Fantasy Baseball Today - Waiver Wire MUST ADDS! Joshua Baez's Historic Debut! (08/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: August 17, 2026Joshua Baez debuted with three homers! Jacob Lopez is atop the waiver wire pitchers right now. Brandon Pfaadt had another great outing. Any interest in these A's bats? How do we rank the current saves... options off the wire?Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballTodaySign up for the newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters
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Joshua Baez, no he didn't.
We'll discuss his awesome debut up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Monday, August 17th.
I am, for example, John 5, Scott White, and the Cardinals finally promoted Joshua Baez on Saturday,
and he responded not one, not two, three homer game.
First time it's been done in Major League history.
He is all the way up to 80% rostered on the same.
CBS, but he's 59%
rostered on Yahoo,
probably even lower on ESPN.
So I'm not sure many people
playing on CBS can still add him, Scott,
but other places they can.
Do you consider Joshua Bia as just a
must add, must roster
after this amazing debut?
Yeah, I don't know how you could
consider him anything less. He just had the
best debut for a hitter in history.
Omering, each of his first three at bats. And that first
shot especially was almost
450 feet.
guy with 34 home runs in the minors this year,
like serious power,
and he made good on it right away.
It's obviously not a guaranteeer of anything going forward.
He did run a very high strikeout rate of AAA,
had a low zone contact rate as well.
So certain pitches might have an easier time against him
than Matthew Boyd, who didn't really have a slider.
in this particular start.
And it seems like based on some of the analysis I was reading from folks on the Cardinals beat this weekend,
Bies' biggest problem was getting beat up in the zone by hard fastballs.
Again, a pitch that Matthew Boyd doesn't really have.
He doesn't have that hard fastball, but plenty of pitchers in the majors do.
And it may be something that causes issues for him over time.
but again, three home runs at his debut.
We'll worry about the downside once it begins to reveal itself
when it comes to just picking a player up off the waiver wire.
Baez has given you plenty of reason to do that.
So much so that following that game,
he got added in so many CBS leagues
that it's not even really something you can consider doing there.
Well, another outfield prospect who's available is Zach Veen,
who also got called up this week.
he homered again on Friday.
He homered on Thursday, so back-to-back games there.
With a home run, 37% rostered.
The Rockies do have six games at home this week in Coorsfield.
Unfortunately, four of those against lefties.
So while I do like Zach Veen rest of season,
this might not be the best week to use Vene with all the lefties on the schedule, unfortunately.
Let's move over to some Waverwire pitchers.
And at the top of the list, we have Jacob Lopez, another solid outing.
This one against the Rangers, six innings two runs,
six strikeouts.
He had 14 whiffs on 93 pitches.
And six starts since reentering the rotation,
248 ERA, a 110 whip,
and he gets the Astros this week.
Scott, do you agree that Jacob Lopez
is at the top of the Waver Wire pitcher list right now?
Yeah, I think he was at this time last week, too,
and you missed out on a great two-star week
if you didn't add him then.
So hopefully you can still get some good out of him.
I think he's going to be volatile.
because he is lacking that dominant blow you away kind of stuff
and relies more on deception
and just unusual shape on the fastball.
And so when that's off a little bit,
as we were seeing earlier this year,
he could get throttled.
But when it's on, he's dominant.
I mean, he gets plenty of strikeouts,
so he saw that over the course of his minor league,
career. We saw it down the stretch last year. And certainly lately, Jacob Lopez has been on. So hopefully
he can keep it going long enough. Hopefully he keeps going the rest of the season. It's not outside
the rome, but possibility. Three other pitchers rostered between 60 and 75% on CBS. Brandon fought
another great outing. This one at the Braves. He actually got strikeouts in this one. He had seven
over seven shutout innings. He had 13 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. Joey Cantillo, great
outing against the Padres, six innings, one hit, one run, seven strikeouts to three walks.
And Clay Holmes, much better in his second Cubs start.
This one against the Cardinals, six and two-thirds shutout, one hit, one walk, three strikeouts
for him.
Scott, how would you rank those three?
Cantillo, Clay Holmes, and Brennan Fott.
Well, I think you have to put Fott at the top of the list because there are concerns about
him, I think, I'll get into those in a minute, but there are concerns for all three of these
pitchers. So FOT is obviously the one doing the most good right now. And to just put that into
context, how good he's been since returning from the miners having a new change up, getting a lot more
weak ground balls, nine starts, a 115 ERA, a 0.88 whip. And also 4.9 K per 9 in those nine starts.
So that's the concern.
It's not even 6.9, which would be bad enough.
But okay, you're getting a lot of weak ground balls.
You're throwing a lot of strikes.
6.9.
You might be able to make that word.
4.9 is a K-per-9 rate you never see in the modern game.
You mentioned he had a strikeout per inning in the start against the brave.
Seven strikeouts and seven innings.
So that 4.9 number, you could say it's trending up based on that one performance,
but obviously it's just one performance
where we've seen that from Fott
and overall the lack of strikeouts
is concerning even with
all the weak round balls he's getting,
there will come a point where he's not quite
as precise with his pitches.
And I think
it could be a bit bumpy
once that happens.
Even so, I think Fott is the most
rostrable of these three pitchers right now.
Second choice of them would be Clay Holmes,
mostly because of the success
we saw earlier the season.
And, uh, no,
second start back from the aisle.
He looked,
he looked pretty good,
was missing strikeouts,
but it was a good first step.
All right.
Let's take a quick break.
We'll be back right after this.
Welcome back, FBT Express.
Back over to the waiver wire hitters.
I have a trio of athletics here.
Zach Gelloff has looked great since returning.
He hit a home run this weekend and has three homers in his past six games.
70% rostered, second third.
and outfield eligible.
Lawrence Butler has homered in four of his last five
and has started 17 straight.
He's looked much better in the second half.
And Henry Boltey, back-to-back three hit games.
He had a home run on Saturday as well.
He's looked much better in August,
and he is 30-per-person rostered.
Scott, can I interest you in any of these
Sacramento A's, Gell-Off, Butler, and Henry Boltey.
Well, Gelloff, definitely triple-eligible,
second-third outfield, if you need him,
in any of those spots.
I think he's a must.
The power speed.
He's looked good all year.
Faster bat speed, less strikeouts.
Seems like legit breakout.
The only problem is they're going on the road for all of this week.
And while I do have Zach Gelloff on the sleeper hitter list in spite of that,
the numbers aren't very good on the road.
Obviously, Sacramento, very hitter-friendly and might explain why Gelloff is, at least
partially explain why Gelliff is having such a breakout year.
Even worse are Lawrence Butler splits on the road,
and you have to watch out for lefties with him as well.
So I like that we're seeing signs of life from him again,
but I think it's pretty small,
the set of circumstances where you can use Lawrence Butler.
And then finally, Henry Bolte,
I think there's definitely talent here.
He hits the ball plenty hard enough.
He's athletic.
All of that.
It's just strikeout issues.
And on top of that is 60% ground ball rate,
which is very high throughout his minor league.
career too. It's suboptimal, the way he angles the ball off the bat and not making enough
contact on top of it. I just think Henry Bolte is a little bit more of a project than
standard fantasy baseballers and standard side leagues need to deal with right now.
All right. I do have two guys that you can move all over the diamond. Luis Renhifo,
who homered again for the Padres this weekend, 27 games since joining San Diego, 323,
four homers,
16 runs,
three steals,
and 884 OPS,
second, third,
and outfield eligible,
and Tim Tawa has been good
for a while now.
He homered on Friday,
two more hits on Saturday,
last 32,
32, six homers,
five steals,
an OPS right around
800, hitting the ball
really hard during that stretch.
Scott,
who do you like more
between these
multi-eligible guys,
Luis Renhifa or Tim Tawa?
I think there's probably
more to build on for Tawa.
I'm not.
totally convinced of the upside and
I don't know that he needs to be much more roster than he is
but if you're,
if you need a versatile player and Zach Galloff
is long gone in your league, then I guess Tawa is somebody you could look into.
All right, two names in deeper, two catcher leagues.
Eduardo Valencia homered on Saturday.
He also had two hits on Friday.
Can we get this guy more playing time?
He's actually looked really good in a small sample.
and Raphael Flores of the Pirates,
three for four with his fourth home run on Friday.
He has started four straight.
Two very deep league names, Scott.
But were you trying to add
Eduardo Valencia or Rafael Flores at all this weekend?
Yeah, Flores a little over Valencia
because I think, at least for right now,
the playing time is going to be more consistent
for as long as he performs.
Now, he wasn't performing very well in the minors this year at all,
but it was good last year between the Yankees
and Pirates Farm Systems.
The kinds of leagues where I was adding Raphael Flores, to be clear, deep two catcher leagues,
ones where I had like Miguel Amaya in a spot.
Okay, Flores represents an upgrade over that.
You know, the leagues where you were maybe relying on Dalton rushing and recently lost him.
I think Flores is worth a shot with the way he's performed so far.
But it's not with a high degree of confidence.
It's more just, okay, he's off to a good start.
And he was really good in the minors last year.
A couple of saves options off the wire right now.
We have Kodai, Senga of the Mets,
Hogan Harris of the A's,
Stephen Cruz of the Royals,
Jordan Romano of the Rockies,
and then the Angels guys,
Sammy Netara Jr. and Ben Joyce.
How would you rank this group for save, Scott?
Senga, Harris, Cruz,
Vrano, and the Angels guys.
I would go Senga number one.
He seems to have it on lockdown,
and so far so good.
Obviously, numbers weren't good
in the starting role,
but maybe in release.
one inning at a time,
he can handle that better.
Probably Hogan Harris second
because he has a pretty firm grip on the roll.
I don't think he's good enough to close in the long run,
but he's been doing it for a while now.
And who else did you mention here?
Stephen Cruz, Jordan Romano, and the Angels guys.
Yeah, let's say Romano, Cruz,
and then Joyce, maybe Joyce over Cruz.
Joyce has gotten the last two saves for the angels.
So I'm hoping he's put himself ahead of Sammy and Tera there.
All right.
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