Fantasy Baseball Today - Reid Detmers Meltdown! Buy or Sell, 2025 Edition! (9/17 Fantasy Baseball podcast)

Episode Date: September 17, 2024

Reid Detmers fooled us again (4:35)! ... Matthew Boyd has had two rough starts in a row (9:54). ... News (12:42): Francisco Lindor is hoping to return in 2-5 days. ... Any interest in Jake Irvin, Andre Pallante or Aaron Civale in the final week (20:29)? ... When did Andrew Benintendi get to 19 home runs (22:39)? ... What do we make of Ranger Suarez and Yu Darvish from Monday (24:45)? ... Let's do a little Buy or Sell for 2025 (30:50). ... How do we rank Pablo Lopez, Paul Skenes, Shota Imanaga and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for next year (42:05)? ... Let's wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (48:33). ... Also, TEAM NAME TUESDAY (55:55)! Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Ah, Reed Detmer's. Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me 100 times. Definitely, shame on me. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, September 17th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White. Today on the show, we had some mixed pitching performances. Of course, Reed Detmer's was one of them. Buy-your-sell scenarios for 2025 and much more. We don't really talk football on this podcast because, well,

or a baseball podcast, but Scott, pretty big win by your Falcons, man. That was pretty awesome. I know. Would have been nice if I could have watched it. Bit of a cable cutter, so. But I watched it on the game tracker. and it was exciting on the game tracker. So there.

Fair enough. You know, maybe I'll just give you my login for ESPN. I feel bad that you're not able to watch your Atlanta Falcons there. I said cable cutter, but it's cord cutter, so I don't even know. Cord cutter. Yep. Showing your age there, Scotty. Yeah, you know what?

It may be, maybe cord cutting is something only old people do now. I don't know. Who knows? 84 on the shirt. Is that a Roddy white shirt? It is a Roddy white shirt. So it says white on the back. I love, well, that's obviously relevant.

But, man, I love Roddy White so much. That is, that is an awesome shirt. You know what's funny is I have a device that I use. It's an old device, rarely used. But occasionally, I turn it on. I log into Twitter. And the address, the web address automatically fills in when I start typing in Twitter to a Roddy White tweet from 2013. where he basically says, here's the tip.

If I don't practice all week, it means I'm not playing. Because people were mad 11 years ago. People were mad that he was a last minute scratch and they couldn't get him out of their lineups. Oof. So it's like a time capsule though, because like 11 years old, like, you know, 18-year-olds were seven when it happened. And it just kind of like really throws you for a loop to think about.

wow, this off-reference tweet from 11 years ago, my computer still defaults to it when I log in. That's pretty crazy. That is pretty crazy. Eleven years ago, I graduated college. So just to put some things in perspective there, let's talk baseball because I'm sure people don't want to hear any more football talk. You can put it on the board. Yes. We don't often play White Sox soundbites here, but man, they clobbered Reed Demers.

Got a big win here. Yeah, that's who will start, Scott. Reid Dettmers, rough one. Yeah, so I was taking some heat for this, as I'm sure we all were. Reed Dettmers, the top sleeper pitcher for this week, lined up for two starts. The first being against the white socks, that's what this start was against. The gimmie of all gimmies. And this was after he had dominated the twins, after he had dominated the Phillies,

he gets knocked around by the white socks. So frustrating. I don't know what else he could say about it. You know, like, clearly if you started Demers, well, first of all, let me start with this. Sleeper pitchers are inherently volatile. You should always treat them as more of a last resort than a go-to. This has always been true. I've stated it as often as I can.

But this was a particularly attractive one. I had them. I picked him up and started them in a couple leagues myself. So clearly, I had genuine enthusiasm for this one. It wasn't just, this is part of my job to pick out 10 crappy pitchers. And we all just have to live with it. It wasn't that situation this time. I had genuine enthusiasm.

And if you started them yourself, you were convinced by the reasoning. And I think basically everybody was pushing redembers against the White Sox. after the way his starts against the twins and the Phillies went. You're selling them short, by the way, Scott. One of those starts were against the Dodgers, not the Phillies. Oh, okay, my bad. Yeah, the Dodgers. Ten strikeouts against the Dodgers, so pretty damn good.

Yeah, sorry for the little bit of misinformation there. But everybody was pushing it. And like the bottom line is in the short term, baseball is very difficult to predict from one game to the next. That's where the that's baseball Susan expression comes from. And so these are the inherent dangers to playing the streamer game with starting pitchers. And I look at the leagues where I started him and I think, dang, I wish I didn't start Red Demmers, but the reasoning made sense at the time.

So like, I don't know what you're supposed to do about it. If you want to vent and, you know, you want to blame me or whoever else, recommended Detmer's for this week. Okay, if it makes you feel better. But like, what needs to change in the process? I don't know than anything does. You know, it was one of very few actionable pitchers from this entire month. And obviously on a fantasy baseball podcast, we're going to emphasize the players you

can actually take action on. And I don't know if this makes people feel better or not, but a lot of the times, the advice that we give, most of the time, I would say, the advice that we give, we are willing to do ourselves on our fantasy team. So Scott just pointed out, he started to read Detmer's himself in leagues because of the reasoning that he gave. And, you know, obviously there was a level of conviction there. So, yeah, like a lot of the times, if there's stuff that we get wrong, we are also suffering

from it because we believe in the advice that we're giving, obviously. But yeah, I think the process was right. You know, back-to-back quality starts, 18 total strikeouts for Reed Detmer's entering this start. Obviously, streamer pitchers are volatile. they're even more so when their name is Reed Detmer's. And he didn't have his best pitch in this start. Like if we're just getting down to the nitty-gritty of this start, his slider had nothing.

Only two whiffs, 97.5 average exit velocity against. So like we've said with Logan Webb and any other pitcher throughout the season, Matt Waldron when he doesn't have his knuckleball, if you take a pitcher and they don't have their best pitch working, more often than not, that's going to be a pretty bad start. And that's what happened here. Well, of course. And I didn't even know that it was worth getting into the nitty gritty here on what happened at Dettmers because whatever, you're locked in for this week with them.

Or if you're not, you're not going to start him for his next start. And that's all fine. I mean, for him in particular, the slider has been the story of his whole career. When he has it, he's great. When he doesn't, he's terrible. Yep. And, yeah, I mean, the vertical movement was up one inch from his season average in this start, but it had been up more like three inches since his retirement. turn from the miners.

So it flanned out and even the white socks were able to take advantage of that. And yeah, sure. It was given the ups and downs of Detmer Slider over the years, it's not an entirely unexpected event that he just happened to lose it. But you wouldn't expect it on the heels of two great starts and then the white socks coming up, you know? Well, what's interesting about the white socks guide is that this has happened a few times now, right? Like, a couple of weeks ago,

Spencer Arrogatee lines up for the White Sox after some great starts, has a terrible outing. Albert Suarez was pitching really well, has a bad start against the White Sox, and then proceeds to go on and pitch well again after that. So I'm not saying the White Sox, like, you should be scared to use anybody against

them. I really don't believe that, but they've, I guess, been a little bit more pesky or a thorn in our side for fantasy managers over the past month or so. Let's just get both of these out of the way because I kind of feel like maybe the Matthew Boyd experiment is over as well because bad start here against the

twins, two and two thirds innings, five hits, three runs, two of those earned. Three walks, five strikeouts. He clearly was very inefficient in this start. Through 61% of his pitches for strikes, like, it's not good, it's not bad, probably wants to be a little bit better than that.

It had been 65% prior to this, which is much better than 61. It doesn't sound like much, four percentage points, but it is. The last two starts for Matthew Boyd, he's only thrown seven innings. He has walked five. He's still racking up the strikeouts, but the whip has been terrible. He's not going deep

into either of those starts. His last bad start came against the White Sox as well. So you're locked in in a weekly lineup league. He's at the Cardinals later this week, and then he's home against the Astros for the final week, so I don't think you want to use him for that matchup, obviously. No, probably not against the Astros

next week, but the Cardinals matchup coming up later this week was the main reason you started Matthew Boyd. And I have a little more hope that this two-star week's going to pay off for Boyd than for Dettmers at this point. All right. Let's take our first break and when we return, we'll hit the news and notes. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in news and notes. Francisco Lindoor's MRI revealed no structural damage on his back and he is expected back in two to five days.

And I have Lendor in one league and based on this, I did not start him because I figured me too you know if he's back by like Friday you're getting you know two or three days out of him maybe it's worth it but um you know shortstop's a pretty deep position so i sat him too with the championship on the line that's the only league where i have him the memorial magazine league it's really close between me and and uh one other guy at the top of the standings and thankfully i had an alternative as good as dan's b swanson who somebody dropped earlier this year but who has been great since the start of August. He's looked like typical

Dansby Swanson anyway since the start of August and he hit Homer here on Monday. So I'm feeling good about that. But yeah, Lindor hopefully he's back for the final week and hopefully you didn't start him this week because I agree with you.

It wouldn't have been the best move. You mentioned the Memorial Magazine League. I wanted to give a shout out to the two podcast leagues that we play in our traditional 12-te-to-head points League and then the 16 team for the People League, head to head categories. And we draft both of those before the season

live on air, so everyone gets to see the madness and the draft as it's playing out. Both championships are set. Nobody on this podcast is competing in either championship. So I just wanted to give a shout out to David Coffee and Mitchell House in the For the People League, and then

in the podcast league, it's going to be Aaron Marcus versus Nathan McCullough. So shout out to those gents trying to take down the championship. CJ Abrams has a lot of. now missed four straight due to left shoulder discomfort, though he was available off the bench on Monday. And let's see if he actually got in for any at-bats here.

I don't think I remember seeing his name anywhere. No, did not pinch it. So we'll see if CJ Abrams is in the lineup here on Tuesday. O'Neill Cruz out of the lineup due to left- ankle discomfort, which he suffered on Sunday. Stephen Kwan has now missed four straight. Turns out he's dealing with backsornness before it was kind of labeled as general.

body soreness, but medical tests revealed no structural damage and Kwan is expected to avoid the IL. Ozzy Albies will begin a rehab assignment at AAA Tuesday and could return as soon as Friday. Louisa Rye's left Monday's game due to lower body injury. He had an awkward slide into home plate. Looks like he heard his knee on the play. It was more than a slide. It was kind of like his leg got stuck in the ground while he was trying to slide. The next inning, he hit a double and he was basically limping into second base, so he was lifted for a pinch runner, but hopefully he's all right. I wouldn't be surprised if maybe he misses a day or two. Again, that's Luis Rise, who I did have, I saw this interesting stat. Struck out for the first time since August 10th

had gone 141 plate appearances without a strikeout, the longest streak in the past 20 years. How about that? Wow. That is, that's a good streak. Would you like to, I don't know, First name that comes to mind, Scott, the last player who held a longer streak. It was in 2004. 2004, most played appearances without a strikeout. It was 147 played appearances at the time. 2004. Scott Petsednik.

Honestly, very similar player, Juan Pierre. Oh, yeah, that's a better guess. Yeah, he hardly ever struck out. Dave Roberts said Monday that Yoshinobu Yamamoto will not pitch on four days' rest for the rest of the regular season and the postseason. Yamamoto has had at least five days off in between all 15 of his starts this season, a schedule which mimics what he was used to in Japan.

So not really any surprise there. Mike Trout is open to moving to a corner outfield spot or serving as the team's DH in 2025, assuming he's still on the Angels. Trout suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee twice the season, which limited him to just 29 games. Wilson Guterres has been ruled out for the remaining, of the season due to his fractured right middle finger.

The Pirates promoted Nick York on Monday. He was in the lineup at second base and he was batting seventh. Nick York, 22 years old, former first round pick of the Red Sox, came over to the Pirates this year in a trade deadline deal. And in the minors this season, 303 batting average, 12 homers, 33 doubles, 21 steals, and 834 OPS between AA and AAA and AAA. Specifically at AAA, the exit velocity is actually really good here, Scott. Oh, yeah.

I don't think there's enough time for Nick York to make an impact this season, but I'm interested to see kind of just what he does and maybe he can be a deep sleeper for next year. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about Nick York too. I wrote about him in the last prospects report of the year. I can't remember how many. I think it was 15, 15 or 16 prospects to pick up in deeper dynasty leagues and Nick York was among them. He did get a lot of hype the first year he was after the first year after he was drafted. had a big year in the lower miners and then kind of fell off the prospect map for a few years. But I was impressed by those exit velocities even before he got traded to the pirates. Between the two organizations, the average is about 91.5 miles per hour and the max is close to 111, which is surprising for a guy who profiles as more of like a contact oriented middle-in

infielder. You want to think he had that much juice in the swing. Part of the reason it doesn't translate to home runs is his fly ball rate is only like 23%, but he's got like a 33% line drive rate, which is insane. I don't know if that's going to translate. I'd rather see him elevate a little more for power, but he's still a young guy. He's still developing into what he can be is Nick York. And if he has, if he, if he's capable of hitting the ball as hard as you show to AAA, I think that points to a better ceiling than people are giving him credit for. So excited to see what he can do these last couple weeks and maybe keep an eye on him next spring. Yeah, if I'm just conservatively projecting what type of player Nick York should be based on his minor

league profile, maybe like a 15-15 hitter, good batting average, lots of doubles, something that can help play up in a points league. But you're right, if those exit velocities are a sign of things to come, then maybe he's more like a 20 to 25 home run hitter with, you know, 10 to 15 steals. And, you know, that makes him a pretty serviceable player, especially up the middle, you know, at second base. So we'll see if Nick York can get an opportunity with the pirates early on next season. Ryan Weathers is expected to return on Wednesday against the Dodgers. He looked like he was having a breakout season earlier with the Marlins, but he has been out since June with a left index finger strain. Jordan Montgomery will reach.

join the D-backs rotation Tuesday against the Rockies in Corse Field. The D-backs optioned Adrian Del Castillo back to AAA, which makes sense because Gabriel Moreno is back. And the Angels option, Cade and Dana, back to AA, and he'll be shut down for the rest of the season. In three starts with the Angels, a 1045 ERA, a 203 whip. It went about as bad as we thought it might. Yeah, I don't know who's making these decisions for the Angels.

Well, I do know who's making these decisions for the Angels, although I always mispronounce his last name, so I'm not going to try and say it. But it's some curious decision-making the way they rush these guys to the majors. Yeah. All right, let's get into some possible waiver-wire options. I mean, look, it's going to be for the final week of the season.

Do any of these names stand out here? We'll start with some pitchers. Jake Irvin had an awesome start at the Mets. Seven-in-third innings. One run, five strikeouts. Only seven whiffs on 94 pitches. Back-to-back quality starts, I noticed that he's faded his curveball in both of those, which earlier in the season was probably his best pitch.

Andre Palante turned in an awesome start up against the Pirates. He actually out-duled Paul Skeens. Seven shot-out innings with nine strikeouts, only had seven whiffs on 100 pitches. And Aaron Savali, a solid start up against the Phillies, five innings, one run, six strikeouts. And in 12 starts with the Brewers, a 368 ERA, a 126 whip. It's not great. It's in that kind of streamer. discussion. But if we're looking at matchups for the final week, Savali gets the Mets,

Andre Palante gets the Giants, and Jake Irvin is home against the Phillies. So, mm, not great. No, it's not. And I don't know that I like the way Jake Irvin has found success in his last two starts. You understand him changing things up because, well, I have the number since August 1st. It's a 565 IRA 137 whip. The last two starts are better with a lot more sinkers, and particularly in this latest start against the Mets, he threw a sinker 41% of the time. That pitch entered with a 327 batting average against

and just a 14% whiff rate. So I think it's just kind of element of surprise him mixing in that sinker more against these last two opponents, and that's why he's had some success. But I don't know that it's a long-term strategy for Jake Irvin, and I certainly wouldn't trust him against the Phillies. That's more than I probably needed to say, but there you have it.

Andrew Palante, I guess his matchup against the Giants is the best, and he has had enough quality starts that he's worth taking seriously as a streamer. Not an exciting one. His previous two starts, he had five walks each. So it's not like he'd been on a roll here, but he had a great start against the Pirates, and maybe he can't against the Giants too. Three waiver wire hitters.

Matt Beerling has quietly hit well for, the Tigers, three for five with a run and an RBI. And since the start of August, he's batting 2.91. Three homers, four steals. It's kind of hollow batting average. He just seems like the perfect deep league filler, you know, fifth outfielder, throw him in a corner infield spot. Again, that's Matt Veerling.

Andrew Benintendi had a huge game here, partially thanks to Reed Detmer's. Two for three with a double dong and four RBI. And quietly having a big second half, 12 home runs, 33 RBI, 871 OPS for Andrew Benintendent. and Hunter Goodman, Scott, he was listening yesterday. He didn't like what you had to say. No.

No, he did not. One for three with his 12th home run. He has four homers in his past six games. He has started six of the past eight. He's only 8% rostered, you know, deeper two catch a league, stuff like that. I think all three of these names are deeper league names, Scott. But any interest for you in these three? It's kind of crazy that how did Ben and Tendi get up to 19 home runs?

I was shocked when I saw that. When did this happen? Yeah, so you gave the second half numbers. I need to rehash those. I will say it really picked up August 1st. And since August 1st, his fly ball rate is 48%. His pull rate is 52%. Both of those very high.

So he's been selling out for home runs. And he's done so without improving his exit velocity, 87.5 miles per hour since August 1st. That's like in line with the season number. And it's not a very good number. but he's just played the launch angle game and it's worked out for Andrew Benintendi. Maybe it can lead to a continuation of some kind next year.

But I don't know. I haven't seen what the White Sox matchups are for the final week of the season. It's possible he'll be among my sleeper hitters if it's good matchups. Again, that is Andrew Benatendi, so an aim, you know, deeper five outfielder leagues. What do we make of these pitchers from Monday? Kind of mixed outings, too bad, too good. We'll start with the bad. Ranger Suarez remains just kind of uninspiring.

He was at the Brewers, five innings, three runs, three walks, did have five strikeouts. But only through 60% of his pitches for strikes. Five starts since coming off the IL. It's a 444 ERA and a 152 whip for Ranger Suarez. And Seth Lugo, quite bad in a good matchup against the Tigers. Four and two-thirds, four runs, four strikeouts. You know, change up the pitch mix here. He threw more cutters.

The cutter was actually good. He seems like he didn't really have much else working here. Previous three starts before this were all great for Seth Lugo. I didn't realize he leads baseball in innings. 197 and two-thirds for a guy who just picked up starting again last year. So just thought that was kind of interesting for Seth Lugo. He's 34 years old, too. That's another surprising fact about Seth Lugo.

Anything on him or Swara, Scott, that stands out? I just feel like we've totally been vindicated on Ranger Suarez. Not that I felt like we needed vindication, but we were detractors at the start of the year. And it's kind of played out exactly like we thought it would because, okay, yeah, he was, He was dominating. He was looking like an ace when he was able to spot the ball perfectly.

When his control was pristine better than we've ever seen it before, he was going through a stretch like that. He was getting that change up down in the zone in the most optimal way and was thriving. But it just didn't seem like that was something he could sustain all year. That his control, because he didn't have a long-term history of control that good, it couldn't remain that good. And it hasn't since coming back from this back issue, five starts. He's thrown only 63% of his pitches for strikes, which isn't terrible,

but it's not as good as we were seeing at the start of the year. And we're seeing the walks go up. I think this is back-to-back with three. I don't know. The walk rate hasn't looked good. He hasn't been pitching deep into games. He's just been kind of like the Ranger Suarez we remember prior to this year, which isn't a terrible pitcher.

but it's not a must-start pitcher. And his matchup next week, Ranger Suarez is... Looks like at the Nationals, which... It's okay. Pretty good, yeah. It's okay, but he's not a must-start, clearly. Two good starts from pitchers here. We've got Merrill Kelly, who, of course,

would throw a quality start in Corse Field. Six innings, one run with five strikeouts, had only eight whiffs on 83 pitches. Still in seven starts since returning from the aisle It's a 514 ERA and a 136 whip for Merrill Kelly. And you Darvish, who turned in a strong start up against the Astros, six shutout, three hits, two walks, three strikeouts, only seven whiffs on 79 pitches,

completely tinkered with the pitch mix, as Darvish has been known to do throughout his career. I think the bigger fact here is building up the pitch count, Scott. First two starts, 63 pitches, all the way up to 79 here for you, Darvish. Mm-hmm, yeah, he's looked pretty good. good since returning and is building up nicely and I think is pretty trustworthy down the stretch do we have his matchups handy let's see I can I know he faces the white socks later this week right it was I had him did I have him as a must start I had him pretty high in the two start

picture rankings so you'll obviously in daily lineup leagues want him active for that start against the white socks and then that would line hand him up the final week of the season to face at Arizona diamondbacks which want to be so great no no no but definitely want Darvish active for the white socks anything here on merrill kelly it looks like he is at the brewers later this week and then home against the Padres the final week which i don't really like any of those either yeah i don't like them but hopefully he can hopefully he can outperform expectations and give us good vibes heading into next year after what was pretty down year for our fellow, Merrill Kelly.

Let's take our final break. When we return, buy or sell, 2025 edition. And we'll do that right after this. Welcome back in Buy or Sell, 2025 edition, two names. So we will start off with Sean Mania and Spencer Arrogatti should both be drafted as top 40 starting pitchers next season. Now, I know, Scott, you haven't done your starting pitcher rank,

So this is a rough estimate right now. But Sean Manaya, another great start up against the Nationals. Seven innings, one run, six strikeouts. Spencer Arrogati, not as good here. He labored through five innings at the Padres. Five innings, two runs, three strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 102 pitches. But we know the second half overall has been pretty impressive here from Arrogetti.

What do you think? By yourself, Mania and Arrogati top 40 in 2025. So just where I have them currently ranked, Aragetti 33rd, Sean Maniah 42nd. So they're both right around there. Of course, that's with a bunch of injured pitchers getting pushed out. And maybe they'll both get pushed out at the top 40. Maybe when I do a deep dive on everybody in October,

I'll find out they deserve to be higher than I actually have them now. So I think it's a good over-under top 40 for these. to I am more likely to rank Spencer Araggetti in the top 40 than Mania, given that Mania. It's certainly possible he's having a late career breakout. We talked about after his last start, how this turnaround for him has lined up perfectly with this story about him watching Spencer, not Spencer, watching Chris Sale dominate the Mets lineup one day. and then saying, I'm going to lower my arm slot, my release point to look like Chris Sails. And he's just taken off. His fastball has been much better since then.

He's also changed up his changeup grip since then. Changed his change up grip since then. So there's reason to think Sean Menei is having a late career breakout. But it's not common for anybody to break out in his 30s. And I think you'll want to bake in a certain amount of regression wherever you rank him. So I'm going to buy it. Long story short, I'm going to buy it for Aragutti, barely, top 40. I'm going to sell it for Sean Minaya.

But they'll both be pretty close. All right. I wanted to put some numbers on Sean Mania. Last 10 starts, 249 ERA, 0.80 whip, 75 strikeouts over 65 innings. He has gone seven innings in six of those 10 starts and change up the pitch mix. He's completely got rid of his cutter. He's throwing his sinker more. and pretty cool feature that's now on fan graphs.

When you go through the game logs, you can choose Stuff Plus, so you can kind of look at different time frames and see has their Stuff Plus improved over a time period. And so during this 10-star stretch, Sean Mani has Stuff Plus on both his fastball and his sinker have jumped up a lot. So that seems to line up, Scott, with him changing his arm slot

and his fastball and sinker becoming more effective. Well, yeah, the Stuff Plus says that both of those pitches have been better. So just more of a reason to buy into Sean Mania if you choose to do so, heading into 2025. Next up, let's talk about Max Fried, who turned in a quality start up against the Dodgers, six innings, three runs, three walks with seven strikeouts,

and he does have a quality start in three of his last four outings. And he's pretty much back on track. Last six starts, 308, ERA, 105 whip, 36 strikeouts, over 38 innings. I know you had a bold prediction for Max Fried in that article you put out last week. By yourself, Max Fried will not be back with the Atlanta Braves.

Oh, we got a double negative going here. I buy that he will not be back with the Atlanta Braves because Freddie Freeman wasn't back with the Braves, Dansby Swanson wasn't back with the Braves. Generally, Alex Anthopoulos doesn't want to spend on the big ticket free agent item, even if he has a history

with this organization. And I would think even less so for a pitcher because they have inherent risks to them. And the bold prediction I gave for Max Fried actually was talking about those risks for him specifically, how he's just each of the last couple years he's had these forearm issues that have cost him some time. And he came back this year. and he just hasn't looked as sharp, three walks in this one. The control had been a little better prior to this one,

but it keeps coming back. He just doesn't look quite like the same guy. The results have been fine, but just not quite the same. And I wonder if something's going to show up in his medicals when he hits the open market that causes him to not get the big contract he's looking for. And that might be the scenario that brings him back to the Braves.

But absent all that, if I'm not making a bold prediction, I'm just making a normal, normal sized prediction. I'm going to buy that he will not be back with the Braves. I think so too. Typically, whenever the Braves have kept players around long term, they get those extensions done before they hit free agency.

And I know there was a lot of chatter between Freed and the Braves and they were trying to get something done, you know, the past couple of years. But it hasn't happened. So my guess is that it probably will not happen this offseason either. Next up, and hear me out on this one. Brenton Doyle will be drafted ahead of Brent Rooker in 2025. So Brent and Doyle, two steals here on Monday.

Had been slumping quite a bit, but overall this season, he's been very good. He's a top 40 player, 266 batting average, 22 homers, 80 runs, 29 steals, so he's got that power and speed. Brent Rooker, we spoke about extensively yesterday, he's going to be a very polarizing player for next year, and he actually hit his 38th home run here on Monday as well. somebody pointed this out to us on Twitter, Scott, which I did not realize. Brent Rooker, most likely, will not have outfield eligibility on CBS next season.

He's at 14 appearances, he's got to get to 20 by the end of the season. Just based on his playing time patterns, I don't really think that's going to happen. Not going to happen. So this makes it a little bit closer because you get Brent and Doyle who has outfield eligibility and Brent Rooker who's going to be Utsil only. So by yourself, Doyle will be drafted ahead of Brent Rooker. I mean, as much as the DH-only guys have been downgraded, you look at the year Marcel Ozuna was coming off of

and how late he went in drafts, like outside the top 125, I think. Yeah. Now, Marcel Ozuna had led us down in the past coming off big years, so I think part of that was safeguarding against that. We didn't want to be hurt again by Marcel Ozuna. but Brent Rooker has his own risks associated, just that, okay, here he is breaking out in his late 20s after the twins basically dumped him.

And how believable is that? The twins weren't the only team to dump him, right? Wasn't he with the Royals for a hot minute? I don't know. I don't know. But Brent Doyle was not, I'm sorry, not Brent Doyle. Brent Rooker. That's who I was talking about this whole time.

I don't know if I got the names mixed up and said the wrong one at the wrong time. Brent Rooker was originally a Twins prospect, and I think he went to the Royals or somebody like that before he wound up with the athletics, and he's in his late 20s. Two games with the Padres, 14 games with the Royals.

Okay, there you go. So a few organizations. He had become a journeyman, and then he lands with the athletics and becomes this fantasy stud. Okay. So he's DH-only. I guess I'm going to buy that.

I guess I'm going to buy that Brent and Doyle will be drafted ahead of Brent Brooker because of and only because of the DH only factor in the way those players get downgraded. That might make me more likely to draft oil. I don't know. You know, whoever takes Otani's not going to draft them. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And look, it depends on what type of league you play in because if you play on Yahoo, I think their position eligibility is much more liberal.

so you might only need 10 games played at a position the previous year. If that's the case, then Brent Rooker will have outfield eligibility. But as of now, it looks like he'll be DH only on CBS. Let's talk about Kyle Manzardo, who went one for three with the walk in his third home run in 13 games since returning to the Guardians. He's batting 3.78 with three home runs, 916 OPS, hitting the ball hard and putting it in the air a ton. Scott, by yourself, Kyle Manzardo will become a fixture in the Guardian.

line up next year and we'll hit 25 home runs. Oh, it's a double buy. I, aye, aye. I will sell it. I will sell it. He's got a difficult path to playing time as a first basement slash DH, and they already have a good one in Josh Naylor. And that's left-handed, so I'm not sure even if he becomes their primary DH, that he'll become an everyday DH.

and so that'll make it hard to get 25 home runs. I don't imagine I'm going to be particularly high on him heading into next year. He will make more of an impact next year than he made this year. It would be hard for him not to, and I think he's ready for more of an extended look in the majors. But I don't think Kyle Monsardo is going to be a huge impact player for fantasy next year. Do you have much interest for him the rest of this season? 22% roster? No, the playing time hasn't been consistent enough since returning.

Yeah. Kyle Manzardo has only started 10 of 15 games since being recalled by the Guardians. And last up, Reese Olson made his return here on Monday. It was not a very good one. He was at the Royals, two and a third innings, four runs allowed, only three strikeouts. But on the season, we've talked about him alone. He a lot. He missed some time with a shoulder injury.

Velocity was fine in this one. But overall, it's 20 starts for Reese Olson. a 350 ERA, a 121 whip. He gets ground balls. It's a good swinging strike rate. Scott, by herself. Reese Olson has strong sleeper appeal for 2025. Yeah, I like the profile a lot.

Obviously, this wasn't a great return Monday, and I can't imagine we're going to get them active outside of like AL-only leagues based on the way this first start back went. But it's got a couple swing and miss secondaries. Good ground ball rate, as you say. and I think sneaky upside here for Reese Olson. Yeah, a couple of those

secondaries have big whiff rates. You know, he throws like mid-90s with the fastball. It's a good park to pitch in in Detroit as well. So yeah, I can get behind Reese Olson as a sleeper next season as well. That's it for by yourself,

but while we're on 2025, I did just want to ask about these four pitchers because I'm pretty fascinated about where they might rank. I think they're all going to be like top 20-ish guys, but Pavel Lopez turned in another quality

start here. Yamamoto was limited to just four innings at the Braves, but he was solid, four shutout innings, three strikeouts. Paul Skeens, another quality start. I don't know, the pirates said they were going to limit Paul Skeens, and they had like an innings threshold. They didn't want him to reach,

but he's gone back-to-back quality starts, 98 plus pitches and three straight. I said it after his last start. My prediction for him is he has one start. left now. Rather, most pitchers have two left. I think he has just one left. And then he doesn't take that last turn through the rotation. So enjoy this two-star week for skeins. But maybe think twice about starting him. I don't know. If the pirates aren't talking like

they're going to shut him down after his next start, then fine. Go ahead and start him at week 27. But that's my prediction as of right now. And Shota Imanaga set a new season high in strikeouts, career high, obviously. Up against Oakland, six innings, two runs, a 11 strikeouts with 22 whiffs on 99 pitches. Scott, how do you think you're going to rank these four for next season? Pablo, Yamamoto, Skeens, Imanaga. As in like the order I rank them or where I'm ranking them generally? I guess both, but I was more so looking for like the order.

Okay, I think the order will be Yamamoto. No, I'm sorry. Skeens, obviously. I think Skeens will be my number three pitcher behind Terrick Scoobal and Zach Wheeler. So skeeens number one, then Yoshinobu Yamamoto, then Pablo Lopez,

and then Shora Imanaga. I might put I'ma ahead of Lopez. I have a feeling that when I really dig into I'm going to like a lot of what I see. And our worst fears for him weren't realized this year. So I think I'm going to surprise myself with how high I'm ranking him. And you may wonder, well, if you're saying you're going to surprise yourself with how high you rank him, how is it that you're going to surprise yourself? Sounds like you won't be surprising yourself.

But it may surprise you. Yeah, I think I agree skeins up at the top for sure. I think it's much closer between the next three. I think I might put Pablo ahead of Yamamoto just because I feel. safer about the innings, but if you're just talking per start production, yeah, I think Yamamoto is probably a more talented pitcher than, than Pablo Lopez.

Though, I mean, Lopez's second half has been great, you know, pretty much the pitcher you wanted him to be, and he got his ERA back below four. It was like mid-fives back in June, and now Pablo Lopez is all the way down to, what, a 384 ERA

on the season, which obviously you wanted better, but, you know, the whip is 115, it's lots of strikeouts, so Yeah, well, and the reason, so you were on the fence two or three for Pablo Lopez, and I was on the fence three or four among these four. And the reason I guess I'm being more of a downer about Lopez is because it's, I feel like we do this every year where it's like, oh, well, if you just take his final 18 starts or whatever it is. Yeah.

If he just does that for a whole season, how high is he going to rank? But he never does. he has those rough patches that inflate the ERA. So it's kind of like, it's kind of like Aeronola in that way where Pablo Lopez is never quite as good

as you want him to be and think he can be. I think that's all fair. And to be honest, I probably want one of Lopez, Yamamoto, or Iimanaga as an SP2 for next season. But if that's the case, I don't know.

Am I using two of my top four picks on a starting pitcher? than I don't know something to think about. You're not. You're not. You're not. You're not. You know, a little sneak peek here, a little peak behind the curtain. No, it's more of a sneak peek than a peek behind the curtain. It's a peak of some kind. I was going through the process of projecting my first two rounds for next year. And I got to tell you, Frank, the draft pool next year.

so loaded with hitters. To the point that I'm not sure Freddie Freeman is going to make my second round. If he does, it'll be like right on the verge. It'll be like two, three turn for Freddie Freeman. I can't remember the last time we ranked him that low. And, you know, that's not even considering like Austin Riley or Pete Alonzo or Matt Olson.

It's not considering a lot of those underachievers from this past year. And I'm only putting two pitchers at most. It's only going to be Scoobel and Wheeler in my top two rounds. I'm not sure they're both going to make the cut. So I can't imagine a scenario where I'm going two pitchers

with my first four picks just to bring it back around to what you were saying. Maybe somebody's going to zig while everyone else zags, but I think they're giving up a lot of hitter capital by doing that. I think as a whole for me, pitchers are going to be, the top tier of pitchers

is going to be pushed down to mostly going off the board in round four. And if everyone has a mindset like you, then you probably don't need to draft these guys in round three or four, right? They might last around four, five, six, something like that.

Probably not six, but like, you know, if you draft your first two pitchers in round four and five, like you start with three hitters and then, you know, you take a, Pablo Lopez and Imanaga, back-to-back rounds in round four or five. Like, maybe that can work out.

Maybe it'll be realistic to do something like that. But obviously we have all off-season to figure that out. And just to clarify for any industry types that are listening, when I'm referring to rounds, I'm saying 4-8-12 team league. Yeah.

Those industry types love their 15-teamers. And obviously, the calculation changes there a bit when you had three teams. Yep. Let's get into some leftovers from Monday's action. Three hitters, Danesby Swarner. As you mentioned, Scott continues to rake two for five with his 15th home run.

40 games since the start of August. He's bending 279. Six homers, 34 run scored, 10 steals, and an OPS over 800 for Danesby Swanson. Bryce Terang looks like he is back to running. Three straight multi-hit games with a stolen base in each. And he has bounced back in September after two very rough months in July and August. And Jirkson ProFar trying to finish strong here. 4-4 with his 23rd home run.

Previous 31 games before this for ProFAR, 204 batting average, three homers, three seals, and a 651 OPS. So was not pretty, but a big game here on Monday. Anything to add, Scott, on ProFar, Terang, and Swanson. Yeah, like we talked about earlier, Swanson's looked like Swanson since the start of August. And I've been saying all along as people were dropping him in some of the leagues I was playing in, that the underlying numbers look pretty much normal for Swanson

and it seemed like only a matter of time before he got things going again. It seems to have happened here and I think he's a fine play to close out the season. Obviously he's been re-added in enough leagues that he doesn't really qualify for a waiver-wire

discussion. But yeah, I think he's fine now. It is encouraging to see Terang bounce back a little bit in August because he had been very cold there for the middle stretch of the season. It's going to be an interesting one to rank.

I imagine he's going to be pretty high just because second base is so yucky. And pro far, yeah, it's been a much quieter second half than the first half, and I guess that's not totally unexpected. Yeah,

there's going to, be a lot of questions about him this offseason. For one thing, I don't believe he's under contract for next year, right? He was like a late signing for the Padres the spring. He's currently playing on a one-year, $1 million contract. I love how I laugh at that and like, you know, a million dollars is still a million dollars, right? It's just, you know, relative to all the other contracts and baseballs.

I'd like to be on a one-year, one-million-dollar contract. Likewise. Yeah. But yeah, no, I mean, the Padres love them. They keep bringing him back. You wouldn't think it'd be a good place for him to hit. It's not a good place for most hitters to hit, but he got a little time in Colorado last year, and that went horribly.

They probably will bring him back, I would imagine. Yeah, but you got to think there'll be some pretty big bids on Jerks and Pro Far. Padres might get in a bit of a bidding war. Will there, though, I don't know, 31 years old, clearly, like, is this the best season? of his career? Yeah, I mean,

best season of his career, wow. Him and Brent Rooker, holy, wow, that's so interesting. Two, like,

30-year-old dudes that are just having these random breakouts. Yeah, yeah. So, now that we've

stalled a little bit, I wanted to see, the second half numbers for pro far aren't as bad as I thought if we just sort it by second half.

He had a bad August, basically. The numbers for September are looking fine now. And the on-base percentage has remained high throughout, and that's obviously a number that front offices value a lot. So I'm not saying he's going to get a nine-figure deal. No, no, no. But I think there will be multiple bidders for ProFar this off-season.

Maybe. Maybe like a two- or three-year deal at like, I don't know, $8 to $10 million each. I could maybe see something like that happening for George's gonna go higher. I go higher. Yeah, all right.

I mean, he's gonna do pretty well. Some bullpen updates for the Guardians. Emmanuel Class A, struck out two for his 46th save for the Tigers, Jason Foley, struck out one for his 24th save. And for the Padres, Robert Suarez picked up his 33rd save.

And I love this trend in baseball, Scott, where awesome closers are getting these just great entrances in their, on their respective teams and stuff. Roberts Juarez is one of the coolest because they have the camera follows them in from the bullpen.

They have like this it's like a regga tone song that's like playing throughout the stadium and the lights are like blasting and it feels like it's like a club scene or something. It's awesome. This is really, really cool there for Roberts Wores.

So I hope more teams do it because I think it's really cool and it's good for the game. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday we have Albert Suarez who faces the Giants. Bobby Miller is. at the Marlins.

Tyler McGill gets the Nationals. Frankie Motos gets the Phillies. Lance Lynn gets the pirates. Griffin Canning, home against the White Sox. Well, I know when we were talking about Tuesday's streamables yesterday,

I said Griffin Canning against the White Sox. Little hesitant now. Got to watch out for Andrew Benintendantendi. I'm going to put Suarez ahead of them against the Giants, but I think Canning would still be my second choice.

If I was forced to stream, which most of you, hopefully in the championship game or semifinals, are not. Yes. You probably should not, but with that being said, I would go Suarez,

Tyler McGill, and then Canning. Bobby Miller is a wild card, man. If you want to risk it at Miami, I think it could work out with lots of strikeouts. It also could blow up in your face. So, let's keep out of mind.

Yeah, I am wary of doing that. On Wednesday, we have Cody Bradford facing the Blue Jays, Jose Cantana facing the Nationals. DJ Hers is at the Mets, landed NAC at the Marlins. Dean Kramer faces the Giants. Javier Assad faces the A's. I like NAC against the Marlins more than I like Bobby Miller.

I know it didn't go well for him against the Braves, but he has that sort of profile, knack does wear as long as he keeps it in the park as long as home runs aren't what brings him down he should have a pretty good start and it's not like the marlins are flush with power hitters so i think that might go okay dean kramer against the giants i probably like that even more do i like it more yeah he's been pitching well lately uh hers is fine but you're almost certainly not going to get a quality start if that matters to you and cantana against the nationals could be okay not thrilled with any of them but i could see starting any of those four cody bradford's cut i think he's at

the top oh yeah you're right cody bradford against the blue jays is at the top i agree yeah i would probably go cody bradford at the top followed by dean kramer and then land in knack and hose contana i think all four in play i think they're all fine let's wrap up here with team name tuesday and this first couple are from Spencer, I beg your perdomo. All right. Fermanent vacation.

Is that Fermanent? Freminent? Oh. Wow. This is some obscure players here from Spencer. Let's get down to Brash Nax.

There's another one for you. Gialito Bit. Golito bit. Golito bit of your love to me. I don't know I'm probably supposed to be singing that or something Probably Yeah do you know what it is

No I'm not I'm not detecting the tune here Geolito bit Geolito bit of your love to a little bit Oh yeah that's probably it Geo little bit of your love to me Is that it? There you go Yeah There you go Scott

Who needs Chris we got Scott These are from Ben Fott Cotor Okay Rhinestone cowboy It R-H-Y Who is this? Who is this referring to?

I don't know, maybe it's supposed to just be R-Y-N-E And in stone You get like Ryan Nelson and Gavin Stone in there Lion-Sone cowboy Lordus of Darkness Sure Bosniaks All right

Shiner Bach Okay Duke Mukum Okay Bedtime for Bosno All right And Nightmare before

Coreamus Yeah It's kind of a reach there This one's from Adam Player Hater's Ball Did you ever watch a Chappelle show, Scott? I have caught skits

I've caught glimpses of skits. If you've never watched the player haters ball, please after this episode, go watch the player hater's ball. It's so good. From Oliver, nine circles of Snell. Oh, boy. Spooky. From Izzo, Class A, Freddie Blassie,

who is a former wrestler and manager, old school. All right. And a bunch from Tyler. Were you saying Wu or Wu earns? Mm-hmm. Stone Cutters Sure, those are both Simpsons

references Wheels and the Breggman I don't know why I said it like that Wheels and the Breggman Yeah It says it's from American Dad I haven't really watched it show No, me neither

It's Hancock now I don't know that one either From Family Guy, yeah I've seen like Family Guy sporadically I haven't watched it you know, a ton throughout my life, which is no surprise.

It was that damn passquatch. All right. Have you seen my Weamer? Okay. A song of ice and fire. I think we've actually had that one before. Not that it can't be used again. Yeah, it's a pretty good one.

Because that is, who is it? I think it's JP Fire Aison. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah. A song of fire, Ison. I think we've had that used before. Yeah.

Staddy doesn't know. Sure. Why not? Didn't I recommend Euro Trip and you hated it? Well, yes. To be fair. To be fair, I didn't expect to like it. But I had had the song from Euro Trip

sung to me enough times over the decade. Gades that I thought, you know, I just need to see what this is all about. Yeah. Yeah. I watched it a lot back in high school, but not a lot since. So maybe it doesn't hold up as well. I don't know. I'll have to rewatch it.

Service time manipulation. Spell like Scott's service. Yeah. That's not bad. Keep Nolan, Nolan, Nolan. Why not? I'll bet it was the Diaz brothers. Okay.

I'll be's your crying shoulder Sure No I mean actually That's not bad Works well Obviously not my singing But you know just a team name Brian and the boss

Tink 182 Like Tink Kents Yeah And yo Kero Taco Bell Was this like a Josh Bell thing? No no no I think this is like Edgar Caro The prospect.

Oh. Okay, sure. Coming soon next year? White Sox catcher? Well, I guess there's Jefferson Carroll. Yeah, no, he's had a good year. Jefferson Caro, too. This is a Brewers Catcher Prospect.

A couple of caros. Yeah. I never thought of using their name that way. But it works. Sure. Bring back the Chihuahua. Why not? All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bo-ba! Whoa! Whoa! I don't know what just happened there. Bad omen. Whoa.

That is the first time the bye-bye's been interrupted in... Oh, my gosh. Five years. Four years? Four full seasons. Wow. I don't even want to say it now. I feel like I can't end it. Gosh, we'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

Thank you.