Fantasy Baseball Today - Santander Crushing Homers, Ober Dominates & the Circle of Trust (9/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 28, 2022

Anthony Santander has multiple homers in three of his last four games (1:35)! ... Cedric Mullins has impressed as well (5:22). ... Bailey Ober had a career night (9:40)! ... Bryce Elder threw a shutout on Monday (16:40). ... Is Blake Snell back in the circle of trust (21:35)? ... News (30:00): Julio Rodriguez should be back next week ... Pete Alonso and Jose Altuve were awesome this season (41:48). ... Triston Casas and Josh Jung are coming around (50:18). ... We wrap with pitching leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (53:26). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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 lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Make that three multi-homer games for Anthony Santander over the past four days. This guy is a beast. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, September 28th.

Stample joined as always by Scott White for a very, very late night edition of fantasy baseball today. Today on the show, Scott, we will talk about Anthony Santander. A few standout performances from the past couple of days. Of course, your boy, Bryce Elder pitched a shutout on Monday. So we'll talk a little bit about him. Bailey Ober had a career night here on Tuesday. Jose Al Tuvei just continues to crush it. But before all that, Scott, I just have to vent to you. And for those who might be watching, I know there's probably not many people up watching us this late. But if you're watching it's on demand,

you're probably going to notice that I look orange, right? Like there's something going on with my camera. Well, I'm sure you're aware of Murphy's law, Scott. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. That's been my night. Internet, camera, audio, fantasy baseball team issues. With that being said, why don't you just give us your oh my goodness gracious stand out from Tuesday?

Okay. My oh my goodness gracious player is, of course, Anthony Santander with three, two homer games and his past four games. That brings him up to 33 home runs on the season. And it's fair to say nobody was expecting quite this when the season began. Now, it's worth noting that Anthony Santander during the pandemic short in 2020 season that nobody took seriously, he homered 11 times in 165 plate appearances so he was mashing then too

that's actually a better home run pace than he's been on this season so it's not it's not like we've never seen any signs of this from him before but you know health has always has long been a factor was he good enough to be an everyday player even, considering he doesn't walk much at all. I think that's something we were still grappling with. Well, he's answered all those questions this season with this 33 Homer campaign. And really the key to Anthony Santerre's success is just how much he puts the ball in the air.

He is, his fly ball rate is seventh among qualifiers. And the six ahead of them, you know, they're all power hitters. Kyle Schwerber, Jose Ramirez, Anthony Rizzo. Nolan Aeronado, Patrick Wisdom, Max Muncie, and then Anthony Santander. He puts the ball in the air so often that it kind of works against him in the batting average. It's kind of like the Mike Moustakis, the old Mike Mustakis formula for success, where, oh, he doesn't strike out much, but the batting average isn't going to be that great because in order for him to generate as much power as he does, he has to put the ball in the air a ton.

So a bit of a tradeoff there with Anthony Santander. the current state of the outfield position. I mean, he's emerged this year somebody who I think, you know, he'll, he's going to get drafted in every league next year. I mean, 33 home or season. How could he not? Yeah, I agree completely, Scott. It's been impressive to see what Santander has done this season, putting together a career

year now up to 33 home runs on the season. And it's kind of interesting because obviously they expand the dimensions in Camden Yards and somehow that's the season where he manages to put it all together here. He puts it in the air a lot, puts the ball in the air a lot. He is a switch hitter. So the dimensions mostly changed in left field impacts him less than some other Orioles hitters. What he's doing is backed up by Stackcast, by the way. I mean, 80th percentile and expected slugging percentage, 78th percentile and barrel rate.

So when he's putting it in the air, he's hitting it with authority. and I'm led to believe that as long as he stays healthy, he can compete to be another 30 home run hitter again next season. Entering Tuesday, he was the outfielder 15 in head to head points leagues and the 18th ranked outfielder in Roto, 71st overall in that format as well. So regardless of where you want to look at it, the guy has been absolutely amazing. I don't see him being drafted that high in either of those formats next year for what it's worth. No, he won't be.

But he will certainly be drafted to be, even in the three outfielder leagues, to be a starting outfielder, I would say. Yeah, I could see him being ranked as a top 30-ish outfielder. Yeah, you know, that's what I was thinking. Probably in the 30 to 36 range for Anthony Santander. How about his teammate? I just wanted to highlight Cedric Mullins because, admittedly, I had him as a bus coming into the year. And early on, it looked like a pretty good call. but man, he just, he got going and he never looked back.

He added another homer and another steal over the past two days. Cedric Mullen's now batting 261, 16 homers, 32 steals. He's the 10th ranked outfielder in Roto, 39th overall, which kind of sounds like where he was being drafted, you know, third, fourth round pick somewhere around there. And he's actually even better in head said points, Scott, which surprises me because, frankly, that that shouldn't be its better format. He doesn't walk all that much.

He's more so known for his steals than. anything else. But he puts the ball and play a lot. He leads off for a pesky offense. That's what I'll call the Baltimore's. And playing as much as he does has kind of led him to being a top 10 outfielder in both formats. So shout out to Cedric Mullins. The only thing Scott that worries me is that he has been terrible against left-handed pitching this year. 203 batting average, 573 OPS for Cedric Mullins. He was much better last year. Is that something that might concern you when looking to draft him in 2023? No, not really,

because the most concerning aspect of that would be, does it cost in playing time? And considering he plays a premium position for them as one of their most high profile players, I don't think it will. What I have been encouraged to see from Cedric Mullins is 453 slugging percentage in the second half. That's compared to 383 in the first half.

So he's kind of gotten some of that power back. You know, last year, obviously, was a 30-30-homer guy. I'm sorry, was a 30-30 guy, 30-homers, 30 steals. And, you know, we'll probably never see that from him again. But we may see another 20 to 25 home run season from him, even though he fell short of that range this year. I'm not sure that he'll get back there, Scott, just because of the current environment. But, you know, 15 to 18, maybe he can push 20. but the speed is definitely legit

and I think the Orioles offense is only going to get better over the next couple of years. Oh my goodness gracious for me. Oh, by the way, I couldn't play it before because of course everything's going wrong. Oh my goodness gracious.

I need to complain just a little bit more, Scott. I'm sorry. No, that's fine. It's not, I've complained about fantasy football each of the past three Sundays. So this is... Oh, man.

It says the internet going haywire. My camera's not working. I'm orange. You're orange. My Jersey Shore fans out there. My audio was just messed up at the top of the show. And on top of everything, Scott, what I care about most,

aside from, you know, just the things that really matter, right? Like family and things like that. Fantasy baseball, right? Like, my teams matter the most on this show. And I mentioned the other day that I had a 70-point lead going into this final week of the season

against Greg Jewett in Tout Wars. Now, I checked earlier in the night. He had three pitchers go, Marcus Stroman, James and Tion, and Bailey Ober. Ober. I am now losing to Greg Jewett in Tout Wars. Now, I have not looked for the past two or three hours just because I was so scared, Scott, to find out my score. So I'm going to do it right now, live on air,

and we're going to figure this out. I did have Tyler Anderson pitch, and he pitched pretty well. So let's see what the damage is right now. I'm down. Would you like to guess how much I'm losing by Scott? You're losing by 30 points. Close, very close. 26 points, a 100 point turnaround in two days of action.

Like I said the other days, I mean, no lead is safe this time of year. I mean, things just go crazy. They go sideways. Oh, man, it's going to be a. fight here to the end. But shout out to Greg Jewett. He's a great fantasy player. We had him on last offseason as well.

It does great work with relief pitchers, closers, bullpins, all that good stuff. But obviously just a great all-around player as well. Which brings me to, oh my goodness gracious, for me. And that's Bailey Ober. I wanted to talk about this incredible outing for Bailey Ober, where basically a career night, career high, 10 strikeouts, seven and a third shutout.

He gives up just three base runners. He allows us three base runners, rather, two hits, one walk. He had 20 swinging strikes on 91 pitches, 12 of those on his slider, five on the changeup. I did notice a bit of a pitch mix change in this one too, Scott. He leaned into the slider. He threw it 36%. That was his most thrown pitch in this one.

And it's a pretty good pitch. You know, he's only made 10 starts, but 216 batting average against on a slider, 33% whiff rate. It sounds pretty good to me. He's 26% rostered. This really won't matter for anyone unless you play in a daily lineup league where you can just add people and still make changes to your lineup. But Bailey Ober's final start is at the Tigers, and I am definitely afraid, Scott, of what he's going to do to me in Tout War.

So what did you think of this performance? And would you pick him up for that final matchup if you play in a daily lineup league? Yeah. You're in such a league where you can do that. I had Bailey Ober among my 10 sleeper pitchers for the 10-day scoring period. I didn't have him particularly high. He was 10th among the 10 sleeper pitchers because I saw him. You know, the matchups look good, White Sox Tigers, but I saw him as a five-inning pitcher.

And I meant that about as literally as you can. So he went seven in a third innings this start. It was the first time in his career he's gone seven innings. Only twice previously this year had he gone six innings. And only twice last year did he go six innings. So the twins have really been reluctant to let Bailey Ober face the lineup for a third time. Even though I was looking at the splits, his numbers are fine the third time through. It hasn't faced it much, but it's not like, you know, you look at some pitchers facing the line at the third

time and, you know, they basically fall apart, some good pitchers even. But that hasn't been the case for Oper for the little he's done it. And I like some of the data for him. It's reminiscent, you know, Look at high fly ball rate. That used to be scary, not so much anymore. Good swinging strike rate. Very similar to Tristan McKenzie in both of those respects. And he had a very McKinsey in start here against the White Sox. No telling if he's limited to five innings or not in that final start against the Tigers,

but I expect a lot of whiffs, a few base runners. And hopefully another win for, except in New York. Hopefully not for your case, your sake, Frank. But for anyone else listening, hopefully another win for Bailey Ober. Oh, I hope he gets absolutely crushed, Scott. I've got to root for my team at this point. Oh, of course. Yeah, I mean, if you have them on your team, yes, hopefully.

Yeah, you're still rooting for him, but not me, unfortunately. I do have a few other pitchers who could be available, Scott. Again, it's, you know, I don't know how much we need to talk about waiver wire at this point. It's really just those who play in daily lineup leagues. But Hunter Green, someone I know who was also. sleeper hitter, sleeper pitcher for you rather. Number one. Yeah, he was awesome once again.

At the Pirates, to be expected. It was a great matchup. Sixth endings, four hits, one unearned run, 10 strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes. And he has allowed just two earned runs over three starts since returning from the IL. And if you extended back, Scott, even before he got hurt, his last 13 starts now. This is Tuesday included. 3.67 ERA for Hunter Green. 92 strikeouts over 71 and 2 thirds, 15% swinging strike rate.

So that's, yeah, that's about half the season now where Hunter Green has been pretty damn good. Yeah, looks a little like Garrett Cole there with those numbers. You're not wrong. Yeah, no, that's good to see. And then this start against the pirates, he averaged, you know, remember that first start back, he averaged one-on-one on his fastball. A more modest 98.4 is what he averaged on his fastball in this one, and still dominated.

Granted it was the pirates, but I think that's encouraging him. You know, his, it's hard to say 98.4 averaging on the fastball isn't otherworldly, but it's something that other like it's in the range that

some other pitchers can reach. And so Green doesn't have to be a total outlier to have success with that pitch. Nine of the 18 whiffs came on the fastball. I think I know the answer to this question, Scott, but who do you think gets drafted higher next year?

Which Red's hopeful breakout? Hunter Green or Nick Ladolo? I think Lodolo has shown more, so I would say him. There's a little more electricity with Green, a little, like he's a little, you know, he gets, I feel like he's, you know, like pitching ninja is going to tweet out more videos of him. you know, with the bug eye emojis,

then maybe for Nick La Dolo. And so there might be more of a hype factor that propels green ahead of Lodolo. I can see that. But I would rather have Lodolo as we sit here right now. I think that is the right answer as well, but so what happens in the offseason for both Hunter Green and Nick Lodolo.

Two other pitchers who could be available for their final starts. Mitch Keller, another solid one, five innings, one run, five strikeouts, up against the Reds. And over his last six starts, he has a 2.0 ERA, 36 strikeouts over 36 innings pitched. Looked into the pitchman Scott. I don't see anything drastic. He is throwing a sinker a little bit less than earlier in the year, throwing some more

curveballs. It seems to be working for Mitch Keller. He's 31% rostered. His final start is against the Cardinals. And Zach Rankie was very good. He went seven shut out with two strikeouts against those tigers. So I'm not sure how much it. actually matters.

But over his last four starts, he has a 3.26 ERA. And his last start is at the Guardian. So I guess just rankedy, Scott. I mean, if you're looking for a streamer in that type of format, Hunter Green up against the Cubs, Billy Ober at the Tigers, Mitch Keller versus the Cardinals, and Granky at the Guardians. I like Green. I like Ober. I don't like the other two.

But if you're forcing me to have a third choice, I guess. who is the last one facing the Guardians? Zach Grinke. Okay, if you're forcing me to make a third choice there, I guess it'd be Keller. All right. Yes, I agree with that order as well. Green, Ober, Mitch Keller, and then Zach Granky. Honorable mention for, oh, my goodness, gracious God.

And this came on Monday. We only had a four-game slate, so obviously some light day of action on Monday. Bryce Elder threw a six-hit shutout at the Washington Nationals. He allowed six hits, one walk. He had six strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes, eight of those coming on the sinker. And speaking of that sinker, it was gift worthy, it was pitch ninja worthy.

I saw him, you know, tweeting out a bunch of it. It definitely was an interesting pitch. And Elder has looked good in these spot starts that he's put together for the Braves. 2.76 ERA, 1.22 whip. Underlying numbers don't really believe in it. The ERA estimators are much higher. He does get ground balls,

but he's walked a decent amount. He doesn't get swinging strikes very much. Minor league number is not very good this year, Scott. I don't know. I'm kind of all over the place on Bryce Elder. How do you take away from what he's done, both in the majors and minors this season? Yeah, I hear what you're saying,

and that had been my takeaway for him, too. And I still, I'm still coding this with a healthy, a coding of skepticism, what I'm about to say here for Bryce Elder. But I did watch this start. against the nationals. And what I observed in this start is that there's a chance, and obviously his recent performances suggest this, there's a chance that this is a guy who succeeds in ways that defy our usual evaluation methods, because his sinker,

which is responsible for the high ground ball rate, of course, he gets so much movement on it. And it seemed like the movement got better and better as the game went on as he started to tire out a little bit. Maybe it wasn't overthrowing it. It was nasty. I mean, they were flinching at every pitch this Nationals lineup, which isn't very good. It's worth noting. I don't think any of the lineups he's faced during this impressive stretch have been very good. But they were reacting as if these balls were outside the zone and then they'd move and they'd be inside the zone.

So in this start for Bryce Elder, he only had 11 swinging strikes on 106 pitches. He had 15 called strikes on the sinker alone. And that's not something I look at very often, called strike rate. I'm not even sure. I was kind of poking around for it. I'm terrible at finding this stuff on my own, though. I'm not even sure where to find season long called strike rates for pitches. But whenever I do find that, because I'm sure it's out there somewhere,

it'll be interesting to compare Bryce Elder to maybe what the norm is. Because if he is a great groundball guy and he is unusually good at getting called strikes, then we may have something here. Scott, would you say it was? Because I have it. It's on fan graphs under plate discipline. Okay. Called strikes.

I don't know what normal is, though. Like, that's the thing. Yeah. So league average called strike percentage. percentage is 16.4%. Okay. And what did you have on Bryce Elder? I just had the called strike total from that last start.

And what was that? Well, just on the sinker, he had 15 called strikes. Oh, well, I assume he had some more called strikes on his other pitches as well. Yeah. Yeah, let me see if I can find that real quick. Okay. Bryce Elder, by the way, it looks like, and Scott, can correct me if I'm wrong here, that he will make another start next week at Miami on Monday.

Does that sound right? I thought he was in line to face the Mets initially, but they did reshuffle their rotation to like they gave Kyle, Max Reed a little extra time off. I think they gave Kyle Wright a little time off, inserted Kyle Mueller to pitch here Tuesday against the nationals. So yeah, that may, Elder may have been pushed back to face the Marl. Marlins, which is even better. Yes.

So just in the grand scheme of things, that previous group that we spoke about, if you're just looking for streamers at this point, I would put Bryce Elder at the Marlins ahead of both Mitch Keller and Zach Granky, if you're trying to figure that out. So in this particular star, you said the league average called strike rate is 16%. In this particular start, Bryce Elder had a 27%. That's really good. No, I'm sorry.

that's CSW percentage. That's called strikes plus whiffs. So it would just be the called strikes, however any called strikes he had divided by total pitches. Yeah, I don't think that's not going to be as impressive. All right. Let's think about Blake's Nell, Scott, who didn't have a start that blew me away or anything.

It was a good start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, which is still a very good lineup, maybe the best in baseball. scuffled a little bit over the past two weeks or so. But he goes five shut out. He has one hit, three walks, six strikeouts in that one. He had 15 swinging strikes

on 96 pitches. So it just continues that trend getting a bunch of wifts over the past month, month and a half, basically. Scott, is everything all right? I don't know. It might be another tornado warning. Fad a couple of those tonight already. How you doing, by the way? How is

the South Florida scene looking? Rainy. Yeah. tornado-y. Yeah. Well, I hope everyone stays safe because, obviously, I know there's a lot of crazy weather going on. Yeah, I mean, obviously we're on the opposite. We're on the east coast of Florida or closer to the east coast.

Hurricane's hitting on the west side of Florida, so we're not going to get the brunt of it. But we're getting plenty of, we're getting plenty of outer band action and can't be certain the power is going to hold up for the next couple of days. School's already been canceled. for the next couple days. So I won't have to be on the roads. But yeah, it should be interesting. We won't get the worst of it, though.

So direct your concerns more to, you know, the people like in the west side of Florida, Fort Myers area and all that. Yeah, yeah. For anyone listening, please stay safe out there. The question was about Blake's now, Scott. And I guess this is a two-part question. A, is Blake's now back in the circle of trust heading into next season?

And B, what is the circle of trust? I was trying to figure it out myself. I'm like, is that like a top 30 starting pitcher? I think it's like the cutoff is where I start to just feel a little bit icky about starting pitcher. Like maybe that's more of a matchup play. I think that's probably like top 36, top 40, something like that. Is Blake's now back in the circle of trust heading into next season? So I don't know that I define the circle of trusts in that way.

It's because obviously there are a lot of categories that determine a player ranking. It's not just how trustworthy is. There's upside that comes into play. There's downside predicted. Like what circle of trust is for me is a predictability? assessment and it's hard to say Blake Snell is predictable. I don't know

that I'll treat him like he's in the circle of trust. He's going to have to be drafted pretty high because the strikeout potential. I mean, basically in every way a pitcher can be good. He has been for basically the entire second half, right? But you know, he's

done this before and two years in a row now is basically to the point of dropping him before he went on this late tear that made that look like a bad idea, obviously. So I will probably treat Blake Snell next year more like a strikeout specialist, I think, than anything else. I don't think I'll want him as a top three starter for my team.

I mean, in some circumstances that might that might have to be what he is for you. But that's not the ideal, I don't think. Then again, I'm not going to go as hard after pitcher next year as I have the past two or three years. So maybe I'll end up with a lot of Blake's now, just kind of chasing upside. Historically, I feel like starting pitcher has been the position

most primed for chasing upside. So I don't know. It'll kind of depend how, where he's being drafted. But if it turns out that not many people have him in the circle, of trust and he gets pushed down the rankings, then maybe I'll end up with a lot of Blake's now. Yeah, when you said you didn't want him as one of your top three pitchers, I was like, well, Scott, you can't have it both ways, man. You can't wait on pitch.

Yeah, no, right? And not have smell as a top three starter. So there are a lot of good pitchers out there. So I don't even know, top three would be 36 if we're talking to standard 12 team league. Do you imagine ranking him in your top 36, top 40, top? I'm not even positive. I'll get him on my top 50. I don't know.

I think he's in my top 40 right now. I mean, I know what the rankings are right now does not necessarily mean what they will be next year. But yeah, I have Blake Snell as my SP 33. And yeah, I touched up the rankings last week.

I kind of feel like he's earned it, but you're right, Scott. We have said this before about Blake's now. His last 13 starts, by the way, 2.25 ERA, 99 strikeouts over 72 innings pitched with a 15,

and a half percent swinging strike rate. And that's, that's an ace. If he can maintain it. Well, yeah, if he could do that. It's one of Syung before.

I mean, we know he has, he's capable of it, but that was when 2018, right? Yeah. So we'll be five years removed from that. I don't know.

Maybe he'll be in the 36 to 40 range for me, but I doubt he'll be much higher than that. All right. That is Blake's now. There's obviously a lot of volatility, but if you are chasing upside, I think he's going to be someone to target in those middle rounds next season.

Before we hit the break, we do just have an announcement that there's going to be a surprise on Thursday night's stream, Friday morning's podcast. And obviously, I'm just going to keep teasing it until we get there. But you'll find out at the start of the podcast.

Thursday night, Friday morning. I don't even know what this surprise is. I was just going to say, I haven't even told Scott yet. So. I'll give you a surprise right now. we got Spider-Man on the air. That was pretty awesome.

Spider-Man, go. I saw your sweet, Scott. That was cool. I like that. Yeah. This is like, this is the coolest balloon I've ever seen, right?

That is, that is, it looks like it could be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. That's pretty legit stuff. Look, look, there's a sign to go with it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If turning five comes great responsibility. It's true. I told you it was my five-year-old birthday the other day. My wife made this sign for him.

If it's your five-year-old birthday, then there's something very weird going on here. My five-year-old's birthday? No, no, like you were turning five years. Oh, you know, I didn't put the ass on five-year-old. So it sounded like me turning five. No, I'm older than five. Yeah, my one quibble with this is, you know,

this is actually more of an Uncle Ben. I mean, it's not a direct quote, but, you know, that was kind of his whole thing. thing. But my five-year-old doesn't know who Uncle Ben is, so it's fine. Yeah, and I'm sure he's super into Spider-Man, so that's all that matters. Anyway, who isn't into Spider-Man? Yeah, Spider-Man's awesome. Thursday night, Friday morning stream podcast. We'll have a special surprise for you. I'm just going to leave it there. Let's take a break, and we'll get to the news and notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. The news and notes. Mariner's GM, Jerry DePoto,

said Julio Rodriguez is on track to return from the IL when first eligible. on Monday, October 3rd. So if you could somehow update your lineup, then you have Julio Rodriguez. It's good news for you. Yurdon Alvarez was pulled after rolling his ankle. X-rays came back clean. I am getting some updates here on Corey Seeger. So I'll let you know those as they come in.

Byron Bucksin underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday. He finishes his season with a 224 batting average, 28 home run, six deals in just 92 games. Byron Buckson has not hit 100 games played in a season since, 2017. Scott, what do you think we do with Byron Bucson next year? Hmm. Like, how many stolen bases did he end up with this year?

Six. Between all the injuries? Oh, that's more than I thought, actually. But still, we were hoping for more. He has less deals than Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Kyle Schwerber. independently, not like combining those two. Each of those players has more than Pirate Buxton, which is just very weird. Yeah.

Look, I haven't been, I haven't been the biggest Byron Buxton Trouther to begin with. I mean, obviously last year he showed a new level of production that I kind of lost faith in him ever achieving. But then he regressed. You know, he had the 1,05 OPS last year. It was 833 this year. And that's been more typical of Byron Buxton. So maybe the 2021 season was just a total outlier for him. And obviously, he can't stay healthy.

So I'm going to guess there's somebody who's going to be much more enthusiastic about drafting him than I am, just because there always seems to be that someone will probably be Chris Towers. but there will be others like him and so I won't have much Byron Buxton and if things go the way I think they're going to go with stolen bases next year or they're just going to be much more prevalent

and much more accessible to a wider variety of hitters than I don't know that like I don't even know that even if you get lucky and Byron Buxton manages to stay healthier than he ever has before that it's going to have been worth it to you.

I mean, it'll probably outperform his draft position in that context, but not by as much as you're thinking. Obviously, it's hard to reject any hitter, Scott, but I think Byron Buckson is probably one of the hardest to just pinpoint and figure out, hey, what kind of stat line am I getting this year from Byron Buckson? Yeah. I don't think anyone knows. Michael Kopeck likely won't pitch again this season, and it was a weird one.

for him. First year as first full year as a starter for the White Sox. The service level numbers looked okay. But the strikeouts were disappointing. The ERA estimators and swinging strike rates, definitely not great. So I know we talked about Kopeck in the past God and I know you're worried about him from a dynasty perspective. I would assume that kind of that same worry is also in your mind just for next season as well for Michael Kopeck. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if I say I'm worried about a guy's dynasty outlook, then that means I'm worried about him beyond this year, basically. So for Michael Kopeck, it won't have relief pitcher eligibility anymore, and doesn't have that little extra carrot raising his value in points leagues especially,

I'm probably going to be out on him unless it's like a late round pick. All right, that is Michael Kopeck. His teammate, Tim Anderson, was also shut down for the season. As he recovers from left hand surgery, the White Sox, I believe, have been mathematically eliminated. So obviously they have no reason to bring Tim Anderson back. He has now missed 31.5% of his available games over the past four seasons. So Byron Bucksin's not the only one.

Tim Anderson, he misses a lot of time. I still think he's a really talented player, but I think it's just something we have to bake in at this point that, you know, kind of like Mike Trout, where he's, you know, he's probably going to miss somewhere between 20 and 30. 30 games and maybe even more than that. We had some returns here on Tuesday. Wilson Contreras was activated, batting third in the Cubs lineup.

Nick Castellanos was activated for the Phillies. He was betting sixth. And E. E. E. E. E. E. Heneos Juarez was back with the Mariners, batting cleanup for them. Trevor's story is aiming to return for the Red Sox final series against the race next week in case you can set your lineups one more time. DJ Lemayhew could be activated on Wednesday. His rehab process has reached the point of saying, quote,

let's give this thing a go, referring to his toe injury. So I don't know. That doesn't really sound great to me. Lance McCullors was scratched Tuesday due to an illness. Yandy Diaz expects to be in Wednesday's lineup for the raise. He has missed seven straight with a shoulder injury. Zach Pesak is confirmed to start Friday against the Royals, which I believe will affect Cody Morris's chance at a second start in this long scoring period.

Yep. Is that that's correct, right, Scott? Yeah, I don't believe he's making two starts anymore. I did tweet that out early enough Monday that you could change your lineup. I picked him up in a league myself and didn't end up starting him. So hopefully the word got out there. I mean, maybe he'll still have a great start against, well, I'm not even sure when he's making his next start,

which is part of the problem here. Cody Morris, I think he's going to make a start on either Wednesday or Thursday. Let's see what we got. Cleveland, Tristan McKenzie on Wednesday. I don't know. Maybe he's not a start. Rastor Resource doesn't have him listed for any day. But, you know, things can change.

But yeah, I hope I can't be positive. He will make a single start. Jeez. All right. Well, not great. Unfortunately, McKenzie Gore is trending toward. Sorry, I should turn this off. I don't know if you can turn that thing off, but hopefully you can turn the phone off,

which I should probably do every time anyway. Let's see what we got here. Take shelter now. Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, tornado warning. Cool. I don't know what that's, I guess that's number three for this evening. Anyway, I still hear the frogs outside, so it can't be that bad.

All right. Mackenzie Gore is trending toward making one start for the nationals before the end of the season, he gave up six earned runs over three and two-thirds in his latest rehab start on Monday, which means you should not use McKenzie Gore in any way, shape, or form in his final start. But let's watch to see what he does. Alec Thomas was optioned back to AAA on Monday after a rough rookie season that saw him hit just 231 with a 619 OPS. The D-BACs highlighted pitch selection as what Thomas needs to improve the most.

and more so just swinging at pitches outside of the strike zone. I notice his chase rate is very high, but his strikeout rate is actually better than league average. So he clearly is very good at making contact Alec Thomas, but he just needs to be more selective on which pitches he actually wants to swing at. And hopefully that can help him get the batting average back up next year, steal bases, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. And obviously we're rooting for you, Alex Thomas, because I have you in the Scott White Dynasty.

Michael Javis was DFAed by the Pirates with our old friend. Not really our, I guess this is my old friend. Miguel Anduhar promoted to the active roster. I think he's had a couple of hits the past couple days. He's batting right in the middle of the Pirates lineup. I don't know. I guess see what he could do. Matt Carpenter could return during the Yankees final series against the Rangers next week.

Doesn't really think it affects fantasy, but maybe he gives them a boost in the postseason. Did have some prospect news as well, Scott. Grayson Rodriguez made another rehab start on Monday at AAA. He gave up one run over five innings pitch with six strikeouts. I don't think we're going to see him because obviously the Orioles aren't really playing for a playoff spot anymore. But obviously, it's just good to see Grayson Rodriguez finish the season out strong, get the pitch count up and obviously get the innings up as well.

So maybe he's competing for a rotation spot on opening day for next season. Yeah, I'm trying to decide if there is a scenario where it might make sense to call them up still. We've seen, for example, Logan O'Hoppy was added to the Angels taxi squad. Obviously, the Angels aren't playing for anything. Logan O'Hoppy is an emerging catcher prospect. Kind of broke through at AA this year. But they just, you know, they kind of wanted to have them around the team and potentially compete for a starting job next spring.

So, you know. But obviously taxi squad is of no value in fantasy if they're not actually going to play. Well, Scott, speaking of that, Logan O'Hoppy will be called up to the Angels on Wednesday. Per interim manager, Phil. Oh, okay. Cool.

I miss that. That news, I mean, that just came out here at like 1.11 a.m. Eastern Time when we're recording this. So it's pretty fresh news. We'll see if they're calling up Logan O'Hoppy. What's to stop the Orioles from calling up Grayrod? Just to put Logan O Hoppe's season in perspective, he is, he's played 104 games at AA. He's hitting 283 with 26 homers and a 960 OPS. In 29 games since joining the Angels

minor league system, he had 29 games. He's hitting 306 with 11 homers and an 1146 OPS. So he's, you know, he's still pretty young-ish just in terms of his experience. Hasn't played above double a, but 22 years old, they're going to give him a shot. What's his OBP for this season, Frank? That is 416. Yeah. That's massive. Yeah.

Guy gets on base at ton and the powers really come through from this year, especially after joining the Angels in the Brandon Marsh trade. So just an aim to watch for those who play in two catcher leagues for next year, he might be someone we need to remember. He's my 17th ranked catcher going into next year. Oh, Scott already has catcher rankings. I do. It's the only position I've done so far.

I've got to get on it. I've got to catch up, you know? I'm trying to do football rankings, Scott. You know what, though? I want to do it this year where I want to just do kind of like a dry run at rankings as soon as the baseball season ends, just while everything is still fresh in my mind. Because if I start to try and do rankings over the course of the winter,

I just feel like I lose some of these players or performances that are still kind of fresh here in the second half or any prospects that I might be forgetting about. So I don't know. I think I'm going to try it out. Just do like a dry run of rankings and then I'll just update them throughout the course of the off season. But all right, that is those are all the news items that I have. Do want to get into some hitting standouts here from Tuesday Scott. And just highlight three names in particular here. Pete Alonzo, just having a ridiculous season.

He went one for four. He hits 40th home run, a three-run shot. He leads all of Major League Baseball with 131 RBI. He's the third best first baseman in both head to head points leagues and Roto. He is the fourth overall player in Roto this season, Scott. And I would have to imagine it's mostly due to those counting stats. I think he has like 90 runs scored, obviously all the RBI, 40 home runs, with a batting average that technically helps you in Roto, right?

I would imagine even the first place team well no that's not true the middle of a pack in a roto league is probably something like 250-ish like in the 250 high 250 range maybe 260

Pete Alonzo's hitting 270 this year so he technically helps you and he's the first player to reach the 40 homer and 130 RBI threshold he's the first player to reach both of those since J.D. Martinez in 2018.

So it's... He's doing some things we don't always see from hitters. I will say that there's some subjectivity baked into... When you say a player ranks, whatever, fourth in this case, in Roto Leagues. Different sites have different formulas for determining that. So it's not always as clear cut as saying this player ranks this place in a points league, for instance, where he just ranks that way because he scored that many points. And in particular, here with Pete Alonzo, he plays the deepest position.

What's becoming, again, the deepest position by a big margin, first base. So if you go to the site right now, you have me projecting the first two rounds for next year. Pete Alonzo was a near miss. He's not among my first 24 players that I'm targeting next year. He might be number 25. So if you're talking like a 15-team context, okay, second-rounder. But he just misses for me. And I have three first basemen ahead of him,

Freddie Freeman, Paul Goldschmidt, and Vladimir Guerrero. I don't think there's a lot of distinguishing them from him. But I do think like this is Pete Alonzo's ceiling more or less, 270 hitter with 40 home runs. All those other guys, you know, might have a higher ceiling. We saw certainly with Vladimir Guerrero last year. You know, Scott, it is an interesting point that you bring up about, I guess the algorithm or the formula that's used on CBS to determine overall roto value

versus other places. I would be interested in learning what goes into that. I mean, just being fully transparent. I don't know. I don't know what goes into the CBS Roto formula, but I'm looking at the ESPN player raider, for example, which they put a weight on each category,

and they have Pete Alonzo as the 11th ranked player in Rado, which is obviously still very, very good, but it's not as good as the fourth ranked player. And I know Rasball has a player raider that they use as well. So I don't know. I would be interested to know, like what gets weighed more or differently, but I don't know. I don't know the answer to that personally.

so I don't either. We're going to ask someone who's smarter than us, Scott. Yeah. I'm not behind the formula for our side. I can tell you that. But there is a formula and yeah, it's, I'm just saying, take that with a grain of salt where a player ranks in Roto. It's helpful information, but it's not gospel.

And if, you know, if, if, if, I'm inclined to rank somebody way differently from that than I think I'm licensed to do so. All right. Jose Altuve went three for four with a double dong. He is now up to 28 home runs. The rest of the line, 298 batting average, 18 steals, 100 runs scored 918 OPS in 135 games. So he actually missed some time this year. And he's still having just a tremendous season. 3.6 fantasy points per game for Jose Al Tuve,

second best at the position, and actually better than Trey Turner. So I know I've said it before that I think Jose Al Tuvei is probably going to be disrespected in drafts once again next year. I don't know, maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe, you know, everyone buys back in and he's like a second or third round pick. I, you know, he deserves it. Yeah.

Still kind of have this feeling that, you know, there'll be a bunch of people that just say, oh, you know, but he's getting up there in age. Stackass date is not. good and it doesn't matter to me Scott I think holds out two days is a really good player well here's the thing also is you know we've made a lot about how weak third base is we've made a lot about how weak outfield is second base you know particular you're talking next year tray turner won't be there moogie bats who recently picked up second base eligibility he won't be there second base might be

the weakest of all. Because it's so lacking. Like third base, there's a big drop-off and it comes pretty early, but there's a solid, there are a solid, like, seven players who you feel really good about at the position. Second base might have like three or four of them,

you know? And Altuvés among them, of course. Marcus Simeon's among them. I might draft Marcus Simeon ahead of Piedel Lonzo. I might draft Jose Al-Douvae ahead of him. I think it's at least in the conversation because of the position scarcity factor. This is something we haven't had to deal with in fantasy baseball for a long time because the juice ball era leveled the playing field so much between the hulking corner infielders and the, you know, the smaller middle infielders in terms of power. And it made, it kind of did away with position scarcity.

But I think it's making a comeback. And that, that's all the more reason to target Jose Altuvae early. If I can get him in round three, I'm probably going to do that every time. Marcus Simian's same thing. From one scarce position to another, Scott, you mentioned third base. Alex Bregman, Jose Altuvae's teammate. He went two for five and hit his 22nd home run. And I'm just left Scott trying to figure out what do we do with Alex Bregman.

because he had that awesome August. Remember, like, oh, we're getting hyped back up. You know, he's going to build up his draft value for the following season. Again, it was great. 362 batting average, seven homers, 1133 OPS, came crashing right back down in September. 240 batting average, just two home runs and OPS just over 700. So it kind of just looks like it was a really, really hot month, Scott, and everything else this season was pretty mediocre for Alex Bregman.

Where do you lie on him? Yeah, but I'm going to take the Chris Tower's stance of full season numbers count for more. Like we could slice it and dice it a few different ways this season and maybe draw different conclusions from it. But in the end, Alex Bregman had a pretty productive season. I said there were seven third basemen you could feel good about going into next season. Well, he's probably number seven. Number six, I would say, in points leagues because he has such play discipline gives him such an advantage there. You know, probably, probably you put Bobby Witt ahead in five-by-five leagues,

but you put Alex Bregman ahead of Witt in points leagues. And that's fine. He's not, he's no longer going to be a first or second round type of player. He hasn't, we haven't treated him that way in a couple years anyway. But he's, he comes before the drop off at third base, I would say. I feel, I feel fine treating Bregman that way. You know, I didn't realize his counting stats were as good as they were. So that is something that definitely plays into the value of Bregman,

one of the best lineups in baseball with the Astros. 91 runs, 91 RBI this year. That's really, really good. I do have a couple of young players here, Scott. I wanted to get your thoughts on. Gabriel Arias is a borderline top 10 prospect in the Guardians organization. He has been called back up. He's played two games with them.

He has two hits, three walks, two runs scored, a three RBI and a steal. So a lot going on over these past two games. His minor league numbers, not very good, but he still ranked pretty highly in terms of just his prospect status in their organization. Tristan Kossis looks like he's coming to Lyscott.

He went three for four with his fifth home run. He added a walk and three runs scored. And pretty impressive Homer, too. One 10.5 exit velocity, 421 feet to the opposite field. Now, three of his five home runs a season have gone to the opposite field, which I really, really like Fortress and Casas. Matt Walner is a name that we brought up recently.

He is a power prospect with the Minnesota Twins. He hit a skyscraping home runs. Got 45 degree launch angle. That is crazy stuff. 114 miles per hour. That is a skyscraper. That's like... Really hard and really high.

You don't really see that combination. You're trying to hit a home run in a silo, basically. That's what you do. It only traveled 341. feet. That's what was so interesting about it. And then Josh Young, the Rangers prospect, comes out, has a big game. Double Dong against the Mariners. I believe one of those came off of Robbie Ray, which in itself is very impressive. But entering this game on Tuesday, Scott, he had a 43% trikeout rate.

So I don't know, like there's been some good, but there's been a lot of bad from Josh Young. What do you think about him, Matt Walner, Tristan Kossis, and Gabriel Arias. Yeah, I would say Kossis has been the most impressive what he's done. recently. So this three for four performance makes Kossis now over his past six games, seven for 18 with three home runs, seven walks versus four strikeouts during that stretch. So he's beginning to live up to just between that and the opposite field power.

Just that, you know, all around hitter, all around amazing hitter sort of profile. There were comparisons with like Freddie Freeman, Joey Votto at sometimes being made when Kossis was coming up through the miners. So, you know, you hate to put that much pressure on his stat line because obviously there have been very few pitters of that caliber. And not every prospect lives up to his potential. But that's the kind of potential I think we're talking about with Tristan Kossis. Josh Young, I am encouraged to see as high as his strikeouts been only three strikeouts in his past five games. So maybe he's getting past that, hopefully. Walner and Arias, they're kind of a tear down as far as prospects go.

But Walner does have good power. So something to keep an eye on. Strikeouts will probably remain an issue for him, though. All right. Let's get into a few pitching standouts from Tuesday, and we had ourselves a nice little pitchers duel out in Chicago between Zach Wheeler and Marcus Stroman. Zach Wheeler was great at the Cubs.

He went six innings, one run, five strikeouts in that one. Still limited to just 62 pitches, but was efficient enough to get you the quality start. ERA down to 2.92 for him. All the other numbers look pretty damn good for Zach Wheeler. Marcus Treman was even better up against the Phillies. seven innings, one run, six strikeouts for him, 12 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. And he has really leaned into his sinker, slider, over the last three starts, with each of those being quality starts.

And now the last 15 outings for Marcus Stroman, since returning from injury back in July, 2.75 ERA, a 55% ground ball rate during that time, Scott. Any thoughts on Zach Beeler and Marcus Stroman? Yeah, they're both looking great. you know, only 62 pitches from Wheeler in this one. He's still about building back up after now having a rehab assignment, but he's looked efficient and he's had plenty of velocity on his pitches. So, you know, they're both looking good.

All right. Few of their standouts. We had James and Tyone. Another great start at the Blue Jays. Seven and two thirds. Two runs allowed, six strikeouts for him. And over his last five starts, he has a 3.19 ERA, nearly a strikeout per inning.

and he's doing a much better job limiting home runs, Scott, which is ironic because home runs are up in the month of September. So whatever James St. Tyone's doing, it's working for him. Miles Michaelis was looking to cap off a fantastic season, frankly, at the Brewers. He went six innings, one run, nine strikeouts in that one. 3.30 ERA for him, 1.03 whip. It's been a great bounce back. And he's been a really, really valuable pitcher this year.

That is Miles Michaelis. Luis Garcia gets back on track. for the Astros. Six innings, one run, six strikeouts up against the Diamondbacks. And then Logan Webb did want to pull up his start. It was solid up against the

Colorado Rockies. And I know that they've been limiting him recently, and they've even announced that. They don't really want him going too deep into starts here down the stretch. He went five innings, one run, seven strikeouts in that one, Scott. So Logan Webb, Louise Garcia,

Miles, Michaelis, and Jameson, Tyone, any thoughts? So Logan Webb over his past 20 starts has a 239 ERA. Also a 114 whip and 7.8K per 9, so those numbers aren't good. But a 239 ERA. And actually has a lower ERA now than he had last year, even though everything else has looked worse. So, I mean, I don't feel as good about him going into next year as I did going into this year.

But he's probably more in the circle of trust than like Blake Snell is. That kind of consistency. A few names here, I actually wanted to bring these up earlier, but they got stuck on the bottom of the rundown. Three hitters that are finishing strong, and I guess, Sky, you let me know if they're developing more confidence, I guess, heading into next season.

O'Neo Cruz has had a really strong September, and he picked up six more hits with another steal over the past two days. Now his last 22 games, he's betting 300 with six homers and three steals. That is a 40 homer 20 steel pace over 150 games. Still striking out 33% during this time. So, you know, that comes with the territory with O'Neill Cruz. Hopefully he can continue to improve on that. Ronald de Cunia went two for five with a double dong and over his last nine games. He's hitting 294 with four home runs, hitting the ball hard, lifting the ball much better. And the barrel rate is up during that time.

So, yeah, to see some power coming back for us. Those home runs were like screaming liners, too, both in excess of 113 miles per hour, I think. Massive. And Glaber Torres also having a massive September here as well. After an awful August, he's hitting 333, six homers, 233 RBI, and four steals with an OPS just over 1,000 for the month of September. So it's just been a really good finish year for Glaver Torres. Anything you'd like to add on those, Scott?

Glaver Torres, Ronald Cunia, O'Neill Cruz, heading into next season. Yeah, so I still have a Cunia as my sixth overall pick heading into next year in Rotisserie leagues. I mean, if he has like, if the Braves have a deep postseason run and he is just a monster throughout, then I might have to consider moving him up from there even. But I'm, I still think I'm showing a lot of confidence in him by ranking him that high. And O'Neill Cruz, yeah, I mean, he's putting himself in a position to be drafted pretty high next year. Shortstop is probably the second deepest position after first base. But he's somebody who we've been saying all along, the quality of contact is so rare that he could probably get away with striking out a third of the time.

And at least in September, that's what he's been showing. going. All right. The call to the bullpen for the Pirates. David Bednar struck out two for his 18th save. For the Cubs, Brandon Hughes pitched in the eighth inning with a one-run lead facing the 9-1 and 2 in the Phillies lineup. Manuel Rodriguez recorded the final three outs for his third save. For the Marlins, Dylan Floreau struck out the side for his eighth save, only 18% rostered if you are desperate for saves on the stretch. For the Yankee, Lou Trevino recorded the final five outs for his 11th save, each of Clayholm, Scott F. Ross, and Jonathan Loisaga pitched on Monday. For the Angels, Jimmy Hergett picked up his seventh save, Ryan Tepara pitched in the eighth.

For the Padres, Josh Hader gave up one unearned run in the ninth inning. He took the blown save. Pierce Johnson wound up with the win because Craig Kimbril walked three more and he took his seventh loss of the season. I don't know what the Dodgers are going to do in the bullpen, but does not sound like it's going to be Craig Kimball. To stream or not to stream. And we will start with Wednesday. Luis Sessa at the Pirates. Tyler Glass now will probably only throw like two or three innings,

but I don't know. I guess I'll throw them in this mix. He's at the Guardians. Matt Manning versus the Royals. We have Jake Oter Rizzi at the Nationals. Anything that's actually, I hated Wesnese going up against the Phillies. We have Jose Katana at the Brewers.

And anyone else? No, that's it. I have to just read it off the page because. Yeah, I think it was a mess getting this show ready. I think Cantana at the Brewers coming off, maybe his best two starts of the season, certainly two of his longest starts of the season, and the Brewers have been bad against left-handers.

So that's my top choice. I feel pretty good about that one. You're forcing me to pick a second from that group. maybe Jake Oterizzi against the nationals, but he got hit pretty hard in his last start, so I don't love that. Oh, maybe Hayden West Nesky.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I don't love it. Obviously, I don't trust the guy yet, but he's been pitching well. On Thursday, we have Louis Varland going up against the White Sox,

Eduardo Rodriguez up against the Royals. We have anyone else. Braston Garland. at the Brewers. At the Brewers. Yeah, he could be available. Marco Gonzalez versus the Rangers. John Gray at the Mariners.

What do you think? Yeah. I like probably Braxton Garrett at the Brewers the best. And John Gray against the Mariners, I like that too. Eric Lowers out there, he's opposing Garrett facing the Marlins, who are the last, I checked the worst team against left-handed pitchers. So I feel pretty good about him, too. and that's probably it.

Eric Lauer, 81% rostered on CBS, but I would have to imagine that's much lower on other sites. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching. Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.