Fantasy Baseball Today - 🚨Starling Marte Traded For Jesus Luzardo! - Emergency Podcast (7/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 28, 2021

Starling Marte was traded to the Oakland A's for Jesus Luzardo. What does this move do for Marte's value? Alright, what do the A's know about Luzardo that we don't!? This is such a curious move. Luzardo is still just 23 years old and under team control until 2026. How does it affect his dynasty value? 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer 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

Now here's Frank Scott, Chris and Adam. It's Trade Deadline Week, and we just had our first blockbuster. Welcome in to an emergency edition of Fantasy Baseball today. On Wednesday, July 28th, Frank Sample joined by Scott White, longtime no C. Stalling Marte traded to the Oakland A's in exchange for Jesus Lazzardo. Quite a curious trade here. Let's start off with Starling Marte, who's actually having one of his best season, Scott, at age 32, 305 batting average, seven homers, 22 steals.

That is a 51 steel pace over 150 games. Again, he's doing that at 32 years old. Obviously, an upgrade in lineup here. What do you think this does for the value of stalling Marte? Well, it's not the most ideal landing spot for him because he goes from one pitcher's park

to another pitcher's park. And he's not having his best season power-wise. That's been down a little, making up for it with stolen bases and hitting for a high average, which he's typically done in his career, but not as much in recent years. So obviously he's having a good season.

His point per game average is studly. And going to a better lineup can only help. I feel like batting average first type players, ones who don't have like an enormous on-based percentage or a bunch of power, they're the kind that are helped most by their environment because they depend on guys to drive them in. and they depend on having players on base ahead of them to drive in.

So, yeah, clearly a lineup upgrade for Marte, and it was already a must-start player. He remained so. Yeah, for sure. Again, Staling-Marte, what's so interesting about his season, 11.6% walk rate, that has never been higher than 6% in his career. So clearly doing something a little bit differently this year for Stalling-Marty. you mentioned averaging 3.7 fantasy points per game that's tied for third along outfielders this season.

And he's the 22nd best outfielder in Roto, Stalling Marte, despite missing 37 games with injury. So I think that's just a testament to the job that he has done. I think it's a slight upgrade for Stalling Marte here. More opportunities for runs, RBI. You know he's going to hit for a good batting average. But I think what's even more interesting about this trade, Scott, is the other side. So let's talk about Jesus Lazzardo, who is still just 23 years old. I know he's had his struggles.

6.87 ERA in the majors this season, a 6.52 ERA at AAA. He's under team control through 2026. What is going on here? Yeah, the Jesus Luzardo side of this deal is what makes it a stunner. And I suspect the biggest stunner just from a value standpoint

that we're going to see at the trade deadline. And, you know, the Marlins were involved in what I thought was the most stunning trade two years ago, too, a straight-up swap for Zach Gallant, a Zach Allen for Jazz Chisholm. So Marlins do it again, shocking the world with this Jesus-Lazardo acquisition. All I can figure,

Jesus Luzardo for two months of Starling Marte, who, I wouldn't even say he's the biggest bat on the trade market, two months of Starling-Marte for the guy who, I considered the best pitching prospect in baseball going into last year. And he had very good rookie season. So that all he gets back now is a rental of Starling Marte. It makes me wonder if the athletics think he's broken. I mean, you pointed out the numbers.

He's had a terrible year. It's interesting because it seemed like it turned on a dime when he had that incident, that video games. incident. He accidentally bumped his finger on the table. So he claims. Broke his hand. And since coming back from that,

he came back in the bullpen and was just giving up a ton of runs. And as you pointed out, he was given up a ton of runs since going down to AAA. So, yeah, there was kind of an injury at the center of it, but it's not like he hurt his shoulder and lost four miles per hour. You know, he's still throwing hard. I don't know what would lead them to believe he's broken. I was looking at the game log at AAA.

He's still getting a decent number of swinging strikes. I understand he's messed up right now. He needs some fixing. But I don't think this is, oh, my gosh, we got to unload Luzardo while we still can get something for him. I don't feel like it's that kind of situation. So it's very strange to me. But good for the Marlins. I mean, they have a lot of good pitching up in the majors already.

They have more on their way. And just in terms of pure talent, I mean, it's very likely Luzardo is the best of the bunch. So I don't remember, what did they give up to get Marte last year? It wasn't nearly what the A's just gave up to get them. And that was with a year of control still left. I'm going to look at that because, yeah, that's crazy. So last year they gave up Umbarto Mejia and Caleb Smith. So they gave up Umberto Mejia and Caleb Smith.

Caleb Smith for Jesus Luzardo with a little bit of chance to enjoy Starling Marte in between, including a playoff, getting him to the playoffs last year. That's definitely a worthwhile gamble. And for Jesus Lazzardo, hometown kid from South Florida, so he's going back to the Miami area. And look, if you're a Marlins fan, the future of this pitching staff, Sandy Alcansra, Trevor Rogers, Pablo Lopez, Sixto Sanchez, Hazis Lazzardo, Edward Cabrera on the way as well. Scott, do you think that there's any chance that Lizarro has fantasy value this season

in redraft leagues? He's only 31% rostered. I'd bet against it, but there's a chance. Maybe he, if they need innings later this year to help supplement some of their young pitchers, maybe Luzardo is the one who gets a chance to do that instead of Edward Cabrera. We've been talking up Edward Cabrera. Maybe they both do. Maybe neither of them do.

But, you know, I would suspect Luzardo needs to show some signs of turning things around to AAA first. But it feels like one of those light switch situations where it got flipped off suddenly and it could get flipped back on suddenly. And if that's the case, then Luzardo is going to be exciting all over again. Yeah, it's just, it's crazy. Like, I don't know what to make of Luzardo's dynasty value now, because on the one hand, you've got Billy B. who's of course one of the most consequential GMs in history and he's made head scratching trades before

that haven't panned out I mean he certainly has a share of misses but smart guy, smart organization you think they know what they're doing and if they've valued Luzardo this little should that change our thinking of him in dynasty leagues I mean I still feel like he's an asset certainly but

is he the asset we perceived him to be? I'm thinking yes. I'm thinking the A's just got this one wrong or we're really desperate to get Marte or whatever. But it makes you wonder. Definitely a head scratcher. Yeah, time will tell if the Oakland A's knew something that we didn't about Jesus Lazzardo. We just kind of breeze through the Stalling Marte. Is there any other implications here with Oakland? I guess someone like Seth Brown, Tony Kemp, they lose some playing time here. I don't think there's anything else, right? Yeah, nobody's significant. Let me think.

I guess Starling Mark, I guess you wonder a little maybe if his steals could go down in Oakland. Historically, they're not a team that runs a lot that kind of goes

against the money ball principles of risking it out on the base paths. You know, it's considered worth it if the player is successful enough in stealing bases.

I think 75%. That used to be the indicator of whether or not stealing was worth it. I don't know if it still is anymore. But my recollection is that whenever they've had somebody who's strength, like that's obviously what he brings to the table. He is a base stealer that they've gone ahead and let him run. Like Cocoa Crisp comes to mind.

I mean, we're going way back with that. They haven't had that many over the years, but I feel like when they have had them, they've let them run. Yeah, Cocoa Chris bled the AL with 49 steals one year for the athletics. If you want to go way back, Scott, to all the way back in April, Ramon Luriano was running wild. Oh, yeah, but he stopped. But since then, yeah, he has stopped.

It's a good point that you bring up, excuse me, the Marlins are currently second in baseball with 73 seals. Oakland is down at 42. Obviously, personnel and who you have on your team kind of works into those factors. But, yeah, I think they're still going to let him run. I still overall think that this is a slight uptick and value for Stalling Marte. All right, let's see what happens.

What other crazy trades are going to happen before Friday? I'm just saying, if this is the price for a rental player in Starling Marte, might be a slow-moving trade deadline, maybe not as many moves as we suspected. We're going to wrap there for Scott.

I'm Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again later on tonight. Bye-bye.