Fantasy Baseball Today - Spencer Strider's Outlook, Two-Start Pitchers & Week 15 Sleepers (7/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 8, 2022

If you support the show, please nominate Fantasy Baseball Today for The People's Choice Podcast Awards in the "Sports" Category: https://www.podcastawards.com/app/signup/ Spencer Strider is amazing (1:52). ... What's up with Ronald Acuña's power outage (11:00)? ... Let's check in on Adley Rutschman, Vinnie Pasquantino and other prospects (17:00). ... Add Carson Kelly or Cal Raleigh if you need a catcher (28:15)? ... News (34:08): Kevin Gausman threw off flat ground. ... What is the Week 15 schedule and which two-start pitchers should you target (40:05)? ... Which sleeper hitters should you add (53:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (55:55). 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

And welcome into fantasy baseball today on July 8th. A band is back together. Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. The amazing Spencer Schreider. Let's check in on some prospects, the week 15 preview, two-star pitchers, and a whole bunch more. Let's have some fun. Oh, my goodness gracious.

All right, I asked the gents before we started, who wants that Olive Garden breadstick of the night? and Scott so willingly stepped up and said, give me that breadstick. I am happy to reach for the final breadstick. And? I forget the analogy.

Like, why do we call it the Olive Garden breadstick again? It's so when there's like one obvious guy, this always happens where we're like, oh, you can take him, and it's like, that's what happens at like restaurants

when you get free like bread. Yeah. That's my, my friend told me when he was working at the Olive Garden. Sorry for putting their trade secrets out there, but they would get, give you one more piece of bread than there are people at the table. So people are less likely to get extras.

Yeah. But then they weren't planning on me sitting there being like, yoink. Yeah, I am going to take Spencer Strider, the breadstick, who was amazing. Again, his second straight double digit strikeout effort, career high 12. You know, he's a rookie.

So what does career high mean? But yeah, he struck out 12 against. the Cardinals, 23 swinging strikes, gave up only two hits, and I know one was one that obviously should have been caught. It just, you know, three fielders converging and nobody wanted to take it in the first inning. So he was basically untouchable in this start, as has been the norm for Spencer Strider lately, and I'm not the first person who put it this way. I remember somebody, you know, a couple starts ago on Twitter expressed this idea to me. But it's so true watching him.

And I think there's maybe a danger to analyzing a guy based on what you see because I don't really think that's within my skill set. And it's liable to create some faulty impressions, just, you know, the eye test, the whole eye test thing. But when I watch Spencer Strider, I get the feeling he's only capable of beating himself by you know just being kind of all over the place

not hitting his spots like he's supposed to chasing strikeouts too much when he that fastball like it seems like he's capable of blowing it by anybody and like he knows it too like he just has to put it in the right spot and there's nothing they can do with it the fastball you know

so I know we were talking just yesterday you know Lance Lynn versus Spencer Strider, who would I take? And I think yesterday I said Lance Lynn. I think I got to move Strider up past Lynn. Somebody was asking me on Twitter today, Lance Lynn or Lucas G. Alito. And, you know, part of me is like, well, you know,

Lucas Gialito, he's been, we thought of him as this top 15 guy for a few years now. But realistically, if I had Spencer Strider and somebody offered me Lucas Gialito for, and there's no way I'm taking that. So I think I've got to move past Lucas Gialito. And the long run strider may end up, beating himself.

You know, he may just have too many games where he struggles with control or whatever else. He may get hurt. He may have to get shut down at some point because he didn't even reach 100 innings last year. But he's at about 60 now, I believe. And I don't know. I just want to, I just think he's so talented that I don't want to pass him up for anything, you know? Yeah, I got that same question too, Scott. and I hesitated.

Lucas Gielito versus Spencer Shrider. I think it's one of those weird rankings quirks where if you have Shrider, you're not going to trade him for Gialito. And if you have Gialito, I doubt you're going to be able to get Spencer Shrider for him. So it's just kind of a weird situation. I do think that they're both like top 30th starting pitchers right now anyway. The inning's concern.

So right now, Strider is at 65.2 innings pitched, 102 strikeouts, by the way, nearly 14K per 9. The guy is absolutely ridiculous. Did a little bit of math. So last year, 96 and a third total endings for Spencer Shrider. I mentioned what he's done already. Let's say he makes 15 starts the rest of the season. That would be like, you know, normal five time, you know, four, five man rotation rest of season.

Averaging five and a half endings per start. That would put him at 88 innings rest of season plus 65 and two thirds, one 53 and two thirds. Last year was 96. Chris, do you think that this is a fair jump? something that you could see Spencer Strider doing rest of season. That would be, you know, about a 60-ending jump year over year. Yeah, I would want to look at like what the Braves have done in some other similar situations. Like Ian Anderson is someone who comes to mind just because he came up during that 2020 season. I'm not sure what the, you know, what the leaps for him were.

But I don't know. It seems in the right ballpark, you know, a 50 to 60 inning jump like that. that doesn't seem to raise too many alarm bells. So I think that's okay. Yeah, I'm looking at like Ian Anderson from 2020 to 2021 was a hundred and 20 inning jump, but obviously that was coming off the shortened season. It was about. It was right in line with his career high.

So that's where it does change for Strider because Strider doesn't have, you know, that 140 inning career high. Right. He only got one minor league season. Yeah. So before that, just, you know, the college workload isn't very much. Yeah. So I think you have to, you have to consider also that I imagine the Braves are going to be anticipating a playoff run, a deep playoff run. And they'll want to have some in the tank for that. So I do think it's likely maybe they slow down Strider at some point.

Maybe they insert Kyle Mueller as a sixth starter at some point and go away. that for a while. But even so, like, I can strider somebody, I'm having a hard time picturing taking out of my lineup for the rest of the season. Yeah. I mean, the, the one caveat I would say is like this recent stretch isn't that dissimilar from Kyle Wright's early season stretch. You know, I think strider's been a little better for a little longer than Kyle Wright was at his best. But, you know, Kyle Wright has then settled. in as a pretty good, I would say very good starting pitcher, but not this incredible world beater like he looked earlier. And I think there's a difference in the pure stuff. Like Scott said,

Spencer Strider, you watch him. And he's so overwhelmingly dominant that it's hard to imagine how things go south. But it's also worth reminding yourself that he's a two pitch pitcher. I mean, almost exclusively. He throws the change up. He threw eight of them today. I would imagine that's pretty close to a season high for him. He really, like he pitches like a closer. Like I saw somebody compare him to like Edwin Diaz. And that is just a profile that you don't see very often out of starting pitchers, especially right-handed starting pitchers.

You just don't see a lot of fastball slider guys. And so far there have been zero split issues. Spencer Strider has been arguably even more dominant against lefties than he has righties. I think he's got like entering this start. 45 strikeouts to like five walks against left-handed pitch batters or something like something ridiculous like that so that hasn't become an issue yet but as we're often talking about with young players you want to see what the adjustment to the adjustment looks like and all that so we'll see what

it looks like but yeah he was 36 when i updated my rankings this morning or this afternoon and looking at it i just it didn't seem right to have him behind kyle right or sean minai or Framber Valdez or U. Darvish. I moved him up to 28 which is not far from where Lucas Golito is at this point. Yeah, I think that's all fair. And I do have one comp for him, Chris, another starting pitcher

who relies so heavily on fastball slider, actually another moustachioed fella, Dylan Sees. I think that they're very, very similar pitchers at this point. In fact, yeah, Sider actually walks less batters per nine than Cs does. So could potentially even be better than D.

Yeah. I think Sprite and naturally. himself lately. You know, he's on a strider-esque run. He's got four pitches. You know, he doesn't use the, the curveball and change-up as often, but strider has a change-up.

He threw eight change-ups today. So he does technically have a third pitch. He just barely needs it, I think, is the main thing. And I do think he naturally has better control than ceased. He just sometimes falls in love with the strikeouts and issues walks for that reason. Yeah, so, you know, since you brought up Cease, I wanted to mention this for him. So he had a good start against the Tigers, one-earned run, three hits, three walks, eight strikeouts.

His last eight starts now, Dylan Cease has a 0.60 ERA and eight starts, but with a 1.15 whip. And 10 earned run, 10 unearned runs during that eight-start stretch that kind of undermines that point. 60 ERA. So yeah, he had one really bad. He had one really bad start. If you look at it, it was six earned runs. And then the previous start, he had seven walks. Outside of that, he's been pretty flawless.

Yeah, I mean, he's a top 20 pitcher. But, you know, kind of, there are some kind of misleading numbers in there as well. Sure. All right. Let's move on from Spencer Shrider and talk about another Braves player, Chris. Oh, my goodness gracious. for you. Yeah, Scott's feeling too good about his team after Spencer Strider discussion.

So we got to knock him down a peg and talk about Ronald Acuna, whose OPS has fallen below 800. 793. He went 0 for 5 with a strikeout today. Did score a run. So presumably got on base at some point. But we did get an email today that, you know, just kind of caught my eye from an email from listener named Clint.

Just here to say I shouldn't be able to tell O'Cunia. is off weeks ahead of you guys. Maybe tomorrow you'll talk about how bad he's been relative to his career norms. A couple other things that, you know, taking some shots at us. That's fine. But that's how I noticed it. But yeah, Ocuna, like, he's, I don't know, like, he's off, I guess, in a way that would make sense. He's coming back from a torn ACL and he's 50 games in now.

Officially, I think today was his 50th game this season. And it would make sense that he's not 100% right, except, I don't know if that explanation actually holds any water. He's won. He's on pace for more steals than we've ever seen from him. He's on a 45 stolen base pace over 150 games, which would be a career high by 8, and that came in 156 games.

Obviously, paces are, you know, they're not necessarily, you know, proof of anything, but he's also, like, his quality of contact metrics aren't quite as good as they were in 2020 and 2021, but that's because he's gone from like the seventh best hitter in baseball according to the quality of contact metrics to like I don't know the 28th or something like he's still 82nd percent on average eggs velocity 83rd and hard hit rate 98th in mags eggs velocity 90 first and X slug X slug 91st 86th and XBA

95th in ex woba like by he's he's not hitting the ball in the air as much and he's not hitting the ball to the pull side as much. Those are the two things if you want to look at. The strikeout rate's identical. Most of the underlying plate discipline numbers are identical. If you're looking for an explanation for why Ronald Acuna, it hasn't been as good this season. It's one, his pull rate is down to 41% from 49% 48% last season. And his ground ball rate is up to 47, 46% from 32% last season. Now that's not nothing. And that would help explain about why Ronald Acuna only has seven home runs and is only on a 21 homer pace. but it's also the kind of thing that just happens sometimes.

And we went over this in the 2020 season that was only 60 games. Ronald CUNY is right around that threshold where like the fluctuations that happen from a player, even the underlying skill fluctuations don't necessarily mean anything. And I know we've gone over this with Juan Soto in recent weeks. And I feel like our listeners often want us to tell. them when they're superstar players disappointing that there's a reason for it like that I think it makes you feel better about like man why has Juan Soto been so bad why is Ronald Ocuna underperformed and like having a reason for it might make you feel better about it but like I kind of just think Ronald Ocuna is just like a tiny teeny tiny bit off and he's about to get like he's probably going to get really really hot soon and look like one of the best players in baseball for an extended stretch possibly like would anyone be surprised if he was just the number one player in fantasy the rest of the season. There's no part of me that would be even a little bit shocked if Ronald Ocuna Cune was the best player in fantasy from this point on.

Well, at least in Roto scoring, I expect them to be. Yeah, like he's a top five player in both formats because he walks a bunch now and he doesn't really strike out that much. So it's just I get getting being frustrated. You see, you know, Wonsoto hitting 230 or whatever it is. You see Ronald Ocuna with an OPS below 800. This isn't what you signed up for. Better days are a head. head. And I, that is, that is a promise. That's a, that's a fantasy baseball today guarantee. Can't wait until we get an email from that guy in like a month when, uh, Ronald Le Cunia's still only has, you know, 10 home runs or whatever it is at that point. Anyway, I think it's all related to the ground ball rate, Chris. You brought it up. I mean, a 15 percentage point increase from one year to the next in ground ball rate, that is going to change your power output a massive amount. And

even with that, you mentioned this was his 50th game. He's still on pace, 272 batting average, 21 home runs, 51 steals. The RBI has been bad. The RBI and home runs have been, like, he's on like a 60 RBI 20 home or pace. That's really, that's bad. I can't. Like, there's no, there's no like sugar coding that. He's been disappointing.

But I just don't think it matters that much. I'm sorry. Yeah. And honestly, I understand why people send emails in like this again. I think it's kind of a therapy session. Chris, which you've kind of referred to as. But honestly, there's like, we don't bring it up because

A, there's nothing we can do to change it at this point, right? Like, we're not going to tell you to trade Ronald McCune. Like, it just, it doesn't make sense unless you're getting, I don't know, multiple amazing pieces, like multiple top 10 players. It doesn't make sense. And that ground bar rate point, it's 50 games. He's had a 50 game stretch

towards the end of the 2019 season when he had a 46% ground ball rate. So like, those things happen. We think of these like underlying skills as like skills. And they are to a certain extent, but they're the result of skills. And those things can change.

And so I promise you Ronald Acuna, you're not going to be like, I don't know, I can't promise. There's no guarantees in life. If Ronald Acuna stays healthy, I think there's a very, very small chance that you will be disappointed at him rest of season. All right.

We're going to skip my, oh my goodness gracious player and get to him in just a little bit because we have spent seven, 17 minutes talking about two Atlanta Braves players. So let's check in on some prospects, guys that maybe we haven't talked about enough recently and just kind of see what they're doing lately. Adley Rutchman. He went one for four.

He hit his fourth home run of the season, his first in Camden Yards. Last 22 games, he's hitting 259, four homers, 10 doubles, 14 runs, 11 RBI, one steel, making a lot of contact, doing a bit of everything. And especially in points leagues. I mean, if this is a preview of what's to come for Adley Rutchman the next couple of years, really strong plate discipline, not striking out. And even though he's not hitting as many home runs, maybe as we're expecting a lot of doubles. And I think, you know, usually for a prospect, we expect those doubles to turn into home runs over time.

Scott, what have you seen from Adley Ruchman, you know, the past three, four weeks or so? Because it looks like he's getting back on track. Yeah, I mean, if that's who he is the rest of season, and I don't think anybody has any reason. to be disappointed. I think I have him seventh in my rest of season ranking as a catcher, sixth maybe.

And those numbers would get him there. Obviously, it's a low bar to meet at that position. And with catchers especially, you don't expect them to perform up to their potential right away because they have, they're not able to work on their hitting

as much as players at other positions are because the defensive demands are so high and I think it's pretty typical for them. He's basically playing every day. He's sixth among catchers and played appearances since he got called up. He's not getting much time off.

So like what he's doing, the degree of difficulty for Adley Ruchman is incredibly high. And I think it's important to keep that in mind as well because being a catcher at the major league level is just incredibly difficult. And his numbers are comparable to Dalton Varsho or Christian Vasquez, who I know that's not a big name, but like guys who, you know, I don't think there's a lot of concern about them being starters moving forward.

So this is the first 37 games of his career. I'm very excited by Adly Roshman. I am here to tell you that you should be buying Vinnie Pasquantino, despite him going four for 30 so far and batting 133. He only has one homer, six walks to six strikeouts. Plate discipline has been there, very patient approach. His exit velocity, 94.9 miles per hour early on. The max EV nearly 113 miles per hour. 313 expected batting average. Still only 65% rostered.

Chris, if you need a first basement or corner infielder, utility bat, whatever it might be, even in shallow leagues, I would say add Vinie Pasquantino. And if anyone in your league is on the verge of dropping him, I just sell some, send some kind of buy low offer because I think most better days are coming. I'm not Chris, but he's only 65% rostered. Yeah. You know, so like a lot of leagues, he's just there for the taking still.

And he's my number one sleeper hitter for this upcoming week. And yeah, I think it's going to be, I think we're going to see him do some serious damage very soon. Like to put it into context, you said 94.9 miles per hour on the average exit velocity, that would be like two hitters who rank ahead of him if he's able to see. sustain that exit velocity. And with that strikeout rate, it's kind of ridiculous. He, he hasn't gotten more hits yet. One thing I will point out, you know, I agree with everything you guys said. I think he's worth adding everywhere that he's available. If someone's looking to, to trade him low, I'd buy. The profile that he does have could lend itself

to him underperforming, you know, relatively gaudy-looking expected stats because he's incredibly slow, fourth percent down sprint speed so far. That's what we expected. And he's incredibly pull-pull-heavy. Again, that's also what we expected. And those are reasons to, you know, the pull profile is a reason to think that he'll be a pretty solid power hitter. But slow guys who are easily shiftable, especially the left-handed hitters, can tend to underperform their expected stats because they'll just get a lot of would-be hits taken away by the shift. or by, you know, just being slow.

So that's the only thing I would point out is like, Pasquantino, you should probably bookmark in your head, like, okay, I probably need to discount whatever his expected stats are. It's a good point. Let's do a little Pasquantino or this player. You guys could both answer. Pass Quintino or Alex Kirloff. Vinny.

And you know I love Kirillov. Ooh. I, let me see. I have Kirillov ranked ahead. Pasquantino or Nate Lowe Benis Quintino Pasquantino or Andrew Vaughn I think I have Vaughn ahead

I think I do too but I don't know Vonn is... I struggle with Vaughn is I struggle with Vaughn I struggle with what my true feelings for Vaughn are yeah I the reason I ask Scott I saw you move Vaughn all the way up to 12th

in your first base rank so it's pretty aggressive I he's been a good player, but the problem has been a lack of power for him. So I think he's almost been a better real-life hitter than fantasy hitter, if that makes sense for Andrew Vaugh? Yeah, I mean, I think he's underperformed what he'll be as a power hitter in the long run that, you know, that obviously is factoring into my, the way I rank him. But that's a tough one.

But I'll save on because that's what my ranking show. All right. Let's move on to an outfielder. Oh, gosh, another Atlanta Brave, seriously. Michael Harris. He went one for four with his sixth home run. 79% rostered could be out there in some shallower leagues. So far, I mean, he looks like a stud. He got called up from AA and all he has done is hit and run and hit and run. 2.92 batting average, six homers, six steals. The max EV nearly 113 miles per hour. I will say the ground ball rate is a little bit high at 55%. But the expected numbers all kind of line up with his actual numbers. He does not walk much early on. That's something I've noticed for Michael Harris, but performing well against lefties.

I know it's way too early to talk about next year, but I could just see Michael Harris is going to be like one of the darlings of fantasy if he keeps this up. And I don't really have any reason to believe that he won't. So Scott, another Atlanta Brave. What do you think about your boy, Michael Harris? I wish you walked more. I wish the average exit velocity was a little higher.

But there's not much to complain about beyond that. running more than I expected him to. The power has translated to home runs quicker than I thought it would. And, you know, the hit tool, I think, was probably the most refined of them when he got the call and hasn't disappointed in that regard. And he's great as a defender in center field. So, you know, that's going to ensure he continues to play every day, even if maybe his numbers fall off a little against left-handed pitchers. The one thing I,

he is incredibly, incredibly aggressive. He has the eighth highest outside of zone swing rate in baseball at 45%. So that's the one thing that played this of him. Like he actually, he's an aggressive swinger in general, 56% swing rate, but yeah, you look at the guys who have high swing rates outside of the strike zone compared to him.

And it's like Tim Anderson who swings at pitches inside of the strike zone at 78% And obviously, O'Garcia, who's at 86% on pitches inside of the strike zone. And Ozzyolby's at 84%. Michael Harris is at 74% on in the strike zone. So that tells me the pitch recognition is pretty lacking. So, you know, he's making enough contact that it's not a concern right now. But I could see that being something that catches up to him if you wanted to look for a red flag just because it's kind of the only thing. Like, Playdispone's kind of the only thing he's not doing extremely well right now.

And his swinging strike rate is a little bit high. 14.6% compared to just a 22% strikeout rate. So maybe we do see that kind of reflect a little bit more and more strikeouts kind of show up for Michael Harris. So it's a good point. But, man, outside of that, power speed combination, fantastic deal that early on. Really like what we've got from Michael Harris.

How about O'Neill Cruz? His first 17 games is batting 203. He's got three homers, two steals, 22 strikeouts to just two walks. is a 33% strikeout rate, hitting the ball extremely hard, which we expected for O'Neill Cruz. Chris, it's kind of been a mixed bag here. What are your early takeaways from Cruz?

Yeah, he's kind of the opposite of Harris. He's been weirdly passive. He doesn't swing at pitches inside of the strike zone. His chase rate's only 36%. His zone swing rate is only 55%. That's incredibly low. That's like Alex Breggman, or if you want a bad comp,

Kevin Bigio. level lows. Now he's got 80 grade 75 grade raw power and he's putting into play in games. But I think there's, you know, that that's the one thing that stands out is that he's actually not swinging and missing like a whole whole lot as much as he is swinging at the wrong pitches early on. But strike out rate actually wasn't as big of a concern for him in the minors as you would think given his size. So I'm optimistic that he can improve. All right. I'm assuming we're still holding O'Neill Cruz and 100%. Must roster.

Must roster, but I wouldn't say must start. Yeah. While those others, you know, maybe in the three outfielder points league, you're not necessarily starting Michael Harris, but, you know, he's pretty widely started and should be. This last one is not really a prospect, but he is a rookie, and he's playing very well. Derek Hall with the Phillies,

when two for four hit his fourth home run added to RBI striking out quite a bit early on does not have a single walk through his first i believe it's seven or eight games uh 25% rostered widely available next week next week he's got six games with two lefties on the schedule so i'll see how he fares against those lefties but scott where if anywhere should we be looking to add derrick hall so i think in the long run it's going to play out similarly to jake swinsky where yes he does have power but is he a well-rounded enough hitter to really take advantage of it in a way that we care about in fantasy? And I'm very skeptical of that. I mean, he's a 26-year-old non-prospect who was hitting a lot of home runs in the minors prior to this call-up. And, you know, at least his first go around the league that's continued. But as anything more than a short-term play, and, you know, it's not like the Phillies have great matchups this upcoming week. I'm pretty skeptical of Derek Hall still.

All right. Let's move into a few other waiver wire hitters before we hit the break. Christopher Morel, we talk about him a lot. He's only 70% rostered. So I feel like that number should be closer to universally rostered at this point. He hit his ninth home run of the season on Thursday, came off of Tony Gonsolin. He is batting 274, nine homers, seven steals in 849 OPS in his first 47 games. That's about as impressive as it can go for an, you know,

unheralded prospect. He was a prospect on some list, but it's not like he was one of the top prospects in the game. So Christopher Morel has been great. He's got second base outfield eligibility. If you need either of those positions, you need to roster him even in points leagues. We spoke about these two yesterday, Andrew Benintendi, two more hits. He has multiple hits in eight of his last 10 games, 73% rostered, probably better for points leagues at this point. Jonathan VR, back-to-back multi-hit games has let off four straight for the Angels. So in deeper leagues, just a name to watch. Maybe you need a middle infielder with some speed. If you need a second catcher, who do you like more between these two?

Carson Kelly went two for three, hit his third home run, and over his last seven games, he's betting 318 with three home runs. All three of his home runs in the season have come in the last seven games. And Cal Raleigh, two more hits, including his 11th home run, one hundred and fourteen miles per hour off the bat. A legit frozen rope. It went 19 degrees, uh, launch angle. It would just, Boom. It just went out in a hurry. He's 24% rostered. Chris, if you need a second catcher, who do you like more? Carson Kelly, Cal Raleigh. As someone who follows me on Twitter said in my mentions, hashtag Kyle Rally, which is how I tend to say Kyle Rally. Yeah, say his name as if you weren't trying to say Kyle. Kyle Rally.

Cow, cow, yeah. Yeah, it does kind of sound like it. I don't know. I get like a like a little bit of like a twang when I say those. specific sounds. I don't know what it is. Hal Raleigh. How Rally. But you would take him over Carson Kelly. Yes. Same for you, Scott? Well, I don't know. I kind of don't care that much, really.

Whoever's hotter, I'd be willing to just ride them for a while. I think we've certainly seen more from Kelly at the Major League level overall. He's been pretty horrible this year. missed a lot of time with injuries. But I think if you're telling me, I have to pick up one guy and stick with them, I would probably choose Kelly. All right, fair enough.

Last one I wanted to mention here, Daniel Vogelbach, one of Scott's favorites, heating pack up. He went three for four with a double and an RBI. His last 11 games, he's sitting 419, three homers,

and more walks and strikeouts, seven walks to five strikeouts. He's 9% rostered. You don't want to add him in shallow leagues, but it's gotten deeper leagues. He's got seven games next week, including three in Coresfield. I don't like it. Certified big beefy baseball boy.

He had a home run off the Yankees the other day and just watching Daniel Vogelbach round the bases. He might be the platonic. I think Justin Bohr is the king of the big beefy baseball boys, but Daniel Vogelbach might be the platonic ideal. Yeah, I mean, Chris, it's got to be. It's got to be Voguey, man. Like that, he is just the perfect description there. Scott, do you have any interest in Vogelbach in deeper leagues if you need a corner for next week? I mean, it depends how deep the league is.

I didn't strongly consider him for my top 10 sleeper hitters for next week because there are four lefties on the schedule. And he's batting 137 against lefties. That's not great. Yeah. All right. That's a good point. And one that I hadn't realized, you know, I see cores on the schedule and I just get so excited.

Before we hit the break, fantasy baseball today. is a nominee for the best sports podcast category in the People's Choice Podcast Awards. Thanks for all that you do for us, and we appreciate, we hope that you'll nominate us to advance to the final round. To do so, go to podcastawards.com slash app slash signup and then toggle down the sports category. The whole process takes less than a minute. I did it yesterday before the podcast, quick, easy, painless. And if you're watching us on YouTube, you'll see that we have a new QR code in the top right of the screen right next to Scotty's face. So pull out that phone, scan the QR code, open up your camera.

That'll take you right to the website. And again, drop down the sports category and you can nominate us there. We've also included the link at the top of the podcast description and on YouTube as well. If you want to hear about prospects this Saturday, listen to Fantasy Baseball today in five. It's our five-minute podcast. Download and follow wherever you listen to this podcast. We'll take a break and we'll return right after the second. this. The news and notes. Kevin Gosman threw off flat ground on Thursday and is scheduled for a

bullpen on Friday to determine when he will make his next start dealing with that ankle injury. Tyler O'Neill could be reinstated from the IL on Friday against the Phillies. Jazz Chisholm is scheduled to play in a game at the rookie level Florida Complex League on Saturday. He's been on the IL with a back injury. Bobby Witt Jr. has missed two straight after getting hit by a pitch on his right. Actually, I don't know what hand it is. I don't know why I just assumed it was right, but on one of his hands on Tuesday. Chris Sale, this is fun, will likely be activated to make his season debut on Tuesday.

The Red Sox left open the possibility of another rehab start, but they're leaning towards calling him up back to the big leagues. And hopefully he pitches well or else he'll destroy their entire clubhouse, which, you know, if you saw the video that's going around on Twitter, Facebook, wherever you like to frequent, Chris Sale caught, like, destroying stuff, trying to rip something off the wall in the clubhouse. He walked five battered. I think he took a bat to a TV. And it was, I think it was Chris Cotillo who,

Chris Cotillo, I retweeted the article. I hope he's the one who actually wrote it. But the quotes in it from sale were priceless because he kind of like went over the rules for throwing a tantrum. Like he learned when he was young not to use his fists. And like he kind of had some older players teach him the right way to do it. And he was saying, I know that wouldn't fly a Bank of America, but this isn't Bank of America. And it's just like, you see it and you see the tantrum.

And you're like, oh, that's not a good look, Chris Sale. But then, like, the comments are just so fun. Like, he owns it. Like, he knows, he knows, he has a lot of self-awareness. He knows it makes him look like a big baby. Like, that's what he said is like, It's a seven-year-old's tantrum. And so it's hard not to come out liking him over.

He replaced the TV and everything, you know. It does just, I'm always here for any time that we're reminded of Chris Sale being a weirdo because it brings up my favorite sports story maybe ever when Chris Sale, like, through a tantrum because they wouldn't let Adam LaRoche's son stay in the dugout or in the locker room. with just like one of my favorite things that's ever happened in sports Adam Eaton called a 14 year old a leader in their clubhouse it's just unbelievable stuff Chris Sale hung up his jersey

a 14 year old kid's jersey in his locker out of in tribute it was amazing look I'm all for a weird passion and fire while playing sports and stuff but man Chris Sale you know he takes it a little bit further look I can't really complain too much just a weird dude. Yankees, Paul O'Neill, you know, the guy was also like a

maniac back in the 90s, so can't really say too much on that, but yeah, hopefully we see Chris Hale back soon. Even with sale returning, Brian Beo will make another start on Monday against the Tampa Bay Rays. Aaron Judge was out of the lineup Thursday due to lower body soreness. It said it's just

kind of general soreness this time of year, middle part of the season. Jeremy Payne was scratched due to health and safety protocols. Apparently, he's traveling with the Astros for their weekend series. I believe they're headed out to Oakland. Marcus Stroman is expected to be activated and started this weekend against the Dodgers. He's 58% roster. Do we have any interest in Marcus Stroman? I think that's probably a pretty appropriate roster rate for now.

We'll see what he looks like, but I don't know. You're not, you're often not missing out on much. Fair enough. Yeah, he was not great early in the season. So, uh, especially against the, Dodgers. That's, you don't want to start him his first start back. That's for sure. Rwanzi Contreras. This was interesting. He pitched one of the best games of the season, six endings, one run, seven strikeouts, and then he was optioned after. Apparently the team had planned a shutdown period for Contreras. The plan is for him to return slightly after the All-Star break or something like that. We were talking beforehand and you guys said this is pretty normal, right? Yeah, this won't be the last young pitcher we see this happen to in this week leading up to the

All-Star break because obviously the All-Star break gives these teams a chance to reset the rotation so they can go the length of time necessary before bringing the player back and him not really miss a turn. They just kind of rearrange the rotation, get an extra player on the roster in the meantime. It's a little bit of roster chicanery, but it's pretty normal.

I don't think we should treat it as a true demotion for Ruanzi Contreras. They're keeping him on the taxi squad, so he's with the team. He's not going to, Indiana Atlas or whatever. It does mean he misses out on a two-start week next week. So that's a little disappointing.

But one of those starts is going to be at Colorado. Yeah, yes. He probably didn't want to use him there anyway. Jerks and ProFar was carted off the field after colliding with T-Bain, C.J. Abrams. And ProFar took a knee right to the jaw. It was pretty scary stuff. So I tried to walk off multiple times and then just drop down. So hoping everything's all right with him.

Mitch Hanigur could return by the end of July. He's missed a couple of months with that ankle spruce. We have a bunch of Red Sox rehab assignments starting up. Nathan Avaldi pitched on Thursday. Garrett Whitlock will pitch Friday. And Enrique Hernandez will start his rehab assignment on Friday as well. Hazel Lozardo will throw a bullpen session Friday. He's been on the aisle for nearly two months with that forearm strain.

Michael Lorenzen placed on the aisle with a right shoulder strain retroactive to July 4th. And Mike Soroka was hit in the knee by a comebacker while pitching live batting practice and does not have a target date for a rehab assignment. Let's move into week 15. And we'll start with the schedule, which is all over the place. We've got three teams with five games, the Orioles, the Angels, and the Dodgers, 12 teams with six games, 11 teams with seven, and we have four teams with eight games next week, the Tigers, the Royals, the White Sox, and the Guardians.

As I mentioned earlier, the Rockies are at home. They've got seven home games, four against the Padra. and three against the pirates in case you want to target any of those hitters. Starters sit these fringy two-star pitchers for next week. We will start with Chris Sale. If he is planning to start on Tuesday, that would set him up at the raise and at the Yankees. Scott, what do you do with Chris Sale? Probably start him.

I have him just outside of the must-start tier in my two-star pitcher rankings. So, you know, if it's a shallow league, if you have an especially deep pitching staff, maybe you'll choose to play it safe. But I don't think most people have that luxury. Sean Mania has not pitched that well as of late. And next week, he's at Coors Field against the Rockies and home against the Diamondbacks. Chris, what do you think about Sean Monaier?

I think I would still start him. The Rock, like, at Coors is bad, but it's not like a death trap. And versus Arizona's nice. So I think I'd still start him. Alex Cobb has also not pitched very well this entire season. Unfortunately, we thought it would go much better than this.

He is up against the Diamondbacks and the Brewers. Scott, what do you think about Cobb? He's in the no-thanks section of the two-star pitcher rankings. I did consider him for my 10 sleeper pitchers because it's hard to come up with 10 sleeper pitchers right now, but realistically, I don't want to start Cobb. His peripherals are still so good. He's got a 271 XERA. His quality of contact this year is actually really good.

I don't understand. Would you start him? I'm going to start him. I'm going to run them out there in Towers and I'm going to feel stupid about him. Well, it could be Fortune favors the bold pick. Just a little bit later on.

Of course, he's 70% rostered, so. All right, so he's like right on that fringe. Graham Ashcraft is at the Yankees and at the Cardinals. Chris, what do you think? I think I'd probably stay away Brian Beaux at the raise and at the Yankees facing the raise two turns in a row his first two starts

Scott what do you think? No no I mean he may not make that second start depending on how the first goes so it's all the more reason to stay away Fair enough Josh Winder is filling in in the twins rotation He's going up against the Brewers and White Sox Chris Josh Winder

Pass All right Mitch Keller Our favorite. I should have lined it up so that Chris got Mitch Keller. I always just like asking you about Mitch Keller, Chris. He's at the Marlins, one good start, at Corsfield. Gross. Scott?

I mean, you could ask him anyway. My feelings won't be heard. All right, Chris. I mean, the nice thing about Mitch Keller is you know he's going to have a good start against the Marlins because it's a great matchup. And Mitch Keller never disappoints. No, I wouldn't start him. Even in a point, like, he doesn't go deep into games, even when he's pitching well.

Like, I just, I, no, let's just give up on this. Let's stop trying to make Mitch Keller happen. All right. Yep. He's not fetch. Stop trying to make it a thing. Trevor Rogers, going up against the Pirates and the Phillies. Scott, I just got to ask, courtesy, Trevor Rogers.

No. No. No. As I mentioned yesterday, he's outside my top 100 starting pitchers rest of season. I think that's a little much. It's hard to blame you. I think his ERA is over five. I think his whip is over 1.5.

It's been a rough one. It's been a rough one. 100 is not as low as it sounds at that position, I will, in my defense. So let me see, I can pull it up quickly enough. Let me see some guys I have just ahead of him. So I have him behind Zach Eflin, Zach Plesack, Lance McCullors, who's about to go on a rehab assignment, Cal Quantrell, Marco Gonzalez.

Come on, he's better than those guys. I would I would start all of those guys over him. You'd rather have him on your roster than Kyle Quantrel. I mean, it depends how deep a league you're talking about, but what depth of league is

Kyle Quantrell more valuable? Come on. He's more rostered on CBS than Trevor Rogers. Trevor Rogers was legitimately one of the 10 best pitchers in baseball. this time last year. So like,

I get it, he's been bad. I'm not making excuses for him, but like, the upside, like, maybe you'd rather start Cal Quantrell than Trevor Rogers now.

I think that might be the fourth different way I've pronounced Cal Quantrell's name. But like... In a dynasty league, I will take Trevor Rogers over Cal Quantrell, sure. But I don't have any faith in, and Rogers finding it anytime soon.

So, you know, I just kind of, I don't want to overrank him, that's for sure. All right, two-star pitchers to add and stream for next week. Scott, who do we have? Okay, would you ask me about two-star pitchers or one-star pitchers? Two-star pitchers.

Two-star pitchers. So, yeah, as I mentioned, it's hard. It's getting hard to find 10 sleeper pitchers, and rather than force a couple guys on there, like a Graham Ashcrofter or Brian Beahoe, who I don't actually want anybody starting. I just decided to change the rules. When you're losing the game, change the rules.

And so I've upped the sleeper threshold to 85% rostered, which allows me to put Josiah Gray on this list. He gets the Mariners and the Braves, frankly, with the way he's pitched recently. I'm not sure there are matchups that could keep me away from him. Josiah Gray and his past six starts, a 270 ADRA at 107 whip 11.4K per nine. Jeffrey Springs is on here again

because why not? I mean, that's part of the reason I stretched, like I raised the threshold too because I can't put Jeffrey Springs at the top of the list every week. And he's been a little less reliable lately, but of course he had missed a turn prior to his last start

it stood a reason he'd be rusty. He's still getting a lot of whiffs. So I think, you know, one of his two starts is against Baltimore. I still think that's a pretty good play. Let's see, Merrill Kelly. Gets the Giants and Padres, not great matchups, but he's kind of the quintessential streamer pitcher.

And very likely going to come away with at least one quality start, maybe even two. David Peterson is on here. He gets the Braves and the Cubs. The Braves matchups is a little scary, of course. But the Braves are actually second in baseball and strikeouts, and Peterson has done a good job missing bats lately. The Cubs strike out a lot, too.

So that could turn out okay. Chris Flexen gets the national. and Rangers are pretty good matchups, and he's been, you know, pretty steady lately. Don't have a lot of faith in him, but we're at eighth now in my sleeper pitchers list. And I do actually have Josh Weinder rounding out the list. He's 16% rostered.

So, you know, if you play in a big league and you're looking to stream somebody off waivers, it's very likely he's available. But not a ton of confidence in him. All right. If you listen to Matt Damon, then you know that fortune favors the brave. It also means you probably lost. all your money to crypto, but alas, if you need a two-star pitcher that you are just so desperate for,

even though you know that pitcher is terrible and you should not do this, but you're feeling brave. Then you should use Trevor Rogers next week. That is my fortune favors the brave pick. And I will be starting him in the Scott White Dynasty League because it is a 24 team league. And frankly, I just don't have any pitchers left. So I will start. Just barely. Scott just barely thinks he's worth starting in a 24 team league. You're not wrong. You got 120 starting pitchers. That's just under the threshold.

He's going up against the Pirates and the Phillies, whatever. Not that the matchups matter. Like, we all know. Trevor Rogers is bad, but I'm going to be brave and say to start him. Chris, who is your fortune favors the brave two starter for next week? I kind of want to say Brian Bayo.

I just wish the matchups were better because I know the first start wasn't good, but his stuff is so electric. And even in that start, it looked really good that I just, it does kind of seem like a, he was nervous in his major league debut kind of thing and he could come out and just absolutely dominate. I'm still very excited about him.

Scott, there's one other pitcher here that is just screaming at me. Fortune favors the brave. Will you so? Is it 1-800, Glenn Otto? That wasn't the one. But he's, that's pretty good too.

Got Oakland. Oakland and Seattle, two bottom six offenses. I think I saw in his last four or five starts, he has more walks than strikeouts. So that seems pretty bad for our guy, 1-800 Glenn Auto. But I think Mitch Keller, two starts with one of those in Corse Field, that is just, you have to be the bravest fantasy player to throw him in your lineup. So if you are, you can use them. Single-star streamers for next week, Scott, does this get any better?

No, not really. Because I changed the rules, I'm also able to get John Gray in there. So I got Josiah and John back to back at the top of my sleeper pitchers. He gets Oakland, that AAA lineup. Jose Arkiti also gets Oakland. Zach Plesack, who's on a quality start streak, he gets the Tigers, worst offensive baseball. And I managed to, I went ahead and put Nicola Dolo in here, even though he's facing the Cardinals, a very good offense.

You know, he look great against the Mats. It's another good offense. So just hoping his stuff. comes through again. But he's only ninth among my 10 sleeper pitchers here. So not a ton of confidence in that pick. And it looks like Frank is frozen. All right.

That's okay. It says ask Chris for streamers in deeper leagues. I'm just going to take over here. Okay. Do we want to leave Frank blinking on the screen or not? All right. Some streamer, some deep, deep streamers to consider. And I'll just go through the ones that I think are potentially worth using.

I think Nick Lodolo's 100% on there. Mario Gonzalez, I mean, we've been skeptical. We remain skeptical. But at Washington, I think you probably can justify using Marco Gonzalez. I'm a little surprised he didn't make it in your sleeper pitchers there, Scott. And Mitch White's been interesting. You know, St. Louis isn't the best matchup possible. but he's been interesting in the Dodgers rotation.

And I don't think much of Jake Oteresey, but I think he's probably like a league average pitcher, and I think a league average pitcher against Oakland can get pretty good results. So I think Marco Gonzalez, Mitch White, and Jake Oterese are the three that I would consider in deeper leagues. So Marco Gonzalez, he had another start here on Thursday and came through again two earned runs in six and two-thirds innings, eight hits, zero.

strikeouts. And so Marco Gonzalez now has seven quality starts in his past eight opportunities. Four of those seven quality starts, he has struck out two or fewer. That is, I don't

know how he's doing it. I mean, that's kind of the story of his whole career. The strikeouts aren't normally this bad, but don't know how he's doing it. And, you know, I think you're playing with fire there even against Washington. I know I've you know, beggars can't be choosers here with the two start with the, with the sleeper pitcher picks.

And I've got other streaking pitchers who I don't necessarily trust like Zach Plesack and Jose or Kiti on here. But, you know, at least they're getting somewhere in the vicinity of 7Ks per not. For what it's worth, I think Marco Gonzalez might be better than Zach Plyzac. Oh, man. Zach Plessack's expected stats are atrocious. He's got like a 5-8 expected ERA. it's really, really rough. Yeah.

Am I here? Do you guys see me? You're here. You're here. Okay. You're back. We're gone for a while. I still, I never sent that angry email or made that phone call to my internet provider. So maybe that'll be a fun Friday for me.

Let's wrap up with some hitters here. The best hitter matchups next week, White Sox, the Royals, the Padres, the Tigers, and the Guardians, the Guardians, the worst hitter matchups, the Angels, the Twins, the Twins, the Brewers, and the Reds. Scott, bring us home. Sleeper hitters. for next week. Real quick, I just wanted to say the Rockies and Pirates could have

also been among those five teams with the best hitter matchups. I had to get all four teams with eight games in there. So that kind of bumped out some that have really good. Matchups and Rockies are at home all week, so that's always a good thing for them. All right, so some hitters to target

this week, not as much of a stretch as the pitchers. Vinnie Pasquantino, we already talked about. Royals are among those teams with eight games, four are against the Tigers. And we love the data for him, even though the production hasn't been there yet. Riley Green, another recent call-up who's exhibited very good plate discipline. Tigers have the fourth best matchups, also eight games.

They get the Royals for the first four of those games. And I think it's going to be a coming out party for both of them, Pasquantino and Green. Don't shy away from them this week. Big stuff is ahead. Gotta get Isak Peridis in there. The Rays have good matchups themselves, three of them against the Orioles. And obviously, he's been doing a lot of damage of late.

And especially at home, Tropicana Field is not known for being a good place to hit, but his number's there. Like, he's been an exception to the rule. I like the Marlins' matchups this week as well. And so that makes Garrett Cooke. a pretty easy call. He's been hot lately.

The Guardians are among the teams with eight games, and I have both Josh Naylor and Fram El Reyes in here. Now, Nailer has been sitting out with, I'm trying to remember what it is, a day-to-day injury. So if he doesn't return over the weekend, obviously when I update this list Sunday, I'll have to remove him.

But I wanted to have him in here because not only are the Guardians playing eight games, But all of the pitchers on their schedule to face as of now are right-handers. And Naylor just obliterates right-handers. He nails them, you might even say. Let's see. He doesn't Josh around against them. No, he doesn't.

I'm going to put Luke Void on here, too, to take advantage of those four games at Corse Field. All right. I like it. Josh Naylor currently dealing with a back injury, so hopefully returns over the weekend. and it nails those right-handed pitchers next week. Let's, hmm, rapid fire. See how much we can get to the rest of Thursday's action in the next five to ten minutes or so.

What do we do with these pitchers? We mentioned the situation with Ronzi Contreras, six headings, one run, seven strikeouts. He's 40% rostered. If you guys have him on your team, would you look to hold him, maybe look to add him after this start? What do you think?

I mean, we just did him on the dropometer on Sunday and Chris and I both had him a drop. I'm not sure, you know, with 11 swinging strikes on 90 pitches, still very vulnerable to home runs and has a pirate's offense backing him. You know, there's some upside there. I think 40% is probably appropriate, but in most of the leagues I play in, I don't have much interest in Contreras at this point. Yeah, I think if you need the roster spot, he's droppable. I will admit these next four pitchers are not great, but I'll rattle them off anyway. Jordan Liles, four solid starts in a row.

He went six innings, one run with four strikeouts up against the Angels. He's 13% rostered. Trevor Williams was amazing. He also pitched against a jazz chisholmless Marlins lineup, seven shutout, two hits, seven strikeouts there. Matthew Liberator, he only lasted four innings against the Braves, four shutout with four strikeouts. But his velocity was way up. Fastball below, 1.3 miles per hour, slider up three miles per hour, curve up two and a half, changed its pitch mix. Just kind of interesting.

And then Bo Briskey, he's turned in some solid start. Six and a third shotout with four strikeouts at the White Sox. Chris, anything here. Bo Brisky, Liberator, Trevor Williams, Jordan Lyles. I know Libertor's got some prospect pedigree, but I just, I don't really think he's any good. So I would still stay away from him. I don't really have much interest in any of these guys.

like Trevor Williams is kind of average-ish, and so against good matchups, and he can be useful, but... This was probably his last star with Scherzer back, and Chris Bassett had been out, but he's expected to be back Friday. So probably done. Probably it for Trevor Williams.

Liberator, I'll just say, throw him on the scout team. Let's see where this goes, because, you know, I kind of like the pitch mix and the Velo being up in this one. Pitching studs being studs. Justin Verlander has now gone six plus innings

in 13 of 16 starts this season. He went six, give up two runs, eight strikeouts against the Royals. Dylan Cs, Scott mentioned earlier, eight straight, allowing one earned run or fewer. There was a start in there with six unearned runs. He went six, give up one run, eight strikeouts against the Tigers.

Tony Gonsland, back-to-back outings of seven-plus innings after zero in his first 14 starts. He went up against the Cubs, seven innings, two runs, three strikeouts. And then pitching duel of the night, Joe Musgrove against Logan Webb. Seven shutout for Musgrove with six strikeouts. Logan Webb on the other side, eight innings, one run, two strikeouts.

It's got a whole bunch of names here. What do you think? Webb, Musgrove, Gonslyn, Cese, Erlander. I think the most notable thing you already pointed it out is Tony Gonsland going seven in back-to-back starts when only half his starts before then were even six innings. And so if he starts taking on an ace workload, it's harder to make him. it's harder to make the case against him being an actual ace, given his other numbers.

It's worth noting he only threw 93 pitch in this one. And I think the previous start, he didn't throw a ton of pitches. Yeah, I feel like we're repeating the same conversation. Yeah, I think that's what we talked about on Sunday when he had that start or whenever it was. Yeah. All right. Let's move over to some hitting leftovers. Jose Altuvae hit his 17th home run.

Yurdan Alvarez, when one for four hit his 26th. Raphael Devers, he looks healthy. sat out yesterday, back, hamstring, no problem. Double Dong off of Garrett Cole, who he owns. Cole had some great quotes about him. He was like, can he like miss hit one ball? Like he just like, the quote was like, he never hits anything poorly. Can he just hit like one line drive at a guy?

It was a great quote. They were bombs too. They were both 425 plus feet. It was not close. Like Devers is a monster. They came out just to discuss. at bat against Devers. They were probably like, you know, take it easy, you know, maybe pitch around a little bit. Boom. Next thing, you know, 430 foot bomb. Guys, awesome. Josh Donaldson, back-to-back multi-hit games with a

home run in each. Jonathan India, very welcome sight. It had four hits across the double header against the pirates. Danesby Swanson went one for four with two steals. He's now up to a career high 14 steals on the season. A. Eugenio Suarez went two for three with his 14th homer. Mookie Betts a double Dong, now up to 20 home runs on the season. The call to the bullpen for the Astros. Ryan Presley struck out one for his 18th save. For the pirates, David Bednar picked up his 14th save. To the Yankees, Clay Holmes picked up his 16th save.

For the Cardinals, Giovanni Gagos entered in the seventh inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a solo home run to Michael Harris. Ryan Helsley recorded seven outs spanning the eighth and tenth innings. He gave up an unearned run and then Packy, not an event. eventually converted the save once the Cardinals took the lead in the 11th inning. Do you see Ryan Helsley no longer has the hardest thrown ball in Major League Baseball this season? Jordan Hicks threw on 103.6 miles per hour today. Jeez.

That's something to keep an eye on because if he gets back into form, that could further complicate what's already been a very complicated situation. Scott, can we just, are we done with Giovanni Gallegos? Like, if you were holding on to him in a deeper categories league, can you just drop them? Yeah, I mean, if saves are the priority there, he could still be ratio help and it was pretty good volume for those ratios. But I've moved him down quite a bit in my relief pitcher rankings. Speaking of relief pitcher rankings, I'll tell you what, trying to rank Clay Holmes and Chapman right now is one of the hardest things to do because we just don't really know what's going to go on. For the Tigers, Gregory Soto gave up a run but picked up his 17th six.

For the Phillies, Sir Anthony Dominguez, pitch a clean ninth for his third save. He's 42% rostered if you're in need of saves. Jorge Lopez for the Orioles picked up his 15th. Daniel Bard for the Rockies picked up his 17th. And for the Dodgers, I just saw Craig Kimberle entered in a, with a three-run lead, struck out the first two batterers, gave up a single, an RBI double, a walk. Then he was pulled for Alex Vessia, who struck out the final batter. and so he picked up the save.

It was not Craig Kimberl, who has been dealing with a back injury. So something to watch there. To stream or not to stream for the weekend. We'll start with Friday. Tyler Wells versus the Angels. Aaron Savali at the Royals. Brady Singer versus the Guardians.

J.T. Brewbaker at the Brewers. Chad Kuhl at the Diamondbacks. Ross Stripling at the Mariners. It's always so bad. I guess it's not surprising because I can't find any sleeper pitchers anymore. Yeah. I could see Cool. Tripling being okay.

Yeah. Chicken strip. Let's go. Fire them up at Seattle. Saturday we've got Johnny Quato versus the Tigers. Dean Kramer versus the Angels. Devin Smelzer at the Rangers.

Kyle Freeland at the Diamondbacks. Scott, it only gets better, my buddy. No, it doesn't. I don't know. Maybe we'll,

maybe Johnny Quato will come through for us again. gets the worst lineup in baseball. Maybe. Maybe. Sunday. We've got Nick Ladolo versus the Rays. All right.

That's something. Zach Grinky versus the Guardians. Jose Cantana at the Brewers. Dane Dunning versus the twins. Jake Oter Rizzi at the A's. Is it an overreaction to say I like all five of these better than any of the ones from the previous two days? Is it an overreaction? Um, no.

I don't think so. I mean, I think stripling is probably better than a few of the other. these, but that's probably the only one. Realistically, the only guy I'd start for many of these three days is Lodolo, and even that I'm not super eager to do. So that's where things stand for me. All right. Fair enough.

The week is over. Oderizzi gets a win in a quality start at outcome. There you go. Bold prediction for Scott, Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball. Today will be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.

I'm