Fantasy Baseball Today - Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Guardians Promote Angel Genao! (8/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2026

With Jose Ramirez banged up, the Guardians are promoting Angel Genao (2:35)! ... Grayson Rodriguez got his revenge (8:44)! ... Caleb Durbin won't stop hitting (14:18). ... News (19:52): James Wood went on the IL with an oblique strain. ... We had a bunch of successful new team debuts (36:37). ... Should I stay or should I go (41:43)? ... Time to drop Joey Cantillo (49:10)? ... Add Royce Lewis or Caleb Durbin (54:55)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens, streamers (1:05:43).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. Hello, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, August 5th. I am Frank Stanful joined by Scott White. Today on the show, some big names placed on the I.L.

Another one who might be headed to the IL so you need replacements. We had some new team debuts, mostly good, not so much with Freddie Peralta. And a new segment, should I stay or should I go? But first, we have yet another top prospect promotion. We let off yesterday's podcast with two prospects. You guys ended last week with two prospects in Max Clark and Quinn Matthews. And we just learned that the Guardian's, are promoting their top prospect, Anhele Hanao.

Why Hano? Well, Jose Ramirez is, was out of the lineup on Tuesday with left hand soreness, and that is the same hand that he had surgery on back in June. So it kind of feels like Jose Ramirez could land back on the IL. And Hano is 22 years old, having a strong season in the minors, where he was hitting 299 with a 400 on base, 11 homers, 11 steals, 857 OPS in 95 games, 24 of those at AA, 71 of those at AAA,

and he is only 7% rostered. So didn't really see this one coming, Scott. What are your thoughts on on Helm Hinald, the player? And should he be added anywhere in fantasy? Well, he's not George Lombard. We'll start with that. If given the choice, you go with George Lombard. There's a lot more upside there.

And I'll also point out, it's funny sometimes. you can write about a prospect for years, but prospects, their names don't come up in discussion as often. I mean, this isn't a prospect podcast. So this is the first time I've actually, for all the years I've written about Anheil Hanau, this is the first time I've actually heard his name pronounced. So that Hanau is spelled G-E-N-A-O-U.

So let's put that out there. Yeah, he may not be George Lombard, but he is a legit prospect. I was a little colder on him than the consensus coming into this year. I left him out of my preseason top 100. But then he got to AAA. I was able to see some of that stack cast data that I couldn't see in the lower minors. And I was encouraged by it.

I ended up in my mid-season top 50. I put on hell Hanow, 39th. He is a Guardians' prospect. He fits the mold to a T. in that he's a middle infielder who is very much hit overpower. There's always been a guy who's made contact at a very high rate.

Draws walks at a pretty good rate. But it becomes even more that hit tool becomes even more pronounced seeing, okay, at AAA's got a zone contact rate of 92%. So when he swings at a pitch in the zone, it's not just at the strikeout rates, though. When he swings at a pitch in the zone, he doesn't miss. So I think Hanau should be a pretty good source of batting average.

He hits the ball much harder than I expected. 111 mile per hour, max exit velocity. Average is verging on 90. So that's pretty good, too. I don't think he's going to be a slugger by any means, but the pull rate is very high. So he already has that part down. He puts it on the ground a lot,

so that's going to hold him back. Pretty good speed. I think Anhehanao could be. be a better version of Brian Rochio. Maybe to put that in more straightforward terms, that

could be like trying to think of a good example. Yeah, that's a tough one. I can't come up with a good example at the top of my head. I think he is 15 to 20 upside in terms of both home runs and stolen bases with a pretty good batting average. So that, I don't know, does that sound like anybody you?

I'm struggling to come up with the name. Yeah, I'm trying to think of a player too. I guess say Don Raphaela, at least from a 5 by 5 standpoint, though, I think Hinal is going to walk more than that and be more use in points leagues. Of course, that's the upside case. And so, you know, is he going to hit? Is he got to do that right when he gets called up to the majors?

Odds are against it. But if you need Menloenfield help in a Roto League where three are required, and you already missed out on Lombard, you already missed out on the Brewers prospect. Cooper Pratt. Cooper Pratt. Thank you.

I couldn't. Gosh, I can only remember Cooper. Yeah, you already missed out on Lombard. You already missed down on Cooper Pratt. Anil Hanow is somebody you could turn to. Yeah, I am still scouring the shortstop pool to try and find a good comp. But I think that makes sense.

I think like a 15, 15 good batting average. It's kind of like a median expectation. Maybe he could grow into a little bit more power and speed. I would probably bet more on speed with Anheil Ha now than the power. But the hit tool seems legit. And he's widely available. So especially for those who play in deeper leagues, if you're playing obviously AL only,

if you play in 15 team roto leagues where it's like anybody that pops up, you have interest in. I think Anheel Hanao should be rostered in those. And then in 12 team leagues, like, unless you're desperate at middle infield, let's just kind of see where this goes from here. You already answered the question, Scott. I was going to compare him to George Lombard,

but should mention up top, Lombard had a great debut here with the Yankees, one for two with the walk and his first career home run, 100.2, exit velocity, 392 feet. So it wasn't a bomb or anything, but obviously nice to see him connect for a homer in his first game. he hit eighth in the Yankees lineup, and we spoke about him extensively yesterday,

so I'm not going to rehash all the numbers. But I don't want to overreact to this, but I think that there is a real chance that he can move up in the Yankees lineup very quickly because he was just a prototypical lead-off hitter in the minors, George Lombard. And while Trent Grisham has been that guy the past couple of years, he isn't really having a very good season.

So it wouldn't surprise me if Lombard moves very quickly up the lineup and perhaps settles in. as the Yankees leadoff hitter. It could have been very soon against left-handed pitching, but maybe it'll take a little bit longer against righties. So again, Anhele Hanow getting called up with the Guardians. Nice debut here for the Lombard. Scott and I agree, both Lombard over Hano for now.

Let's get into the players of the night. Way to go, kid. Stats it back. Yeah, we see you. You the man. Woo! You to man, Scott. And who is your player of the night?

Well, for the second straight start, to my great satisfaction, Grayson Rodriguez. Revenge is a dish best served cold. They always served it all right. Against the Orioles, his former team obviously, two run runs in seven innings, three hits allowed, one walk, six strikeouts. Clearly his best start of the year. That was coming off what was previously his best start of the year against the Astros, two runs and five innings with six strikeouts.

It's had 15 whiffs in that Astro start. Only 12 in this start, but that's still a lot better than he had been doing. This is back-to-back, really good outings, really encouraging outings from Grace and Rodriguez. The change-up has played especially well in both. Really, it's been okay all season. Kurt Suzuki, the Angels manager, said he's been working on his mechanics and grip stuff and things are coming together and progressing. Every start, he's a little better.

Grayson Rodriguez said we've been putting in a lot of work in the bullpins that's finally starting to show, which I'm excited about, but still got some ways to get back to what feels normal to me. But everything points to a progression here from Grace and Rodriguez. A point he's reached in that progression where we're seeing results again. and I think it's reasonable. He was awful before these previous two starts, but if you look at the stuff, it didn't look that different from when he was an up-and-coming talent for the Orioles.

So I made this comp after the previous start where Garrett Cole, his first few turns back from Tommy John's surgery. It was the same situation. Like he didn't look nearly as dominant. But the individual pitch characteristics seemed close enough that you figured he'd eventually come around and he has. It's a lot easier to extend that kind of grace to Garrick Cole, who is at worst going to be a borderline Hall of Famer than it is to Grace and Rodriguez who almost broke out for the Orioles but didn't. quite get there because of injury.

But, you know, now two starts in a row. I think he's somebody who I'm not going to call him the highest priority pitcher on the waiver wire right now. But Grayson Rodriguez is at least in the discussion. Yeah, I do think he's kind of more of a spec ad for now, deeper league play, kind of someone you stash on the bench, just because, again, he has had upside in the past and obviously comes with a lot of prospect pedigree, but it's been a long time since we've seen him stringing together good starts in a row. Obviously, these last two have been pretty good for Grayson Rodriguez.

And I don't have a Stuff Plus metric yet on this specific start. But his previous start, 112 Stuff Plus, that was far and away the highest of any start this season for Grayson Rodriguez. On the season, it's 104. And I think the last time we saw him, it was 108. That was like, what, 2024, I guess that would have been. But yeah, coming off his last start with the Ashros, that was his highest stuff plus metric start of the season. So perhaps building off that, very good start here against the Orioles. He used his change-up in a slider a little bit more, and the change-up was very good. It had six of his 12 whiffs, and his secondary pitches have always been kind of like the bread and butter here. You know, he would get whiffs on his fastball at times, but both of his fastballs have been

hit really hard this season. So perhaps leaning on those secondaries could be a nice little recipe here for Grayson Rodriguez. 25% rostered. I still think I would be way too scared to use him next week, but it looks like he might line up for two against the Rangers and the Royals. So that, it is tempting, you know. He's going to have to be on my list of 10 sleeper pitchers for next week. I mean, he doesn't have to be, Scott. He's going to have to be coming off these two starts and having those two matchups.

It is, we're at, I feel like, I feel like we get there every August where, look, it's never easy to come up with 10 names who might be available in enough CBS leagues to mention there. But in August, it's like, we're having to dig deep. We're having to dig deep. So Grayson Rodriguez is going to appear on that list, but I agree that it would take nerves of steel, let's say.

Fortune favors the bold, the brave. Yeah. We used to do one of those. You should just, at this point in the season, Scott, you should just put one really wonky sleeper pitcher and sleeper hitter on the list every week and see how many people react to it. You know, yeah, there have been times

where I've had stretches where I would do a deep league special at the end just to come up with that 10th name and make it clear that most people shouldn't be using him. But if you're in a deep league, you know, and here's a here's a possibility. All right, my player of the night is going to be Caleb Durbin

who just gave us a grand sock in a shoe that's right, a grand slam and a stolen base in the same game. His 11th Homer, his 13th steel, the Red Sox is for Maine.

Red Hot, no pun intended. Durbin, Williard, Bray, Jaron, all had big games in this one. But back to Durbin, last 57 games now. 308 batting average 10 homers,

38 runs, 33 RBI, 9 steals, and OPS over 900. So we are going on. We're a little bit over two months. It's like since late May, basically.

He's been a 300 hitter, a 900 OPS bat, 70% rostered. So I realize most people listening at this point, those are the ones that are probably really locked in and Durbin is probably not available

in your league. But if you are in a shallow format, a 10-team league, a points league, maybe you lost Jose Ramirez. Caleb Durbin, I feel like, is the top third base priority. That's even with Royce Lewis. I know he's playing well. But Durbin has just been even better.

So, Scott, we're bordering on, we're just over two months now, where Caleb Durbin has looked like a basically must-raster, must-start type hitter. I'm curious to see. Yeah. So during that same span of time, you want to guess what his average exit velocity is oh i looked it up earlier it's not good 83.6 but we don't care about exit velocity for caleb dervin it's pulling the ball and

banging it off the monster and making contact that's what we want six i wouldn't feel good if it was 87.6 exit velocity schmeggsit velocity i mean it's it's it's fine if you need a third basement, of course, it's fine to use Caleb Durbin. He's been hot for a long time, but I... It's a bad position, man. Yeah, no, I get it. And that's fine.

But I would treat him more as a hot hand play than all my problems are solved now. I have Caleb Durbin. Yeah, I mean, just keep riding with it. I keep expecting him to slow down, and it's just not really happening for Caleb Durbin. And I guess this entire Red Sox team, so, you know, strike while the iron's hot.

Yeah, I mean, it probably will not last. forever. I would bet on Caleb Durbin not being a 300 batting average 900 OPS bat for the next two months, even though he's done it for the past two. And what's crazy is he was so awful prior to this. Like his season numbers still look pretty bad. Yeah, it's just a 723 OPS 247 batting average. So. Yeah. And he was starting to get bench. Like before he started to take off, I was like, all right, I guess it's just isn't going to work with the Red Sox. Like maybe he's, he's on the bench. Maybe he's demoted. I didn't know, but he picked it up and credit to him again.

That's Caleb Durbin, 70% rostered on CBS. Count me among the skeptics, but it's totally fine to use them if you need third base up. I would, I definitely not opposed to that. All right. Big thanks to everyone watching live or on demand. Make sure to hit that like button. Subscribe or just stay subscribed. You know, a lot of people's interests are changing this time of year.

Fantasy football is approaching all that fun stuff, but we've still got two months left. And there's a lot going on. So stay subscribed or subscribe if you haven't already. Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy at Baseball today. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news. But we got some big injury news, Scott.

And first up, James Wood, placed in the IL with a mild oblique strain. The Nationals are hoping that it will be a brief absence. But, you know, with a guy this big who swings that hard, obliques can be very tricky. I would bet on more than a minimum stay here. And obviously, James Wood has been one of the best players in fantasy all season. So this is a massive loss. There's no replacing him, but you've got to try. And I think some outfielder's in shallower leagues,

right between 70 and 80% rostered. You've got Max Clark who has emerged. There's Dom Kanzone who's been playing more. Hopefully that remains the case even with Taylor Ward there. Col Carrig, the playing time has been a little bit more consistent lately, and obviously he has some power and speed. AJ Ewing. I noticed that his roster rate

has dropped below 70%. I didn't look into, I assume he's probably been slumping a little bit, and that's why people are dropping him, but I still think he's a, should be a dynamic player. If he could get back on track,

obviously the rest of season. And Tommy Edmund, who is one of those kind of hot hand approaches. So Max Clark, Dom Kanzone, Cole Carrig, AJ Ewing, Tommy Edmund. Scott, who are your,

let's say, three favorite of that group? Three favorite. I would say, Cole Carrig number one. It's actually tough. I like all four of the... I like the first four. I don't like Tommy Edmund.

So between Cole Carrig, AJ Ewing, Max, Clark, Dom, Canzone, it's that... The order there is tough. I'll go Carrick, one. You mentioned playing time has been more consistent. Brent and Doyle getting traded should help with that.

He doesn't seem to cool off for long, Cole Carrick, when he does. I guess I'll give Ewing the edge over Clark. And I like Canzone too, but he doesn't have the speed element, those other three do, which doesn't mean he won't be better. It just means he has that a little bit of a disadvantage. So we'll go Canzone fourth. Some replacements in medium-sized leagues.

You have Spencer Jones, Herberto Hernandez with the Marlins, Jake Mangum, and Henry Bolte, who's actually picked things back up. And he had three hard hits here and another stolen base on Tuesday night. So again, medium-sized leagues, five outfielder leagues. You love that guy. I do like him quite a bit. I traded for him in the Dynasty League. So I don't know, maybe I'm wishcasting Henry Bolte to be good.

But, you know, he hits the ball hard. What's up? Those who listen to the trade deadline extravaganza will know that I'm down a couple pitchers in my dynasty league struggling to fill out the lineup as the third ranked team of 24. I have Grayson Rodriguez in that league. So definitely could use a return to form from him or at least something close to it. Anyway, we're talking about outfielders here.

Spencer Jones, Herberto Hernandez. Hernandez probably belongs in the previous group. I know by roster rate, he's not. But that makes him a clear number one here for medium-sized leagues. And I'll go Spencer Jones 2. just because you're trying to replace James Wood. And you might as well go for someone who is the same size as James Wood.

You might as well go for somebody with at least an outside chance of matching that power speed combo that Wood provides. The power especially is hard to fake off the waiver wire to get off the waiver wire this time of year. And then I'll go Jake Mangum third over Baltie. Don't have a lot of faith in Baltie yet.

And then in deeper leagues, the deepest of leagues. Griffin Conine, he is a platoon bat. He's going to hit for power against right-handed pitching. And Hector Rodriguez, prospect just called up to the Reds. He was in the lineup here on Tuesday. He was batting seventh against the right-handed pitcher. He went 0 for 2 with a walk and a run scored. Nick Kurtz also placed in the aisle with a strained right thumb,

retroactive to August 1st. And we are looking for replacements there as well. So in shallower leagues, Royce Lewis and Thai France, I think, are the obvious names at first base. There have been a lot of names that either got hurt or are just kind of slumping right now at first base. But Royce Lewis and Thai France obviously have been pretty good. In medium-sized leagues, Spencer Horwitz recently returned, Josh Bell, you know what he is, but he's usually solid. And then in deeper leagues, the deepest. Tim Tawa and Abamelik Ortiz.

Those are like your 15 team leagues are deeper there if you need first base replacements. Jordan Walker was scratched from the lineup due to right knee inflammation. That's the last of the bad news. Back to the good news. Bobby Wood Jr. was reinstated from the IL and he went three for five with a double,

two runs and two RBI in his return. Garrett Crochet, we have a bit of an update here, has started up a throwing program, and he is throwing from 50 to 60 feet from flat ground, and the hope is that he will still return at some point in the regular season. now it is August 5th he needs a full

throwing program and no setbacks so he's probably going to need at least a month so at best you might just get like September maybe it's like I think max four or five starts that we could potentially get here from Gary Crochet yeah

I'd I know you're saying that's the max that's the max I would say yeah even that sounds extremely far fetched to me I'm hoping like two or three. Yeah. Tyler Glass now made his first rehab start on Tuesday.

He fired two scoreless innings at low A. Carlos Rodon will begin a rehab assignment on Saturday. Back to the bad news, Trey I Savage left his start early with left knee discomfort. Scott, what is this one about? Completely blindsided, all of us. Fantasy players, Cardinal fans everywhere. The Cardinals, optioned Quinn Matthews, back to AAA. That means he will have to stay down four.

at least 15 days unless somebody else goes on the IL. So I don't really get it. We were kind of hyping Matthews up as a waiver ad and a stream this week against the Rockies in St. Louis. The Cardinals just traded away Dustin May. They did call up Hunter Dobbins to start on Tuesday, who pitched pretty well against the Yankees. He turned into quality start. So I guess they want to see what they have in Hunter Dobbins. But like, what else does Quinn Matthews have to prove in the minors?

He was dominating at AAA. Yeah, it's disappointing. And I don't know what else to say beyond that. I thought particularly once they traded away Dostomay, okay, you can count on Quinn Matthews staying in the rotation now. But I forgot about that Hunter Dobbins guy. And I haven't looked that deep into it. so I don't know how

stretched the Cardinals pitching staff has been in recent days but I know you see this a lot of time in modern baseball certain pitchers with options get you know you send a guy down once in a season

that uses one option it doesn't matter how many times you send him down that season and it's still just one option that's used. And so that gets, for lack of a better term, abused so that they can keep replenishing their roster with arms. Obviously, there's a maximum number of arms that can be on the roster at any one time. And so pitchers are going shorter into games than ever.

And so they have to keep certain pitchers on the shuttle between AAA and the majors. and it doesn't mean Matthews is always going to be in that category, but at least for right now until he's fully established himself, he might be. I don't think this is the last start we've seen from him, but I think the usage might be unpredictable over the next two months. If you picked him up, is he someone that you absolutely have to hold on to? I don't think you absolutely have to hold on to.

It probably depends on your level of investment, the size of your league, which those two are probably related, how much you invested to get him, you know, the deeper the league, probably the greater the investment. If you're in a shallower head-to-head league and you just picked him up because he was the pickup de jure

and you didn't really have to spend a lot of FAB dollars on him or anything like that, most leagues don't use FAB, then fine. You can move on for Matthews, I think. But you have to weigh your own level of investment there. Nick Povetta was removed from his rehab start with tightness in his right elbow, which is what he is returning from. And the good news, I guess, is that he was still able to throw 30 pitches in the batting cage

after leaving the start. Seems like a pretty confusing update. So I guess we'll just see how Nick Povetta's arm responds to all this. Jackson Job will return from the IL and start this weekend against the Giants in five rehab starts at all different levels. 176 ERA, 117 WIP, 10K per 9, 2.4 walks per 9. He has not thrown more than four innings in the start yet, so they'll probably limit Jackson Job early on.

But he is widely available, 28% rostered. Scott, what is your interest level? Would you rather speculate on Jackson Job or Grayson Rodriguez? That's a good question. both former top top pitching prospects and all of baseball. My knee-jerk reaction is Job, but I'm not sure that's fair because it's not like we saw Job have any success in the majors

the little bit of time he pitched there, and he's coming back from the same injury Grayson Rodriguez is. So, you know, we've now seen at least a hint of success here from Grayson Rodriguez. We need Job to deliver. liver. It was easy to say stash him when he was occupying an IL spot for you, but come the end of this week, that won't be an option anymore. So I think probably the safest thing to do, and whether you can do this might depend on your exact league settings, but

have Job in an IL spot for right now until he makes that start. And if it's a good start, Okay, have them on your bench, head of Grayson Rodriguez, let's say. If the bad start, then maybe a try out Grayson Rodriguez instead. All right, we did not see this one coming. The Marlins were called Augustine Ramirez, and they said the plan is to get him reps at first base with occasional starts behind the plate. And Ramirez was not in the lineup on Tuesday against a right-handed pitcher. Herberto Hernandez was still in there, thankfully.

So that's the big thing. We just hope that Hernandez continues to get playing time. Kyle Stowers was at first base. Griffin Conine was at DH. And as we mentioned during our trade deadline live stream, Agosir Ramirez has been pretty uninspiring at the minor league level this year. But he is a catcher.

And I think in two catcher leagues, he's mildly interesting. But what a difference a couple months makes. Do you hear what you just said? You just said, hopefully, Augustine Ramirez doesn't take too many of bats from Herberto Hernandez. That's what I said. That's quite the role reversal there.

Yeah, it's a little confounding what's happened to Augustine Ramirez because he was ascending for a few years there. It seemed like, you know, there was no, limit to the heights he could potentially reach as a hitter. And then he's just fallen flat this year, whether it's been in the majors or the minors. I think in two catcher leagues, especially, you can't ignore his return. He wouldn't be the first player to kind of flounder at AAA and then return to the majors and look fine again.

Like that's happened before. I don't have any evidence for that happening in Ramirez's case, but we know the talent, he has and we saw it just last year and we should at least keep an open mind. All right, let's try to breeze through the rest of these news items. Kevin Gosman and Clay Holmes will make their Cubs debuts this weekend in Kansas City. Jose Soriano will make his Blue Jays debut Friday against the Phillies. The D-Backs placed Gabriel Moreno on the paternity list. Samuel Bessio is close to participating in catching and hitting progressions and could be

cleared for a rehab assignment within the next two weeks. Bryce Eldridge has missed two straight with a bruise left. thumb. I believe he appeared as a pinch hitter in that game. Jake Bowers was scratched from the lineup with abdominal soreness. Matt Chapman, who's out with a core muscle injury, might need season-ending surgery. He will visit a specialist

next week. We do have a bunch of other debacks updates. Corbyn Burns threw a bullpen on Tuesday. Jordan Lawler started a rehab assignment at AA on Tuesday, and Tommy Troy is likely to participate in extended spring training later this week. The Angels

DFA to Jorge Saler, who will probably catch on somewhere as a DH or a short side platoon, something like that. The Brewers option Brandon Sprote to AAA. Carlos Correa was clear to swing a bat Tuesday and is attempting to return before the end of the season. He had ankle surgery back in May, and at the time, everybody, including him, thought it would be a season-ending surgery, but he's made good progress. And so he's a deep league to pay attention to. I don't think you need to stash him yet.

That is Carlos Correa. The Angels activated Ben Joyce, who could, very well be their closer moving forward. So he's a name to watch. Bad news for the Royals, both Luinder Avila and Stephen Kolek will undergo Tommy John surgery. Spencer Arrogatti, who is now on the Blue Jays, will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Thursday. And one day after hitting his first career home run, the Cubs optioned Kevin Alcansara back to AAA, which is why we wanted some of those names traded away.

But it didn't happen, unfortunately. Let's take our final break when we return. I've got new team debuts. Should I stay or should I go? And much more, we'll do that right after this. Welcome back, fantasy baseball today. Let's run through some of these new team debuts. And Terrick Scoobel, got to say, pretty weird seeing him in a Dodgers uniform.

Turned in a quality start in his Dodgers debut at the Cubs. Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 85 pitches. He has turned in four straight quality starts. six plus strikeouts in each. I think it's pretty much status quo. Any thoughts on Scoobel's debut? I did have a

thought. I'm not sure it's worth mentioning, but I'm going to mention it. He threw 31% sinkers. It was the most he's thrown in a start since April 14th, which means it's not something he does very often. And you'll notice he only struck out

six and six innings. I hope it's just coincidental that that's what happened in us first Dodgers start and that there's nothing to it. I'm sure he'll be great either way. But I prefer that the Terrick Scoobel who's striking out 11 to the one who's striking out 6. Yep.

I think that's a fair point. And I feel like one of their other pitchers has thrown a lot more sinkers this year. I think it was Tyler Glass now before he got hurt. I remember seeing a lot of sinkers from Glass now as well. So hopefully that's not like a Dodgers thing. But we'll follow along with that. And with Terik Scouble, Luis Arise. a nice Philly's debut.

He went two for four with a double and two RBI. He was hitting cleanup against a right-handed pitcher. And we now have one game with Bryce Harper in the outfield. And I assume we're going to get many more. So should get Bryce Harper outfield eligibility pretty soon there for those. If you play in CBS leagues, it's only five games. We play in NFBC. I believe it takes 10 games over there.

Joe Adele had a nice Guardians debut. he went two for four with a double, a walk or run scored. He hit second in the lineup against a left-handed pitcher. And I saw his roster rate 81%. Feels too high. Scott, what do you think? Joe Adele, 81%. It seems high.

Especially since roster rates, I think, skew a little more toward points leagues on CBS. And he's not a points league player. So, yeah, I would expect him to be more in the 65. percent range than 81, but he's 81. All right. Next up, we had Liam Hicks, a grand raise debut. He went two for five with a grand slam. He hit cleanup against the right-handed pitcher.

Corr's field, just great landing spot here. First couple, first series for Liam Hicks in a race uniform. Nice to see the power. I know the power has slowed down for him. So hopefully you can get that back on track. Again, that's Liam Hicks. It really has. I don't, yeah.

Do you realize seven of his home, seven of his now 15 home runs? It was 14 at the time of the trade. It was half of the home runs that came prior to May for Liam Hicks. Wow. Yeah, it had been an outage. So we have a basically, yeah, three months span with just, I mean, even after today, I mean, it's eight home runs. Eight home runs in three months?

Yep. I mean, you'll take that from your catcher usually in fantasy, but based on the pace that he started with, obviously. It's much different there with Liam Hicks. Overall, still having a great season, but yeah, that power has slowed down. And let's talk about one awful debut. We'll stick with the raise,

and that was Freddie Peralta. I don't think that we could put too much on this because, again, it was in Coresfield. It's just, of all the places, right? Like, you get traded to the Tampa Bay raise in the A.L. East, and your first start has to come in Cores Field. It's like, what are the chances of that happening for Freddie Peralta? But three and two-thirds innings, nine hits, seven runs.

Two homers loud. He's been bad for a long time. There's no way around it. He does not have a quality start since June 3rd. That is 10 straight starts without a quality start. But if you had any type of renewed optimism, I don't know that one start in course field should throw that all the way. I mean, I'm,

Chris says you can't really take anything away from a course field start, positive or negative. And I think that's basically true, especially since increasingly we're seeing, pitchers even pitchers on outside teams coming in there as part of the road team.

We're seeing pitchers change their arsenal for a course field start. So I can sit here and say Freddie Peralta didn't throw a single slider in this start. And so that's discouraging because I hoped the raise would help them bring that back.

But it could just be because nobody thought a slider would work at Coorsfield. There's basically nothing to take from it. And look, I don't know that the rays are going to, like to the degree anybody can fix Freddie Peralta, the rays know how better than I do. And so I may be barking up the wrong tree with the slider,

but that's what I see is he needs to throw the slider more. All right. A new segment, should I stay or should I go? Should I stay or should I go? Pretty straightforward. Should we hold on to these players or is it time to drop him? Bobauchette, he hit his 11th home run, and it was his first home run since June 24th.

That was a 32-game homerless streak where he hit 254 with 11 runs, 8 RBI, zero steals, and a 585 OPS. So he is still 97% rostered. I know it's kind of weird to ask after he homerous, Scott, but should he stay or should he go? Like 97% is too high.

Yeah. I don't think half of those 9% 97% need to drop him. So it's one of these discussions like, well, how do you calibrate this? Boba Chet needs to be more rostered than Joe Adele, who we just said is 81% rostered. So I'll try not to get too into the Meyer there,

but I just want to preface it by saying, like, Boba Chet should be rostered in the majority of leagues. If you're in a head-to-head league, you don't have the roto lineups where you have that third corner infield, middle and field spot to fill. I sure would be looking to upgrade from Bo Pichette. I mentioned this actually,

I think it was on the trade deadline extravaganza that I forget who we were talking about at the time, but we're in August now. And so I think it's, I don't want to say anything goes because people, like somebody was asking me today, is it okay to drop Joe Roe? Ryan. No, I mean, I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want a job for Orion. But like, the shackles are off. Like, if you were, if you've been holding out hope for some player

riding the ship all season long and it still hasn't happened, we're at a point now where unless you're running away with your league, you probably need to secure as many wins as you can, make up as whatever ground you can in the rotos standings. And, Maybe moving on for Bershed as a way to do that. Like, I haven't given up for him on him forever, but you need some production now, if that means swapping him out for Caleb Durbin, even, who I don't really believe in.

I can't really blame you. That's exactly what I was going to say. I think in shallower formats, if you want to ride the hot hand with a Caleb Durbin or a Royce Lewis, I mean, one thing I've thought about in the Tout Wars Champions League, which is a very shallow format. it's 12 team head to categories.

There's no corner, no middle, and there's only five bench spots. I'm thinking about dropping him for George Lombard. Like, I don't know, just catch lightning in a bottle and see what he could do, right? It's like, Bobuchet's not really doing much else. So those are the types of decisions I think that you have in, in shallower formats with Bobuchette. What about Jaron? He might be picking things back up. Again, a lot of these names actually did stuff today, so it's hard to bring them up in like a drop context.

But a lot of them have actually just been bad for most of the season. Jaron Duran 2 for 4 with a sock and a shoe, back-to-back games with a homer. Last nine games, he's hitting 324 with two homers and two steals, but still batting just 203, a 613 OPS. 86% rostered, Scott. What do you think about that number? Should Jaron stay or go? It's a little high, but since he's hot right now,

it is, you know, it is only a night game stretcher talking about there, but I would say he's not any less rostrable than some of those best free agent outfielders we talked about. Clark and Carrig. Yeah, AJ Ewing. If you wanted to drop him for Cole Carrig, let's say Cole Carrig has a full week of Coorsfield games coming up. You know, the kind of league that's shallow enough

that you could even consider that. I think it's fair to call Jared Duran expendable. What about Austin Riley? Showing some signs of life here in the second half. 17 games post-all-Star break, 290 with four homers, 12 RBI, one steel in 875 OPS. Throughout his career, he has been much better in the summer months, so perhaps we're starting to see a little bit here.

But it's, you know, it's baby steps. I think if you dropped him or if you were Look if you held on to him this long I think you hold just based on what he's doing so far in the second half But if for anyone else who might have dropped him in a shower league I think it was totally defensible at the time so He's striking out so much during the stretch I don't even know how encouraged I am

I don't think we've seen the last of Austin Riley as a fantasy asset I know I've been saying that for three years and he's gotten worse every time. But at this point, I can't have any immediate expectations for him. I think it's shallow head-to-head leagues. Like, if you feel like you can do better next week, I think it's totally fine. It's it is pie in the sky thinking that, oh, if I just stick,

with Austin Riley, eventually he'll come around and I'll have a stud third basement. I don't. That made sense in May. I don't think it makes sense in August. Yeah, we're past that. Again, it's, you know, Durbin and Royce Lewis. These guys are hot right now. Even Tommy Edmund to an extent, right? Like, he's hot right now. And so if you just want to go for the hot hand approach, I can't really blame me there with Austin Riley. Jack Caglione, some signs of life. Two for four with a run, RBI, his fourth stolen base. Last six games, he has eight hits, two homers and a steal, but his previous 25 games before that, 177, two homers, 513 OPS, still hitting the ball hard, but it came with a 56% ground ball rate, which seems to be an issue at times here

for Caglio. Obviously, Scott, we had that stretch in June where he looked amazing and we thought, all right, it's happening right now for Cags, but he's still 88% rostered. What do you think about that number? Is it too high for Caglione? Yeah, that seems high. It seems high. All of these hitters,

Bo Bichette, Jaron, Aston Riley, Jack Cagley-Leon. Let's put Joe Adele in that category too. They all need to be rostered in Roto League still because so many hitters need to be rostered in Roto Leagues. But I would say none of them need to be rostered in a head-to-head league where at least standard CBS head-to-head leagues,

only nine hitters have to be rostered. and generally you want your bench more for pitchers, especially if it's a points league. So I, it's, I don't want to oversimplify it. I was overcomplicating it earlier. Now I may be oversimplifying it,

but it's like, yeah, if you're not in a Roto league and you think you could do better with that roster spot, I don't think you have to hold on to any of these guys. All right, let's slide over to the pitcher side of things.

Joey Cantillo, not as sharp lately, this time against the Mets, five innings, seven hits, five runs, two of those earned two homers allowed in this one. He still did throw his curve ball a lot,

and it had mixed results. He did get five whiffs on it, but also got hit really hard. Twelve hard hits total in this game for Joey Cantillo. And last four starts, 560 ERA 187 whips. So it looks like we're losing some of that luster here, Scott. What about Joey Cantillo?

Should he stay or go? I think he's a streamer. and in fact I had him as a streamer for this week in line for two starts. Was this a success? It depends if you're nurturing ERA or whip, I guess. And that's kind of been the story for Kentillo

for the past few months. He's very inefficient. You're going to have a high whip if you ride him out. And that inefficiency means he's now had seven straight starts of five innings or less. Not even any like five and a third starts mixed in there.

Seven straight five innings or less. So that makes it hard to get wins too. But strikeout rates are pretty good. The ERA is pretty good. Needs based, matchups based. All right. Next up, Davis Martin, destroyed by the Red Sox. Five innings, ten hits, nine earned runs, three homers loud,

velocity down across the board. That slider that was so good early on in the season only had one whiff. And over his last 13 starts, 627 ERA 159 whip. Should he stay or should he go? Davis Martin. I think I can give the most decisive answer to this one. Davis Martin should absolutely go. I was shocked.

He was 86% rostered still. Yeah, I am too. And I guess it's, I think sometimes because we do a daily baseball show and the just sort of the flow of the show is that we go through the games of that day and contextualize it for the rest of the season. We're not often looking at year-to-date stats, right? That's just not part of the workflow.

Even with this dreadful start, Sean Burke has only a four... Davis Martin. Yeah, sorry, Davis Martin. Martin, Davis Martian, right, name the wrong white sucks pitcher. Sean Burke's great. Even during this terrible stretch he's been on and now a nine-earn run outing, his ERA is still just 413 on the year.

It came in at 362. So I think a lot of people, they're looking at their roster page, considering who they, who to drop. I shouldn't drop the guy with nine wins in the 362 ERA. But no, you should because he's been a seven ERA for ERA pitcher for like three months. Six ERA, I exaggerated a little. Last but not least, we told you he couldn't keep getting away with it. And guess what?

He can't. Regression start for Eduardo Rodriguez against the Padres. Five and two thirds. 11 hits, seven runs, five of those earned. He surprisingly did have 13 whiffs on 102 pitches, but he just got clobbered. 13 hard hits against in this start for Eduardo Rodriguez. He has allowed five earned runs and two of his last four starts. he was coming off an eight shutout innings start.

And I know a bunch of people used him in fantasy, including me, because he was in line for two starts and obviously coming off the eight shutout innings. He's 82% started on CBS. I don't know, Scott. How much longer do you ride it out? Do you try to squeeze as much as you can out of Eduardo Rodriguez before you drop him?

He had an awful start three turns ago and then two great starts in between. you mentioned the eight shutout innings. Yep. I am not. Like if anybody out there wants to use this start as an excuse to drop Edwardo Rodriguez, I don't think he's good in the long run.

So go ahead. Have at it. I'm not going to argue against it. Me personally, when it's been so good for so long, even if I don't understand it or believe in it, I'll probably give it an extra start if I can. You know, if,

nobody's that great on the waiver wire right now, but theoretically, if there was some great option out there that I had to find a way to get on my roster and dropping Eduardo Rodriguez was that way, sure, I'd do it because I don't believe in him that much. But if it's just I'm going to dump them and pick up whatever I can find on the waiver wire, I'll probably wait and see how the next start goes

before doing that. I'll give you two shallow league names. Ian Seymour and Roki Sasaki, would you make those swaps with Erod? Yeah. Yeah, those are genuinely exciting pickups that have long ago been picked up in all of my leagues,

but if they happen to be out there in yours, go for it. Actually, long ago picked up, Ian Seymour got dropped in one of my, I think my TGFBI league, a 15-team Roto. I didn't have much fab left,

but I managed to get them. Nice. Put them in for the two stars. and survived the tough one at Colorado. So yeah, really excited about he and Seymour. I know the excitement is waxed and waned, but I'm back in the excited category. Let's go.

And let's wrap up with some waiver wire names. We spoke a lot about Caleb Durbin. We've mentioned Royce Lewis a few times. He went four for four with a double. 48 games since returning to the twins, 271, nine homers, seven steals, OPSS, over 800, first, second, third base eligible. Scott, who would you rather go with the hot hand with Caleb Durbin or Royce Lewis.

I haven't looked at week 21 matchups yet, so that might determine it. I believe in Royce Lewis more. I know you said you'd rather have Durbin. All things being equal, I think I'd lean Lewis, but it might depend on the next week's matchups.

All right, next up, Glaver Torres, one for five with his seventh home run. He has homered in three of his last six games. He's missed a lot of time with injury this year, but he's actually been very solid when he's played. Only 56 games, 267, 386 on base, seven homers, 36 runs, 29 RBI, 794 OPS. His full season pace would be 20, 1004 runs, 83 RBI.

So, not an overly exciting player. He's not going to give you any speed at all, but Glebert Torres, solid batting average, decent pop, good counting stats. I think as a middle infielder, if you need those stats in particular, or if you play in like a deeper points league, I know it's very niche.

I do think Labor Torres fits those categories very well. Henry Bolte. I had a chance to look there at the matchups, relative matchups Lewis in Durbin next week. Lewis's matchups look notably better than Durbin's, for whatever that's worth. All right, Henry Bolte, we know that Scott hates him, but I kind of like him.

Three for four with a run and his 13th steal. He had three hard hits in this game, all three over 101 miles per hour, still holding out some hope that here in the summer months that he could take advantage of the Sacramento ballpark, but do think it's just kind of a, I would say 12-team-5 outfielder league or deeper for Henry Bolte, but not the highest priority.

And then Andy Rodriguez, he just keeps making stuff happen, man. He hit his sixth home run. He has started six of nine games since being activated. I believe that's like four straight as well. And in that nine-game stretch, he has eight hits a homer, four runs, and four seals. So you need a second catcher, Andy Rodriguez.

He should be more than 20% rostered. He's just, he's good. Whenever he's played, he's been really interesting this season. Scott, would you rather take a shot on Andy Rodriguez or Augustine Ramirez as a second catcher right now? I want to say Andy Rodriguez,

and so I think I will. I'm just curious to see what the playing times looked like lately. It's been two out every three games between first and catcher, it seems like. So yeah, let's say Indie Rodriguez. And I have one very deep outfield name here, Taylor Tramel. He is making some noise.

He hit a three-run homer. And in 15 games after the All-Star break, hitting 263, three homers, two steals, a 9-403 OPS. Very, very deep league name, Scott. But do you have any interest in Taylor Tramel? I kind of thought the Dalton Varsho acquisition would put that to rest. But I'm looking at the roster resource pitch. page down. Maybe not. Maybe Taylor Trimel will get to continue playing. Even so, we've done this a few

times with him before. He's now 20, almost 29 years old. I'm not counting on it. All right, some waiver wire pitchers and the shallow leaguers out there. J.T. Ginn, solid quality start in his return at the Reds, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 91 pitches. He has a quality start in his last two outings. one of those before he went on the IL. And Brady Singer opposed him, a quality start as well. Six innings, three runs, six strikeouts. He had 13 whiffs on 101 pitches.

Did give up nine hard hits in this game, but he's been pitching well for a while now. Brady Singer, last 10 starts, 291 ERA, 116 whip, 55 strikeouts over 58 and two-thirds. Innings, all the ERA estimators below four during that stretch. Scott Ear, Err, either one of these guys more than. streamer types, J.T. Ginn and Brady Singer. Oh, we like Genn. I think now that he's back, we can begin again with Genn. You know, that whip is creeping up. It's all the way out to 121. You know, the walks have crept up as the season has gone along. Yeah, even so. I think he's pretty close to must roster outside of shallow leagues, at least in my mind. Would you drop E-Rod for

him? I mean, look, he's not, who are the two guys you named before, Rookie. Sasaki and Ian Seymour. I don't think Ginn is either of them, so it's not as obvious. But personally, yeah, I believe in Genn enough that I would do that. All right. And some names in the mid-tier, Grant Holmes had a great outing against the Marlin six-shot-out innings, five strikeouts,

12 whiffs on 72 pitches, completely changed the pitch mix in this one for Holmes. Less sliders, less four-seem fastballs. He doubled his sinker usage, more curves, change-up cutters. and the curve and the change-up both look pretty good for Grant Holmes in this one. Sean Mania, a quality start despite five walks,

six innings, two runs, seven strikeouts at the Guardians he has three straight quality starts, and I'm going to leave off there. I thought there was more names. So two names in the mid-tier, Scott. I like Mania as a spark in a points league. I don't know, the Grant Holmes changes here were kind of interesting,

but I think maybe we need to see it for a few starts in a row. Yeah, it was interesting. That curveball especially, it got six of his whiffs, I believe, six of the 12. And that's a pitch he throws only 7% of the time normally. It used to be a really good pitch for him. I don't know why he went away from it. Yeah. Like Real Holmes, a couple of years ago, looked really interesting.

And it has just been so blod this year and most of last year that it was pretty easy to ride him off for fantasy. And I agree, like one start of him showing interesting signs isn't enough to buy in. But now if he does, if there's two or three starts like that, if he could wind up where Grayson Rodriguez is now in terms of interest level. Manaya, I don't buy into this. I did have him as a sleeper pitcher for this week, so I guess I'll take credit for that, unless whip is what you were trying to nurture because 12 base runners in six innings.

That's a two whip. Not great. But overall, the start was fine. Quality start, four of his last five quality starts, 145 whip during that stretch. 8.2K per 9. That's not bad, but it's not good enough to justify a 145 whip. If I could go back to the previous group for a second, Brady Singer,

we talked about JT. again, didn't really get to Springer. Singer. Gosh. Man, how many times have I said the wrong name of this show? I am embarrassing myself. Okay, Brady Singer obviously has been around a long time. And when the track record is that established,

it takes a lot to shake free of it. But it's not just that he has a 287 ERA, in his last 11 starts. His ground ball rate is 47% during that time compared to 40% previously. And he has 8.8K per 9 during that stretch. So a good strikeout rate, a good ground ball rate,

that's sort of the combination we like for J.T. again. Again, I think Singer is so established in his mediocrity that I resist saying anything is going on here and that it's more than a hot streak. But I'm open to it being more than a hot streak, I guess, is what I want to say.

Not must add by any stretch. That's one I'd probably just hold on to Edwardo Rodriguez over adding, but I'm a little bit intrigued by singer. All right, a couple names here who were interesting at one point. Is there anything here? Grayson Rodriguez I had as part of this group,

but we spoke about him. Hayden Wesniewski turned in a quality start against the Blue Jays, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 78 pitches, and he's looked pretty good in his first two starts back with the Astros. Cade Povich, a great outing opposing. Grayson Rodriguez, six shot-out innings with seven strikeouts, 11 whiffs on 88 pitches.

And again, I thought there was more names, but those are the only two. So, Scott, could I interest you in Hayden Wesniewski or Cade Povich? Kate Povich is another pitcher I've had stashed away in that Dynasty League. Oh, I noticed. I looked up to see if he was available. If Povich and Greyrod come through, I can survive without Mitch Keller and Zebby Matthews after all. I know it probably sounds silly to be lamenting the loss of Mitch Keller, who suffered a seasonary injury, and Zebby Matthews, who was sent to the minors.

But in a 24-team head-to-head points league, just having a guy who throws innings counts for a lot. And so I'm excited by this development for Kade Povich, but I don't think he's that good if a pitcher enough to matter in most fantasy leagues. Just the 24 team head to head points leagues. So that's all I have to say about that.

He wasn't doing very well in the minors for what it's worth. West Neski, I think is a little more interesting, but even then the upside is probably limited. Much deeper names. just read them off. Not going to go through the stat lines here. But Ryan Gusto, Hunter Dobbins, Javier Assad, Randy Vasquez. All had good starts here on Tuesday.

Very deep names, Scott. Any of those stand out to you? Vasquez, Assad, Hunter Dobbins, and Ryan Gusto. I mean, they pitched well today. I can't say, I can't really point into anything they were doing differently. That made me think, okay, there's something to like here. so I would say we could just move on from this quartet. All right.

Into the leftovers on the pitching side. Jesus Lazardo, awesome starting into the nationals. Eight shutout innings, seven strikeouts for him. Troy Melton was great at the Barrettors. Seven shutout, four strikeouts. Feels like he deserved more strikeouts. He did have 13 whiffs on 97 pitches. Hey, Logan Henderson was allowed to go six innings.

That was nice to see against the pirates. Six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts to one walk. And just the second time that he has completed six innings and 10 starts this season. Scott, any thoughts on Logan Henderson, Troy Melton, and Jesus Lazzardo. I love Jesus Lazzardo. I think he might be the most underrated pitcher in baseball. In terms of like baseball commentary, I understand it fantasy. Everybody knows who he is.

But like he looks like a Cy Young caliber pitcher to me. And I'm I'm glad Chris isn't here to push back on that jaded Marlins fan that he is. Everything about Luzardo seems perfect. The Andrew Lincoln meme, to me, you are perfect. That sweeper has just really unlocked everything for him. Yeah. Great ground ball pitcher, huge bat misser,

better than average control. All the ERA estimators love them. Just a bad defense behind it. it might be a better defense now that Alec Bohm is at first instead of third, and they got a capable Luis Arise at second base. Okay, so that's Lazzardo. Melton, I'm so fascinated by Melton because he was a huge strikeout pitcher in the minors. For the most part, he's been a poor strikeout pitcher in the majors, except for that

stretch mid-season where he was throwing a lot harder and starting to get the whiffs, but that's gone away in recent turns, and yet he's still continued to pitch well. So I'm just here for the ride because I know that strikeout upside is in there and I think he could bring it back if you wanted to but he's succeeding without it. So I guess I'm content with that for now for Troy Mountain.

Logan Henderson, good to see him go six innings. It was only the second time this year. Maybe this, did he go six innings in any of his five starts last year? I'm not sure he did. But yeah, he remains highly, highly bankable. Three more pitching leftovers here. Ryan Weather is a great outing against the Cardinals. Six shutout innings with six strikeouts for him.

Mackenzie Gore, six shutout, four strikeouts. Another one who seems like he deserved more strikeouts, he had 15 whiffs on 99 pitches. And Emerson Hancock, a quality start against the Tigers. Six innings, four runs, but three of those earned. Six strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 94 pitches. It's just so surprising to me that his sweeper has been his best pitch this year, but the usage has just really, really dropped as the season has gone on for

Emerson Hancock. He still managed to be good and serviceable for most of the season, but not like the upside we saw earlier, at least in terms of strikeouts when Hancock was using that sweeper more. So any thoughts on him, Mackenzie Gore and Ryan Weathers? Yeah. So did you mention the fastball usage with Weathers? I did not. Nope. Yeah, so that's something I've noticed during this turnaround for him is the fastball that he normally throws about a quarter of the time. He's really faded in his last five starts, just 8% in this one. And that fastball had been getting walloped to the tune of a 95 mile per hour average exit velocity. And then in the five starts where he's faded it, Ryan Weathers, 220 ERA 115 whip, 8.8K.

number nine. I mean, it's, it's not studly numbers, but it's very encouraging numbers for a pitcher who appeared to be on the outs in fantasy. Maybe he's back on the ends in fantasy.

Yeah. McKenzie Gore's a Charzard and Emerson Hancock is you know, continues to defy the odds in a way that that I'm, I'm mostly accepted. of. I think he's overachieving,

but not to the extreme like an Edward Rodriguez is. And one bad pitching left over. We mentioned a name. Joe Ryan, not great at the Royals. Five and a third. Seven hits, five runs for those earned. And he has a lot of four plus earned runs in three straight.

His last three starts. It's a 939 ERA, a 176 whip. Even with that, he has a 365 ERA on the season and a 114 whip. And nearly 10K for nine. Like, that's probably what you were expecting from Joe Ryan this year. Yeah, that's what I was expecting.

I think he's always condemned to amid 3s ERA because he's so home run prone and he has stretches where he avoids the home runs and the ERA looks better. But over the course of time, it's going to get back to this. Actually, did not give up a home run in this start. So he just, you know, he was shaky for other reasons. but I don't see any obvious red flags. I think just some regression is hit here recently. Stretch of three not so great starts.

One of them was awful. The other two were just kind of meh. So, yeah, I want to panic drop Joe Ryan as somebody was asking if he could. Some hitting leftovers. Williare Abraeu, two for four with a double dong, and that is his third multi-homer game in the second half already.

He has eight home runs in. 18th games post all-star break, but is also just hitting 200 during that stretch. Jackson Truro had a big game three for four with his 14th home run to RBI. His first homer since July 4th. And in 25 games in between, Truro hit 2.30 with 16 runs, four steals of 584 OPS. Scott, I hadn't realized that Truroo really slowed down in the past month or so. I hadn't either. Thanks for ruining my day. Kyle Tucker homered on the road

It was his 10th home run of the season These home road splits have just been baffling to me all season On the road 277, 8 homers, 4 steals 838 OPS At home 209 two homers 6.1 OPS So I mean if he was just doing on the road everywhere Then if he was just hitting 275 with an 840 OPS I don't think we would be upset with Kyle Tucker at all. It's just

I cannot fathom why he's been so terrible at Dodger Stadium this season. But it is a thing that is happening for Kyle Tucker, unfortunately. Big game for Pete Crow Armstrong, 2 for 4 with two steals and he has kept things going in the second half

so far. He's got three homers, four steals, 932 OPS. And Nico Horner is waking up. He had his seventh home run. And for him in the second half so far, 389, three homers, three steals. a 947 OPS. That was after a very, very rough first half.

So hopefully we can get a big second half from Nico Horner. The call to the bullpen for the Orioles in their first save opportunity without Tyler Wells. We got Rico Garcia in the seventh, Andrew Kittridge in the 8th, and Yaneer Kanoe in the 9th. He picked up his second save. Kano is only 3% rostered.

Do you think there's anything that we could take away from this guy? Like, would you be looking to add Canoe, or do you think they're just going to kind of mix and match? Well, mix and match would be my guess. But Yaneer Cano has been the best of them this year, and they just signed him to a two-year extension. So he's cost-controlled. And if there is an advantage for any Orioles reliever, I think it would go to him. And now the first save goes to him also.

So that makes an even stronger advantage. Again, I think a committee is most likely because that's the way they've handled being without a closer for most of this year. But I could know it would be the top choice for me. For the athletics, Hogan Harris got the eighth with a one-run lead. He only recorded two outs. He was charged with two runs on three walks and two wild pitches.

He took his fifth blown save and first loss. On the other side for the Reds, Emilio Paghan picked up his 12th save. For the Yankees, David Bednar got the final four outs for his 25th save. For the Braves, Reisel Oglacius got the ninth with a four-run lead. He did allow two runs on a walk and three hits, but he closed things out. And he's been kind of shaky. He's got last 13 games for Glacius 568 ERA and a 142 whip. Are you concerned?

A little bit because we saw him have a rough stress. early last year that even cost him the job for a while. The slider was determined to be the culprit then, and he kind of just abandoned it. He had more pitches than he needed as a reliever, and I noticed he brought back the slider in this outing. Obviously, we're talking about a brief number of pitch. I don't know.

I'm digging for an answer here. I don't think the slider has actually given up a hit yet, but something to keep an eye on. For the Brewers, Trevor McGill got the ninth with a two-run lead. He picked up his 19th save. For the Cubs, they had a three-run lead. Ryan Zephyrjohn tossed a clean eighth inning. And then Jacob Webb got the ninth,

but the Cubs tacked on an extra run. So it was a four-run lead. Jacob Webb did close the game out. For the Rangers, Jacob Lats got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up two runs, only one of those earned. He took his third-blown save, but he wound up with the win because the Rangers walked it off. And for the raise, Brian Baker got the 11th inning with a two-run lead.

He struck out two for his 30-second save of the season. Man, what a year for Brian Baker. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we have Andre Palante at the Yankees. We have Will Warren at home against the Cardinals. We have Eric Lauer at the Cubs, Christian Scott at the Guardians, Andrew Painter, home against the Nationals.

Bryce Elder against the Marlins, Dean Kramer in his twins debut at the Royals, Noah Cameron against the twins, and I don't know, maybe Drew Anderson at the Mariners. Good place to pitch. Not a lot of conviction there. Christian Scott at Cleveland seems like the best choice,

though his outings tend to be short. He did go six innings last time. Andre Palante is, Always a good floor play. And the Yankees' offense has been pretty dreadful lately. So that seems like a good choice. In fact, I might actually prefer Palante to Scott. I don't know if you heard of this guy, George Lombard Jr., Scott.

But he's kind of a big deal. I mean, they still only scored two runs today. True. And then if I have to pick a third one, maybe Bryce Elder, actually, given what Grant Holmes just did to the Marlins, who are now depleted some of their bats after the trade deadline. Yeah. Don't hate it.

One I'll throw out there, it's very combustible, but with James Wood on the IEL, Andrew Painter coming off a good star where he changed up the pitch mix quite a bit. I can't talk you to that one, huh? I probably sooner say Noah Cameron. In fact, I think Noah Cameron, as good as his last two starts were, should probably be over Elder.

All right. On Thursday, we have Brandon Young against the Angels, Dustin May in his Brewers debut against the Pirates, Luis Castillo, in his White Sox debut at the Red Sox. Lots of socks there.

We have Bailey Ober at the Royals, Walker Bueller at the Debacks, Cole Drake against the Padres. Brandon Young, who's been on a good run against the Angels, highly suspect offense

that strikes out a ton. Don't. totally get why Young has been so good, but it's happened long enough that I'd trust him with a matchup that's favorable like that. Second choice would be probably Dustin May against the Pirates, but it's a distant second.

Yeah, I agree. Brandon Young, Dustin May, if I had to choose a third, I think they are all risky. I don't even think I could choose a third. I was going to say Luis Castillo, but man, at the Red Sox, the way they're swinging the bats right now, I would only use two names on Thursday. I love that. We are going to wrap there for Scott.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.