Fantasy Baseball Today - Week 26 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers! Quinn Mathews Sneaky Stream! (9/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)
Episode Date: September 12, 2026Frank Stampfl and Scott White are previewing Week 26 of the Fantasy Baseball season. Are we using Kade Anderson and Sandy Alcantara with two starts? Use Quinn Mathews with two starts and stream E...mmet Sheehan! Ty France has seven games and four of those are in Coors Field!Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballTodaySign up for the newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters
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Just two weeks left in the season.
Let's preview week 26.
Up next on Fantasy Baseball Today Express.
Welcome into FBT Express on Saturday, September 12th.
I am Frank Stample joined by Scott White.
Taking a look at the schedule for this upcoming week.
We have nine teams with seven games.
That includes the White Sox, Reds, Rockies, Tigers, Angels, Dodgers, Twins, Mets, and Padres.
20 teams with six games and one unlucky team with five games.
That includes the Nationals.
What about the Rockies?
We did it.
We got it.
Seven home games in Cores Field.
Four against the Padres and three against the Mariners.
Starters hit these fringe two-star pitchers for the upcoming week.
And Scott, what do we think about Jose Soriano?
He's been not so great since going over to the Blue Jays.
He has two home against the tigers and at the Rangers.
Yeah, I didn't expect to rank of so high among the two-star pitchers, but he's eighth.
Like, it's not, there are a lot of two-star pitchers, in theory.
I'm sure a lot of spot starters will be inserted second to last week of the year.
In theory, there's 35, and Jose Soriano comes in eighth.
So he, I guess I'm going to call him advice.
in most cases. If ratios
are your main concern, maybe not.
But otherwise, yeah, good
matchups. Troy Melton, it looks
like the lack of strikeouts are starting
to catch up to him a little bit. He is at the Blue Jays
and at the White Sox this week.
Yep.
He's ninth.
So if you
don't want to start him, I get it, but
he's among the best you're going to do
not must start, but in the next
highest category for me.
Kate Anderson coming off his first quality start,
picked up his first win of the season,
first win of his career.
He is at the Angels, at the Rockies.
So we do have those Jekyll and Hyde matchups.
And he's 11th among the two-star pitchers.
So I have him just ahead of the head-to-head points-only tier.
Obviously feel a lot better about it if that Rocky start was in Seattle instead of Colorado.
But Kate Anderson showed in his last turn that he can be useful.
and the Angels matchup is a pretty good one.
So with two starts there, again,
unless ratios are your main concern, I lean yes.
Sandy Ocantara is limping to the finish line here.
He is at the debacks and at the Padres.
Yeah, his last three starts have been so bad.
I'm not going to give it a flat no,
but it would have to be just points leagues
where you're prioritizing volume.
Tanner Bybee has also slowed down lately.
He is home against the White Sox and the athletics.
I'm just saying no thanks to this one.
I don't think the upside
the upside.
And Casey Mize has not been great
since going over to the Padres
he's at the Rockies
and home against the Marlins.
It's a no for me.
All right.
Who are some two-star pitchers
that you are looking to add
and stream this upcoming week?
Not great.
It's not a great selection here.
My favorite among those
who could actually pick up
is Quinn Matthews.
who's looked decent his last three turns.
The walk total was high in one of them still,
but missing some bats,
limiting damage.
He gets the Giants and the Nationals this week.
Nationals aren't what they once were.
And Giants, of course, a very good matchup.
So if you need a two-star streamer,
he's probably your best one,
Quinn Matthews.
Will Warren back-to-back starts
where he actually worked deep into the game.
and I think that puts him back in the conversation here,
not with a lot of trust.
Fastball's been up, so that helps.
But he gets the twins and the diamond backs,
both on the road.
Not terrible matchups.
Probably I'd only look for it to him in points leagues,
Will Warren,
unless you're just really chasing starting pitcher stats in a Roto League.
Griffin, Jacks,
not totally convinced he's
Back, he had a good outing results-wise against the Braves last time,
but the velocity was down and he didn't get many whiffs.
Athletics and Red Sox are the matchups this week.
Obviously, that athletics matchup is in Tampa Bay.
I don't know if it's obvious, but I'm telling you, it's in Tampa Bay.
Again, points in leagues I could see doing that for Griffin Jacks,
not with a lot of confidence, though.
And then Ryan Johnson, only 8% rostered, and justifiably,
I don't think he's good,
but he does have a 214 ERA over his past six starts,
leaning heavily on a cutter with a 1808 batting average against.
I'd like to see more whiffs.
Feel better about Ryan Johnson if he had those.
But matchups are Seattle and Minnesota.
That first one especially is really good.
I can see doing it in a points league.
All right, let's take a quick break,
and we'll get to more right after this.
Welcome back, FBT,
Press, and let's slide over to the one-star streamer. Scott, who do you have for Week 26?
I like this group a little bit more. The top two, you're probably tired of hearing about,
Jacob Lopez and Andrew Painter, until their roster rates get up to 80%. I think they're
fixtures here. Lopez especially, he's at Cleveland. So you got to like that matchup. Painter gets
the Mets. Not quite as favorable now that Juan Soto's back, but still good enough with the kind of run he's
been on. I say the kind of run he's been on a misstep for each.
each of these pitchers last time out,
but I think encouraging
enough signs overall that we'll give him a pass
for that, particularly with a good
matchup coming up, and particularly since
all we
have to compare them to for these purposes
are the rest of the waiver wire, which is pretty
bleak right now.
Cal Quantrell,
he gets the Blue Jays.
That's obviously a favorable
matchup, and while I'm not
confident in the
skill set, it's nonetheless
That's true that in his last night starts.
He has a 164 ERA.
So you got a stream.
That's not a bad choice.
Emmett Sheehan looked great coming back
from the miners. Double-digit strikeout effort
last time out. Seems to have regained
his place in the Dodgers rotation.
He gets the Giants.
Andre Palante, high floor guy, quality
start machine. He also gets the Giants.
Christian Javier. This one's
a surprise. He gets
the Royals. That's a decent matchup.
And I say it's a
a surprise because he's put together back-to-back
outings that were really good.
And not only that, he's got the highest swinging strike rate
of his career.
He's throwing, his average fastball velocity,
Christian Javier, is the highest since 2022.
2020 is the year he looked like an ace,
254 or 8.95, wipe 11.7K per 9.
So there's a lot to like here, actually,
and I think the Royals matchup,
you might want to take advantage of it.
All right, sliding over to the hitters, the best matchups for this upcoming week.
We have the Tigers, Padres, Rockies, Dodgers, and Guardians.
The worst hitter matchups, pirates, nationals, athletics, reds, and giants.
Scott, who are your favorite sleeper hitters for week 26?
Thai France, somehow only 56% rostered, easy money.
Padres have second-best hitter matchups for games in Colorado.
I don't think the matchups even matter.
France has just been really good for a long time now.
Pick them up already, use them.
You won't regret it.
A couple of Rockies hitters here with the full week of home games.
Cole Carrick is always a good choice in that situation.
T.J. Rumfield, he's actually pretty good on the road,
if one of the few Rockies hitters who is, but better at home.
And I trust him to take advantage of these matchups.
Further down the list, number 10, actually, on the list.
I'll lump him in here because he's another Rocky.
Kyle Caros.
OPS over 800 at home for the year.
He just got back from the concussion IL,
but it started three straight games homered on Thursday.
So I think we can trust Kyle Karras,
caros, with a full week of home games.
Marlins didn't quite make the five best hitter matchups,
but they weren't far off.
They have nothing but righties on the schedule,
which is very good news for Griffin Conine,
who has been hitting a lot of home runs in the second half,
but as a platoon player.
Jacob Marcy's been hot.
So not as much upside as conine, but we'll trust him to take advantage of those matchups as well.
Leo Bernal, or Leonardo Bernal, if you play on CBS.
The Cardinals catcher, I don't often put catchers on this list because it's hard to get an extra catcher in the lineup.
But he is playing more than the average catcher.
In fact, he's started every game since being called up, some at first base, some at DH, most a catcher.
Only 7% rostered.
He's hitting well.
Cardinals do have some favorable matchups this week.
Tommy Edmund with the Dodgers having the fourth best hitter matchups.
He seems like a good play.
And then the familiar Orioles duo of Christian Incarnassion Strand and Kobe Mayo,
both of them lefty mashers of the highest order.
Half of the Orioles games this week are against lefties.
So not a bad time to use them.
All right.
We are going to wrap there from one.
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