Fantasy Baseball Today - Top-5 SP for 2026, Brandon Sproat's Debut & Palencia Replacements! (9/8 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

Jacob Misiorowski had his best start of the season (3:28). ... Hunter Greene is in the mix for Top-5 SP in 2026 (8:39). ... Yoshinobu Yamamoto took a no-hitter into the 9th and the Dodgers blew it (15:43). ... Brandon Sproat turned in a QS in his debut (22:27). ... News (27:10): Daniel Palencia is dealing with a shoulder injury. ... The Dog of the Week is Bubba Chandler (36:13). ... What's the latest on rookie pitchers (40:53)? ... Justin Verlander continues to pitch well (47:07). ... Jorge Polanco continues to rake (52:35). ... Start or sit these pitchers (58:31)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:05:35). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@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/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Yes, football is back, but we still have a job to do. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, September 8th.

And finally, we are all reunited. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Brendan Sprope made his Major League debut, a bunch of injury updates, starter sit decisions, and much more. But here we are. I am back for the rest of the season, unless something unforeseen happens, hopefully not. But thank you to you guys for filling in. How did everything go?

You got to ask the listeners. I have no idea. I have no ability to self-reflect personally. I joined the stream yard room today, and I see. see a video of Scott's face over Scottie doesn't know and that's pretty cool. I like that. I think we had a good time. My, I think if we're having fun, everybody's having fun.

So, you know, let's keep having fun. Yeah, let's do that. All right, let's jump into players of the weekend. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Scott, why don't you get us started? Jacob Miziarowski, one of his best starts of the season. Yep. In fact, probably his best start of the season, certainly his longest start of the season here on Sunday.

He went seven innings at Pittsburgh. So weak lineup, the weakest in baseball. But still, really good start, seven innings, three hits, one run, eight strikeouts for Jacob Mizorowski. He did have two six-inning starts previously. But none since coming back from the IL. Right. It had been a while, and if you'll remember, it was a bold prediction. It was the sort of prediction you make, not totally believing it, but just being able to conceive of it.

But I did say, you know, after his first turn back from the IL, I don't think we're going to see even a five-enning start from Mizorowski rest of season. And now he's done that twice in his last three starts, and both were very very very. very good. He had 10 strikeouts in the five-inning outing, and now he has a seven-inning outing. So, you know, all bets are off. I'm not willing to make any more bold predictions about Mizurowski's workload going forward,

but he does seem to be pitching really well. And the main way he's pitching well has been going on this whole time. A lot of strikes being thrown. 69% in this start for his entire time in the majors coming in, it was 66%, which is very good. This is a guy who, the big glaring red flag, I don't know that red flags glare, but that giant red flag for him in the miners was control.

It was a major issue. He could throw really hard, had great stuff, but just didn't know where it was going. We saw strides in the miners this year. We saw strides in the Myers from Joe Boyle. You'll remember this year too. and then he got back in the majors, and that all dried up immediately.

But it hasn't for Mizorowski. He's been really good, and I think he'll be of some use for you down the stretch, to say the least. What's interesting about Miziarowski is he's just pounding the zone. Like in this start, I think it was a 60% in zone rate, 55% in zone rate today. 60% his previous start is 55% overall.

And that suggests to me that like, is this guy hitting his spots regularly? I don't know. You know, I don't know if they're like, if he's dotting the corner all that often, as much as it's just they can't touch you either way. Just aim for the middle. You're not going to hit the middle of the zone anyway. So don't worry. Like, it doesn't matter.

He's not going to hit where he's aiming anyway. He's going to miss hopefully somewhere close enough to the zone that the hitter to make a swing decision. And it's mostly working for him. You know, he doesn't miss as many bats as you might think in terms of like raw swing and miss. Like it was 13, 108 swings pitches today. I think he's been right around like 12%,

which is a good swinging strike rate, but not like best in baseball like you would expect from someone with his stuff. But he's so hard to barrel up. He's avoiding walks well enough that I think there's a tough. that I think there's a ton to be optimistic about. And the thing I liked in this one was he threw his curveball more than his slider, which is not something we've seen that often from Mizirowski. And I thought maybe it was like a matchups thing.

He throws it more against lefties. But the pitch spread lefty versus righty was very similar in his previous start. And he was more slider heavy. And the thing I like about that is the slider for Mizorowski, it's a cutter. Like whatever, you call it a slider, call it a cutter, whatever. 95 man hour pitch doesn't have like a ton of movement. It has a lot of movement for 95. But the curveball has been the better whiff pitch.

And so having the four seamer, which you can get whiffs and generate weak contact with, the slider I think is going to be more of a contact suppression pitch. And so if the curveball emerges as a consistent putaway pitch, I think that's where the outcomes for Mizirowski could get pretty bonkers. looking ahead to 2026. It was a, coming in, it was a 14% swinging strike rate for Mizorowski. Okay. That's very, very good.

Very, very good. And he is only 66% started on CBS and faces the Cardinals this week, a team that has the lowest Wobah in baseball in the second half of the season. So if you had Mizorowski on your bench, change that. Get him back in your lineup. And finally, we can play this sound drop again. Because I'm the... Yeah, he was awesome in that start.

All right, Chris, let's go over to you. Hunter Green, making his case for maybe a top five pitcher for next season. Yeah, I mean, on a pure ability basis, I don't know if there are five pitchers. I'd rather have than Hunter Green right now. Or for 2026. On a per inning, per start basis, he has been outstanding. It's his second 12 strikeout effort since coming off the IL less than a month ago. It's 12 strikeouts against a Mets lineup that has just been demolishing everyone.

That's three 12 strikeout efforts on the season. Only Terrick Scuba has more. Among pitchers who have at least 200 innings since the start of last season, Green is fifth in the majors in ERA. He's tied for seventh in whip, which is pretty surprising given his sometimes shaky control. He's basically been every bit as good as Zach Wheeler or Chris Sale over the past two seasons. It's just that you have to add a lot of qualifiers when you're finding ways to rank Hunter Green and contextualize him because he has only thrown 240 innings over the past two seasons.

And he has only thrown 90 and a third so far this season. But coming into this season, there were injury concerns. And there were a little bit of performance concerns. He took a big step forward last season, but a lot of it was based on his ability to limit hard contact, which is actually regressed just as we would have expected this season. He had a 307 expected Wobon contact last season. That was, I think, the second best mark in baseball after Justin Steele. It's 375 this year, which is a below average mark. It's just he has bumped his strikeout rate up again to 31%. He's cut his strikeout rate or his walk rate almost in half. And so what, what is? he's lost in the quality of contact suppression he has made up for in the more sustainable aspects of pitch strikeouts and walks that's that's really what we want we want you to get a lot of strikeouts and limits and walks and he's doing both those exceptionally well it's just he went on the aisle twice with a groin injury this season and that's the least concerning thing about hunter green's

injury track record he had an elbow injury last season he had a shoulder injury back in 2022 I think he had a hip or a back injury in 2023 that landed him on the aisle. And obviously before he got to the minors, he had Tommy John surgery. And this might just be life with the hardest throwing pitcher in baseball, right? Like you might just have to live with an elevated injury risk for Hunter Green that limits how high the ceiling can be over the course of a full season. But I still think we have to talk about him as a top 12 starting pitcher for next season. I don't think there's, I think one of the biggest topics of conversation this offseason in fantasy baseball is going to be who is the number four SP.

And we can get into who we think it'll be. I think there are like legitimately 10 names that you could throw out there that I wouldn't laugh off. I don't know if you want to say all 10, but Hunter Green is in that discussion. I think he's got to be in the lower half of that 10 just because there are. are a lot of ways that it can go wrong for him. But if you're telling me, you're going to get 200 innings of every pitcher next season, I think he's right there with Chris Sayle and Logan Gilbert

for the number 4 SP. Yeah, I don't know that I can, I don't know that I can ding him that much for the health concerns because, I mean, there are health concerns kind of inherent to everybody. And I'm not saying, I'm not saying we treat him like he's going to pitch 200 innings or even 180.

My rule for a long time has been until I see a pitcher do that. His max is capable of. Yeah. So, but I don't know that there are, I don't know that I could come up with 10 names that I think are deserving. For me, it comes, it's down to four

for that number four spot after the obvious top three of Terrick Scoobal, Garrett Crochet, and Paul Skeins. It's between for me. Yeah. It's between. Logan Gilbert, Chris Sale, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Hunter Green. All four of which had great starts this weekend, by the way.

Two of them had amazing starts. Hunter Green being one of them, Yamamoto being the other. I'm sure we'll get to him. Chris had nine strikeouts. That's pretty amazing too. Yes, it's kind of second straight start with nine strikeouts. It's kind of just his standard form, which is why I'm kind of leaning toward him, actually. And it feels...

I think I'm more than leaning. you're more than leaning you're ready to pencil in sale there i think i think i'm penciling him in yeah i don't feel great about any of like that that's clearly a step below the top three in terms of uh in terms of a how good i think they could be but even more so b how how long how how available i think they're going to be how many innings they're going to give me um and and for different reasons all four of them. But you start working in other names like Hunter Brown or I don't even know. Who else would you, Hunter Brown is going to be in there. I think Christopher Sanchez. I think Brian Wu is like on the outside of that. I think DeGrom is in there. I think he's just a talent. I just think the talent

level is a little lower now. Right. For most of the ones you can name the talent level is lower. DeGrom maybe not, but he has, you know, he's going to be older. He's a couple years older in the sale even, right? I think him and Sail are like, sales is going to be 27. Okay, I thought he was. I think he's going to be four days after opening day. I think they're the same age. Okay. DeGrom is, yeah, 37 as well.

So. Okay. I see the commenters all saying this. So I imagine a lot of people listening who aren't in the comments are wondering why we're not mentioning Zach Wheeler. Zach Wheeler's injury is going to cost him probably the first couple months next year. And that is a scary injury. of such a severity that he may never be the same again.

So I, one name, he's well out of this conversation. One other name. I mean, look, if Zach Wheeler's like pitching in spring training miraculously

and looks like himself, maybe we can have that discussion, but that seems like a real long shot. Maybe Spencer Schwellenbach. Also coming back from a scary injury. Yeah, he's coming back from a, it's a fracture in his elbow, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So I'll hear Schwellenbach as a top 15, but yeah, I think it's, I think there are, I'm laughing at that one. I think Webb and Schoenbach are more top 15, but like it's probably the same tier.

Well, let's talk about Yamamoto. You guys mentioned his name. He's firmly in this mix. And I mean, between him and their bullpen this weekend, it's just a whole, oh my goodness gracious inning there. So Yamamoto fell one out short of a no-hitter, entered the ninth inning with a three-zip lead. and the Dodgers wound up losing the game. So crazy here. The final line, 8 and 2 thirds, one hit, one run,

10 strikeouts to two walks, 23 whiffs on 112 pitches, had everything working here. The velocity was up across the board. You know, around 1.5 to 2 miles per hour on all of his pitches here. Fastball splitter. We're just mowing people down in this one.

And then Blake Trinen entered with two outs in the ninth inning, a two-run lead. He gave up a double, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch, a walk, and another walk. Tanner Scott came in, gave up a walk off two-run single here, took his ninth blown save. So Dodgers bullpen has been a problem for a while here. Obviously, Yamamoto has been tremendous. Naturally, the Dodgers bullpen's been a disaster after having like four viable closers coming into the year. Yeah, Yamamoto, by the way, four straight quality starts, 10

strikeouts and back-to-back outings has gone seven plus innings in three of his last four. he also has, you know, a bit of an injury thing from last year dealt with that shoulder. So, I mean, he's, again, every pitcher we're talking about in that, like, top five-ish range, they all have their kind of warts here. But, man, Yamamoto is really kind of, he's coming on and he's kind of hitting his peak form here at the right time, right? As the Dodgers move towards a post-season. Yeah, and he was a workhorse in Japan. I think it's worth pointing out.

So the shoulder issue last year, I don't know if it was him adjusting to a different size baseball. different slickness of the baseball or just or just or just yeah stuff he's throwing a baseball so many times every six days yeah yeah it could have been any of those things but it is it is the exception to the rule of Yamamoto's career of of good health and big workloads and I've actually looking at his game log I was surprised how consistently he's been pitching deep into games six of his 11 starts from July on. This is Yoshinabu Yamamoto,

six of 11 from July on, have been seven innings or more. So he's been given the Dodgers some length and I think taking on what I would consider to be a true ace workload. Yeah, I think when comparing him to Sale and Gilbert, I think specifically, I think there's a volume deficit for Yamamoto

that I don't know if he quite makes up for with quality. Like I think he's probably pretty close to as good as those guys. I might give the edge. I might just, I think Sale might just be closer in terms of innings projected quality than to the top three than to the next tier. And that's part of why I'm just kind of going to start pounding the table for him as SP4. But with Yamamoto, they're going to be in a six-man rotation next year, almost certainly. And so, He probably has three starts left, and he needs to go five innings in each to get to, no. It's almost impossible for him to get to 180 innings this season, right?

Yeah, I don't see that. Yeah. I guess if he makes four more starts and he goes six plus in each, he could get there, but that's... He is not going to make four. It's asking a lot. So, yeah, I think that's the problem is the kind of best case. scenario for Yamamoto is probably 175 innings. And so, look, that's probably just a fair expectation for every pitcher at this point.

But yeah, Logan Gilbert, you're going to get to 180. Logan Gilbert got to 200 last year, right? I, that sounds right. I mean, he was. Yeah, he got to 208, 190, 185. Yeah, he was routinely up over 180. Yeah. So that's where if I think Logan Gilbert and Yamamoto are similar talent-wise,

and I think I'd probably give Gilbert the edge this season. I just, I really love what we've seen from him. I know the ERA's a little inflated, but the strikeout rate is 34% for Logan Gilbert. He's been bonkers. I'll give the edge to the guy who I think has more projectable volume. What Yamamoto lacks in K-minus walk rate compared to those guys, he does make up for, I think, in getting ground balls,

because he gets a ton of ground balls. Oh, yeah, no, his quality of content is like 325X-WOBA this season. It's elite. Yeah, so I, yeah, look, all these. these guys are going to be in that conversation. We'll have all off season to talk about it. But it's nice to get the wheels kind of turning a little bit here and starting to think about rankings for 2026. Big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and either subscribe or remain subscribed throughout the off season because we'll have a lot of fun stuff that we're

doing. And obviously we're still here five days a week throughout the rest of the regular season as well, helping people take down those fantasy baseball championships. Let's take our first break. When we return, news and notes. We'll do all of that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's hit the news and notes from the weekend. And the Mets continued their youth movement by promoting Brandon Sprote to make his first major league start on Sunday. And he looked pretty good. Turned in a quality start here at the red. Six innings, three hits, three runs, four walks a little bit high here, but seven strikeouts. Only six whiffs on 88 pitches. That was kind of weird compared to his seven strikeouts. But man, he gets a ton of movement on his breaking pitches here.

throws mid-90s with the fastball. Got up to a really bad start in the minors this season, but his last 11 games down there, it was a 244 ERA, a .93 whip. So he was pitching very well before he got promoted. The corresponding move was Kodi-Senga being sent down to AAA. So if you haven't dropped him yet, that's your sign to drop Kodaisanga.

But what did you guys think about Brandon Sprout and how much of a priority is he for the final couple weeks of the season? I thought he did well. Obviously, he needs to walk fewer. guys, but it's not something that I expect to be a consistent problem or a persistent problem for him. The lack of swinging strikes, you know, even during that good stretch, I think it was like a 12% rate at AAA. So it seems like by introducing more sinkers this year to his arsenal, Sprote has kind of gone away from being so much of a batmisser and leaned more into the ground balls while still getting strikeouts at a good clip. So that might not be such a bad tradeoff.

How much can I trust him in fantasy? After one start, it's really hard to put that much trust on him. He probably has at most three turns left because, you know, we saw what happened to Peyton Tolly, who I know all three of us were very excited about his second start didn't go well. And suddenly he's not getting a next start. Every single young pitcher except for Jacob Mizorowski and Parker Messick was kind of terrible. this weekend, right? Like, Bubba Chandler was awful. Cam Schlittler was awful.

Hurston Waldrop was bad. Payton Toley was bad. Jonah Tong was not great. It was not a great weekend for our faves. Yeah. That's true. But Sproet, especially, since he is part of a six-man rotation. And, like, his next start, he could go like Tollies does.

And then maybe he doesn't get another turn. So I'm not saying I wasn't looking to add him in any league, but I wasn't looking to add Sprote within. any real conviction, like, this is the guy who's going to win me my league. I was encouraging, but it's just kind of late to really gain trust in him. Among pitchers who are, for the most part, widely available, Luis Morales is not widely available. He's about 70% rostered, but he's got two starts this week.

I think you just ride with him if he's available in your league. I don't love the two starts at Sacramento. I feel like that could go really wrong if he doesn't pitch well, But we're chasing upside here. I would prioritize Cade Covelli over Brandon Sprode, even though I do think Brandon Sproats probably the more talented pitcher. But Cavali's got Marlins and Pirates in Washington this week. If we're just talking to streamers next week, yeah.

And then I really love what we've seen from Parker Messick so far. I would prioritize him over Brandon Sprode. He had a good start this week. Yep. They're all. I think all the guys you named are in my sleeper pitchers for next week. But Sproft is the iffy one. I want to say I'm at Sheehan ahead of Brannon Sprope.

Yeah. Because he should start against the Rockies in Los Angeles this week. I have no conviction in how likely that should actually is. Because the Dodgers, like four times in the last nine games, I think, the Dodgers have just had a different starting pitcher than expected, like 30 minutes before game time. It happened again this week with Tyler Glass now, I think, on Friday, so or Saturday. So I want to say I'd take M.S. Sheehan over Brandon Sproote. If you need a start this week, you should probably just take Sprirt.

I did have Sheehan and my sleeper pitchers for this week, too, but it is risky. He might not make a start at all this week because that's just the way the Dodger's been going. They've been kind of making their rotation on the fly. And in theory, she in lines up to face the Rockies, but maybe it won't be. If it happens later in the week, his start would be against the... Giants, I think. Tigers. Or Giants.

Yeah, I saw the name for Lander and thought tigers. Wow. Yeah, against the Giants, which is still a really good matchup, but not as good as the Rockies. All right. Next up, Daniel Palencia suffered a right shoulder injury on Sunday. Also had a disastrous outing. He'll go for medical testing, but it does sound like he's going to make. miss some time here. It's a big loss. Palencia

was having a breakout season. A 3-ERA, 118, WIP, 22 saves for the Cubs. Who is next up? My guess is Brad Keller, who pitched in the eighth inning on Sunday, has been really good this season, a 217 ERA. 0.96 whip. Over a strikeout

per inning gets a lot of ground balls. Fastball velocity is way up the season. 10% rostered on Keller. So I think 12-team Roto leagues are deeper. If you had Palencia, you need a saves replacement, or you just need saves, I would be looking at Brad Keller. Yeah, that makes the most sense.

He has been the eighth inning guy for a while. I think if it's not Keller, it's just because it's mixing and matching. Some other Palencia replacements here, Shallower League's Ryan Walker, who had a pretty bad outing this weekend as well. Abner Arebe, who's filling in for the Brewers, but Trevor McGill is trying to return when first eligible. We'll see if that's actually true or not. And Jose Ferrer, who has pitched

really well since taking over the closer role for the national. So I think all of those are totally fine. And then in deeper leagues, Victor Vodnick and Sean Armstrong were two that I found first saves. So you're right? I think Armstrong might be ahead of Ferrer for me. He's gotten each of the Rangers last four saves. His whip on the year is like 0.8.

I think he's, he has a long track record of being kind of a mediocre reliever, but he's been great this year and is getting the chances. All right, Trey Turner left Sunday's game with a right hamstring strain. He went on the aisle last year, but that was with the other hamstring, the left hamstring. Replacements for Turner this week. Otto Lopez is one of Scott's sleeper hitters. Also, Coulson Montgomery just keeps on hitting home runs.

Jordan Lawler has been playing and actually stole a base this weekend. Hassan Kim is getting some run with the Braves. JP Crawford was a name just because the Mariners have really good matchups this week. Anybody else come to mind or you guys just in agreement with those as a shortstop replacement? if Trey Turner needs to miss time. I think those are fine, yeah. All right. Bobby Wood Jr. left Friday's game with back spasms,

then missed Saturday and Sunday. What's the latest on Bobby Whit Jr.? Do you guys plan to start him this week? It's going to be really hard to sit Bobby Witt. So he did have an MRI and it came back negative. So it's just a matter of the back spasms calming down enough for him to play. But that's it's hard to put.

a timeline on that, I just think, I need a really, really good shorts, top alternative to consider sitting him. It wouldn't be picking up Ha-Song Kim off the way for wire. Fair enough. Kyle Tucker has misfortune with left cat tightness and is not expected to return on Monday either. Do you guys plan to bench Kyle Tucker this week? I think this one you probably should, yeah. Yeah. Though they did say he's getting closer to returning. It won't be Monday, but it's getting closer. And five outfielder league, I might risk it. Christian Yellich has missed five straight with a back injury. And of course, he does have a long history of back injuries.

Start or sick Christian Yelich this week. So I'm planning to start him even in my three outfielder head-to-head league where I'm in the semifinals. Because he did take batting practice without issues Saturday. And there was some hope he could return Sunday. It's still risky. But it sounds like he's trending toward returning. very soon. Tyler Glass now was scratched from his start Friday due to back tightness. The plan is to have him start early this week for the Dodgers, but as you guys have pointed

out, they are pretty unpredictable right now. What are we doing with Tyler Glass now? I leaned towards sitting him. He could go out and strike out nine, and it wouldn't be surprising, but it could also be a three-inning start. You know, I just, I think it's probably not worth the trouble. Boba Chet was out of the line of Sunday after a tough collision at home plate on Saturday where he banged up his left shin but he did come back into that game. There's a lengthy rain delay. I was at that game and it was like a two-hour rain delay. It was crazy. Did you stay? Yeah, I did. Wow. Yeah. So. Yeah. Start or sit Boba Shett this week. What do you guys think there? I'd start. All right. Yeah, it seemed kind of like a day off.

Cole Reagan started a rehab assignment on Sunday, three innings, one run. That's seven strikeouts to zero walks. He got up to 45 pitches, average 95.3 miles per hour with his fastball. He topped out at 97. So perhaps, where he was before the injury. We see him. Maybe he makes one more rehab start and they bring him back, but that would be my guess. Yeah, maybe we get like two or three starts from Cole Regens. And all of a sudden, the Royals are pretty close to a wildcard spot too, so they could use him. Maybe he'll be the number four pitcher next year. Cole Regens. Like from a skills perspective, he looked really good before he got hurt. Yeah, maybe he's in that discussion.

Yeah. I hadn't considered that. There had to have been some guys who are hurt right now that I hadn't considered. Yeah. I'm not being that serious. But like, let's say they make the playoffs and Cole Reagan's like has some, like a couple of monster starts at the playoffs. Then we probably are talking about him, at least in that top success. range. Dodgers catcher Will Smith has a bone bruised in his right hand that he'll need to manage for

the rest of the season. Michael King is expected to return from the aisle this week. I'm guessing we're keeping him on the bench for that first turn back, right? Uh, yeah, I would. Mm-hmm. Samwell Bessio left Saturday's game after taking a foul tip off his right hand. X-rays were negative, but he was out of the lineup here on Sunday. So in two catcher leagues, I did pick up a third catcher just in case. He's going to miss a couple of games here. Again, that's Samuel Bessio. Nick Ladolo has been clear to start Monday after missing his last start with an illness. Are you guys good with two-star Lodolo this week? I have him near the top of the advisable in most cases tier of the two-star pitcher rankings. So probably start him. Kyle Finnegan was placed in the aisle with a right at Dr. Shrain,

retroactive to September 1st. So Will Vest could see even more save opportunities moving forward. Max Muncie of the Dodgers is expected to be activated on Monday. Are you guys throwing him back in there? If you need a third baseman, and a lot of people do, I think that's probably better than what you've been making do with off the waiver wire. Spencer Shreider had his start push back from Sunday to Tuesday. They said it's not injury related. They just wanted to get Strider more rest.

Ryan Weathers will join the Marlins rotation this week. My guess is just to wait and see approach for fantasy, right? Ryan Weathers? Yeah. Alex Burleson is expected to be activated from the aisle on Monday. Spencer Arrogate went on the aisle with right elbow inflammation. He'll miss the rest of this season, but his UCL is intact, and he doesn't expect to need surgery.

Others who went on the aisle this weekend, Ryan Jeffers with a concussion, Dalton rushing with a bone bruise in his right shin, Nestor Cortez with a biceps injury, Adolius Garcia with a right quadrain, and Connor Norby with a left quad train. Before we get to the dog of the week, although I thought about just making this lady the dog of the weekend. The lady who stole the ball in that Marlins-Filly's game,

just completely unhinged, man. What is going on here? That was weird. It was just weird. That's my only response. It's just weird. Act like an adult. I don't know.

Crazy stuff. It's just crazy stuff, man. It makes me a little uncomfortable the attention these things get. I agree with that. Yeah, like everything about like all the attention. Okay, it was an uncomfortable interaction where at the very least it seemed like she didn't behave appropriately. But like they're being interviewed on the news and stuff. And like everything from him getting this gift basket from the Marlins organization to.

I thought that was nice. It was nice. but I and then like of course you get that let's identify this woman and try to ruin her life and it's like okay like I don't know I don't know that her bad behavior in that that moment justifies that so I agree that that's that's my biggest takeaway from the whole thing you know what it kind of worked out for the kid though with all the perks that you wound up getting out of this is pretty pretty cool for him I guess not in the moment but the way everything kind of turned out was was good for the kid there all right let's get into the dog of the weekend, Chris. You're up. Dog of the week this week is Bubba Chandler, who finally got that first major league start and proceeded to do something in the bed, poop that your dog might do. And it's so hard to know what to make of Bubba Chandler at this point. I have no idea.

Just because, and we've talked about it all along, but like the minors, he was dominating for like half of his minor league season. then he was terrible for like half of it. He comes up to the majors. His first, I think three relief appearances are very good. Two wins and a save. Wasn't missing a lot of bats. Had, I think, three strikeouts in each of his first three outings.

And then he makes his first start and proceeds to get bombed. I still like him. I still think he's talented. I don't know if, I don't think Bubba Chandler is a must roster player right now. For sure in fantasy. No. Yeah, not for this season. I mean, trying to figure out what we're going to do with Bubba Chandler for next year is going to be a tough conversation.

Because as you mentioned, prospect pedigree, there's obvious talent here. He throws extremely hard. He has, you know, good secondary pitches. But, I mean, in the small sample we've seen so far, he's just giving up a ton of hard contact. And in the minors, the walks were a major problem. So, I mean, maybe it'll just turn out to be a volatile profile where he can go out and, you know, some starts he'll dominate and others he'll just get rocked. But he's also still really young and has a lot of talent.

So we're not writing him off, but he will be a polarizing player, I think, this all season. I don't know that it'll be that polarizing. I think he'll just be a late round flyer if you're just gambling on pedigree, gambling on upside. I might as well chase the upside rather than throw it at some known commodity who's not very good. Unless, you know, until spring training comes, and if Bubba Chandler's lighting it up in spring training, then he'll be hyped to the hills

and he'll be pushed into the top 150 probably and maybe end up going too early. But until then, I imagine he'll just be a late-round flyer. I think if you're looking for like a comp, Jackson Job this year, obviously, hopefully it goes better. But he was a late-round flyer. Didn't really ever get pushed up draft boards, which ended up being a good decision.

But that kind of where, you know, maybe around the 200th pick is when you start looking and say, yeah, it's, I don't know, Bubba Chandler or Michael Waka or Merrill Kelly or whatever. Merrill Kelly probably deserves more respect than that. But like, you know, that kind of player, like a Michael Waka type or what Chris Bassett has been the past few years where it's just like, yeah, he's useful. But you'd rather just take that flyer on the upside with Bubba Chandler and hope that he can, take that big step forward with a more normal development process.

All right, let's hit our final break. When we return, we'll take a look at those rookie pitchers and what happened this weekend, what we're doing with them moving forward. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. What's the latest on the rookie pitchers? We mentioned Peyton Tolly had a rough second start.

Five runs allowed over three innings. He walked four through just 60% of his pitches for strikes, and he will not start on Wednesday. He still could pitch that day in relief, but if he's not starting and we're not using him, while the upside seems to be there for the long term, can we just drop Peyton Toley for another pitcher we want to use this week? Yeah.

That's fine. I'm not dropping him in every league where I picked him up in like five leagues after that. And I'm not dropping him in all of them, but I am dropping him in a couple where he was just the low guy on the list for me because it's hard to say for sure you're going to get in. any use out of him going forward. But when they say he'll work in relief in his next outing, I'm picturing like we saw from Ian Seymour this weekend,

where he follows an opener, basically. And so he might, Peyton Tolly might put himself right back in the startable category for fantasy. If, you know, he goes five innings of relief and gets seven or eight strikeouts, which is certainly in the realm of possibility. I do think they, they were just.

just too many non-fastballs in this one. That's going to need to be his bread and butter. And if it's not working for him, he's not going to have it that day. You know, that's kind of the Payton Tolly book right now. But I still think he's a very talented pitcher worth getting excited about. Jonah Tong struggled in his second start as well at the Reds. Six innings, four runs, four walks, six strikeouts with three homers allowed. Did have 13 whiffs on at 96% of his pitches, but obviously walks and home runs in the same start.

that's a recipe for disaster. Again, I don't know that you have to drop Jonah Tong if you picked him up or spent a lot of fad to get him. He faces the Rangers this week. Their lineup actually has been better over the past couple weeks. What are you guys doing with Jonah Tong? I would prefer to hang on to him.

I still very much believe in the talent. You know, the control is the biggest concern here, right? Like three home runs is obviously bad, but the fact that he only gave up four runs on three home runs suggests that he pitched okay otherwise. You know, 13 whiffs on 96 pitches. It's pretty good.

It's the only hits he gave up were home runs. That's hard to do. And suggests there was probably a little bit of bad luck there, probably a little bit of poor command of the fastball, especially. But I still think there's a lot to like about Jonah Tong. My preference is definitely to hang on to him. I agree. I don't know if we'll end up getting to use them this year.

Though in deeper leagues, I wouldn't necessarily sit him against Texas. I'm talking like the 15 teamers where your options are limited. But I'm not eager to start Jonah Tong. I still believe in the talent. He did have occasional control lapses throughout his minor league career, and he may just be going through one of those now. But I think he's good. All right.

Next up, we have Hurston Waldrop who struggled with control. Two starts in a row now. this one against the Mariners, five innings, two runs, five walks and five strikeouts. He has nine walks over his last two outings. It's still a 133 ERA and a 106 whip. He's only 49% started and faces the Astros this week.

So another one where, you know, the results have still been a right, but walks are kind of piling up and Astros could be a tough matchup. What do you guys think about Waldrop? I would say it was four good starts in a row for Hurston Waldrop. He hasn't had a bad start by results yet in terms of like the the runs allowed.

But I think the last three have been pretty concerning. It was one walk, zero strikeouts, four walks, nine strikeouts, and then five walks, five strikeouts and the other one. Okay, some people only care about the ERA and maybe that he'll just continue to limit hard contact and dance out of trouble. But I think the last three starts have been pretty concerning. for a guy who obviously does not have a super long track record of pitching at this level. So I'm a little alarmed by what we're seeing from Hurston Waldrop right now. I'm not, I think I would start him ahead of Tong. I would certainly start him at Toli this week.

But I don't think he should be viewed as a must start for a one-star week. Yeah, I agree on that last point. I'm less concerned. I think the kind of issues he's had recently are inherent to. being so splitter heavy. And that he's been able to navigate around those walks is also related to him being so splitter heavy. So part of it just goes with the profile is what I'm saying.

And, you know, the Astros, statistically, they're not a very good offense. They scored four runs or fewer in eight of their last 10 games. Starting to look a little better with your now, Verraz. there, but I wouldn't be afraid to use Waldrip, but it's not a must-start situation, certainly. All right, and the last name here, Parker Messick, you guys mentioned his name

earlier, nice bounce back at the race, six innings, eight hits allowed, obviously that number is high, but one run, four strikeouts to zero walks, and has the quality start in three or four outings, and just three total walks in four starts. Walks, big problem for Messick and the minors. So far, small sample,

it's been better at the Major League level, and I would argue that he's the most usable of all of these names that we just mentioned because he gets the white socks this week. Yeah, especially given the matchup against the white socks. I've been very impressed by him. He gives me real like Matthew Boyd vibes, except I think there might be more strikeout upside here for Parker Messick. I like his fastball, even though it doesn't light up the radar gun. I think his change-up's excellent.

I'm starting him this week, and I think he's, you know, for being probably the least hyped of the young pitchers to get the call. the last month or so. I think he's acquitted himself very, very nicely so far. All right, I do have a couple of waiver wire pitchers here. More so to medium slash deeper size leagues here. Don't know that we're running out for any of these necessarily. But Verlander had a great start at the Cardinals, six shutout innings with six strikeouts here. Last nine starts for him, 261, ERA and a 118 whip. But he gets the Dodgers later this week. Johann Oviedo continues to pitch well for the Pirates. He faced the Brewers this weekend.

Five innings, one unearned run with four strikeouts to three walks. He's at the Orioles later this week. Stephen Kolek, who pitches for the Royals now. He actually came over from the Padres at the trade deadline, has turned in two quality starts in a row. Seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts here against the twins. He's at the Guardians this week. And Mitch Farris, who recently got promoted by the Angels,

turned in a quality start here on Sunday, against the athletics, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts for him, and he's at the Mariners this week. Minor league numbers don't look so good, but he got a lot of strikeouts down there. Not really sure what to make of it, but do you guys have any interest in Mitch Ferris, even Colick, Oviedo, or Verlander?

Which minor league numbers for Mitch Ferris because he had a 15% swinging strike rate during his time at double A, he skipped AAA completely, so he's arriving straight from AA. Well, that's the Angels. Yeah. Final four starts at AA for Mitch Ferris, a 152ERA 101 whip 12.2K per 9 and a 17% swinging strike rate. So he was missing some bats down there. And it's not like he's gotten a lot of strikeouts between these two major league starts.

It's not like that's what Mitch Ferris is doing to succeed. But the whiffs, you know, 13 on 76 pitches in this start Sunday. like you kind of see it. So I don't think it's a priority ad anywhere except maybe A-L-only leagues. But I am interested in seeing how this year finishes up for Mitch Ferris. I wish Verlander had a better start this week because he's actually been quite good lately. And I just don't think I can trust it against the Dodgers, especially because even when things are going well, you have it as a 1-18 whip over his past 9. starts. I was looking since the All-Star break, and it's a similar, like, low-3 ZRA, but that one's like a 133 whip, I think, since the All-Star break. And so I, between that and the Dodgers, I just don't think it's worth it. Then I will say, I hope the Angels play the Phillies at some point this weekend, this year. I know there's not much time left, but I would love to see a Ferris Bueller matchup.

There you go. Walker Bueller is now on the Phillies, but yeah. I think he's in the minors right now, but yeah. Yeah, he's supposed to make. one start and then get called up. He's joining the rotation, guys. Oh, gosh. Don't think this one matters, but just wanted to mention a great start by Kyle Freeland against the Padres. Eight shutout innings with 10 strikeouts here, but he has a 510 ERA and a 145 whip. So nice start Kyle Freeland, but I don't think we're doing anything with that. Drop O meter for three names that I have here. Jack Flaherty, another bad outing. This time against the White Sox, like, if you can't use Flerty against the White Sox, what are we doing? So, so,

Last six starts, 668 ERA and a 148 whip. Still 89% rostered. He's at the Yankees this week. I don't see any way that you can use Jack Flaherty there. If you need the roster spot, I think he can be dropped. What do you guys think? Yeah. Yeah, I think 12 teamers, that's a perfectly acceptable drop at this point.

I'm not giving up on Flaherty for next year by dropping him now, but it's pretty easy to drop players now, who you don't think are going to be of any use to you for the next. Three weeks or however much longer your league is going on. Worst case scenario, you drop him and you miss out on three good starts. Like, that's literally the worst case scenario if you drop Jack Flaherty. Yusay Kukuchi over his last 12 starts has a 652 ERA and a 167 whip. Maybe everyone who had Yusay Kikuchi on their team is just in last place and they stop paying attention.

But at 80% rostered, I, yeah, you could drop Kikuchi for anybody. Yep. Yep. And then Max Scherzer has a lot of four earned runs in three straight. At the Yankees this weekend, obviously a tougher matchup. Gets the Orioles this week. What do you guys think about dropping Max Scherzer? He was, I think, tipping his pitches.

Ben Rice's home run. Aaron Judge went like this. You can't really see it, but he was kind of flapping his wings. The Yankees have been very obvious about, like, telling their batters. Is that like dying off? What's gosh on? Well, this is a loud, Scott. This is allowed, yeah.

But yeah, that seemed very obvious that the Yankees knew what was coming. At least on that, I think it was a three-run home run by Ben Rice in the first inning of that game. Yep. I said that facetiously, just to avoid the comments. I know the Astros were utilizing technology video in the clubhouse, so it's different. As long as the Yankees aren't doing that, it's different. I don't think they are. I hope they're not.

But, no, they've been just very obvious about exactly what Chris said, just waving their hands or making crazy. This is one of runners on second base, by the way. When they're on second and trying to- Which is allowed. Tell the hitter what's coming, yeah. It was a light weekend for Waverwire hitters. Jorge Polanco, someone I wanted to highlight.

He continues to hit well. Two hits on Friday, another homer on Sunday. Last 15 games. He's hitting 375 with six homers and a 1249 OPS. And Scott, I know he's one of your sleeper-hipper hitters this week. That's Jorge Palant. Yeah, he's been great. He's playing every day again. And I think maybe even beyond this week. He's somebody you can get some use out of being eligible at both second and third base. Reminder of the rest of Scott Sleberheaders for this week. By the way, Dalton Varsho, Royce Lewis, Luis Garcia Jr. Kyle Manzardo, who in a league where I had matched Shaw's, my corner infielder actually dropped Shaw for Kyle Manzardo. So just to give some perspective on a player, maybe you want to drop for Manzardo. uh, Isaac Collins, Harrison Bader, Otto Lopez, who had a two home run game here on Sunday,

Trevor Larnick and Matt Walner. I did get an interesting strategy question on Twitter regarding waiver wire hitters and just wanted to run it by you guys because I feel like there could be a lot of people that are in a similar spot at this point in the season. So he said, my hitters have gone cold. I have Alec Bohm, Sayas Suzuki, Jackson, Merrill, Jose O'Souvae, and more on cold streaks. Do I ride with them for this week and hope they do better? or is it crazy to drop them for people who are hot right now,

like Andrew Benitendi, Dalton Varsho, Josh Lowe, et cetera. So. All right. So here's the thing, right? Over the course of a large enough sample, we are decent, decent at predicting what's going to happen. Over any given small sample, it is almost impossible to predict. Like, the difference between Andrew Benintendi versus. Aaron Judge.

Over 27 weeks, I'm very confident Aaron Judge is going to be much better than Andrew Benintendi. Over a given week, I think Andrew, Aaron Judge, and Aaron Judge should be better than Andrew Benintendi. But it's like, I don't know, 75, 25, 25 in any given six-game sample size. Right?

Like that's that's the frustrating thing about this season. This part of the season is the frustrating thing about like setting your weekly lineups is these are random number generators over small enough sample sizes. The best team in baseball is going to win, I don't know, 98 games this year. Is anybody going to get to 100 this year? I don't think so. So like. Brewers, maybe I don't know. Over a small sample size.

No, it's not good process. to drop a player you are confident is good for a player you are confident is not good. But it still might work. Most attempts to define and identify what is known as the hot hand across sports have failed. That does not mean it's not a real thing. But like the idea that a player is hot and that that has predictive value, we all know it to be true. The evidence that it is true is very flimsy.

And the more recency does not necessarily have more predictive value than a longer track record that is further away. Which is to say that this guy is hot right now and this guy is cold right now, it might work moving forward. my best guess is it's no better than a coin flip to play the hot hand versus the cold hand. Unless you have a good reason. Like we talked about, um, Pekar Armstrong, how his swing is all messed up. And there are like specific tangible things about his swing that are wrong right now. That's a reason. That potentially is a reason to sit someone.

But like this guy has been good for 10 games and this guy has been bad for 10 games. there's just not a lot of evidence that that matters or has much predictive value. That's not to say you shouldn't make that decision. It's just to say you are going with your gut rather than what the data suggests. And that's fine because your gut versus the data over course of the week is negligible. I would rarely sanction doing something like this, I'll just say. And like it kind of depends. The emailer here listed off a bunch of players that I don't see as being on equal footing.

Alec Bohm, kind of a fringe starter and 12 teamers to begin with. So if you have another good third basement to replace him with, fine. If you could say Alec Boehm for Dalton Versa right now? Yeah, because I just think Donovan is better than Alec Boe. Right. They're at least on a similar range in terms of how good they are. Say a Suzuki stud. You can't sit him.

Jackson Merrill. We thought he was going to be a stud. he's been pretty bad all year. So if you wanted to start Varsho over him, I wouldn't have a problem with that either. Jose Altuve, particularly if we're talking at second base, stud. You don't sit him. So, yeah, four different players

who kind of deserve different approaches, I'd say, as well. Yeah, I think you always have to look at it kind of like a sliding scale, obviously. And I would have said the same thing about Alec Bone. The only thing about Sayas Suzuki is he has been bad for a long time. In the second half, a 45-game sample, he's hitting 197 with two homers and a 594 OPS. So that whole lineup, really. I would say, though, unless I knew he was playing hurt, I'd still trust him to come around.

Because not that you necessarily have to start him, but I definitely wouldn't want to drop him. Yeah. All right, fair enough. Let's do some starter sit for these pitchers. There might be some fringe names here for the final month of the season. Gavin Williams, who we've talked about all season at the raise, seven innings, one run, three strikeouts here. He allowed 14 hard hits, also had three walks in this one. He just continues to get away with it.

I don't really trust it. There's no explanation for it. He's 58% started and gets to Royals this week. What do you guys think about Gavin Williams? He is not getting a lot of strikeouts. He's giving up a lot of walks, and he's not limiting hard contact well. There's just no explanation for the success Gavin Williams has. having ERA has almost no predictive value.

I know everybody's going to yell at me and say, oh, he's, GRA is good. You guys only care about Australians. Like, whatever, fine. ERA doesn't have any predictive value. It just doesn't. Gavin Williams may continue to get good results. And if he does and you start him,

congratulations. That worked out for you. I don't see any reason to believe that Gavin Williams is an above average major league pitcher right now. Last 11th starts. Is good here. Sure. I think he could be good.

Yeah. Sure. It's the Royals. Last 11 starts, by the way, for Gavin Williams. It's a 224 ERA, but a 4.27 FIP and a 389 X-FIP. So just to back up your point, Chris. If he was 70% rostered instead of 90% rostered, he would rank among my sleeper pitchers this week

because of that matchup against the Royals. Gavin Williams would rank, let's see, behind Braddish, behind two-star Luis Morales. But that's probably it. he'd probably rank third for me among sleeper pitchers because of the matchup. All right, welcome back to Pablo Lopez, who took a tough loss in his return at the Royal's six innings, two runs, four strikeouts here. Only 25% started and gets the debacks this week.

It is a tough matchup. What are you guys doing with Pablo Lopez? I'm starting him. He's good. Yep, he seemed like Pablo Lopez. Luis Heel had a mixed outing here against the Blue J's six innings, one run, four walks to one strikeout. He is not getting whiffs this season.

And his swinging strike rate is only 9.3% and he is at the Red Sox this week. Take everything you said about Gavin Williams, what Chris just said about Gavin Williams, and double it for Louise Heel. Not getting strikeouts walking way too many guys, somehow has a low ERA in spite of it. But I don't buy it. Matthew Boyd back on track against the national seven innings, two runs, three strikeouts, but did have 15 whiffs on 87 pitches here. His previous seven starts before this one.

He had a 509 ERA and a 123 whip. And the innings are really climbing. That's something I feel like maybe we haven't mentioned with Boyd. He's up to 166 in a third. Last year he threw less than 40, and he hasn't thrown this many innings since 2019. So it could just be that fatigue is kind of setting in here. He gets the raise this week.

What do you guys think about Matthew Boyd? I'd start him. Yeah, that's fine. Brady Singer has turned in five straight quality starts. This one against the Mets, six innings, one run. four walks to five strikeouts. Last eight starts for him, 211, ERA, 0.98 whip, 10K per 9.

He's only 50% started and at the athletics this week. What do you think about Brady Singer? So he has made the sweeper a more significant part of his arsenal. Pretty much over that span of starts you were talking about, Frank, where Springer's been getting much better results. So we had the slider already,

but now he's kind of pairing up a sweeper with it and I don't know. I've been particularly impressed with the number of strikeouts he's been getting overall. A lot of high strikeout efforts. So Brady Singer maybe has unlocked something here. I think he's a little less than must start down the stretch, but certainly must roster somebody you could feel more comfortable mixing in than I would have imagined a couple months ago.

I will just say he has gone from being kind of a lean ground, ball pitcher to a pretty solidly lean fly ball pitcher has struck ground ball rates gone from 47 to 39 percent um that could get really ugly in sacramento yeah that's a really really tough place after the season i feel like we we we can like take some some views on on what the new parks look like although it's less important for tampa because they won't be playing there next year but um i feel like sacramento has been arguably the toughest place to pitch in baseball. It has the seventh highest home run park factor

and the second highest run park factor this season, just behind course field. Brandon Woodruff bounced back at the Pirates, six shot out innings, two hits, zero walks, eight strikeouts, but only had seven whiffs on 85 pitches. He was struggling in his previous three starts before this one. He 75% started, really good matchup against the Cardinals this week. So I feel pretty good.

about getting Brandon Woodruff back in there if you bench him for whatever reason. Well, the whatever reason was that he had been bad. Yeah, but he was facing the pirates, you know, run into the wall, yeah. I've noticed something with Brandon Woodruff, too, is that he, his cutter usage spiked in this one, 25%. And he had been, that had been a new pitch for Brandon Woodruff. And one of the reasons I thought, okay,

maybe this is why he's surviving the lower fastball velocities, he's mixing in this cutter more. That had diminished. He had been throwing that cutter less and less as his struggles increased. And then suddenly he throws it more than he ever has before. He has a great start. So I think there may be something to that with Woodruff. He really needs to stick with that cutter for his arsenal to play with the reduced fastball

velocity. Last name on this list, Louise Castillo bounced back at the Braves, six innings, one run, six strikeouts to zero walks, had 19 whiffs on 82 pitches, 12 of those on its fastball and four starts before this one he was getting crushed in the er a over 10 a whip over two and he gets to angels this week what do you guys think about louise castillo yeah that was a little weird with the fastball it's a pitch that does have a good whiff rate as far as four seam fastballs go and he had two fewer inches of induced vertical break in this starts so i believe that took it from an already low number uh uh

Let's see. It was 12 inches. It made it 10 inches of induced vertical break on that fastball. So he's kind of living in that Jacob Lopez range. And so that's probably that that's like so far below average that it makes it more effective. It makes it a better bat missing pitch. And that might explain why he got so many whiffs on it in the start against the Braves. I don't think it's going to be the norm for Luis Castillo.

But if you were tempted to drop them, I think this might be enough for me to. to pump the brakes on that. All right, let's stick with the Mariners. It was a big weekend for their bats here. Julio Rodriguez continues his huge second half. Had two home runs on Saturday, two for four with another steal on Sunday. Last 50 games for Julio,

309 batting average, 19 homers, 10 steals, and an OPS over a thousand. So for whatever reason, man, he just, he needs the month, the calendar to change to July, and then it just flips on. I will just say this is for Roto leagues in head-to-head.

I understand it's different. I don't want to hear anything next April or May if Julio Rodriguez struggles. Okay? I don't want to like, this guy's a bum. Like he's going to finish the season with 30-30, 100, 100, and probably like a 275 batting average. He's going to be a first-round caliber player. He should be a first-round pick next season. I don't want to hear it.

Okay, fine. If you want to discount him in a points league, because his best production comes later in the season. And if you don't make the playoffs, it doesn't matter how good he is in September. Okay, fine. That's fine. One, I don't actually, I'm not 100% sure that, like,

he's only good in the second half as a real thing. Maybe, I mean, it's like four years in a row now for Hilly Rodriguez. Maybe there's something here. But I just live with the production you get. And know that if he gets off to a slow start, he almost always, and I think even last season, when he didn't, he was going to make up for it at the end of the season. So just he got hurt last year.

That's the only reason the numbers didn't end up where they were supposed to. You're going to get a 30, 30, 100, 100 season from Holi Rodriguez. I do not want to hear the complaining in April. Do not. All right. Well, I'm sure we'll have to remind many people. I know. People are still going to complain.

A couple of their names here for the Mariners. Eugenio Suarez, nice weekend. He hit three homers and looks much better of late. Last 20 games, he has eight home runs. and an OPS over 900. Josh Naler hit a homer on Saturday and then a sock and a shoe on Sunday. 18 homers, 24 steals for Josh Nailer.

My goodness. And Cow Raleigh will not stop. Hit two more homers this weekend. He is now up to 53 on the season. Who wins AL MVP? Cow Raleigh or Aaron Judge? I don't know. I think there might be

just given how they're, award is given. It might benefit Cal Raleigh because he's been such a big storyline this year in particular and because there may be a bit of Aaron Judge fatigue as far as that goes. Probably it should be Judge. If he hadn't gotten hurt and lost some time, lost some production potentially because of that,

I think Judge would be running away. way with it. But it's made it a contest at least. And obviously the only reason it's still a conversation, a conversation at all, it's not just comparing offensive numbers to offensive numbers. It's that Cal Raleigh is like the best defensive catcher in baseball. He was the platinum glove winner last year. So he has those bonus points going for him on top of the historic power season. I do just want to point out. There is a pretty good chance. This is a little bit of an arbitrary thing, but 49 is no more or less arbitrary than 50.

All right. So we're just going to throw this out there. There have been 15 players in Major League history with multiple seasons of at least 49 home runs. And if Aeohenio Suarez hits four more home runs this season, he will make it 16. And that is wild. because it's basically just Hall of Famers or steroid user

Sam and Sousa Mark McGuire Barry Bonds Alex Rodriguez did it or Albert Bell and A. Ohanio Suarez is going to join that list. That is remarkable. Yeah. That is crazy stuff there. He's not guaranteed to join it, but four more home runs in 20 games

feels like a decent bet. Yeah, I think so. Stud hitters being studs. Vlad Jr. continued his big second half. He has multiple hits in five. straight and in that second half, 352 batting average 11 homers and a 10.53 Ops. Yardana Alvarez has looked good since returning 12 games hitting 425 with three homers, 9 RBI, and a 1229 Ops. Shohei Otani hit two more homers on Sunday. He is now up to 48 on the season with

127 runs and 17 steals. Juan Soto keeps putting up ridiculous numbers this weekend five hits, a homer and two steals. And last 39, games. He has 14 homers and 16 steals. That is incredible stuff. And Corbyn Carroll has also been going off in the second half, 284 batting average, nine homers, 36 runs, 14 steals, and a 931 OPS for Corbyn Carroll. Anything to add on studs being studs? One, I was just looking up who the competition for Shoheotani being an LNVP should be. And I think he probably is just going to run away with it because the other leaders in war on fan graphs are Trey Turner who's probably might miss the rest of the season and

Corbyn Carroll who's on like a last place team or a non-playoff team so I think it's definitely going to be show Hey Otani that's not including his pitching. Becro Armstrong still leads baseball still leads the NL and baseball reference war. It's it's not going to be P. Crohn's strong. If he has a big September I think he could put himself back in the conversation. He has a lot of work to I don't think we can you know what no MVP for sub 300 OBP. That's the line in the sand I'm drawing. You got to be this tall to ride the ride.

Yeah. And then there's a pretty good chance I'm going to rank Yardon Alvarez as a top 24 player next year. I think he's like I don't think I'm going to hold a misdiagnosed fractured hand against him. It's been like two full years since the knees were an issue, which is actually kind of surprising. He only missed like one game last year to a knee issue. His underlying number, still look as good as they ever have. I still think, like, maybe I don't rank him top 24 if I don't need to, like if people really bury him in the rankings. But I still think this dude is, like, going to have a 50 homer,

300 average season at some point. A couple other hitting leftovers, Hunter Goodman, putting the finishing touches on his breakout season, hit two more homers this weekend. 29 home runs now for the season for Hunter Goodman. Big weekends for Stephen Quonty at five hits and five steals. Nice to see that after an awful August for him. Joe Adele hit two more home runs. He's now up to 35 with 94 RBI,

and that is just your latest reminder that progress is not linear for high-end prospects. Sometimes it takes these guys a couple of years to figure it out, and it kind of feels like that is happening right now for Joe Adele. Some other pitching leftovers.

Part 1, Terrick Scoobel continues to dominate this time against the White Sox. 7 shutout with six strikeouts for him. Hunter Brown out-tooled Jacob de Grom, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. Logan Gilbert, a strong start at the Braves, six innings, one run with seven strikeouts, and Chris Sale has looked great, and it's two starts back against the Mariners, six and two-thirds,

one run allowed with nine strikeouts. Anything to add on Sale, Gilbert, Hunter Brown, or Terrick Scoobal? We said what needs to be said. All right. Next up, we have Quinn Priester, who continues his breakout season at the Pirates, seven innings, two runs with six strikeouts. He actually set a Brewer's franchise record with 11, straight winning decisions for Quinn Priester.

My gosh. Kevin Gosman, a great start at the Yankees. Eight innings, one run, five strikeouts for him. And in the second half, he has a 259 ERA and a 0.80 whip. For Kevin Gosman, Christopher Sanchez, another great start. This one at the Marlins, seven innings, one run, five strikeouts there. And Merrill Kelly, a great outing against the Astros, seven innings of one-run ball, seven strikeouts for him. Anything to add on Merrill Kelly, Christopher Sanchez, Kevin Gosman.

and Quinn Priesterer. I do think Gosman is worth just taking a look at. I don't know if there's much here. I think the likeliest explanation for this is just kind of what Scott said about Hurston Waldrop earlier, where when you rely on a splitter as much as these guys do, that's a really finicky pitch. It's a hard pitch to throw for strikes. It's more of a putaway pitch than a strike pitch for most pitchers.

And so you have to get to two strike counts consistently, and you have to have the feel for the pitch. And my feel for Kevin Gosman is this is just the random number generator coming up on the positive side more often lately. The biggest change has been much better control, which doesn't really feel like something I want to bet on at this point in Kevin Gosman's career. But it's been going on for long enough that it's worth noting. Yeah, I've noticed that as there came a point, I don't know exactly. that it aligns with the great stretch he's been on, but it roughly

does, where he took a little off the splitter and started giveting the same drop on it as he got two years ago as opposed to last year where it lost some of that drop. And so he's not as good as he was in his giant's days,

but I think he's turned himself back into a really strong starter for fantasy, like a top third. type. I'd be willing to go that high with Gosman. And last year kind of looks like the outlier for Gosman. And remember he had that shoulder injury right before the season. And then he didn't go on the IEL. I wonder if he was just pitching through it and it kind

of affected him all year. But yeah, he's bounced back. His skills, his underlying numbers look much better this season than they were last year for Kevin Gosman. Call to the bullpen for the Brewers on Friday. Abner Arebe picked up his fifth save. He is pretty much the guy with Trevor McGill on the. I.L. For the Dodgers on Friday, Tanner Scott got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a walkoff Homer to Samuel Bessio, took his third loss, and then we mentioned everything that happened on Saturday as well. On Sunday, lefty Jack Dreyer allowed a hit, but struck out two for his third save. So I still think it's Tanner Scott's job, but man, he is, it's kind of been a mess lately.

It's crazy that Jack Dreyer is who the Dodgers are turning to because Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates and Lake Trinen. Blake Trinen. I mean, Michael Kopeck's healthy now, too. He's not getting it in the action. Jack Dreyer. Come on, man. What's going on?

Was he in 30 Rock? Don't worry about it. Yeah. I was trying to think of like a washer dryer joke, but I couldn't get there. The Dodgers are so washed that they're using the dryer. I mean, I was trying to come up with a good washer dryer joke. Okay, well, you didn't specify that.

For the Rockies on Friday, Victor Vodnik allowed two base runners but picked up his seventh save. He's pretty much there closer now. For the Nationals on Saturday, Jose Ferrer pitching the eighth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out two. Cole Henry got the ninth.

He allowed a hit but picked up his second save. And then on Sunday, Ferrer got the ninth. He allowed two base runners, but picked up his seventh save. Sometimes they do use him earlier. If there's lefties coming up, but he mostly has been the closer for the nationals. For the Giants on Saturday, Ryan Walker got the ninth with a two-run lead.

He gave up three runs on four hits. Without recording an out, he took his sixth blown save and fifth loss. For the Reds on Sunday, Emilio Pagan was unavailable. Tony Santian got the ninth with a two-run lead. He allowed a run but picked up his fifth save. For the Marlins on Sunday, Lake Bacher got the ninth with a two-run lead. He gave up a run on a hit and two walks but picked up his third save. Calvin Foshae pitched in the sixth, somebody named Michael Peters pitched in the seventh,

Ronnie Enrique pitched in the eighth, and then it was Bacher in the night. So the Marlins do not have a closer, and they never will ever again. For the Cardinals on Sunday, with a one-run lead, Jojo Romero pitched in the eighth. Riley O'Brien got the ninth, and he picked up his third save. And for the Rangers on Sunday, Sean Armstrong got the final four outs for his seventh save, and as Scott mentioned earlier, he has the last four saves for the Texas Rangers. stream or not to stream on Monday. We have Ryan Berger at the Guardians,

Slate Sacconi on the other side facing the Royals, Kate Cavali at the Marlins, Jose Cantana at the Rangers, Darvish faces the Reds, Nabil Khrismat at the Giants, and Luis Morales is home against the Red Sox. Morales, I like him more as a two-star guy

than as a daily streamer because it is a somewhat tough matchup and a very tough place to pitch. But I think he's the clear top option. I would go Cavali and probably Berger third. Yeah. I also like Nabil, Chris Matt, though, like Chris was saying for Morales, I like him more as a two-star guy than a one-star guy.

And then on Tuesday, we have Will Warren facing the Tigers. Sean Minia is at the Phillies. Luis Garcia of the Astros is at the Blue Jays. Jack Leiter facing the Brewers. Zebby Matthews at the Angels. Jeffrey Springs, home against the Red Sox, and Emmett Sheehan, maybe against the Rockies. Maybe.

Maybe. If it becomes a definite, if it becomes a definitely for Sheehan, he's number one. I also like Zebby Matthews. At the Angels, he's introduced to sinker and gotten better results. Angels very strikeout prone still. So those would be the clear top two for Tuesday. I'm not sure. There's a third one I like enough to.

Lighter. To recommend. I don't love the matchup, but he's pitching. Brewers. Yeah, that is cool. We saw what they just did. Against Bubba Chandler, right? There are two interesting ones in terms of talent,

Luis Garcia, and Jack Leiter, but I just don't like the matchups. Yep, right. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye. Mount Podcasts.