Fantasy Baseball Today - Reid Detmers, Dylan Cease Are Back! Drop-O-Meter & Fantasy Justice! (6/27 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 27, 2023

Reid Detmers looks like he's back (1:27)! ... Dylan Cease has the slider working again (5:47). ... Spencer Strider and Luis Castillo both pitched well Monday (5:47). ... Add Edouard Julien or Jordan Westburg (16:27)? ... Let's fire up the DROP-O-METER for Rowdy Tellez, Nolan Gorman and others (23:08). ... News (36:18): Carlos Rodon made another rehab start Sunday. ... Druw Jones continues to struggle with health down in the minors (42:23). ... We wrap up with leftovers, Fantasy Justice and Team Name Tuesday (45:15). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, June 27th. Frank Sample, joined by Scotty Dubbs.

Scott White, today on the show, Reed Detmer's and Dillen Seas. are both back on track. We're gonna fire up the dropometer for a bunch of hitters that have slowed down in the month of June, team name Tuesday, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube

if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Let's jump in. Scott, everything feels brand new. We're good to go. The voice is back.

Oh, yeah. You have a new cordy plug thing in your microphone? I know. Let's go. New cord. Who dis? You can hear me. That we can.

All right, Scottie, you're up. Who you want to highlight first? All right. Well, let's go straight for the breadstick here with Reddemers. Who was sensational. He had his best start of the season last time. And then he just won up it again with his new best start of the season here against the White Sox. Two hit them over seven.

And he still allowed a run. but he struck out 10, and he had 17 swinging strikes on 105 pitches. A few things that these last two starts haven't come, but both were seven innings, and there were his only two starts of that length all season. In both, he allowed just two hits over those seven innings, and in both, his average slider velocity was down about two miles per hour. So, I think, I hope, Redembers has cracked the code here

because he's been pretty frustrating up to this point. And it's been kind of a whole saga because, of course, he was a trendy sleeper pick coming into the year, first of all, because of the way his slider performed down the stretch last season when it gained a bunch of a loss. You remember he got sent down in the minors midseason, came back,

it was up like, I think, three or four miles per hour on average. So it was up, and it made him look amazing. And, okay, this is the key, throw that slider harder, baby. But then it went up more in spring training, and that just seemed to get everyone more excited about Reed Demers and kind of priced him out of my range, frankly, in most leagues. So we thought, okay, if more velocity on the slider is good,

then even more is even better. But apparently that's not the case. Apparently, he needs to find that sweet spot with the slider velocity. And hopefully he's found it now. And for what it's worth, what it has dropped to in these last two starts is pretty much in line with where it was after he returned from the miners last year and look the best he ever has. So a lot rides on Reddepmer slider velocity apparently is what I'm saying. And if he can make this stick, if it's not something that he's, is just going to be a headache constantly throughout his career trying to zero in on getting this perfect slider, which is possible. I mean, some pitchers just struggle to find, even if they know what they need to do, they struggle to hold it for indefinitely.

Then, you know, hopefully Reed Dedmers has figured it out and he can he can just take off from here. That's the hope. Fingers crossed. That is the hope indeed. You highlighted the last two starts, what Detmer's has done. But if you go back two more before that, last four starts for Reid Detmer's, a 105 ERA, a 0.78 whip, 34 strikeouts over 25 and two-thirds innings pitched. So seemingly looks like he's back on track.

I noticed the same thing with that slider velocity, Scott. You have him at SP 73 in your rankings. I have him at SP 70. I know you update on Tuesday. I'm like Tuesday and Wednesday. Yeah. I assume he's going to move up a decent bit. I mean, gaining a little bit more confidence, right?

Probably inside the top 60-ish starting pitchers. Yeah, I would think so. I mean, obviously within that range of the rankings, there's a lot of room for a lot of room to maneuver. So if I could get them pulled up, I can give you a better idea. Let's see here. So getting him in the top 60 would mean moving him past guys like Kodi, Senga and Lance Lynn.

I think I can make that happen. Look, you get close to 50 and right outside the top 50 are like Luis Severino and Charlie Morton. I feel like I'd take Reed Detmer's over them right now. So, yeah, I mean, this might be as much as a 25 spot jump in the rankings based on what we've seen from Detmer's these past two starts, at least for me. Yeah, no, I think that's fair. The range that I was kind of settling on is 52, 53.

34 for starting pitcher is Tyler Wells, Bailey, Ober, Taj Bradley, and I think being part of that group, maybe the bottom of that group right around SP 55. I think that makes sense for Reid Demers. So probably going to get him up to that range as well. I actually want to highlight the pitcher on the other side of this start. Dylan Seas has allowed two earned runs or fewer in five straight starts. He was at the Angels. He gave up one run over six innings pitch, 10 strikeouts to zero walks. this is only the second time this season that Dylan Seas has had a start with zero walks. The other one, opening day.

It's been quite some time since he's done that. 17 swinging strikes in this start for Dylan Seas. He has 14 or more swinging strikes in each of these past five starts. Really, you know, once this slider has taken off once again, has kind of coincided with the swinging strikes and the strikeouts coming back for Dylan Seas. The ratios still look a little bit high,

but obviously the strikeouts have gone way up. Again, the swinging strikes as well. He's got a 19% swinging strike rate during these last five starts. And he also looks like he's just kind of back on track, Scott. I think inside of the top 20 starting pitchers, and what I wanted to highlight specifically with these two guys, I think it's two interesting cases of pitchers writing the ship.

With Detmer's, the underlying numbers, the FIP, the X-FIP, all along, they all said that he, he was pitching better than the surface level stats. That if he keeps pitching that way, he was going to get better. Good things were coming for Redembers. Dylan Seas was different. He was one of those pitchers where we really didn't have any signs that things were going to get better outside of just seeing the talent in years past,

right? Like what we saw last year and basically trusting that that would get back on track. But it's something that you said about Manoa earlier this year too, where a light switch could just kind of turn on. we don't know when it's going to happen, but it could happen. And that is what's happened now with Dylan Sees over the last five starts. Yeah, and apparently with Redembers too. Yeah.

Yeah, that is often the way it goes, and that's what makes evaluating players so tricky. I mean, if anybody could do it that well, then, you know, they'd make so much money in gambling that they wouldn't have to do anything like this. Right. presumably. No, it's tricky and you have to weigh everything. You have to weigh what you're hearing about the player against the player's track record, against what the data

is showing. There's a tendency and I think it's a reasonable tendency to lean mostly on like the skill indicators within the data to evaluate players. That is the most objective information we have. But if a player is struggling, a lot of times he's struggling in that regard as well. And it doesn't necessarily mean he can't bounce back from that. Sometimes it just takes that tweaking something to get him back to being the pitcher or hitter that we know him to be. And so a lot of times it just takes faith in the track record. And, you know, it just, yeah, I mean, Sometimes that's all it takes. And sometimes you're going to be wrong about that.

Sometimes you're going to be wrong no matter what approach you take, but you have to weigh it all. Yep. And should have pointed this out with Reid Detmer's. He is up to 80% rostered. I assume he was, I think he was around like 70, 75% before this weekend. So obviously some more people adding him for the two starts this week. But if Detmerz is somehow out there in a shallower league that you play in, a 10 team league, maybe a shallower 12 team points league or something,

make sure to go out and add Reed Detmer's the way that he is pitching right now. Scott, I know often we don't talk about records in baseball and what's actually happening. And it's kind of interesting because sometimes people will ask me like, oh, what's going on in baseball? And I'm like, actually, I don't know. I just know what's going on in fantasy baseball. It's such a weird thing.

But the Mets are so, this is such a crazy story this year. It's the highest payroll in baseball history. They are 6 and 16 in the month of June. now eight games under 500 on the season, fourth place in the NL East, and eight and a half games out of a wildcard spot. And it's just, I saw them lose again, another late game.

They gave up a two-run homer to Joey Weamer. They lost a game. And yeah, I just started looking into them. I'm like, this is pretty underwhelming. It's crazy. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it is. And it's getting pretty late.

It is getting laid on the one hand. On the other hand, hand, we're not quite at the halfway point. We're very close. Yeah. We're getting there. By the end of this week, we'll basically be at the halfway point. So there is a lot of season left for them to, you know, how late in the year were they up double,

double digit games on the Braves first place in the NL East? It was, I think it was as late as June, at some point in June, if I'm remembering correctly. So like, there's still time for the standings to shan, the standings to shan, you know, shift fairly dramatically. Neither Scherzer nor Verlander has really, Scherzer's starting to come around quite a bit, but they haven't looked like themselves for most of the season, and those were two of the Mets' most important players,

I would say, two of the biggest reasons they were given such an edge when making preseason predictions. So, you know, if they find their form, then things could change. Things could still change. It's not too late. It's not too late for the Mets.

It's not too late for the Phillies. who are five and a half games ahead of them, of course. Definitely not too late for them. Not too late for the Padres. There's still enough talent there for one of these teams. I doubt they'll all make a run. But, like, yeah, we can't just slot the Marlins in as a wild card right now just because they're currently in the position.

Yeah, I mean, also with the Mets, I was looking at their lineup today. It's Lindor and Pete Alonzo batting right around 220. That obviously doesn't help. those are your three and four hitters on that team. So hopefully they get back on track. I've got Alonzo on my most important team. I've got Lindorne in a few spots as well. And I know they've been a little bit underwhelming

in terms of the batting average at least. Let's talk about a few other studs that were on the mound on Monday night. Spencer Shrider, two strong starts in a row. He was up against the twins. And he went seven innings. He allowed one run with 10 strikeouts and 26 swinging strikes on 100.

pitches, 11 on the slider, 9 on the fastball, 6 on the changeup. He did throw his change up a little bit more in this start. He basically doubled the usage and it worked very well. Six swings on the pitch, six whiffs. So every time a hitter swung on his change up, swang against his change up, I don't. Swung. I never know which one it is and then people make fun of me. They're like, oh, that's not a word.

Swang. The change up worked very well. well. That is the whole point of what I was trying to say for Spencer Strider. And the other name was Luis Castillo. He struggled a little bit recently with control, but he settled into this start, seven innings, three runs allowed. Two of those earned seven strikeouts with 17 swinging strikes for Luis Castillo. Scott, anything to add with those two guys. Strider, Castillo. I mean, if maybe maybe this changeup is going to be what locks everything. into place for Strider and makes him

the best pitcher in baseball. It's possible. This was, so 14% usage in this one, I believe that's his highest yet. Two starts ago, he had 13.8% uses, so basically 14. But the point is he's beginning to mix it in more and more.

It has about a 50% whiff rate on the season, which is not far behind his slider. Now, a lot of that's the element of surprise. Obviously, he hasn't thrown it much in his career, so hit or see it and they're like what the heck is that but it seems like it's good enough

to give him a third look and to keep them to keep him from getting ambushed the way he has at times both this year and against the Phillies and the postseason last year to make it so if he doesn't have his peak fastball that day there's still another option he can turn to and maybe that'll make them more consistent and be the you know, one of the, one of the clear-cut, true, no-questions-asked aces in fantasy, because there are a few and fewer of those, it seems like.

With Luis Castillo, I did just want to point out, the ERA 2.87, fantastic, the whip 1.06, well over a strike operating. The FIP is at 376, the X-FIP is at 370. And a few reasons for that. His bad dip is a little bit low. His strand rate is a little high. You know, Scott, we were talking about trusting the process earlier on with someone like Red Demmers. The process here would tell you that there will be some regression for Luis Castillo.

Just throwing it out there, would you dare try and sell high on him now before that happens? No, no. I mean, yeah, the walks have, the walks have been kind of high recently. And I guess that's probably inflated his season-long rate, which, of course, doesn't contribute well to the ERA estimator. but let me see I don't know exactly what the issue is there because the season long walk rate isn't actually that high

no it's like I mentioned it's the bad-up is a little bit low the strand rate is a little bit high he does allow a good amount of hard contact so even the XERA was 380 coming into Monday I'm just not that worried about it the strikeouts are there and he over He outperformed his XERA by 32 points last year.

That hasn't been a consistent thing. But he's kind of been a different pitch at the last two years going with more four seamers and sliders as opposed to change-ups. You know? So I don't know. I think he's fine. I want to worry about it.

And his environment got a lot better, right? Going from Cincinnati to Seattle. It's a completely different park shift, positive one for Luis Castillo. And by the way, I completely agree. I'm not worried at all. It was just kind of playing devil's advocate looking at some of the underlying numbers,

but he's pitched like one of the top 12 starting pitchers in fantasy this year, and I pretty much value him as such at this point. Let's quickly talk about some waiver wire hitters before we hit our first break, Scott. Edouard Julian, he went two for four on Monday and has hit well since returning from the minors in 14 games since being recalled.

Julian is batting 306 with six doubles, one steal. No homers at time, but obviously the hits in the batting average is racking up there for Edward Julian. And Jordan Westberg, he made his debut. He started at second base, so perhaps he will gain that eligibility. Had a busy debut, one for four with a walk, RBI, run scored, and even a caught stealing. I like the fact that he was trying to run.

You don't love the fact that he got caught. Who would you rather have between those two Julian or Westberg? I think Westberg, just because he doesn't have the obvious platoon issue that Julian does, they tend to bat him lead off against righties, which helps, but they tend not to play him at all against lefties, and that, of course, limits his opportunities to contribute. He's been pretty productive when he's been in the lineup, not good enough that it overcomes the playing time issue.

We of course don't know how Westberg is going to perform at all. He had some swinging strike issues in the minors that we talked about yesterday. The strikeout rate itself wasn't that bad at AAA, but in terms of the swing and miss specifically, which is less the way you want to strike out than by being overly passive, you know, taking too many pitches. So we'll see. He didn't strike out in his debut. He started at second base, so, you know, hopefully he's trending toward gaining that.

eligibility, that position, probably third base as well, to go along with shortstop. And so that multi-eligibility for Westberg is going to be nice to. I would take the chance on him performing over the chance of Julian playing more regularly. Jordan Westberg, up to 50% rostered after this weekend. I assume a bunch of leagues had waivers run and Fab and all that fun stuff. So he's getting up there, but I think I agree. I would rather have Westberg than Julian. Did you catch any of that game Scott the Orioles game I did not so Jordan Westberg all of his his bros his boys they were sitting right behind home plate and they were just obnoxiously chanting for him every time he came up I think at some point the

Reds catcher couldn't hear the pitchcom and it was because they were so loud it was crazy so it's you know pretty fun pretty fun environment there for his debut we will like we did with Matt McLean just keep telling everybody as long as we need to, that you need to add Marcel O'Suna because he went one for four with his 16th home run, his third homer in the past five games, and basically since the start of May, he's been like a must roster must start player, Marcel O'Suna. He is up to 63% rostered, but obviously still could be out there in some shallower formats. A few names here in five outfielder leagues got Joey Weamer continues a fine month, one for four with his 11th home run, 422 feet.

straightaway center field there in City Field. And in June, he's batting 253 with six homers, two steals, an 889 OPS, and lots of hard contact there for Joey Weimer. Matt Veerling went three for five with a double, two run scored. He let off against a left-handed pitcher. And in 12 games since coming back from the IL, Matt Verling is batting 429 with three homers and a 1255 OPS. The last name here is Andy Abagnas.

He went two for four with his fifth home. run. I know it's like this guy's betting 695 where uh his OPS is 695 where are we talking about it about him his stack cast numbers are great. Andy Abanya has 91.2 average exit velocity 288XBA 501 x-lug I don't know if it's real but those just kind of jumped off the page for me this deeper leagues five outfielder leagues got Joey Weamer Matt Veerling and India Banya's any interest in that group. By far, my interest is highest for Joey Weimer, who even as overwhelming has been for most of the year, he's giving you a nice deals total, now a decent home run total. You know, on pace for basically a 2020 season, the batting average is, of course, nothing to get excited about.

But hopefully that's changing here with the way he performed in June. You mentioned his exit velocity. Average exit velocity was way up this month, and it is nearly 94 miles per hour. which is great. What's curious about that is he's striking out about 32% of the time, which is not so great. That's closer to how I thought his rookie season would go, too many strikeouts, but a lot of hard contact,

and instead we got kind of the opposite. Like the strikeout weren't so bad. And so, you know, if you told me coming into the year, that that would be the case for a year, oh, he's going to have a great rookie year. But the impact just wasn't there, and he's kind of flipped the script here in June, and it's going better. So I don't know if that is something conscious that he did,

just being a little less careful at the plate and swinging a little harder. I don't know. I don't have the backstory for this that would indicate whether or not it's something sustainable. But the talent is there for Weimar, and he's making better use of it. Probably still just a five outfielder league option at this point. I wouldn't look to him in three outfielder leagues yet, but again, the upside is there, so at least keep an eye on him. No love for Matt Veerling or Andy Abagnas, huh, Scott? Well, not really Abanias outside of like A.L. Lonely leagues.

Veerling, I think, has a little more potential, but he's got to play every day, first of all. He doesn't, he's not good enough to overcome a playing time issue and still be useful in fantasy. All right, fair enough. Let's take our first break, and when we get back, we're going to fire up the dropometer here on Fantasy Baseball Today. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball today, and a quick reminder to follow all of us on Twitter.

The Fantasy Baseball Today Twitter account is at FBTPod. You follow Scott at CBS Scott White, and you can follow me at Rodo underscore Frank. If you're watching us on YouTube, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to the FBT Twitter account. Let's fire up. the drop-o meter here, Scott, and I have mostly hitters. One to 10.

One means that you need to hold this player in all leagues. 10 means you could drop him in all leagues. And first up, we have Rowdy Tellez, who on the season is batting 218 with 12 homers, a 701 OPS. Quality of contact is way down this year. And in the month of June, he's hitting 167 with zero home run.

Scott, where is Rowdy Telez on the dropometer? probably like a probably like a nine outside of 15 team roto leagues which hardly anybody plays in I just don't see a lot of reason to hold on to him he has what numbers he has

were he pretty much put up in April you know and I'm not ruling out him bouncing back but I think in most cases there's going to be a better use of that roster spot than waiting for him to bounce back. Yeah, Roddy Tellez down to 56% rostered and I'll take that one, Scott. I'll take the L. I was big on Rowdy Tellez this year. Wouldn't surprise me if he gets going at some point, but right now the way he's playing, it's pretty bad.

So you can drop Rowdy Telez. What about Nolan? We spoke about him a couple of weeks ago when he got off to the slow start in June. We're like, all right, let's see where it goes from. here, it really has not gotten better because in the month he's betting 143 with two home runs, a 42% strikeout rate and a 59% fly ball rate. So lots of strikeouts. He's putting the ball in the air, which is going to lead to a lower babbip and a lower batting average. Nolan, Gorman, still 87% rostered Scott. Where do you have him on the dropometer? Probably like a six. I think it's fine in all

points leagues because he the strikeout rate is such a big hurdle to clear in that format. It puts them in a hole that he needs big production to climb out of. And obviously they tend to be shallower too. So do you have a viable alternative at second base and third base? It's more likely than like in a roto league that you do. You know what? I may go five. what I think is going to happen with Gorman

is I think he's going to get really hot again really soon. I think he is a player of extremes, hits the ball extremely hard, can hit a lot of home runs in a short period of time, but also strikes out a lot. And so that can put him in some extreme depths too, really cold stretches, where you hate having him anywhere near your team.

And that's what he's going through right now. But this isn't his first time around the block. It's not like, you know, he debuted in April and caught the league by surprise, and now everybody's caught up to him. I don't think that's what happened because he played a lot last year, too. I think the talents that led to the production he was delivering earlier are still there, and he's just cold right now, and the strikeouts are piling up, and it hurts. But if you can afford to hold on to him, which again is more likely in a Roto League,

then I think he should. It's not likely that Matt McLean is still available, but if he was, would you drop Nolan Gorman for McLean? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. My hesitation there is like,

McLean will cool off to a certain degree. And if we're thinking specifically roto leagues where you're mostly just counting numbers, is what he's going to do in the counting stats he's going to contribute some steals that Gorman won't contribute but if Gorman hits 20 home runs from today forward which is a possibility finishes the year with 35 you know even if he hits 240 to 30 let's say

is the total that McLean provides going to add up to more than that and that's hard to say but I think at this point with the way McLean has performed, I'd have to make that swap if it really came down to it. I think so too. McLean is 84% rostered on CBS, but looking at Yahoo,

McLean is still 66%. So if you play over there, which is mostly daily head-to-head category leagues, yeah, I would make that swap for dropping Nolan for Matt McLean. It's more, I guess the easiest way to put it, rather than the convoluted way I just put it,

is that it's more malpractice to leave McLean on the waiver wire than it is to leave Gorman on the waiver wire, you know? So if that's the only way to get McLean off the waiver wire by dropping Gorman, then I think you have to do it. But I want to be my first choice in most cases to, like I'd hope there's someone else. I could drop instead. I do have one pitcher in the mix here on the dropometer. That is Andrew Heaney, who had a rough outing up against the time.

Tigers, five and two thirds innings, six earned runs allowed, two homers allowed. Still did have 14 swinging strikes in the start and his slider velocity was up 1.5 miles per hour, but we're now looking at a 438 ERA and a 131 whip for Andrew Heaney. He's still 83% rostered. Where is he on the dropometer? 10. I'm not expecting to have any confidence in him going forward. Yeah, I mean, his combination of walks, 3.9 walks per nine and home runs, 1.6 home runs per nine.

That is a very, very dangerous combo. I was going to ask if you'd be willing to drop him for Gavin Williams, Emmett Sheehan, Brian Beaux, Kyle Braddish. And I assume the answer is yes to all of those. Yep, all the above. All right. Let's talk about John Carlos Stanton, who is now batting 191 with six home runs and a 643 OPS in 30 games a season. He did recently return in the month of June. He's played 17 games where he is batting a 121 with a 34% strikeout rate and apparently is not worried about the booze in Yankee Stadium.

93% rostered. It was a story that came out here locally that they asked him about the booze is in B-O-O-O-S. Yes, not like you know, him drinking beers in the dugout or something like that. It's, you know, the Yankee faithful, the Bronx Bamas. But Stanton is still 93% rostered, Scott. Where is he on the dropometer? Well, I don't think you can drop them in a 5 outfielder league. Agreed.

But I think in a 3 outfielder league, it's a 10. So what does that average out to? I don't know, maybe like a 7 or an 8. 6.7? 7.5, let's say. You know, so he's batting under 200 now. That's after over the last four months last year. the final two-thirds of last season,

Giancarlo Stanton hit 166. So obviously he missed some time with injury during that stretch, but it was a 70-game stretch where he hit 166 to end last season and how he's batting under 200 against. So I don't know. That's a long time of being nothing short of terrible. He did hit 20 home runs in those 70 games, but that was like all he did.

Yeah. So 166 was the batting average. It's frustrating too because before he got hurt, he actually got off to a great start this year. He played 13 games. He was batting 269 with four homeowners. He was absolutely crushing the ball. The average exit velocity near 97 miles per hour before he got hurt. But yeah, since he returned, I don't, maybe he's not completely healthy or whatever it might be.

But yeah, Stanton looks pretty bad. I mean, it is the tricky part is that like there's still almost nobody in the game who hits the ball harder than he does. So, like, if it turned around very suddenly and dramatically, I don't think anyone should be surprised by that. But, you know, at some point, you got to be willing to make room for somebody else. And I think we're about at that point with Stan. Would you drop him for Marcel Ozuna? Yeah. I agree.

Yesterday. What about Sayas Suzuki, who is betting 257 with six homers and one still on base, a 742 open? in the month of June, batting 184, zero homers, zero seals, three caught stealing. The underlying numbers still look pretty good, though. I mean, that's why I struggle with say Suzuki. He's down to 68% rostered, so some people are already dropping him, Scott. Where is he on the dropometer for you? I was never as high on Suzuki as you and Chris were.

And I wasn't as high on Santander either, and then he had it. stretch where he homered five times in six games, right? So I had to get with the program there. But I guess I'll go, it's another situation where I don't see how it's plausible to drop him in a five outfielder league, but I would have absolutely no qualms about dropping him to three outfielder league. In fact, I'd have less qualms about dropping Suzuki than Stanton even because I don't think Stan has the, I don't think Suzuki has the enormous upside that Stan does.

So I'll say a solid eight for Suzuki on the dropometer. The only thing for me with him is the plate discipline has been really good. 11% walk rate, 24% strikeout rate. That all seems fine. And he's hitting the ball hard. 92.5 average exit velocity, 50.6% hard hit rate. I don't really know why it's not working for Say, of Suzuki right now, but the things that we normally look at under the hood,

they still look pretty good for him. So I don't know. Maybe I did like him a lot coming into the season. Maybe I'm just kind of grasping at straws there, but... Well, they're a lot better than last year. You know, last year his average exit velocity was 89.6, which is, you know, above average, but not something that's going to be a major selling point on its own. So he's actually...

You know, it may be to some degree kind of a Michael Harris situation, but I don't know. It's over $200. 50 plate appearances he's gotten so far and it hasn't really added up to much yet. I don't know. I think in three outfielder leagues at least, you can do better. I will say this. If you play in a five outfielder league, I would try to buy low on Seiz Suzuki because I think you could probably get them for pretty, pretty cheap.

Especially if it's like a 15-team five outfielder league, I think you probably could get a pretty good bargain there on Seah Suzuki. The last name up here is Anthony Rizzo. who still is batting 270 on the season, but he heard his neck on a collision with Fernando Tatis back on May 28th, and in 19 games since, he is betting 167 with zero home runs. Strikeout rate still seems fine during that time,

hitting the ball decently hard, 90.1 average, XIVA velocity. A 216 bad-bub seems like he's just been pretty, pretty unlucky there for Anthony Rizzo. Scott, where is he on the dropometer? given the issues that I know a lot of people talk about having it first base and you know when I go through my first base rankings it's like geez what do I do after number seven you know yeah I feel like that puts Rizzo it pretty close to a zero and like it's concerning what's going

on with his neck the correlation there with the collision and then the decline in production You don't like to see that. I want to double check and make sure he wasn't already cold going into that. He was not. He was hitting well. So, I don't know, maybe he winds up on the IL, in which case you can move into an IL spot, and that wouldn't be such a bad outcome.

But in the long run, I think he's going to be one of the top 10 first basemen, so I would put it at zero. Three names that I moved ahead of Anthony Rizzer, on the rankings last week were Spencer Steer, Justin Turner, and Josh Naler. I don't think that those names are available in any leagues, but I guess if they were,

those are actually moves that I would make because those guys are just performing really well. They basically have done the opposite with Anthony Rizzo, so. I agree on steer. I don't agree on the others. Okay, that's fair.

Agree to disagree on Anthony Rizzo. But that's it. Those are all the names that I have on the dropometer. Let's get into the news and notes. Carlos Rodan tossed four scoreless innings in a rehab start at AA on Sunday, allowing one hit with four strikeouts. I think the plan is for him to make one more rehab start and then join the Yankees after that.

So he might actually get a start in before the All-Star break, you know, early is July there on Carlos Rodon. Julio Arias completed four innings in a rehab start at Single A Sunday. He is expected to return to the Dodgers this Friday in Kansas City. Max Fried was scheduled to throw another bullpen session Monday. I did not look it up to see if there was any update on how that went, but he has responded well so far to mound work and could soon advance to facing live hitters.

Again, that is Max Freed. The Marlins activated both Jazz Chisholm and Gene Seguer from the IL. Garrett Hampson and Jacob Amaya were optioned back to AAA. A.J. Smith-Shawver was optioned back to AAA Monday as well, And it sounds like Michael Soroka is likely to rejoin the Braves rotation when they do need someone to start for the team. And in three starts, since Soroka got sent back to the miners, a 142 ERA, a 0.79 whip, nearly a strikeout per inning. Scott, any interest in Soroka in deeper leagues in the meantime? Well, he's definitely looked better against since getting sent back down.

So in, I forget how many starts it was. however many starts he made prior to his promotion, he had a 9% swinging strike rate, and the three since he got sent back to AAA, he's at a 14% swinging strike rate. And in his latest start, it was a one hitter over seven innings. I believe he took a no hitter right up to the very last out

and then gave up a solo home run. He had 18 swinging strikes in that start, including 11 on the fastball, which is not, his MO, but his MO was like, get a ton of ground balls on the sinker. So he's changed his pitch mix. And the fastball, the four-same fastball seems to be playing up. It seems to actually be getting whiffs.

Interestingly, in that near-no-hitter, he had, I believe, nine fly balls versus four ground balls. So that's very uncharacteristic. And so, like, yes, he's looked a lot better in AAA. I still have no idea who Michael Soroka is. now because this this just this seems like a completely different profile if he can if he can be like a bat miss that that may be even better but i'm i'm going to be pretty skeptical until i see him string together a few good starts in the majors so uh i'm not saying you can't pick him up but most of those guys we talked about yesterday the griffin cannings of the world i'd go for them

instead all right edwardo rodriguez will make a rehab start on thursday at triple a he's been since late May with an injury to his left index finger. Riley Green is close to beginning a rehab assignment. He's missed all of June with a stress fracture in his left fibula. Chris Bryant is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment Wednesday at AAA. He's been on the IL since late May with a left heel bruise. Alex Cobb is expected to return from the IL during this week's road trip. CJ Cron was reinstated from the IL and he's been out since May 15th due to back spasms.

This one came out of nowhere. We had no updates on CJ Crone doing a rehab assignment, really doing much of anything. And they activated him. All right. Yeah. You can drop Rizzo for him, Frank? I don't think so, but that's probably the right range, like 13, 14, 15 in the first base ranking somewhere around there. What about you?

So I guess I guess, I'm forgetting his name now, Nolan Jones. I guess Nolan Jones has to find his event. somewhere other than first base now which he pretty much had been he'd mostly been playing right fields and with LA heroes Montaro playing first base so I don't think anybody's going to miss Montero too much yeah yeah I don't think this impacts anybody adversely in the Rockies lineup please please Nolan Jones has been yeah I don't pretty good I think Jones is gonna be fine all right Jorge Polanco has started light baseball activities he's been out since early

June with a moderate left hamstring strain the same That's the second train on that same hamstring this season. Matthew Boyd was removed from his start Monday due to left elbow discomfort, which, you know, obviously you never like to hear it. Terrick Scuba will make his next rehab start at AAA on Wednesday. That will be his fifth and likely last rehab outing, 57% rostered if you want to go out and stash Terrick Scobal. And that's a more exciting stash than Michael Soroka, I would say, as well.

Yeah, yep. Agreed there. Rogers, who has a partial tear in his right, non-throwing lat, hopes to have better clarity on his timeline after the All-Star break. So he'll be out at least until then. Adrian Houser will return to the Brewer's starting rotation Thursday against the Mets, and it sounds like they're going with a six-man rotation as they don't have any days off leading into the All-Star break. Matt Manning will return to the Tigers rotation Tuesday against the Rangers, and I assume we don't have any interest for Fantasy Scott.

No, I have wondered though with Matt Manning coming back and Terrick Scoobal soon to come back, is Reese Olson long for this world as much as we'd like him? Would he be the odd man out? They also have Joey Wentz who could be. Gone. I mean, he's had a few good starts. He has. I'd prefer that.

Don't give me wrong. I just don't know what the tigers are going to do. Yeah. I guess another spot could open up if Matthew Boyd goes in the aisle, right? With this left elbow discomfort. A few prospect updates we haven't mentioned recently. Drew Jones, who was the Diamondback's first round pick from last year, is not expected to return to minor league game action until at least the middle of July.

After suffering a right hamstring strain while running the bases last week, he's only played 14 games a season due to multiple injuries. and frankly it's been a pretty disastrous first year in the minors for Drew Jones. The Reds promoted pitching prospect Connor Phillips from AA to AAA. He has a ridiculous 111 strikeouts over 64 and two-thirds innings, but that is the level where they're using pre-tapped baseballs in the minors. But he's just a name that should be on radars, right, Scott? Because I feel like there's a chance we could see Connor Phillips in the second half of the season.

Yeah, there is. There are some similarities to Andrew Abbott here because it is the Southern League. It's not all of AA for what it's worth. It's the Southern League specifically with the pre-tech baseballs. And we saw Andrew Abbott's strikeout rate go from absurd at that level to still very good at AAA, but it wasn't the same. And his overall success wasn't the same. And at the Major League level, it hasn't been the same either.

Phillips has a more conventional power profile but what I've noticed with him and this is Connor Phillips by the way what I've noticed with him is for all those strikeouts he's getting a double a he has a one three one whip he's given up a lot of hits he's giving up a lot of home runs he's giving up a lot of walks

so I don't know I don't know he does have a ton of strikeouts and that is the most important thing but it's not everything so let's see how Triple A goes. All right. A few other minor league prospect promotions.

The Tigers promoted third base prospect Colt Keith from AA to AAA. He was betting 325 with 14 homers and a 976 OPS. The Red Sox promoted outfield prospect, Sedane Raphaela from AA to AAA. He was betting 294 with six homers and 30 steals this season in the minors. Let's take our final break. And when we return, I've got some leftovers. I've got team named Tuesday. I even have a fantasy justice for all question

from somebody in the Scott White Dynasty League. Uh-oh. It's not actually about our league, though, Scott. It's about another league. But we'll get to all that right after this. Welcome back. And a big thanks to everyone watching us live on YouTube. We do appreciate you hanging out.

It's obviously pretty late here, but almost 500 people still here hanging. So we do appreciate it. Like this video. Subscribe. to the channel if you haven't already. Some pitching leftover, Scott, Justin Verlander, labored his way through five innings up against the Brewers.

He did not allow a run, which was the good news. Five hits, two walks, five strikeouts, only seven swinging strikes on 100 pitches. So, I don't know, still kind of a mixed bag here for Justin Verlander. Sunny Gray had a quality start at the Atlanta Braves, six and two-thirds, three runs loud with five strikeouts and 12 swinging strikes. allowed a good amount of hard contact.

But there were some interesting things here for Sunny Gray. Velocity was up on the cutter and the sweeper, and he nearly doubled his sweeper usage in this start, and it's been far away his best pitch this season. So I wonder if this is something that can, I guess, help Sunny Gray get back on track, but anything you'd like to add on those two, Gray and Verlander. Well, it was Sunny Gray's first start of six innings in his last four chances. and in fact it was only his third start of six plus innings in his last 10 chances.

So that has been as much as issue as anything else. The walks have been high. The walks have been high, so that's probably helped with, that's probably contributed, I should say, to the inefficiency. This was a step in the right direction, I agree, and how much the pitch selection has to do with that. I think remains to be seen, but generally speaking, I'm always four pitchers throwing their best swing and miss pitches more. All right. I don't really think this matters very much, but Colin Ray turned in a quality start at the

Metz, Scott. Does this matter at all? No, not really. Hard to get excited about Colin Ray. Yeah, it's a 457 ERA and a 122 whip, so not really much there. Some hitting leftovers, Michael Harris went three for three with two more hard hits, and it was his seventh multi-hit game in the month of June, where he is now batting 3-73 with four homers, three steals,

and a 10-05 OPS. Scott, you look confused. Did I just make up a stat? I don't know. I thought he had three hard hits. He might have. Maybe. Let me double check.

Maybe I missed in a bat. It's not really worth stopping the show for it. No, you're right. He's two hard hits. Because sometimes I write stuff down while the game is still going, and then another bat happens, and I'm like, ah, crap, I missed this. The one that's not a hard hit had an expected batting average of 570, so that's, I got confused there.

There you. Ronald de Cunia, the best slap hitter around, went one for three with his 17th home run. He's also batting 328 with a 971 OPS and 35 steals this season. Spencer Stier went three for three with his 12th home run. The batting average has slowed down a bit in the month of June, but he still has four homers and seven steals this month, which is, who knew? Steer was a speedster, but here we are. He's playing very well. Shohay Otani went one for three with a sock and a shoe.

His league leading 26th home run, also up to 11 steals. The home run 113 miles per hour exit velocity, 446 feet off of Dylan's cease. Luis Robert went two for four with his 22nd home run, and 17 of those have come since the start of May. So kind of a slow April there, but since May started, Luis Robert has. has been great for fantasy. Hulu. About over 300 as well during that stretch. Yep.

I think the OPS is over 9002 during that time. So he's just been great. Julio Rodriguez went three for four with his 18th steel. The batting average, slowly creeping up, still a let down for where you drafted him. But the power and speed, I think he's still on pace for like a 30, 30 season.

So that part has been good for Julio Rodriguez. All right, Scott. Let's do a little fantasy justice for all, which if people, people who haven't heard it before, we actually haven't done this since probably last season, I think. If you have a dispute in your league, it's not, hey, should I trade for this guy? Or it's like somebody doing something fishy in your league and it requires justice. Yeah, drama.

Then we will try to help you out for the fantasy baseball today. OGs out there. This is the equivalent to Adam Mazur's regulator segment back in the day. feel free to email us at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. That's the letter I and put Fantasy Justice in the subject line. This is from Brian Flood, who plays in the Scott White Dynasty League with us, and he writes in, hey guys, I love the pod. I wrote about Fantasy at CBS in 2005 and 2006 before podcasts were invented.

That's true. In fact, I was hired to fill Brian Flood's vacancy. He was my predecessor. sir. You learn something new every day. Honestly, had no idea. Here's what he's got. Anyway, unique situation here and would love everyone's feedback. I'm in an old school AL-only Roto Keeper League. It's the kind of league where you don't have a bench aside from the IL and minor league guys. Back in 2020, the Otani owner found Brendan McKay and selected him in the minor league draft because he was eligible at both pitcher and as a utility hitter. The Otani owner

then activated McKay, even though he wasn't active on an MLB roster, which is legal in their league, and he moved Otani and McKay back and forth from pitcher to utility, depending on Otani's pitching schedule. The Otani owner has now kept McKay for three years doing this swap to get both Otani's hitting and pitching stats. It was savvy at first, and I give the owner credit. However, McKay isn't a hitter anymore.

His last MLB at bat was in 2019, and he gave up hitting in 2021. But CBS continues to give McKay eligibility at utility. Is this savvy, shady, enough already after three years, and why is McKay still eligible at utility? I resent this because he's kind of... I thought about too. I'm like, yeah, he is kind of, you know, talking crap about whatever, Brendan McKay's eligibility.

So I don't... So I am primarily responsible for the players having the eligibility they do. Up to a certain point. I have the say on their primary eligibility, and of course what eligibility they pick up or lose based on games played really depends on your league setup. And I haven't known what to do about McKay because it's just like he and Otani are the only players

in the entire history of the CBS database who've had both pitcher and hitter eligibility simultaneously. and I haven't put a ton of thought into it because I didn't think the repercussions like McKay hasn't been a fantasy significant player in a very long time so I didn't think it mattered that much but now I have reason to think it matters

at least in this one league for this one savvy owner it does matter so next year I will go over McKay's game played what roles he's filled and see if he deserves to have that dual eligibility still and hopefully put a stop to that so that your league doesn't have to come up with a solution on its own. But it is a very clever thing. I think leagues without bench bots are

dumb. That's fair. That's part of the problem. Just give your league bench spots so that he can take advantage of Otani without having to rely on Brendan McKay. But yeah, it's obviously a weird scenario that's not going to apply to hardly anyone else listening. Right. It's like, I do give that guy credit. That's clever. Yeah, I thought it was pretty funny. To answer all three questions, I would say all of the above. Yes, it was savvy, kind of shady, and enough already after three years.

I would say it kind of fits all three of those. Well, it'd be different if McKay was still doing both in the minors, but yeah. No, he probably needs to lose one eligibility, I guess, is a hitter. I could tell you for certain, I haven't looked up Brendan McKay in a couple of years, and I just found out that he had Tommy John surgery in September of last year. So who even knows when we'll see Brendan McKay back? Yeah, I mean, that's the thing too. So he hasn't even played this year.

No, no, no. But yeah, no, he hasn't been. Okay, so in 2022, he was basically done as a hitter. Yeah. Okay, anyway, Brendan McKay. We devoted enough time to Brendan McKay. We sure have. And Brian Flood, I would say that justice has been served.

The call to the bullpen. We only have two updates for the Braves. Basically, everybody in their bullpen was unavailable, so Kirby Yates picked up his first save of the season, and for the Brewers, Devin Williams fired a clean ninth inning for his 14th save of the year. To stream or not to stream, we'll start with Tuesday, and I did eliminate someone, Garrett Whitlock, because he's now up to 79% rostered, but of the other names available, I think Gavin Williams at Kansas City is good. Brian Wu versus the Nationals is fine.

Julio Taran at the Mets? Probably okay. Yeah. I'm fine with all of those. They were all three among my 10 sleeper pitchers for the week, not doing this day-by-day streaming thing. But I still approve in the day-by-day streaming thing. All right.

On Wednesday, not as many interesting options, but I know Logan Allen hasn't been great, recently with Cleveland. At Kansas City, I think, is fine. Wade Miley has pitched well since coming back. Actually, there are some pretty good options here. I made that up. Wade Miley at the Mets is good.

Dane Dunning versus the Tigers. Logan Allen at Kansas City. And frankly, I think either pitcher in the Yankees and A's game is fine too. J.P. Sears and Domingo Herman. I know Raman's been bad, but like, whatever, it's in Oakland. Thinking about the McKay dilemma again. It's not that serious guy. Yeah. Okay. Anyway.

There may be some complications that we didn't bring up in terms of getting him down to just pitch your eligible. But I'll look into it. Anyway. Okay. So Wednesday streamers. Yeah. I think I think Logan Allen's my first choice here, followed by Dane Dunning and Domingo Hermano. Those are the same names you said? I said those, but I also think Wade Miley, you said Miley, right? No, I didn't. No, Wade Miley at the Mets is okay. And I think J.P. Series is fine against the Yankees, too.

Yeah, it's a pretty good options both days. What do you know? Wow. Wow! We got Scott to like two days worth of streamers. What is happening? Will he like the team names on Team Name Tuesday? I don't know about that.

Is Domingo Hermon too scary just because of the way his last two starts when I know he's facing Oakland? But given the alternatives, I guess Domingo Hermon should be a lower priority. Yeah, I would say he's probably like fourth or fifth on that list, but it is a big ballpark. He struggled with home runs. probably could get away with a few more fly balls out there in Oakland. So I think it's fine. Okay. All right, team name Tuesday, and we will start off with this first one from Andrea.

And Tay Oscar goes two. That's the team name. Oh, I get it. Okay. And Tay Oscar goes too. From Jess, you say Kikuchi, I say a Suzuki. Ah, that is a rare occasion where two names are better than one. This one's from Nick and it is a song which I will try to sing even though Scott does not like my singing

Take a take a leote off manny I probably didn't do a good job of it, but it's like I don't know that song take a load off manny Don't know it the classic song the weight by the band From Felix do you snow what the Brock is cooking? Alright Another another two-nameer. I was like yeah, I think I think Brock Burke was the one that he said he wanted that to represent. All right. From Bob, O'Tani Bome.

O'Tani Bome. It would work better if his name was pronounced BOM. Yeah. But it's not. But still. I think it's decent. That's pretty good. From Colin, 877 Glass Now.

J.G. Wentworth. Yeah. 877. Seven cash now. Yes. And this next one I have to be very careful with. Wu-Tang Clan ain't nothing to puck with. Okay.

Be very careful. From Robert, he's not a carpenter yet, just a nailer. Okay. Yeah, I don't mind that. All right. I haven't hated any yet. That's good. From Matteo all along the watchtowers.

I'm not sure I get the reference. That's a Jimmy Hendricks song All along the towers Is he naming the team after Chris Towers? Is that the Towers? Oh, you are going to notice A little bit of a theme here And the next one is

Scots in White Satin I think this is supposed to be Knights in White Satin Written by Scott Bradley Next one is Welsh shiver me timbers For Welsh I don't know any of these references

They're lost on me but I thank you for using our names. And the last one is, frankly, I won't stamp full this. Okay. They're fine. From Stephen, Blackman Turner Overdrive.

Okay. Yeah. McClana hand it to you. Have it Yuri Way. Burger King. I mean, okay. Yeah.

I mean, I, I presume he's thinking about Jake Burger. He's thinking about Michael King. So he's got three names in here. Yeah, I guess that's fine. Bybee or not Bybee. Bybee or not by B.

This one, it's like trying to figure out how to say it correctly. Encarnacion of all Cruz. Encarnacion of all. And he spelled Cruz, C-R-U-Z. Okay. It's a stretch. It's a stretch within. Carnacian's name there turning in that into Carnival.

Oh, there you go. Yeah, I see what's happening here. Carnival Cruise. I've actually never, I've never been on one of those, like a vacation cruise type thing. I've never, have you? Yeah, not Carnival. And only once. Yeah.

I liked it. Free advertising here at the 102 mark on the podcast. Taj Medial Hall. Okay. Yeah, let's just move on from that one. Minnesota Olson twins. All right. I do like this last one.

You're so Vaughn. You probably think this Sengas about you. You spelled YU. I don't know why the first you wasn't spelled YU. Why just the second you? I don't know. I can always respond and ask, Scott, if you really want to know. Yeah.

But I enjoyed that one. Okay. All right, we're going to wrap there. For Scott, 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. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.