Fantasy Baseball Today - Reynaldo Lopez's Return, Drop Candidates & Four Hitter Questions! (8/21 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 21, 2024

Spencer Torkelson had a perfect day at the plate (2:30). Reynaldo Lopez had a great return against the Phillies (6:26)! ... News (11:00): Kyle Tucker hasn't run the bases yet plus a bunch of Yankees updates. ... Shane Baz has been pitching well recently but the whiffs haven't been there (25:09). ... It's time to drop Nick Pivetta and Walker Buehler (32:20). ... J.D. Martinez has homered in back-to-back games but had slowed down before this (40:39). ... Let's talk hitter questions on Oneil Cruz, Jarren Duran and others (44:54). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (57:58). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome back, Renalo Lopez, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, August 21st. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have lots of Waverwire pitchers.

how many of them actually matter for fantasy? I'm not so sure. Welcome back to Ronaldo Lopez, who had a big return start up against the Phillies. We've got some hitter questions and much more, but let's jump in. Is this happening? It is. All right, Chris, over to you, the player of the night. The player of the night obviously is Spencer Torkelson,

who had three singles and a double. I think he drove in one run and scored another. That's not like a huge performance necessarily, but I do have a fun fact that I think tells you where Torkelson is right now. I believe he has multiple hits in two of his first three games since coming back from AAA. And yeah, he had four batted balls today. All four of them had an expected batting average over 900. Now, that's one of those stats that we don't necessarily cite on a per.

game or per at-bat basis. So I do want to say that, yes, that is as impressive as it sounds. The last player to have four batted balls in the same game with an XBA of over 900 is Nelson Cruz, which one that tells you how long it's been, because he's been retired for a little bit now. That was in 2019. It has been five full seasons since a player had four batted balls in the same game with an XBA over 900. that is pretty impressive. And obviously we saw with Spencer Torkelson, he was a disaster early on this season,

got sent down to the miners, and nobody really thought it was weird that he got sent down. It was well deserved. He had a 596 OPS when he got sent down on June 1st. And then he went to the miners and was just okay. Didn't really dominate at AAA the way you'd hope. But this is a guy who last. season had 19 home runs after the all-star break was frankly arguably a league winner after he got recalled or after he got hot last season and so we know he has that kind of upside he's six for

10 with two doubles and a triple since returning from uh triple a and i think if you're looking for corner infield help you should probably take a look at spencer torkelson because as we saw last year when he gets hot, he can get really, really hot and help carry. And overall, his time at AAA was not great, but he did start to heat up right before he got called back up. Last 21 games at AAA, a 256 batting average, six homers, 18 runs, 21 RBI, and a 934 OPS for Spencer Torkelson, who was only 36 percent rostered. I think you said it right, Chris, in leagues that have a corner infield spot. So 12-team Roto or deeper, my guess, 15-team Roto, he's already rostered. And some of those 12-team road a leagues, it's kind of slim pickings for corner infield

and someone who's less than 40% rostered might actually be out there. So I think that makes some sense. But obviously, I don't think we're taking him over, you know, other first baseman that have been hitting for quite some time, someone like Michael Tolia, right? You wouldn't, would you take Turkleson over him? Tolia has really slowed down himself, hasn't he? I thought he did. But then I looked at his game logs today and, and it still looked really good to me. Yeah, okay. He has a 906 OPS in the month of August. That is pretty surprising, because it's only three multi-hit games. Yeah, I would take Toglio over Torgelson, but I do think Torkelson, if he gets right, probably has a higher ceiling than Tolia.

What about, yeah, I mean, Carlos Santana's, I don't know, 42% rostered. He's totally fine, But if you want to chase upside with Torkelson, I'm fine with that as well. Yeah, I think that makes some sense. So let's remember Torkelson, a former first overall pick, it obviously has not happened consistently so far in the majors. But we've seen these spurts of him hitting for massive power. And perhaps he could do that again here over the final six weeks of the season. Let's slide over to Ronaldo Lopez, who had a big start in his return from the IL,

five innings, one run, 10 strikeouts up against the Phillies, 18 whiffs on 90 pitches, eight of those on the slider, five on the curve, three on the fastball, two on the changeup, had everything working in this start, and I think any time

a pitcher is returning from an elbow, a shoulder, a forearm type injury, anything like that, the velocity, how does that look? And it was fine for Ronaldo Lopez here. In fact, the fastball was up

one mile per hour, the curve was up 1.3, the slider was up half a mile per hour. Both of his breaking pitches look great. I know that we've expressed skepticism for a large majority of the second half here, Chris, where the numbers are going to regress at some point. But in a time right now where it's kind of hard to find

reliable pitching, excuse me, maybe Ronaldo Lopez can do that, at least in his first start back. What do you think? Yeah, I think at least in any head-to-head points, league, he's a must-raster player. And I say that being the biggest skeptic of Ronaldo Lopez on this podcast, maybe the biggest skeptic in the fantasy industry.

And head-to-head points league, there's no question. He's a must-raster. He's a relief pitcher in those formats. I still think I would place the ERA the rest of the season over four. You know, he has a 440XERA for the season, one of the biggest gaps in baseball. But what we saw today is what the upside can look like. Now, it was, you know, we haven't seen this many strikeouts from him,

but the strikeouts were trending up before the injury, the fact that he came back and his velocity was actually a little bit up is a good sign. So, yeah, if you want to be, if you want to take the optimistic view of Rinaldo Lopez, I think that's reasonable. I just, I don't know how much I share it. And I totally get that.

It's just again, it feels like once we get outside the top 20, 25 starting pitchers, it's just I can find something. wrong with many of the starting pitchers that were ranking, you know, from 25 through 70, basically. So, you know, Ronaldo Lopez has had a huge breakout season. I don't think anyone's expecting him to pitch to like a sub three ERA rest of season. But yeah, if he could just be serviceable, we will take that the way that pitching has been trending over the past couple months here. Quick reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, you heard

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every single weekday right to your email. Let's take our first break and when we return, we will get into the news and notes. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. What's the latest on the Kyle Tucker saga? well, let's fill you in. He took batting practice and was involved in outfield drills on Monday,

but manager Joe Espada said Tucker won't be close to a rehab assignment until he runs the bases. And apparently Tucker remains limited to jogging for the time being while he recovers from a bone bruise in his right shin. One of the more confounding, mysterious injuries that we've dealt with the past couple of years, I think we could all agree. there was probably something more there than a bone bruise, or maybe it was just a really, really bad bone brewers.

But yeah, I have a few head-to-head playoffs that have started up, and I was depending on Kyle Tucker being back by now, he is not. What else can we say at this point? You know, it does seem like we're at a point where there is legitimate progress being made. And that's the basic that you can hope for in this situation. but I don't like there's 10 days left in August, nine days left in August. I don't know how many days there are in August,

30, right? 31, 31 days in August. I think so, right? I know there was like a little mnemonic device that some people remember, and I never bothered with that. Nine or 10, he's not going to be back in August.

Yeah, there are 31 days in August. He's going to have to go on a rehab assignment. It still seems like, he's got some hurdles to clear before that. I'm guessing he's going to have to go on a rehab assignment, but I think that's what they've said as well. And I mean, the head-to-head season might be done before Kyle Tucker's back, unfortunately.

Like, I'm not dropping him anywhere I have him because we know he's a first-round caliber player when he's healthy, but it's, um, it's just been maybe the most single most frustrating situation in baseball this season. And I always find it so interesting. when a team loses one of their best players and they just rally around everybody else and that is exactly what the Astros have done. The time that he went out of the lineup early June,

they were way out in the AL West, now have a four and a half game lead over the Seattle Mariners, which is just crazy. And that's gonna grow because as we're speaking, the Mariners just blew a three-nothing lead and are down six-three heading into the ninth against the Dodgers.

So yeah, that's, it's it's we I don't think they're like they were 27 and 33 with Kyle Tucker and he was playing at an absolute MVP level so I don't really think there's anything to it I think they just were playing way under their heads for the first two months of the season and then everything came back together and they'd be even better if Kyle Tucker was healthy yeah my preseason world series prediction Philly's over the Astros there might be something there let's uh let's see if the Phillies can heat back up here. Lots of Yankees news.

Where do we start? First up, Luis Heel left his start early with lower back tightness. He was pretty bad before he left. Three earned runs over three innings. He walked six, and he threw just 47% of his pitches for strikes, which is about the lowest number I have seen in a start all season long. We know Luis Heel has had his struggles with control, some inconsistencies throughout the course of the season,

but this was especially bad, and maybe it's because he was pitching through a back injury. So we will wait to learn more. I think Clark Schmidt is working his way back. So it might afford the Yankees the opportunity to maybe shut Louise Heel down a little bit here as his innings have started to add up a little bit. And as we've said in the past, if Clark Schmidt had never gotten hurt,

I think it already would have happened for a heel. You know, he had that rough patch, I think, around June. and I think we would have seen them dial him back if they had had another pitcher available because he's thrown about 130 more innings than he did last season. So yeah, they needed to manage his innings one way or the other and maybe this is kind of a little bit of an excuse

to do that if it ends up not being that serious. And it's hard to speak in hypotheticals, but man, they absolutely could use an arm like Louise Heel in their bullpen. So, I don't know. Eventually, maybe September comes and they make some kind of transition there, but we will wait to learn more on Luis Heel. Next up, Aaron Boone indicated Tuesday

that he still plans for Clay Holmes to be his primary closer. Boone added that he could be more open to using Holmes earlier in the game if he feels the matchup is right. Clay Holmes currently leads baseball with 10 blown saves. He did pitch on Tuesday. He got the ninth inning with the game tied.

He walked one, but struck out three. Some names to watch. here, Tommy Canley, Luke Weaver. I have kind of speculated on Jake Cousins, who has a wicked slider, and he threw two scoreless innings, actually in extra innings here on Tuesday.

So we'll see. My guess is Clay Holmes still gets the next save opportunity, but at least it's on Aaron Boone's mind. We know that. And one more with the Yankees. Boone said it would be a little ambitious to think Jazz Chisholm could return when first eligible on August 24th. Jazz has already

resumed fielding grounders, and hopes to begin swinging a bat soon. One thing on Holmes, it's so weird. Like, he's got a 280-R-A. He's got a 246 fit. He has 10 blown saves with 16 earn runs allowed this season. It's just weird. Like, I don't know if he's just pitching in a lot of one-run games and there's just

been no margin for error, but like, he's been really good this season. It just seems like it's been, like he's bad against lefties because he's, of the arsenal that he has, but I don't know, it's just, it's weird. I don't feel like he's been that bad, even though obviously I understand the frustration.

Yeah, his BABIP is 3.50 on the season, so that is pretty high there. Obviously, I watch a lot of Yankee games. He doesn't miss as many bats as a traditional closer. He gives up lots of, you know, hard ground balls,

so sometimes those squeak through. He also has just been doomed by, he's bad against lefties. Like he's got like a 750 OPS against lefties. He's a sinker sweeper slider guy, which there's not really a weapon there to get lefties out. So like he's not perfect. I just,

I don't think they have a better option. They might not. I can tell you just watching the games. It feels a lot more frustrating than the actual numbers would indicate. But I just, I don't know how we've gotten to that point. It's a weird season for him. Reds president of baseball operations,

Krawl said that an MRI on Hunter Green's elbow revealed the injury is not as significant as originally feared. Krawl added that Green will get a second opinion. The Cubs released Hector Nairus on Tuesday and a save opportunity came up right away. Porter Hodge was used in the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He gave up a hit, but struck out two for his second save. Hodge has actually had a really good season, 208 ERA, 0.89 whip over a strikeout per inning. we mentioned Jorge Lopez on our weekend recap podcast.

He didn't pitch in this game. He did pitch on both Friday on Saturday. You know, two, three days later, it feels like he should have been available. So I'm not exactly sure where they go, but the first up, the first opportunity was Porter Hodge. Yeah, and what was the, oh, the Dodgers game

that we're talking about it. It's funny how we think we get a handle on what teams are likely to. to do. And then they, they throw a curve ball. And in the Cubs scenario, it was Lopez not getting the save. And for the Dodgers, it's Daniel Hudson, who is one out away from getting the save, which makes three different pitchers getting a save in a row for the Dodgers now, which is very funny. Musical chairs, as it has been for a long time now with Dave Roberts and the Dodgers. They did say yesterday that Michael Copac has

he's gassed so they wanted to give him a few days off and of course they have two save opportunities in those two days but I would guess we'll see Copac Wednesday or Thursday something like that and more often than not as long as he pitches the way that he has

I think he will get the probably the majority of the saves moving forward for the Dodgers. Assuming Ranger Suarez does not suffer a setback in his bullpen session he will return Saturday against the Royals. Hassan Kim was placed in the aisle with right shoulder inflammation.

He jammed his shoulder on a slide on Sunday. This injury came out of nowhere. The Orioles placed Zach Eflin on the aisle with right shoulder inflammation. He didn't really show any signs of the injury after, you know, posting four straight quality starts. Since joining the Orioles, he actually looked really good, and we spoke about that after his last start. So pretty bad timing for Zach Eflin. Alex Bregman has now missed five straight due to swelling. in the back of his right elbow. Jemar Candelario was placed in the aisle with a fractured left big toe.

The red started Noelvi Martaia 3rd, Ty France at first, and Jonathan India at DH here on Tuesday. The Rangers are hopeful Max Scherzer can return from the aisle as early as next week. Jorge Soler was out of the lineup, but said he thinks he'll be ready to play on Friday. He has not played since August 14th due to a left hamstring strain. That's like nine days. They have a 10-day I-L. The Braves did this with someone else earlier. Austin Riley, I think.

Mm-hmm. And Raphael Devers earlier, there was a similar situation. Yeah. Yeah, it's always frustrating when that happens. Yeah, weird stuff. The Rockies manager, Bud Black, confirmed that Victor Vodnik is experiencing soreness in his shoulder and was shut down

in his warm-ups before Tuesday's game. That's why they did not use him in the save opportunity. We'll get to that later on. Reese Olson will throw a bullpen on Wednesday his first time throwing off a mound since going on the IL with a shoulder injury. The Cardinals optioned Jordan Walker back to AAA. He started just three out of six games while he was up. Tyler Malley was placed in the IL with shoulder stiffness.

With Fernando Lopez back from the IL, the Braves are moving Grant Holmes back to the bullpen. Speaking of the Braves, they signed Gio Urchella to a one-year deal to help fill in for Austin Riley. Welcome back to Johnny Quedo. the Angels have selected Quato to start Wednesday against the Royals. And just a few interesting tidbits I found while updating the rankings on Tuesday. Brandon Lau now has first base eligibility. I had no idea he was close, but he has it now. So good for him.

Three names that have lost playing time recently. Lane Thomas has started just four of the last eight games. Michael Garcia has started just three of the past six. And Austin Wells has set three of the last four. all against left-handed pitching, which the Yankees admitted they plan to use Jose Trevino against lefties moving forward. But also, Jose Trevino is Garrett Cole's personal catcher.

So that starts to get a little hairy because, all right, Trevino's going to start one out of five. Then you figure about one out of five, maybe three out of seven or whatever the number would be for left-handed pitchers. and, you know, it starts to get pretty close to just an even split moving forward if you project it out. But Austin Wells has shown enough that even if he's in a pretty even split, I'm still going to rank him as a top 15 catcher, just maybe not.

The top 12 guy, it looked like he could be. And one thing, the Cardinal sent Jordan Walker down, which makes sense he's not going to play against he's only, he was only playing against lefties. They wanted to have him play every day, whatever. Have you seen the numbers of the guy they called up, Luke and Baker? I know that he's put up some numbers in the past. I did not look at his. Absolutely stupid numbers. He's 27 years old at AAA.

He's played 192 games over the past two seasons. He has 65 home runs in those 192 games with like, he had an 1159 OPA. He's probably nothing. He's probably just a platoon bat. But I just noticed that one and wanted to shout it out in, you know, deep NLNL only leagues. Luke and Baker is someone who has been very productive at AAA. Yeah, 32 home runs with an 80 OPS in 108 games at AAA this year.

It also comes with a 231 batting average. He hit much better last year. But we've seen stories like this happened before. I mean, Christian Walker was a quad A player before he got his chance with the debacks. And then it worked out. And this actually kind of reminds me a little bit of another name that was originally on the Cardinals, Luke Voigt. who got the chance to play, and he ran with it too.

So I'm not saying that's going to happen, but crazy things happen in baseball. I think he's your name only NL only people need to know about, but know about it. Yeah. I did want to just mention with Lane Thomas. It was either you or Scott. I think it was you who mentioned, you know,

some skepticism when going to the Guardians where the splits, Lane Thomas is much better against left-handed pitching. He's now sat out for the past eight games. If you play in a three outfielder head-to-head points league, I think you could probably drop Lane Thomas for any of these names that have emerged recently. T.J. Friedel, Masataka, Yoshita, yeah, anyone who's hot right now, I think you can drop them. You know, between this and Masa-Tuck,

or between this and Richard Love Lady getting a save, maybe we need to start taking Chris Towers a little more seriously, guys. Luke and Baker, you heard it here first. Exactly. Keep an eye on them. So let's get into some of those waiver wire pitchers. Lots of names that are available, but are any of them good? The first group, Shane Boz, turned in a strong start at the Oakland A's, 7 and 2 thirds shutout

innings with four strikeouts in that one. Eduardo Rodriguez, a solid start at the Marlins, five and a third, one run with five strikeouts. Frankie Montas turned in a quality start at the Cardinals, seven shutout innings, one hit, one walk, three strikeouts, did have 13 whiffs on 89 pitchers. and Cody Bradford continues to pitch well this time up against the Pirates, seven innings, three runs, eight strikeouts, zero walks. He's a soft tossing lefty, but he has really good control.

Fly ball pitcher, he's managed to avoid home runs decently so far. And his fastball and changeup combination looks like a really, really good one. I don't know, there could be something here. Chris, any enthusiasm for Bradford, Frankie Montas, Erodd, and Shane Bop. Yeah, Shane Bradford or Cody Bradford, who was met with a chorus of who when I drafted him in one of our head-to-head points leagues? Yeah. No, I think Eduardo Rodriguez probably needs to be closer to universally rostered. Yeah, it was the Marlins.

He hasn't been like incredible. But what we've seen from him when he's going well in his career is not a ton of strikeouts generally. there have been some outlier seasons, but on the whole average-ish, good control is what you're hoping for, and very good quality of contact suppression. That's what he's shown so far. And he's obviously got a very good team backing him up. So I think Eduardo Rodriguez looks pretty good. Shane Baz, it's just, it's like different versions of kind of interesting every time out. Like previous start, he went curveball heavy, got more of his whiffs with that one. And this one, it was the slider. That was a little. little better. Two quality starts in row, at least seven innings in both, not getting the strikeouts we're looking for. This is one that like, I think he should be universally rostered because the floor seems pretty high for Shane Boss. I don't know if the path to unlocking that ceiling is there yet. I'm interested in like breakout 2025. He's going to be on my list, for sure.

But he's not doing it consistently enough. And then Montas, I don't think there's anything there. He was one of the two start sleepers for this week. Looks like it's going to work out. I'd rather have Bradford, who also has RP eligibility for those points leaks. So I think Bradford, at the very least, should be rostered in all points leagues. Yeah, the Frankie Montas thing is weird because... I mean, he's RP eligible as well, but I just don't think he's very good.

The Frankie Montas thing is weird because he's... His splitter still looks like it's really good. 262 expected Wobah, 40% whiff rate, but he only threw four of them in this start, and it's a 19% usage on the season. So I'm not sure why he doesn't use that splitter more, but yeah, I'm not really buying in on this start from Frankie Montas. How would you just rank the group,

Boz, Erod, Montas, and Bradford? Boz, Erod, Bradford, Montas. All right. And the next group includes Dean, Kramer, who turned in a strong start at the Mets, six innings, one run with seven strikeouts. J. Avaire Assad pitched well up against the Tigers, five and two thirds, one run with seven strikeouts. DJ Hers, a solid start up against the Rockies, five and two thirds, two run, two earned runs allowed, three runs total, with seven strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 93 pitches, and in six starts

since being recalled, DJ Hur's 307 ERA 123 whip over a strikeout per inning, and Edward Cabrera turned in a quality start up against the debacks, six innings, three runs, three walks, three strikeouts. Only two whiffs on 90 pitches. Feels a little bit fortunate to come away with this result. How would you rank this group, Chris, Cabrera, Hers, Assad, and Dean Craber. I honestly think I might put hers at the top of the list. And then... I think so, too.

I'm not that interested in anyone else. Kramer, it's almost entirely, if you have any interest in him because of the team he plays for. But it's got to be against a good matchup for me to trust him. So not a must roster. Assad, this is his first time throwing more than five innings since July. And he had only thrown five innings once, twice, sorry, in his previous nine starts. So I think Javier Asad's actually a decent talent, but he just hasn't been going deep enough lately

to have much fantasy peel at all. So I think Hertz is by far the most interesting of this group. Then it's probably Kramer. I want Edward Cabrera to be something, but it just doesn't seem like it is. I remember before the season there were rumors that the Marlins were going to trade him for Nick Gonzalez, is and I thought that would have been dumb, and now I really wish that they had.

So, yeah, I think hers is the only one that's more than a streamer. I would actually take hers over Frankie Motas from the previous group as well. But I think I would still take Boz, Erod, and Bradford ahead of hers, but it's kind of close. I think all four of those names are pretty interesting there. With Javier Assad, one thing I wanted to point out, the control, just bad. It's been bad this season. walks per nine. And although he has a 260 ERA over his last six starts, that comes with a 141 whip and 15 walks

over 27 and two-thirds innings. So, you know, the ERA results are there, but everything else under the hood, not looking great for Javier Assad here in the second half. Two names in deeper leagues that pitch very well. Joey Estes up against Tampa Bay, seven and two-thirds, one run with five strikeouts, and Austin Gomber at the Nationals. Seven innings, one run with five strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 96 pitches.

Both of these are under 20% rostered. So pretty deep league stuff, but anything here, Chris, with Joey Estes and Austin Gomber. Now, Estes is running well right now. He's got a 282 ERA in the second half over seven games, but I don't see any reason to buy into it. He was awful in the first half.

His underlying numbers are still pretty bad overall. He doesn't get very many strikeouts. I don't really see any reason to be excited about either of these guys. Gomba, like maybe if he played somewhere besides Colorado for half his games, but this game wasn't at Colorado. He's going to have a few more starts there. I think he's a streamer away from Cora's at best. This next segment is not the dropometer.

This is the please drop these pitchers. off your team O meter. That is what this is called. And the first name is Nick Povetta, who had another rough start in a really tough matchup. You know, give him the benefit. Well, not really the benefit of the doubt,

but I guess an excuse. Five innings, five runs, two homers allowed. His last five starts. Nick Povetta has a 750 ERA, a 138 whip. Ten homers allowed. He has allowed two home runs

in each of his last five starts. And his overall ERA is now up to 470 on the CES. He's in and he's still 82% rostered. Chris, would you drop Nick Povetta for any of the pitchers we talked about previously? No, not for Austin Gomberg. I don't think I would do it for Frankie Montas or Edward Cabrera,

but anyone with a pulse, yeah, I would. And that includes Kramer. It might just depend on what the next matchup is. hers, I would do that. Bradford, Rodriguez, Shane Baas. I do like when I say something that's kind of just like a half-formed idea, like off the cuff, and then like a smart person comes up with data to prove it. And I mentioned something, I think on Sunday's podcast or maybe last week,

how the Red Sox, you know, there was a lot of hype around the Red Sox pitchers in April. with Andrew Bailey as their pitching coach and their relationship with the driveline guys and this approach where they just stopped throwing fastballs, basically. They've thrown fewer fastballs as a team or a lower rate of fastballs than any other team of baseball. And I mentioned in a previous podcast, maybe we were talking about Tanner Halk or Cutter-Croffer or Nick Povetta, that that's an approach that can run into problems in the long run. Like you can reach a point of diminishing returns. We saw it when the sweeper kind of took baseball by storm a couple of years ago.

And then as hitters saw more sweepers, they got better at hitting sweepers. And as hitters saw more high fastballs, they got better at hitting high fastballs. It's just one of the things that's always true in the push and pull between hitters and pitchers. And it's a constant arms race. And, you know, Sarah's had a good piece in the athletic today about just that topic, about how the Red Sox pitching has become much less effective. as the season has gone on. And I think that's a little bit of what we're seeing with all these guys, Cutter Crawford, Nick Povetta, Tanner Hauk.

And then also just this is who Nick Povetta's always been. You know, like he'll have these stretches where he looks good. He'll have very good FIP because that assumes that a pitcher or X FIP, I guess, would be the one that assumes that a pitcher doesn't really have any control over the home runs they give up. But Nick Povetta just always gives up a lot of hard contact. and he'll have gems down the stretch for sure. But he's not someone I want in my lineup right now.

Gosh, Nick Povetta, if you play in a best ball league, that is where you want Nick Povetta. You don't have to decide when to use him. Sure, yeah. But when he has that seven shutout inning with 12 strikeouts, all right, I'll get all those fantasy points. But I don't have to worry about, you know, deciding whether or not I ever want to use Nick Pavetta or not.

He's got a 515 ERA since May 1st. Like, it's not just, the last seven starts or five starts, whatever. He's been bad for most of the season now. You know, your hypothesis or I guess, you know, theory regarding the Red Sox pitching, it's interesting. I wonder if there's a little bit of a chicken or egg going on there because I think I mostly agree that when you throw that many breaking balls, like how sustainable is that

over the course of a season? Just the ability to land those for strikes and the more that opposing batters see those breaking balls, they kind of learn to lay off a little bit. and things like that, but also a lot of the Red Sox pitchers are just in uncharted territory with their innings too. So I just wonder if it's like,

is it about the breaking pitches or is it about the work? Lord, is it a little bit of both? It could be. A little bit of both. That's probably the answer. And, but I just think one thing that is,

that has always been true for pitching or for baseball is that the more hitter see of a pitcher or a pitch or a pitch type, the better they tend to do against them. And so it's why the third time through the order penalty is such a real thing. It's why pitchers in the pre-balanced schedule days especially did tend to do better when they switch leagues and hitters would tend to do worse when they switch leagues and vice versa.

So, you know, that it's just, I think it's a little bit of both. and with Howlkin Crawford, I think especially. Povetta is a veteran, so I don't know how much like the workload plays into that. I think that's just, this is Nick Povetta being Nick Povetta. 100%. The other name on this, please drop these pitchers off your Timo meter, Walker Bueller, and I know some people might scoff and why are you still talking about Walker Bueller? 75% rostered on CBS.

So I don't know if these are just all the teams that have like gone into fantasy football mode, They're not checking their Walker Bueller fantasy teams anymore. But even against the Mariners, Walker Bueller could not get it done. Four innings, seven hits, three runs, three walks to one strikeout. Two starts since returning. He has more walks than strikeouts in each of those. He has also four strikeouts or less in eight of ten starts. So there is just nothing redeeming for Walker Bueller right now.

And I hate to be so harsh on him because it's the second time coming back from Tommy John surgery. and I hope he can figure something out. My guess is he probably has to take like a one year prove it deal with somebody this offseason and hopefully he can get back on track. But the point is he should not be 75% rostered in fantasy. No, I agree with that. There's nothing.

There's nothing that we've seen from him this season in either the minors or the majors that would suggest that he can still be an effective pitcher. I think, you know, with an off-season of work, maybe, but the fact is he went back down to the miners, worked on his mechanics, worked on his arsenal, went to off-site training, and still looks this bad. So, yeah, I don't think there's any reason to be optimistic at this point.

All right, let's take our final break, and when we return, we'll slide over to the hitters. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk Waverwire hitters. and J.D. Martinez has homered in back-to-back games, but he has slowed down a bit overall. Previous 14 games before this one, a 178 batting average,

one home run, 635 OPS, still hitting the ball really hard. Seems like maybe he's been a little bit unlucky. Quality of contact is there, expected numbers look good. 62% rostered. You know, if you have JD Martinez, Chris, would you hold or would you maybe swap him out for one of these hot hitters that we continue to talk about, the Yoshida's, T.J. Friedels, Jake McCarthy types. I think Yoshita is okay if you're just looking for utility.

And McCarthy, I guess if you need speed, but I don't really buy McCarthy's run. I can't really explain why it's happening. So I'm pretty skeptical of it. And Carpenter just doesn't play against lefties. So I think that puts a ceiling on how valuable he can be. but Yoshida, when he gets locked in, he really locks in, and he's super locked in right now. So I'm okay with Yoshita for Martinez,

but that's probably it. Do you think there could be something to J.D. Martinez underperforming his expected stats? I know you used to bring this up with like Miguel Cabrera, where really slow sluggers, they kind of tend to underperform their expected stats. Do you think something like that could be happening for J.D. Martinez? Yeah, that's absolutely a thing.

And it makes a lot of sense, right? Like you, if you're really, really slow and you hit the ball really hard, what defensive players are going to do is just take a couple steps back. And that gives them more time to react. It gives them more time to throw you out. And it shouldn't impact your power production. But Martinez has taken enough of a step back in his underlying power stats since last season that yeah, maybe there's a little bit of decline there.

And then, you know, the batting average specifically is where he would continue to decline. So, yeah, I think that's reasonable. Two middle infield options who have been hot lately. Jorge Polanco had two more hits here on Tuesday. Gavin Lux hit another home run. Chris, who would you prefer between Polanco and Gavin Lux? man i think i said polanco when we talked about this on sunday maybe and then what has lux homered twice since then um yeah i think i'd still go polanco i believe in it a little more but lucks is making

any skepticism look pretty dumb did you see the weird home run today yeah that was crazy it went over the wall and then it kind of like snuck back under the wall I think what happened is it went between the padding and the wall, which would be a home run. And it fell through the padding and came out through the field. So weird. It was super weird. So weird, yeah.

It was like an optical illusion watching live. I just thought, okay, the ball must have fell up against the wall and it got like wedged in there. But yeah, you watched a replay. It did go over the wall. So yes, another home run for Gavin Lux. It's close between these two. I don't think that they're must add players,

12-team head-to-points league, but again, if you play in any slightly deeper format with a middle infield spot, 12-team league, yeah, Gavin Lux, he's consistently betting fifth in the Dodgers lineup so the counting stats could be there. I like both. I think I would lean a little bit more with Lux, just with how hot he's been recently.

One other name here, Alejandro Kirk, has been solid since taking over as the main catcher for the Blue Jays, one for three with a walk in his fourth home run. Last 19 games, he's batting 297, he's got two home runs, 11 RBI,

only 14% rostered, probably just a name for two catcher leagues. I think he's pretty clearly behind that group of Austin Wells, Joey Bart, and Del Castillo, right? Yes, for sure. Okay, again, that was Alejandro Kirk.

Let's get into some hitter questions. And, you know, one name we haven't talked much about this season is O'Neil Cruz, two for three with a triple in RBI and his 14th steal in Tuesday's game. And overall, it's a 262 batting average, 18 home runs, 14 steals, a 789 OPS. He had that really bad April, has been much better since the start of May. Strikeout rate has improved throughout the course of the season.

But overall, I think it has been a letdown based on how much helium we got coming into the season. How would you evaluate O'Neill Cruises 24 to this point? I think you kind of nailed it. It's been, for the most part, for fantasy, a pretty good. You know, you look at the numbers overall, but, you know, especially since May, you're talking about a guy who is on a 25 homer, 20 steel pace, but it's really bad against lefties, 33% walk rate or 33% strikeout rate, OPS of 610

decent power against them which is enough to make me think that it might be playable moving forward like he's not someone who's destined to be a platoon bat but yeah it's been a disappointment you can clearly see the upside and you can clearly see

like when he locks in he's a pretty special hitter and maybe it all comes together next season or maybe he just goes on a stretch here at the end of the season that gets into 30 homers and, you know, 20 steals. And all of a sudden we look at it at the end of the season, it's, hey, he pretty much did what we hoped he would. But yeah, it's, it's harder to see the superstar outcome now than it was before the season.

The quality of contact is still top notch. I mean, elite level stuff here from O'Neill Cruz, actually looking at his stack cast page now, he is 100 percentile in bat speed, which is a metric that, a newer metric this season, which we don't cite often, but looking at it now and then just below that,

you see all of his plate discipline metrics that are ice cold blue. I wonder if it would benefit O'Neill Cruz to maybe take a little bit off of the swing. I think he still has enough power where if he did that and focused on putting the ball and play a little bit more, he would just be a more well-rounded player.

You know, it's hard for, to tell someone to like change completely who they are. But I just wonder if that would benefit someone like O'Neill Cruz because the plate discipline, it's pretty bad. 77% zone contact. He chases, there's lots of swing and miss. You mentioned the numbers against lefties. In his career, a 43% strikeout rate against lefties.

That is abysmal. It's not impossible to improve. We've seen both Gunner Henderson and C.J. Abrams do that this season. Yeah, I think he's still an unfinished product, but yeah, a bit of a letdown season here from O'Neill Cruz, at least at this point. One thing that, you know, the release of the bat speed data on Stackass has shown is there is an inverse relationship between bat speed and swing length. The longer your swing is, the faster your swing tends to be. Which makes sense.

Yeah, it makes sense. I think that's intuitive. Luis Arias has the shortest swing in baseball and one of the slowest, right? like that that makes 100% sense so it's hard to know like what do you lose when you try to swing slower we've seen a few situations like Gavin Lux where he is swinging notably harder than he did in the first half i think his average bat speed is up like two miles per hour or or thereabout since the the all-star break which is something Scott White has mentioned a few times and it's really worked out for him the the problem with crew

is he both chases a lot, 32% career chase rate, 33% this season. League averages 28.5%. And he swings and misses a lot. And like that's where you're super aggressive. You got to make a lot of contact. If you're not going to make a lot of contact, you've got to be selective. And he kind of falls on the wrong side of both. And for as much as we've talked about upside and youth, he's 25.

not old, but not so young that, like we compare them to Ellie Dela Cruz a lot. Ellie Dela Cruz is a couple years younger. So it suggests that there's not as much time to figure things out. Yeah, and I'm happy you mentioned Ellie Dela Cruz because I am big on accountability and transparency. And I know coming into the season, very often I would say, why take Ellie in the second or third round when you can get O'Neill Cruz four or five rounds later? we are seeing why you shouldn't pass on L.A. D.A. Cruz. Uh, for O'Neill Cruz right now. What is going on with Bryce Harper, who is ice cold, along with many of the Phillies right now. 0.4 with three strikeouts. Last 23 games for Harper. It's a 204 batting average, three homers,

a sub 650 OPS. 27% strikeout rate isn't egregious. He's still hitting the ball hard. Lots of line drives, but only two barrels during this time. So I think that kind of explains some of it, but I've had some people in the mentions recently, Chris, asking us to evaluate Bryce Harper and what's going on here. So what's at you? I'm sure I could look into the data and find some explanation for why things have gone wrong. Like you mentioned, the barrel rate is low. We've got a decade plus of Bryce Harper being one of the best hitters in baseball. But also, it's worth noting, having some inconsistencies from,

a year to year and month to month standpoint. So I think it's just that. I think it's just this is what happens sometimes. You know, I'm looking at 23 game rolling averages and he had a stretch at the beginning of 2022. That was actually a little bit worse than this. Obviously last year, coming back from the elbow injury,

he had several stretches worse than this. But this, you know, he's got a 278, Wobo over his past 23 games. He's had a stretch about that bad or worse in every season of his career, basically. Yeah. So I can't say I haven't noticed it because I have the whole Philly's lineup

has slowed down. I just, I don't think there's anything there. Yeah, I think most people, you know, when they see something like this going on, they won an explanation because this is a really important time of the fantasy calendar where you're in your head-to-head playoffs or you know, you're trying to chase people down in roto leagues and stuff. So it's under a microscope a little bit more, but it's also a really long season.

And there are just, there are ebbs and flows with every player, right? Like no player is just good for six months straight. And I think we're just seeing some of that right now with Harper. People were worried about Aaron Judge in April. Yeah. People worry about Francisco Lindor, literally every April.

These things happen. Frank, have you seen Forrest Gump? I have. It's been a long time, though. Okay, he wears a shirt in that movie. I don't know if you remember. Or maybe he says, I don't, it's been a long time since I've seen it. But blank happens is the gist of what I'm saying.

Yeah. And that I think explains Bryce Harper struggling. Let's talk about Jaron Duran, who continued his amazing season with a perfect night at the plate, four for four with a walk, a double, a homer, three runs, and two RBI. obviously one of the biggest breakouts this year. And the question here is,

Scott kind of brought this up the other day, is how early can you see someone like Jaron Duran going in next year's drafts? It's so hard to answer, but I don't know, like we're putting our thinking cap on, the season's winding down. We'll start to have more conversations like this. What do you think about Jaron Duran? Yeah, no, I think it's absolutely the right time

to start spinning some of these conversations ahead. I've been doing that in the FBI. BT newsletter. I plan on working on a piece about like the X number of players who can help their status the most the rest of the way. And Duran, you know, I think it's mostly just about avoiding a collapse because he's playing like a second round caliber player and has been doing so pretty consistently all seasons. So I don't know, man.

He's just gotten better. Like he's got an OPS over 900 the past two months. now in each of the past two months. I don't think he's quite that good. I think he's probably played over his head a little bit. But he played over his head last year. That might just be a skill that he has for one way or another. But I think third round feels reasonable.

Yeah, I was thinking third or fourth round. Probably third round. Yeah, that probably makes sense. You know, we kind of likened Jaron Duran coming into the season where if it all works out, he can give us a season. season that Josh Lowe gave us last year, right? And he's actually not far off from what Josh Lowe did last season. I think there's a little bit more juice with someone like Jaron so, you know, before all the injury stuff happened, I think Josh Lowe was like a top 75 pick

in early drafts. So yeah, you'd say probably doesn't have the same platoon concerns, doesn't have the same playing time concerns, you know, say what you want about Lowe and getting hurt and all that. but like this felt like a reasonable outcome for him going into last season. You know, it was a one year breakout, whereas Duran had an 828 OPS last season. He just didn't play every day. So he's mostly in a lot of ways doing what he did last year. He's been better, but if he was an 830 OPS bat but was doing everything else,

I still think we'd feel very similar about him. I do think like, I don't know how long the, if he's long for the Red Sox. You know, there's been some rumblings that the team isn't like super thrilled about him. So I don't know. That's one thing to keep an eye on in the off season, but I don't know how much that would change his value. Fenway's actually a really tough place for left-handed power. So it might not even be a bad thing. It's a very good place for batting average though.

So let's stick with the Red Sox and talk about Tristan Kossis, who had his first big game since returning from the IL, two for three with his seventh home run, two walks, three RBI. In five games since returning seven hits, has that one homer, four runs and three RBI. He's up to 86% rostered. He's not available on waiver wires, or at least he shouldn't be. The question here is, where do you plan to rank Tristan Kossis down the stretch? Because I moved him up to my 12th rank first baseman here on Tuesday. Yeah, I haven't done that yet, but that was what I was thinking when you started to ask the question. So I think that feels reasonable. He's 16 in my latest update, but like moving ahead of him ahead of Alec Berluson would be easy.

Luis Arias would be easy. Yeah, I think he can get into the top 12 pretty easy. Remember that we started to see it in the second half last season. and obviously the injury derailed what should have been or what we hoped would be a breakout season for Tristan Kossas. We had a 1034 OPS with 15 homers and 54 games in the second half last season. It's possible that Tristan Kossis is just, I think Scott's made a Freddie Freeman comp. I don't know if I think that one, but like...

I think he's more Matt Olson than Freddie Freeman. Yeah, Mattel, like Paul Goldschmidt without the steel. I think there's a little more batting average than Olson. But yeah, like Anthony Rizzo, like peak Anthony Rizzo, but without the Rizzo was actually a pretty good source of stolen bases at one point as well. That's the kind of upside, I think he has. And it's a small sample.

We have no idea which way his season would have went overall. But seven homers in 27 games, I mean, if we're just pacing that out, that's 35 to 40 home runs, over a full season. So man, the power is there and Kossis is hitting right in the middle of one of the best lineups

in baseball with the Red Sox. So, yeah, I think long term, we're still, we're gonna get some big breakout seasons from Tristan Kossis. Let's get into some other leftovers here and some big pitching bouncebacks. Mitch Keller had a great start at the Rangers, seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts,

13 whiffs on 98 pitches. And Robbie Ray up against the White Sox, everybody bounces back against the White Sox. six and two thirds, one run, nine strikeouts to zero walks, which is the key. This was his first start with zero walks on the season. 22 whiffs on 96 pitches, a big one here for both Robbie Ray and Mitch Keller. Yeah, it was 21 whiffs, I think, on just the fastball and slider alone for Ray. He only threw seven curve balls, so he didn't need anything else because it's the White Sox.

And if you're a major league caliber pitcher, you should be able to do well against them. but the 488 ERA is ugly. There's no question about that. 112 whip. It's pretty good. It's like I think it's a 333ERA. If you just take out the last start where he gave up five earned runs in a third of an inning or whatever it was. I feel very good about Robbie Gray moving forward.

I think you just want him in your starting lineup. Mitch Keller, this is frustrating because he gave up 15 earned runs in his previous two starts, then goes out and shuts out a decent Rangers lineup with nine strikeouts. The problem with Mitch Keller, and I think it's just always going to be a problem. And it's something we've talked about a lot with like Aaron Nola in years past, where I think the margin for error for Mitch Keller might just be really slim. And on the whole, he's going to be very good.

But these stretches where he just gets bombed are not a fluke because he is like 90th percentile in in zone pitch rate. the number of pitches he throws in the strike zone, he pounds the zone, he doesn't have swing and miss stuff. And if you look at the guys who are among the leaders in zone rate, you have a couple of like Garrett Crochet, actually, surprisingly. And Tyler Glass now, two guys that we don't necessarily think of as having great control or command, those guys have massive swing and miss stuff and they can get away pitching in the zone. It's a little harder to do when you're Mitch Keller and you kind of pitch to contact.

and there are going to be times when Babbip or hard contact, whatever it is, just screws them over. And I think that's just life with Mitch Keller. You know, Mitch Keller to me is just eerily similar to someone we're about to talk about,

Jose Barrios. Yeah, I think it's a better, a better version of Jose Burrios. These are pitchers where, and I think like a month ago, we probably said to drop Barrios and looking at it now, that was probably an overreaction.

But these are guys, that you just leave in your lineup through the ups and the downs and by the end of the season they're just going to give you their mid to upper three ZRA a solid whip they're gonna go six innings per start

they're gonna give you a chance at a win okay strikeouts but not great strikeouts and that's just who they are and there is a place for those pitchers in fantasy they're just they're probably not ever going to be anything better than that and I think the biggest thing with both Barrios and Calor is like

you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to figure out. Okay, now is the time I can still like. So just leave them in. Just leave them in. It takes a certain kind of will or, you know, a willingness to stomach the truly bad starts because they're going to be there. And a lot of the people that we hear from don't have the stomach for it. You know, a lot of people, I'm not saying it's bad, but a lot of people are very reactionary to these kind of things or reactionary. Reaction. I guess would be the better word. And if you know that's you, don't draft Jose Burrios. Yeah. Because what you're probably going to do is start him through a bad stretch, get frustrated, drop him, and miss out on the good stuff. Yep.

And with that, let's talk about some other pitching leftovers, too good and too bad. The good, Jose Burrios. That's right. You guessed it up against the reds, seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. He had 16 whiffs on 96 pitches. And over his last five starts, it's a 273 ERR. and a 103 whip.

So if you didn't start them for all those, then you're probably pretty upset. He probably had a 6ERA over two months prior to that. That sounds exactly right. The other good one was Zach Wheeler, a quality start at the Braves, six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, 20 whiffs on 97 pitches.

He has turned in four straight quality starts. Anything else on Wheeler and Burrios? No, like I said, you can, oh, Brrios through his four seamer and his change up more. And like, I don't think that stuff really matters in a macro sense. Like it might, maybe there's something about Cincinnati that those things worked against

them, but there's no guarantee with Jose Brrios that if he does the same thing the next time out, it's going to lead to the same results. Consistent inconsistency has been Jose Brrios brand for close to a decade now. I don't see any reason to think that'll change. Two bad pitching leftovers. Renel Blanco, three and two thirds, five runs, four walks to six strikeouts. Last six starts for him, a five-thirty-fif. ERA and a 140 whip.

And Tyler Anderson has given up a lot of damage over his last two starts. This one, he was at the Royals, six innings, 12 hits, five runs, two walks to two strikeouts. Oddly enough, still had 14 whiffs on 95 pitches, but it only turned into two strikeouts.

And he now has a 15% swinging strike rate over his last seven starts, but it's two really rough outings in a row. So what are your thoughts here on Renel Blanco? do you continue to just start someone like him and Tyler Anderson, do you hold on after these two bad ones? I'm more comfortable actually holding on to Anderson. Given the whiffs that he's been generating on the strikeouts lately,

I think he'll be, he should turn it around. Blanco, you know, for a guy, like we usually think about innings concerns for young pitchers, but Reno Blanco has, what do you go today? Three and two-thirds inning. So he's up to 137 and two-thirds innings this season. Last season, I think he threw 125. Before that, he had never thrown 100 innings in a season. I don't think he had thrown like 50 innings in a season before last year.

So, you know, this is a converted reliever. They're asking him to go deeper. There's been talk about having to limit his innings. Maybe what we're seeing is Renal Blanco just running out of gas a little bit. and probably playing over his head a lot for the first four months of the season. Some hitting leftovers. Corbyn Carroll continues his power binge, two for four with his 14th home run. He has six home runs in his past 13 games.

George Springer clearly listens to the podcast. I brought him up on the drop-a-meter earlier in the season with Chris. Chris said, don't drop him. I said, ah, you could drop him. And he went off. Yesterday I brought him up 28 days later segment. And what did you do? He went off.

Two for five with a double dong, three RBI. I don't know. I guess I'm just really bad at timing up George Spring. Let's just schedule an anti-George Springer section every like three weeks or so, just to make sure he stays on track. Yep. Yeah, early to mid-September,

that sounds about right for George Springer. Zach Netto continues his big August, two-for-five with his 19th home run. He has a 1047 OPS in the month. Juan Soto and Aaron Judge went back-to-back in the first inning of the Yankees game. That's about the nicest thing I will say. say about the Yankees here on Tuesday.

Ryan Jeffers has homered in each of his last three starts. I say starts because he has alternated games with Christian Vasquez. Jeffers has started. Hasks has been really good lately. Yeah, I can't even knock the twins for doing that because Vasquez is hitting here in the second half. So if you're in a 15-team Brodo League with two catchers, I think Vasquez is in play. But I just did want to mention Jeffers.

He's up to 20 home runs. So a nice little breakout season for him as well. We have waited all season to see if Jerkson ProFar would slow down now. August has been a pretty bad month for him, but he hit a clutch. Go ahead, home run here on Tuesday, and maybe that can help get the August numbers up and finish strong in September as well. I did want to mention for Max Muncie. Make it two for two.

He has been back for two games. He has homered in each of those. Some bullpen updates for the D-Backs. Justin Martinez struck out one for his fourth save of the season. for the Rockies, I mentioned Victor Vodnick dealing with shoulder soreness, it was, let me get this right.

Anheel Chivie, which is spelled C-H-I-V-I-L-L-I, if you are looking for him in the deepest NL-O-O-L-L-Egs. He got the ninth inning and picked up his first save of the season. And it did sound like there was a chance Vodnick might miss,

like might need to go on the I-L from what I saw. So it's, it's the Rockies but you know maybe Chaville can be a very very deep source of saves there's enough guys out there that I don't think you want to

go out and get him in a 10 team even categories league but I need to keep an eye on yeah and while it's the Rockies Vodnik was pitching well and you know he was racking up some saves recently so it's not crazy for the Braves Ryssela Glacius pitched a clean ninth inning

for his 27 save. For the Brewers, Devin Williams, got himself into quite the jam in the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a walk, two hits, but he struck out all three for his fifth save of the season. For the Red Sox, Kenley Janssen,

pitched a clean ninth for his 24th save. For the raise, Edwin Useta, which is spelled U-C-E-T-A, got the final four outs for his first save of the season, and this was their first save opportunity since Pete Fairbanks went on the I. IEL and Useta is having

an awesome season. 0.90 ERA, 0.57 whip, 10.8K per 9, 14.5% swinging strike rate. So another name, if you play in deeper leagues, you know,

wouldn't surprise me if the race kind of mix and match here, but this was the name that got the first opportunity. For the Padres, Robert Suarez, struck out one for his 29th save. For the Mariners,

Andres Munoz came in in the seventh inning facing the heart of the Dodgers lineup, I believe in the seventh he gave up the tying run and then in the eighth he gave up a three run homer for the Braves to blow it open so just annoying usage for Munoz

and obviously a bad outing for him and then as we mentioned with the Dodgers Daniel Hudson in a one run game picked up the save there for them to stream or not to stream on Wednesday some options here we have Jameson Tyone gets the Tigers Michael Lorenzen up against the Angels

Tobias Myers is at the Cardinals. Yariol Rodriguez and Nick Martinez are facing each other. Mitchell Parker gets the Rockies on the road. Andrew Hini against the Pirates. Woods Richardson at the Padres. There are some decent options. What do you think about Wednesday? Yeah, I think my favorites are probably Tobias Myers

against the Cardinals. And James and Tion against the Tigers and Yariol Rodriguez against the Reds. I agree. on Myers and Tyone. I know Parker's been bad, but the Rockies on the road. I could see it working out for him.

Sure. Yeah, that's fine. On Thursday, we have Gavin Williams, who's at the Yankees. We have Jeffrey Springs at the Oakland A's. Osvaldo Bito is on the other side. He's pitched well recently. He's facing Tampa Bay. Spencer Arrogetti at the Orioles.

I don't know. I mean, he was so good, his previous two starts and then he goes out and is just mad against the white socks. I, he's probably going to be awesome against the Orioles. Aragutti has more upside than anyone on this list, anyone on Wednesday, probably anyone we really ever talk about in this segment. But I can't say affirmatively you should start him. I would go with Jeffrey Springs ahead of him.

I think Jeffrey Springs probably shouldn't be rostered low enough to count for this segment anymore. Yeah, I agree with that. Springs at Oakland is the top one. If you are desperate, I think Bito is second, Aragutti third. At least it's at Baltimore, which is a better place to pitch, but he just hasn't shown any consistency. I was going to say Aragutti second and Bito third, but yeah, we have the same top three there. We are going to wrap it up for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in some fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back be in tomorrow. Bye-bye.

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