Fantasy Baseball Today - The best Luis Castillo ever? Plus prospects, bullpens and more (8/5 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 5, 2021

Chris Towers and Scott White talk about Bryce Harper and Luis Castillo's turnarounds and try to settle some bullpen questions. Is this the best we've ever seen from Castillo? Can you drop Cody Bellinger? Which ninth inning situations are still up for grabs? Plus, we talk about the five best prospects left in the minors to stash for the stretch run. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Centerfield is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

What's up, everybody? Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today. It is August 5th, Thursday. I'm Chris Towers here with Scott White. We're going to be breaking down all of Wednesday's news and action. We're going to be taking a look at some of the bullpen updates. We're going to learn about some of the best prospects still left in the miners who might be getting called up soon. I've got a couple of questions I'm just wondering about.

So I'm going to ask Scott about those. But yeah, Scott, how's it going? How's your hump day been? How was your hump day? It's been fine. It's been fine. I guess it is technically over. We're recording after midnight again.

And most people are listening on Thursday morning. So yeah, I guess we can talk about Hump Day in the past tense. Finally. Am I right? We're on the right side of the hump now. It's all downhill from here. Well, see, I'm off Friday. So Tuesday is my hump day, technically.

Tomorrow, today is my Friday. It's great. It's the best. True. That is true. Love that. Let's actually talk about some fantasy baseball. Let's talk about some major league baseball

And we'll start with some What I think is the biggest news item of the day Anthony Rendon's season is over He will have season ending hip surgery To repair a hip impingement It's actually not one of these Several several, several injuries That he's missed time with so far this season

Which included hamstring, knee, groin, and triceps. He is 32 years old, Anthony Rendon is. Still has a... Wow, he is? Wow. I believe so. still has a few years. It still has like, what, five years left

on that big contract with the Angels. Yeah, he'll, sorry, he will be 32 next June. And, uh, struggled through, I thought, struggled through a really rough season,

played in 58 games despite all the injuries, hit 240 with a 712 OPS. What would you, where would you be looking to draft Anthony Rendon heading into next season? Well,

gosh, I'll probably have him as a top 10 third baseman, but the back end of that group. So it'll probably be squarely in the middle rounds. And, you know, I'll like him as a discount at that cost. I'll probably have a lot of shares of him, if that's where he ends up going. But I imagine they're going to be, a lot of disenchanted, disillusioned people regarding Anthony Rendon next year.

Yeah, I mean, he's got, one, the combination of there's always been this perception fair or I would say unfairly over the last handful of years that Rendon is injury prone. He hasn't really been that. And the fact that he's old, he's coming off a bad season. He had hit 307 with a 949 OPS in his previous four seasons. So it's worth keeping in mind that this season, which was just barely more than last season for him, was his worst since 2015. On the other hand, he was in his 27 through 30 seasons,

and it's not like it's unrealistic to think that a player peaked from age 27 to age 30. It's generally what you would expect. So, yeah, it seems likely Anthony Rendon's best days are behind him, but I still think he's likely to be a very good hitter next season. I can see a J.D. Martinez-type bounce back for him next season. The play discipline was still very good. So that's the big news on Anthony Rendon. And now let's move on to a little, oh, my goodness, gracious.

I don't think either one of us will do the impersonation today. I think we've kind of played out that bit. But let's just talk about it. And I'll start, unless you want to start, Scott. Go ahead. I will start with Randy a Rose Arena, who went two for four with a double and a triple in this one, so not the biggest game ever. But it is continuing a very, very hot streak for him. He is hitting 354 with 12 extra base hits in 16 games since the All-Star break, obviously.

Randy a Rose Arena, we know from last season, at least based on last season, when he gets hot, he can get ridiculously ridiculously. hot and that seems like what we're seeing right now. It's been a bit of a disappointing season, but this was the third straight multi-hit game in a row, the fifth out of the last six games for him. Yeah, Rania Rose Arena seems to be turning it around. So good to see that. You know, obviously I don't expect him to be as hot as he was last season the rest of the way, but we know he can be an impact bat when he gets into it. So, you know, that's a very much. You know, good to see that he's there at a pretty important part of the season. Where do you have Randy a Rosarena ranked right now? A, pull up my rankings. I think he's right outside like the top 20,

maybe five spots lower to points league than Roto. Not able to pull up my rankings very quickly. I'm getting the I'm getting the spinny blue donut. Seems like you might be having a bit of internet problems. So hopefully that resolves itself. But yeah, you know, he was wrong. He was right around the top 20 in ADP. I don't know if he was quite inside of it, but he was right around there. And I, you know, given the fact that he's got 16 steals and 98, or 16 homers in 98 games, 11 steals,

you know, he's certainly not proving that he was worth drafting as an elite player, but, like, what he's doing this season hasn't been all that different from what Trent Grisham's done, actually. And I feel like there's been a bit more optimism about Grisham. Oh, Grisham got crushed in July. His numbers have tanked. He doesn't even have double-digit home runs yet, right? I believe he has 11, only nine steals.

Okay. So it's barely there. He's barely a 10-10 guy at the two-thirds mark of the season. That is... I mean, it's a halfway part. I'm pretty sure... I'm pretty sure I've moved him behind Arrow's Arena, possibly in both formats.

Though obviously a Rosarena is better suited for 5 by 5 play, and Grisham is better suited for points play because great disparity in plate discipline there. But Grisham hasn't... Grisham's play discipline hasn't been quite as good as you'd probably think this year. Yeah, either. So, yeah, I have him 30th and a Roserina. Yeah, points rankings.

I have a Roserina two spots behind. I'm sure a Roserana is ahead in five. by five. All right. What about your, oh my goodness, gracious player for Wednesday?

Well, I was debating a couple here. I'm going to go with Luis Garcia, though. Not Louis Garcia, the asterist pitcher

who didn't pitch. Luis Garcia, the Nationals middle infielder. Yep. 21-year-old who got rushed to the majors as a

20-year-old last year, even though he was one of those prospects definitely well-regarded, but didn't, hadn't really put up numbers yet. And he's so young. I mean, what do you expect? But he got called up last year anyway.

Actually exhausted his rookie eligibility. So he's not technically a prospect anymore. He hit, he had a two-homer game today. His second and third home runs of the season. And that is after a breakthrough year in the minors at AAA where the numbers finally did, if he finally did put up the numbers to back up the scouting reports, 303 with 13 homers and just 37 games, 970 OPS. So it's exciting that he hit two home runs.

I do have to point out that the home runs traveled 356 feet and 371 feet. So these are not the kind of home runs that would have left every venue. Certainly not tape measure shots. They still count as home runs. I mean, I guess anything would every home run would be a tape measure shot. well if we're bothering to measure it yeah you need to you need to break out the tape measure to measure it either way yeah except you don't anymore because the stack cast well sure it's a stack cast not that they ever did stack shot or i guess they had one of those things like a little one of those like wheels you know

yeah maybe they had one of those pre-measure distances right and they estimated based on i feel like it's all been fake it's like where the referee spots the ball and football i feel like outfield wall distances are fake. Maybe I'm exposing myself as a kook here, but I feel like it's all fake. You'll see a home run that barely clears the wall in center field and they'll say like, oh, it was 450 feet. It's like, there's no way.

That field... Well, we should know with Stackaz now, right? Exactly, that's what I'm saying, that the walls have been lying. That's my conspiracy theory for the day. I've never gone out and measured myself. I can't verify. Exactly. So yeah, Luis Garcia.

What type of league should he be rostered in right now. You have three home runs. Any league where you're looking for upside, I mean, realistically, it's probably not going to be like a 12-te-to-head league because there's just not that many roster spots to mess around with that at this point. But, you know, probably any roto league, you could take a flyer on his upside and hope you could slot him in

as your middle infielder at some point. He does only have one stolen base in 55 games between the majors and minor so far this season. He only had one stolen base last season, 40 in the majors, too. he was pretty consistently in the you know low double digits in the three seasons before that but you know was never super efficient so that may not be part of his game which you would hope for from a

young middle infield prospect I would say his game is going to be mostly the bat and mostly geared toward average but with enough power that you know it really depends on the power output how great he becomes if he's a perennial all-star type

or if he's just a solid regular. All right. I'm going to change things around here and get to some of those questions that I was just wondering about before we get to the rest of the news for today and start breaking down performances because I think there's some interesting stuff in here.

So Scott, just wondering, is this the best we've ever seen Luis Castillo pitch? He went six innings, allowed one run today, seven strike, out's one walk, 12 whiffs. His overall ERA is down to 409, but obviously it's been a tale of two seasons for him. It's first 11 games, 722 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate. Remember, we were all chicken littles running around with our heads cut off or whatever

the idiom is. Last 12, including tonight, 191 ERA, 26.5% strikeout rate. Is this the best we've ever seen of Luis Castillo? What did you say that strikeout rate was? again. 26.5%. It was higher last season. Oh, okay.

I was hoping you were going to say the K-per-9, because he's just a little over a strikeout per inning during this 12-start stretch. Yeah. So. But that'll happen when you have a 191 ERA. Yeah, I guess. You know, his 2019 and 2020 seasons were very strong.

Yeah. Very strong. So in between those two seasons, he had 10.9 K-per-9. Uh, and let's see, do you have his whip during this stretch? I do not have his whip. I'm sorry, Scott. Come on, man. I did not come prepared for, I was the one answer asking questions.

So the reason I ask, the reason I want to get into this at the top of the show with Louis Castillo is because his slider all of a sudden has become a very, very effective pitch for him. It's always been, you know, a decent pitch, I suppose. But right now, I think in the month of July, his swinging strike rate on the slider was like 57%. And he's been throwing his pitches about evenly. He's gone from, you know, maybe 10, 15% slider usage for most of his career to, you know, right around 25 to 30% in the month of July. In this start, he threw his slider. Only 14% of the time got two whiffs with it. The change-up did get six whiffs today on 28 pitches.

But the slider during his recent stretch has been actually his best swing and miss pitch. And, you know, I just wonder if maybe, you know, if you want to try to come up with a narrative, maybe there's a silver lining in those struggles. And he, you know, was forced to kind of figure out. his slider. Yeah, he threw it about 22% of the time in the month of July, which is the highest he's used it

in a month since July of 2018. So, just something to keep in mind. Something to throw out there. 57% whiff rate. It's been his, I believe it's been his best whiff pitch this season as well. So it's...

Now, this gets confusing because 57 whiffs, you know, usually the swinging strike number I cite on here comes from fan graphs and I think that 57% one is how

is how statcast measures it This is WIFs per swing Yeah As opposed to just Wifts per P pitch Yeah

Yeah so Yeah But it's just Something I noticed While looking at Luis Castillo earlier I actually had somebody on Twitter ask

If this was the best He's ever pitched If he's gone from the worst We've ever seen To the best we've ever seen I think you make a case that he's probably had better stretches than this one, but

the turnaround, you know, I think has him right back in the top 15 starting pitchers at this point. I mean, I haven't moved him up there yet. Probably should. Let me see who I can talk myself into moving him past. Because, I mean, I obviously don't have any

worries about Castillo. I'm 22nd right now. Could I move him into the top 15? Do you have Joe Musker of ahead of him? No. Okay. I have Julio Reyes ahead of him, Robbie Ray ahead of him, Jose Barrios ahead of him, Sandy Alcatara ahead of him. I'm fine moving him ahead of all those. Trevor Rogers, Freddie Peralta, Shane Bieber. Moving him past Shane Bieber would get him to 15. And I could do that. I could not do that or I could do that. I get it. There you go. You did it. He's in that 15 to 20 range, I twisted your arm. Just wondering, Scott. Are we just, do we just underrate Bryce Harper now?

Because I feel like he might not have made your top 24 redraft for the 2022 season when we did it most recently. When we had the podcast, yeah, I'd left them out. But he went three for five on Wednesday night. He's hitting 306 this season. Best since his, I believe it's best since the season after his MVP season. and he's on pace for 30 homers and 21 steals. This is two seasons in a row now, obviously partial season last year, where Bryce Harper has had an OPS in the high 900s,

was 967 coming into this game, 962 last season. I feel like he might just be underrated. Well, it depends on who you ask, probably. I was intentionally trying to downplay him at the time. I was put off by a miserable May where he was in and out of the lineup. Yeah, the shoulder injury was concerned.

Since then he's obviously been great. And after we had that conversation on the podcast, I went and looked at the numbers again and ended up putting him in the column. So if you go look, you'll see he's, I don't know, when that was June or something. You'll see he's actually in there. I projected my first two rounds for the rest of the season.

I did get Bryce Harper in there after all. in part because I had to move a certain someone out and needed to need somebody else to take his place. I went with Harper. The one weird thing about Bryce Harper's season, stuff, or really the last two seasons. You look at what he's done over 2020 and 2021, 144 games, so almost a full season, 100 runs,

30 homers, 20 steals, 289 average. That's all excellent. That's, you know, I think borderline first round stuff. only 72 RBI and he's primarily he actually hasn't hit higher than third this season so it's not a situation where he just you know he's batting second

and just isn't getting that many opportunities because it's an NL team he just hasn't had a lot of RBI I don't know what to make of that but my guess is it's nothing and he'll be fine

I mean you hit 300 with a 9,000 67 OPS and you bat third, you should get a lot of RBI. So that's one thing that's holding him back maybe if you look at just like raw fantasy scoring or fantasy points. Maybe he doesn't rank as high as he probably should be, but I would guess moving forward he will have more RBI than he has so far. That's one take. Just wondering, Scott, does Casey Mize need to be rostered right now?

He's 80% rostered. Pitch tonight against Boston gave up four on runs in five innings. He's thrown more than five innings just once in six starts since the start of July, obviously. You know, we know his innings are going to be limited moving forward. It's not just a question of is 80%

too high because I think that's unquestionably true. But in a 12-team league, does Casey Meyes need to be on rosters? I would probably add him if somebody dropped him. I'd rather have him than like Taiwan Walker, for instance, who I think is right on the fringes there in mixed leagues.

We have a really good grasp of what the plan is for Mises innings. One of the Tigers, one of the Detroit newspapers outlined it pretty clearly with comments from AJ Hinch where basically after the All-Star break, or right around the All-Star break, they were going to have him just pitch three or four innings at a time, and then after a period of that, they were going to extend him back out to a normal workload.

And, you know, maybe at some point they'll pull it back again, they'll just see how it's going. but his previous start he went seven innings. Yeah. No one runs. That was against the Orioles, obviously Red Sox in Wednesday's game here, opposite end of the spectrum,

and he didn't fare as well, but he did go over five innings, so it does seem like he's back in a ramp up period. And he was been a quality start machine this year, other than that stretch when, for most of July, when they weren't letting a pitch that deep into games. But he's just,

he's not that. Good. Well. Like I can, I could see a case for, like, his, he's got a K rate below 20%. That's brutal. That's bad at this point in Major League Baseball. Walk rate's pretty good this season. You could make a case for, well, maybe he's just going to be the kind of guy who limits hard contact and he'll just be bad.

But he's got a 340 ERA and a 481 XERA. Yeah. I just, I'm skeptical. Yeah. But he's also Casey Mun. and he was a number one overall pick and he still kept getting hyped as this awesome pitching prospect

even when he wasn't striking out that many guys in the minors. So I'm just kind of like I don't hold him in high regard or anything if somebody wanted to make an offer for him. It's not like I'd be like, oh no, you can't take my Casey Mize. But I'm also

I'm also willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because of consistency and because of pedigree. I am not. Scott, I'm just wondering. Just wondering. Don't have to answer if you don't want to. Just wondering, a lot out here. Would you drop Cody Bellinger in a 12-team league?

Maybe not a five outfielder league, but three outfielder league, yeah. He hit eighth tonight for the Dodgers. He's been hitting seventh recently as well. There have just been very very. very few, if any, signs that he's going to turn this around. Went one for three tonight. He's got 168 batting average 558 OPS. Underlying numbers, I mean, he is underperforming his ex-Woba,

but his ex-Waba's only 280. So that doesn't really help. It's just rough. I don't, you know, we've talked about him a little bit recently, but it's just, I don't think you need to roster. him in a 12-team league. Yeah, I'm really curious to see how the playing time plays out once Trey Turner is on board. I mean, he's clearly been their worst everyday player this season.

It's not even close. And Chris Taylor's been amazing. AJ Pollock lately has been amazing. He had another home run today. Yeah. Right. I mean, it would be one of Bellinger and Pollock being removed from the lineup, presumably. And I don't think Bellinger's playing time would go down to zero.

I don't really see that scenario playing out. But the Dodgers are obviously trying to win, and rehabilitating Belling Bellinger is beginning to come into conflict with that goal. And I suspect the goal of winning is going to take priority. By the way, I'm also curious to see. Mookie Bet started his third straight game at second, yeah, at second base here on Wednesday. Mm-hmm.

Are we sure that he doesn't just, are we sure he's the one who goes back to the outfield when Trey Turner comes back, or does Trey Turner himself go to the outfield? Because it's, the reason Bess is playing second base as opposed to Chris Taylor, for instance. Chris Taylor obviously has more experience in the infield. He's been continuing to play the outfield

while Bess has played second base is because Bets coming back from this hip injury, they think, they think it's going to spare his hip having to not move around as much at second base. I don't get it. I don't, I don't, the Dodgers are a really smart organization, and I'm sure they've got amazing medical staff. Second base isn't a position that's exactly known for players aging gracefully.

I don't quite under, like, I'm sure that that's, they've got some reason to believe that that will be the case, and if they keep mooky bets there, it seems weird to me. It does. I agree. But that is that is what they have said.

And I don't know. It's not, they didn't say we're going to keep Mookie Betts here for the rest of the season, but they said that's why he's playing there now. Yeah. So,

and Trey Turner does have a little experience in the outfield. I don't know. There was. I'm open to the idea of bets getting second base eligibility for this year. I mean, he's only two appearances away, but maybe even for next year,

maybe. There was a, season where Trey Turner did not have shortstop eligibility. I believe it was the 2017 season. He did not start out the season with shortstop eligibility. He only had second and outfield. So there you go. Yeah, I think, I mean, kind of best case scenario for fantasy, if we're just going to be selfish about it from our perspective, is Mookie Betts plays the next two games at second base and then Trey Turner comes back on Friday or I guess it would be Saturday and

plays five games at second base and then who cares as long as they're in the lineup every day and they're both second base eligible. I want them both to get 20 for next year. They both come in with second base eligibility. That would be kind of hard. That would be Dave Roberts managing to CBS eligibility requirements. That was that's what that would be. Kind of like managers managing for the save, you know? I kind of forgot that it was 20. I'll be on it. because it wasn't last year.

So it just, yeah. All right. No. That's a, I like where your head's at, Scott. I'm not sure that's going to be the case, however. All right. Let's get to injuries, news, and notes before we take a quick break

and get to the bullpens and prospects and all that good stuff. The Dodgers, speaking of, signed Cole Hamels to a $1 million contract with $200,000 bonuses for each start. Wouldn't it be just a real jerk move to, just use an opener every time he pitched. But it does sound like they expect him to be a part of their rotation. He's been working out at the team's complex in Arizona. And do you have any expectations for Cole Hamels at this point in his career?

I mean, it's been, uh, no. It's been a while since he was a useful fantasy option. No, I mean, the, the only thing I really take away from this for at least standard play in fantasy is that, uh, I don't know. I don't know what it says about Clayton Kirshall's timeline. Tony Gonsolin. We got news on that today too. Yeah.

Yeah, they've said he's in idle mode. Yeah. Gonsolin and Kershaw are both in idle mode, which means they're not throwing. Yeah. And you can't come back from an injury as a pitcher if you're not throwing. And I would guess for either of them, you're looking at minimum three weeks before they can come back

once they start throwing. throwing and the longer they're not throwing, the longer that timetable for them coming back gets. Hmm. Three weeks. They as they, neither's been out that long. Uh, Gonsland's only been out a few days, but Kershaw, we're going on like a couple of weeks now. I guess it's not that long, but, you know, it's starting to get there. Yeah.

Every day is a day longer. In any case, I'm not, I'm not so confident. And, and obviously, we're more worried about Kershaw. here than Gonsolin, but I'm not so confident how much he's going to contribute the rest of the way, which isn't like, you know, I'm not, I'm not looking to drop Kershaw based on them saying he's in idle mode. I mean, because what does that really mean? But it does raise some doubts. I agree.

Nick Castellanos could make his return from the IL Thursday. He'll hit in batting practice before the game to make that determination. He's coming back from that micro fracture in his wrist, so hopefully he's okay when he comes back. Kyle Schwerber ran the bases and could be headed out on his rehab assignment in the next couple of days. So that's a good sign. He's with the Red Sox, remember? Jack Flaherty will make his third and hopefully final rehab start Friday at AAA Memphis. So he could be back next week.

Would you be starting him if he returns next week? Probably, unless I just was loaded with pitching. Top 15 starting pitcher right off the bat, top 20? I don't know that I'll move him quite that. high the day he comes back I might want to see a start or two first but obviously he has that kind of potential yeah he was actually I mean his results were pretty good but he was not really pitching all that well it had gotten better he he kind of he kind of got off to you know where all the whiffs kind of start to the year but they picked up as the season went on yeah he had a 290 ERA but a 474 x ERA so worth keeping in mind in those 11 starts um A couple of guys came back from the COVID IL after very brief scares. Chaz Chisholm was back in the Marlins lineup today after testing negative yesterday.

Matt Barnes also back on the Red Sox active roster got the same today. So that was good to see. Anthony Descophani was placed on the IL with shoulder fatigue, but he's only expected to miss one turn through the rotation for the Giants. That's a good sign. Mike Yostremski was scratched with hamstring tightness today. Yuli Gouriel was remained out of the line. lineup with the neck injury. Matt Harvey left his start with a knee injury.

Seemed like he tweaked the knee in the third, tried to pitch through it and had to come out in the fourth. Jimmy Nelson was placed on the 10-day IL with right elbow inflammation. Tommy Listella was activated from the IL. Here's an interesting one. Nate Pearson through a SIM game. We'll have one more simulated game before a rehab assignment. Is he someone you're looking to stash? Not really. I mean, how realistic? is it that he gets stretched out to be relevant in fantasy and he hasn't

really had a good start in the majors yet I don't think maybe he's had an okay start here and there but mostly bad. Waki and Sorio was placed on the aisle with a finger injury Dane Dunning with an ankle injury hopefully for a minimum stay

was placed on the IL Ryan Presley back from the paternity leave list Ray's announced that Tyler Glass now's Tommy John surgery was a success obviously then it comes down to the rehabilitation process before we can really say it's a success. David Dahl was released, Andrew Benintenni was out of the lineup, but wasn't placed on the IL,

which seems like a good sign given that he, you know, suffered what looked to be a pretty painful shoulder injury yesterday. Eric Lauer placed on the COVID-I.L. And Colin McHugh through a 21-pitch bullpen session, he could be working his way back. He's been really good out of the bullpen for the raise, right? Yep, completely blanked on. He's been their best reliever this year.

Yes, he has. Maybe that'll mean he'll get one save opportunity when he comes back. They're doing Ray's stuff again. We'll talk about that. Right after this break, when we talk about a bullpen report, we'll be back in a little while, or in a few seconds, really. I don't know why I said in a little while.

In a few seconds on fantasy baseball today, stick with us. See? I told you. We're back. It was a little while, I guess. Let's talk about a bullpen report. Scott, your piece went up on CBS Fantasy on Wednesday, just looking at some of the unsettled bullpins

coming out of the trade deadline and whether we've seen any settling on them. Let's go team by team. We'll start off with the highest profile on the Chicago White Sox. Do you think this is settled at this point? I don't think it's settled, but I think what we know is that Craig Kimbril is not just going to be the closer,

at least not right away, because so far he's been used, like I said, a minute. It's been two appearances, and there's been no saves since he came over, but there was a day when he worked the eighth in a tie game, and Hendrix worked the ninth in a tie game.

So my suspicion is that Tony Larusa, obviously Hendrix hasn't done anything to lose the job, so he doesn't deserve to lose the job, and that's going to be the stance. but maybe they'll go back and forth. We just need to see more. Yep, yep. It's kind of incomplete right now,

but I think definitely Liam Hendricks should be considered the heavy favorite at this point for the most saves in the White Sox bullpen. In Seattle, you've got Diego Castillo ahead of Paul Seawald and you've got Drew Steck and Ryder as the next man up after that.

How confident are you in that? And like Castillo holding on, not confident at all. If I made a play for, I'm forgetting Seawalt's name, Paul Seawald. If I made a play for him when Kendall Graveman got traded,

particularly if we're talking to Categories League, of any depth, I'm holding on to him because Castillo's not as good as Graveman, and Seawald was already beginning to intrude on Graveman's save opportunities. Castillo did bounce back from a blown save, his first chance for the Mariners

got a save and a second chance. But Seawald's better. Seawald's been one of the best relievers in baseball this year. And I'm hopeful he ends up getting like a 50% share of the saves rest of the way, if not more. Let's move over to Toronto where Jordan Romano gave up two home runs. I don't think that was a safe situation for him today. Was it? Nope.

Yeah. So he worked the ninth inning, gave up two home runs. You've got him ahead of Brad Hand, but how confident are you in that way? I'm pretty confident in that. I think there was one day when... I'm trying to remember exactly how it went down, but basically there was a day where Hand basically set up for Romano. I think it may have gone to extra innings or something.

It wasn't a totally convention situation, but... But yeah. And plus, Hand is... kind of milting down at the moment he's had trouble missing bats all year his ERA is approaching four now all of a sudden it began with the with the nationals and he hasn't been that great with the Blue Jays either so I can't totally rule out that if it just happens to line up with the matchups you know hand throwing lefty while Romano throws righty

if it just happens to work out that it makes sense to use Romano earlier as the right-hander that hand won't get a single save but I think Romano's the head heavy favorite to hold on to that role. Makes sense. Philadelphia, I feel pretty confident that's Ian Kennedy as long as he pitches well. He gave up two run home runs in his first two outings with Philadelphia.

But, you know, if it's not him, there's a reason the Phillies traded for Ian Kennedy because their bullpen has really been a bit of a mess. They certainly wanted to be him. It's just what he did with the Rangers isn't enough to convince me he has it on total lockdown like he's not going to implode at some point

but as long as he doesn't as long as he doesn't the ball's in his court right to use an analogy and I'm not sure like if it happens if he implodes

soon enough that Ranger Suarez doesn't get stretched out fully I'm not putting it past him to just move Suarez back to the role even though he's since moved to the rotation so if you're really

deep into stashing for saves. That's just another reason to hang on to Suarez. I think he should anyway, because I think he might be a pretty good starting pitcher. All right, let's move over to Washington. Kyle Finnegan seems to be the guy there. Is there anyone there who's even worth speculating on? Not really.

I mean, I don't think Kyle Finnegan's that good, but he's by far the best that they have left. Tanner Rainey just got sent back to the miners. He looked like the closer and waiting heading into this season. but he's just, he's had injuries and it's just been terrible. So, you know, that would be my, that would be the second choice to Finnegan, I think. And that's, you know, he's not even in the majors.

Not on the roster. So, yeah. Right. For the Marlins, Dylan Floreau looks like the closer. Anthony Bender is, you know, kind of the setup man right now. It seems like they just moved everyone up a spot. I think we wanted Anthony Bender to be the closer. He's a better pitcher than Dylan Flora.

But Dylan Floreau is not bad himself. He's just not exciting as Anthony Benton. Flora is like a Brandon Kinsler type of closer, who of course Don Mattingly seemed to enjoy last year. I mean, Brandon Kinsler's totally falling off the map this year. He's with the Phillies now and has been terrible. But, you know, he had a lengthy history as just kind of a steady 3ERA guy. And they made it work with him as the closer last year.

So I think they'll stick with Floreau, but it's possible that, you know, all it takes. is, you know, two or three bad appearances in a row, and they're rethinking it. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing with any of the ones that we're talking about here, really, obviously, I think, except for Chicago, but even there with Craig Kimberl behind Liam Hendricks, the leash may not be that long, but with all of these guys, you're talking about unproven closers for the most part who, you know, won't have particularly long leashes. You know, it could be, we could be right back here next week, and three of these situations have

already changed hands. Airs Texas. You think Spencer Patton's the guy? Yeah, since they traded Kennedy, they've used him as a traditional closer. He blew one save, he converted another. He's been kind of falling apart. I mean, he only showed up in June, and the numbers have been good, but he's a 33-year-old nobody that, you know,

I'm not super optimistic. He's really as good as his numbers have been so far, just given his history. And they got a younger guy who's come up even more recently, Joe Barlow, 25 years old, stepped into the setup roll vacated by Patton, and he's the one getting all the strikeouts now.

So that's somebody to keep an eye on Joe Barlow if you're speculating. Arizona, do you think it's just Tyler Clippert as long as he stays healthy? They don't have anyone else. And he's a pretty good reliever. So I actually, he might have as much job security

as anyone on this list that we've gone over, I might put, well, obviously Hendricks is going to have value one way or another, Liam Hendricks. Probably put Jordan Romano ahead of Clippard in terms of how much I want, and I guess Diego Castillo too. And I guess Ian Kennedy also. But, but, I mean, Clippert's not losing the job. So he's right there in the middle.

It's just a question of how many save chances the diamondbacks give him. Sure, and that's been an issue for them this season. Pittsburgh, do you feel any amount of confidence in David Bedner versus Chris Stratton? No, not really. The first chance they had to use Bedner after trading Richard Rodriguez, they used him in the eighth, and he blew the lead, and Stratton came in and the ninth. But the last time they had to use Bedner, it was another non-save chance, but Stratton worked the eighth.

Bedner worked the ninth. And so I'm hopeful it's Bedner. He's better. He was the eighth inning guy before Rodriguez got traded. I'm hoping it's better. Chicago, you had Dylan Maples as the top guy, but you also had five, four names listed. Dylan Maples, Manuel Rodriguez,

Cody Heuer, and Kyle Ryan. Rodriguez got the save Wednesday. He's at the top of the list. He would have to be now. They used him in the ninth, in a non-safe situation. recently.

This was the most speculative one. And Kyle Ryan had already gotten a safe since Kimberle got traded, but he's just, there's no reason to think he's any good. Maples had the best numbers. He should be back soon from the I.L. He throws very hard. So I was guessing he might be the choice.

And maybe he still will. He's not back from the I.O. yet. But Manuel Rodriguez, who just got called up, also throws very hard. Yes. 99 with his fastball. And he got a save. So maybe they're already too.

groom him for that role 24 years old. Very little experience, obviously, which is why I didn't think they'd push him to close right away. But he's obviously the leading contender now after getting a save on Wednesday. All right. Let's talk about some of Wednesday's bullpen notes before we move on. Mark Melanson blew his fifth save of the season. No real worries there.

Devin Williams got his first save with Josh Hater on the COVID-I-L. He could be in line to get you. two to four saves over the next week. So, you know, that'd be a nice little bonus if you've had Devin Williams in your lineup. You got to a little bit of a rough start after breaking out last season, but he's really settled in

and been very good for most of this season. Michael Lorenzen got a five-out save for the Reds. This is one day after Heath Hembray blew another save. So what do you think the chances are that Michael Lorenzen's the closer for the Reds? Yeah, I mean, you've been talking up this possibility. for a while. Lorenzen went right back on the IL

after he came back from a lengthy absence went right back on with the hamstring injury so that kind of got kind of put that off for a while. You know, my thought is he's the only one who hasn't failed yet. Right. True. And Heath Hembray has fallen apart

since Lorenzen's initial return. So I would say Lorenzen's the front runner now. I mean, what does that mean to be the front runner for the run? Reds for saves. Has it meant much this year. But yeah, he hasn't failed yet.

And I will say, like Lucas Sims, I think before he got hurt, he was pitching pretty well in that role. Yeah, he had gave up three runs on three hits in his last appearance before going on the aisle. But before that, he had 11 straight scoreless appearances. He got six saves in that stretch. And he is on a rehab assignment. now coming back from an elbow injury. So another name to keep in mind, Lucas Sims, you know, if he comes back

and he looks good, he could be the closer, and maybe it's just Lorennan for a little while. The raise doing raise things. Matt Whistler got the last save for the raise, I believe over the weekend. He worked the 7th and 8th today. And Ryan's sheriff, there is a new sheriff in town for the Tampa Bay raise.

You've got to make that pun when he comes up. So the lead for my bullpen report, I kind of broke down the whole raise situation because it's just like I don't even really know who to speculate on but I named three guys who could maybe be getting saves until everyone else got healthy

because they got a ton of guys a ton of bullpen guys on the aisle right now I did not mention Ryan Sheriff among the probably eight names of raise relievers I put out there so they typical typical raise To be fair, Wiesler got a save on Sunday

before that they have hadn't had a save since July 22nd. That was Diego Castillo, who's no longer on the roster. Before that, it was July 7th, July 18th, and that was Peter Fairbanks, who is on the IL right now. So, you know, hard to know what to make of that in general. Edwin Diaz was placed on the paternity leave list. Trevor May got a save tonight, so that was actually nice for me because I had to start

him in one league. So, hooray for falling backwards into saves. And this was a weird note. The Cardinals are considering using Jordan Hicks as a starter in 2022. It's been a while. He did come up as a starter. He's had obviously a lot of injury issues, including he's on the aisle right now. But that was an interesting one that I saw.

They're at least considering it to open next season. So it would be kind of weird if Anthony, or Alex Reyes stayed in the bullpen and Jordan Hicks became a starter, but I guess it wouldn't be Adam Wainwright made that, had that in his career, right? He was a starter as a prospect,

closed for a little while early on and then got moved back. Well, he was a closer during the playoff run. Yeah, I might be dating myself by about 13 years there, but yeah. Because whoever their actual closer was during the season was hurt for the playoff run, so he's Wayne Wright. I mean, David,

Price kind of came up that way. It looks like Michael Kopeck is coming up that way. Not as a closer, but is a short, a late-inning, high-leverage reliever. So it's not uncommon for teams to break in pitchers this way. And I thought that was the plan for Alex Reyes, actually. But maybe they've come to like him so much in the ninth inning that they're just planning to keep him there.

I don't know. All right. Let's talk about some prospects. Scott, this is, this is kind of your territory, but I will point out a couple of notes that I saw today. One, Giants shortstop prospect, Marco Luciano was promoted to high A. He was hitting 278 with a 373 OBP, 556 slug at low A this season. He's 19 years old.

He is one of the top prospects in baseball. And just something to keep in mind, I would guess he starts at AA next season. And once you're at AA, you're always a good couple of months away from getting the call potentially. One guy who probably won't get the call is to start next season is Red Sox first baseman Tristan Kossis, who Alex Kora was asked whether he could see him playing first base

for the Red Sox to open the 2021 season. He is currently playing in the Olympics. The Olympics. He'llmered in three straight games in the Olympics. Hit a walk off in his most recent game, I think, right? Something like that. But he said he does not see Tristan Kassas as an option for at least the start of the 20th

2021 season. He was having an okay season at double A. I think he was in like the high 700s range, but he'll probably go to AAA next season and have to prove himself. But again, could be a good three weeks away from getting called up at the start of next season. So he'll be something people are someone people are potentially stashing. Scott, let's talk about some prospects. Who are the prospects you're writing about this week? Who are the top five to stash? Okay. So the top five to stash, the selection is, we're really having to stretch things at this stage of this season. Yeah.

How motivated am I to stash any of these guys? In a typical league, probably just the one at the top, Bobby Witt. Even him, I mean, there's no guarantee. It's called up. The Royals aren't playing for anything. They tend to be pretty aggressive about promoting their prospects. He's moved up to AAA after. And continues to hit really well.

Yeah, continues to hit well after destroying AA. So he's making his case. It's just a question of how the royals are going to play it. But if there's any organization that would call him up at this point, despite being out of contention, it would probably be them. So he would be the number one choice to stash. I really like Jose Miranda the more I look at him of the twins. They didn't end up trading Josh Donaldson.

But he's, I believe, he's 24 years old. And he's not such a high. end prospect that you would imagine them playing service time games with him. But his numbers have just been ridiculous. Ridiculous. Hitting around 350 with plenty of power. I mean, it looks like Albert Pooholz between double and AAA this year. The strikeout rate is very low.

He has not hit below 319 or fewer than six home runs in any month this season. Yeah, he's been awesome. He's been awesome, and it just, is it quite 24? No, it's 23. But it wouldn't surprise me if they called him up to give him a look heading into the offseason, especially since he's, even AAA's. His numbers are better at AAA.

He's been in 354. The 1069 OPS. Edward Cabrera. For the Marlins. Yeah, I suspect they're going to have some innings to fill down the stretch. and he still has plenty left in the tank after missing a lot of this season with injury.

He's recently moved up to AAA, and the results have been mixed. The walks have gone up. His latest start was interesting. Four and two-thirds innings, four walks, 12 strikeouts. Yeah.

25 swinging strike. So the stuff has definitely been there. Is he, you know, if he keeps walking guys like this at AAA, they might decide to hold him out till next year. But of every starting pitcher left, I would say he's my... Edward Cabrera. Edward Cabrera has the best chance of making an impact.

And then rounding out the list here, I mean, Vidal Bruhan's back in it. So, I mean, that goes to show you how interested are you really... Are you in stashing Vidal Bruhan, really? He's hitting well. Since going back down to AAA, I think he's hitting over 300, but no home runs. Yeah, he has hit well over 300. He's been... 350 or something like that, yeah.

Yeah. But the power's basically been gone since May. Yep. That's beginning to look like an aberration. But, you know, 80 great speed is the main skill he brought to the table. Good play discipline. Even if he gets called up, will it be for an everyday role? I suspect there will have to be some kind of injury for that to happen.

Yeah. So I'm not super enthusiastic about stashing him. Makes sense. And then rounding out the list. We now have a pronunciation for the Dodgers catcher prospect traded to the Nationals. It's Kibert Ruiz. Not Keybert or Kiberd or Kaibert as we were calling him. Key Bear Ruiz.

Now of the Nationals. Has had a power breakthrough in the miners this year. Always had amazing contact skills. And I don't think he'll need long at AAA before he takes over behind the plate for the big club. So that's my list. Those are the five to stash right now. All right, is there anybody else you want to talk about? That was Bobby Witt, Jose Miranda, Edward Cabrera, Vidal Bruhan, and Kibera Ruiz.

Yep. Let's see. Mark Bientos of the Mets, V-I-E-N-T-O-S. He has had a breakthrough season. He's up to 20 homers or is it 20? It might be over 20, but he's had 17. I know since the start of June. And as always produced good exit velocities.

So it seems like he's figured out how to tap into that raw skill, turned it into power, third base prospect for the Mets. So he's becoming more interesting. Let's see. I mean, most of these guys are pretty, you know, not that close to contributing. I'll let you check out the column. I know we got a lot of stuff from tonight's action to get to still. to CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball and check that out on Thursday. Let's get to the rest of

Wednesday night's action. And let's talk about some good pitchers and just see if there's anything here that jumps out that you want to talk about. Frankie Montas, six innings, three earned runs, eight strikeouts, zero walks. Twenty-eight percent splitter usage. We talked about him a little bit yesterday, how that splitter usage has gone up. He's pitching much better lately. Joe Musgrove has really turned his kind of up and down season around. He was really great in April, and his ERA had basically climbed in every month before a recent run, but he allowed one-earned run in six innings, five strikeouts, three walks.

He has got a 254 ERA, 29 strikeouts, nine walks and 28 in a third over his last five innings. I'd like to see him pitching a little deeper into games. Freddie Peralta threw 98 pitches today, struck out nine, allowed two earned runs, two walks, and six innings. He has only had one start so far where he was limited in pitches, right?

Like truly limited? Yeah, he had that four-inning start where he allowed just one hit and yet they took him out. Two six-inning starts since then. Yeah. So maybe it's a... Yeah, maybe it's a one-on, three-off

or three-on, one-off kind of situation. We'll see. Probably just keep him in your lineup. Yeah. Shahatani, one-earned run. six strikeouts, six innings pitch. He's down to a 293 RA. Not really much to say about him.

He has really fixed the control issues that he had early in the season. Lucas Gialito, he had been really good in his previous four starts before today. Allowed five earned runs, 27 strikeouts with eight walks over his previous four starts. Today he allowed five earned runs with two strikeouts and four innings against K.C., his ERA. It's actually in the high threes. At some point, do you see Lucas Gialito turning it around fully? I haven't been that worried about Lucas Golito. I understand the ERA is higher than we'd like it to be.

But still gets a lot of quality starts, still gets a lot of strikeouts. I don't think anything's wrong with him necessarily. You know, he may not be. quite that Uber ace that justified the second round pick this year. That's what I'm doing. But, you know, a third rounder, a fourth round or something like that, he's not far off from that. And Max Scherzer just continues to pitch well in his Dodgers debut, seven innings, five hits, two runs, one walk, ten strikeouts. He's really, really good.

Are these next six pitchers good? That's the question, Scott. We'll start with Zach Gallen. I actually cruised through five innings against San Francisco and then was hit for two earned runs in the sixth. Finish with three run runs and five and two thirds, six strikeouts, three walks, four hits. Zach Allen good right now.

I don't know what to make of Zach Allen. Obviously, when you miss time with ligament damage, right? He had ligament damage in his elbow. It didn't seem like they were seriously considering the possibility of Tommy John surgery, but certainly that comes to mind and just has been inconsistent since coming back.

His swinging strikes are not there. You know, even when he's gotten good results at times, like single digit singing swinging strike outings. And I'm not totally convinced he's healthy. I'm not. He just doesn't look the same. He doesn't look right. That's fair.

I'm worried. What about Logan Gilbert? He has, you know, pitched much better since a slow start. but lately, kind of flagging. He gave up three earned runs and five innings tonight against Tampa Bay, walked four. Control was actually a bit of an issue for him early on,

but it hasn't been lately. Six strikeouts. He's under six inning pitched in four straight starts, but he saw as 26 strikeouts to eight walks in that span. Where are you at on Logan Gilbert? I mean, these are growing pains, I assume. I think overall, been pretty impressed by his rookie season.

Maybe, though, these four straight non-quality starts after that seven- inning gym against the Yankees. It's a reminder that he's not quite to the point where we should think of him as must-start or anything. Just kind of still a match-ups play, two-start week kind of play. But, you know, I think he'll have, I think he will have other good starts this year. Sure. James and Tyon, very good start today. 10 strikeouts.

It was his most strikeouts, I believe, since June of 2018, six and one third, two earned runs against Baltimore. 18 whiffs on 90 pitches. I've been skeptical of his apparent turnaround lately, but I mean, it's really, it's two big strikeout games. He had one with nine, now one with 10. Between that, strikeouts hadn't really been there. But are you buying into Jamison, Tyone?

Well, you know, I've been optimistic. Yeah. For reasons that are kind of hard to explain. I guess what I was hoping because he was getting a lot of whiffs early in the season especially on the fastball and he kind of remade his delivery in a way that was supposed to maximize

the impact of the fastball and it seemed to be happening even though the results weren't good and then he had that June where he had what or July I should say where he had that 117 ERA or something but without a lot of missed bats

it was largely BAPB driven And I just wondered if you could bring that all together, I guess, is what I was hopeful of. And this first start here in August would seem to be evidence of that. It is only one start. It was one start against the Orioles at that. So in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't mean much. But I take it as in combination with the rest of the season, I take it as encouraging. and I can't really picture myself dropping James and Tyone right now.

I think I would want to hold on to him, see where this goes. That's fair. Rank these three pitchers for the rest of the season. Carlos Carrasco, who gave up two runs and four and a third today on 62 pitches, Eduardo Rodriguez, who struck out 10 and five shot out against the Tigers, and John Gray, who had a quality start, three earned runs in six innings. How would you rank those three rest of season? season. I would rank them Carrasco first.

No reason to be disappointed in what he's done so far. Followed by Gray, John Gray and Rodriguez. Eduardo Rodriguez. I should say the full name since Rodriguez is a common name. So that's how I'd rank them. But I think they should all be rostered. Yeah. I might have Rodriguez at the top, actually.

He's, he has been one of the biggest over... Underachievers. Underachievers in terms of X-FIP this year. And it seemed like for a while he was coming around living up to the X-FIP

and then he kind of crashed again but obviously a good start this time. All right, there were a lot of pretty uninteresting pitchers who filled out today's schedule. It was not the best day for starting pitching. But I do want to highlight Stephen Matt's had a good start

against Cleveland, eight strikeouts, six shutout innings. You know, he'd been bad before. that, but he'll always give us some flashes. And then I know you've really liked Zach Thompson, but he's only pitched 18.2 innings over the last four.

That's two thirds. 12 strikeouts, nine walks in that span. He gave up two earn runs, only two strikeouts, two walks, and four innings against the Mets today. I think he's pretty droppable. Yeah, I would agree. It seems like the pixie dust is worn off here. And he couldn't really understand where it was

coming from in the first place. Yeah. I had a pretty uninspiring minor league track record and 27 years old at the time of his call up. But yeah, the 12 strikeouts and 18 and 2 thirds innings over his past four starts. Yeah. I mean, I was excited because he was missing bats early on and he's not anymore. He's not yet.

All right. Let's talk about some hitters before we get out of here. Carter Key Boom. He's having a little, putting a little bit of the boom back in Carter Key Boom. He's got two home runs in his last seven games, nine for 23. stretch after going two for four with the home run here. He was a top prospect, but he had been, you know, pretty disastrous in three previous stints in the majors, really, before getting called up recently after the dead, or right before

the deadline. Um, worth adding in 12 team roto leagues just to see? I don't think so. I was checking out the minor league numbers. Mm-hmm. And other than the plate discipline being good, there wasn't a lot of, there wasn't a lot of I didn't see a lot of reason for optimism that Carter Kibum had figured things out, gotten back on track, is about to live up to the prospect pedigree.

If I was deciding between Luis Garcia and Carter Kee Boom, for instance, it wouldn't be much of a decision. I'd just go after Garcia. All right, let's talk about Oscar Mercado, who went four for five with a home run today. They're certainly in the past. He's given us reasons to be excited, not so much this season. before today's four for five game, he had four hits in his previous eight games.

He's pretty much playing every day for Cleveland, but you know, you need him to start hitting. There's a little bit of a power speed combination. He could be over the course of a full season, maybe a 1525 guy if he played every day. But, you know, right now just on a watch list. We talked about Whitmerfield being disappointing. recently. He went three for five with an RBI today, so that was good to see.

Brendan Rogers, three for four. He's a podcast favorite, so it's good to see that. I think he's so close. His overall numbers with this 10-game hitting streak he has going on and has included four home runs, I think. It has the season numbers looking pretty strong, just as they are. I think he's so close to just like taking off, like a rocket ship. And here's a guy I always like. I liked him really a lot as a prospector as a sleeper heading into 2019 when he was with the Padres. Edward Olvaris, he had a homer, his second in three games.

Since getting recalled for Kansas City, he has been crushing him in the AAA this year, 322, 395 OBP, 572 OPS with 13 homers and 12 stolen bases in about 50 games. Royals do not seem to believe in him. They have called him up and sent him down about three or four times this. year, but he's playing somewhat regular lately, and he's performing. So I would love to see him just play every day the rest of the season, because I think he, you know, could be a 2020 guy. He reminds me a little bit of like Josh Rojas, where he was getting some hype around circles of the fantasy community, but just never got a chance. And, uh, yeah, Rojas was pretty good before getting

hurt this season. So Edward Olivares, if you're in a, uh, definitely any deeper roto leagues, someone worth having on your radar. And that's it. That's it for Thursday's podcast. We'll be back tomorrow with week 20. Are we a week 20? That sounds right. I think it's week 20.

Week 20 previews might be the start of the playoffs in some of your leagues. I know in some of my head-to-head points leagues it is. So that's exciting stuff. We are at the most exciting, important part of the season if you're trying to make the playoffs in a head-to-head points league. so keep listening to fantasy baseball today and we'll be back on Friday see it