Fantasy Baseball Today - Ronald Acuña to the IL & Must-Add Andrew Vaughn! (7/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 30, 2025

Ronald Acuña is headed to the IL with an Achilles injury (3:39). ... Andrew Vaughn has entered must-add territory (9:20). ... Jesus Luzardo had a great start on paper but what about under the hood (12:46)? ... News (18:13): Aaron Judge could return when first eligible and we had another trade! ... Kyle Manzardo is picking the power back up (30:49). ... Eric Lauer had another solid start (35:30). ... Ian Happ is going on the IL and Moises Ballesteros was recalled (39:04). ... James Wood has been struggling in July (47:28). ... These hitters are mashing in July (47:28). ... Hey, real quick, starting pitcher edition (56:08). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:03:56). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Hey there. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, July 30th, the eve of the trade deadline.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Chris Towers. today on the show, maybe Andrew Vaughn is just a must-add player. We'll take a look at hitters mashing in July, and there's one who hasn't been doing that. His name is James Wood, and people are asking questions. What is going on with James Wood right now, who is slumping quite a bit? Chris, you're back. How is your time away? I mean, it was nice.

Nothing happened while I was gone, so I didn't have anything to catch up on. Um, I haven't already written like 1500 words for the newsletter just catching up on what I missed over the past couple of days. So yeah, it's fine. My wife's family likes the beach too much is really like I don't, I'm not a beach person. I'll take a pool. I'd love to be on a boat. The beach, Anakin Skywalker's, right? Sand is the worst.

It's rough. It's coarse. It gets everywhere. Uh, and we're, at the beach for like six hours, two out of the three days. And that's just, that's too long to be at the beach, frankly. That's, I know, like, complaining about a, like, beach vacation is, like, real first world problems here. But, like, I'm good with two hours at the beach. I hit the two hour mark, and I want to be anywhere in the world, especially when it's 95 degrees. I do enjoy swimming at the

beach, but, you know, it does have to be within a certain time limit. I don't think I want to be there all day either. Let's just start today's podcast like we have the past two. Just get some big news out of the way here because why not? Ronald Acuna left Tuesday night's game with Wright-Aquillies tightness after the game. He was seen walking

in a boot and then we learned that he's going on the IL. We also got this tweet from Mark Bowman who covers the Braves. Acuna held back tears as he talked after tonight's game. He said he'll be further evaluated likely in MRI. Tomorrow he felt discomfort

when he scored from first on Monday. He lobbied to play today because in his mind he had missed too much time already this season. And before we talk about replacements and all those other things, it's just, what are the Braves doing here, man? Like, they are not playing for anything at this point in the season.

Like, I get that Acuna has missed time and okay, yeah, like he wants to get out there. But, I mean, we've seen this in other sports. We've set it time and time again. It's at some point you have to protect the players from themselves. yeah that that's that's the whole goal of a of a medical staff right like look we're not doctors we don't know like if he was walking with the limp or any like but yeah the the whole point is players are always going to uh overstate their health right like no no it's very rare that a

player's like yeah i i just can't go out there if they've got a chance to go out there they're going to try and it's the training staff's job to say we're not this one game doesn't matter as much as keeping you healthy in the long term and hopefully it's not a serious concern for a cunia hopefully it's just a a relatively short-term thing but look we are also at the point in the season where you know there are what seven eight weeks left in the in the regular season maybe nine I don't I don't know how many weeks are in a month four and a half something like that probably eight, something like that, yeah. If he misses three weeks, that's a big chunk of the remainder of the season.

It's not like you should drop a cunea. You can't do that. But even if it's a relatively minor issue, the same with Judge. You're going to miss a decent chunk of the remainder of the season. It's a big blow. Yeah, and Tuesday in general was just a rough night for outfield injuries. We learned that Byron Buxton was placed on the aisle due to left rib cage inflammation, big loss. He's, you know, the fourth best outfielder in fantasy so far this season,

just having an awesome year. Juan Soto left after fouling a ball off his foot in the fourth inning of that game. X-rays came back negative. He's day-to-day. Jackson Trio left with right hamstring spasms, and spasms usually aren't too bad, but, you know, anything with the hamstring can be tricky. And Ian Hap left after fouling a ball off his shin. X-rays came back negative. And on top of that, as you just mentioned, we're also down Aaron Judge right now. So it is just a rough time for the outfield position and outfield

injuries. You need replacements. A lot of names that we've talked about recently. We mentioned a lot of these the other day when we went through Aaron Judge replacements, but some names in shallower leagues here, Chris, Jerks and Profar, Sal Freelick, right around 75% rostered for both of those guys, and then

Austin Hayes, who is at 58% rostered. How would you rank those three? I think I'd go ProFar Hayes Freelick. Even in a points league. It's been maybe a week since I checked, but last time I saw, Austin Hayes was like the number 13 player

in points per game at Outfield. He's been great no matter the format. He's slowed down a little bit of late, but he's just been super productive. It's been a great fit for him in Cincinnati. So I think him and ProFar are really, right there at the top of the list. Some names in medium-sized leagues.

We have a couple Rockies, more than a couple. Jordan Beck, Mickey Moniac, Tyler Freeman, so the entire Rockies Outfield, basically. Tyler O'Neill, 44% rostered. He has homered in four straight games, so he's having a nice bounce back to July. That ended in the second game of the doubleheader, but he had homered in four straight games.

Yeah, you know, some antics. He's up to like a 940 OPS in the month of July now, The thing about Tyler O'Neill is we know he's streaky. This guy has been in the majors for, what, seven or eight years now? We know he is incredibly streaky, and we know he is not defined by either the good or the bad streaks. So as bad as he was for the first, I don't know, 100, probably 50 games that he played this season. We know he's capable of getting super hot, and he's super hot right now. So I think Tyler O'Neill among this group has to be the highest priority.

I would put Tyler Freeman second among that list. Yep. And I want to mention Ramon Luriano as well. He's been, I know Scott pointed this out the other day. He's been hitting for the past year. Like calendar year, 365 days. Luriano has been low-key a fantasy contributor. So those are some names you can look at in medium-sized leagues.

And then in the deepest of leagues, you know, there's not much out there. But Jordan Walker has returned recently. He's been hitting OK. Mike Talkman with the White Sox for now. maybe he gets traded. Yeah, probably be traded. Tommy Fem, I guess always a trade candidate. He's been hitting better over the past month as well.

Again, the news there, Ronald Acuna dealing with an Achilles injury, and he is going on the IL. We'll learn more over the next couple days. Let's get into the Players of the Night here from Tuesday. All right, Chris, this Andrivon thing is going crazy. I mean, look, if you were looking for a reason to get excited about your team potentially trading for Luis Robert. Just look at Andrew Vaughn because what he's done since leaving the White Sox is

nothing short of incredible. He's got a 1210 OPS after going three for four with two runs, a homer, six RBI, and I believe a walk on Tuesday. He is up to a 1210 OPS in the month of July. And that is backed up by, let me make sure I have. the right number, a 456 expected Wobah since joining the Brewers and a 12.3% strikeout rate. All of a sudden for the season, he's got a 275 expected batting average and a 495 expected slugging percentage.

I don't know what the Brewers did exactly if they did anything. It could just be a random hot streak for Andrew Vaughn, but the way he's hitting right now, I, yeah, go ahead and add him in basically any league just in case. Yeah, he is just 21% roster too, so widely available. Any leagues, even with corner infield spots, I mean, Andrew Vaughn could be out there. And I get it. You know, when he first got called up, you're thinking, all right, this is Andrew Vaughn. We've seen him for a while now.

There's not really a high ceiling. And maybe there isn't. Maybe this is just a hot stretch for two weeks. But obviously playing for a great team. The playing time has ticked up. and we got news here on Tuesday that Reese Hoskins won't be back until late August at the earliest. So we have almost a full month of runway here for Andrew Vaughn to continue adding to these numbers here. So again, only 21% rostered.

I'm looking at names that are much more rostered at first base than he is. Guys like Colt Keith who's, you know, been better, but Andrew Vaughn has obviously been great lately. And Colkeith has playing time concerns that make him value. but not must roster. Yeah. Nate Lowe is 51% rostered. I mean, he's fine. That feels pretty easy. But Vaughn is, again, red hot. Ryan O'Hern

has cooled off, and he's a platoon bat. He's 62% rostered. Paul Gulchman, he's still 88% rostered. And I think people are kind of holding on to what he did earlier in the season. He's crushed lefties this year. He's been really bad against right-handed pitching, and his playing time has kind of

fallen off here. So I get that, you know, he plays for a team that scores a lot of runs, when judge is healthy, but I think I'd be all right dropping goalsmith for a hot hand like Andrew Vaughn. Is that crazy?

No, I think that's perfectly reasonable. 608 OPS against Ritees. You look at baseball savant allows you to do 50 plate appearances, 100 plate appearances, 200 plate appearances, rolling XBA or ex-Woba,

and whatever one you look at, it's a straight line down. Over the last 100 plate appearances, his ex-Wobas 290. For a corner infielder, that's just not playable. So do I think Andrew Vaughn is better than Paul Goldschmidt? Well, probably not. But I don't think Paul Goldschmidt is so good that you can't just play the hot hand with him.

All right. My player of the night here is going to be Jesus Lazardo, who bounced back with a great start at the White Sox seven shutout innings with four strikeouts. And here's where I do the thing, Chris. The thing that everyone hates, where it's a great start, and then we proceed to talk so negatively about that start. But you know what? We've got to keep it real here. Everything under the hood kind of concerns me about this start for Jesus Lazzardo.

Only six whiffs on 90 pitches here. 10 hard hits allowed. Velocity way down for Lazzardo in this one. Between 1.5 and 2.1 miles per hour on all five of his pitches. He averaged just 94.5 miles per hour on his fastball. which was a season low. And remember heading into the season, we had stats that backed up

when Lazzardo is at 96 or above on his fastball. That's typically when he's had more success in his career. When he's below 96, you know, that's when he's had a little bit more trouble here. Maybe this was by design. I saw some tweets here after his start that, you know, Rob Thompson said

they identified something with his hand, so they changed his hand placement or something while he was throwing. maybe that caused the velocity to be down. Again, maybe this is on purpose. Like, they're trying something different. And, you know, the result is here. But how we got there, Chris, it's a little bit shaky.

What do you make of this Hazzoz Lozardo start? I mean, this is what you're supposed to do against the team like the White Sox, right? Is even if you don't have your best stuff? I know they've been good since the All-Star break. Which is crazy. But it's still the White Sox, right? Like this is still like Andrew Benintendi is still the second best hitter here, right? Like we know that you're supposed to take advantage of a matchup like this,

even when you don't have your best stuff. I think the lack of whiffs, you could point to the lineup as an explanation for it because he only faced two righties or he only at least only through 15 of his 90 pitches to, sorry, only through 15 of his 90 pitches to lefties. And he does have a 40% whiff rate against lefties this season compared to a 27% rate against Rides. Remember when Jesus Lazzardo couldn't get lefties out? Yeah, he's been dominant with that new sweeper.

But I don't know. I agree with your concerns about the velocity being down and feeling like he probably got away with one here. on the other hand it's been such a hit or miss season for him even when the stuff has looked good that i i don't want to worry too much about it just because the next start could be bad and he could be averaging 97 you know like that that's just the way it's gone for hazes lazardo so i'm this doesn't change how i feel about him moving forward i'm probably just going to keep starting him yeah i would say coming off a start like this you know maybe you can look to sell but the overall numbers are still so bad after those two terrible blow-up starts. It's a 431 ERA, a 137 whip. We all think

that Lazzardo is a better pitcher than that based on his underlying metrics, but I don't really think that you could even like sell high or take advantage of this start. So yeah, I think let's just see where it goes from here. Let's, you know, see if we get other quotes or, you know, learn about, you know, what he, what he was doing here if it was on purpose. But it sounds like maybe they changed some things up. perhaps the velocity being down was on purpose here for Jesus Lazzardo. Before we hit our first break, reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, if you're watching on YouTube, scan that QR code. It will bring you right to the website where you can sign up for free.

And big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Let's run through the news and notes. And we do have a positive update on Aaron Judge. He'll hit off a T Wednesday and is 10 to 15 days away from throwing. The hope is that Judge will return as the team's DH when first eligible next Tuesday.

More bad news, Jacob Wilson was placed in the aisle with a fractured left forearm. And, you know, he had been struggling for quite some time. He's dealt with injuries off and on, some hamstring stuff. Now this forearm. And yeah, that probably takes him out. of the running for A.L. Rookie of the Year. Especially with Nick Kurtz. Probably hands it off to his teammate, Nick Kurtz.

Yeah, I mean, I think Nick Kurtz won it with that four-homer game, probably. But it was leaning that way anyway. But yeah, this is tough for Wilson just from like a 2026 fantasy outlook. Because we don't know when he's going to be back, but it's a fractured forearm. it likely happened. He got hit by a pitch I think nine or ten games ago early in July

and it likely happened then he's been playing through it. It's crazy that it took this long to figure out like does he play for the Houston Astros? Yeah, it's not the Astros who only do that but he had been really bad.

I think it's four for his last 48 or something or four for his last 38 whatever the number was since that hit by pitch and that probably explains it, but man, Wilson's a tough

player to figure out because it was basically just May where he looked like a super version of Luis Sorayas, right?

Like, he had the elite batting average and the elite batting average was there all season. 3.30 in April, 368 in May,

323 in June. But in April, it was two homers, one steal. In May, it was four homers, three steals. and then in June it was two homers, one steal.

And it's like, man, there's a big difference between a guy who could be a 310, 320 hitter with 18 homers and a guy who hits 12, you know? You know, that's basically the difference between Stephen Kwan and Luis Arias. I guess Kwan doesn't hit 18 homers, but he hits enough, especially while stealing some bases. And I don't know, man. I look at Wilson. I know he's young and he's not a finished product and all that, but then you talk about, like, what if he's more like a 290 hitter? And does that profile play up if he's 290?

I just, I feel like he's going to be a top 100 pick in fantasy next year, and I'm probably going to be out. But what's frustrating is. How many times was a rise a top 100 pick? Well, that, but that's, I think the big difference is Wilson's younger. He has that prospect pedigree. and he showed a more well-ran. Like, if this is it for Jacob Wilson, and I'm not saying it is this season,

but if it is, you're talking about a 16-homer 8-steal pace. I think Araya's career high is like 13 homers, and he might have stolen nine bases one year. But if Wilson does that with a 320 batting average, that's a really good player. That's a really good player. But it's, well, his XBA is 284.

And his quality of contact matches are actually, maybe a little bit worse than Luis Arias. And so I think you can talk yourself into Jacob Wilson being like a supercharged version of Luis Arias. What if he's just Luis Arias? You know, like that's still a good player, especially like in real life. He's a shortstop who can hit like Luis Raiz. That's an awesome player. The problem of Luis Arias is that he's a DH at best.

and so that's a really awesome real-life player. But for fantasy, I really wanted to see what that second half looked like for Jacob Wilson. So it's pretty disappointing that, yeah, we're not going to get to see it. All right, we did have a trade here on Tuesday. The Blue Jays acquired Sir Anthony Dominguez from the Orioles in exchange for pitching prospect, Waron or Jaron Watts Brown. That is the name there, Jawan Watts Brown. and Dominguez, all he had to do was walk across the field

because they were playing against each other. He will serve as a setup man to Jeff Hoffman. In fact, we saw him pitch right away in game two against his former teammates. Who is next up for saves in Baltimore? Well, Corbyn Martin picked up the first save here in a one-run game in game two of their double-header. Andrew Kittridge pitched the eighth inning with the game tied

facing the heart of the Blue Jays lineup. So you can argue the highest leverage to this. situation there. And Yaneer Canoe had pitched in game one earlier in the day, so he didn't factor into that second game when they had a save opportunity. And they could

still make more trades. So what do you do with this, Chris? What's happening in the Orioles bullpen? Well, what was really fun was when Felix Batista got hurt, it was Gregory Soto who got the first save. And he gets traded. And then we thought, oh, maybe it'll be Sir Anthony Dominguez.

He's gone. So Corbyn Martin will be traded tomorrow. Yeah, I mean, look, Corby Martin, you got to go back like six or seven years, but he was a prospect at one point back when he was with the Astros. He's like 29 years old. His minor league numbers as a reliever this year were not particularly impressive. I think it's a pretty long shot that Corbyn Martin's going to be a good reliever. He's only appeared in, I think, eight or nine games so far this season. So my lean would still be Yaneer Canoe. I would guess Andrew Kitcher also gets traded. I think. think he's on a one-year deal. I don't know about Cano's.

He has a team option at the end of the year, but. Yeah, I don't know about Cano's contract situation, but he's been a little iffy this season, but had been very good. The previous two seasons has some closer experience, so I'm kind of defaulting to Canoe. Yeah, I think so, too. Canoe, he's had a down year, but he's under team control through 2029. He has some experience. And I know people listening might say, why does this matter? It's the Orioles bullpen. Well, their offense is still really good. I think they're still going to be in position to win some games here in the second half.

And Felix Bautista is going to be out a while, maybe the rest of the season. So we still could get maybe, I don't know, 10 to 12 saves out of this Orioles team the rest of the way. And so that could matter in some of those deeper category leagues. So again, this could still change by Thursday. Names could still be moved. I would probably bet on Kittridge being moved. And then it's probably one of Kano or Corbyn Martin and I lean with Yaneer Kano for now. Some good news on Michael King.

Apparently he is making a rehab start at AAA this weekend. All right, we'll take that. Kind of came out of nowhere. Additional imaging on Eugenio Suarez's hand came back clean on Tuesday. He was out of the lineup but hopes to return on Wednesday. Tanner Scott has begun a throwing progression. He's on the IL with elbow inflammation. George Springer missed both games of their doubleheader

after getting hit in the head by a pitch on Monday. A Rollo's Chapman was available to pitch Tuesday after missing a day with back tightness. In fact, he got the final out for his 19th save in that game against the Twins here on Tuesday night. Brandon Lau is expected back when first eligible on Wednesday, so up against the Yankees there. It's a pretty important series for both of those teams.

Shane McClanahan played catch from 60 feet on Monday. He's had his rehab paused after soreness in his left biceps. Louis Heel is in line to make his season debut Sunday against the Marlins and his final rehab start came here on Tuesday at AAA, four and a third innings, three hits, one run, one walk, seven strikeouts, through 67% of his pitches for strikes, up to 78% rostered. So not really out there in many leagues, Chris. Do you have optimism, excitement about Luis Heel returning to the Yankees?

Measured, guarded optimism? I don't think he's quite as good as he was last season, but I think there's going to be a lot of strikeouts if he's right and probably an ERA below four and a pretty bad whip, probably, because his controls are going to be bad. But yeah, I do think there's certainly some upside here. And with a player like Luis Heel, with the stuff that he has and the ability to miss bats

and the ability to miss barrels, if he just has an average walk rate, he could be really, really good. So I don't want to write him off as a, a finished product. 78% rostered. If you're in a league where he's available and you've got a roster spot to play with, I don't think he needs to be must add, but it's worth taking a look.

He gets a nice, decent landing spot against the Marlins, and let's see what it looks like. Speaking of rehab, Shane Bieber made another start at AA on Tuesday, four innings, three hits, one run, seven strikeouts to zero walks. He built up to 58 pitches. and with everything that's going on with the Guardians and Emmanuel Claisse on, you know, paid leave for now, gambling investigation. It sounds like that has shifted the Guardian's plans here at the trade deadline, and they're more open to dealing some pieces that maybe they weren't before. You know, guys like Stephen Kwan, Shane Bieber, who has yet to make a start this season,

could make his season debut on another team. So I don't know that that really changes too much for him. He's looked pretty good on his rehab. I prefer Beaver over Luis Heel, but I think both should probably be rostered. Yeah, I agree with both those parts. Shane Bieber ahead of Louise Heald. That seems reasonable. And both should be rostered in most leagues, which they already are.

Yeah, there was a report from the Athletic today, basically saying that there's going to be a lot of scouts at Shane Beaver's start tonight. And there's a decent chance he gets traded. He's got a player option or mutual option, player option, something like that for next season. And Kwan, I think has one year left under contract, maybe two. So the guardians are kind of always trying to reset while continuing to compete. And it feels like a good opportunity, especially with Bieber, to get something useful in the future for a guy who might be gone this offseason anyway. I am trying to pull up what that option is here. It is a player option for $16 million for Shane.

So if he looks good the final two months of the season, he's probably going to turn that down and try for a shamanias contract or something. Yeah. Interesting. All right. We'll see. Grayson Rodriguez is receiving multiple opinions on his injured right elbow. He was sent for imaging more than a week ago.

Seems pretty ominous to me. Tommy Edmund was back. the Dodgers lineup at third base Tuesday, and it sounded just a day ago like he might go on the IL after re-agravating his ankle injury. And what do you know? He homered in that game. So, all right. Let's, come on, Tommy Edmund. Let's get back on track here. Heson Kim of the Dodgers was placed on the IL with left shoulder bursitis. The Dodgers selected the contract of prospect Alex Freeland, who Scott and I spoke about yesterday. Freeland was not in the lineup against the lefty here on Tuesday. The Brewers announced that the

goal is for Reese Hoskins to begin a rehab assignment in late August. So we mentioned that earlier. Good news for Andrew Vaughan. And good old Rich Hill. This might be the end of the line. Designated for assignment. Look on the bright side. This means he's got a chance to sign with a 15th team and break Edwin Jackson's record.

Or is Edwin Jackson's record 15? That kind of feels like maybe Rich Hill already owns that record, but I could be wrong. I think he's either tied or one shy of the record for most teams having played with. So, yeah, we'll see. That'd be fun. Quickly pull that up. Let's see. Edwin Jackson and Rich Hill are two players who have played for 14 teams each in their career.

So let's get one more. One more for Rich Hill. Half the league. Let's run through some Waverwire hitters here from Tuesday's action. Kyle Manzardo is picking things back up. three for four with the double dong, three RBI. Last 11 games, he's hitting 378 with five home runs and a barrel rate over 20% during that time. 33% rostered.

I am mildly interested in Manzardo if you need power as a corner infielder right now, but Andrew Vaughn is rostered in less leagues than Manzardo. So I prefer Andrew Vaughan. Yeah, Von or Manzardo, just, for all the, of things he does well. He hits the ball reasonably well. He barrels it up. He hits it to the pull set a lot. He's just a really bad source of batting average in a way that I don't think is likely to turn around. He's got a 12.6% pop-up rate this season. His expected batting average is 225. So it just, it does feel like you're almost destined to get a bad batting average from

Combinzardo, unfortunately. And that makes it hard because he's a productive and useful player. It's just, I do think I'd rather just take a chance on, is Andrew Vaughn like the mystery box in this? He's older and he's 27. He's been around for a while. He's a pretty well-known quantity, but he does feel like the, yeah, we could take a shot on it guy. We would have never described Andrew Vaughn as the upside play before. But right now he is. That's what he's looking like. It's a change of scenery. And again, maybe the brewers have unlocked something here. Or maybe it was just, and I don't want to just crapple over the White Sox. Like, oh, he got off the White Sox. That is possible. But maybe it was like, hey, man, I just got traded for Aaron Savali. This could be my last chance to do damage in the majors.

Like, let's light a fire. Let's get this thing going here. And perhaps that is a motivated Andrew Vaughn. Let's take a look at Victor Scott. While he has not been good as a hitter, he keeps on running. So that's nice. 0 for 1 with two walks and two more steals. He's up to 29 steals on the season, which is tied for fifth most in all of baseball. 47% rostered. I think that's probably right. Victor Scott only needs to be rostered in category leagues where you need speed.

Absolutely. That's pretty much it. Two deep league names here, Lenin Sosa quietly having himself a solid month. In July hitting 277, four homers, 18 RBI. That's quite a bit. And a 785 OPS. Brooks Lee had himself a huge game after relieving an injured

Carlos Correa. He went three for four with a double dong and five RBI. Any deep league interest in utility-ish guys, you know, three positions for each of these guys, Lenin Sosa or Brooksley. I think Brooks Lee is more interesting than Lenin Sosa, but that's not saying a ton,

unfortunately. So now I'm not super interested in either of those guys. All right, let's take our final break when we return some waiver wire hitters. What's going on with James Wood? I have some hitters who are gnashing in the month of July. We'll talk about all that right after this.

Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's run through some waiver wire pitchers. And Eric Lauer, solid at the Orioles in a game two of their doubleheader, five innings, two runs, four strikeouts for him. Nine starts since joining the Blue Jays rotation. It's a three ERA, a 0.98 whip, just over a strikeout per inning. 72% rostered. Looks like a two-star pitcher next week

at the Rockies at the Dodgers. So, uh, I don't, look, the Rockies have hit better lately. There's still not a great offense, obviously, but it's in Corse field.

Anything that can happen, the Dodgers offense legitimately has looked terrible for the past month or so. Um, what are your thoughts on Eric Lauer here? I don't really get it. Um, like his fastball's been really good,

but he averages like, what, 92 with it. I don't know. The underlying stats mostly back up what he's done. It's like low threes in the FIPP and XERA. He's missing bats with his four seamer. It just feels like, oh, who's the other Blue Jays guy that we did this with last season?

Bouten Francis. It feels like Bounden Francis. It feels like a. But you know what? It never fell apart for Bounder, Francis until this year. Yeah. And look, maybe that's what it'll happen with Eric Lauer and he'll get away

with it for the next couple of months and I'm fine, riding the hot hand with him. In a roto league next week, that could go really poorly. At Colorado, at the Dodgers for a marginal talent like

Eric Lauer. Yeah, I must start in a points league for next week. I would be scared of a roto league. Yeah, I have a little bit more optimism for him. I mean, he's doing a great job throwing strikes. He's limiting walks. Extreme fly ball pitcher.

He's done a good job avoiding barrels thus far. And his pitch mix is working right now. He's not an overpowering pitcher by any means. But look, Blue Jays pitching for a great team right now. He'll get some run support. So look, the matchups are a little bit scary, but I don't know. I have optimism in Eric Lauer as, I guess, a little bit more than a streamer type, I guess, at this point.

A couple other names here, Charlie Morton, a quality start against the Blue Jays, six innings, three runs, three walks, two strikeouts. Logan T. Allen, solid outing against the Iraqis, seven innings, two runs with three strikeouts. And Justin Verlander, a solid one at home against the Pirates, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts for him there. Looks like Verlander could be a two-star pitcher next week. is at the Mets. Charlie Morton, we have no idea because I'm pretty sure he's going to get traded. Yeah, that's the thing with Charlie Martin is. One, even when he's good, his whip is just so bad.

Like, even this stretch, 3880, RA, that's pretty good. Strike cap renning, that's fine. 143 whip. He's actively hurting you there. So in any categories league, he's an iffy start, even when things are going well. I kind of feel like Justin Verlanders in a similar spot obviously I think his overall whip should be better

but I just don't know how helpful he is so these are all very fringy options I think and Logan Allen is clearly just Rockies on the road I don't have any interest in that I did just see some news here Ian Hap apparently is going on the IL

and Moises by Asteros is being recalled by the Chicago Chicago Cubs. Okay, so Suzuki will play more outfield. Yeah. Okay, that's interesting. Look, deeper two catcher leagues. I know it's been an awesome position all season.

Yeah, I don't really need it. I think I would still, for fantasy, take Francisco Alvarez, who's returned recently. Yeah. Kyle Teal versus Biasteros is interesting, Chris. Which way would you lean there? Pretty similar prospects. Byosteros probably has more standout. tools with his contact ability, but I think Teal's probably the better player, so I would go with

Teal. Byesteros, by the way, I wanted to check what he's been up to lately. I mean, the overall numbers are still awesome for Moises Byesteros at AAA hitting 331, nine homers, four steals, and 888 OPS, 90.7 average exit velocity. So, yeah, he should DH with the Cubs for the, I don't know, foreseeable future. until Ian Hap is back, I assume, and should get a decent amount of run here. So for those in two catcher leagues, take a look at Moises by Astero's. What are we doing with Joe Boyle?

Because we were pretty excited about his return to the rotation. And what do you know? Not great. At the Yankees here, it's a, look, it's not a great landing spot. It's, you know, hostile environment, playing in Yankee Stadium. But there's no Aaron Judge in the lineup. Three in the third innings here, six runs allowed, four of those earned. Three walks, six strikeouts, through just a lot.

56% of his pitch's first strikes, leaned all the way on his slider, through his pitches even harder. It's like, I don't think you really needed to do that, Joe Boyle. But Chris, what are you doing with Boyle after this start? I'm holding him. I wouldn't, like, if you're in a points league and Eric Lauer's available, I think it's probably okay to drop Boyle just because I do think quality starts are going to be hard to come by on the raise. There are going to be short outings. they're going to have a quick trigger. I don't know. Hook, hook.

A quick hook with him. But I think on the whole I would be trying to hold boil, right? Like I wouldn't be dropping him for Justin Verlander or Charlie Morton or Logan Allen or any of those guys. And even Lauer, that's a tough one because I do feel more confident in him next week. But that could go really wrong. So I kind of depends on if you need a starter versus if you're just looking to stash. Like are you streaming or stashing?

I'd rather have Boyle if I'm stashing. Yeah, I don't want to play him right now. Obviously, I still think that there is a lot of talent, a lot of upside here, but, you know, obviously some volatility and a pretty rough outing for Joe Boyle here at the Yankees. Let's fire up the drovometer for these two pitchers and this one might seem obvious or not.

I don't know. Brandon Fott. Had a recent run of success and then came to a screeching halt here. He allowed seven runs over four and two-thirds innings, including 11 hits, three homers allowed. Ten. All right, ten.

Okay, yeah. Previous three starts before this, by the way. It was a 177 ERA and a .74 whip. Oh, we just, I, didn't I do a rant, like, on my last show about, like, probably, yeah. This guy has a 507 career ERA. I don't, like, I just don't understand why, What does Brandon Fought's Roth?

78%. How does that make any sense? That's high. This guy, like, he was good in the postseason for one stretch, and he's had some, like, spikes, but this season, he has not had the strikeout upside that we've seen in the past. He has not been able to trade lack of strikeouts for better results on balls and play. He's just getting rocked. I don't understand the fantasy baseball world's fascination with Brain and Fought.

he has almost never been good. It does not make any sense. Much rather is Zebby Matthews, who's 53% rostered. Yeah. Trevor Rogers is 75% so. Anyone with a decent matchup next week. What is Brenna Fotz? I didn't write that down.

Because I don't think it matters. Yeah. Like literally anyone that I'm even moderately interested in streaming next week, I would go with instead of Brain of Fott. He is a two-start pitcher versus the Padres versus the Rockies. That's a pretty good two-step.

So, yeah, I... No, no. I can't do it. There's no way. If you want to hang on to him, whatever. Nope, nope, nope. I just don't see any upside here. I'd much rather drop him for anyone

who has an ounce of upside. The stash guys, Louise Heal, Beaver, Zebby Matthews, who we talked about. Yeah, I totally would make that move for Brandon Fott. What about Casey Mize, man? He continues his rough stretch, this time against the D-backs, limited to just one and two-thirds innings here. Two runs, one earned, three walks.

Through just 56% of his pitches for strikes. It took him 59 pitches to record five outs here. Gave up a ton of hard contact. Last three starts have been awful for Casey Mize. 1142 ERA 277 whip. still 94% rostered. Where is he on the dropometer? 7.

With Mize, this is one where even though the underlying numbers have been pretty good, especially the XERA has mostly matched his his ERA for most of the season. I never really bought it. And part of that is just, there's a difference between describing

what has happened in the past and predicting what's going to happen in the future. is very, very good for describing what has happened in the past and what a pitcher should have earned. The problem is it takes into account quality of contact, and that is something that just fluctuates a ton from one year to the next. And guys take, it takes a long time to know if someone is really good at limiting hard contact. And in my case, he had never been good before this season. And then he was good for the first half of the season. but his strikeout rate was still mediocre

control's been very good but I feel like this is one where the command's not as good as the control it's a lot of like I feel like every time I watch him it's a lot of like chest high slurves and sliders from Casey Mize so I think the the hot hand play is mostly done with Mize

and it's fine to drop him all right what's going on with James Wood we are getting lots of requests to talk about James Wood right now who is in a quite a bit of a slum, excuse me, one for five with three strikeouts here on Tuesday, last 18 games, hitting 116 with 35 strikeouts. That is a 45% strikeout rate, 18% swinging strike rate during that time,

69% ground ball rate during that stretch. My honest takeaway here, Chris, is that he's 22 years old and he's going through it right now. And yes, he performed like a complete, stud up until the beginning of July, I think he's allowed to go through a stretch like this. I know it's a really, really bad stretch for a player who, you know, we had as like a fringe first round pick going into the second half of the season. I'm kind of just giving him the benefit of the doubt. He's young and he's in a slum. I have basically no concern here.

Most players are not going to be dominant all season long. And James Wood had been remarkably consistent and dominant. You look month by month, 906, 1014, 896 OPS, down to 567 in July. Maybe he got figured out. I think the likeliest explanation is that he's just in a slump. And that's nothing to be concerned about. All right.

Let's take a look at some hitters who are mashing in July. Let's do a quick hitter thought on each of these. Jordan Westberg, four hits in game one of their doubleheader. And so far in July, 337, four homers, 22 runs, and an 898 OPS, hitting the ball extremely hard. I had him as a breakout going into the second half. Chris, a quick thought on Jordan Westberg. Where are you at?

I think he's really good. I just hope he stays healthy. I think that's been the biggest thing holding him back. Next up is Gunner Henderson, who actually I didn't mean to include him in this because he's not really having that great of a July. So let's move on to Kyle Schwarber, who went two-for-four with his 37th home run, and in the month, 12 homers, 29 RBI,

and an 1141 OPS. You know, his free agency is going to be really interesting, man. I'm fascinated to see what happens. Yeah, I don't know what to make of that. 5.120? Is that not enough? I don't know if 24 million a year's enough for him. How old is he going to be this off-season?

He's like 34, right? 30 actually he's only 32 32 on opening 33 on opening day next year yeah um interesting that's what's the contract what contract did frey freeman get six for 16 16 150 6 162 yeah i don't know yeah four for 120 something feels a little steep for a dh but you know six for 150 5125 for sure Yeah, I think that makes sense. And I, man, if I'm a contender, I'd be thrilled to add that, even if he's a DH-only bat, which I don't know if you saw that play he made in the outfield yesterday or Sunday, whatever it was when he fell down while making a catch. I didn't see it. He can probably still play first base, right?

Like, yeah, throw out first base. Why not? He's awesome. And it's the kind of thing where it could fall apart quickly in the final few years of that deal could look horrible. but he is clutch. I know we don't like to talk about such things, but Kyle Schwerber clearly is. He's gotten better the past couple of years.

I'm a huge fan of his game. Huge game for Jared Duran, 2 for 4 with a sock and a shoe, his 10th home run, his 18th steal. He has turned it up big time in July. 299 batting average, 4 homers, 3 steals, 1036 OPS. And this could be one of those players, Chris, we're like, okay, it was a bad first half, but we know how talented he is.

And it could be one of those where like everyone tuned out in the second half they're starting to prep for fantasy football, whatever it might be. And then you look up at the end of the year and boom, Jaron Duran wound up getting to his numbers. Yeah, the one thing that I would be interested in seeing and maybe I can pull it up quickly enough while I'm talking is just he has been sitting against some lefties lately.

So that's the thing that. I am wondering about with Jared Duran's just how much of that has been happening. And let's see. Yeah, he, uh, no, I guess he hasn't been sitting out. Am I doing this right? No, he's been playing pretty consistently. Uh, he has, no, you're right. He has sat out three of the past six against lefties.

Okay, I was looking at the wrong. But basically played against almost every lefty. before that so um fair point and there's a chance he gets traded i don't know how how good of a chance it is but like would would boston do a Mitch keller for jaron duran trade i duran is older than you might think i think he's 28 and he's already in his first year of arbitration so only two years of club control left after this so not as valuable as you might think on the trade market so like a keller for Duran trade or Keller or Duran to

God, I would love him in Cincinnati or something. That'd be awesome. Duran for C's feels like it kind of makes sense, but I think the podrais would have to throw in more than just C's. Because it's a rental player. Yeah, that that's Duran for Alcantra.

I'd do that. I don't know if Boston would. Interesting. But I wouldn't mind him getting traded just because that is a sort of tough park for lefties, especially for power. And, you know, he's, it's super crowd in their outfield right now.

So he's got a better chance of playing every single day the rest of the way if he's, if he's somewhere else. All right, we have two Royals hitters who picked it up in July. Bobby Witt hitting 315, four homers, seven steals, 889 OPS, and Vinnie Pasquantino, Vinnie Pee! Baby! Went three for five with his 18th Homer and he now has six home runs, 18 RBI, 915 OPS,

in the month, and he is one home run away from tying his career high, which was 19 just last year. Anything on Bobby Witt or Vinnie P. picking it up? I mean, Bobby Witt, the only question was, is he the second best player

in fantasy or is he the fourth best player in fantasy? Well, right now he's the second best because Judge and Akunya are hurt. True. I still think if all four of them are healthy, he's probably more like fourth, but that is not a knock on Bobby Witt. For Vinnie P, I

I don't know. Like, he might get to 30 homers this season. Does it really feel like he's having that grade of a year? His OPS has climbed every month this season. Yeah. So he got off to the slow start. Is it up to around 800 right now?

He's at, no, it's still below 800. 777. 775. Yeah, overall, his numbers look very similar to the last couple of seasons. It's a fine player. It's just, yeah,

it's just not the, not the star we hoped he would be. It just kind of a stable, stable high floor kind of guy, you know? Yeah, but not, not the true difference maker that we were hoping he would be. Look,

maybe he carries this through the next couple of months and, and we have a different conversation, but I think right now it's, if any piece of a fine player. Yeah, uh, 265 hitting 25 Homer 85, 90 RBI.

It's a good player. It's not like a league winner or anything like that. CJ Abrams, not exactly mashing, but he has been running wild three steals in two of his last three games. He's got nine steals here in the month of July. Quietly just having a very solid season here is CJ Abrams. Two other hitters who are mashing for just part of July here. So far in the second half, Michael Harris, 395, three homers, 1226 OPS.

Very small sample. and Christian Walker last 11 games hitting 3.41, one homer, 8 RBI, one steal, the strikeout rate down to 21% over his last 11 games. So two more names here, Chris. I'm a little bit more skeptical

with Christian Walker just because he's older and it's, you know, change of scenery. Maybe it just didn't work out in Houston. But Michael Harris is young enough where, yeah, I can absolutely just see him taking off here in second half.

I was going to say that maybe it was a, reverse space jam and p. Kroa Armstrong stole Michael Harris' powers in the first half, but then Michael Harris got them back, but Pete Kro Armstrong still has a 936 OPS in the second half. So that joke doesn't really work there. I am, Michael Harris is 24 years old.

And as bad as he's been this season, guys at his age who have shown his ability generally do not just fall apart forever. And maybe he has. You know, his play discipline's always been really bad. Maybe he's just reached that point where he can't overcome it. But I don't know, the athleticism indicators still are very good. He's still a great defensive player.

I believe that Michael Harris is going to turn around all along. I'm not particularly surprised that he has. He has a 351 expected bobo over his past 100 plays. appearances, it's 321 over the past 250. So the trends are all pointing in the right direction. That's the best you can ask for at this point. All right, let's quickly do some hay real quick. Starting pitcher edition, a quick thought on each of these.

Max Fried, a quality start against Tampa Bay, six and two-thirds innings, two earned runs, nine strikeouts. But the velocity was down in this one. Between one and two miles per hour on all of its pitches. It was also extremely hot in New York. I don't know if that's a valid excuse here, but Chris, any concern over Max Freed's velocity? It would feel like a failure of nominative determinism

if a guy named Freed struggled in the heat, fried. Yeah, got it. He's one of those pitchers, I'm going to be honest. I almost don't even look at the pitch log stuff with Max Fried just because it changes every game. His velocity can fluctuate from game to game. And it just, it never seems to matter. He's always good.

I know he's been a little shaky lately, and maybe the blister is playing a role in that, but I'm going to keep rolling him out there as long as the Yankees are. All right, next up, Nick Lodolo, racked up some big whiffs here against the Dodgers. Five and a third innings, two runs, 11 strikeouts had 16 whiffs on 94 pitches.

And Chris, I know you've been waiting for strikeouts all season. Well, guess what? In the month of July, five starts, a 14% swinging strike rate here for Nick Lidolo. Yeah, curveball still doesn't have the movement profile that it did last year when it was more sweepy, was a better swing and miss pitch overall. It doesn't look like we're going to get that back. So I'm still skeptical of Lodolo being a strikeout pitcher, but his command has been awesome all year. He's generating weak contact.

I generally think, okay, he's probably not a 309 ERA guy, but maybe a 349 ERA guy, I think that's reasonable enough. That's a small difference. Lucas Gilito bounced back with a strong start at the Twins. Six innings, one run, five strikeouts had 13 whiffs on 101 pitches. I've got to be honest, Chris, I don't really get it with Lucas Gilito. But, you know, for the past, I don't know, month, six weeks, he's had a lot more good starts than bad ones.

So where are you at? Lucas Celito. I don't really think he's very good at this point in his career, unfortunately. And while it's been more good than bad lately, and I guess in Head to Head Points League, that makes him a viable starter. In Roto, he's given up a lot of it with his bad starts. I don't know.

I don't really see much reason to be excited about Lucas Jolito at this point. he has two starts all three starts all season with more than six strikeouts. He's only got like five, I think, with six strikeouts. So the strikeout rate's been mediocre. Command's been okay. He's giving up a lot of hard contact. And Boston's got a really good defense. You know, that could help explain why he's been able to outrun his peripherals,

but it's a 562 XERA for the season or it was coming into this start. Yeah. I think it's more likely that his ERA starts with a four than a three moving forward. All right. Next up here we have your boy, Sandy Alcantara, solid at the Cardinals. Five shutout innings with four strikeouts. He threw just 59% of his pitches for strikes. Last two starts, it's 12 innings, one run, eight strikeouts to three walks. We'll see what team he's on come Thursday evening.

He's down to 77% rostered, which I totally get. I mean, the guy has an ERA that starts with. the six, but I still would not be surprised if he turns things around on another team. I would rather have him than Branagh fought. I will say that. Yeah, it seems like the command is getting a little better. He's still not missing many bats. That's the one thing you'd like to see a lot more of from Sandy Alcantra, but it seems likely he will be on a much better team moving forward. and that if he turns it around and has a huge final two months of the season,

I would not be particularly surprised at all. But it's not like you can point to anything and say that's going to happen, you know? Next up we have Sean Mania, five innings one run, four strikeouts here at the Padres. And we've been paying attention to the velocity because it's trended down in each of his first three appearances. It was back up a little bit here,

91.4 miles per hour on the fastball. Last time out, it was 90.4, and his sweeper was at 78.7. Last time out, it was 77.6. It's also just kind of interesting that he's become a two-pitch pitcher so far this year. It's just fastball and sweepers. So, yeah, Sean Manaya, the results are there. He's kind of a confusing one for me between the pitch mix, the velocity fluctuations, and, you know, the loose bodies and the elbow and things he was dealing with early on this season.

I still think he's mostly going to be good, but I don't know, kind of a confusing one. Where are you at on Chomaniya? I mostly buy it. I'd like to see him missing more bats. It was only seven whiffs in this one, and the sweeper is, I guess it's not too far below what it was last season,

but it hasn't been great. Let's see. Only two swinging strikes with that. Probably overall down to like 33%. Last year it was 39. I don't know. I think he's probably going to be fine if he stays healthy, but that feels like a big risk with the elbow.

I just don't know what you can do with it, right? Like, it's not like Shamaniah was a top 100 pick before he got hurt and people were beating down the door to add him. There was a lot of skepticism. He was, you know, I think for our purposes on this show viewed is a pretty nice value before his injury. But I don't think anybody's giving you anything difference-making to move Shaman's.

Mania, so I'd probably just hang on to him and hope it, hope it doesn't fall apart. Tyler Glassnow had a rough outing at the Reds, four innings, four runs loud, five walks to three strikeouts, and this is coming off his best start of the season. So it was also very hot, just, I mean, all around the country here was like 91 degrees, uh, in Cincinnati here. Uh, but just kind of weird to see Glass now kind of follow up his best start of the season with maybe his worst. Yeah.

One thing I did notice with Glassnow in this start is he generated only, I don't know, the exact number. His out of his chase rate, which is the number of pitches, the percentage of pitches outside of the zone that opposing hitter swung at was only 10%. Today, that is super low, obviously. And for the season entering today, it's only 22%. This is Tyler Glassnow guy for his career with chase rate 27. percent previous years 27 30 36 um so when you're looking at why tyler glass now has an 11 percent walk rate that's probably it he's just not getting guys to to go out of the zone i'm not sure exactly what explains that um because the stuff still looks really good but he hasn't quite been

there like even in this start 52 percent of his pitches were in the zone it's not like he was scattering him everywhere it was just when he didn't throw it in the zone the the reds just just did not chase. And that's a good approach if you can make it work. It's just Glass Now's career suggests that that's not the easiest thing in the world to do. Some hitting leftovers here. The Tigers offense woke up. They have been in quite the funk here in July.

They put up 12 runs on 19 hits, including home runs from Glaber Torres, Riley Green, and Zach McKinth. Cody Bellinger continues to rake. Hit his 20th home run of the season, 70 games since the start of May. 309 batting average, 17 homers, and OPS over 900 for Bellinger. Jonathan Aranda hit his first home run against a lefty this season, and it came off of Max Fried. It was his 12th homer of the year. Marcel O'Zuna might not be done yet, back-to-back days with a homer.

I guess one last push to show that he's got something. Maybe some team comes knocking and trades for Marcelo Zuna. Austin Riley clearly listened to the podcast last night and has now homered in back-to-back games and Gunner Henderson 4-4-8 with a homer 4 runs 4 RBI across the double-header he's having an okay July

batting average has been fine that we still just need more power That's just kind of having an okay season Yeah 284, 12 homers 14 seals 8 19 OPS I mean that's a good pace Fine numbers It's not a you know

Top 7 or 8 player Yeah And I don't I don't think any of us had him as a Like even a top 24 player heading into the second half, right? Did you have Gunner? Gosh, I can't remember. That was so long ago. It was a whole lifetime

ago. It's like, I don't know, two weeks ago? Yeah. Brother, I can barely remember two days ago. When you were on the beach for eight hours? Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, the only thing with Gunner is just last 365 days. It's a 278 average,

350 on base, 469 slug. That all seems good. 20 homers, 21 steals. A guy the 21 steals, that's great, but 20 homers. That's pretty disappointing

for a guy who hit 37 last year, but then you remember, it was kind of super front-loaded last year. It was 28 home. Remember, he was right there with Judge heading into July for the Major League lead in home runs,

and then he only had nine in his final 64 games. And that has continued here in the, the, the 2025. So it does make you wonder if Gunner Henderson is just more of a very, very good hitter

than an elite one. The quality of context still suggests he should be a very good power hitter. I would still peg him as more of a 30 homer guy, but it's been a while since we've seen that. All right, the call to the bullpen

here for the Yankees. Devin Williams got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed a run on a walk and a hit, but picked up his 17th save of the season. For the Reds, Emilio Pagan got the ninth with the game tied. He allowed a run on a hit and a walk. He took the loss. On the other side for the Dodgers, Alex Vesia,

got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out two for his fourth save. It'll be interesting to see in their next save opportunity. Do they go back to Vesia, who converted this one? Or maybe Blake Trinan, who didn't look very good in his return on Monday. For the Royals, Carlos Estevez allowed a hit but picked up his 28th save. For the Astros, Josh Hader struck out the side for his 28th as well. For the Pirates, David Beddard was unavailable.

Dennis Santana got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He struck out two for his sixth save. And for the Angels, Kenley Janssen picked up his 20th save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Dean Kramer up against the Blue Jays. Chris Panic in his Tiger's debut gets the debacks. Adrian Houser against the Phillies Will Warren gets the raise Jeffrey Springs against the Maritors

It's not a great day Yeah I'm not a huge fan of a lot of these options Um Man yeah Kramer's been good but the matchup The Blue Jays have just been awesome lately I think Paddock versus Arizona might be my favorite

Uh Did we talk about Suarez he left yesterday's game with the hand injury. It sounds like he might play tomorrow. Yeah, I mentioned it during the news. Okay, that might honestly be the deciding factor for Kramer because that lineup gets pretty shallow

if A. Oh, Hano-Swaris isn't in it. I think you mean for Paddock, right? Yeah, Paddock, sorry, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so for Wednesday, it's, I don't trust any of these guys, like kind of disclaimer with this, but I guess I would say Springs,

Kramer and I guess Adrian Houser but again yeah I don't really like any of those Thursday it's a three game slate it's trade deadline day there's not much going on why even have the three games yeah just just give everyone a day off

yeah like if you're gonna only have three games just have no games you know I don't understand the thought process here yeah I mean we only have possible options Kumar Rocker at the Mariners and Marcus Stroman against Tampa Bay uh sure yeah rocker

don't use anybody on Wednesday or Thursday basically can we just not do the podcast on Thursday night and just do the trade deadline recap yeah I don't know I might just instead of doing a bonus podcast I might just save all the trade deadline stuff for Thursday night I mean it's a three game slate what else are we going to talk about I mean

or just FBT Express on Thursday's just breaking down the three games there you go people are still clamoring for more Scotty doesn't know so you know we could always go with that we are going to wrap there. What we can do Scottie doesn't know what team players are on.

Where did this random prospect wind up? Let's play a game. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

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