Fantasy Baseball Today - Week 13 Sleepers, Two-Start Pitchers, Prospect Report & More! (6/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 18, 2021

Scott White's Prospect Report- https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/fantasy-baseball-prospects-report-is-joey-bart-or-cal-raleigh-a-better-stash/ We have a Jacob deGrom update (1:15) and it's actually positive. Still, what would a deGrom trade look like in Fantasy? ... Wade Miley has been awesome this season (6:14). Should you consider starting Shohei Ohtani as a pitcher and how did Matt Manning do in his debut? ... News and notes (19:55)! Alex Bregman went to the IL, Tyler Glasnow was transferred to the 60-day IL, Zac Gallen made his return and more. ... Prospect report (27:22)! Which catcher prospect should you stash? When might we see Wander Franco? ... Week 13 sleepers (34:39)! Which two-start pitchers and sleeper hitters should you target? ... These waiver wire hitters stayed hot (43:51). Should you drop Tommy Edman? ... We had a bunch of mid-tier starting pitcher standouts on Thursday (49:40), including Charlie Morton and Dylan Cease. ... We wrap up with bullpens, streamers, and Fantasy Justice For All (56:28). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55" TV, portable power station and air purifier over the next month. Go to cbssports.com/homerun to enter. Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Comeo'all Friday and welcome into fantasy baseball today presented by Lining Cougals. More on their great variety of beverages later on in the podcast. Frank Stamphill joined by Scott White here to get you ready for week 13. It's already week 13 in fantasy baseball. We have sleepers, two-start pitchers, a prospect report from Scotty Dubbs. Let's talk about some giants hitters, mid-tier starting pitchers, Matt Manning's debut, and of course an update on Jacob de Grom. What's up, Scott? How was your Thursday?

It was great. Good day. Thursday, what a day. Kokomo Friday even better. That's right. Of course it is. All right. No more wasting time. We didn't really waste that much time. It's actually a pretty good start for us. Jacob de Grom.

Scott, you were the eternal optimist last night, and I do appreciate that. And the MRI showed no structural damage in Jacob de Grom's shoulder. He met with two doctors, and neither was concerned about that shoulder as well. So some good news there. He has not been placed on the IL to my knowledge. Is that right, Scott? I have not seen that he's been placed on the IL. No, I think they're still potentially talking about

and making his next start. Oh, my gosh. I mean, let's, all right, this is good news. You know, glass half full. Let's take it easy here, Mets. You know, I understand fantasy managers. Yes, of course. We want Jacob de Grom to pitch.

Best pitcher on the planet, maybe of all time, the way he's pitching right now. But if he skips a start here, two starts, whatever it might be, that's fine in the long run. We need Jacob de Grom, Scott. You were on record yesterday saying that you would not be trying to shop him in a trade. Overall, you are not very worried about this situation for him. I was a little bit more skeptical.

Let's just say, Scott, hypothetically, if you did want to shop Jacob de Grom, what would you be looking for in return? Well, clearly it would have to be another first round caliber player. You don't give up one of those without getting one. return. And we were kind of talking about it before we started recording here. You know, DeGrom's case, just a first rounder. So, like, would, I don't know, Freddie Freeman suffice?

Obviously not. Like, it would have to be probably more like a top five player, right? Yes. So who are the top five players? I think if we put rest of season rankings together, we would probably have the same five hitters at the top. in some order it would be Ronald de Cunia Fernando Tatez

Vladimir Guerrero up there now but then probably Mookie Betts and Juan Soto neither of whom has lived up to expectations so far neither of whom has been anywhere close to a top five player so far so you know rest of season rankings are what they are but

in theory just because they've underwhelmed you should be able to get more than just them for DeGrom if you were going to trade to Grom. I'm not saying you should trade Jake de Grom. You've, Jake,

Jacob de Grom, you have forced this exercise upon me. I have. And so, and so this is how I'm, this is how I size it up. But I think, like if you,

if you, if you, if you couldn't get Vlad Acuna or Tatis for him, you should treat it like a bi-low scenario if you're going after like a Betzer Soto and get more than just that in return for DeGrom. I don't even know if that's possible. Maybe everybody's freaked out about the Grom's health, and they're not even going to respond to that right now.

That's a likely scenario, too. That's actually how I presumed things would go if you tried trading him before MRI results came back. It just wouldn't even be worth trying, because either it'll turn out. He's fine, and you sold low on him, or, I mean, you couldn't get fair value for him. bottom line until

there was some word one way or the other and now we have more word but it's still not entirely in the clear because we don't know if he's going on the IL as we pointed out we don't know if he's going to miss a turn the MRI on his shoulder came back clean

two doctors signed off on it sounds like he's fine as has been true every time de Grom has left with an injury and the baseball world was panic over it, which is why I was saying not to panic.

You know, every time this happens, we don't know how it's going to turn out, obviously. But history would suggest more likely than not, he's fine. And history continues to suggest that. All right. So if we can pair a top five-ish hitter

coming into the season, Amuki Beds, a Juan Soto with another piece, let's say like a top 20th is starting pitcher, Scott. Like a Joe Musgrove, Sandy Alcansara with one of those hitters. Would that suffice? Yeah. All right. Sounds pretty good. If you felt like you had to trade DeGrom. Yes, which again, let's be clear, Scott doesn't want to trade DeGrom. But just for this exercise, if you are someone who is worried about Jacob DeGrom on your team and you're trying to figure out

what you can get for him, one of the top three hitters in baseball, maybe there's a Met fan in your league that has Garrett Cole on his team. And for some reason, they want to make that trade. I don't think that they would, but who knows? Some people are kind of weird like that when it comes to fantasy baseball. They want to have their favorite players from their favorite teams on their fantasy teams, which I don't think you should ever run your team like that, but whatever. All right, Scott, let's get into some of Thursday's action. Oh my goodness gracious. Oh my goodness gracious, Scott. Standout from Thursday. Who you got? I have a fella by the name of Wade, Wade, Wade Miley. Oh, I thought it going to be LeBlanc.

For the past two days, when we were, you know, talking about streamer pitchers for the upcoming Thursday, he was the only one who I could even halfway recommend going against the Padres, who don't rate as highly offensively

as you might think. But, you know, it's Wade Miley, so it was, it was half-hearted, it was a half-hearted recommendation for me. But, Wade Miley was great against the Padres, two run runs and seven innings. Both of those runs were actually on solo home runs, which is interesting for reasons I'll get to in a minute.

But overall, Wade Miley has a 288 ERA. He has, yeah, he has a 288 ERA. Sorry, I got lost in my notes here for a second. It's okay. I forgive you. But here's the thing. Wade Miley this year also had a start at Coorsfield way back on May 14th. Three innings, 11 hits, eight earn runs in that start at Coorsfield. Terrible, terrible start.

Terrible starts are always forgivable at Coors Field, right? That's what we always say. We just saw Brandon Woodruff have his worst start of the season on Thursday. And yet, Wade Miley has a 280-80-R-I for the year. So you take out that terrible start. at Coresfield, what you're left with is 11 starts from Wade Miley in which he has compiled a 192 ERA of .93 whip 7Ks per 9. Now, is that totally fair? I mean, bad starts do count and you know, ERAs, whips, they're not compiled, you know, by the pitcher doing the exact same thing

every time. There's going to be some good stars. There's going to be some bad starts. Fair enough. but it was at Cores Field. And we always say pitchers deserve a pass for that. So if we're truly giving him a pass for that, Wade Miley has a sub 2ERA on the year. Also, he has a career high ground ball rate, 56.8, where if he had enough innings to qualify,

and I think he missed a little time with injury this year, if he had enough innings to qualify, it would be the second highest ground ball rate among qualifying pitchers. And as I said, a career high. So he's doing that better than he's, ever done it before. He's always done it well. But he's doing that better than ever.

And he has had an amazing season. Nothing short of amazing. If you do give him a true pass for that course field start. So, I guess what I'm trying to say is Wade Miley's probably must roster. He's 71% rostered in CBS Sports Leagues. I'm sure it's lower than that. And obviously, he's not

going to help mention strikeouts. The whip is probably going to be a little high. compared to the ERA. But he's better than I've been giving him credit for. And, you know, that's true in a career sense, too. I do think him having a career high ground ball rate, you know, he's probably better than ever right now. But three of the past four years,

he's had a sub four ERA. In fact, in 2018, he had a 257 ERA. The one year he didn't have a sub four ERA during that four year stretch was last year, which wasn't even really a true season. And in fact, he made only six appearances. So Wade Milis pretty good. Pretty good. He is.

And over his last four starts, since he's returned from the IL, he's got a 1.80 ERA during that span. Obviously, pitching in Cincinnati, it's a hitter's park. You want him to keep the ball on the ground. That's exactly what he is doing and has done all season long.

And he's been throwing his cutter a ton. It's basically his main pitch. I'm pretty sure that's always been the case, but I feel like he's throwing his cutter even more this year. So it's translated to success. He's 71% rostered. He's at the Minnesota Twins next week,

which technically is not the greatest matchup because they have the fifth best Wobah against left-handed pitching. But I do agree with you, Scott. I think at this point, he should be a must-roster-starting pitcher going into San Diego. An offense that has struggled recently,

but overall, still a really good offense. Go seven innings, two runs, five strikeouts. So really, really strong season thus far for Wade Miley. Make sure to get him on your team. If he is available, and Scott, I wanted to highlight, Chohei Otani, who we talk about quite a bit here, and he was going up against the Tigers,

which is a pretty good matchup, six endings, one run, one walk, five strikeouts, didn't have a ton of whiffs in this game, only six swinging strikes on 78 pitches. His spin rate, if you look at this, it was way down on all of his pitches. It was like an absurd amount. And he actually changed up his pitch mix in this start. 32 sliders was a career high for him, according to the broadcast that I was watching, it was actually being broadcast on YouTube as a national game. So yeah, they brought that up. That kind of changed up the pitch mix, didn't throw his splitter as much. And over his last seven starts, I'm not really concerned about the spin rate stuff because he was still pretty good in the start. Last seven starts, 2.53 ERA with 50 strikeouts over 39 and two-thirds

endings pitch. Next week, he's at Tampa Bay, Scott. And I find myself kind of having this dilemma now because he's great as a hitter. There's no doubt about that. I read off his pace numbers the other day he's averaging 3.6 fantasy points per game, which is the same amount as names like Raphael Devers and Bo Bichette, who we consider obviously elite bats.

But when we have all these pitchers going down with injury, and I tell you that Otani has a 2.53 ERA over his last seven starts, don't you kind of want to get him in there as a pitcher? What if you don't have a choice, right? No. No. Okay.

No. I thought I would make the case. He's a borderline first round hitter. Yeah, but the way that he's pitching right now, he's obviously not a borderline first round pitcher, but he's pitching, like if he were to keep this up over the remainder of the season, that's like a top 20, top 25-ish starting pitcher,

which is very valuable. Yeah, but it's not as valuable as a top 10 maybe hitter. You're right. All right, I thought I would make the case. Because, look, people obviously, are struggling for pitching now with all these guys getting hurt and, you know, pitching is regressing a little bit. And I mean, it's regressing for a few others. It's not really regressing for Otani right now. So he's pitching really well.

He's never going to have a two-star week. So that's, you know, you're always talking just one start. And it may be a short start. And you don't get the benefit of this hitting, which is really, really, it's just too valuable to take out of your, like, I'd rather, you. Like, I'd rather, You know, I hate streaming one-star pitchers, as much as we talk about it on the podcast, as much as I have to write about it. I just don't like the strategy of it, but I would rather do that than remove Otani's bat from my lineup. Now, there are some fantasy baseball providers out there who split Otani into two players. So there's some people out there listening who have just pitching exclusive Otani.

Yeah. And, yeah, I mean, yeah. obviously you're happy with the way things are going if you have him and you feel much more confident starting him than you did earlier this season. But, you know, if you plan a site like CBS where you have to choose hitter or pitcher stats every week, I can't imagine I would ever start the pitcher. And I know you said you say you have before. So I did it one week because he was in the National League for three games where he didn't play. Actually, that could be the determining factor. Let me pull up a schedule and just see what the angels are doing next week. If they have

games in National League parks because if they do, he might have his playing time cut short as a hitter. And I need to move them up just in terms of my pitch-ranking. But the thing is, and this happened in one of the series where because they had two back-to-back weeks where they had a series in an NL park. The Angels did. But he was the starting pitcher for one of those games. So he still got to bat. And I think he moved to the outfield after he came out as a pitcher. So he got a full. And even on the days when he's not pitching in an NL park, he always pinch hits. So, you know, you're going to get a couple of a bats from that. The Angels play...

It's arguable, I'm saying, even in that case. Yeah, the Angels play five games next week. Does that sway it a little bit, Scott? No. Okay. All right, so keep Otani in as a hitter. He does have outfield eligibility now on CBS, which obviously helps him.

And I did just want to have you make a guess, Scott. Where do you think Otani ranks in Rodo this year? Well, I assume he has a separate ranking, hitting and pitching. So you're asking me about the hitting? I guess it says a hitter. I assume so. I would say he ranks fifth. He is eighth overall behind only Vlad Fernando Tatsis and Ronald de Cunia.

Would you trade Jacob deGround for Shohei Otani's got? Oh, eighth overall, but the fourth hitter? Yes. Okay. So it's, uh, de Grom for Otani now. All right. Well, opposing Shohei Otani in the start was Matt Manning, who is a top prospect in the game, top pitching prospect for the Detroit Tigers.

He wasn't pitching that way at AAA this season. He had an ERA over eight. And he had a, I'll say okay start. It was an okay debut, certainly better than some of the other prospects we've seen called up. But at the Angels, five innings, two runs, two walks. Only three strikeouts had six swinging strikes on 77 pitches. And he threw his four-scene fastball 70% of the time. He did mix in a curve, a slider, and a change-up.

So he does have three secondary pitches. He didn't use them very much. He averaged 93.9 miles per hour on that fastball. He retired 10 of the final 12 batters that he faced. So I thought that that was pretty impressive, Scott. Matt Manning, 31% rostered. He's up against the Cardinals next week, who are struggling mightily in the month of June.

So would you be interested in adding Matt Manning and potentially streaming him next week? My knee-jerk reaction when I saw the final line was, oh, of course, Manning was the one we were talking down and he actually comes in and has a good start. But digging deeper into it, I didn't like what I saw. I didn't like what I saw for Matt Manning. The curveball has always been marketed as his best pitch. He was a big strikeout guy in the miners. The curveball was supposed to be a big deal.

He threw only six of them. It was mostly fastballs and I think slider he used the second most. He got six whiffs on 77 pitches. So, you know, not a great rate there. 93.9 is what he averaged on the fastball. I think that's a little lower than I was expecting, too. But really, what jumped, what stood out to me most,

low, low spin rate on everything. Way low. The fastball, the RPM on the fastball was below 2,000 on average. I mean, when we were complaining about the low spin rate on Chris Paddock's fastball, it was still spinning more than that. Yeah. So I do remember that recently Terrick Scoubles spin rate was down quite a bit as well. Well, I don't know if it's down. I don't have anything to compare it to. Right, right, right.

But. But, I mean, look, AJ hinges their manager, so I wouldn't put anything fast. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know that I'd be moved to pick up Manning after this started. 15 team league, but I was willing to pick him up in the first place in a 15 team league because there's just so little out there on the waiver wire in such a format. All right, so 12 teamers, 12 team points leagues, 12 team roto, we're not there yet for Matt Manning.

No. All right. So in deeper leagues, you can take a shot on him, but shallower ones, not yet. Before we get to the news and notes, we have an awesome giveaway for you, which will be extended through the month of July, CBS Sports and Westinghouse are teaming up to give away a 55-inch TV, a portable power station, and an air purifier over the next month. Go to cbsports.com slash home run. That's CBSSports.com slash H-O-M-E-R-U-N to enter. We'll put the link in the episode description as well. Contest ends July 31st at cbsports.com slash home run. No purchase

necessary must be 18 or over and reside in the United States. And just another reminder, and we brought this up on yesterday's podcast, we will be doing this Monday and presumably every Monday after that. A YouTube exclusive Q&A Monday at 7 p.m. Eastern Time. Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel. Come hang out. Ask us questions about fantasy baseball, real life baseball, trade deadlines coming up. Ask us about pizza. More people. Tweet in telling me about, uh, I've lived in New York my whole life. It's a regular slice. It's a plain slice. So it's pretty fun, Scott, to, to see the debating of cheese versus regular. So let us know. Come hang out. Q&A this Monday YouTube exclusive. News and notes. Alex Bregman

was placed on the 10-day IEL with a left quad strain. Scott, any interest in his replacement, Abraham Toro, who hit a home run on Thursday. Yeah, he did. And he was, uh, He was kicking butt at AAA too, Abraham Toro. And I should point out, since I presume the majority of our audience, plays on CBS. For some reason, he's called Abraham Toro Hernandez on CBS. And it's always been that way. I don't know why. But it's a hyphenated last name Toro Hernandez.

But he's Abraham Toro everywhere else. So Abraham Toro at AAA was hitting 352 with two home runs, two steals, and OPS over 1,000. He had more walks than strikeouts. obviously a small sample because he spent part of this year in the majors. But with his four at bats today, he's up to 16 at bats in the majors this year, has yet to strike out in 60 to bats, which I thought was pretty cool. He's always had a good minor leech record, always been a good contact hitter with seemingly enough power

to maybe amount to something in fantasy. And, you know, he hasn't in past opportunities, but he's still only 24. So I'm kind of interested in him. The Astros have the most favorable hitter matchups this upcoming week. So if you're really, really stretching for a hitter to pick up and maybe start, I wouldn't totally overlook Abraham Toro. In terms of other third base replacements, Scott, some third baseman that are rostered in less than 70% of CBS leagues.

I'll read off a few names. You let me know your one or two favorites from this group. Miguel Sineau, Alec, Alec Bohm, Patrick Wisdom, Jonathan, India, Jamer Candelario. Of those five, who's your two favorite? Could you go through the names one more time for me here? Yes. Sino, Boem, Wisdom, India, Candelario. I think India is number one for me. He homered on Thursday, actually a big home runoff Mark Malanson,

who entered the game. What was Mark Malanson's ERA coming into the game? It was 0.64. And India had a big two-run homer off him. He's been batting lead off for a while now. His on-base percentage is closing in to 370. It's been a lot higher than that since mid-May. So I'm really becoming fun of Johnny India.

And he'd be my favorite. My second favorite, let's say, trying to find this list in the notes. I think it's probably wisdom right now. I don't have a lot of faith in wisdom. I just don't care enough about the other. Yeah, that's fair. Yeah.

All right. So India and Wisdom. That's the captain, Jonathan, India, with that curly mustache. I believe he walks out to the Pirates of the Caribbean theme during home games in Cincinnati. Tyler Glass now was transferred to the 60-day I-L, which means the earliest he can return is mid to late August, Scott. Would you be okay dropping Tyler Glass now if you only had a finite amount of IL spots on your team? well yeah i mean it was always a question of

you have to have an iL spot that that can be made free for glass now and um you know i'd still prefer not to but it just depends you know you're making the decision drop him or somebody else i do i do think it's a question whether glass now is the you know class he doesn't automatically get preferential treatment there mike trout will resume baseball activities in a few

His timeline remains mid-July-ish. Zach Gallen made his return on Thursday, and he was at the Giants, two-and-two-thirds, four hits, four runs, three strikeouts. He only threw 58 pitches. However, he averaged 95.1 miles per hour on his fastball,

which is up from 93.3 miles per hour, which he was averaging on the season, Scott. So fastball V-low up, everything else bad. Well, the spin rate was fine, which is notable, especially since Galin he kind of threw his old GM from the Marlins

Mike Hill under the bus Mike Hill works for MLB now and Gallin I think I have the story right Gallin accused him of recommending yep that's correct

pitchers throw with certain substances to get to have a better grip and he'll denied it and it was a whole dramatic exchange done through the media But yeah, yeah, spin rate looked fine and velocity was up, like he said. So other than the performance, things looked pretty good for Gowan.

It's just hard to know if he's completely healthy because technically what he was out with was a tear in his UCL, which is obviously what we're so freaked out about with glass now. Now, it doesn't seem like it's as big of a tear. And it's being called more of a sprain, which, you know, those terms are kind of interchangeable. And, you know, I'm not saying, I'm not saying I'm super fearful that that Gallen's going to be out for the season, you know, in the coming days. We're going to hear about that. But it is a possibility.

And it's also a possibility he just struggles for a while because he's not totally right. And then he goes on the aisle again and maybe misses the rest of the season. So not in the clear here, Zach Allen. A lot remains to be seen. Assuming he's healthy, he's lined up to face the Brewers at home next week. Would you keep gallon on the bench for now? Probably. Yeah, after the way this first start went, probably.

Yeah, 58 pitches in this one. He was getting knocked around a little bit. So I would think his next start, maybe they get him up around 75, but again, that's only if he's pitching efficiently. It's a good matchup. It's a better matchup than against the Giants, who have the best record in the NL, if you're not aware. Adam Eaton went to the aisle with a strained right hamstring.

Adam Engel was in center field, and Brian Goodwin was in right. Scott, any interest in either? Deeper Leagues. Not really. All right. Claiboros left Thursday's game with back stiffness. He'll be re-evaluated on Friday.

Anthony Rendon was not in the lineup, but did do some pre-game work to see if he'll be ready for Friday. So hopefully good news there. Teasker Hernandez was placed on the paternity list and we'll miss a few games for the Blue Jays. Mike Mustakis. is back in a walking boot with that heel injury and will be re-evaluated in a week.

T.J. Antone will throw a bullpen on Friday and could return on Sunday. Colton Wong could return on Friday. John Gray will begin a rehab assignment on Sunday. Mike Ford was traded from the Yankees to the raise for cash and a player to be named later. Not sure there's any playing time for him, but hey, a trade. Braves prospect, Kyle Mueller, who we spoke about yesterday, was sent back to the miners, but we'll return on Monday to start one of their double-header games. against the, I believe it's the Mets. The D-backs have now lost 23 straight road games,

which set the MLB record in that department, and I believe the Baltimore Orioles are right behind them. I think the Orioles have like 19 or 20 straight losses on the road, so we could have that record broken twice in the same season. Would not surprise me. The prospect report, Scott put out his article on Thursday, and I will put the link in the podcast description, so you can follow along and make sure you check out,

Scott's prospect report because it is very good and very thorough. And you gave some love to two catchers, Scott, Joey Bart of the San Francisco Giants, and Cal Raleigh, who I watched a few videos to make sure I pronounce his name correctly, and it's pronounced like Raleigh Fingers. So in case anybody wanted to know. It's spelled like the capital of North Carolina, though. That is correct. Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners, Scott.

So who do you like more between these two? Should we be stashing them in any redraft leagues right now? What do you think of them? well i mean joey bard obviously former number two overall pick he is the the higher prospect pedigree uh their slash lines are very similar they're both hitting about 350 i think they both have six home runs at least entering thursday uh but cal raleigh was riding a hit streak of i believe 22 games and his strikeout rate was about 12%. Now, he's always shown power.

He hit 29 home runs between two levels in 2019. But not with a great batting average. The strikeout rate was pretty typical for a slugger. And, you know, didn't seem like that big of a deal, but he's just, he's hitting so much better and he's apparently improved as a receiver too. so now, you know, a better fit defensively behind the plate. And it's like, we're the Mariners starting a catcher right now.

Luis Torrens and Tom Murphy have both been just disastrous at the plate. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Luis Torrens hit a home run on Thursday, Scott. Yeah, well, yeah, I'm surprised. Honestly, I'm surprised Cal Raleigh isn't up already. He's 24. What more does he need to accomplish in the miners? And, you know, if we're talking just strictly,

a redraft league, I would take him over Joey Bart, who doesn't have a path to the major. Basically, Joey Bart's path to the majors is Buster Posey getting hurt. Neither of the two of them have made a start at first base this year. So I don't think that's in the plans. I think it would just

require an injury for Posey at least as things stand right now. So, Raleigh, I can see being up any day now. Half your league could probably use a catcher. Might be where it's stash. I mean, I'm less enthusiastic about stashing possible call-ups overall,

but certainly in a two-catcher league. I think Cowellie deserves a look. All right, and I was just looking at Brandon Bell's contract situation, and he is a free agent after this season. So maybe you go out in your dynasty Keeper League, try and acquire Joey Bart and talk him down a little bit. Say, look, he's got nowhere to play, man. Give him up. Trade him to me.

His strikeout rate is really high, by the way. Joey Bart's? Yeah, it's more than twice what Cal Raleigh's is. It's up near 30%. Yeah. The reason I bring up Brandon Bell's contract situation is maybe after the season, they let them walk and they kind of transition

Buster Posey to first base, yada, yada, something like that, and then they can have Joey Bart play next year. But he is performing very well right now. Scott prefers to stash Cal Raleigh. Five that are on the verge and are worth dashing in redraft leagues, Jared Kelnick. Oh, that's what I was going to say. I know what they're waiting for.

When Kelnick's ready, Scott, they're going to call them both up together. It's going to be Kelnick and Raleigh. You heard it here first. Wander Franco, Vidal Bruhan, Joe Adel, Jaron, Jaron, those are the five worth stashing in redraft leagues right now, and people have been asking, clamoring for Wander Franco, when is he going to be up?

I think it might be coming soon. In the month of June, he's batting 421 with three homers, three triples, and five doubles. Franco is smashing it right now. And Joe Adele, he is hitting for high average. average, 373, five homers, but, but that is still coming with a 33% strikeout rate this month. So honestly, if you ask me which one we see first, I think it's Wanda Franco. Between him and Joe Adele.

To whatever extent it matters, late June is, has often been a point in the past when teams stopped worrying about Super 2 being an issue down the line. and it's never a clear-cut date because it's not something you find out. You don't know what the date is for that cutoff until years later because it's based on what percentage of players have accumulated a certain number,

a certain amount of service time over the past few years. So it's a guessing game. But late June, we're about there. If that was factoring into the race, thinking it all, you know, it also helps that, yeah, Wander Franco has really gotten hot

the plate at the plate. Meanwhile, Vidal Bruhan is cooled way off. He's only batting about 260 now and hasn't homered in about 20 games. So, you know,

we've said a few times that we think Bruhan is going to beat Wander Franco to the majors. I don't know if that's true anymore. Yep, I would agree with that 100%. And I was one of those people

saying that. So I've kind of swapped here. Franco's playing extremely well. Obviously, the Super 2 that comes into play for an organization like the raise who, obviously they want to keep Wanderfranco under contract for as long as they possibly can. Five that are on the periphery, five prospects that have been doing something of note recently. We spoke about Nolan Gorman of the St. Louis Cardinals,

but two Dodgers catcher prospects, Kaibertruis and Diego Cartaya, Pirates starting pitcher Rwanzi Contreras, who I brought up multiple times. He is crushing it. I believe he went seven in his most recent start. So they're actually letting him go deeper. And he's pitching at AA right now. I think the pirates are going to be pretty patient with him. And then the last name, just wanted to bring him up. Baltimore Orioles second baseman, Jemai Jones,

who they acquired from the Angels in the offseason. And I saw you, Scott, you little, you sneaky snake. You picked him up in your Scott White Dynasty League. Baltimore has been throwing Pat Valeka and Stevie Wilkerson out there at second base. So maybe they give Jemai Jones a shot here, Scott. And Jemai Jones was the top 100 prospect on virtually every list. I think headed into the 2018 season. But I read in baseball America that they,

he kind of got caught up in the launch ankle revolution and it kind of messed up his swing. And at the alternate training site last year, he rebuilt his swing. He actually hit seven home runs there over not that many games, obviously. So he actually developed power going away from the launch angle thing, which, you know, every hitter is different. And yeah, he's been great.

He's been great so far at AAA for the Orioles. Now with the Orioles, he was still with the Angels organization last year. Actually, he was traded straight up for Alex Cobb this offseason. So that's how he came to be on the Orioles. But yeah, Jemai Jones is, I think, back to being an interesting dynasty option. All right, yes. And he does have a little bit of a power speed combination for homers and three steals so far this season in the minors for Jemai Jones. We're going to take a quick break.

but when we return, we're going to get you set up for week 13. We'll do it next here on fantasy baseball today. The week 13 pitcher and hitter planners presented by lining coogles, and let's get things started, Scott, as we always do, with two-star pitchers. Who are you looking at for next week? Believe it or not, I'm looking at rostering. Yeah.

Now, he's not my top two-star pitcher who is rostered in less than 80% of leagues. I have Mike Minor ahead of him. I have Terrick Scoobal ahead of him. ahead of him. I'm not sure when Scoopal's finally going to break that 80% threshold. Probably coming soon. But Miner's matchups are against the Yankees

and Rangers, so two really good ones, which is why I favor him over Scoobel, even though I like Scoobel more overall. Scoobles matchups, Cardinals, okay, that's a good one. Astro's not so much. Stripling's widely available, though. Rostored in only 26% of CBS Sports Leagues, we referred yesterday to

the good matchups he has at Miami versus Baltimore. I don't have a lot of faith in him as a pitcher, but yeah, it's hard finding these sleeper pitchers every week. There's just the best ones are already on your roster. That is almost always true. But I have him fourth here, stripling among my top 10 sleeper pitchers for next week. Cole Irvin's kind of interesting at Texas, at San Francisco, you know, a pitch-to-contact guy.

So that's a little scary. Yarbrough, Ryan Yarbrose had some. pretty good starts recently. The matchups could be better, though, Red Sox Angels. Jake Oterizi at Baltimore, at Tigers. You got to love those matchups, but he doesn't often go even five innings in a start. So, yeah, it's hard for me to recommend Jake Oterozy too emphatically.

All right. So there you go, some two-star pitchers for next week, Scott. How about some single-start streamers that you're looking at? Austin Gomber, again. He's getting close to 80% rostered, but he's back on the road against the Brewers who have, I think, a bottom five offense in terms of OPS. That's a pretty easy call.

James Caprillion's going against the Rangers. That's not bad. Adrian Houser faces those road Rockies. It's always a good matchup. James and Ty Oms going against the Royals. I mean, it's kind of like... It's kind of like Jake Oterizzi, or how, you know, is he even going to give you five innings to get a win, potentially?

And I don't know about that. But that's the best I have to offer this week. I will point out, you know, if you're in kind of a shallower league and just debating the players already on your roster, the Blake Snell is making two starts. I'm leaning toward yes on him. One of them is against Arizona, who can't beat anybody right now. The other is against the Dodgers, but still two starts. for Blake Snell. Do you know where those starts are, Scott? They're both in San Diego.

Someone alerted me, I think it was via Twitter, that Blake Snell's splits the season are very drastic. And yes, they are. A 1.65 ERA at home, a 10.36 ERA on the road. Yeah, I don't know if there's anything to that or if it's just kind of a, you know, kind of random that it shook out that way. but obviously it only bolsters the argument for starting Blake Snell. Frankie Montas at Texas at San Francisco, I think he's a must as well. You know, just yesterday I told people, it doesn't matter who Blake Snell's matchups are. You've got to get them out of your lineups,

and then here we are one day later. Let's move over to the hitter side of things, Scott, who are some sleepers that you are looking at that are rostered in less than 75% of CBS leagues? you have some really deep names on here too. I like that. Yeah, well, there's a lot of good pitchers going this week and there's a lot of five game schedules as well. So last week was a good week for finding sleeper hitters this week,

not so much. But I do like the Reds matchup, Jonathan Nindia, the way he's been playing since mid-May. It's probably my favorite sleeper hitter for this upcoming week. I like Joey Votto as well. He homered on third, both of them homered on Thursday, right? Jonathan's Cope also homered on Thursday He has yet to slow down

His matchups are middle of the road But they're not bad I think he continue to go with the hot hand there Hunter Renfro's been pretty good Over the past few weeks And is especially good against left-handed pitchers The Red Sox have three of those on the schedule So he's not a bad sleeper

And then yeah there's a couple really deep ones Abraham Toro who we talked about earlier The Astros have the very best match And I think he's worth looking into Bobby Bradley. He also homered Thursday, and he is up to four home runs in 10 games since being promoted. He does have five strikeouts in his past four games, so the strikeouts are starting to appear for him, which I don't like to see. But only 30% rostered, I think he's a fine hot hand play. And Abraham Almonte, as I mentioned, one percent rostered, the Braille.

Braves play seven games next week. Matchups are nothing to be afraid of. Oh, I missed another one, too. Daniel Vogelbach. Yeah, some really deep options this week on the sleeper hitters list. Daniel Vogelbach himself is 9% rostered and been very productive the past two weeks. The Brewers have the third best matchups for hitters.

And, you know, that would kind of make Willie Adama's, I guess, a bit of a sleeper, too, though he's been ice cold over the past couple weeks. Scott, are you feeling okay? Yeah, I think so. Okay, what do I do? No, because I don't see C.J. Cron on this list. Ah, yes, the Rockies are on the road and for only five games. Yeah, it's wrong.

So not the time to recommend C.J. Crone, even though he's homered three times in his past four games. Last week's recommendation finally paid off. That's right. Stick to your gun, Scott, because I remember last week, before the Friday podcast, we were talking and you were debating, should I put C.J. Crone on the list. He hasn't done anything every time I put him on this list. And I was like, nah, don't do it, man. C.J. Crone, he stinks. And you stuck with him, and he has paid off handsomely. CJ Crone has been hot. But do not play him next week. He's got five games on the road. The five teams with the Astros, the A's, the Brewers, the Blue Jays, and the Marlins, the five teams with the worst hitter matchups, the Nationals, the Cubs, the Diamondbacks, the Mariners,

and the Phillies. So there you have it. The week 13, pitcher and hitter planners, presented by Lining Cougalls. And I mentioned last week that I went to see Jacob de Grom and the Mets take on the Padres. It was an awesome game to be there live in person to see DeGote

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about all of the delicious beers that they brew. So there were a few names that are keeping it up, man, these waiver-wire options. We've talked about them this week, last week, and they stayed hot on Thursday. Ryan Mountcastle, two more hits. He's betting 3.46 in the month of June. 70% rostered.

He plays seven games next week. Ahmed Rosario, two more hits. Now batting 333 over his last 37 games. He's made some real adjustments this season. I love what I'm seeing from Rosario. 49% rostered. Six road games next week. Jonathan Scope hit his 12th home run of the season.

That came off of Shohei Otani. He is 68% rostered is Jonathan Scope. Bobby Bradley, which Scott mentioned, hit another home run. C.J. Cron hit a grand slam. but we don't like the matchups, so I'm not going to talk about him. Scott, would you drop Tommy Edmund, who has gone ice cold? He's been dealing with an injury recently, so he's been in and out of the lineup. But 0 for 4 with two strikeouts on Thursday. He is batting 214 with a 536 OPS in the month of June. And if he's not hitting for batting average, Scott, he will chip in some steals, but

you really depend on Edmund for that batting average. So would you consider dropping him for one of these top middle infielder's like a Rosario or Jonathan's scope? You know, I don't think I would. I hadn't noticed how cold he had been. But what injuries he's dealing with? I didn't, I hadn't noticed that either. He's been banged up recently, Tommy Edmund? Yeah, keep talking and I'll find it.

Okay. But no, he still has one of the lowest strikeout rates in baseball and is obviously a reliable base stealer. Tightness in his torso. He was scratched the past two games. He missed two games with a tight... Okay, so it's very recent. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, so it probably hasn't contributed to his struggles. It's probably just a slump. Still one of the lowest strikeout rates, as I mentioned. So the strikeout rate, if you're talking about a points league, I mean, that elevates them there. And obviously, the steals keep them valuable in categories leagues. I mean, Ahmed Rosario might be closing in on him.

They look like pretty similar. players, but I still think I'd rather have Edmund. I can't imagine dropping him, to be honest. All right. All right, Scott. It took you a little bit of time to come around on Wade Miley, so I think it's going to take a little bit more for a Med Rosario, but soon enough, he will win you over. Some real adjustments, as I mentioned, his chase rate down to 31%. That is a career best. That is 39% for his career. So being much more selective within the zone, he's got a 25% line drive rate. man, a man or a Zario? What a guy.

Let's talk about some Giants hitters. They beat up on the Diamondbacks because everyone's been beating up on the Diamondbacks. I've been so mean to them. I've got to stop. I'm going to go to a Diamondbacks game. It's been terrible. They're snake-bitten, you could say.

The first week of August, I am going to be in Arizona, which means I don't know who you're going to be doing the podcast with Scott, so we'll figure it out. But I'm going to be, I'm going to go to a Diamondbacks game. I think they're actually facing the Giants. that first week of August. So if anyone lives in Arizona, you want to come hang out. I think I got the Welsh coming out to that game, so it's going to be a lot of fun.

Maybe I'll go swimming in the little pool in the outfield there. But anyway, back to the Giants hitters. Mike Yistremski has multiple hits in two of his last three games. He has seven hits in six games since returning from the IL. He's not really available. He's 87% rostered. He's got off to a really slow start. Stephen Dugger went three for three with a triple and a double. He's betting 324 with six homers and three steals in 43 games with a giant. Giants this season, albeit with a 35% strikeout rate. And Brandon Belt has four straight multi-hit games. However, his expected stats are very bad.

217, batting average, 447 expected slugs. Got anything that you would like to say about Yistremski, Stephen Dugger, or Brandon Belt? Yeah, Yistremski might be coming around in June. He has more walks than strikeouts for the month, and I think this was his... he has a couple home runs too so yeah somebody to keep an eye on

obviously the most interesting of these three Dugger his slash line is looking pretty great here 324, 387 593 if I got the most updated one which I think I did yeah that's obviously really impressive slash line

but strikeout rate is like 35% I don't know if you mentioned that, Frank. I did not, but yeah, that's bad. It's really bad. So, you know, he's kind of emerged with this Giants near everyday center

fielder, but I don't think Stephen Dugger has a lot of staying power. Belt's numbers are way better at home than on the road. I actually had him in my sleeper hitters for this upcoming week originally. And unlike Crowen, I chickened out and removed belt, and I shouldn't have because

for three multi-hapes. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know that he's back to being just in a general sense an envisable mixed league option. So I just checked in on this Tampa Bay Mariners game, Rays Mariners, and a few things here.

Pete Fairbanks is in for the save. There's two runners on with no outs. It's a one-run game, so that's not great. But Randy Rosa Rana is just having a massive game. Three for four, a sock in a shoe, his 10th homer, his 11th steel. The underlying numbers are not good for a Roserina. He strikes out a lot,

but he just makes things happen. happen, man. He's on pace for like a near 25, 25 seasons. So I thought that was interesting for Randy. Let's see if Pete Fairbanks can pull a little Houdini act and work his way out of this situation. More on some bullpens a little bit later on. Scott, I did a complete disservice to Charlie Morton, who we are 53 minutes in and I haven't even talked about yet. But he had his best start of the season. I do want to highlight some mid-tier starting pitchers here very quickly. But Morton, best start against the Cardinals, 7 and 2-3 shutout, three hits, seven-strife. out. He had 18 swinging strikes, and he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. What did he do

differently in this one? He threw his sinker a season low two times. He only threw it two times. He went heavy with the four seam and with the curveball, which is smart because a sinker has a 339 batting average against on the season. It's not that smart. You throw your, it's not that hard, is what I meant to say. You throw your good pitches more. You throw your bad pitches less. that's the recipe for success here, Charlie Morton. He is down to a 4.03 ERA with a 3.55 X-FIP, Scott. So overall, I still think Charlie Morton's going to be better than what he has shown this season. Oh, yeah, definitely.

Mid-3s ex-fip. And, yeah, just in his past six starts, he's lowered his ERA from 508 to 403. So I know his start before this one was not very good. but he's been trending the right direction and yeah seem to have a better pitch mix actually his curveball is the fifth spinningist in baseball the fifth spinniest spinningest

I'm not I'm not sure what noun form to use for that I'm sure there is one but still figuring it out but yeah it's and it hasn't draw like he hasn't had spin issues the way so many in the league have had lately so Charlie Morton is still going to be an asset for you, I think.

Dylan Cease, also part of this mid-tier of starting pitchers that we've got to talk about. He was at the Houston Astros, three and a third, seven runs allowed, six of those were earned. He got hit hard, 93.5 mile per hour, exit velocity against him in this one. And Scott, I think part of the reason why I'm hesitant to move him up, I do have to move him up in general. But I don't want to get him inside my top 30 yet, just because he still flashes this inconsistency. Mind you that Astros is a great lineup. It's a very tough matchup. But he has had three pretty bad clunkers over his last six starts

where he hasn't made it past four in a third innings pitched. So that's why I'm a little bit more hesitant on him. What did you see from Dylan Cease in this one? Yeah, so Dylan Sees, I was raving about him yesterday, obviously, having him 29th, I think, rest of season. And one of the things I highlighted was his spin rate. spin rate has jumped up this year and he's has as much spin as basically anybody on both his fastball and slider it's it's it's a it's a confusing time to make that argument understandably

um and people who unlike us aren't following spin rates very closely from start to start maybe don't even know how to do it probably cc's have a bad start like this one against the astros it's worth pointing out really tough matchup and think oh well scott was just talking about a spin rate and look what happened. Clearly, he was, those gains he made on it must have been because of some substance that he's not using anymore. But actually, CESIS spin rates have held pretty steady all this time. They haven't dropped dramatically or much at all.

So I don't, I don't think that's what's going on. And obviously, his previous two starts were great. It was, you know, he's been on a really good run since late April. So this seems like a one-off. It doesn't seem spin-related. I was talking about Ethan Katz, the White Sox pitching coach earlier and why he looks like a rock star. And, I mean, what he's done with Carlos Rodan and Dylan Cease this year and Lucas

Giolito previously. I mean, he just became the White Sox pitching coach, but I think he was Lucas Giolito's high school coach or something like that. And he's the guy who got Lucas Gialito on track when Gialito was looking like a bust of a prospect. So the White Sox owe a lot to this guy. And I know he's a big believer in using a core velocity belt for your training, which just kind of aligns your delivery in a way that it accomplishes a lot of things,

but among them it optimizes your spin rate. It makes it more efficient the spin. So there are ways of improving spin rate beyond just sticky substances. And that's why I think it has a big role in why Dylan sees has gotten better this year. So, yeah, don't panic about that. the start for cease. I don't think he's a sticky substance casualty. I think he's going to be great still. It was just a bad outing against a tough lineup. Pete Fairbanks implodes and he loves two runs in the ninth and he takes the loss for the Tampa Bay race. A few other mid-tier starting pitchers I did

want to highlight quickly. Marcus Stroman seven innings, two runs with eight strikeouts. I think this is the best version of Marcus Troman that we have ever seen. His control has been. great. Career best 2.02 walks per 9. He's had two walks or less in 12 of 13 starts. And he has a career high 12% swinging strike rate. So keep it up, Marcus Schroeman, Kyle Hendricks. Remember when we were all worried about him? Well, he has seven straight quality starts and a 3.12 ERA over his last nine starts. He has raised his ground ball rate tremendously during that span. So I think that's been a driving force for him. Jose Orquite against the White Sox, seven innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts.

And the strikeouts have been up for him. He's been throwing his curve ball less and his slider more. That is Jose Orkitti. And Joe Musgrove had kind of a weird start. Seven shutout, which is great, but three walks, only two strikeouts. Swinging strikes were down in this one. It doesn't give you consistent volume, but the ratios for Musgrove have still been great all season long.

A few other Thursday leftovers. You know you've made it when I save you for like, okay, you're just a really great player will mention what you did at the end of the podcast. Kevin Gausman just keeps chugging along. He's a top three starting pitcher regardless of format, eight innings, two runs with six strikeouts. Javier Baez hit his 16th home run. Jose Altuve, two more hits, four homers over his last three games. He has nine home runs total in the month of June. The guy is red hot. Michael Brantley went one for four with his fourth home run, and he is batting 531 in eight games since returning from the IL.

Brandon Woodruff was a casualty of Corse Field, five innings, five runs. Fernando Tatis hit his 22nd home run. He has five home runs in his last six games, and Mani Machado added his 10th home run of the season. The Call to the Pends and Bullpen updates the Cubs. Craig Kimbril got his 19th save, he's got a 0.64 ERA and a 0.67 whip.

Craig Kimbril is, I think, the fantasy MVP at the relief pitcher position this season. Malanson, he only recorded two outs. He allowed four earned runs, which we spoke a little bit about. Yeah, ERA jumped from 064 to, I think about 164. See if I could find that exact number. 186. Oh, oh, right. Yeah. Pitch to contact guy. It was crazy high ground ball rate. So you can understand why he's a good pitcher in a general sense. But obviously, he wasn't going to sustain a sub one ERA all year. That's exactly right. Right, yeah. I mean, there was going to be regression. It's kind of similar. Like, Brandon Woodruff, okay, he got knocked around in Corse Field. He wasn't going to pitch to a sub-2 ERA all season either. So, you know, there is going to be some regression for pitchers, just in general, across the board. For Rice-L. Iglesias, he picked up his 12th save of the season. And I just mentioned the Tampa Bay Rays. Pete Fairbanks was used in the ninth. He allowed two runs. I'm guessing Diego Castillo was not available because he did not pitch at all. I know he's been used a lot recently. So.

And I think Lucas Sims needed a day off for the Reds. They had a safe situation after coming back against the Padres against Mark Melanson. So Ryan Hendricks, who already had an ERA over four, his ERA jumped over five because he blew that lead. And then Amir Garrett lost it before even the end of the ninth inning. So the Padres returned the favor against the Reds, and the Reds, I think, are even more committed to Lucas Sims as their ninth inning guy now. To stream or not to stream, we'll start with Friday.

And we have James Caprillion at the Yankees, Joey Lucchese at the Nationals, Eric Fetty versus the Mets. Oh, I remember this list. It's bad. J.C. Mejia at the Pirates. Zach Davies versus the Marlins and Alex Cobb versus the Tigers.

Yeah. Probably Caprillion is the only one I'd sincerely think about. If you want me to pick a second one, I'll go with Mejia against the Pirates. I don't hate Zach Davies. He's pitched better since the start of the game. You're right. Yeah, he has. He has. Yeah. It's not bad. All right.

Saturday, we have David Peterson at the Nationals, Jake Arieta versus the Marlins, Calquantrol at the Pirates, Colby Allard versus the Twins, Drew Smiley versus the Cardinals and Patrick Sandoval versus the Tigers. Still not a great list, but I feel like it's a little bit better than the last one. Patrick Sandoval against the Tigers is risky,

but he's only one star removed from that 32 with effort. So that's interesting. I don't know. Colby Allard against the twins. They're still pretty good against left-handers, right? Yeah. So that's risky.

But, yeah, I don't know. I don't really love anyone else. Who stands out to you? Drew Smiley, he's not a great pitcher about the Cardinals' offense. It's not been great. I don't have any faith in Smiley at all at this point.

No, I'm with you there. Sandoval is probably the only one that I genuinely like, but if you are desperate, I guess I would say Drew Smiley, but obviously don't love it. For Sunday, J.C. Brewbaker versus Cleveland, Alec Mills versus the Marlins, Dylan Bundy,

versus the Tigers. Shane McClain. at the Mariners, Marco Gonzalez versus the Rays, and Kwong Han Kim at the Braves. Well, unfortunately, in a couple weekly leagues, I'm going to have to live with whatever Dylan Bundy gives me against the Tigers,

but I wouldn't recommend it for... I am sorry. Great matchups, but... Eh, Shay McClanahan at Seattle. Seems pretty good. J.T. Brubaker. Against the Indians, I'd be fine with that, too. Okay, let's wrap up the week with a little fantasy justice.

Ah, Chris isn't here. He usually does like the Metallica. Yeah, yeah. Would you like to sub in, Scott, and do that? I don't know what that is. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I could do that, but. I appreciate it.

I do appreciate the effort. I just, like, this is from David, and it's fantasy justice. That's right. Just David Justice. there you I look at this guy always ready always ready professional broadcaster Scott white please help we're in a 19 year old league that may break up and I wanted to prevent that with that said we have a strong bond and always travel for the draft for a quote guys weekend we are a 12 team roto keeper league where you keep a player for three years max of late

teams in contention are trading their best keepers to lower tier teams and getting a king's ransom that's changed the complexion of the league. I get where the lower team, the lower tier team gets a prime time player to keep and build around, but then the contending team gets like four prime players to win now and blows past everyone. I feel this is unfair to teams that have been building for years to win, only to see these big deals that changed the league to just get a keeper. What are some suggestions to stop these lopsided trades for a keeper that change? the whole complexion of the league. You can keep up to five players. No trades get vetoed because we trust the teams can police themselves, which I do appreciate that last point.

And I've actually had this issue in a few of my homekeeper league, Scott, both in football and in baseball, where it comes down to the trade deadline, and I'm seeing, let's say, a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the 15th round, he was drafted, let's say, two years ago, or whatever, and he's traded to someone and they're going to give away like their three or four best players. And it's frustrating. What do you think?

Yeah, it's a problem. It's a problem in keeper leagues. You need to make it hurt more for the contending teams to give up that much volume. I mean, an easy way of doing that was just to make it a lot more keepers. But, you know,

that obviously changes the, the complexion of the league itself. One way to make it a disincentive for the non-contending teams is to do a consolation bracket in addition to the championship bracket and the winner of the consolation bracket

gets the first overall pick. But that might not be enough incentive unless if you make it a snake draft still. Yeah. You might have to make it a more like, a traditional draft, not a traditional fantasy draft, but you know, like the NFL draft

or it's just the same order every round. Yeah. But those are, you know, those are some fairly drastic changes too. What about setting a limit, Scott? Like, if it's clear that a keeper is being traded, let's say you can't get more than two players in return. Or is that not fair either?

Well, that sounds like a judgment call that wouldn't be fair to ask anybody to make. Right. because that's something I've tried to police in my keeper leagues and you're right like we run into the same issues

where it's oh what do you determine what's a keeper trade and what's not so it's tough yeah yeah I've also done the

I feel like there's a simpler answer than I'm just you know I'm answering this raw so I don't I'm just kind of go on top of mind here I've also done the consolation bracket but the thing is

if every team that doesn't the playoffs basically sells off all their decent players for keepers it's they're all competing against each other right so they're all going to have bad teams anyway yeah so it's in theory but you know it doesn't always work out that way and it may not be enough of an incentive anyway but you know i i i do think like the leagues where this hasn't been an issue as much is are the ones that have the most keepers because obviously you You know, you need to have, you know, if you have more than just three or four keepers, you can't afford to give away four keepable players.

At least, I'm not saying traits like that would never happen, but with less frequency, for sure. What's the ideal keeper amount for you, Scott? Say you just play in a 12-team league. Well, most of my keeper leagues are deeper than that. So I don't have, I haven't put it to the test maybe enough to say with a ton of confidence, but I think 10 to 15 sounds about right. I was thinking 8 to 10. That might get the job done.

So maybe 8 to 12. That's the range that you're looking at. So a few possible solutions there for you, David. But know that you're not alone. Other fantasy commissioners have dealt with a similar issue, at least Scott and I have. So try those things out and let us know how it goes. I believe justice has been served.

Yeah, yeah. For Scott, I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball. Today will be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.