Fantasy Baseball Today - Sandy Saves, Stream Yainer Diaz & How High Will They Go in 2027? (9/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 24, 2026

Sandy Alcantara has two saves in the past week (2:30)! ... What's going on with the Mariners pitchers (9:50)? ... Stream Yainer Diaz this weekend (18:18)! ... News (21:42): Aaron Judge thinks he'll be ready for the Wild Card. ... What's going on with Vlad Jr. (35:47)? ... How high will Ben Rice go next season (41:36)? ... How high will Logan Henderson get drafted (49:52)? ... Are these four hitters cooked (59:20)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:05:52).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

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. Hey there, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. On Thursday, September 24th, I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we have more names for the 20th.

27 Sleeper Ometer. Are these four hitters cooked? Two players that I believe will be pretty tough to rank for next season and much more. Let's jump in. Can you believe it? Wow. Wow. The Marlins appear to have a closer and his name is.

Chris, your player of the night. Yeah, no. Sandy Alcounter is not the moment. Marlins closer. The Marlins do not have a closer and never will. Ever again. But I don't think this is, so Sandy O'Connor got a save for the second time in the last week on Wednesday night. Wednesday night, yeah. It was another not quite one, two, three inning, but I think he got a double play to get out of it. And that's now two saves. And I realized that this is the, fourth time they've done this with three different starting pitchers in the past month. They did it with Jansen Junk towards the end of August. They did it with Yuri Perez, I think over the weekend on Saturday maybe.

No, I think that was on like Tuesday. Was that Monday? Was that last night? Monday or Tuesday, yeah. Yeah. And now they've done it twice with Sandy Alcantra, where he's gotten a save. And with Yuri, the plan actually was to use him in the ninth inning. And then the way the game went, the sixth.

the sixth inning ended up being the bigger spot, so they used him there. But I looked up the MLB.com story from yesterday after Yuri's appearance. And I'll just read from the story. Quote, McCullough reiterated that this wouldn't be something starters would do between every outing next season. Rather, maybe four times a year. Circumstances and variables would be taken into account. Then there's a quote from McCullough, this is something that is a potential

at various times and him being Yuri Perez now having the experience of having done that. I think it's a great developmental piece for him, too, to take on something different. Also looking down the road, if this is something that we explore further, he and us can draw from this. It sounds like the Marlins are actually thinking about doing this. I don't think it's going to be like some kind of crazy closer committee with all five starters, pitching every week and like that's not going to happen. But a handful of times in key situations when the closer's not available, yeah, it sounds like the Marlins might actually be considering this. Didn't McCullough suggest a number of times they may do it?

Yeah, four times. Four times. But, you know, who knows what, like, whether that's the actual plan or what? because that's not a direct quote. That was what the reporter put in there. But I'm not saying this should be something that changes how you view Sandy Alcanta or Yuri Perez or, I don't know, Janson Junk or Max Meyer. I don't think they're probably going to do with Max Meyer. But I think if you're like looking ahead to next season, it's something to consider, at least for Sandy, that, hey, maybe he gets four or five saves next year.

And that's not a huge amount. but in a roto league, that's not nothing. I'll always remember it because it's one of the weirdest seasons I've ever seen. Tyler Holton in 2024 was like a top 16 starting pitcher in fantasy because he had seven wins and nine saves. He also had a 219 ERA and 0.78 whip over 90 innings, but still, the wins and saves carried a lot of weight there. And it could be a nice little bonus for Sandy O'Connor.

And it's at least something to consider. heading into next season. If you're torn between him and some other boring innings eater type like Logan Webb, maybe you just take Sandy Alcantra instead because maybe you get five saves out of him at the end of the season. I don't think it's like the most likely outcome anytime you're dealing with. I think this would be a pretty unprecedented situation. But it's something to consider at least. This is the first time a player has had two saves and three.

33 starts in a season since 1996. Before that, it had been like the 1970s, I think. So this is weird stuff that we're seeing, but it could potentially matter for 2026. My initial thought with that Diamondbacks game last week was, well, that was a fun thing they did. But no, they're actually talking about it. But to be clear, you're like,

the take is Sandy Alcantra might get two or three saves next year. Yeah, I think you'd be like five. at the most. And so that's not a huge number. Like I said, tiebreaker. Yeah. It just adds a slight wild card to fantasy and something that we really have not seen,

at least since I've been playing fantasy baseball. So specific, like we have seen pitchers be used in different roles. But what the Marlins are seemingly talking about is taking their bullpen days between starts and using that in games instead. Yeah. But we almost never see that. Maybe it happens towards the end of the season or, you know, in the playoffs.

In the postseason or something like that. But I mean, we've now seen it twice in the past week. So it's just kind of interesting. It's a fun thing. It's a little wrinkle, I guess, to remember for next season. Of course, Sandy O'Connor would have to be in your lineup all season long because I don't think we'll know when these saves are going to come if they are going to come even at all. But it's, yeah, it's just kind of an interesting wrinkle, I think, for next season.

year. Well, and it might not be just him, too, because they did it this week with Yuri Perez. True. And they said that the plan was to use Yuri in the ninth inning before circumstances were changing. So, yeah, it was the game was tied in the eighth and I think the heart of the lineup was coming up. I guess to give the, um, oh, there's a fence here. I don't know why there's a fence here. So let's just tear it down. That's kind of what the Marlins are saying. To give the opposite take, I don't know why the fence is here, so I better leave it. I think, the idea of

why for all of history teams haven't done that is because bullpen sessions, throw days in between starts are lower intensity than a game scenario, particularly a closing scenario. So, I don't know I think that's why they're testing it out now.

Yeah. Especially late in the season. Like, testing it out when these guys would presumably be at their least fresh, I think would would give them at least some data about how they bounce back from it. So I think it's interesting. It is interesting. I just, I wonder if, uh, if they'll find out it's a bad idea.

In the long run, I mean, something that, okay, it didn't cause any problems for two weeks. It might be a different scenario for 27 weeks. And I guess this could all go away if the Marlin just somehow sign or trade for some very well established closer, but, uh, Pete Fairbanks was a one-year deal. He needs thoracic Outlet surgery, so it's not going to happen there. And honestly, you know, they used Fairbanks as their main closer

this year, but last year in Clayton McCullough's first year, they were all over the place with closer usage. So yeah, at his core, he does not want a closer ever again. Scott, over to you. Let's talk about your player of the night. George

Kirby, a perfect way to cap off his season. Yeah, it was what was basically the typical George Kirby start, at least this year, four run runs and five innings, nine base runners allowed. Nothing remarkable about it. He threw his fastball 34% of the time. So I guess I'm just using the fact that he started as an excuse to address Mariners' pitchers as a whole again. and I don't know if this is an organizational philosophy.

I have no idea. It's just something I've noticed between three Mariners pitchers. They happen to be on the same team. So it wouldn't surprise me if it's something the organization is doing. Maybe these pitchers are doing it of their own volition. But all three have gotten worse over the course of their career. All three came up throwing a lot more fastballs than they do. now.

I mean Gilbert. I'm sorry. Yeah, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, and Bryce Miller. All three came up very fastball heavy. As they've gotten away with that,

gotten away from that, they've gotten worse. And so that's part of the appeal. I'm not the only one who's expressed it. Part of the thinking why George Kirby may be able to recapture something

if he was traded to a different organization. I've noticed this with the fastball not just over the course of their career, but within this season as well. Especially with Bryce Miller and Logan, Gilbert, we have a bigger sample of them having starts where they throw their fastball more.

And if you isolate, I don't have the numbers compiled here like I do for Peyton Tolley when I talk about his curveball. But I did look into it more when they've thrown their fastballs more this year. They've generally been much better. That's true for Kirby too. Now he has only four starts where he's thrown his fastball 40% or more this year. So it is a tiny sample and maybe the least revealing of the three.

But in those four starts, George Kirby has a 106 ERA.95 whip and more than a strikeout for inning. So again, it may not have anything to do with the Mariners. There was kind of a hullabaloo on social media this weekend because somebody tattled on me to Lance Brasdowski and Enoseres saying, I think the Mariners are bad at pitching development. That's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying three Mariners pitchers have all gotten worse by doing the same thing. And I'm not sure it makes sense to do that thing in their situation. And yeah, I hope George Kirby gets traded because I think in the hands of just, you know,

different, probably the organization that acquires him would want to make some changes given the way he's fallen off. and I think it might have something to do with this. And I think it's worth noting that around the trade deadline, when George Kirby was mentioned in some trade rumors, that was the talk that the, that other teams saw changes they could make to Kirby to unlock something. So there's some evidence of that around baseball.

I also just think, like, Logan Gilbert is a funny one because there was a story this spring. about when Cowrally went to the World Baseball Classic, Logan Gilbert was excited because it meant he could throw his cutter and sinker because Cowrally just does not let him, did not let him throw those pitches in the past. And, you know, whether that's the organization or just Cowellie, you know, I'm sure he gets to decide what he's calling anyway. For a platinum glove winner.

Yeah, I do think, and there have been stories about this. I think there's a culture. of all the pitchers are constantly tinkering and trying to one up each other and there's a culture of competitiveness within the staff. And I think all that stuff is good, but I think you see it with,

I think Logan Gilbert's a really good example of this year where you go pitch by pitch, and he's got this like six or seven pitch arsenal now. And everything looks good. The stuff metrics, I think he's like above average on five different pitches, including like the splitters, like a 141 stuff plus or something crazy.

And the interesting, individual results on the pitches are all good. And then you zoom out and it's like, oh, he's got like a 370 ERA. And it's like, well, there's some kind of disconnect here. And in Gilbert's case, last year it was slider. It was four seamer slider, splitter, a curveball was basically all he threw. And this year he adds the cutter. This year he brings the change up back.

And those don't look like bad pitches. But my thing with that was why. what was the point of this? It was working. Yep. And so I just, you know, I go back to Trevor Bauer like eight years ago where famously tinkering all the time, adding new pitches, changes, the grips, all the, and he got to a point where he was a Cy Young winner. And then he got to a point where he was kind of mediocre after that. And it was like, well, he tinkered his way into it.

Maybe he tinkered his way out. And I think Jose Barrio or not Marcus Stroman was another guy like this that was just constantly making changes. And it's like, that's not to say you should sit on your laurels and never try to improve. But it does like sometimes there's tinkering. If it ain't broke. Yeah. Sometimes there's tinkering just for tinkering's sake. And I don't know.

Like, look, the Mariners are just bad. Like we talked about this on yesterday's pod, but the vibes are just rotten. And I think basically everybody but Randy a Roserina and Cole Young has had a disappointing season for the Rangers or the Mariners. So technically they're still not eliminated from the playoffs as we're speaking. But maybe it's just one of those seasons where everything went wrong and there's nothing fundamentally broken and these guys will figure it out because they're all super talented. But it's just it's been super frustrating for a lot of these guys. I mean, it didn't just start this year, at least not for Kirby and Miller.

And Gilbert, I don't know that I'd say it started this year for him either. It's kind of a different case, but... I do wonder a little bit about the injuries just for both guys with Kirby, with the shoulder, and then Logan Gilbert last year, he kind of had the flexor thing. Forearm injury.

I don't know if that has contributed at all to just changing pitch mixes or not, in Kirby's case, maybe not throwing his fastball as much because of the shoulder. I don't know. I'm just kind of throwing theories out there, but that's all we have right now is theories. And Kurt is a guy whose arm angle has changed over the past three years. And I think that definitely was related to the injury last year. It could just be that. I mean, it could be the fact that they emphasize their fastball less at times also happens to be the times they're less than 100%.

It could be, but like suspicious timing when it's. It's true for all three of them. Yeah, I mean, part of me thinks it might be kind of a little bit like, you know, that stat where like, oh, teams are 112 and 7 when they run the football 35 times. It's like, they run the football more because they're winning. Right. You know, like you throw your fastball more because your fastball's working that day kind of thing. But that's always true. I think what it gets down to for me, though, is like the trend is, like, the trend is.

in the sport right now is definitely add pitches. Like, that's something every pitcher's encouraged to do. And I want to doubt that on the whole, the statistics show that pitchers improve by adding more pitches on the whole. But I don't know that George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, and Brian Miller are that sort of median talent that needs to apply,

that needs to be subjected to standard practices. they might be so good that it's actually hindering them rather than helping them. All right, I will very quickly mention my player of the night, and this might be the one piece of advice that factors or matters for people who are still playing if you play in a tailie lineup league for the weekend. But Jainer Diaz went two for five with his 14th home run and 3RBI. And over his last 24 games, he's hitting 363 with six homers, NoPS over 1,000, 93 mile per hour average EV.

He is absolutely locked in. He is playing a bunch. He has started 10 of the past 11 games. Yiner Diaz is 39% rostered. And his final four games are all in Sacramento against the athletics. Great hitting environment. He's going up against Mason Barnett, Jacob Lopez, Jack Perkins, Brady Basso.

Two lefties on the schedule. Lopez is spiraling right now as well. So just great pitching matchups, great environment to hit in. If you need a catcher for the final four days of the season and you play in a daily lineup league, I think Yainer Diaz is the name for you. He also is amazing on the road this season. So boom, Yainer Diaz, get him in there.

Before we hit our first break, big thanks to everyone for being here watching live. We appreciate you. Make sure to hit that like button. And if you're listening on the audio side of things, drop us a five-star rating and review. Apple or Spotify, wherever you listen. We really do appreciate it.

Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes. Aaron Judge told ESPN that he intends to be ready to play in game one of the Wild Card Series next week. And in response to that, and in the words of Ron Burgundy, I don't believe you. I hope that I'm wrong about this situation.

It's a very weird one too because Aaron Boone came out the other day and said, you know, it's a moderate strain of the calf for Judge, and they're not expecting him back for the Wild Card Series. Judge then spoke to the media after Wednesday night's game and he had like a 10 minute interview where he's like I don't know why he said any of that stuff. I'm still trying to make it back. So just kind of weird

misunderstanding miscommunication right now but it's wait and see. Sounds like a situation where the team might need to protect the player from themselves. And I get especially get why Aaron Judge in particular

would want to play in the postseason and you know kind of reverse some of the narratives that have started to crop up about his postseason play. And this might be his best chance, right? Like, they have an amazing pitch. Yeah, it's wide open. Yeah, no, nothing's promised. And so I definitely get that.

But man, it's a, it's a tough spot for a team to be in if he's pushing to play. But I don't know. It is oddly reminiscent of Kevin Durant, right? A couple of years ago when he kind of went against, you know, went against what was told of him. and, you know, he was dealing with a cash drain, and it turned out he tore his Achilles in that series when playing with the Warriors. So obviously, that would be worst case scenario for Aaron Judge,

but it has to be in the back of your mind. Like, whenever you're dealing with a calf, I mean, it could turn into an Achilles. So it's... I wouldn't want to be the manager of the Yankees right now. I'll just leave it there. Sticking with the Yankees for a second. I mean, the pay's pretty good.

Yeah, that's true. A lot of scrutiny, too. John Carlos Staten took Live BP on Wednesday with the possibility of being available in next week's wildcard series. So... Sure. Yeah, okay. John Carlos Staten and Aaron Judge, we'll see.

The Dodgers reinstated Shohei Otani and optioned Hoseway DePaula back to AAA. They did say there's a chance that DePaula could be on the postseason roster. In 11 games, he hit 323 with a 500 on base percentage. One homer, one steal. His OPS was over 1,000. he had 11 walks to five strikeouts, 11.5% barrel rate, tons of line drives. Obviously, lots to be excited about one of the top prospects in all.

Baseball is Jose Wade-Depala. Scott, let's fire up the sleep barometer for Joseway to Paula next season. You might want to do it with or without to Oscar Hernandez, I guess. Yeah, I'm going to say 10. Like, they got to figure out a way to get them on their opening day roster next year. It's, to me, bizarre that they just sent him down. I mean, I guess they're not playing for anything right now. They're acknowledging that they're likely to include them on the postseason roster.

So we may come to find out he does play more than Teoscar Hernandez when the games count for them again. And that'll make it pretty clear what their plans are for next year. But I imagine they'll find a way to fit Josue Hosei DePaula in their lineup. And I think he would be a burning red 10, the sort of sleeper who becomes not a sleeper. It's everyone's favorite breakout. It's the wrong, yeah, I think the sleeper is the wrong phrasing there. I think it's like, so the highest 80Ps for rookies over the past decade are Bobby Witt at 82.2, Corby and Carroll at 62, Corey Seeger at 60.1, Randy Rosarina, 57.5.

and Vlad Jr. at 51.5. I think that's the range if they trade to Oscar Hernandez. Wow. Maybe he should. Like, maybe that's too much, but like we were talking about a top five prospect in baseball. We have proof of concept of extremely high-level skills and extremely well-rounded abilities.

And then, yeah, if he's in the lineup on opening day, like if he's guaranteed to be there, I think he's going to be a top 75 pick no matter what. Like he's going 27 and 31 at at double A. And then walked 11 times in 11 games with five strikeouts.

Like you cannot ask for much more from a rookie. Yeah. Yeah. I think what's going to be kind of weird to until we actually take the time to line up the players in projecting what round they're likely to go in is this was an unusual season. We've talked about a lot in the respect that

a lot of the players, the early round mainstays, underperform, like the vast majority of them did. And you can only move them so far down the rankings. And yet you have these new ones who actually ended up performing like early rounders who weren't drafted in rounds one and two this year. And so I think it's going to be a more crowded top 50 top 60

than usual because of that I'm pretty early in the rankings process still but that's already the sense I'm getting is wow I can't move this just because he had one bad year I can't move this guy too far down you know Tucker and Vlad and yeah

a lot of guys like that that Astros Mariners game just went final by the way and the Mariners walked it off So technically, they're not dead yet. The Astros had a golden opportunity to pull one game ahead of the Rangers. They are tied for the first place in AOS, both being under 500. And I think, do the Mariners play the Rangers for their next series? I think that's the way it lines up, because I'm pretty sure if the Mariners went out.

I don't know, they play the Angels the next four. So if the Mariners went out and the Rangers and Astros lose out, the Mariners would make the playoffs. That is the only way, and it's almost certainly not going to happen. But wouldn't that be a crazy way for this Mariners season to end? They win the division with 78 wins. And then if that happens, what if they win the World Series, Chris? I mean, they came pretty close to making it last year. Suddenly, Dan Wilson has a job still.

That would be unbelievable. My AL, my AL World Series representative before the season, the Seattle Mariners, baby, let's go. Ronald de Cunia was not in the lineup after fouling a ball off of his leg on Tuesday. Jesus Lazzardo played catch Wednesday for the fourth day in a row and is expected to throw off a mound as soon as Thursday. The Blue Jays plays Dylan Cies and I.L with right shoulder inflammation ending his season. Once again, he does not need surgery, so that's the good news for Dillon C's.

Ceylon Raphael returned on Wednesday, and then he left immediately with right hamstring tightness. Apparently he will undergo an MRI on Thursday. Jeremy Pena was not in the lineup after getting hit by a pitch on his right wrist on Tuesday. Wilson Gutreras has missed five straight with right-hand soreness. Samuel Bessio was placed on the seven-day concussion IL ending his season, and it ends with 112 games played. 22 batting average, 18 home runs, 54 RBI, a 697 OPS. I still think there's a lot of promise.

I think there's a lot of upside. I think there's massive power potential. But there also have been a lot of injuries early on here in Samuel Bessio's career. So I think that is something we will have to factor in for next season. Ray's manager, Kevin Cash, said Shane McClanahan will not be included on the ALDS roster. He is working his way back from a forearm injury. this could matter for those who are playing in daily lineup leagues this final week. Sunday's game between the Cubs and the Red Sox has been rescheduled as a split doubleheader on Friday.

Apparently there is a big storm that is coming to the Northeast this weekend. So yeah, they've already got out ahead of that. Cubs and Red Sox doubleheader Friday, they will not play on Sunday. But, I mean, that could cause some like postponements this weekend and like maybe doubleheaders on Sunday. I don't know. I could just turn into just mayhem this weekend. So we'll see. Uh, the Astros plays Christian Javier on the IL with that groin injury ending his season, unfortunately.

Curtis Mead is a long shot to be available for the postseason. He's been out almost two months with a fractured left wrist. Jackson Holiday will undergo left wrist surgery next week. He is dealing with a tear and some cartilage in that wrist, and he will need about 10 weeks of rehab. Should be fine for the start of spring training. Chase Burns worked on adding a sinker in September before going on the IL. something that we'll have to watch in spring training. Again, that's Chase Burns with a sinker.

You know, he throws super hard, so perhaps another weapon he could use against right-in-hitter's. No, don't need it. I don't like hearing that. That seems to fit into the same category, maybe even more so, as those Mariners pitchers. You just don't need it, Chase Burns.

You know, maybe one day you will. Well, at least in his case, he really only is a two-pitch pitcher or so. Yeah, but he... They're very good. He's amazing. So I don't really care. It's not a need for sure.

Yeah. And like I just think it, I think it's more likely to hinder him than help him from a fantasy standpoint. But we'll see. Maybe, maybe it's all talk. Max Scherzer, who pitched on Wednesday is an option to pitch on short rest on Sunday. The sole reason for this is to try and rank higher on the all-time strikeout leaderboard. So Scherzorzor is currently four strikeouts behind Justin Verlander, who is set to pitchers. who is set to pitch on Saturday.

But Verlander really hasn't been throwing much, so I don't really think he's going to throw too many innings. It might just be like one inning of work there for Verlander on Saturday. And so Scherzer is trying to pass Verlander on the all-time strikeout leaderboard. I love it. Scher has also not announced whether or not he's retiring, but this kind of leaves you to think he's retiring if he's trying to do this. Yeah.

Yep. Mitch Keller said he feels fully healthy and plans to resume throwing in late October. he was shut down with a right terrace major strain back in August. Scott, this helps your Leo Bernal ranking for next season. The Cardinals believe that Bernal can be an everyday workhorse catcher, and they are giving him a heavy workload here down the stretch to prepare him for 2027. So, good news. Yeah, I ended up moving him down to 11th when I actually published my initial rankings.

At least for Roto, I think I have him. Sorry, have first base pulled up. Yeah, I have Bernal still eighth and head-to-head points. Because guys like Samuel Bessayo, Carter, Jensen, and Cal Raleigh have some pretty bad strikeout issues. That's why they're lower in points. But I went ahead and left them ahead of Bernal. In Roto, when I took a closer look at all three of them, Jensen, Basayo, and Rale, I think there's enough reason for encouragement with each that.

that I shouldn't give Bernal that massive benefit of the doubt over what's only a couple weeks of impressive production. I still like them a lot. I mean, I'm still putting him as a top 12 player at a pretty deep position for next year with very little track record to go on.

I think that ranking alone would still be higher than most people for next year. Okay. All right, good. Yeah, when I did mine, I got... When I did mine, it was 14. the one that I bumped my head against was Will Smith because his underlying numbers were actually excellent this season when he played. It's just, what, 62 games?

Yeah, and I don't see that. Well, I'll improve on 62 games, but like the trend of him sitting a lot. It's probably like 110. Yeah. Yeah, it started even before the injury plague, 2026. But like with Bernal, I mean, they've got arguably the top catching prospect in baseball. He was at, did he get to double A by the end of? season.

Yeah. Yes. And so it's like you. Rineo Rodriguez. And they've got at least one other top 100 type catcher down there. Blanking on the name. But you kind of have to figure out if what Leo Bernal can do really quickly. Yeah.

And I still think there's a chance that they trade Yvonne Herrera in the offseason. Yes. Has he sat yet since being called up Bernal? Like that's, I don't think, the ultimate clincher for me. like, and now they're saying they see him as it every day we're a course catcher. He has not set a single time. It's not set a single time as a catcher just

entering the league. And he's been thrown right into the middle of the lineup. He has hit fourth or fifth in every game except for one, it looks like. And why not? He's got a 127 WRC plus. He's been awesome. It's probably not this good. I get it. It reminds me a little bit of Carter Jensen at the end of last season where it was

like, oh, he looks like a superstar and it's like, okay, well, he's probably just like a like a good player. I was thinking that. I don't want to overrate kind of the small sample prospect because again, like Carter Jensen,

I think is a good example. We did that. But even if you don't overrate it and take like his minor league numbers at face value and just project that he's going to play a ton next year, I still think that's enough to be excited about. Yeah,

a 110 WRC plus bat over 140 games. A catcher is pretty valuable no matter what. The comp, I made it before, but I see, I see some parallels to Drake Baldwin here. with Leo Bernal. All right.

Yeah. And we didn't have some weird comments from Vlad Jr. surface and go viral. Everyone has a comment about Vlad Jr. here on Wednesday. In an interview that he did with Veronica Batista, quote, and it was translated. It was an interview that he did in Spanish.

So, I mean, I just hope like they didn't botched the translation, but it feels like everyone kind of had this, everyone had the same kind of response to these quotes. But quote, they did. didn't pay me to hit 40 every year, 40 home runs, that is. They paid me for what I already did. I want people to understand one thing. The money that they gave me wasn't for what I'm going to do.

It was for what I already did. They didn't pay me because I'm going to hit 40 every year. They paid me for what I already accomplished. Vlad was asked about these comments on Wednesday by reporters, Blue Jays reporters, and he said, quote, no, I don't regret myself. I'm not lying with what I say. I understand some fans.

They don't understand the web. and what I was trying to say specifically, but what I said is the way I feel. That clarification, I think, kind of confirms my own suspicion here, where I understand why people are upset about this. I mean, it sounds like Latimer Guerrero is leaning into the classic case of,

oh, I'm paid now so I can just kick back and not try anymore. But if you read the full context of the initial quote and then view that follow-up quote through the same lens. It sounds like he has had to tell himself this to not put so much pressure on himself to live up to the contract. You've already done it.

Yeah. Yeah, like he's, because he talked about that. He felt a lot of pressure now that he's getting paid all this amount. And I think he also says, sometimes the part about how I think fans think they're paying me with the expectation of 40 home runs. And he says something like, sometimes I start to feel that way too.

So I think this is something he's using to kind of reassure himself. And I don't know why he feels like he needs to share that with everybody because it's obviously not going over well. But I don't think he means it in the way it actually sounds. I'm trying to be charitable to him. I also, one, nobody's ever charitable when it comes to athletes. And I'm guilty of that too. I understand it.

But we should get the order of operations correct here as well. He got the contract extension last year. And then he hit, what, 32 homers and was an All-Star and led the team to the playoffs and had that huge postseason that made everybody think that he was going to be, you know, one of the 10 best hitters in baseball again this season. He only had 23 home runs, by the way, last year. Okay, 23 home runs. Whatever.

whatever, he was good. And so, like, yeah, the idea that he was like dogging it, that all the contracts in Albatross, I think that stuff is so silly. Like, he just had a bad season. He might just be, like, it might be a bad contract. I thought it was a bad contract when they signed it. Like, yeah. I don't love giving a first baseman $500 million.

But, like, the idea that, like, it's suddenly a terrible contract or that he's dogging it, I think that stuff's patently unfair. Like, he had a great season after getting the contract. We don't need to do that. Yeah, look, people are throwing out like Anthony Rendon comps and stuff like that. I think that is going way too far. I hear what you guys are saying, giving him the benefit of the doubt. And I think there's a good chance that he's just been playing through injury all year.

He definitely has. I think there could be a little bit of, like, coasting or whatever, he got paid type thing. But perhaps he can use that as, you know, motivation to prove that, outers wrong for next season. So, I mean, that'll be up to Vlad Jr. I mean, he is as talented as anybody in baseball. It's up to him. If he puts it all together,

we know what he's capable of. It's just, is he going to do it? That remains to be seen. So we'll see next year potential bounceback candidate for Vlad Jr. Let's take our final break when we return. Just how high will some of these names be drafted next season? We'll discuss right after this.

Welcome back, Fantasy Baseball today. How high will some of these names be drafted in 2027? Ben Rice, putting an exclamation mark on his breakout season 3 for 4 with a double dong. He gets up over 40 homers. He's now at 41. And he's kind of had up and down.

His first two months were great. But since June on, it's like been very up and down production for him. If you look at his OPS by month since June, it's 656, 947, 641. And now 11.03 in September. So he is finishing strong on obviously the overall. numbers are great and like the breakout has been fulfilled. How high do you guys think Ben Rice winds up going in drafts next season? Well, when I came out with my initial first two rounds for next year, that was I think two weeks ago. I had him going in late in round two. I've since come out

with my initial first base rankings and I decided to drop him behind Nick Kurtz as well as Miguel Vargas and Sal Stewart. So he is now fourth at that position. when I was initially thinking Ben Rice would be first at the position. Now, I think there's a lot of argument. That's still what? That might still be a second round pick. It won it for me. It won it for me.

But, yeah, I mean, it might still be. And there might be people who disagree and take them ahead of the two third basemen, especially. I'm elevating them precisely because they're going to be eligible at third base, and it's so much weaker than first base that I don't think you should overdo it with position scarcity, particularly in deeper leagues, but there's a big contrast there

between first base and third base. And so if it's close... There couldn't be a wider chasm in position of scarcity. Right. So if it's close, I'll give the edge to the first baseman, even though I think Rice

will probably put up the better pure numbers next year of those guys. And I decided to drop them behind Kurtz because I had to be reminded of this, actually. Kurtz was playing with that bad thumb for a while. And I was thinking, okay, he ended up hitting only

250 something, the crazy high strikeout rate caught up to him. But you go back to what he was hitting when he injured the thumb, or at least when we first heard of the thumb injury. Nick Kurtz was hitting 280 with like a 950 OPS. He was basically repeating his rookie season.

I think guys who can continually put up an OPS near a thousand are extremely rare. And so Kurtz has to be number one in my mind. Also, it's not like Ben Rice. is a much better bet for batting average. He doesn't strike out quite as much as Nick Kurtz, but he only... I don't know that he's a better bet for batting average at all.

Yeah, he's hitting 263 right now. Yeah. So, yeah, I would give Kurtz the edge. I just think the physical tools are better, and I don't think, like, the skills are that much different. I think, for me, Kurtz is the clear number one. It's muddy after that, and I think you go with really any of Rice, Stuart Vargas, Alonzo in any order. I'm going in that order, Rice, Stuart Vargas, and Alonzo, but I think they're

probably all going to be at least top 36, potentially top 30 picks next year. Yeah. Top 30, I'd say. All right, let's talk about Bryce Serang, who has bounced back very nicely here in September after a rough August. He hit his 20th home run. And now in September 364, three homers and OPS near 1100. August numbers were terrible, but he was playing through knee injury. So I think that really affected the production there back in August. But I think Bryce Terang, this version of Bryce Terrang, he's kind of settling

in the past two years as the baseline is he's a 20-20-bat. He's going to give you a pretty good batting average. The counting stats look like they're going to be great as well. Just a rock solid all-around player. His ADP last year was 44.8. I think that's up

at least a round. I think Bryce Trang's going to be a pretty consistent third-round pick next season. Yeah, I think third round. You know, second base is weird because it's deep with a lot of guys, like a lot of decent players. It's not super deep on difference makers. Like, Fernando Tatis obviously, I think Bryce Terran counts there. Will Brandon Lau finally be drafted as if he's a good player? The world may never know.

But then after that, like, who are we going with? for the number four second baseman, assuming that's the, no, I have Marte there. But like, yeah, Cotel Marte.

Yeah, after that is Jazz and Cotel Marte, both coming off pretty disappointing seasons. You've got like, JJ Weatherholt's a really good player, but it's not like a hugely impactful profile for fantasy yet. Brandon Low? Yeah,

I think Brandon Low might be third for me. And so, yeah, it's second base. not as strong as I thought it was, but I think people got to remember too. Otto Lopez and South Stewart

won't be eligible at second base next year. But that's kind of the other point I was going to make is guys always add second base eligibility especially. I feel like second base, you get more players unexpectedly adding second base eligibility than at any other position. But to get to the point of Bryce to rang,

because we'll have a lot of time in the top season to talk. about the positions themselves. Number two second baseman, I think third round pick for sure. Let's talk about Randy Rose Arena. A huge season. One for three with two walks, three runs, his 25th stolen base. The overall numbers, 279, 26 homers, 1009 runs scored, and 25 steals.

Just the best all-around season of his career, like full season of his career. He entered Wednesday as the 15th overall player in Roto in the 8th. best hitter in Head-Tead points leagues, the power of the contract year. I also wonder where he will be playing next year. I think that will factor in to this conversation as well. But the ADP on Randy was 83 coming into the season. I don't know how people are,

I hope people don't overreact to this. I kind of feel like he's going to be a top 50 pick, Randy Rosarana. There's a, there are a lot of outfielders that people are going to be excited about. We just talked about Jose de Palo. Does Randy or Rosarana get drafted ahead of Hosei DePala next year? I think he should. I think that's the right range.

Yeah. So. Like I think Randy or Roserana versus Jordan Walker is a fascinating question. Wyatt Langford's ADP before the season was 45. And your expectation coming in was if he could say healthy, he'll probably go 25, 25, right? Like, I think that's kind of the expectation for Randy is like 25, 25, right? Well, he was also, Langford was an up-and-comer,

and you can dream on the upside there. Orozorraine is going to be a 32-year-old coming off a career season. If he goes to a really good hitting environment because he hasn't had a chance to play in one yet, then maybe that'll raise enthusiasm for him. I feel like, though, the past few years, O'Rosa Rain has been routinely undervalued. Yeah.

in roto leagues. And so I'm guessing because of his age and because they're just going to be younger alternatives that people are more excited about, he's not going to go that much earlier than he did last year, even though the production was better. That's my guess. I currently have him 12,

and the number 12 outfielder is usually in that 45 to 50 range. But I have Jordan Walker right behind him. I have O'Neill Cruz right behind him. I have Michael Harris, Roman Anthony. I could see any of those guys moving ahead of him fairly easily. But I think top 15 outfielder probably and probably top 60 pick, fifth round pick. Yeah, I think top 60 at least. I think that's where things will wind up there for Randy Rosarena.

Let's talk about some pitchers here. Logan Henderson, solid outing at the Phillies, five innings, one run, three walks, three strikeouts. Didn't have his best change up, couldn't locate his secondary pitches. But an overall solid outing. just the numbers have been awesome for Logan Henderson. It's three-runs or fewer in every start of his career. How high do you guys think Logan Henderson gets for next season? Can I ask real quick, just going back to Randy Roserena,

would you take Jack Caglione over Randy a Roserana? I'd go Randy. I would go Randy as well. Kyle Tucker. Randy as well. I mean, we are talking about a guy who hit, 238 in 2025 and 219 in 2024. Yeah.

I don't know. I think that's kind of overvaluing the most recent season. I mean, I wouldn't expect him to do what he's doing this season. I would probably expect like a 250 batting average. It's kind of meet somewhere in the middle. And Caglione has hit 280 this year. And he's hit since really he broke through in June. He's hit over 300.

Is he going to get to 30 homers? No, he's only at, I think, like, 23. Okay. I think he missed too much time with injury recently. I think they could wind up being similarly value players, like where they rank at the end of next season, but I think the shape will just be different. I think you'll get higher batting average from Cags,

but less steals as well. And, you know, potentially, the power, I think, is still something of a question mark. And the run production. I mean, that's a bad lineup. But it is also like we don't know where Randy's going to be playing. Right. So that does make it hard because,

If he lands in a really good hitting environment, that things could change very quickly. Yeah. Logan Henderson, how high do you guys think Logan Henderson could get for next season? I'm thinking top 24 starting pitcher. Yeah, I think so. That's the one I haven't gotten to yet is starting pitcher.

I would think top 24, you know, without having done it. You look at where Braddish was drafted last year. SP21 at pick 78. I could see something like that around pick around SP 20 maybe like 80th overall for Logan Henderson. Yeah. It feels a little high to me. It's hard for me to just pull a number out of the blue.

Like to me right now, I don't feel as excited about Logan Henderson as I did about Kyle Bradish, Kyle Bradish, who became kind of everybody's breakout pitcher. Right. I mean, he kept getting pushed up and pushed up. I'm looking at like where Yuri Perez and Nolan McLean went last year, right around 90, right around the 20, I would guess, 22nd pitcher, starting pitcher off the board. I'm looking at NFC ADP.

Yeah, McLean was 24. Perez was 25. Yeah. So I think that's the right range, whether it's up above 24 or below. You think people are going to get as excited about Logan Henderson as Nolan McLean? Yeah. We have a bigger sample size of him being a very, very good pitcher. Yeah, yeah, I think so.

The skills all supported, too, with Henderson. Yeah, he's like third in baseball in K-minus walk ratio. I think he's going to be. Since he debuted. And that is like, especially for like the freaks drafting in November, K-minus walk ratio is like. Yeah, projection systems are going to love him. Projection systems are going to love Logan Henderson.

Yeah, no, I think he's going to be. I think that'll push him up to. Yeah. You don't think people will hold him back. The whole, like, you know, obviously he doesn't have the pedigree that Nolan McLean does. Doesn't throw very hard and has basically just two pitches. You don't think all the... It's possible.

All the pitch, uh, what it was. Maybe, but it's 20, it's 22. It's 22 starts of a 235 ERA and 11 K for nine, you know. Yeah. It's, I'm not denying that. I just, I don't know. What, what we're trying to do with this exercise is, put ourselves in the heads of the majority and not necessarily make our own arguments.

And I think Logan Henderson is just the sort of pitcher that people tend to undervalue you. So I'm expecting them to undervalue him again. I hope you're right. Maybe they won't. I hope you're right. If that's the case, I would love to have a lot of Logan Henderson for next season. The last name I have here is Noah McLean, who we just spoke about a little bit. We mentioned where he was being drafted last year.

caps off a very strong rookie season. Seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts at the Rangers. 316 ERA, 117 whip. We've talked a lot lately about his sinker usage has been up over his last eight starts, and as a result, his swinging strikes and his whiffs have really come down during that stretch. I'll just ask this, like,

do you think Nolan McLean goes higher or lower than where he did last year? SP 24, right at pick 91. I will say he should go higher. I think it'll go a little bit higher, yeah. I don't know if he will because expectations for Nolan McLean were frankly unfair. But he lived up to it. Like he lived up to where you drafted him.

I think people are disappointed with what they got from him. And the 117 whip is a little concerning. But yeah, I think he should go higher than he did last year because we have proof of it. Last year was almost entirely theoretical. And then he was being drafted that way. So I think he'll probably be a top 20 pick at starting pitcher. Yeah, I think so too. That said, I don't really like the way he's trending here to close out the season.

I brought it up before. Throwing a lot more sinkers down the stretch, 49% in this latest start. So his last eight starts, he's at 7K per 9 with an 8% swinging strike rate. And the ERA has been good. The whip has been high. And this is a guy who doesn't have a lot of swing and miss to his game anyway. Overall, the strike rate has been good. has been 9.7, but again, last eight starts 7.0.

So, yeah. He is a guy that there is a big gap between what, like, the pitching ninja jiffs look like and what the actual results look like because McLean is actually, like, not a swing and miss pitcher. He is a, like, nibble and called strike guy. He has a 9.6-6% swing and strike rate. that's below average. It's a lot like Will Warren, but just better. He's a better version of Will Warren.

Because Will Warren does the same, he gets a lot of movement on his pitches. He gets a lot of called third trikes. So does Nolan McLean. But Nolan McLean just has a wider arsenal and his pitches are just better. So that's why, you know, he obviously has much better numbers than someone like Will Warren.

But it's kind of similar in how they go about it. All right. Let me go back to Logan Henderson, if I could, and test. do a little player comparison here. Do you take Logan Henderson or Peyton Tolly? Tully. I would take Tolly.

Logan Henderson or read Detmers. Henderson. I'm going to really struggle with Detmerz. I'm going to guess I'm going to be lower on the consensus than him, so I'll go Henderson. Henderson or Cavali. Henderson or Brian Wu. Henderson or Cavali is super close. I'm still hung up on that one.

but I think that's the right range. I think they'll go in the same range. Hunter Brown. Henderson or Hunter Brown. I think Henderson. Henderson or Max Fried. Henderson easily. I think Henderson, yeah.

Henderson or Joe Ryan. Henderson. All right. I mean, I kind of think Andrew Ryan are very similar pitchers. Those are good questions. Yeah, Henderson didn't have the weird season. Joe Ryan did.

But all those guys... Ryan seasons always end up being weird. All those guys just feel like rock solid SP2s. Right. Yeah. Which is why, like, even if I think Henders,

even if I suspect Henderson is exactly what he's appeared to be. Like, it's hard to go against similar pitchers with a longer track record. Sure. Mm-hmm. All right.

we are kind of up against it here and I had a lot more stuff planned, but I don't want to go super long here. It's obviously our second to last in-season podcast of the year. But the two tough rankings I had for next season, Jordan Walker and Garrett Cole, I'll throw those names out there. I'll let it linger, but we'll have all off-season to talk about those guys.

I will say, Jordan Walker, not a top 12 outfielder in my first run through. He's 13, so it's not like it's a chasm, but... I think that would be pretty different than other people. but I would guess so. Yeah. I think he's going to be a second rounder. He has had an awful September that makes it more of a question.

But if not for that September, he certainly would have been a second rounder. So how much stock do you want to put on a player September? And let's not forget, we did this with Peter Armstrong last year and it was sure. Pretty bad. Yeah, that is true. Are these four hitters cooked? I'll just throw all four your way. I guess you could give me, I'm not sure that there's a short answer for all of them,

but the names that I wrote down here, Austin Riley, Christian Yelich, Mike Trout, who really had a huge April, but from May 1st on, he's like a 750 OPS bat. And then Mani Machado, who did hit a homer off of Yamamoto here on Wednesday. But look, you could blame him getting off to a slow start, and, you know, the Padre is tinkering with his batting stance and things like that. But he has only had one month with an OPS over 770. He's falling back down in August and September.

So what do you guys think? Are these four cooked Machado, Trout, Yelich, and Austin Riley? So relative to where they started, I think Mike Trout is probably the most cooked. But relative to the other three guys, he might be the least cooked. Yeah, right? Like I think his skill set is still okay. He's just not a superstar anymore. But like, you know, 22 homers, 11 steals.

it's usable. I'm not sure Christian Eilich is usable for fantasy anymore. And I don't, well, actually, I know, I don't think Christian Eilich is usable for fantasy anymore. I think Austin Riley is fully cooked. I think he's well done at this point.

I mean, he's going to be 30 next year. So three straight pretty bad years in a row, I think we can probably call this one. Machado. Machado feels the least cooked to me. Like, I think he had an early. early season slump, basically. It's mostly Babbup, right?

He's got like a 230 Babbup or something crazy low. That's what I'll think. It's like a 230 last year with his Babbup was over 300. But even his XBA is 243. I mean, it's clearly the lowest of his career. His bat speed still seems

fine for Machado. But yeah, it's like the expected numbers kind of say that this is the worst that he's been basically in his career. So, but I don't if he hit 250, with 29, maybe 30 homers after this weekend, and 90 RBI and 80 runs,

that's not Manny Machado, but it's not so far off, you know? Like, I still think he's definitely a top 10 third baseman for next season. Yeah, that's not just... It's just the position is so bad. Not just because the position's bad. I think he's number seven right now for me. Last 81 games, not counting tonight, but 81 games exactly half a season, obviously.

800 OPS and 16 home runs. so I think he's basically Mani Machado still Yeah but if you like the June and July Did a lot of heavy lifting for that And then August and September he's been bad again Like he's a sub 700 OPS bet from August 1st on So I mean look you could slice and dice it any way you want

I understand what you're doing It's like a longer sample but the past two months have been pretty bad again for Machado So it's like I don't I don't really know what to make of that But you guys make fair points Like I think I'm just holding him to a higher standard Because that's the standard we've always held Manny Machado too but yeah, I think we just have to

kind of reframe our minds on like the expectations for Machado with Trout. I don't think that they're completely cooked. I think those other two, Yelich and Austin Riley are pretty close to cooked, yeah. A 12 team points league, I'm not sure Austin Riley or Christian Yelish will be drafted anywhere next year.

I think that's totally fair. The Sleeper Omiter, two names on the Sleeper Ommeter here. George Lombard Jr. hit his sixth home run. He also had a golden sombrero in this game. But his last eight games, he's starting to figure some things out. 294, three homers, 8 RBI, 1 steal, and 882

OPS during that span. His full season pace, 24 homers, 84 runs, 8 steals. What do you guys think? Where would Lombard be on the sleeperometer for next season? Oh, pretty high. I don't see a lot to be encouraged about in his actual

rookie line, but he's very young. he's probably going to have a clear path to playing time. I think he just needs to develop, you know. And so growing pains. That's what I view this season as. But I think a lot of people will come away discouraged, and so he'll probably go pretty late.

Shortstop should still be pretty deep. That doesn't mean he won't be a sleeper. I'll put Lombard at like an eight probably on the sleeperometer. Yeah, I don't really know what the... Like, I would rather have Kael and Kohlpepper. So wherever Cole Pepper is, I think Lombard is a little lower. I think I'd rather have Colcarig. I just think there's been a little more juice there.

But yeah, I think Lombard is a top 24, but not a top 20 shortstop for next season. So, I don't know, six on the sleeperometer. I don't, yeah, I don't know what that, what it means. Yeah, 10 is like, again, the most excited sleeper you possibly can be like, Hoseway DePaula we added a 10. So yeah, I think having Lombard between like a six or a eight would make sense there. And Connor Prelip is the other name here. Solid outing at the Giants, five and a third, two runs, three strikeouts.

And under the hood, you know, his breaking pitches are really good. His ERA estimators are all below four. You know, I know the ERA and WIP are bad, like on the surface for prelip, but I think some of the skills, the underlying skills look pretty good for, you know, a rookie season here for Connor prelip. Where would you guys put him on the sleeperometer for next year? Four or five? I'm not uninterested in him.

I could see him being on my sleeper's list. I think there are legit skills here. But, you know, not necessarily a name I'm going to rank as a top, even 75 starting pitcher, I would guess. So there's plenty of room for him to be a late round pick. I don't know if it's been brought up before because most people, I doubt, spared a thought for Connor prelip until he debuted, could not stay healthy in the minors, not even a little bit.

It hasn't bothered him so far in the majors, but I think even before you get to the questions of performance, very low-swinging strike rate, et cetera, yeah, I can't go higher than four. I don't close my mind to any breakout possibility for a guy with some pedigree, but his prelip's not going to be one I'm gravitating toward. All right, some hitting leftovers here from Wednesday's action. Luke Keishel hit his 10th home run and the updated number since the start of July.

313 batting average, eight homers, seven steals, and OPS around 900. Brandon Lau is finishing strong. He hit his 34th homer and over his last 21 games, 346 batting average with seven home runs. Juan Soto hit his 27th home run. His full-season pace, 41-home. homers, 103 RBI, 14 steals. That would be pretty awesome there for Juan Soto. And I'm just seeing now, I did not write in Kyle Tucker's numbers,

but I saw that he had two hits and a stolen base and just a reminder that he is having a pretty big September, a strong finish here for Kyle Tucker. Anything you guys would like to add on Tucker, Soto, Lowe, or Kishel? Tucker, still going to rank as a top 20 outfield for me next season. And this run at the end of the season is only going to make that easier to justify. It's not going to feel great, certainly, but I still think there's first round upside here. As bad as this season has been, I mostly write this off. He's still young enough, especially, too.

So I might take him over a Rosarena. I might. I don't know if I can get there, but he certainly has a higher ceiling than Randy or Roserina. I don't think there's any question about that. I think we just saw a Rosarena ceiling. Yeah, and we've seen Kyle Tucker ceiling in the past be much higher. Yeah. Then, you know, Kishel, I think the biggest thing for Kishel that people are going to bump on is it's a weird profile with just the 19 stolen bases.

Like, it feels like he should be a lot higher. He's 85th percent down sprint speed. He's 19 for 26 on stolen bases. That's a pretty bad success rate. I think you can project some improvement there. And I think along with that improvement, he'll run more. And so I would project 20 plus steals at least next season, maybe 25 plus. And once you put that in, you know, there's not that much difference between him and Nico Horner, especially.

Like, Nico Horner has been hitting like sixth for most of the season. And he's got like, it's like 70 runs or something. It's like a crazy low number. Yeah, Nico Horner has not has his best year by any stretch. He's supposed to be a safe guy. And that, well, I mean, like,

he actually ranks pretty well among second baseman. So there is something to that. But, like, having, having, having, being a nothing for power, obviously leaves you with very little margin for error.

And I think that's what we're seeing with Horner now. But I, like, I'll go further with Keish. we talked about this when I gave my bold predictions. Bolt prediction, Luke Kishel's better than Bryce Terang next year with the power we've seen in the second half, not unlike what we saw from him in the miners, pulling the ball in the air better.

Is that in conjunction with, like, you expect Bryce Therang to take a step back, or you just think Kishel's going to be that good? I just think Kishel's, Chris was saying 20, 25 steals. I mean, that's basically what Terang's done this year, so it's just a matter of getting the power. And I think Kishel took a big step, toward that in the second half.

It is a bold prediction rather than just a straight up prediction. So it's not like I'm going to rank them that way. But I think I'm going to be pretty invested in Keishel next year. I think he'll clearly be a top 10 second base. Yeah, I've got him eighth right now. Yeah. At second base, it doesn't look great.

Once you actually start, like Ozzy Albi's, I don't know what to do with that guy, but... I think he has a lower OPS now. he did last year. Yeah, like he's top 10 right now, but I don't feel good about that. I can throw him on the, is he cooked segment.

Yeah, absolutely. So it's like, you know, like, he's still got to be a top 10 second basement, I would think. I think so,

but yeah. Like him versus Luis Rias. Doesn't run anymore? No. Yeah, like him versus Luis Rai's, I think is pretty close just because at least you know

you have one standout category from Luis Raias. I don't know how's he always is good at anything anymore. And I think that points like, I would pretty easily take a rise over. For sure. And then Xavier Edwards kind of the same thing where at least I know I'm getting

decent batting average in steals. I think he's kind of nothing after that, but Ozzie Albies is... Like, I don't know. He still plays literally every day. Yeah, 22 home runs, 85 runs, 72 RBI. Yeah, I'm overstating the nothing part. Yeah.

The counting stats are pretty good there, yeah. And that just comes with a playing time, him playing every day. Some pitching leftovers. Chris Sale and Yamamoto. Chris Sale, a big whiff start here. 10 strikeouts over 5 and 2 thirds. One run allowed. Had 23 whiffs on 97 pitches.

His velocity was up. He had some extended time off. He looked really, really awesome. Unfortunately, I had no decision for him. And Yamamoto turned in a quality start. Technically gave up five runs, but two of those were earned. His 22nd quality start of the season now leads Major League Baseball. Way too early.

Chris Sale or Yamamoto for next season? Yamamoto. Probably Yamamoto. I will say, Chris sailed. This was the fourth highest average fastball velocity in the start in his entire career. And the fifth highest was back in June. Yeah.

This was a guy who was not supposed to age well. Like that was always the thing with Chris Sayle. And I think once he got hurt, a lot of people wrote him off. And then he has just... It's hurt for like four years to be there. But there's been like no skills decline as he enters.

Next year's going to be his age 38 season, I think. And there's just absolutely no sign that he's lost anything. It's wild. I think he's a top five starting pitcher next season. Inning for inning, Sale will be better than Yamamoto. I just think the innings difference will be too much to overcome. Yeah.

That is fair. Yeah, Chris Sale has been spaced out quite a bit the season, and his year will end with... Exactly 200 strikeouts. 162 and two-thirds innings and 27 starts. Even with that, he entered... Wednesday as the SP5 in Roto. Chris Sale did.

So, really awesome. Better in Roto than points now. Yeah, on a per start basis. Some other pitching left over, Sonny Gray, another quality start. That was his 20th of the season, tied for fourth most in all of baseball. Andrew Abbott,

great outing at the Braves, seven innings, two runs, six strikeouts for him. Foster Griffin, a quality start, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Also gave up 10 hits in this game,

unfortunately. and Kevin Gosman, a near quality start, five and two thirds, two runs, seven strikeouts, 21 whiffs on 101 pitches. He did leave this start with left shoulder soreness after making a pretty acrobatic like diving play to tag a runner out.

But any thoughts here on Gosman, Griffin, Andrew Abbott and Sunny Gray? We've talked a lot about the most popular breakouts and sleepers for next season. Sunny Gray is absolutely going to be the most popular bus pick for starting pitch. Right. Like it's just down that road before.

I don't know if I could have the same mistake again. I know, but like, I don't want to comment on Sunny Gray. 272 ERA with less than 8K per nine. Like, it just does not feel. I think I had him as a buzz this year. At all. I think we all did.

Yeah. Yeah, no, we all whipped on that one for sure. And I'm just going to, I am, I am not afraid to beat my head against the wall. I got a, I got a thick score. If it was, yeah, it was just a one-off, but I couldn't tell you how many times. I've called Sunny Gray a bust.

Oh yeah, for sure. It does not come true. Someday it'll come true. He can't keep getting away with it. Unless he does David Ortiz and retires before he turns bad. He's only got one year left

on the contract. Do you guys see any way? Look, I mean, you could see it, but do you think that Kevin Gosman could actually bounce back at all? He has a 451 ERA, 127 whip. Obviously, he's getting up there in age. But his ERA estimators

are all below four, including XERA, and it seems like some bad bad-bid luck, and his left-on-base percentage was pretty low. I don't know, like, some of the skills that still look pretty good for Gosman. It all looks pretty normal, really. Swinging strike rate, K-per-9, B-B-B-per-9, average exit velocity.

Like, the data points we normally look at all look pretty normal. I think it's unwise to bet on a bounce-back season from a guy in his late 30s. Yeah. but I don't think you'll have to invest much in the possibility of bounce back season. I think it'll even be a top 60 pick

that starting pitcher? I don't think so. Could be borderline. Yeah, it's going to be really cheap. I think it'll be a late round flight, like one of your last picks, I think. It might depend on what the rest of your staff looks like

and whether you just need like a boring guy, but yeah, I... Where was Aaron Nola going this year? Like, that's where I could see Gosman. Yeah. I mean, Nola was a lot of, lot worse, I think. But yeah, I could see that.

And yeah, I think it's worth being interested in him. But it is tough to see him put up a 483RA with the Cubs defense behind him and think, how it's going to be better next year. Yeah. You know, it's unless he resigns with the Cubs. He also is someone that just makes you want to just bang your head against the wall. Well, yeah, because there have definitely been stretches. He got off to an amazing start, if I'm remembering correctly.

Yeah, he did. And so there are definitely still flashes for sure. It's just as you get older, it gets harder to do it every day or every fifth or sixth day, I guess. Yeah. The call to the bullpen for the nationals, Eric Tolman started the eighth inning with a three-run lead. He got two outs and he walked two.

Then Yovani Cruz came on to get the final four outs for his first career save. And it only took one day, but the Nats are back to not having a closer ever again. For the twins with the game tied, Yo Endrus Gomez recorded five outs across the sixth and seventh. Andrew Morris eventually got the ninth and he picked up his fifth save. Jeff Hoffman got the save on Tuesday night,

but it was a rocky outing. He threw a bunch of pitches so he wasn't available for this one. For the Brewers, Trevor McGill picked up his 30th save. I thought it was a big injury risk this season, but he has just been awesome. 267 ERA. 0.90 web over a strikeout per inning 30 saves. Great year from Trevor McGill.

For the Orioles, RICO Garcia got the eighth with a two-run lead facing the heart of the Blue Jays lineup. He picked up his 19th hold, and Andrew Kittridge picked up his 11th save. Looked like they were trending towards Rico Garcia. I think he's their highest leverage reliever, but I think they just wanted to use him in the eighth inning because of that in this outing.

For the Red Sox of Roldus Chapman, returned to strike out the side for his 35th save, and his velocity was fine, coming back from the lat injury, so good sign there for Chapman. For the Royals, Stephen Cruz got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He allowed a hit.

He struck out two for his eighth save. And then the debacks with a two-run lead. Justin Martinez got two outs in the sixth. Brandon Garcia, four outs across the seventh and eighth. Juan Murillo got the final two outs of the eighth inning. And then it was Jonathan Loisiga, who got the ninth and he picked up his second save. The debacks do not have a closer and they never will ever again.

But maybe Justin Martinez for next year. I don't know. I'm kind of interested. Oh, yeah. Very interesting. But, you know, we got to see what it actually looks. like. Yeah. And poor Josh Hader, I did see, he was the one who blew that game for the Astros against

the Mariners. He wound up throwing 44 pitches, which was his most in like some absurd amount of time. I saw a tweet about it. But yeah, it's just like, he ran out of gas, gas, unfortunately, did Josh Hater. To stream or not to stream on Thursday, we have Joey Cantillo as the bulk reliever at the Red Sox. Tyler Phillips is at the Cubs. Zach Thornton at the Rangers.

Andrew Painter home against the Brewers Brady Singer is at the Braves Nick Povetta at the Dodgers Peter Lambert at the Athletics Grayson Rodriguez at the Mariners Kumar Rocker home against the Mets Well there aren't great options Yeah I think Thornton's probably the best

Texas is so good against lefties though Yeah maybe painter I think I would say Lambert at the athletics Obviously you don't like the venue But it's not a very good lineup and he's been pretty reliable. I think Grayson Rodriguez at the Mariners would be my second choice.

Painter against, like, painter we've been leaning on a lot lately, but against the Brewers. Nah, I couldn't do it. I don't like any of these guys. I think they're all pretty risky, but I would, I think I would go Thornton, Cantillo, Lambert,

and Grayson Rodriguez in that order. Those four for Thursday, but again, not with much confidence at all. And then on Friday, Jackson Job is home against the Pirates. Andrew Alvarez, home against the Mets. Nick Ladolo's at the Blue Jays. Michael McGreevy at the Brewers. Robert Gasser

home against the Cardinals. Brandon Fott at the Padres. Bobba Chandler is at the Tigers. Grant Holmes at the Marlins. Hayden Winsnesneski at the athletics. Jacob Lopez, old friend, up against the Astros, and Will Warren is home against the Orioles. I think there are some more

interesting options here. Nobody that I feel great about. Homes should give you five good innings or could give you five good things I guess is the better way to put it he won't give you anything more than those five innings and they might not be good um Andrew Alvarez is on a nice little run I like Alvarez yeah I think that one's okay

yeah I think that's the best one I like Alvarez and then I think the matchup of Joe and Chandler could be okay yeah Hayden Winsneske you know at the athletics it's a terrible ballpark but I just don't hate the matchup I just hate the spot that he's in he has mostly been okay but At the athletics, man. This is so tough. Yep.

I think I would go Alvarez, Job, Chandler, and then even Will Warren has a fourth option. I don't think it's terrible. So those are my four for Friday. We are going to wrap there. For Scott and Chris,

I am Frank, thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Our final in-season podcast of the year. See you then.

Bye-bye. on podcasts. Sunday, it's an NFL on CBS double header. First, Joe Burrow and the Unbeaten Bengals take on Aaron Rogers and the Steelers. Then, for the first time ever, the NFL is in Rio. As Lamar Jackson and the Ravens square off with Dak Prescott and the Cowboys, live from Marikana Stadium in Brazil. To the end zone.

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