Fantasy Baseball Today - REVENGE Games, Injury Replacements & Manaea's Return! (7/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 14, 2025

Kyle Stowers and Cody Bellinger got their revenge this weekend (3:42). ... Julio Rodriguez had a monster weekend (9:32). ... Chase Burns turned in the first QS of his career (13:29). ... News (17:10): Austin Riley and Brandon Lowe both went on the IL. ... Jacob Misiorowski is an All-Star plus who will win the HR Derby (30:03)? ... Who was the Dog of the Weekend (34:33)? ... We got some impressive performances from Garrett Crochet, Eury Perez and Brandon Woodruff (39:00). ... Stanton is turning up the power (44:58). ... There were a bunch of waiver wire pitchers from the weekend (48:52). ... Kodai Senga and Sean Manaea returned to the Mets (59:39). ... We wrap up with leftovers and bullpen updates (1:03:04). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 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. And first pitch, Rishing. 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. And just like that, the first half is in the books.

Welcome in, it's on Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 14th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Chris Towers and The Returning. Scott White. Today on the show, we have more injuries. You need replacements. The Mets finally got some pitchers back. We'll talk waiver wire ads and much more. Scott, you are back. I am. How was vacation? Are you revitalized? It was good. It was good. People may wonder what people who live in Florida, where they go on vacation. And the answer is they go to the beach. So we went to the beach on the far opposite end of Florida as far to the opposite end of Florida as you could get like it's a 12-hour drive to get there the Alabama part of Florida is too big it's it really is and uh you know we went to the beach for a full week and it was nice saw some dolphins saw some blue angels got a nice little tan going though I'm not sure it may have already faded by now I can see it but yeah it's good It was a good time.

All right. Well, it's good to have you back and, you know, refreshed, I guess, for the second half. We got you back and we'll have some fun this week. There's no games going on, but All-Star Break. And so we'll get into some different things this week. Anywho, let's jump into this weekend's recap. All right, players of the weekend. And we will start with Chris, you're up.

I mean, I got to go with the big revenge game, one of several big revenge games. from this weekend, but the only one that was from my Miami Marlins. Did you, Kyle Stowers? Oh, oh, am I supposed to play the sound like that? Well, I thought you had a drop. I do, I do. Kyle Stowers. I will have my vengeance.

There you go. In this life or the next. Yes. What he said? A movie I've actually seen. How about that? Yeah, good movie. Kyle Stowers.

Maximus? Yeah, that's his name, yeah. He went all Maximus on the Baltimore. Orioles five hits three home runs it was actually very funny he homered in his first three uh played appearances of the game and the next two at bats he only got a single and you could tell he was disappointed he was hearing it from the bench it was a fun moment uh yeah he he had a stretch from about mid may until mid june it was about exactly one month where i think he didn't hit a single homer and it was kind of one of those situations where it seemed like, okay, well, that was fun for Kyle Stowers,

but I think we can move on now. He was hot to start the season, but he got figured out, and he's been awesome ever since. And I believe Stowers does not have a single month this season with an OPS below like 780, which is pretty, it hasn't, doesn't have a month with an OPS below 800 actually. I wonder how many players you could actually say that about in the majors right now. And obviously Stowers right now is red hot. Six homers so far in July, 1290 OPS. And you look at the underlying data. And he strikes out a lot. There's a lot of swing and miss in his game. But he is hitting the ball more than hard enough to make up for it right now. And I don't know. I don't think he's as good as he's been. I don't think he's a 35 homer guy. But I think I think

Kyle Stowers probably just has to be rostered in every format, right? I mean, at the very least, you've got to say with this second act that the breakout is legit. So last 20 games now, 381-9 home runs. Like, that was better than he was doing

even when he was hot at the start of the year. I think the most frustrating thing about Kyle Stowers is he sat twice earlier this week, back-to-back days, because the Marley, Marlins were, it was left-handers both of those days. Now, he did play against the third left-hander at the Marlins face this week, and it hasn't been a strict platoon situation with Stowers.

But I should hope that, look, he's their All-Star. He's going to be there on Tuesday in Atlanta, and I should hope that this latest surge convinces them, okay, this is just the anchor of our lineup. We need to keep him. He's batting 303 against left. No home runs, but he's hitting lefties better than most left-handed batters do, frankly. Yeah, the thing for me is just you got to find out.

Yeah. You know, like, I think it's reasonable to assume that Kyle Stowers isn't good enough against lefties to justify playing. But neither are any of the guys they're going to play instead of him. You know, it's not like the Marlins have some great bench that they're missing out on. So take the next two and a half months and just see if Kyle Stowers can, be a legit everyday player. That's what this whole season's supposed to be about for a team like the Marlins.

So I would hope that that's what they do. How would you guys rank these three? I would call them mostly strongside platoon bats for their respective teams. Stowers, Addison Barger, and Josh Lowe. I think I would go Stowers Low, Barger. Yeah, I guess so. I think, I still think

Barger has the most upside of that group, maybe not for Roto because low with the stolen bases, that gives them just kind of a different level of upside. I'm not that I don't think my views on them diverge

enough that I'm going to go against the one who's performing the best right now, you know? So, yeah, it's ours. Yeah, I mean, we're getting questions right now just to rank all these awesome outfielders because again, it has been a pretty plentiful position. I mean, there are names that I've even moved up over 80% rostered now that I'm not even mentioning.

Guys like Jerks and ProFar and Spencer Steer continues to hit and Saddam Rafael is on fire right now. So I think maybe those, at least in the eyes of people who play on CBS, have moved ahead of that group that we just talked about because they're all rostered in over 80% of CBS leagues right now. All right, I wanted to quickly mention while we're talking about revenge. Get this one out of the way. Cody Bellinger on Friday, boom, same thing against the Cubs. three homers, six RBI. Honestly, could have had a fourth home run in that game.

It was robbed by Kyle Tucker. So awesome season, awesome game here for Bellinger. You know, all of a sudden, he's hitting 280, 16 home runs, nine steals, 8.30 OPS. It has been a very strong season for Bellinger here in New York. So I wanted to point out with him, Chris had that stat about Stowers with the OPS over 800 every month. Bellinger's hit over 300 in May and June and now in July. So, you know, April was terrible for him, but otherwise it's going exactly as we could have hoped for.

And he's basically looking like a stud again. Yeah, and I think it makes sense too because apparently back in April he was dealing with like a back thing. I think he tweaked his back early on in the season. He had the great spring training, then the slow start, mostly related to the back, I would imagine. And then boom, as he gets healthy, stuff. starts to take off here with the Yankees. So all around next season here from Cody Bellinger.

It hasn't been the best season for Julio Rodriguez, but Scott, it was an awesome weekend. Maybe it could carry over into the second half. Yeah, Julio Rodriguez is the sort of player that we have very little reason to talk about during the season because he's drafted universally, of course, and very high and like, what are you going to do with him? No matter how he's performing,

what are you going to do with them, but just leave him in your lineup and hope for the best? But it had been pretty bad. He entered this weekend with an OPS of, it wasn't 700. It was $687 coming into the weekend. Decent number of homers, plenty of steals. So that made it not as bad as a 687 OPS would normally be. But all of a sudden, now his OPS is verging on 750

heading into the All-Star break because he homered in each of the three games over the weekend with six for 12 overall at two steals too. So a couple socks and shoes over the weekend. And it just feels like we are gearing up to have the usual second-half surge

from Julio Rodriguez. And you look at the data for him. It's really not that far off from any other year of his career. In fact, the strikeout, rate that that's probably the biggest change and it's down he's striking out a lot less the

pole air rate has been a little lower it's never been amazing for him but it's not so far off that it's like oh goodness and I don't see how Julio Rodriguez is going to recover from this I think this weekend was the start of it he's going to be participating in the all-star game

himself I don't think he's dropped out he was kind of a surprise for some people that he even made the team with the 687 OPS heading into the weekend but It feels a little more deserved now with this final weekend heading into the All-Star break. And I think I'm actually putting together, by the time you're listening to this, it may be up on the side already, redrafting the first two rounds for the second half.

And I will say Julio Rodriguez is firmly within that first two-round redraft. Oh, man. The YouTube commenters are not going to like that one, Scott. Yeah, the thing for me, this. year. I mean, look, the power has been disappointing for sure, although less so than last year. And the biggest difference for Julio Rodriguez so far this season is just the BABIP is way lower than it's ever been. He's consistently been 345 throughout his career. It's 334 his career now, 345, 330, 344. And then it's down to 293, which is below average or right around.

average for the league but significantly below average for a player like Julio so that's one where you know we have all the advanced stats and and everything and you know when i started this job 10 11 years ago it was a lot of like babbip you know he's got a low babbip and we we didn't really have like the nuance to talk about it beyond that but this does feel like one of those cases where it mostly seems to just be a little bit of bad luck in terms of the the number of hits falling in and you know, again, the power looks a lot better after this weekend. He's up to like a 24th Homer pace. I would guess he still ends up around 30.

It's going to be around 30 stolen bases too. I've moved Julio down, but like, man, the way people talk about him sometimes, I feel like people just forget that, no, he was actually really, really good. And last year is the first year he wasn't, like a top 20 player in fantasy. And let's talk about my player of the weekend. That is Chase Burns, who had the first quality start of his career. Of course, he did it against the Rocky, so a pretty nice landing spot here. Six innings, two runs, 10 strikeouts to three walks, had 15 whiffs on 95 pitches,

had his main two pitches working here, the fastball, the slider, had seven plus wiffs on each of those, limited the hard contact. And just nice to see him get back on track here in a good matchup against the Rockies. but the first three matchups he faced to start his career, Yankees, Red Sox, who, you know, we assumed at the time, all right, that's a pretty easy matchup after they traded Devers. But lo and behold, their lineup is one of the hottest so far in the month of July. And then the Phillies. So pretty tough matchups there, but a nice bounce back here for Chase Burns. So in case anybody was thinking about dropping, which you shouldn't have done, it's going to take a little bit of time here.

There's still a ton of potential for somebody like Chase Burns. I'm not saying he's a must-star pitcher every single time out, but I think there will be a lot of starts that more starts that we are using him than not in the second half this season. I still think. I know Jacob Mizirowski has been much better. I think Chase Burns is the better talent. I think in the long run, he's going to be the better pitcher. And I don't think there's very much difference between the two of them.

If anything, Chase Burns has more present swing and miss stuff. And so I remain very, very excited about Chase Burns. I think it will be must start before the season ends. I think we'll think of them that way. I think so. All right. Well, let's move on here before we hit our first break. Just a reminder that we will have a bit of a different programming schedule this week.

We'll not go live as late as we normally do because there's no reason to do that. So hopefully we're going live around, I don't know, 9, 10 p.m. Eastern Time, something like. that. We will do a redrafting the first two rounds for the rest of the season. We've got some other fun stuff coming up as well. Big thanks to those watching us live on YouTube. Make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. All right, welcome back in fantasy baseball today. And let's run through the news and notes. We did get quite a few injuries this weekend. And unfortunately, Scott, another one for your Atlanta Braves, man. I am sorry.

Austin Riley placed in the aisle with a right abdominal strain. Nacho Alvarez Jr. was recalled by the Braves to take his spot in the meantime. Now, Riley is eligible to return early in the second half. Abdominal strain, my guess is it's going to take a little bit longer than that. So we're in need of some replacements here. I think two names in shallower formats that stood out to me most this weekend, Nelvi Marte and Zach McKinjee, who just continues to play well. there's a little bit of pop, solid batting average.

He's running a lot more lately. Who do you guys like between the two, Marte and McKinthry? They feel like the obvious third base ads right now. I guess and Addison Barger. Yeah, Addison Barger is what I was going to say. I guess he's a little more rostered at 74%. I do think it's a close call between him and Noel V. Marte. He's looked great since coming back and look great before he went on the IL too.

And starting to recapture. that hype he had heading into last year, the year that got wrecked, of course, mainly by the PED suspension. But he was, he's been a, he was a top prospect from the time he was 17 years old in the Mariners organization, had a very strong debut two years ago and is starting to perform like that again. So I think Noel V. Marte, regardless of whether or not you need third base help, he's a prime ad from this weekend. How would you rank those three, Scott, between Barger, Marte, and McKinstree? I guess I'll give the edge to Marte over Barger, actually,

just because I think the playing time is a little more secure, especially now that Christian and Carnaccio Strand has been sent down to the miners. McKinstery, I don't really buy the talent for McKinstry. He has managed to keep it going all season to the point he's an All-Star, too. And he does have a little bit of speed there. But his exit velocities are some of the lowest in the game. And, you know, I think, I think if you're using him, it's fine, but you kind of feel like you're getting away with something.

I would not be adding him over anyone who I think has real upside. And I think Marta and Barger both do. McKinstree, this feels like last year, like Josh Smith was hitting 293 at the All-Star break last year. Alec Berlinson was hitting 288. Like those guys both ended up in like the 260-ish range. Overall, so that means they hit a lot worse than that in the second time. I have no real faith in McKinstree keeping this up. If you do need a third base replacement in deeper leagues,

Brady House of the Nationals is quietly holding his own so far, three for four with a double dong on Saturday. He's sitting 258. He's got two homers, two steals, playing every day, 26% rostered. So he's a name that you can look at there. He is my replacement for Riley and a couple of 15 teamers. Yep. Next up, Brandon Lau was placed in the IL with left oblique tightness retroactive to July 8th.

He's another one that technically could return Friday for that first day of the second half. Not exactly sure it's going to play out that way. If you need replacements heading into the weekend, I think the two obvious names are probably the Marlins guys. They both have second base eligibility, Xavier Edwards and Otto Lopez. Who do you guys prefer between those two? I kind of want to say Otto Lopez. I think that's a fine answer. I mean, he had another strong weekend this weekend.

Yeah. He's been odd for a while. I think the all-around skill sets just a little stronger there, where Edwards is a good source of batting average and a good source of stolen bases, although not as much of an outlier as we had hoped in either regard. And I'm not sure Edwards is probably a better source of batting average than Lopez. But he's he's hitting over 320 for his second straight month Edwards that makes but he's not running he's not running as much as nearly as much as we hope do

Whereas Lopez already has 11 homers and 10 steals yeah and I think that two 50 batting average is a fluke his XBA is actually 291 Now he maybe he just doesn't hit that well he was I guess he hit right at his XBA last year So I kind of expect both to hit like 275, 285 the rest of the way. Maybe you give Edwards the edge on the batting average, but I think the rest of the production is going to be in Otto Lopez's favor. I would go Edwards, but it is a close call. I feel like Edwards maybe has a little more to gain while Lopez has a little more to lose. even, you know, Lopez has been better so far,

but I see them trending in opposite directions, but it's a close call. Yep. And some names in slightly deeper leagues. Jorge Polanco looks like he's picking things back up. He's 51% rostered. And then somebody even lower down, Tyler Freeman, who we've talked a lot about over the past couple of weeks. He's been leading off for the Rockies,

batting average, speed there, and he is only 41%. So all types of... I really like what Tyler Freeman's doing this season. Yeah. He's making a lot of contact, lots of line drives. He feels like he could be Luis Arias, but with 30 plus steals, the way he's playing right now in Colorado. Like, I don't, I think Luis Arias is a better contact hitter, but with the help, of course, field, he might be that big of an outlier in batting average. So he might be, he might be what we hoped Xavier Edwards was.

Sure, yeah. Yeah, that could be the case. Max Fried left Saturday start early due to a blister on his left index finger, but it sounds like he is improving thus far. Edward Cabrera left Friday with posterior elbow discomfort, and MRI revealed no structural damage. Sounds like he's not going to go on the IL, but obviously terrible timing.

The Marlins are trying to cash in and trade Edward Cabrera. Now he's dealing with his injury, and he was playing well for fantasy, so just kind of bad timing all around. Yvonne Herrera was reinstated on Sunday and he started at DH. He was also seen taking some reps in the outfield recently. So could maybe gain that eligibility? Chris, I think you brought this up.

We need, is it, three more games? Six more at Catcher. Six more from Herrera at Catcher in the second half so that he has eligibility next season for Catcher. Because if he's, even if he, I think it's extremely unlikely he plays 20 games in the outfield, but even if he did, the bar's a lot higher to be fantasy relevant in outfield than it is for catcher. So I really, really, really hope he doesn't put his catcher equipment away and gets six more appearances

because that would be a real bummer if he was not catcher eligible next season. It would kind of, I don't know, he might be like the last two seasons, he has been a good enough hitter to matter at any position. But I'm not sure I buy that he's actually like an 860 OPS guy or whatever it is. So, you know, the bar is just a lot higher at Alfield or especially DH. O'Neill Cruz was out of the lineup Sunday due to a hip flexor injury, but as far as I know, he's still in the home run derby, so I don't think it's that big of a deal.

Marcel Ozuna has sat out three of the past seven games, and remember, back in early June, it was announced he was playing through that hip injury, and since that point, he's batting just 182 with four homers and a 577 OPS. There have been some rumblings that, you know, maybe the break. will listen on a Marcel Ozuna trade. He is a pending free agent. 95% rostered, 59% started at this point. I know I've asked you guys before,

but now that he's actually starting to lose playing time as well, I'm not saying we're dropping Ozuna, but I think I'm a little bit more open to benching him at this point. I want to see what it looks like coming out of the second half. Getting a week off or whatever it's going to end up being, hopefully that helps him a lot more than most. I think he really needs it. And he did Homer twice in the past week.

And the most recent one, I think it was like a 420 footer. It wasn't a cheapie. So that was encouraging. I mean, part of it's just Sean Murphy's been so hot, but they don't want to take Drake Baldwin out of the lineup. So, okay,

we'll give Azuna some extra rest so we can get both catchers in. It's funny. Oh, they'll listen to offers on Ozuna. I can't imagine they're going to get that. could have an offer for a broken full-time DH who is in the final year of his contract. I mean, what could they possibly get a value for that? Maybe if they eat whatever's left on the contract, I would assume it's like $5 to $7 million. But yeah, they're just not likely to get very much.

It might be more likely that they trade Sean Murphy, Scott. Do you think that's a possibility? I think that's the most likely of the Braves to get. get traded. I guess bullpen pieces could potentially be moved. But yeah, I don't, I don't really see them, I don't know, like Ozuna as part of a bigger deal possibly, but I don't think he's much of an attraction on his own. Adley Ruchman is scheduled to continue his rehab into the second half, so perhaps he can return in late July. Jeremy Pena hit in an indoor cage and did light on field work on

Saturday. He's hoping to be back shortly after the All-Star break as well. Nolan Aronado was removed Friday with a sprained right index finger. He missed Saturday and Sunday, too. And yeah, he's been dealing with this injury off and on, so it's been kind of annoying there for Aronado. Aaronnola threw a 40-pitch bullpen on Saturday. He's scheduled to also throw Tuesday and then next Saturday. Again, the expectation is that he'll rejoin the Phillies rotation in early to mid-August. Lars Neupar was place in the aisle with a left side entry. He's been dealing with like a side rib thing for a while now as well.

Luis Heel made his first rehab start at AA on Sunday. He recorded six strikeouts and allowed one run over three and a third innings. He drew 72% of his pitches for strikes and the fastball topped out at 97 miles per hour. With Alex Breggman back with the Red Sox Marcelo Meyer will get the vast majority of playing time at second base moving forward.

Christian Encarnasseh on Strand was demoted to the minors with Jake Frailey activated. Zebby Matthews began a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday. 29% rostered any interest in stashing a Zebby Matthews. A lot. Yeah. His velocity was there and his first start back from the shoulder injury. It's possible he'll be back to open the second half.

It's not like the twins have a good reason to not have him in the rotation. So I think he's going to be back soon. And that rehab start for no-hit innings with 9. strikeouts. All right. Let's go. Fire it up. Zubby Matthews.

Tyro Estrada has missed five straight with a jammed thumb. The A's, excuse me, reinstated Luis Arias and option Zach Geloff back to AAA. Red Sox pitcher Hunter Dobbins suffered a torn ACL in his start on Friday night. If you're wondering why the Guardians

haven't promoted outfield prospect Chase DeLauder, it's, he hasn't played since Friday at AAA due to right wrist soreness. They waited too long. You got hurt again. I mean, at least it's not his foot. I mean, his foot has had so many different injuries, but yeah, it's not great.

Others who went on the aisle this weekend, Connor Normandy with left wrist inflammation, Jake Myers with a right calf strain, Jesse Winker with back inflammation. A few other notes here, the MLB draft took place Sunday, and if I'm being completely honest, I don't know much about it at all, but the top five picks were Eli Willits, a high school shortstop to the nationals, Tyler Bremner, a couple of, college starting pitcher to the Angels, and apparently he's someone that could be a pretty fast mover. No surprise, the Angels took him. Cade Anderson, a college pitcher to the Mariners, Ethan Holiday, Matt Holliday's other son, drafted by the Rockies. I mean, how cool was that? There was a picture

going around of Matt Holliday while on the Rockies carrying around his baby Ethan wearing Rocky's attire, and now he's on the Rockies himself. It's pretty awesome stuff there. And then Liam Doyle, a college pitcher, was also drafted by the Cardinals. I, I think we're going to try and do a podcast dedicated to the MLB draft and prospect stuff later on this week, but TBD. We'll see what happens. And some All-Star controversy, Jacob Mizirowski was named to the NL All-Star team after just five starts, which is cool for him. I mean, it's an amazing accomplishment. But for him to get in over a Christopher Sanchez or Ranger Suarez, that's not cool.

Those guys are clearly more deserving. I think Christopher Sanchez ended up making it too. from what I saw so but but I think Mizirowski got in ahead of those two guys yeah the explanation uh at least from MLB's side was that they asked Ranger Suarez and Christopher Sanchez and one other pitcher if they were willing to pitch in the game that was the that was the deciding factor and they said they were not um and that was why Mizirowski got picked and then Swarer's is a or Sanchez's agent came out and said that he would have been willing to pitch. He had a $200,000 or $50,000 roster bonus if he made the All-Star game.

The Phillies are giving him that bonus anyway. But I just, I saw a lot of like, oh, they picked Jacob Mizziarovsky over Christopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. And it's like, well, that might not actually be what happened. So I guess that's what I saw just that Christopher Sanchez was getting the bonus for making the all. team, which I didn't know it was that much of a negotiation naming All-Star replacements. I assumed they just went. Look, I kind of gotten confused about how All-Star selections works since they switched it. When I grew up, it was fans picked the starting lineup.

The manager picks everybody else. Yeah. And that was nice and clean. But now there's this whole complicated voting rubric. And I thought they just pulled the next name from the voting. as the replacement. When I was, I was kind of surprised

Shwellyn, but Bach wasn't named as a replacement. And then, of course, he would get replaced also. But I guess that explains how. My thing is, if you're willing to ask a pitcher,

because they had the rule that, like, if you pitch on the Sunday before the game, you're not eligible to pitch in the game or something like that, or you have to get, like, a waiver from the team, something like that. And that's part of the calculation as well. But, like,

if you're willing to ask the pitcher, would you be willing to pitch and we will name you an all-star and then they say no, just name them an all-star and then say, but they're not going to participate. Like who cares?

Right. And then right? It doesn't ultimately matter anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to see Jacob Izir-Raski in the All-Star game. I totally get that. I think that's going to be awesome.

So I don't really care. I'm excited to see him as well. It's just I saw Phillies, teammates, quotes kind of just angry about, you know, Sanchez and Suarez not being, getting into the game.

And, you know, from their perspective, I totally understand. I get that. Those guys have been awesome for a majority of the season. Mizirowski just got called up last month. But, you know, I would like to see him pitch too. I think that'll be a ton of fun. Speaking of All-Star Week, Home Run Derby is here on Monday night. And who is your pick?

Here is who is participating in order of their betting odds. Cow Raleigh, O'Neill Cruz, James Wood, Matt Olson, Brent Rooker, Byron Bucson, Janusz Chish Chishol, and Junior Cameraro. who you got in the home run derby. I'm going with the long shot. Caminero, huh? The guy who leads Major League Baseball and Bat Speed, I think Camerro is the best pick here.

I was about to give you the live rendition, but that's okay. You know, I'm wearing the Matlanta shirt today. I'll be the Homer and pick Matt Olson. I never pick right anyway, so. Yeah, I mean, the Homebush Derby is a car. They didn't realize they, did they replace Ronald Ocuni with Matt Olson? Yeah, I think it's because he's, he's dealing with like a back or something like that. It's a back thing, yeah.

So. I will say, Byron Buxton, that's who I'm rooting for. That's my heart's pick for sure. Yeah, bad job by me. I should have mentioned that up top. I mean, the fact that he went five for five with his cycle this weekend on his bobblehead day, just boom, exclamation point on a ridiculous first half here for Byron Buckson. So I'm going to take the low-hanging fruit. I'll take Cal Raleigh.

I'm going to take the favorite. I think he's going to get it done. All right, we do have ourselves a new segment here. It's called The Dog of the Week. We're going to be doing this twice per week where we talk about an underperforming player. We have a little bit of fun with it. But Chris, I'll let you take it away. And today, the Dog of the Week is, this guy just can't figure it out.

It's Zach Gallen. The Dog of the Season. We buried him three starts ago. And he comes out and has, what, 19? 19 strikeouts combined in his next two starts. He looks back. The curveball's awesome. And then he gives up six runs in five innings against the Angels.

Only three strikeouts in five innings against the Angels. Zach, do we have to start singing dust in the wind again? I can do it. I know that song. It's what's going on with Zach Allen, guys? I don't know, man. You brought this up. I think last time or two times out.

that maybe he just goes as his curve goes, and his curve had nothing in this start. It had zero whiffs, 14% CSW. He could not throw it in the zone. I'm honestly rooting for a trade at this point. I wonder if just a change of scenery can help Zach Gallen get back on track. You know, I did see Lance Proustowski in one of his recent newsletters.

If you don't subscribe to Lance Pratowski's newsletter, you are missing out. It's great. He sends it, I think, every single day with notes on like three pitchers from every day. and he mentioned something about like the Diamondbacks being probably one of the worst teams organizationally right now in terms of like pitch development and like finishing off their pitchers you know all the stuff that we talk about like the Mets doing really well the Diamondbacks seem to be on the opposite end of the spectrum and you know it's you kind of see it with Gallin where he just

has had no answers this season. It sounded like he was already a finisher. product though, right? I mean, yeah. Right. But now that he seems to have lost it and they just have not seem to have an answer for it. I will point out the previous couple of starts,

you know, you mentioned he wasn't throwing his strike, his curveball on the zone in this one. I think it was 36% zone rate. Well, the previous two starts, I think it was like 25% or something. It was really low. It was just, it was working for him. He actually was, he

was generating the chases that he needed to. So he was able to make that make that change and make that work for him. So it's not necessarily that Gallin needs to be able to throw the curve ball in the zone. He just needs to be able to throw the fastball high and then get the curve ball under the zone. And he has not been able to do it. And it's been really tough for him. And that's why he's the dog of the week.

All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll get into some other great pitching performances from the weekend, some waiver ads, all that fun stuff, and we will do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Some really great pitching performances that I just felt like we needed to get to before the end of the podcast. So quickly run through these.

Garrett Crochet, masterful, once again, against Tampa Bay. His first complete game, first shutout of his career, where he allowed just three hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts, with 14 whiffs on 100 pitches. And this is the third time Crochet has gone at least eight innings this season. he leads baseball with a hundred twenty-nine and a third innings, which, Scott, if you told me that coming into the season, I would have laughed at you.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's, I hear you on that. That was probably the biggest concern for crochet coming in, obviously in the second half last year, the White Sox, uh, kind of pioneered a new method of managing pitcher innings where they kept letting them start, but not even going the minimum them for a win ever.

So they really were careful controlling his workload. And I guess the Red Sox are reaping the benefits now. You wonder at some point if it would be wise maybe to, you know, dial it back a little bit, maybe preserve some again. So there's not this huge jump from one near to the next, but they're right in the thick of the playoff race again with their 10 game. Now they are, yeah. So I don't know how plausible that is.

Next up we have Yuri Perez who looks like it is happening. It's coming together right now at the Orioles. Seven shutout innings just three hits, zero walk, six strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 84 pitches, 11 of those on the fastball. He really leaned on that pitch and it was awesome for him here. Last three starts for Perez, 18 innings, one run, 21 strikeouts to one walk. Chris, it looks like it's happening and it kind of feels like Yuri Perez is just a must-star pitcher now. And the fascinating thing about this one, and they were talking about it all throughout the broadcast, is just the fastball was so good that he kind of didn't need anything else.

He had 64% fastball usage, 11 whiffs on 33 swings. The fastball was overwhelming. The rest of the arsenal still seems like it's catching up. The slider's been very good for the most part this season. He threw that, what, 11 times today, something like that? Yeah, 11 times. Two whiffs. the whiff rate up to about 35% with that one.

Everything else, not where it was in 2023, especially the curveball. He's mixing in this new sweeper as well. And it all seems like he's still searching. And yet that's what? Three quality starts in a row or three good starts in a row. He's got 21 strikeouts to one walk over 18 innings with one earned run allowed in the month of July. Six hits allowed in those 18 innings. He, there are some things that Yuri Perez does not do well.

He gives up a ton of balls in the air. So there are going to be Homer issues here, but he also gets a ton of pop-ups, a ton of weak fly balls. And that's going to, you know, you look at the six hits allowed in 18 innings. And it's like, well, that's, that's too low. Well, there's going to be stretches like that when you, when you pitch to fly balls and get strikeouts the way he does. So it could work. And I will just always point out he just turned 22. There might be someone drafted yesterday who was older than him.

I haven't checked yet, but it's possible because he turned 22 three months ago. Like this kid is outrageously talented and he was always going to figure out at some point. All right. Let's talk about Brandon Woodruff, who had himself a mixed start. this weekend, but look, 10 strikeouts to zero walks. He went four and a third innings. He allowed two runs here. 13 whiffs on 81 pitches.

Did allow some hard contact here. Velocity down across the board. So maybe just not amped up as much as he was in that first outing. But Scott, I wanted to give you the chance to talk about Woodruff because you weren't here last week when he made his debut, when he looked awesome. And then this one, he comes out and he gets 10 more strikeouts to zero walks. So where are you at on Woodruff? I moved him up to SP 53 last week.

following that first start. Yeah, I mean, this was a pretty awesome start, 10 strikeouts and four in a third innings. You're getting more than two strikeouts per inning while walking nobody. So, like, it's obviously gone a lot better than I expected it to, just the amount of strikeouts he's been getting despite losing three miles per hour on his fastball. I mean, I kind of feel bad about it about how much I was talking of down, but his fastball was down three miles per hour and this was a guy who was very fastball reliant and still is well i just

think this new cutter that he's thrown about 20% of the time it may have it may serve as an effective enough counter to that fastball that it still makes it very effective even with that diminished velocity um you know two starts isn't the final word a lance maculler's had two really good starts in a row with a lot of strikeouts and then turned back into a pumpkin. He's also dealt with diminished velocity this year. So it's there's still there's still more that needs to be sorted out here with Woodruff. But at the very least, I don't know how available he is at this point, but he needs to be he needs to be rostered just because it. There's reason for hope now.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Brandon Woodruff is up to. It's got to be close to 100%. Yep. It was already close to 90 before he debuted. Yeah, it's 93% on CBS, and I'll do a quick search here on Yahoo!

And it is 78%. So in some shallower Yahoo formats, random Woodruff could still be out there. Let's get into the waiver wire ads from the weekend. We spoke about some of these hitters already. Noel V. Marte, Zach McKinstree, Otto Lopez, Brady House. I thought all of those were pretty interesting and serve as fine replacements. if you lost in Austin Riley or Brandon Lau. What about John Carlos Stanton?

The power coming around three home runs in his past five games. The problem here, he has started just 18 of a possible 26 games since coming off the aisle. 47% rostered. How does that number sound to you guys? Should Stanton be rostered in more leagues than about half on CBS?

I can't imagine him having any value in a head-to-head points league. Especially if he's not playing every day. Yeah. Like it's a one-dimensional power hitter who is not playing. He's playing 70% of the time. Do we really think that number is going to go higher? Given his track record, I can't see why the Yankees would start him 100% of the time. They've got other good players.

They've got to cycle through at that DH spot. So I think this is, if anything, potentially too high for Giancarlo Stanton. Two catchers who are picking things back up, Carson Kelly over his last seven games, hitting 360 with three home runs and has started four straight, 10 of the past 13 for the Cubs. And Sean Murphy, who we mentioned earlier, double dong on Friday, another home run on Saturday. He has seven home runs in his past 12.

He has started four straight and six of the past seven. Who do you guys like more? Carson Kelly and Sean Murphy. Sean Murphy. I think he's the better player. Yeah. Especially if he does get traded to where he's clearly the number one guy, I don't think it's a certainty.

I mean, he's signed to a pretty team-friendly deal. And particularly if Ozuno, the Braves allow him to walk this off-season, I think they have every intention of competing next year and might just like to have that high-end catcher tandem. Scott, if they do trade Sean Murphy, who do you think would have more value rest of the season? Sean Murphy on another team or Drake Baldwin on the Braves? It might depend what the other team is.

Yeah, I mean, it's pretty close to a coin flip. I feel like Murphy has the lower floor of the two, so I'm going to say Baldwin based on that. All right. Two names in deeper leagues. Andrew Vaughn has impressed thus far with the Brewers. He homered on Friday. They went two for four with four RBI on Saturday,

has started four of six games this past week. And Anhele Martinez making a little noise for the Guardians lately. He homered on Friday. He swiped a bag on Saturday. So far in July, he's got three homers, nine RBI, one steel, and has started 10 straight. Any deep league interest in Andrew Vaughn or Anhele Martinez? A very, very small amount of interest in Andrew Vaughn. Just like maybe getting out of the White Sox allowed him to tap into something.

He's got a long runway because Reese Hoskins is going to be out until, it's like September. I think mid to late August. Yeah. So it's going to be a while. he's got a chance and he's got, I think, 10 RBI in his first five games or something. So, yeah, we'll see. I think it's very unlikely that either Andrew Vaughn or Anhele Martinez matters much for fantasy, but Vaughn has some pedigree and has hit for power in the past.

So let's see. I just hate that like Jake Bauer was in the lineup today. it's some the three of the Brewers last five games have been against lefties and

I think Vaughn started against one I don't know it's not clear how much Vaughn is going to play is my point because they do still have Jake Bauer there and seem to want to play himself all right let's get into

waiver wire pitchers from the weekend and the first group include some names in shallower formats Noah Cameron continues to perform this time against the Mets. Six and two-thirds shutout innings with eight strikeouts, 16 whiffs on 93 pitches. Emmett Sheehan picked up the win in long relief following Otani on Saturday at the Giants, four and two-thirds innings, one with three strikeouts there. Brian Beow turned in another strong start, this one against Tampa, six and a third, one run with five strikeouts, and over his last

six outings, a 206 ERA.92 whip for Brian Beow. And Trevor Rock, Rogers took a tough luck loss, opposing Jansen Junk, who we'll get to in just a bit. But, oh, another revenge game here for Trevor Rogers against Miami, six and two-thirds, innings, one run, eight strikeouts. I'm starting to buy, I don't know, man. Every start, like, I'm starting to buy a little bit more here on Trevor Rogers. How would you guys rank this foursome here? Rogers, Bayo, Emmett Sheehan, and Noah Cameron.

I'm going to go, I'm going to go Sheehan. obviously he needs to get a little more length than he's had, but it's only three chances. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I think the stuff is the best. I'll go, I'll go Cameron over Bayo. So she and Cameron, Bayo, and then Rogers at the end. But I'm not totally dismissive of Rogers at this point either. He's the average fastball velocity is the highest,

since 2022. His swinging strike rate is the highest since 2021 when he was like one of the big breakout pitchers of the year. Now, that swinging strike rate was just amazing in 2021. It's not quite that high, but 12.5% is pretty good. And obviously, the surface level numbers look even better for Trevor Rogers. So good that it's impossible to take them seriously, but still. 153 ERA.82 whip.

It's worth mentioning. And I'm skeptical, but, you know, there's enough of a history here. And we're seeing some signs of Rogers recovering what he lost with injuries that is possible. I'm keeping an open mind on it. One note on Sheehan. I totally agree with you guys. I think the talent is awesome for him. I just kind of wonder when Blake Snell is back,

and life can find a way, I get it, like Dodgers pitchers, they drop like flies. But if they don't, once Blake Snell is back, I'm just kind of interested to see what the plan is here. Do they go with a six-man rotation? Does maybe Dustin May get the boot or something like that? Because, I mean, you have to imagine. I mean, well, May they're going to have to at some point.

Otani also is, right? Otani's building up, too. So, like, he's going to need more innings. then we can't just have Sheehan piggyback him because then we're not getting enough innings from Sheehan either, so I don't I don't know how it's all going to play out. I think especially with pitchers, you just

cross that bridge when you come to it because they do, not even just on the Dodgers. Every team, but the race, strangely this year. They drop like flies. And, you know, if it doesn't work out, you took the shot on the highest ceiling guy. And I think in the kind of fantasy leagues most people play in, which tend to be on the shallower side, that's always the right move because you can fall back on the mid guys if the high-end guys don't work out. All right.

Next group of WaverWire pitchers, Dean Kramer was great up against the Marlins seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts for him. 13 whiffs on 99 pitches. That splitter was awesome. Had nine of the 13 whiffs. Quinn Prester was great in long relief against the Nationals. six innings, two runs, five strikeouts. He wound up with a win in this one. Max Scher turned in his first quality start of the season.

He was at the athletics. Six innings, three runs, eight strikeouts, had 16 wifts on 90 pitches. Both the six innings and 90 pitches were season highs for Scherzer. So we'll see how that thumb responds. And Landon Root, who we've mentioned here and there, quality start against the Dodgers. I get that they've been scuffling a little bit,

but it's still impressive. six innings, one earned run, eight strikeouts with 16 whiffs on 104 pitches. So I thought this was a pretty impressive start here from Landon Rube. Any of these names stand out to you guys, Rup, Scherzer, Quinn Priester, and Dean Kramer. With Rup, the interesting thing for him is that he was so curveball dependent early on in the season. And it was kind of all he had. He was throwing at like 45% of the time.

And my thought. But when he stopped throwing it that often was, well, this is going to be tough. This is going to be really rough for Landauroop to be fantasy relevant. And then the change-up has actually taken a nice step forward over the past couple of months. It's not an elite pitch. You know, it was a 27% whiff rate in June. It's up to 31% in July. But generally generating some pretty weak contact, it's allowing him to be a little less dependent on that curveball.

I don't think Lanier-Roop is a star. but you know an above average strikeout rate an ERA in the high threes that that feels reasonable for Rup and that's a that's a useful player if not necessarily someone who needs to be rostered in all formats he might be more useful than Drew Rasmussen this point as a spar up in a points league so the the Rays did say that Rasmussen is going to be back on a five-inning schedule after the second half but if it's a five-inning limit if it's a five-inning goal, that definitely puts a cap on how useful he's going to be in a points league.

I think in Roto, the ratio should still be awesome for Jurasmussen, so he's a must-raster player if he's going to go five innings. If it goes back down to two, three, four innings, then you have to make some questions. But I do think in a points league, Rasmussen looks pretty dropable. I wonder what that means for Joe Boyle, by the way. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's kind of what I was getting at what I said. The race have had the same starting five all season. It's crazy. In the year 2025 that any team could go the entire first half. Especially the raise. The talk about the race last season was they can't keep anyone healthy. What are they doing wrong? It's been the last few seasons.

Yeah. So Joe Boyle's had a difficult time finding his way in. Eventually something's got to give there. And now they've kind of weighed. They've kind of grown impatient waiting for that opening to naturally develop for Boyle. And so they, you know, not that his last appearance was that great, but obviously there's a lot of talent there. And he's made strides with the control this year. So I hope they find a way to keep him around, whether it's going six-man for a while or what.

If I could just circle back to Rup for a second, Landon Rup. And you weren't selling them that hard, Chris. So this isn't me like contradicting you or whatever. But I did notice the same thing with the changeup. I went back and looked at the numbers since he first began mixing in the change up in a meaningful way. It's during that time, Landon Roop has a 224 ERA. That's an 11-star stretch. 2-24 ERA.

But it's also a 144 whip. Yeah. So it's like, I don't know that there's really much to see here. but I could see streaming him as a spark and the right with the right matchups. Landon Rup kind of feels like nationally Jose Soriano. It's like decent ERA gets ground balls, but just a untenable whip. Yeah. I don't know.

Yeah, maybe. I was looking into that and I don't know. That's what popped. There have been some really dominant starts from Jose Soriano that make me hopeful there's more there, but obviously the last two, including this one this weekend. I mean, the biggest issue of the last two starts for Jose. Jose Soriano, 57% strike rate. His command is just terrible.

Yeah. Yeah, it's when you're throwing strikes at that low overrate, it really doesn't matter how good the stuff is. All right, and the last two names in deeper leagues, Logan T. Allen turned in a quality start at the White Sox. Six innings, one hit, two runs with five strikeouts. Last six starts for him, it's a 334 ERA and a 103 whip. Jansen Junk did it again.

What did he do? You can't keep getting away with it. He can't keep getting away with it. He won't. At the Orioles, seven shutout innings with two strikeouts. Just five whiffs on 85 pitches. But man, Jansen Junk, down to a 268 ERA and a 0.99 whip on the season. Any deep league interest in Junk or Logan T. Allen?

I mean, sure, add Jansen Junk and ride the hot hand. It's fine. Just understand that at some point, a guy who misses bats this frequently and relies on contact as often as he is, it's going to blow up. And if you're in a weekly league and it's not a roto league, then that's probably fine.

But it's not sustainable. He's not a sub three ERA pitcher. He's probably not a sub four ERA pitcher. And it's going to stop at some point. And that's it. That's all I have to say. I'd be fearful of it stopping in his next start. Yeah.

Because it's just like he has, He has, he's an elite strike thrower. That's the one thing he has going for him. But it's, it's hard contact and it's not mostly on the ground. It's, it's the dangerous kind of hard contact. And when you're throwing that many strikes

and you're not missing bats at all, he doesn't have any bat missing ability junk. I don't know. I mean, you're, you're getting away with it every time he has a good start for you. And like one of these days, maybe next time

Chris kind of already said it, but it's all going to blow up in your face. If you play in a deeper points league, he is a spark, so if you want to kind of use him for that eligibility, sure, but yeah, just echoing the same things that these guys already said. We did get some Mets returns

this weekend. Kodi Senga was solid on Friday against the Royals. Four shutout innings with four strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 67 pitches through 63% of his pitches for strikes. The forkball was nasty as it always is. My guess is he'll get up around 75, 80 pitches next time out,

and he's not going to maintain a sub 1.5 ERA, but maybe somewhere in the low to mid-3s rest of season on a really good Mets team. And Sean Manaya, solid in his season debut, long relief at the Royals. Three and a third innings here, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks, had 13 whiffs on 65 pitches,

only allowed one hard hit. he just leaned on the fastball in the sweeper. The velocity was up in this one. He looked dominant. He was great down the stretch last year. So we'll see. There's a lot to like here, potentially. I was very excited to see this outing for Manaya.

And I got a little concerned looking at his minor league rehab stint and the velocities were down there. But then he comes back his first major league appearance. And his velocity is actually a little up from last year. The fastball, it's way up on the sweeper. So I don't think that's an issue. But more than anything, I was excited to see Sean Manaya still throwing from that low arm angle that he adopted last July watching Chris Sale pitch. And he completely transformed him as a pitcher.

It made his fastball this dominant weapon with the, you know, aiming high in the zone with it and getting swings under it. And that seemed to be happening in this three-and-a-third inning appearance against the Royals of those 13-wifts 10 game on the fastball. So, yeah, he looks like the guy who transformed himself into a stud for the final two months last season. And I'm hopeful that Sean Minaya can beat that in the second half. Would you take Mania over any of the first group of Waver-Wire pitchers I mentioned? So that's Noah Cameron, Emmett Sheehan, Brian Beaux, and Trevor Rogers. I mean, based on the way he looked, I would take him over all of them. I would have said going into the weekend, I want any Mitchian more, but at this point, I'll take Mania.

I will just point out, only seven whiffs on 81 pitches, only one on the sweeper. So that's a little iffy, a lot of hard contact. It's only one start or one appearance. It was only less than three, less than four innings. It was 13 whiffs on 65 pitches. I think you were looking at Clay Holmes' whiff total. You're right. I was.

Give that man his respect, Chris. That's confusing. The first pitcher should be the guy we're talking about. I take it back. 13 whiffs on 65 pitches. Fastball velocity was up. 10, 3 whiffs on the sweeper. Okay.

Forget what I said. Yeah. I do think there's some risk here with Mania. Obviously dealt with injuries all season. He had, you know, like a. a, I don't know, a loose body in his elbow recently that he had an injection for. So there's not, it's not a guarantee to work out, but, you know, if you're just risking a waiver wire ad, you know, you're not really losing much. So why not take a chance on the potential we saw

from last year as well? All right, let's get into some leftovers from the weekend here and got a bunch of hitting stuff. So if there's anything that stands out, just interrupt me, go for it. Cal Raleigh will not stop the big dumpa. Two for five with a double-donged five RBI on Friday. his first half with 38 homers, 82 RBI. Just insane stuff. Stay down, Raphaelra remains. I think that put him one homer away from the record. He walked, he got intentionally walked in his last plate appearance, I believe.

Which I think, I assume it was bonds in 2001 who had the record at the All Star Break of 39. But that's the kind of, that's how historic this performance is for Rale. I mean, he's going to, he needs. at this point 11 home runs to have the most home runs in a season by somebody who primarily

plays catcher that was the record set by Salvador Perez just a few years ago, 48. Like that's going to happen and I mean barring some kind of

very unfortunate injury like that's that's a gimmy. He's on a 64 homer pace is Cal Raleigh. Like he's got to slow down from that, right? But I think you can

pretty easily say he'll be the first. first 50 homer catcher. It is on pace for the best season by a catcher ever. Like, take into account that he's probably the best defensive catcher in baseball. He's got nine steals somehow. He has three or four more steals than anyone else at the position. Like, this is an absolute all-time season from Cowrally.

Say down Raphaela remains red hot. He had two more homers and another steel. this weekend, 11 games in July. He's hitting 390 with five homers, 15 RBI, two steals, and a 13.07 OPS. I mean, he has made just major improvements this season. Wyatt Langford has returned with a bang over his nine games since coming back. He's hitting 324 with two homers, four steals, 954 OPS. Nick Kurtz keeps on mashing. Two for four with a sock in the shoe on Friday, then hit another home run on Sunday. and I know he strikes out a lot, issues against lefties, but man, Nick Kurtz kind of feels like he could be a league winner in the second half, man. Since May 20th, this doesn't even include Sunday stats with the two for four or with a home run.

So, you know, you could go in and add those in later. But since May 20th, he's slashing 280, 372, 688. still striking out 32% of the time, very high, but at some point that doesn't, that doesn't matter anymore when you're hitting with the kind of power Nick Kurtz can provide. Where are you guys ranking him right now? I think I have him eight or nine at first base. Yeah, I have him nine. And like Josh Naylor ahead of him, that wouldn't be too tricky. Bellinger's confusing it because he's been really hot lately.

I actually have met at 10, but probably. But I can two catchers ahead of him. Yeah. No, I have Wilson Gattreras and then Torkelson just ahead. Torkelson just because he is going to play every single day and Kurtz is bad against lefties, but I probably should make that swap. Yeah, I'll move Kurtz ahead of Torkelson. I have that, I haven't that same arrangement.

Torkelson, 9, Kurtz 10. I'm at least going to flip those two. Yeah, I could see getting him ahead of Wilson Guthreris as well, just because that power upside is so massive. Bellinger, I don't know, he's a little bit more like all across the board, good batting average, good steals too. So I don't think I would move Nick Kurtz ahead of him just yet. Jose Ramirez is on a tear last seven games.

He has four homers, 10 runs, 11 RBI, seven steals. Seven steals in his last seven games is insane. Tyler Soderstrom picking things back up last seven for him, hitting 407 with four homers and eight RBI. Aaron Judge homered on Saturday. He became the fastest player in MLB history to 350 career homers. He did so in 1,08. 88 games. The previous record was

1,280 by Mark McGuire, so cleared that by almost 200 games. So yeah, he's pretty good. That's crazy. Randy Rosarena continues his tear. Three for five with a sock and a shoe on Saturday. He added

another home run on Sunday. He is one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now. Byron Bucks, then we mentioned earlier. He hit for the cycle on his Bobbohead Day. He's up to 21 homers, 17 steals in the first half that ends his first half. Marcus Simeon, two more home runs this weekend. And since the start of June, he's been one of, if not the best second basement in fantasy. Let me give you some

numbers here for Simeon. This does include Sunday. Last 40 games, 321, nine home runs for steals. OPS around 950. Yeah. It's not hitting the ball any harder during that time, as Marcus Simeon we're talking about. His strikeout rates down a little as 14.0.0.0.0.0. Close. to where it was the last two years, but it's not like this dry, get right, has been a problem even this year. So it's,

it's, it's interesting how, uh, so we got that trio of second baseman that have long been near the top of the rankings. Um, but historically don't hit the ball that hard. Perform well in fantasy despite not hitting the ball hard.

Simeon, Altuvae, Ozzie Alpes are the three. Altuvae and Simeon have bounced back. Completely. They look like they've always looked here over the past couple months. We're still waiting for Albies. And I think there's a chance Albies doesn't bounce back because we've seen his numbers suffer every year. The ball has not carried as well as seems to be the case this year.

But just because Simeon and Altuve have that same sort of profile where they managed to hit for power, despite pretty mediocre exit velocities. Mediocre might be generous, in fact. That gives me some hope for Albi's bouncing back also. All right, next up here, Ehayni Oswarz launched two more home runs on Saturday. He's up to 31 home runs, 78 RBI to end his first half. Just awesome stuff there.

And then Jackson Merrill reminded us all that he isn't done. He didn't just lose all of his talent. He went two for four with two home runs, three RBI on Saturday, and both of those came off of Zach Wheeler. So this is just a reminder, man. We know there's talent. I don't know what's gone wrong. Maybe just like all the weird injuries have piled up for Jackson Merrill this season.

He had a concussion, right? Yeah, yeah, he did. And I think it'll bleak or something like that early in season two. So it's just been some weird injuries for Merrill. So maybe it just kind of messed up his first half. But look, man, if you could hit two home runs off Zach Wheeler in a game, like, there's no doubt in my mind that you're a good hitter. It's just hopefully he figures it out in the second half.

Some pitching leftovers, part one. Carlos Rodon was awesome up against the Cubs. Eight shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Nice bounce back for him. Paul Skeenz. Kind of feels like he's been limited lately. I don't know if you guys have seen or read anything about this, but it's five innings or fewer four starts in a row.

He's been right at 78 pitches, two starts in a row, which maybe that's on purpose. Matthew Boyd shut down the Yankees on Saturday. He threw eight shutout with six strikeouts. And then Otani had his longest start of the season. Three shutout innings with four strikeouts for him. But still just 36 pitches. They're bringing him along so slowly.

Anything to add on Otani, Boyd, Skeens, and Carlos Rodon. Rodon really needed this one. So that was nice. Skeens, at least in this start, it feels like a, he's going to pitch in the All-Star break. Let's pull him an inning early. Um, that, that would be my guess on that. But it has been frustrating how often he's been pulled early just in general.

Not just here. There have been, there was a stretch back in June, I think, where he had a couple of, uh, five-inning starts as well when his control was struggling. So yeah, it's been, look, he's awesome. It's, it's hard to say anyone with a 201 ERA has been underwhelming, but I feel like he's been, like a teeny, tiny bit underwhelming. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, he was the consensus first pitcher drafted, right? None of us ranked him as our number one, but that's what he was. And I would be, I don't have schemes anywhere because I wasn't willing to pay that price for him.

But I imagine it's been pretty frustrating rostering him, certainly in a head-to-head context. Roto, maybe you don't notice it as much because you're just loving the ratios. All right. Next up, we have Shane Boz, who took a tough luck loss at the Red Sox, six in a third innings, one run. only three strikeouts, but last six starts since introducing that cutter. It's a 275 ERA 109 whip for Shane Baz. Jacob de Grom, a great outing at the Astros, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts. Velocity was up in this one.

I don't know, I always get a little queasy when I see the velocity up for Jacob de Grom. It's, I don't know, just pitch at your normal velocity and continue to be really good. That's what I want Jacob de Grom to do. Framber Valdez was even better than DeGrom on the other side. Six innings, one unearned run with 10 strike. to zero walks. And show to Imenaga, a strong start at the Yankees, seven innings, one run, six strikeouts. Anything on Imanaga, Valdez, de Grom, and Shane Boss?

I mean, Imanaga's been pretty underwhelming this year, too, especially since coming back from the IL, a couple really short outings. So do you see him go seven? And really, I think the biggest difference in this start was he mixed in the sweeper more. He didn't just go fastball splitter. He threw his sweeper about as much as the splitter. And I think it helped the whole arsenal play up. So hopefully that was a step forward for Imanaga and, you know, figuring out the best method of attack here this season.

Anybody else feel a little sell high-e on Shane Baws? I don't quite trust it. I don't know I'm not sure exactly what to make of this new version of him that still has if he command

and still has consistency issues with the strikeouts I guess at least the good news is like he didn't get strikeouts this time and he didn't get bombed

so maybe the cutters just helping in general in that way but I just I don't fully trust it he's been he's been

been the most frustrating pitcher this year. I think so, yeah. Because I was way out on him prior to the season. Then he had those two great starts to begin the year, or was it three out of four, moved him into my top 20, fell apart after that. And then the introduction of this cutter had, snap four really good starts in a row. Two of them as dominant as you could ask for anybody.

But then these last two, you know, they've been fine, but the whiffs haven't been that impressive. So I don't know. I don't have them in any redraft leagues because I was out on him coming into the year. I haven't been a Dynasty League for a very good cost. And because it's a dynasty league, because it's a good,

like I feel like there's even more deriding on the decision is now the time to trade him or not. And I'm leaning no, but. No, I think you should, Scott. I think you actually should maybe trade him to, I don't know, me. Yeah. I mean, the thing about trading, like we're an hour and 13 minutes into this, so maybe not a good time to go on this tangent.

But like any time I have in that dynasty league, it's 24-teamer, anytime I've had a pitcher out of very low cost, people are beating down my door to acquire them for me. I've almost always said no. And then the pitcher loses a lot of value very quickly. Ian Anderson is one example. Spencer Strider is another example. Hopefully he's still regaining a good amount of value here.

It's never going to be the kind of offers I was getting for him once upon a time. And, you know, maybe that should compel me to follow through on trading boss. I don't know. Still thinking about it. Yeah, yeah. Just keep thinking, Scott. Last group here, Nathan Avaldi was awesome at the Astros, 7 and 2 thirds, one run, eight strikeouts, Friday Peralta.

Great, once again, against a lot. the national six and two-thirds one run with seven strikeouts. Yoshinobu Yamamoto bounced back with a great start at the Giants. Seven shutout with seven strikeouts. Christopher Sanchez went seven innings again, this time at the Padres. Seven and a third, one run with six strikeouts. And Nick Pavetta opposed him. He was great on the other side.

Six and two-thirds, one unearned run with eight strikeouts. So anything here, Pavetta, Christopher Sanchez, Yamamoto, Paralta, and Avaldi. Avaldi just keeps getting it done. His velocity has been even lower, I think, since coming back from the aisle. And it just hasn't mattered because he's going super secondary heavy. And I don't know, it's one of those things where we talked about, I think, Buxton last week and how hard it is to value a player like that because there's what they're doing. And then there's the injury risk.

And everybody knows the injury risk. You're not going to get one over on someone in it. trade. So I kind of think you just hold of all the enjoy it while it lasts and if it falls apart or he gets hurt, you know, you figure it out from there. But I just, I don't think trading of all these really the move at this point. Unless you could somehow get like top 15 pitcher value back, but it's probably not going to happen. Yeah, I think you have to get a top 15 or top 20 pitcher or pitcher value back for him. Otherwise, it's just not going to be worth it.

And I don't know. I can't say nobody's going to do that because people are reactionary all the time in fantasy. But it's like Buxton, where are you going to find the one person who doesn't know that this guy can't stay healthy? If you do, okay, great, trade him. But I don't think you're really going to get enough back for Nathan Avaldi to make it worth it. But he could also get hurt in his next start or, you know, have a 4ERA the rest of the way because that tends to happen with him. So it's really tough. It's a really tough player to handle, and I think you just hold.

All right, the call to the bullpen for the weekend for the Rockies on Friday. Victor Vodnick got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He allowed two base runners but struck out three for his second save. Seth Halverson got rocked last Wednesday, so I guess that's why they didn't use him on Friday. Then on Saturday, Victor Vodnick got another chance, and he took the blown save. So probably, I don't know, Rockies are bad. Stay away. For the Braves on Friday, Rysel Iglesias struck out one for his 10th save.

Dylan Lee had pitched both Wednesday and Thursday before that. Then on Saturday, Iglesias picked up another save. Dylan Lee worked the seventh inning of that game. So Scott is Aglacius just kind of back in the roll. Yeah, it sure seems that way, and he's been better lately. And I think it was always trending that way. Since the start of June, he's got like a 220 ERA and 20 strikeouts and 15 innings. Do you know the last pitcher for the Braves to get consecutive saves before Reisel Iglesias this weekend?

Like on just two in a row? Two saves for the Braves in a row, yeah. It wasn't a Glacius? It was Ricelliglasius in that. Okay. For the Marlins on Saturday, Ronnie Enriquez entered in the eighth inning with a two-run lead. facing 9-1 and 2 in the Orioles lineup. He allowed a single, but that was it.

The Marlins tacked on four more runs. Calvin Foshae closed it out in the ninth inning with a six-run lead, but pretty clear they were using Enriquez as their highest leverage reliever in that one. For the Nationals on Saturday, Kyle Finnegan got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up three runs

on two walks and three hits, took his sixth-blown save, third loss. Kyle Finnegan does not have a save since June 6th. And he also has three blown saves during that span. Well, at least he's helping you out with a lot else. Look, if they trade him, I don't know who would be. I guess Jose Ferrer would be next up.

He pitched the eighth inning in this save opportunity. He also has a 503 ERA, and he's a lefty. So I don't know. Probably doesn't matter too much. For the Phillies on Sunday, Orion Kirkering entered with one out in the eighth, a one-run lead. He allowed a single and a walk, but recorded the final two outs of that inning, and then Matt Strom got the ninth

with a one-run lead he walked to but picked up his sixth save of the season. Are we closer to figuring this out or is it just, I guess it's Strom until they trade for a closer? Yeah, I think the guy who leads the Phillies and saves the rest of the way is not on the roster. Yeah, you might be right.

Maybe it's Ryssela Glacius. Ooh, within the division, can they do it? I don't know. Maybe. I was going to say Carlos Hestavis. Do it again. For the Dodgers on Sunday, Tanner Scott got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He allowed a game-tying Homer, took his seventh blown save.

The Dodgers did wind up winning in the extra innings. I would just say, in deeper leagues, watch out for Blake Trinan, who started a rehab assignment this past week. Maybe he could work his way back into save opportunities for the Dodgers because early on in the season when he was healthy, it was kind of like a, I don't know, 60-40 split favoring Scott, but Trin was firmly in that mix. So we'll see.

And Tanner Scott has been pretty rocky here. So that's that. All right, Scott, well, my gift to you for the first half ending is that there are no streamers today. So enjoy it. Yes. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today.

Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Paramount Podcasts.