Fantasy Baseball Today - Robbie Ray's Awesome Debut, Vladdy Is Hot & Gerrit Cole Got Crushed! (7/25 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Robbie Ray had an awesome season debut at the Dodgers (3:16). ... Vlad Jr. has hit much better since the start of June (9:38). ... Xander Bogaerts is racking up the hits since returning (14:00). ... News (19:31): Christian Yelich went on the IL with that back injury and might need surgery. ... The Rockies exploded for 20 runs against Nick Pivetta (29:05). ... Gerrit Cole struggled again with the Mets (35:10). ... Let's talk waiver wire hitters, starting with corner infielders (43:35). ... Yariel Rodriguez has pitched well in July (51:00). ... This or that, starting pitcher edition (55:26)? ... These hitters are streaking (1:00:57)! ... Let's wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:22). 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 to Robbie Ray and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, July 25th. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Robbie Ray had an awesome debut at the Dodgers.

There was an offensive explosion in Cor's Field and do not start Garrick Cole against the Mets ever again. But let's jump in. Oh my God. So that was a clip from Candelita, aka Jose Iglesias, because those Mets put a hurting on the Yankees. They swept the Subway Series,

and these two teams could not be further apart in terms of vibes right now. It is. It's quite bad. Mets are awesome. They are trending up. and the Yankees have gone the complete opposite way. But we'll talk about some Mets and Yankees later on. I will get us started.

You guys graciously gave me the Olive Garden breadstick. We got to talk about Robbie Ray, who got off to a shaky start in his debut, but wound up having a great outing at the Dodgers. Five no-hit innings, one run allowed, two walks, two hit by pitches, eight strikeouts. He had 22 whiffs on 86 pitches. All of that damage came against him in the first inning,

which I think makes sense. Obviously, his first start since March of last year, where he gave up two walks, two hit by pitches, two wild pitches, one earned run. The next four innings, zero hits, zero walks, seven strikeouts for Robbie Ray. Velocity, way up, 2.3 miles per hour on the fastball. The slider was up almost five miles per hour in this one. So overall, I think very, very encouraging. His pants were still way, way too tight, but that's the Robbie Ray experience. Scott, 73% rostered.

I know we've been talking about these injury returnees as lottery tickets. Yeah. I think I want this lottery ticket on my fantasy team. Yeah, if you already picked up Robbie Ray, it feels like you won the lottery, and he's one of the more available ones, it turns out still. So you have a chance to play the lottery already knowing the winner. I mean, maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself saying Robbie Ray is an ace now, but you mentioned the velocity increase.

And that's comparing to when we last saw him in 20, 23, which when he made just one three-inning start and didn't look very good and wound up having Tommy Jodd surgery. Even if you compare his velocities in this game here Wednesday to 2021, his Cy Young winning season, they were even higher than that. And partly, I'm sure he's, He was just amped up.

If you look at what he was throwing at AAA on his rehab assignment, it was pretty good, but it wasn't quite as good as 2021. And so I think just like the adrenaline and all of that helped to bring Robbie Ray up another level. But the point is he wasn't down. He was close to that 2021 level when he won the Say Young. And if he can come anywhere close to that and continue to throw strikes, which has been an issue for him throughout his career, then I think the outcome could be very good. It wasn't that long ago.

We considered Robbie Ray an ace and fantasy. I mean, really, we haven't not considered him a must-start pitcher, right? Because 2022, he wasn't an ace, but he was a must-start pitcher. If you begin in 2021, yeah, I mean, he had some rough years. with the. No, yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. You know, it was, if you watched the start, I mean, early on, it, it was, he could not throw his slider, especially, like, at all.

And then that was one thing that I noticed in his rehab outings was he was throwing his knuckle curve way more than his slider in the rehab outings. And I was wondering if it was similar to Garrett Cole and Gavin Williams. It was just, he didn't feel comfortable throwing the slider as much. The knuckle curve's been a really good pitch for him throughout his. his career. So I was interested to see what was going to happen there. But as it turned out, he threw the slider 31% of the time in this one and got six whiffs. The knuckle curve was phenomenal as well, seven whiffs on 15 pitches, the fastball, nine. So all three of the pitches were

working really well for Robbie Ray. He looked great. I mean, the slider and curveball, he threw them in the zone 30% of the time. That's what he's going to do with those pitchers. though he's chasing he's looking for chases that's that's the goal there um but yeah once he settled in i mean the first inning kind of a disaster two walks two odd pitches two hit by pitches gave up a run without a hit and comes back in the second strikes out the side so and i'm very encouraged and this is the dodgers yes so i i i would say i mean we're we're talking scott i know you wrote this piece on the site uh yesterday comparing sangos Ray and Kershaw and Jeffrey Springs.

Mm-hmm. It might just be that we've seen Ray and we have not seen the other guys. I'm going to go ahead and say having seen Ray already, I'd rather have him than any other guys. Oh, for sure. I mean, it's possible saying I think Senga and Kershaw both pitch on Thursday. Senga on Friday. It's possible that by this weekend, those guys come out and do the same thing. And, you know, it looks different.

But yeah. Robbie Ray is certainly the leader in the clubhouse. There are no guarantees for these pitchers coming back from long-term injuries, as we've seen with Max Scherzer and Gavin Williams and Shane Buz and oh, look, Garrett Cole again. Even Gary Cole, yeah. Yeah. So the fact that Robbie Ray comes back and looks like a total world beater, yeah, I think that immediately vaults them to the top of that priority list.

I mean, Kershaw and Sengar are almost universally rostered at this point. Springs is still out there in a number of leagues. but Robbie Ray needs to be universally rostered down too. Yeah, and I don't want to be a Debbie Downer, but Robbie Ray, the pitcher we saw in the first inning, we could still see some of that moving forward. I mean, this has been a volatile pitcher throughout his career and has struggled with control at times,

and he still only through 59% of his pitches for strikes here. So I just want to keep everything in perspective that, you know, while this start was amazing, there could still be some ups and downs for Robbie Ray moving forward. He is 73% rostered. He's home against the Oakland A's next week. And I'll throw a few names your way. Would you be willing to drop these for Robbie Ray?

They're all over 75% rostered. First up is Marcus Stroman. Yep. What about Luis Severino? Sure. Yep. Andrew Abbott. Yep.

Sure. You say Kikuchi. Yep. I think so. And McKenzie Gore. Yes. Yep. All right.

So again, those are all over 75%. if you have those on your team and Roby Ray's available, go out and make that swap. Let's go over to Scott, your player of the night. Okay. My player of the night is Vladimir Guerrero. Let's talk about this guy. So he went two for three with a walk and a home run his 18th of the season,

but more notably his fifth and six games on a power binge here. And that was after a big home run month in June. In fact, since June 1st, Vladimir Guerrero has hit 12 home runs, month and a half's time, I guess almost two months' time, 12 home runs. And if he'd been on that pace all along, I think we would have been thrilled and saying he was a great big value in round three. There has been an underlying change here since the start of June, beyond just the fact he's hit a bunch of home runs.

The hair, okay, yeah, the fact he shaved his seat. said, 36.1% fly ball rate since the start of June. That's not high, but prior to that, it was 26.7. So it is much higher than it was during the couple months when he wasn't hitting home runs. And this has kind of been an issue for Vladimir Guerrero throughout. Of course, he was the best player in fantasy in 2021, right? That was the year. But since then, yeah, that was the year. Since then, he's had, he's been a disappointment, and a lot of it has to do with putting the ball on the ground too much. A lot of it has to do with the direction he's hitting the ball. But he seems to be optimizing that. Maybe not even not. Maybe optimize isn't the right word because he could go further with it, but he seems to have gotten to a place where it all works again. And since we've seen it from him before, since we've known he's capable of crushing the ball all this time, I'm feeling pretty good about Vladimir Guerrero at this point. And he was, uh, he was, one of the few first baseman that I moved ahead of

I don't know maybe this is I don't know Matt Olson I moved Matt Olson behind Vladimir Guerrero though I don't think that's going to blow anybody's mind at this point. Did you move Vlad ahead of Pete Alonzo? I need to think about that yeah I think it's close yeah yeah no I I think that's

one that you can also do I will say like a big part of it is the power hasn't been there all season but we're going on now basically three months of Vlad playing up to his expected stats, which is something that he had not done since 2021, as you talked about. April 363X Woba, 307 Woba. That's not great. May, 421 X Woba, 410 Woba.

June 400 X Woba 409 Wopa. July, he's actually underperforming a little bit, at least entering today. 390 X-Woba, 342 Wobah, but still hitting for power. The batting average hasn't been quite as good, but I think you'll take the five home runs in, you know, 72 plate appearances or wherever it is. So yeah, I don't know. Like he had a perception, I think that he had underperformed his expected stats a lot. It was really just last season. 22, he was disappointing, but he also just wasn't as good.

The underlying numbers took a huge step back. Last year, the underlying numbers improved and the performance didn't. Basically, like, I think there was a lot of like, well, you know, 2021 was a result of playing in Buffalo and Dunedin and all that. And, you know, maybe there was something to it. But it also might have just been that he was really good in 2021. He hadn't been as good since. but the underlying numbers were still quite good,

and he was likely to perform to that level. So I don't know, it was frustrating, and I'll admit that I had certainly lost some faith in Vladimir Guerrera's ability to perform. Yeah, like an elite player. That's. But it's hard not to. The underlying numbers were still really good,

and so there was reason to be optimistic, even amidst that. and now we're seeing, you know, a two and a half, three-month stretch where he's actually playing up to them. And lo and behold, he's still a really good hitter. Chris, let's go over to you with your player of the night. Yeah, my player of the night, Zander Bogart, who I think is one of the most interesting players to rank right now. And I think after my updates today, I moved him a couple spots ahead of you guys. He's, I think my number 15 shortstop, number 10 second basement.

I think you guys both had him like 17, 8. at shortstop. There's some really interesting things going on. He went 4 for 4 with a walk today. He has multiple hits in, I believe, six of seven games since coming off the IL. He has struck out one time in 30 plate appearances since coming off the IL.

He also has no extra base hits in that time. All 14 of his hits are singles. 14 for 29. He's hitting 483 with a 483 ISO. And so what I expected to see when I looked into the numbers was that Xander Bogart's really hadn't been very good, that it was just good babit luck and there was nothing sustainable to it. That's not actually the case, though. His average exit velocity is up to 89.9 miles per hour in the month of July. It was 86.2 prior to

the injury. His launch angle is up. slightly to like nine degrees or something. It's not great, but it's, it's not like he's hitting a ton of ground balls. His expected Wobah in the month of July is 353. This is a guy for his career, who has outperformed his expected stats by 24 points overall. And that's been consistent whether he was in Boston,

whether he was when he made the move to San Diego. He was still, I think, 22 points better than his expected Wobah last year. year. That's just a consistent skill that Zander Bogart's has shown. I'm kind of thinking Zander Bogart's even coming off the shoulder injury is back to being pretty much a must-start player, which I don't know about you guys, but I feel like there was just a lot of skepticism about that. So I'm pretty impressed with what he's done so far. And I'm happy to have him where I do. I think the biggest question is, is how much power are we going to

get Chris because you know during this again we're dealing with a really small sample size he's only been back for seven games so far but the six games that we have data for on fan graphs a 54% ground ball rate so and he changed his swing he talked about um he's doing a two-handed follow through rather than letting go of his right hand when he swings and maybe that's going to sap his power but you know like a 55% ground ball rate okay that's not good you know, that's, that's higher than you'd want. But it's not so high that I would think, ah, well, Zanderbograrch just can't hit for power.

You know, he's, he's not a huge power hitter anyway, but if he's going to be a good source of batting average and hit a 15 homer pace the rest of the way and run a little bit as he was before the injury and last year, 19 steals, I still think it's probably a must-start player. All right. Let's take our first break. And when we return, we will get into the news and notes.

do that right after this. Welcome back in the news and notes. Christian Yelich, big news here. Christian Yelich was placed on the IL with lower back inflammation and season ending surgery is possible. He'll see a spine specialist on Thursday to discuss the next steps. Yelich is still an amazing player when he's on the field, but this is always the concern with him.

I have no Yelich this year and I was just worried about this back injury popping up. Now, to this point I've been dead wrong and he was amazing. But, well, it had been a while since he had been amazing, to be fair. He was good last year because he got the Steel's backup. But, you know, the last amazing year was 2019, I believe. Yeah. But this is a, you know, a consistent concern.

And I don't, you know, he's only getting older. I don't think it's going to go away. So hopefully he's not done for the year, but we will wait to learn more on Christian Yelich. Astro's GM, Dana Brown said Wednesday that he's optimistic. Kyle Tucker will return from the I.L. before September. What are we talking about here? This has been one of the weirdest things

that we've witnessed in fantasy. I would say over the past couple of years, it's very odd. So the thing is, it's probably not weird. They're probably just not being honest about the injury. Fair. Right?

Like there was one quote where someone mentioned it was a bone bruise and that's probably what the injury is, but it's pretty clear that they've just been obfuscating about this injury all long. And maybe it's gotten, maybe it's just more serious than they initially thought, but they just haven't, they haven't been a hundred.

It's very similar to the Justin Verlander situation, actually. Why would they do that? Maybe I'm dumb, but I, like I can't really see a major competitive advantage. I don't think there's a major competitive advantage, but I think like my like galaxy brain theory is that teams around professional sports saw the Patriots and the San Antonio Spurs have this like historic run of dominance in the 2000s and 2010s with Greg Popovich and Bill Belichick gleefully lying to the media about injuries at every turn. And I think there are some people in sports who have internalized that as that is part of why.

they were good. And it's like, no, they had like, Hall of Fame caliber players everywhere and great coaches. But like I just, the Kyle Tucker injury, the Kyle Tucker injury and the Justin Verlander injury are actually both very similar. If you remember, Justin Verlander, oh, he's day to day. He's going to throw a bullpen session. And then it's been, what, a month and a half for Justin Verlander as well? Like, it seems clear that they're not being, and they have no obligation to be.

100% honest with us. I just, I think it's pretty clear that they're, these injuries are more serious than they initially let on and they just haven't updated us on the truth of them. And what's crazy is since Kyle Tucker has gone down, the Astros have gone on this crazy run. They are now in first place in the AL West,

which I think, but when he went down, they were seven, eight games out, which is, yeah, I mean, the Mariners completely collapsed as well.

Yeah, they were like 10 games up at one point. Yep. Mike Trout will return to Los Angeles to undergo further evaluation. He left his rehab start Tuesday with soreness in his surgically repaired left knee. Julio Rodriguez, who is on the aisle

with an ankle sprain, will be re-evaluated on August 1st and is unlikely to return in the minimum time. Tanner Bybee left his start after five innings due to lower extremity cramping. Sounds like he's avoided any serious injury. Brian Reynolds was scratched from the lineup Wednesday after his back locked up on him

and manager Derek Shelton said Reynolds is fine and will travel with the team for their road trip, which begins on Friday. Cody Bellinger could be activated as soon as the team's July 26th to 31st road trip. He's been out with a fractured left middle finger. Michael Harris was transferred to the 60-day IL, which means he can't return until mid-August at the earliest. Some Rangers news, Josh Young will begin a rehab assignment Friday at AA. He had previously played four rehab games from June 16th to the 20th before being pulled off with soreness in his wrist. And was it really that long ago?

Yeah, uh, yeah, over a month from now, which is crazy. And manager Bruce Bochy also said Evan Carter is about a week behind Young. So hopefully he starts his rehab the following week, the first week of August. Jorge Mateo was placed in the aisle with a dislocated left elbow. Connor Norby will be recalled on Thursday and is having a great season in the miners, 297 batting average, 16 homers, 13 steals, a 908 OPS. He's only 10% rostered. Scott, any interest in Connor, nor be you.

I think we would all agree there's talent there, but the last time he got called up, he did not play every day. Well, there's that. I think it's more likely that he would now because there's less that they need to see from Ramon Arias. But the bigger issue is that he's one of these low exit velo guys. and I know people get tired of me talking about that, but 87.7 mile per hour average, 106.9 max.

That's pretty whatever. We can see hitters overcome that, and he has been a good power hitter in the miners with good pull rates on fly balls, but is that going to work for a right-handed hitter at Camden Yards? I'm skeptical of that. So I wouldn't say I'm eager to pick up Connor Norby. If you play in the sort of league deep enough

that there's just nobody ever interesting on the waiver wire, then he's going to be interesting by default. But I think he's just a placeholder until either Kobe May, or perhaps even Jackson Holiday, who's back to playing the field and hitting well, arrives. Yandy Diaz, who's currently on the restricted list due to a personal issue has no timeline to return. Byron Buxton was removed after getting hit by a pitch on his right forearm.

X-rays revealed no fracture, and he was diagnosed with a forearm contusion. Walker Bueller will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Friday. He said he felt good following his bullpen session Tuesday. He is still up to 80% rostered. That's another name. I mean, if you're running out of IL-Spots, there's no problem dropping Walker Bueller for someone like Robbie Ray, right?

Yeah. No problem at all, even if you're not. Anyway, yeah, I would much rather Oster Robbie Ray than Walker Bueller. any way you have to make that happen. I agree. J.P. Crawford is expected to miss four to six weeks with a fractured right pinky finger. Christian Scott plans to treat the UCL sprain in his right elbow with rest and rehab

with the hope of returning this season. He said that he had a similar issue last year. I think he missed 21 days. So for whatever that's worth, he said it felt around the same. The Dodgers option landed knack back to AAA with Tyler Glassdown coming off the IL. Blue Jay's top pitching prospect, Ricky Tiedeman, will receive a third opinion on his left elbow slash forearm.

Initial imaging came back negative, but clearly there's something they don't like in there. The Red Sox signed Alex Cora to a three-year $21.75 million contract extension, making him the second highest paid manager in baseball and very well deserved. I didn't see this, but someone else added it in. I added this one to the notes. Just continue the bit. Jaden Fielder, son of Prince.

Signed with the Brewers. That's great. Grandson of Cecil. Worth noting. Third generation, did he sign as a player? Yeah, he was undrafted. Undrafted out of college. The grandsons of players for my childhood.

He's going to hit 319 home runs, just like his dad and granddad did. You lock it in. I'm rooting for it. That would be awesome. Latest trade rumors. The Yankees are interested in Jonathan, India. Apparently the Reds aren't expected to make India available

unless they fall out of the playoff race in the next week. And also with the Yankees, they have concerns about how Jazz Chisholm's personality would fit into their clubhouse. This is the same team that traded for Josh Donaldson one season after he ripped Garrickole for using sticky substances. They traded for Alex Verdugo from their rivals

after their rivals got sick of having him around, benched him for loafing, and he like showed up to a game late and got benched. This is, you know what? You don't get to have him now, all right? I agree. I mean, it's good. If there's any truth to it, it's pretty ridiculous.

The Astros are among teams interested in Isok Paredes. That is like the dream trade scenario. Yeah. Like, it would be so funny to watch Issoc Paredes hit like 47 home runs with an average. home run distance of like 319 feet. Yeah. It would be amazing. And the Orioles are willing to trade Ryan Malthcastle and Cedric Mullins.

That's also, Ryan Mousal getting away from Canyon Yards. Also a dream trade scenario. Would love to see that. Yep, 100%. Let's talk about the Broncos who defeated the Patriots 20 to 7 here on Wednesday. The Rockies, that is, put up 20 runs on 21 hits, including four homers. Brenton Doyle continues his bridge. Ridiculous July. Two for four with a grand slam. He hit his 17th home run, had five RBI.

And so far in the month, batting 380 with 10 homers and a 1337 OPS. Ezekiel Tovar went three for six with the 17th homer. Michael Tolia continues to hit well, three for five with a double, two runs, and two RBI. Since being recalled on June 6th, he's betting 242 with 12 homers, 29 RBI, and four steals. Brendan Rogers, four for five with a double, continues to be a name. You can stream whenever they're home in Cores Field, but just a huge offensive output here for the Rockies.

Scott, does Michael Tolia and Brenda Rogers need to be more rostered than they are? Tolia is at 42%. Rogers at 22%. I mean, the overall power output for Rogers is still pretty lacking. I understand the incentive to play him at home, though. is that enough to keep him on your roster in the meantime? I'd lean no on that.

Tolia has, you know, I've kind of been lumping him together with Lawrence Butler because they have the same strengths and weaknesses hit the ball very hard, but not often enough. And they both hit three homers just before the All-Star break, and they both had great matchups coming out of the break. Butler, of course, has been very hot, continued to be very hot since the second half started. Tolia not as much, so it was nice to see him come through with the big game here. Interestingly,

Tolia, with those high exit velocities, is underperforming his expected batting average by a considerable margin. His expected batting average is only in the 240s, but still, it'd be nice to see him, or did he get up to that now? I guess he got up to that with this big game, right? Or at least since being recalled,

he's about hitting 240. So I guess during the time since he's come back, he's lived up to expectations. And that would be certainly a worthwhile player in Roto leagues with the extra corner infield spot, the extra outfield spots. I wouldn't say Tolia has as much juice right now as Lawrence Butler. But I do think he's, you know, worth gambling on in those formats wherever he's still available. And who did they do all this damage against?

Nick Povetta, 2 and 2.3. thirds innings, 10 hits, eight runs, seven of those earned. Two homers allowed in this one. He still had a lot of whiffs, but lots of hard contact, obviously. The velocity was down between 1.2 and 1.5 miles per hour on his three main pitches. His three starts before this in July were pretty awesome. But, and I'm pretty sure, we might have brought this up over the weekend, like just benching Pavetta because it was in Corse Field, but I don't know that there's anything actionable here, Chris.

I mean, you know, we had the, when was it, back in April or something, we had the solar eclipse? Mm-hmm. You go outside and you stare at a solar eclipse and you hurt your eyes. You can't get mad at the solar eclipse because your eyes are hurt. You knew the risks involved. It's the same thing with Nick Povetta starting at course field. I started Nick Povetta this week in one league. I have nobody to blame for that, but my.

myself. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's fair. He'd been so good lately, just shut down the Dodgers last time out three turns ago, had a no-hit bid going against the Marlins. And I've gotten pretty lax about Coorsfield because the Rocky's offense is so bad and the environment just league-wide has been so favorable to pitchers that we've seen some really good outings at Coorsfield this season.

Of course, just recently, Hayden Birdsong, the latest example. but you don't want to miss out on the big outing from the pitcher who's capable of high outcomes like Pivotta has been and has done lately. So I think I started Pivotta in most of the leagues where I have them too. And yeah, it just got a... You know, it was kind of a...

Well, a couple things. I should mention... I guess you already did mention, Frank, that the velocity was down a little bit for Povetta. So I haven't seen any reports related to that. It could just be a one-off. I don't want to go too far down that path. But yes, maybe we'll come to find out that there was meaning behind that.

And there is more reason to be concerned about Pivotta here. But in addition to the course field angle here, I do kind of take the start from Povetta and so many other pitchers today, Garrett Cole. I don't think I'm going to be able to list them off fast enough. But there were just, I mean, Tyler Glass now to an extent, I know you could blame it on him returning from the IL. I don't know.

There were a few others. I kind of get in this like, here we go again feeling. Now that the ball is playing differently, we've talked before, it's carrying much better in July. Many more fly balls are turning into home runs. And remember how things were playing out last year. where it was just like we'd constantly be getting blindsided by the starts, sort of like Nick Povetta had here today.

And are we going to deal with that? Is the glob going to return? It's been a few weeks since I've mentioned the glob. I know you missed it, Frank. Oh, yeah. Is it coming back? I don't know. I'm certainly not going to make moves assuming it will,

but I am happy to sit here and wonder and whine about it. From one rough pitcher outing to another, Garik Cole, who I think maybe you should just never start him against the Mets ever again. Because it turns out, I didn't realize this, he has terrible career numbers against the New York Mets. So five and two-thirds innings, six runs allowed, three more homers allowed in the start. Ten hard hits, 90.9 average exit velocity. In two starts against the Mets this season, nine and two-thirds innings, 12 earned runs, seven homers allowed by Gary Cole.

Nine career starts against the Mets. 699 ERA, a 173 whip, 14 home runs allowed by Gary Cole. And what's even we'relier about this start is he did what we've been asking him to do. He leaned on his slider. He threw it 30% of the time. And it didn't matter, Scott.

I don't know that we've been asking him to do it. We've been wondering why he hasn't been doing it. I mean, the slider is his best pitch, right? Like, we've wanted it to throw it forward. When his slider is right, it's his best pitch. But maybe his slider isn't right. He's coming back from a significant elbow issue. And so, yeah, he had faded that slider, was thrown at only 10% of the time,

was having success kind of using a cutter in its place. The last two starts were great. But, yeah, he tried mixing in that slider again, 30% instead of 10% and it did not go well. So I'm, my theory is that, He's trying to get it back, and it's not all the way there yet. And so I don't know that I necessarily want him trying to do that because it seemed to go well enough with the cutter. So well, in fact, that I, in my last rankings update, I had moved Garrett Cole back up to 13th.

I said, hey, he must start again. And now I'm going to have to reconsider. I don't know that I completely buy that, though, because entering this start, his slider was still his best with pitch this season. I mean, it was a small sample. He was only using it 10% of the time. But a 36% whiff rate. So I think if we wanted more strikeouts, then yeah, we probably did want to see Garrett Cole use a slider more.

Or at least, you know, use it enough to get a feel for it. And then hopefully we get on a roll with that pitch. But that wasn't the case. But it didn't work. So the way I would have put it is it's hard to see a path to Garrett Cole being Garrett Cole without his slider being, it's been in the past. Like, it's not impossible.

The cutter had been a good pitch for him last season when he, you know, started to expand its usage. But it, we had never seen Garrett Cole pitch like an ace without that slider. And so while I do want to see it, it's also, like Scott said, it's possible that the slider's not there yet. And the path to the most successful version of Garrett Cole right now might not be through the slider. But if that's the case,

then I also wouldn't expect him to be Garrick Cole. Does that, am I making sense there? Yeah. Who would you expect him to be? Uh, you know, I mean, like, you asked it as a joke,

but I'll answer it seriously for the other. No, I, I actually was asking seriously, and then the humor of it hit me after I said it. I've ranked him, I think him and Carlos Redon have been very close for me. Gary Cole a little higher

But you hate Carlos Rodon They're in the 25 to 35 Oh you don't hate Carlos Rodon Carlos Rodon 66 Do you have them 35th? No, I haven't I've been I've been

Steady Eddie on Carlos Rodon throughout I never got as high How bad he is But I never got as high as you guys did When things were going well I never got as low as you guys did The thing for me with them And

It's always talked about how bad Carlos Rodin. Gosman is another guy in this range where I have Gosman lower than those guys. But the thing is, for me, I expect good starts from them at various points. I just don't expect them to pitch like aces. It's chasing the upside that all three of them have shown at various points. That's the way I view it. And so with Cole, I think he'll have stretches where he looks like himself, including

the most recent start. I don't expect that consistently until he, unless and until he can get that slider back. Garrett Cole, I believe, is, yes, 91% started on CBS, and I get why he was coming off to great starts before this.

He's at the Phillies next week. What do you do? Do you really start him there? Not eager to. So I'm probably going to move, I said I moved him to 13th. I'm probably going to drop him back down to 21st now, which puts him behind Sunny Gray and Freddie Peralta

ahead of Joe Ryan and Grayson Rodriguez, who of course are not totally bankable either. That's what you have to keep in mind, like when you're wringing your hands over Garrett Cole is like, okay, but how many pitchers can you slide, especially the way the ball is flying? Now, how many pictures can you put in your lineup and trust them to just be locked down every time? Justin Steele looked like that for a while.

And then the last two starts have been a little rough. Obviously, Ranger Suarez, I don't think you can view as that guy for Amber Valdez. You know, all these guys are in that range of my rankings. Tanner Halk has had some rough stretches. Nick Lodolo, I certainly don't view that way, right? Like outside of, yeah, it's feeling a little globy. right now where outside of, I don't know, the top 14, it feels pretty like Freddie Peralta, Sunny Gray, Pablo Lopez. Those are all guys outside of my top 15 who I look at them and I'm like,

I don't, I'm going to start them. I expect good things from them, but I certainly can't say, we're in the clear. These guys are all going to be sub three ERA guys moving forward. I don't feel that way about a lot of those guys. And to that point, I wasn't here to talk about Garrett Crochet yesterday, but he's going to slide back up to 13th when I move cold down. I can't bring myself to lower Garrett Crochet with the workload concerns much lower than that, because there just aren't that many pitchers who are anywhere close to as good as Garrett Crochet. He's like at that dividing line you mention between the the total lockdown aces and the ones who are kind of squishy.

All right, let's take our final break. And when we return, we will talk about some waiver wire hitters right after this. Welcome back in. Let's talk waiver wire hitters. And first we will start with corner infield options. Nate Lowe has turned things up over the past month, two for four with his eighth home run. Last 23 games, he's batting 298 with six homers and 21 RBI. A. E.

E. E. E. Horez, also hitting better as of late. Two for four with his 12 homer. Last 21 games batting 297 with six. with six homers, 19 RBI, and OPS over 900. Juan Yuppez continues to hit since getting a shot here with the Nationals, one for four, with his second home run. He's betting 368 with an OPS over 1,000 in his first 15 games.

And Rowdy Tellez, two for three with his ninth home run. And since the start of June, 38 game sample, Rowdy Telez is betting 328 with eight homers, 28 RBI, and an OPS over 900. Scott, how would you rank Telez? Yipes, Telez, Ypres, Suarez, and Nate Lowe. Nate Lowe's number one. I don't really care that much about the others.

So I would rank them, Ypez, Suarez, Teles, but I don't really care about them. Yeah, Ypez and Teles are two that I've seen in deeper Roto leagues with corner infield spots, and I just think they need to be rostered in at least those formats. Where would Tolia rank on that list, Scott? Oh, ahead of them. I had of everybody.

Ahead of even Nate Lowe right now. I'd rather like, Nate Lowe is the safer option. And like I couldn't see dropping Nate Lowe in a 15 team league. But like, doy, nobody's going to drop Nato in a 15 team league. So yeah, I'll say Tolia. I'm a little more optimistic about Yippez than Scott is. Like, it's a long shot, right? Like, I'm not necessarily expecting Wanya Pez to be a difference maker.

It's what, 15 games in a row with a hit, however, including. Is that all, has he had a hit in every game? Every single game, I think seven multi-hit games in that stretch. You know, it's not crazy though, Chris. In a year where Jesse Winker and Jurexon Profar have had bounced back seasons, it's not crazy. And we're talking about a guy who has a pretty good minor league track record. he's 26 years old. There was a stretch when he first got called up for the Cardinals

where he looked pretty useful. Remember 12 home runs in 76 games in 2022. The minor league track record is... He was plug in 438 at AAA this year as a 26-year-old. Yeah, no. ...friendly league. I'm not expecting him to be a difference maker, but if nothing else, he's locked in right now.

And in a, you know, certainly any 15-year-old. team league where you need a, is he first base and outfield eligible? Yep. I think it's worth taking a flyer just to see. You know, like you mentioned, jerks and pro far has a long track record of not being useful and has been a lot more than useful this season. So I just don't want to write off the possibility for Juan Yuppez when he's locked into an everyday role and showing something right now.

Two outfielders, do either of these names matter? Colton Couser, two for two with a double, a walk, and three RBI. He has started all five games in the second half so far. And in those games, he has seven hits, one homer and two steals. And Jake Frey had himself a big game, three for five with a sock and a shoe. He's hitting 282 on the season. He also only has two home runs. So 24% rostered, that's probably right.

Is there anything here with Couser or Jake Fraley? I mean, how do we know that he's played five games in a row? Okay, great. What are the next five games look like? Right? Like, at the end of the first half,

it looked like Heston Kirstadt was, was kind of pushing him out of the way. And the Orioles need to make some consolidation moves here to free up some playing time. And until they do, it's going to be hard to buy in. But you mentioned the reports

that Ryan Mountcastle and Cedric Mullins are possibly on the block. That would certainly open up an opportunity. Might just be an opportunity for Kobe Mayo, but it's still, you know, if you want to get ahead of it, Colton Couser is someone who has flash difference making potential and obviously has that kind of talent. So, you know, if you want to add him ahead of the deadline just in case, I think that's reasonable.

If you need speed in the middle infielder, in middle infield, Xavier Edwards has been racking up the hits lately three for three with a walk, a run, an RBI and since being called up early in June, he is batting 381 with 10 runs scored four steals and an 888 OPS. Scott, in deeper leagues at middle infield, would you rather take a shot on Edwards or Connor Norby? Edwards. I'm kind of interested in Edwards because he has a couple of standout tools. And it's the profile that rarely works in the modern game, the slap hitter. but he slapped his way as Xavier Edwards

were talking about he slapped his way to a 330 batting average or AAA this year a 351 batting average there last year with a lot of stolen bases so he's kind of

Luis Castillo like the second baseman from 20 years ago not the starting pitcher and for what it's worth decent chance he's like leading off for the Marlins

from August for July 31st on I guess Yeah. They DFAed Tim Anderson. Yep. And he's played, I think Edwards has played every game since then. In part because they wanted to give Edwards more playing time. I mean, Anderson was doing nothing for them, so I'm sure that played a role in the decision too. But yeah, I picked up Edwards.

I'd stashed him for a while in the 2014 Dynasty League and ultimately had to drop them as a roster crunch matter. and I regret it right now because he is doing so far exactly what he was doing in the minors. In deeper two catcher leagues, Kyle Higashioka has hit well and he's playing much more than Luis Camp Yusano. He has started four of five games in the second half.

He went three for five with his 12th home run. And last 17 games, Higashioca batting 305 with seven homers, 22 RBI, tons of fly balls to the pole side. Chris, 15 team two catcher leagues, Would you rather add someone like Hagashioca or Austin Wells, who's hit better lately also? Wells, I think has more recent prospect pedigree. I think was it yesterday that he had 111 mile per hour home run?

It wasn't yesterday. It was Monday. But yeah, there were four batted balls over 110 miles per hour by the Yankees. And one of them was Austin Wells. The other two were once out on Aaron Judge, obviously. there does seem to be some legit power upside for Austin Wells who I think is the primary catcher for the Yankees now too.

Yeah, and he's been batting cleanup lately for the Yankees as well. But that's a whole other issue. How did that happen? Yeah, they are searching right now and obviously not finding much. Not many waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday, but two names Matt Waldron in shallower leagues. He's already 79% rostered.

A quality start at the National, six innings, three runs. with four strikeouts there. And Yariol Rodriguez pitched well against Tampa Bay. Five and two thirds, two runs, six strikeouts. Only had six whiffs on 73 pitches. But four starts in July for Rodriguez, a 201 ERA, a 0.76 whip, 25 strikeouts over 22 and a third. I think we already know about Waldron. And, you know, he's fine where he's at.

But Chris, I know Rodriguez is someone that you've been optimistic about. do you think he needs to be more than 26% rostered? Yeah, I think that could go up. The problem is, well, two problems. One, Orioles and Yankees next week. I don't, you know, the Yankees might have a decent lineup by next week. We'll see. I never thought I'd be begging for Stanton or to return.

The bigger problem is... Where would you guys be without Juan Soda right now, honestly? Because that guy has been... I mean, killing it. Probably in the same spot that they are in right now. Yeah. But yeah, Rodriguez only through 73 pitches today. I think he's only had one start all season where he finished six innings, maybe two.

So that, the upside's limited. And that's pretty obvious. I think it makes it tough to trust him in any points leagues. But yeah, I think 26% is too low. And I'll just, Matt Waldron just, I don't, I don't understand why he throws his other pitches. Like, I know it's not that simple. I know it's not just, oh, just throw your best pitch. But like, in this instance, his knuckle ball is so clearly better than everything else.

I'm not sure. Like, if Matt Waldron didn't have a knuckle ball, I'm not sure he's a major league pitcher. And so I just don't, I, he should be throwing that pitch. He threw it 60% of the time, I think, in his most recent start before this one. That should be the floor. not like 35% or whatever it is when he'll randomly drop to 35%. Maybe he, there are some days when he just doesn't have it,

I would still rather see Matt Waldron try to work through it with the knuckleball than plot along with sweepers and sinkers that aren't any good. How much better do you think he can get? Because he's already blown away our expectations. I don't. He's been kind of a once in a decade sort of knuckleballer. Well, it's more avoiding mediocre starts like this.

Like his numbers. With a one whip. Quality. Three earned runs in six innings is a mediocre start. It is also a quality start technically. With a one whip? We don't want a 4.5 ERA. Yeah, I mean, I get what you're saying. But either what is the point is, it feels a little nitpicking.

His numbers in starts where he throws the knuckleball at least 40% of the time are significantly better. and it just, I don't understand the process. Even maybe the results wouldn't be that much different. I don't know, but it just, it feels like a process failure. That's what I will say. The only thing I notice in this start is that his knuckleball had a 98 mile per hour average XIV velocity. So I think that's part of the reason why he went away from it.

But I get your point in that he could just try and work through those issues within the start and continue to lean on that knuckleball. Anything to add on Chase McDermott, who is one of the Orioles top pitching prospects. He made his Major League debut on Wednesday. He wasn't very good. He was at the Marlins. Four innings, three runs, had three strikeouts through five different pitches.

Scott, anything here on McDermott? I'm not even sure that he'll stick around, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, he just seems like a dime a dozen pitching prospect. Spencer Erigetti, Hayden Birdsong. I know Hayden Bergsox coming off a great start, but how we regarded him before that, where, okay, he can get some strike. but he walks too many guys and will he ever put it together?

Maybe Hayden Birdsong has and maybe McDermott could, but there's not, there's not like, it's not worth clinging to that idea. If it happens, it happens, and we'll react to it then. No, I was interested to see his debut and then his debut wasn't very good, so we can move on. All right, this or that pitcher edition. I'm just going to pit some pitchers up against each,

other who I think we all have ranked similarly and first up Aaronnola turned in a solid start at the twins six innings one run with six strikeouts Luis Castillo a great start up against the Angels six shutout with seven strikeouts there Chris who would you rather have Nola or Luis Castillo and anything to add I have Castillo just ahead but it's I think two spots in the pitcher rankings maybe two spots in the overall rankings as well so you might as well flip a coin I did have something to add on Castillo. Let me get my notes. Quality of contact has improved significantly in the month of July. He got hit hard Wednesday, a lot of like loud contact, but it was all on the ground. So when he gave up hits, they were mostly singles. I might have had one extra base hit aloud in this one. But overall, I think things are looking a lot better.

He's still not getting the strikeouts overall the way. he has in the past, it's 22 in 25 innings in July, 23 and 25 and two thirds. I think probably something less than an ace is probably what I expect. Like, in my pitching rankings, I have Castillo 8th, I have Dylan C-7th. It feels like there's a little bit of a gap there for me. I don't know about you guys, I know we have different orders of everybody, but that feels like there's. probably a little gap there.

Let's talk about Justin Steele and Jack Flaherty, Steel. Solid against the Brewers, five in a third, two runs allowed, four strikeouts, only had six whiffs on 98 pitches. Velocity was down in that start. And Jack Flaherty, another strong one at the Guardian, six innings, one unearned run with six strikeouts, had 13 whiffs on 96 pitches.

Scott, who are you taking Justin Steele or Jack Flaherty? Jack Flaherty, the only reason I might consider Steele is because of Flaherty's continued health questions but he's come back and put together three quality starts. One was an out shy of a quality start and the Wifts have been there. The velocity

was a little down in this one. So keep an eye on that, but the Wists were there. He was facing a good Guardian's lineup and turned in a good result. So I think at this point I'm willing to put the elbow issue aside and take Flaherty especially since Steele has been so hard to figure out.

He clearly can't afford to walk batters like he's done in his last two starts. And he doesn't normally. Was there an elbow injury for Flaherty? Was it elbow or was it? No, it was a back injury. Back back. Yeah, back. Latt?

No, I think it was just back. I thought it was like mid-back tightness. The lat bone is connected to the backbone. So, you know. Okay. My bad. Back injury. Yeah, I think this is another one where I,

I might have steel a couple spots ahead, but it's such a slim margin that I can't argue either way. And the last two, Zach Eflin and Nathan Avaldi. Eflin, a solid start at the Blue Jays, 5 and 2 thirds, two runs with four strikeouts, leaned on the sinker in this start. And Nathan Avaldi, a great outing up against the White Sox. Seven innings, two runs.

10 strikeouts had 20 whiffs on 98 pitches. Chris, you were up. Eflin or Avaldi. I think I have Eflin ranked higher than Avaldi. Part of that is just waiting for the bottom to fall out with Avaldi as it almost always does in the second half. But there's no question when he's rolling. He's a must-start pitcher. His velocity was down in his previous start.

I didn't see the velocity reading in this one. It was fine. It was fine today. I was noticing that too because he was bad last start. It was the rare blip with the velocity down about a mile per hour. Oh, here it comes. That's the canary in the coal mine, right? Like, if all these had trouble maintaining his velocity

the last couple of seasons, when that happens, things tend to go poorly for him. But I'm totally fine with Avaldi ahead of Eflin as well, if you want to go that way. The one thing I would say with those two guys and Flaherty in particular is where are they pitching in seven days or five days, whatever it is, you know, like I think there's a decent chance all three of those guys get traded at the deadline.

And Flaherty, the one thing with Flaherty, I thought the Orioles would be a good landing spot, but then I remembered that they tried that already last year, and it was a disaster. Apparently they're open to it again, according to a report. I mean, it's a different pitcher now. So, yeah, that would be one where Detroit's a really good place to pitch. There could be a park downgrade coming.

If it was Baltimore, I'd feel even better about Jack Flaherty. you know, Eflin and Evaldi are both in kind of neutral to you know, maybe pitchers, parks. So I don't think it would change their outlook either way

if they got traded. I'm taking Avaldi for what it's worth just because like, I'm not getting enough from Eflin and I don't expect to at this point. So Evaldi's giving me something now. Maybe the velocity will slip and he won't be worth using anymore.

But we'll cross that bridge. when we come to it. Hitters who are streaking. Trey Turner continues his power binge in July, two for five with his 13th home run, his 10th homer in the month of July. Nick Castellanos has come alive over the past month. Last 31 games, he's betting 3.31 with five homers,

23 RBI, two steals, and an OPS over 900. Sayas Suzuki has been quite good since the start of June, 45 games, batting 269, 9 homers, 28 RBI, 8 steals, the power and speed. Pace there is really great for Suzuki. Ketzel Marte has homered in three straight and updated numbers since the start of June for him, batting 340 with 12 homers and five steals.

We already spoke about Vlad Jr. Francisco Lindor, guy is absolutely locked in, three for six with a double dong, five RBI. He has multiple homers in two of his last three games. And since being moved to the leadoff spot on May 18th, Lindor is betting 308 with 14 homers, 14 steals and a 9.58 OPS. Anything that you'd like to add on these names,

Lindor, Marte, Suzuki, Castellanos, and Trey Turner. Here's a fun one. Trey Turner in the month of July, 10 home runs, has his lowest average eggs of velocity of any month this season. Baseball. That's fun. The baseball. I mean, we said that about Colt Keith

the other day too, Scott, which, you know, he's having a great month, but the eggs of velocities aren't there. So makes you wonder. Yeah, I mean, it wouldn't make me wonder if fly ball rates were up, pull rates were up, et cetera. I know that's not the case for Keith. Fly ball rate is not up significantly for Tray Turner. And by the way, tangentially related,

Jackson Merrill had a good game today. Four hits, right? No home runs. No home runs for all of July. Yeah. After Jackson Merrill hit, what was it? eight in June, nine in June. Nine in June zero.

Nine in like a ten game stretch, right? And I bring it up because, okay, I basically bought in because, you know, there's a lot to like in Merrill's profile, young player coming into his own. I could buy that. But there wasn't changes in the underlying bat at

ball profile, and maybe that was a giveaway that he wasn't quite all the way there yet. Some leftovers from Wednesday's action. We'll start with the pitchers. Hunter Brown another quality start. He was at the A's six innings, one run with eight strikeouts. He had 19 whiffs on 97 pitches. And Tyler Glassdowne, not very sharp in his return up against the Giants, five innings, two runs, had four walks to four strikeouts. Velocity was fine, you know, coming back from that back injury, only through 57% of his pitches for strikes.

Scott, anything to add on Glass Now and Hunter Brown. I guess, I guess there's nothing to worry about here with Glass. now, obviously, I wanted it to go better. But the fact that we have every reason to believe is healthy, I think is enough of a win for now, considering I have him as a top five pitcher. And there are going to be starts occasionally where control just kind of comes back to bite him. As for Hunter Brown, it was a great start, obviously. And I was encouraged that he went away from the fastball again, only 22.

Because his best stretch of the season, that's what he was doing. He was fading his fastball, four seam fastball specifically in favor of other pitchers. And 19 whiffs, wide distribution between his pitches, five on three different ones, and then three on the four seamer, which again, he threw only 22% of the time. So I think that's the best plan of attack for Hunter Brown. And I hope he sticks with it. He's really giving me a lot of Mitch Keller vibes this season, where the pitch makes changes from one start to the next, one month to the next. He's always tinkering with things.

But he has discovered a really useful equilibrium where it's not consistent ace production, although there will be stretches of that. But I think, you know, it feels like Mitch Keller maybe two years ago, where he had a similar run where started to figure it out as the season went on. And, you know, maybe next year can be the year that he takes another step forward. Some hitting leftovers, Jaron Duran had another big game. This one in Cores Field.

Three for five with a triple and his 13th home run. Ellie Dela Cruz, a monster game. He actually has the highest batting average in OPS in July than any other month this season. Three for five with a sock and two shoes. He's up to 18 home runs and 51 steals on the season. Spencer Steer, I feel like he's had an underrated season.

We don't talk about it much. Batting average is a little bit low, 241, but 15 homers, 64 RBI, 15 steals. It's pretty productive. for him. Corey Seeger finished a triple short of the cycle. Four for five with his 19th home run. Jerkson ProFar has homered in back-to-back games. And Juan Soto is currently one of two players who can hit on the Yankees. Two for three with a walk, a double, and his 26th homer. Last 11 games for Soto. He's betting 447 with seven doubles, five homers, and one steal. He is so good. Anything else to

add on those names? So, steer, I'm always. always surprised at how highly he ranks because I feel like he's been like sneaky not that good as a hitter for a pretty long time. Remember, he was awesome the first like three weeks of the season. He had a 99 OPS after 20 games. Entering today in 79 games since then, he has a 693 OPS with a 215 batting average. But, wow, still has 12. 12 homers still has 11 steals in that stretch, still has an 88 RBI pace. So he's still managed to be useful for fantasy

even when he hasn't been a great hitter. And I think that's a good sign because I think he's better than a 215 hitter, certainly. He was mostly just terrible in May. You gave the numbers, I guess, that included May. But it was like he hit 177 with 629 OPS in May, April, June, and July, basically the same OPS, almost 800 in all three months. Yeah.

And the pace numbers entering Wednesday for Spencer Sear. 24 homers, 24 seals, 97 RBI, you know, 25, 25 with 100 ribbies. That's a pretty awesome season there for Spencer Sear. Some bullpen updates for the Phillies. Jeff Hoffman pitched a clean eighth inning with the game tied, facing 7,8, 9 in the Twins lineup. Gregory Soto got the ninth inning. He gave up a run on a hit by pitch and a hit.

He took his fourth loss. On the other side for the twins, Yohan Duran pitched a clean ninth with the game tied. He wound up with the win. For the Cubs, Hector Neris got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a run. On two hits, took his third loss.

On the other side, for the Brewers. Trevor McGill was unavailable. Yuel Pyeoms struck out two for his fifth save. For the Angels, Carlos Esterves, pitched a clean ninth inning for his 20th save. For the Royals who... You sure you don't want him as a close? Frank, Carlos Estevez?

He's been lights out. Look, he can probably help the Yankees bullpen right now. Clay Holmes is shaky. They don't have anyone that can get the ball to him. I'm sorry. I feel like I'm just ranting all podcast. The next one is the more interesting one. So let's go ahead.

Yeah, the Royals, who are obviously competitive this year. Looks like they could use a closer upgrade of their own. James MacArthur got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up five runs, took his fifth loan save, and fourth loss. Tanner Scott. Feel like he looked pretty good in a Royal's uniform right now.

Hunter Harvey. They already made the trade. They already made the trade. Yeah, Hunter Harvey. He's not good either. No, he's going to. They gave up a ton for him. He's much more talented than James MacArthur.

And the quote to remind you from J.J. Piccolo, the GM, when they acquired him, is it's not something where we're going to say he's our closer starting tomorrow. Is the Royals GM really named J.J. Piccolo? unless I'm pronouncing it wrong. I have never heard that name in my life. I feel like I'm being taken for a ride here. It's a pretty cool name. Yeah.

But anyway, the starting tomorrow, I think, was the revealing line there. They see Hunter Harvey as a closer caliber. I mean, that was James MacArthur, it's inevitable that, like, they didn't want to remove him from the role until he gave him an excuse to. just gave him a pretty big excuse to. But that was the thing when they made the trade as like, it was like a top 10 to 12 organizational prospect and a compensatory round pick that was like 34th overall or something.

Like that was a huge haul for a reliever with two years of service of club control left. So yeah, it felt like they viewed him as more than just a setup guy. I don't know. I thought Hunter Harvey was. having a much worse season than he was. His previous, let's see here, nine outings before Wednesday,

he had a 1125 ERA and a two whip during that space. Yeah, he's had a rough. He's been shaky recently, but he was lights out before then. He was very good last year. And just like, look at his stuff compared to MacArthur's. It's not really a contest. All right.

So if you're looking for saves, if you have James MacArthur, you might want to pick up Hunter Harvey as a bit of a handcuffed situation there. For the D-backs, Paul Seawald got the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up two runs, but closed it out. He's been a little bit shaky over the past month as well. And then for the Blue Jays, Chad Green entered the seventh inning with the game tied, facing six, seven, and eight in the raised lineup.

He pitched a clean inning later in the game at Jimmy Garcia, got the ninth inning with a four-run lead. He gave up one run on a walk and a hit, but struck out two. Garcia's one of the, everything I've read is, said he's one of the names getting the most attention on the trade market right now. So even if he is the Blue Jays closer for now, he might not be for long. He might get traded somewhere else. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, it's a short slate and not many options.

Not to stream. Yeah. Not to stream. Gavin Williams against the Tigers is. That's the only one. Yeah. Maybe. And he hasn't even been great.

And even that, yeah, he hasn't earned even that. on Friday some names you can look at Andrew Heaney at the Blue Jays we have Oh Drew Thorpe against the Mariners Stream anybody against the Mariners right now I've been down on Drew Thorpe but I could see that going well yeah Yeah some other options Trevor Rogers at the Brewers Luis Ortiz at the D-backs anybody

Heaney Thorpe and Beo are the only ones I would consider Yeah Bayo gets the Yankees so And Beio is I think there's a drop-off after Thorpe. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I would say Thor,

Peeny, and then probably Ortiz. I like Ortiz. The only one in the next two days who looks interesting to me is Andrew Heaney on Friday. Like, this is bad. Scott, bad.

Come on. Thorpe against the Mariners. I would stream you against the Mariners right now. No J-Rod in that lineup. It's bad. I mean, I guess that's the second best choice. I just don't trust Thorpe. Yeah.

All right. We are going to wrap there for Scott and 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 again tomorrow. Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.