous couple of starts, which was a little concerning because that's been by far his best swing and miss pitch.

That wasn't the case in this one. So I don't know how concerned about that we should be. I think it was probably just a little bit of the same thing where he's just not pitching well. Irvin, I think he's just a guy. You know, and like that's another one where the control especially was so good early on in a way that has gotten away from him a bit. I don't necessarily think we need to drop Jake Irvin in all formats, but I never necessarily bought into him as a difference maker. I think this is part natural regression too. I mean, Jake Irvin, even with, you know, allowing 12 earned runs over.

his last two starts, he's up to a 349 ERA. That seems pretty normal that, you know, obviously we don't want it all to come in just two starts, but it's more likely that Jake Irvin is like a high three ZRA the rest of the season than the low three ZERA he was for the first three months of this season, basically. With Zach Allen, I will just point out, he has a 387 ERA overall. It's a 340 FIP and a 341 XFIP. I think if anyone's panicking, which they probably aren't, I I think Gallen, you can make the case as like a fair buy low.

If you can't even buy low, I don't know how realistic it is. But yeah, I mean, he's someone who has done a pretty good job of outperforming his peripherals over the past couple of seasons anyway. So like, you know, the fact that he, his FIP is right around a little better than his actual mark right now. So I think that's a, that's an optimistic sign. Where was his velocity in this one? because it was up a lot when he first came back from the injury. Yeah, it's still averaging 94 miles per hour with his fastball. That's still pretty good.

Just total lack of whiffs with this one. I don't know if he didn't have the feel for the curveball. Yeah, that was it. His curveball didn't do anything. And he got zero whiffs on his curveball, a 7% CSW. Yeah, one called strike on 14 pitches. Yeah, he just didn't have the feel for that pitch at all. Threw it in the strike zone twice on.

14 pitches it looks like. So yeah, that's that's not going to work. Yeah. We did get some encouraging starts this weekend from pitchers that needed them. Garrett Cole turned in his first quality start in five tries. He was at the Orioles of all places, a tough matchup, but a team that has been scuffling lately, I guess. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 106 pitches. Luis Heel, his teammate, makes a two strong starts in a row. Also at the Orioles, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He had 15 whiffs on 95 pitches and leaned all the way into the slider, made his most used pitch in this start. And Blake Snell was nearly untouchable up against the twins

on Sunday. Maybe this is the start of that Blake Snell run that we usually get annually. Seven shutout innings, only one hit allowed, eight strikeouts. He had 21 wifts on 80 pitches. He was awesome. Chris, anything to add on Snell, heel, and Garrett Cole? I mean, I'm glad I got that immaculate inning from Michael Kopeck when I started him over Blake Snell and TGFBI. That was, at least I had that. No, look, there was no way you could start Blake Snell before we saw it from him, given how bad he had been this season. But we always believed it was coming.

We've seen he's been one of the most volatile pitchers in baseball. But the end results are always pretty good, usually great. And we know that as bad as things can get, he can turn them around very, very quickly. Dillen Seas will absolutely be in my starting lineup next week. And I do expect him to more or less be great. Interesting, he only threw, I think, one slider in this one, just completely ditched it. He's a tinkerer. You know, I think a lot of it just comes down to what he's feeling in any even week, day, month, year.

He changes his approach depending on, you know, some ineffable quality of the pit. on any given day. I don't know. But yeah, he's, I fully expect Blake Snell to be excellent moving forward. Slider,

actually the key for, the key discussion point for all three of these guys. Luis Heel threw a ton of slider, 39% in this one, doubled his rate. It was really good. I don't know how sustainable that is,

because that's also come with an increased zone rate. I think he was 40%, 42% zone rate in the month of June when he was having trouble during strike. throwing strikes. It was like 49% in May. It's 49% so far in July. So I think that's a good sign.

And then Cole, he got five whiffs with the slider. So at least it worked. It looked like Garrett Cole's slider. He hasn't been using it nearly as much. He's traded, basically just traded sliders for cutters. And I'm hopeful that as he continues to work his way back and feels a little more confident, he gets back to throwing the slider a bit more because I think that's a bad trade for Garrett Cole

trading sliders for cutters but the fact that the slider was working in this one I think is a good sign. Any concern for Cole Regens? Now, this might sound confusing because he's coming off an awesome start. At the Red Sox this weekend, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts.

He had 23 whiffs on 102 pitches. He was truly dominant. The problem is that his fastball was down quite a bit in this start. Fastball down 1.9. miles per hour. The cutter was down almost three miles per hour for Cole Reagan's. The velocity has been down overall three starts in a row. And that fastball, 93.9 miles per hour, that was a season low. Now, it didn't matter. He was still awesome. So maybe he's someone that, you know, the stuff

and the movement on his pitches is so good that it doesn't really matter if he fluctuates like two, three miles per hour. But we also haven't seen him kind of hold up over the course of a full season. So I wonder, Chris, what are your thoughts on Cole Regans? Would you maybe try and, look, if you're cashing out, you got to get something really, really good. But what do you think? I mean, look, I'm the guy who said Chris Sale might be a sell high candidate last week. So I'm not opposed to the idea of moving a pitcher who's having a great run, who I think is a great pitcher. And I think Cole Regens is a great pitcher.

But, yeah, I think it's fair to just wonder how he's going to hold up the rest of the way, given how many injuries he's had, given how rarely he's pitched into this part of the season. But I don't know. We're talking about a guy who's legitimately got a five pitch arsenal. This is not like, well, he throws five pitches, but one's a sinker and one's a four. I don't really count that as five separate pitches, right? Maybe that's, you know, my, me being a dummy, but that's, he throws five distinct pitches. And I think he's the kind of pitcher who, you know, if this fastball is not working or the velocities down,

that change up is one of the best pitches in baseball in terms of swings and misses. And the cutter's gotten excellent results in the slot. So I think Cole Reagan's has enough weapons where I'm not too worried about it, but obviously just at a high level, I think it's reasonable to, to wonder how Cole Reagan is going to pitch the rest of the way. It's just not something I think is actionable. Let's slide over to some hitters. And James Wood, we haven't talked about him in a while.

Just how have we judged him so far? He's 14 games into his career. He's batting 2.45 with one homer, two steals, two caught stealing, a 654 OPS. He has six walks to 20 strikeouts, a 33% strikeout rate. He's hitting the ball hard, a 74% ground ball rate. So how would you judge what we've seen so far, Chris, from James Wood? More or less what I think we should have expected, which is obvious, obvious skills and obvious, obvious limitations. And while I'm not necessarily sure expecting a 70%, 74% ground ball rate is necessarily what I would have gone with.

But, you know, given his size, given how many moving parts there are in his swing, that's not a terribly surprising outcome. Like just hitting a lot of hard grounders. So I don't know. I didn't necessarily think James Wood was going to step on the field and be a superstar right away. It was within the realm of possibility and it was worth chasing on waivers just in case. And I still think that is within the realm of possibility here. But I'm not necessarily sure you should expect him to be a difference maker moving forward. It's, you know, he seems a little late.

That's been my main takeaway whenever I watch James, what is everything just feels half a tick slow and once he catches up I think it's going to be awesome yeah if I picked him up I know some people might be disappointed from what they got so far just based on the hype around a top prospect getting called up I absolutely would still hold on though even in three outfield release I got oh yeah no there's no way I'm dropping James Wood for rees Heinz let's say no no I would hope I have someone more boring some hitters who are things up so far in July. Julio Rodriguez is 3 for 5 with his 10th home run on Friday,

two for three with an RBI on Saturday, and so far in the month batting 447 with three homers, one steal, a 1263 OPS. Corbyn Carroll had two steals on Friday. He had two homers on Saturday. He's only batting 208 in July, but three homers, 13 runs, four steals. All right.

I mean, you know, we're looking for positive signs. I guess that's positive. Oh, for sure. This is one of those situations. situations where anything positive I can get out of Corbyn Carroll. I mean, I like, I'm going to be the person who if Corby and Carroll still has a 600 OPS, am I underrating him? No, 635.

Okay. If he still has a 600 OPS on September 27th, he's probably still going to be on my team. That's the kind of, that's, that's the way I view these things. and it drags me down in some leagues. I can be stubborn when it comes to a player like that. It is worth noting the homers weren't exactly crushed. They were 103 and 98 miles per hour. So, you know, still not quite slugging yet.

But I'm going to go down with the Corby and Carroll ship. All right. Alec Berlinson hit two more homers this weekend. And so far in our faces. In July, he's banged. 340 with five homers, 15 RBI, two steals, and a 1041 OPS. Marcus Semyon turning things back up. He, over his last eight games, betting 367 with two homers.

Alex Bregman over his last 10, betting 341 with three homers and 10 RBI. And Willie Adamas, he had a really bad June. He has picked things back up in July, 4 for 4 with his 15th home run, 4 RBI on Sunday, and so far in the month, betting 353. Two homers, 13 RBI, two steals, a 962 OPS. anything else you wanted to mention here, Chris Burlinson, Semyon, Bregman, and Adonis. I just, I couldn't imagine being concerned about Marcus Simeon. Like, it just, we've seen enough from him slow start-wise that he inevitably pulls together that I just,

I honestly haven't even thought about Marcus Simeon, even though he's been on such a slow, you know, slow three months. Because I just, I have so much faith in him figuring it out. And I feel like he did something like this last year too. And then he got really hot. It's every year. Because it's, it's one of those skill sets where it's, he does not have great raw power. He does not hit the ball especially hard.

And so the difference between the good version of Marcus Simeon and the frustrating slumping version of Marcus Simeon might just be like a fly ball to left field flying eight feet further and being a home run rather than a warning track out. You know, but he does it so consistently, the end of year numbers are so consistently excellent that I just can't bring myself to be concerned about it. I wasn't concerned either, but I think at some point, one of these years, one of these slow starts is going to turn into something more. He is turning 34 years old in September, right?

I will just say, being optimistic. about Marcus Simeon has been way more profitable than being skeptical of him for like the last half day because it was 2020 he was really bad right? Let's see. Yeah, 2020 at 679 OPS and then next year he hit 45 homers. Yeah, like it's just it's going to end at some point. But betting on that guy and being on the more optimistic side of things

with Marcus Simeon has been wildly profitable for a long time now. The one thing I am pretty certain he's going to be a letdown in this year, at least is steals, because he only has three steals. And since Bruce Bochie has taken over for the Rangers, they just do not run as much as previously. I think it was under Chris Woodward. So, yeah, they're just, there's not as aggressive. And I, yeah, he's still plenty fast. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think he's capable of running.

I just don't know why he doesn't. Some leftovers from the weekend, we will start off with pitching part one. Terrick Scouble dominated the Dodgers six innings, two runs, eight, strikeouts, 14 wifts on 101 pitches. Dylan Sees was masterful against the Braves. He threw six shutout innings, 11 strikeouts, 27 whiffs on 106 pitches. Logan Gilbert, dominant at the Angels.

Seven shutout with nine strikeouts there. And Tage Bradley continues to pitch well. He was up against the Guardians where he threw seven shutout with eight strikeouts. Chris, anything to add on Tage, Gilbert, Sees, and Scoobel? Seems like business and usual for, scubel and Gilbert so no concerns there

not that there would be concerns coming out very good starts actually so that was a weird way to put it Dylan cease I obviously he's been super inconsistent throughout his career and I've been notably pretty vocal about my lack of faith in him in the past but his recent struggles

you know it was like a 6 ERA in June or something he was really bad but it never really came with a loss of control. And that's always been the big thing for Dillon Cases. He has by far the best walk rate of his career this season. And as long as that's not the issue, I'm going to believe in Dill and Case. You mentioned 27 whiffs as if that was impressive.

I think the thing that was actually impressive, 26 on the fastball and slider. Like, it was just here's what you're getting, Atlanta, do something with it. And they could nod. He was outstanding. And then Tudge Bradley, like, it's interesting. His quality of contact overall for the season remains pretty poor. But since he's gone to the more splitter-heavy approach, that has turned around at least a little bit.

And the strikeout rate is up from last season. The walk rate has held steady. And with the improved quality of contact metrics, I really do think he's going to be just a must-start fantasy pitcher moving forward. Last seven starts for Tage Bradley, 107 ERA, 102 whip, 11.4K per 9, 13.3% swinging strike rate. So, pretty good. I'm not saying he's an ace, but those are ace numbers over his last seven starts. Pitching left over is part two.

Hunter Brown bounced back with another quality start up against the Rangers, six innings, two runs. He had five strikeouts. Carter Crawford was awesome against the Royals. He threw seven shutout with four strikeouts there. Nathan Avaldi, a strong start at the. the Astros, seven innings, one run, seven strikeouts. And Ryan Pepio had a strong start up against the Guardians. Six shot out with four strikeouts.

That fastball was back on track. Accounted for six of his 12 whiffs. Anything on Pepio, Avaldi, Cutter Crawford, and Hunter Brown. I can't figure out Pepio. It's just like, I remain just optimistic, but I don't necessarily know if I believe in him as a must-start pitcher moving forward. But his roster rate has remained remarkably steady despite a pretty frustrating season, 86%. So I think that's good.

Good process on the listeners and players parts. But I don't know if I buy him putting it all together just yet, but I'm hopeful. And then of all these just, I feel like we know what it is. As long as he's 100% and he's healthy, he's going to be really good. it's just every year it kind of falls apart on him. And it's just keep an eye on the velocity readings, keep an eye on any reports about him getting skipped a day or two, and just ride it as long as it works.

Pitching leftovers part three, Jesse Pinkman told us that Andrew Abbott can't keep getting away with it. And guess what? He didn't get away with it. This time up against the Marlins, three in a third innings, five runs allowed, two homers allowed for Andrew Abbott, who overall still has a 339 ERA.

a 121 whip. And Carlos Rodon had some mixed results at the Orioles. Four innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. Continues to rack up the whiffs, 16 whiffs on 98 pitches. And he changed the pitch mix. He led with the slider, 41% usage. He lowered the fastball usage. And it was much better.

It did not get crushed in this start. But, I mean, you see the line. He wasn't efficient, so I don't really know what to do with it. Any thoughts, Chris, on Rodon and Andrew Abbott. The two pitchers we talk about most. Yeah. I mean, you know what I'm going to say about Abbott. We've been expecting this all along. And it's similar to the Ranger Suarez discussion where it wasn't a fluke because he was generating a lot of weak contact. It was just really, really hard to buy him continuing to do that to the extent that he had. So that, again, I think I've said it multiple times. I think it's more likely you're dropping Andrew Abbott than you're starting him the rest of the long. way. Rodon, I don't know, man. It's at least he avoided the disastrous first inning in this one. But, you know, that's where the bar is right now. You know, we talked about Corby and Carol and just looking for reasons to be optimistic. I think that's still where we're at with Carlos Rodon, where it's so frustrating because the fastball looks the same. And it's got to be so frustrating for him to feel like the fastball's the same. I can say, you're going to still dial it up. I can still throw it past these guys and he just, he can't. I think he did realize

in this one that he has to rely on at less. He's talked about it a lot, you know, having to do that and make those adjustments. The question is, can the command still be there while doing that? It's, there's going to be good starts moving forward, but I don't think Carlos Rodon's going to give us ace level production consistently. Some hitting leftovers from the weekend. Aaron Judge hit two more home runs and he set the Yankees franchise record with 34 home runs. before the All-Star break. He also has 85 RBI, 306 batting average, 433 on base, and an 11-12 OPS. That's a pretty good season.

That's a really good season. Like 34 homers and 85 RBI. That's like if you're a lead-off hitter, that's pretty good. That's awesome. Speaking of awesome, Brenton Doyle, two more homers this weekend over his last 16 games. He's betting 362 with nine homers, 17 RBI, 2 steals. hitting the ball extremely hard. Marcel Ozuna, two for four,

with a double dung on Friday. Shohei Otani had a monster game on Saturday, two for four with a sock in a shoe, his 29th home run, his 23rd steal. Luis Robert is picking things up last five games. He has six hits, one homer, and four steals. Brent Rooker is red-hot. He hit a home run on Saturday.

He had two more on Sunday, and over his last 17 games, Brent Rooker is batting 426, with eight homers, 18 RBI, and three steals. Trey Turner, I mean, the guy is, he's come back, he's a slugger. All of a sudden, 24 games since returning, batting 356 with nine homers, 22 runs, 23 RBI, and two steals.

And Raphael Devers ended his first half in style, two for four with a home run on Saturday, and then two for four with a very long home run. I didn't see it, but I saw some kind of headline that he destroyed a seat in Fenway Park or something crazy like that. So anything you'd like to add, Chris, on this group? who was the Rockies All-Star?

Is it not Brenton Doyle? I don't think Brent and Doyle made the All-Star team. But if he didn't, he should have. Yeah.

Because he's been awesome. It seems weird. I don't know who else it would have been. So I'm kind of confused right now. Ryan McBowell, okay. Ryan McMahon. Which,

he's had a good season, but he's had a good season. But Brent, Doyle, I mean, I guess he's gotten really hot the last couple of weeks and has hit like half of his homers for the season more than that over the last two weeks. True. But he's arguably the best defensive outfielder in baseball. He's having a really good season.

Yeah. One of the biggest breakouts. Yeah. And it's kind of like the Pete Kare Armstrong thing where if he takes that kind of step forward as a hitter, you're talking about a potential star. not necessarily expecting that from Pete Crowe Armstrong, but if he did, that's what it would look like. Yep. Some bullpen updates from the weekend for the Tigers on Friday.

Jason Foley entered with two outs in the eighth inning, two runners on in a one-run game. He gave up a game-tying RBI single to Tiaska Hernandez. He took his third blown save. For the Dodgers on Friday, this Evan Phillips usage is really weird, Chris. They used Evan Phillips in the sixth inning, down three to two,

facing 7, 8, and 9 in the Tigers lineup. Don't really get it. The Dodgers eventually took the lead. It was Daniel Hudson who got the ninth inning and picked up his fourth save. And then on Saturday, Ricky Vanasco started the ninth inning with a five-run lead. He gave up three straight hits, two runs.

Evan Phillips then entered with a three-run lead. He gave up an RBI single, a game-tying home run to Colt Keith. Evan Phillips took his second blown save. I don't really know where this is going. or if there's any rhyme or reason, have you seen anything on Evan Phillips? No, I don't...

That is weird, the Friday appearance, but I... Absent more context, I would think it's just a one-off. Okay. For the raise on Friday, Pete Fairbanks was unavailable. It was Jason Adam, who struck out the side for his fourth save. And then on Sunday, Pete Fairbanks was back at it.

He got the ninth. He gave up two hits, but picked up his 17th. For the Rockies on Sunday, Jalen Beaks got the eighth inning with a five-run lead. He gave up a single, a walk, an RBI double. He recorded just one out. He was relieved by Victor Vodnick, who recorded the final five outs for his second save. And I think he has two saves in the past, like two weeks, something like that.

If you play in the deepest league, NL only, you need saves, like maybe Victor Vodnick becomes a thing. You probably don't want to get involved. But for the Blue Jays on Sunday, Chad Green recorded the final four outs for his sixth save, and I will be interested to see coming out of the All-Star break if Jimmy Garcia is healthy, where do the Blue Jays go from here in the back end of their bullpen? And then for the Yankees.

The Yankees. On Friday, Clay Holmes, pitch great. Pitch a clean ninth inning for his 21st save, and then on Sunday. What looked like it would be the best win of the year, Chris, turned into one of the ones. worst losses of the year. Ben Rice hit a three-run homer off of Craig Kimbrel in the top of the ninth. He gave the Yankees a two-run lead at the time. Clay Holmes entered in the bottom of the

ninth. He gave up a single. Then a ground out, a walk, and he struck out Gunner Henderson. There are now two outs and two runners on. He walked to Adley-Rutchman to load the bases. There was a routine ground ball hit to Anthony Volpe. He babbled it, did not get an out. One-run scores. And then a fly ball hit to left field, which apparently had a 99% catch probability. Alex Verdugo's first step was in the ball was over his head he tried to recover, he slipped and fell yeah the Orioles win

and just an utter disaster not necessarily Clay Holmes's fault like yeah him walking batters was a problem but he didn't pitch well but two outs that should have been recorded oh my god it's like the past month has just been a pretty

big disaster for the Yankees I think if it's up to them like they probably want to go out in trade for a reliever. I don't know if that's Tanner Scott or is it Mason Miller. Like I've, I've thrown some names out there. I've speculated, but I don't know. I think they need bullpen help. I just don't know who it is. Yeah, I think they need help in general right now. I've really appreciated Alex Verdugo just speed running, like going from completely beloved to completely hated by both the Red Sox and Yankees fan bases in the last like 15 months.

Like I remember last June, Red Sox fans were like, he's been one of the best outfielders in baseball. He should be an all star. We won the Moot's Betts trade. And then earlier this year, it's like, I can't believe the Red Sox gave us Alex Verdugo for nothing. And it's like, no, man, he's not that good. This is, this is what happens.

He hit that home run in Fenway Park like a month ago. And he's, he's been really. really bad since then. That's how it always starts. Ooh, and ah. And then later there's running and screaming. Yeah.

That's the Alex Reduga experience. Yep. And that is the Yankees experience over the past month. So could not get to the All-Star break soon enough. There are no streamers tomorrow because you know why. The Home Run Derby. Enjoy the Home Run Derby. We are here.

The first half of the season is in the books. Enjoy the All-Star Break. We'll still have content coming your way. A reminder that we will be live at 4 p.m. Eastern Time. tomorrow or today when you're listening to this on YouTube. Yeah, I'll be here with the Welsh recapping the first round of the MLB draft, some first year player draft rankings.

But we are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.