Fantasy Baseball Today - Week 26 Sleepers, Two-Start Pitchers & Sneaky Adds in Dynasty Leagues (9/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: September 17, 2021

Bryce Harper is single-handedly carrying Fantasy teams right now (2:31). Should you stash Alex Cobb for the final week? ... News and notes (9:46): Blake Snell and Michael Brantley went to the IL, Carlos Rodon will make two more starts and more. ... Who are some sneaky prospects to add in dynasty (18:40)? ... Week 26 sleepers (27:06)! Which two-start pitchers should you stream next week? What about sleeper hitters? ... Would you rather Jesus Sanchez or Brandon Marsh (39:12)? What about Gavin Lux or Josh Harrison? ... Should you add these players in deeper leagues (43:16)? ... What else should you know from the past few days (47:!5)? ... Scotty has a special treat for you (55:47)! ... We wrap up with bullpens, streamers and your emails (59:14)! 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank 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

Domino. Hello Friday and welcome in to fantasy baseball today, presented by Lion and Cougles. More on their great variety of beverages later on in the podcast. September 17th, Frank Stanful, joined by Scott White. We have Week 26 sleepers for you, two-star pitchers, some sneaky dynasty ads if you're still paying attention in those leagues, and a special treat from Scotty Doves later on in the podcast. Nice little tease, excited for that.

What is up, Scott? Are you ready to help people win championships? Two weeks left in the regular season? I think I'm ready. Yeah, I think I'm ready. I hope I'll still be competing for some championships myself as I'm helping others do it. But yeah, no, we're good. We got this. You are still alive in both Podcasts League, right? Yes, though I made the mistake of starting Kyle Hendrickson. one.

So that is unfortunate. And that's the Categories League, the For the People League. So, you know, probably not going to win ERA and Whips this week. I don't know, maybe. Maybe the other teams ERA and Whips not so great either. But mine's worse. As of now.

Kyle Hendricks. Another one. I kind of split all the leagues where I had Hendricks. I kind of hedged my bet and, like, started him in some and not in others. You don't know what to expect from that guy ever. It's either going to be a quality starter.

a disaster. So, yeah, ZRA's close. He's closing it on a five VRA now. So, um, that's, that's up to 4.81. That's, you hate to see it from Kyle Hendricks. I mean, we all knew it was a matter of time, but, uh, he was a popular player this year because coming off the 60 game season, you thought if anything, he's going to be durable. He's going to give you decent endings. Uh, he's been durable. The endings, they have not been decent. Uh, let's talk about some other standouts from the past couple of days. My goodness gracious. All right, Scott, I'm going to get us started here and just talk about one of the players that is carrying your fantasy team.

Maybe not yours. I don't know if you have money on your teams, but people who are listening, if you have Bryce Harper on your team, he is carrying you through the playoffs to the championship in your Rotel League, whatever type of league you're playing in because the guy is having a monster second half. Five more hits between Wednesday and Thursday added another homer, another steal. wasn't a sock and a shoe because they came in different games. Now up to a 314 batting average on the season. 33 homers, 13 steals.

The Phillies put up 17 runs, 16 hits on Thursday against the Chicago Cubs. Overall, in the second half, Bryce Harper's batting 354, 18 homers with a 1255 OPS in 57 second half games. The guy has been utterly ridiculous picking up where he left off last year. the shortened season. And I think he's closing in on a first round pick next year, Scott. Definitely, at least on that border. I think he's going to be at the one-two turn. Yeah.

Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see how many pitchers go in the first round because I think that will impact whether Harper is the first rounder or second rounder. We talked about Beau Bichette last week. And I was thinking more like a second rounder. You were thinking more of a first rounder. There's just a lot of players. There are only so many players that can fit in the first round, right? There's only 12.

And, you know, I would say the top four is set in stone, right? Five, if you include DeGrom maybe. But there are health questions surrounding him, obviously. But we know Ocuna Tatis, Soto, and Vladimir Guerrero are going to be the top four in some order, provided they all have, they all enter spring training with a clean bill of health, which may not be the case for Acuna.

It may not be for Tatis, technically. So, you know, then after that, you got to figure Jose Ramirez is the first rounder. Mookie Betts probably a first rounder still. Trey Turner. And we're up to seven at that point. And then, you know, Freddie Freeman's going to be in the mix. And Mike Trout's going to be in the mix.

and um my trout who's that i mean who would have imagined when he got hurt that he would miss the rest of the season like that was not you know i i hear what you're saying because at the time it's like just a cash stream but i guess we we should have seen the writing on the wall right i mean the way that they described the first half frank we were we were thinking oh maybe he'll be back by the all-star break yeah but he said that he felt something he said he felt something pop though you know in hindsight I think it's, yeah, we expected, I mean, given the timeline that we had, that, yeah, he would be back in sometime July, August. But, I mean, if you hear something pop in your calf, that is pretty scary. And, you know, it's pretty close to the Achilles. So, you know, by the time we got into like August, the angels were out of it, right? Or close to out of it. So it's at that point, why even rush him back? I know Mike Trout wants to play. You know, elite athletes they want to play. But I mean, why risk you? You can't, you can't convince me we could have seen this coming. No, I mean, I guess not at a time, but it's just, I don't know, an injury like that, hearing a calf pop, I mean, it's just, that's bad, it's a bad injury.

The popping is scary because you expect something to turn up on an MRI. When it doesn't, then the pops are relevant. I don't know. Maybe they were hiding something from us, Scott. The pops are relevant, Frank. All right, so it's Bryce Harper for me. There's not really much to take away outside of he's awesome. He's going to be on the border of a first round pick next year.

probably depends. It shouldn't depend on a format, but like Boba Chet, I was arguing as a first round pick, I think in a Categories league. In a Points League, doesn't really walk very much, lower OPS.

Like, okay, Boba Shett's not a first round pick in a points league. I feel pretty confident saying that. In categories, though, it is a little bit different. All right, Scott, oh my goodness gracious for you from the past couple days.

So a significantly less roster than Bryce Harper is Alex Cobb, who made his return on Thursday. It was his first start. since August 10th. It was only a second start since July 23rd because remember he had kind of a fake out return there on August 10th. Five shout out innings at the White Sox. Two hits allowed, struck out five, nine swinging strikes on 66 pitches. That's a great rate. Five of them came on 44% splitters. So he threw a ton of splitters and that's been, you know, a great approach for him this year. obviously a lot of time between these starts

but in his last five starts now one run or fewer you look at the underlying stats 317 X-FIP great X-FIP elite X-FIP I would say 317 there gets a lot of ground balls with those splitters

and the strikeouts have gotten a lot more whiffs this year than we're used to seeing and so he came back looking more or less the same is a very good sign now Alex Cobb is facing the Astros next week. So hard to recommend him for that. But maybe that's for the best because the only 366 pitches in this first star,

give him a chance to build up a little more for the final week of the season when the angels are scheduled to play the Rangers and the Mariners. Cobb might start against both of them. Obviously, it's tough to predict this far out and even tougher to predict when Shohei Otani is getting inserted at random times. But it's possible. Cobb is a two-star pitch of the final week with Rangers and Mariners on the schedule.

And that could pay serious dividends. So it might be worth stashing him away now. And, you know, if he does manage to do well against the Astros, that's going to make him even more attractive start for that final week. Yeah, 23% rostered on CBS right now. I just checked one of my 15-team leagues. He's available there. So especially in deeper leagues, go out and check and see if Alex Cobb is available.

agree with you, don't want to throw him in there against the Astros, but we'll get that pitch count built up a little bit more. He threw 66 pitches in this first start back. So if he gets up to 70, 75 and looks okay against the Astros, then I think you're right. I think that we can have some confidence using him in the final week of the season, especially with those matchups. Before we hit the news and notes, this Sunday is week two. And another NFL on CBS double header in early action, the Raiders meet the Steelers, while others will see a matchup of rookie quarterbacks when the Patriots take on my New York Jets, although I shouldn't really claim them because it's not very exciting to be a Jets fan right now.

Then it's a showdown out west with two teams ready to light up the scoreboard as Justin Herbert and the high octane Chargers offense clash with Jack Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys. Coverage begins at noon eastern with J.B. and the guys on the NFL today. This Sunday, the best games are on the NFL on CBS. News and notes, Blake Snell was finally placed on the I.L. day with that left adductor groin train. And I haven't seen a timetable, but I would be surprised if he makes any more starts this season. Yeah, I would be too.

Well, see, I mean, where are they in terms of the standings right now? Like, are the, are the Padreys going to make the playoffs? I haven't not checked this in a while, but I know that they've kind of been floundering here in the second half. Oh, that's very much in question. It's, oh, my goodness, the Cardinals have passed the Reds. I was going to say, it's between the Padres and the Reds, but I guess the Cardinals are in the hunt, too. They won five straight. Wow.

And actually, they are technically in the, in position for the second wild card in the NL right now. The Cardinals are. So very close between those three teams. But technically, at the moment, the Padres are out of it. Yeah. I mean, Padres half a game. Reds one game behind the Phillies are two and a half games behind that second wildcarts. But yeah, yeah, it looks like the loser of Phillies and Braves in the East could

potentially claim the second wild card. Though, that's a longer... The odds are worse of that. That is... It's going to be a close race there. In both wild cards, honestly. I mean, the Yankees, Oakland, still battling out. Seattle, maybe a little bit of a longer shot at this point.

But my World Series prediction before the season is still kind of alive here, Scott, the White Sox and the Padres. So I don't feel very good about the Padres, but the White Sox, I think they have a pretty good chance. You know, I kind of feel... I was thinking about this. today.

Remember the Padres, this off-season? Like, they looked like they had a pretty good pitching staff, and then they added Blake Snell, and then they added Joe Musgrove, and then they added you Darvish. And we're like, how many pitchers do you need? This is, like, that's one way to ensure you have enough pitching, right? And yet now they're running, like,

they're struggling to fill their number four spot, and they're running like Jake Arieta out there. Vince Velazquez is starting on Friday. Think about that. Yeah, Vince Velasquez. Wow. So I, like, I can, my fantasy teams can relate to the Padres, I think, because it's like, look at all this pitching.

How could this go wrong? Man, shout out to my guy, Joe Musgrove. On a pitching staff entering the season that featured you Darvish, Blake Snell, Chris Paddock, say whatever you want about him, Joe Musgrove has been easily the best. of that pitching staff all season if we take consistency into account.

So shout out to Big Joe, getting it done. Finally. Michael Brantley also went on the I.O. with right knee sorenness and we spoke about Jose Siri just the other day. He has started three of the last four games. They have a rotation of outfielders right now. Jake Myers is in the mix. Chas McCormick is also in that mix.

Anyone stand out, Scott, from a deeper league, Siri, Jake Myers, Chas McCormick? I mean, Myers is still my favorite. I think he has the brightest future. but they're kind of cannibalizing each other's at bats at the moment. So it's a bad situation for fantasy. I feel like it's more just scouting them for next year at this point. Jesse Winker could be activated on Friday.

Welcome site. Let's get him back in the lineups if he is back indeed. Nelson Cruz exited Thursday with a right forearm contusion after getting hit by a pitch. J.C. Real Muto also returned on Wednesday with a sock and a shoe and then left Thursday's game after being hit by a pitch in his left elbow tricep area. Joe Adele went on the IL with an abdominal strain and isn't expected back for the remainder of the season. Brewer's manager, Craig Counsel, said Willie Adomis could be activated Monday against the Cardinals.

Adomis is currently on the IL with a quad injury. Scott, if Willie Adomis is back Monday, do you just throw him back in the lineup or do you worry about maybe he sits because the Brewers have a big lead? Coming back off of an injury, what do you think? Their matchups next week are middle of the road, but they do have seven games at least. Shortstop, you know, it's the most difficult position to fill off the waiver wire. So you're probably better off starting Adamez

unless you just happen to have a great alternative at that position. The Blue Jays are hopeful that Jose Burrios will make his next start after dealing with abdominal tightness on Tuesday. He was great in that start against the Tampa Bay raise. went seven innings. Shane McClanahan is expected to be activated off the IL to start Sunday against the Detroit Tigers. So if you play in a daily lineup league, get them right back in there. That's a solid matchup against Detroit. They've been pesky in the second half, but I still do

like McClanahan in that spot. Wanda Franco hopes to rejoin the race sometime next week. He was at the park on Thursday. I saw that he was either jogging or running around, so he is getting closer to returning from that hamstring injury. Carlos Rodan is expected to make two more starts in the regular season with one of those coming next week, Scott. Do you feel okay leaving Carlos Rodan in your lineup? I don't think that's automatic, no, because even in the starts he's been making, they're limiting him to five innings. It seems like it is, so next week, next week, right?

It looks like it will be in the Detroit series, so pretty good matchup. Right. I'm not saying you can't use them, but definitely not must start. All right, again, that is Carl's Ferdon. Chohei Otani will not pitch Friday due to a sore arm. The Angels are hopeful that he can still pitch again this season. And you know, I haven't looked too deep into Otani's second half, but I know that he's been struggling.

I wonder how much that will affect his draft stock for next year. I think he's still going to be a first round pick, but... Oh, yeah, for sure. I forgot to mention him when we were talking about it at the start of the show. That's another guy who has to go in the first round. Yeah, I mean, he'll beat a first rounder. I just don't know, like, before it was... Oh, he's a lot to be in the top five still.

Now, I mean, it's a pretty rough second half for him. Yeah, the batting average has been rough, but there's still been a lot of home runs and stolen bases. And I don't think it matters that much. I mean, he was, he's the, even in points leagues, which isn't really his format. He's the number two outfielder in overall points, you know? So I don't think he's going to make that big of a difference.

Ahmed Rosario was placed on the bereavement list on Wednesday. Frumber Valdez was scratched from his start on Thursday with a cut on his hand. Dusty Baker told reporters he's hopeful Valdez can start Monday against the Angels, which grinds my gear, Scott, because I started Valdez in two head-to-head points semifinals matchups this week, and now I'm not going to get a start. So, I mean, there's nothing you could do. It's just, it's bad luck. There was some hope that he might be able to start this weekend, but now they're talking more so about

Monday. So if you manage to squeak by, maybe we'll have a two-star week for Framber Valdez next week. Yeah, I think I made that mistake in a league, too, where I had a really good alternative, and I was sweating the decision. Yeah. That's annoying. I started Valdez over Joe Musgrove, actually. It was Valdez against... Yeah, Valdez against the Rangers, and then Musgrove was up against the Giants.

And Musgrove was okay on Wednesday. It wasn't really that good of a start. It was like a quality start, but like not really a quality start. I think you wound up with like 16 fantasy points, but those are 16 points that I will not have on my team this week. Ian Anderson started Valdez over Lucas G. Lito. It's tough one too because he's coming back from injury. Oh, Framber, what, why are you doing this? Ian Anderson's start was postponed on Thursday, but we'll start Friday against the San Francisco Giants.

Jesus Aguilar is not expected to return to the Marlins this season. That means Lewin Diaz, who we spoke about the other day, will continue to play to, play every day, mostly every day for the Miami Marlins. Some pop if you play in a deeper league. Gabe Kapler said there's a good chance Alex Wood is activated off the COVID-I-L Saturday and starts against the Braves. Luis Severino will throw two in a simulated game on Friday. Not really much to see there. It's more so let's see what he does rest of season if the Yankees make the playoffs and we'll kind of use that to judge Severino for next year. Jacob DeRisi is expecting to return after the minimum 10 days on the IL.

Daniel Lynch exited Thursday start due to left calf tightness. James Capillian will transition into the bullpen for the rest of the season, so if you needed that final push to drop him off your fantasy team, that is it. Seth Beer, he dislocated his shoulder on Tuesday, but apparently feels better

and wants to take swings and is considered day-to-day. So, you could probably drop him anyway, but there's a chance that he plays again, which I didn't think there was a chance of that the other day. The prospect report, there's not really a prospect report anymore, but Scott, I saw that you wrote a pretty interesting article on the site,

and it was 11 no-name prospects to add in Dynasty leagues at this point in season. Of course, if you're competing for something, you know, you want to pick up players that can help you, but for the people that are not, if you want to pick up a few prospects, now is the time to do so. So who are, let's say your top three favorites that are on that list. Well, most of my favorites we actually, I'm sure we have talked about on the podcast, but I don't necessarily think of the article audiences is the same as the podcast audience. My favorites, these aren't necessarily my favorites, okay, but these are the ones I want to talk about today. Vinnie Pasquantino, who has just had an amazing seat.

between high class A and double A for the royals. He's a first baseman. He's pretty much limited to first base. Obviously, they have Nick Prado, who's at a breakout season between AA and AAA, so he's a level ahead. But he's actually a year younger than Pasquantino. And the past couple days, he started in right field.

Prado has. Potentially, they're thinking, you know, we really have something in this Pasquantino guy, and maybe we can see if Prado has some versatility. Pasquantino has about the same number of extra base hits, walks, and home runs. I'm sorry, extra base hits walks and strikeouts. Just still impressive, but not as impressive if home runs was equal. Batting over 300 and OPS near 1,000.

Just a really good all-around hitter. And there's this great sequence I tweeted out on Twitter earlier today where he hits, He basically hits three balls out of the park in a row. It's just that the first two were foul, and then he managed to keep the third one fair. I'm getting really excited about him. I'm not totally sure that Nick Prado is the better prospect, at least for fantasy purposes.

Probably, but I'm not totally sure of that with the way Pasquantino's been going here. So he's one I'm talking about. I also want to talk about Matt Brash again. Matt Brash, Mariners' pitcher. who they got for reliever Taylor Williams last year, who was a closer at the time, but not a very noteworthy one,

and now he's not even a major leaguer. And they got this guy Matt Brash, who, I mean, the numbers are amazing. I could read them off to you. The strikeout race through the roof. But what really stands out for Matt Brash, and I include a clip of this in the article, is his slider,

which is just like a frisbee. I couldn't really explain to you how ridiculous it is, but you can understand why some scouts are thinking it's the best lighter in all the minors for this Matt Brash guy. And, you know, the Mariners have this wealth of young pitching that's going to be due to arrive. Brash is not the biggest name of the bunch,

but I don't think it's a stretch to think he could actually be the best of the bunch if things go right. So Matt Brash is another one to keep an eye on. And this is a new name. This is one I know I haven't mentioned on the podcast yet. Joey Weimer, outfielder for the Brewers. This guy's really fun. 25 homer, 30 steel season so far, high OBP.

He's fun in a couple of ways. He has this like, he has this really unorthodox batting stance with a lot of moving parts. And I'm sure he gets, you know, that takes down his prospect value some because the scouts don't like that. It looks pretty ugly. And you want to want to want the kids

emulating it on the schoolyard. But clearly it's working for Weemer. And he's just like, another reason you see some sometimes prospects with those kinds of numbers drop is just because they're not very athletic and they're limited defensively. And they may turn out to be great fantasy players,

but you know, you don't like them being so limited defensively as a prospect because it really gives them a narrow path to the majors. But Weamer is like a freak athlete too. I mentioned he is 30 plus steals this year. And like, this is another clip I included in an article. He did this a couple times at Cincinnati in college, Cincinnati, the Bearcats. The way he evades a tag when he's stealing a base, he'll like slide on his belly.

and then he'll like do this push-up thing where he like raises his whole body up above the tag and gets in safely because of that. So just like a really athletic move. This guy looks like a lot of fun, Joey Weamer. It just got him added to the system actually. So you can actually pick up Joey Weamer now. But that's the third one I want to highlight here.

You can find eight others in the article on the site. I'm watching this like push-up slide thing right now. This is pretty awesome. Yeah. That is, yeah. That's crazy. He like leapfrogs it. He's like mid-slide, does a push-up, like three feet off the ground, evades the tag.

That is, that is something. That is very interesting. I found a couple different highlights of him doing that at Cincinnati. That is. All right. So, Scott, can you reopen the waiver wire in the Scott White Dynasty League? Because I need to make a few moves. I want to pick up this Jonathan Weamer guy and stash him on my.

Yeah, Weamer's the only one who was in rostered. The other two, I mentioned Brash and Pasquantino both are. Pasquantino, by the way, I mean, A-plus name. We've mentioned it before, but that is just fantastico. So I am big fan there of the Pasquantino. And again, you can find the other names on the site, and can't give out everything here on the podcast. We do want to drive some traffic there to Scott's article.

He puts a lot of work in, a lot of fun video clips on that article, so make sure to go check it out. The last prospect note I wanted to mention, there was some speculation, Scott, that Shane Boz was going to get the call for the Tampa Bay raise on Friday. Turns out he was scratched from his start Thursday at AAA

due to back spasms. So when people saw that, they start, okay, well, he's a candidate to make the start. They actually turns out they pull Luis Petino up a day and then he's going to start Friday. So it seems like we were close, but nope, it was actually back spasms. Yeah. Which...

Too bad. It sucks. But who knows? I guess there's a chance that we see Shane Bosn in like the postseason as a reliever or something but that's isn't that when McLanahan debuted last year in the postseason itself that sounds right but I cannot say for certain off the top of the head something the rays have done before oh yeah I mean yeah it did not make a regular season appearance last year wasn't isn't that what they did with David Price too that year no they called him up during the regular season at Alberto Mondesie I think made his debut in the post season okay but those are the only two I

to think of. Interesting. All right, well, let's take a quick break. When we return, we'll help you get ready for the second to last week of the season. Let's do that next here on Fantasy Baseball today. The week 26 pitcher and hitter planner is presented by lining coogles. And of course, the scheduling is wild and wacky for the second to last week. They save it for one of the most pivotal parts of the season.

One team has nine games next week. That is Cleveland. Three teams have eight games next week. That includes the Braves, the White Sox, and the Cardinals. 15 teams have seven games next week. Nine teams have six games, and then two lonely teams have five games. So we have teams ranging from five all the way to nine games in the second to last week when, you know, it's the most important time of the year.

Those two teams with five games are the Red Sox and the Mets. So let's just quickly figure out which players are must start on those teams, Scott. for the Red Sox, Rafael Devers, and then I included Zander Bogart's and J.D. Martinez on this list, but they are having

very mediocre second halves. Bogart's a 763 OPS, J.D. Martinez, a 762 OPS in the second half. Are we starting those guys in a five-game week if it's a weekly lineup block? Probably.

I could see a league being so shallow that you could think about sitting them but it would be a rare sort of league. The kinds of hitters I'm putting on my top 10 sleeper hitters list for the upcoming week, those aren't the sorts of players you would sit, Bogarts or Martinez for. How about Hunter Renfro, Enrique Hernandez, Kyle Swarber? Probably not in a five-game week, right?

Maybe Schwerber and five outfield league. You're probably still starting Schwerber. Renfro and Hernandez It just it kind of depends What league we're talking about If we're talking about a 12 team three Outfielder League Head to head line out

You know probably Try to find an upgrade But deeper than that It might be difficult to do so All right And then for the Mets I had must start as Pete Alonzo And Javier Baez

I think that's it I know Lindor has been better in September I don't know that he is a must start In a five game week What do you think? Yeah I think that's right All right

let's move on to some pitching, the two-star pitchers for next week, and there are a lot of them, Scott. So hit me. Who are some of your favorites? Yeah, so this was, it came very close to being the first week where my top 10 sleeper pitchers for the upcoming week are all two-star pitchers. Wow. So I ended up going, I ended up putting Logan Gilbert in there at the Angels as a one-star pitcher. So it wasn't quite there. But yeah, there are a lot of good ones. the pest has been at the top

of the sleeper pitchers list for several weeks of course it's Ranger Suarez but listen to these matchups for Ranger Suarez versus the Orioles and versus the Pirates League winner and league winner with his 150 ERA and still only 75%

rostered he's facing the Marlins next week too no next week is obviously facing the Orals and Pirates but the week after that he's facing the Marlins Wow, that is fantastic. Yeah, yeah. Nestor Cortez, who I feel like is the other pitcher,

we keep putting out there and people are not taking it. The Rangers is one of his matchups at the Red Sox, not as good. But it doesn't seem like it's mattered for him who he's face lately. He's just been so difficult to square up with that variable delivery. If Joe Ryan is a two-star pitcher and it's not exactly clear when he's, Pitching again because he left after getting hit in the wrist last time. Seems like he's fine, but I think he's going to be back for time for two starts. The first would be against the Cubs.

I suspect he'll go against the Cubs even if he ends up being a one-star pitcher. So that's a good enough matchup to like Joe Ryan as a sleeper. So Vladimir Gutierrez and Carlos Hernandez, they both let us down recently. And I was pretty suspicious of them to begin with, but obviously they put together a good run. A lot of quality starts. Really good matches for both this week, though. Vladimir Gutierrez is going against the Pirates and Nationals, and Carlos Hernandez is at Cleveland and at Detroit.

So at least in points leagues, probably got to stick with them. Tony Gonsolin, kind of a stretch, because he's not fully stretched out yet, but went five innings last time on a limited number of pitches, and he's at Colorado. Not the greatest thing, obviously, but at Arizona in the second start, and he lines up for two-star. So at least in points leagues, I think you give some thought to Tony Gonslin. These next three are kind of deeper options.

Jesus Luzardo going against the Nationals and Rays. Drew Rasmussen, you know, probably not going to go more than five innings, but they've been effective innings. Toronto's his first matchup, that's not good. The second is Miami, though. And Eric Fetty, at Miami at Cincinnati, we've seen some improvement with him recently, leaning on the curve ball more.

So, you know, if you're really, really looking to get an extra start in there, I don't think Eric Fetty is the worst choice. Yeah, the matchups there for Fetty at the Marlins, at the Reds. So, like many two-star pitchers that we've seen before, one good matchup, one, kind of scary, obviously, in Great American Ballpark. Sounds like Jesse Winker will be back in the lineup by that point. So that is, it's pretty scary. I haven't been a 15-team league, probably going to roll with him, but anything shallower

than that. You could probably find someone better to get in your lineup next week then. Eric Fetty. Hazers, Lazzardo, we spoke about him the other day to Scott. I mean, I'm scared. It's just against the nationals. He just faced them. He didn't perform well. And then at Tampa, it's pretty scary matchup. So, uh, if you're- That's, that is what makes these sleeper pitchers. And their number eight, Lizarro, Rasmus, and Fetty, eight, nine, and ten on the list. I'm not looking to start any of them in my leagues, but, you know, you might be in a more desperate situation. than I am. Scott,

do you have Antonio Sanzatella as a two-star pitcher for next week? No, I don't. I understand you is listed that way on the site

currently, but there was a rain out today. Yep. Thursday. So that pushed everybody back a day. So I assume

it's going to be John Gray who makes two starts. And I left them off the sleepers list because those two starts are against the Dodgers and the Giants

both in course field. Gray's numbers have been better at course field, but still Yeah, hard to recommend that. I do wonder, so if Szentatella doesn't have two starts next week, that means he'll probably have two starts for the final week of the season.

And I know it looks like I'm looking at my phone because I am, which is not very polite while we're doing a podcast here. But you could see on the sites the entire schedule how it projects out, on the app, rather. And if he has two starts in the final week, Scott, Antonio Sintatella, that would be against the nationals and at the Diamondbacks, which that's pretty good. And considering Senzatella has thrown

seven straight quality starts, he's 28% rostered. I'm not saying pick him up and start him next week, but it might be someone kind of like Alex Cobb, who we told you pick up and maybe hold for the final week of the season.

What do you think? I don't think he's nearly as good as Cobb. I agree with that. His recent success feels a lot like Vladimir Gutierrez and, I don't know, and skill-wise, he may be closer to like an Eric Fetty.

So, you know, I don't know that it's worth stashing him ahead of time. He probably will be among my 10 sleeper pitchers if he lines up for those two starts going into the final week, but it'll be pretty low on the list. All right, Scott mentioned. That was Sensitella we were just talking about. Yep. And you mentioned that you only have one single start streamer on that list. Logan Gilbert at the Angels, he's 65% rostered, had a great first start earlier this week against the Boston Red Sox. On the hitter side of thing, Scott, who are some of your favorite sleeper hitters that?

are rostered in less than 80% of CBS leagues. It's a great week for hitters, as you mentioned, a ton of games, and just a lot of bad pitchers in the league right now. So great week for hitters. Number one on this list, it's kind of the Ranger Suarez of hitters, is Frank Schwindel. Still only 61% roster. What do you call him?

Frankie two hits. Frankie two hits. Back to pack. You know how many hits he had Thursday? Two more. Do you know how many he had on Wednesday? Two. Two more.

That's right. It's about in 3.41 now, I think. One of those was a home run off of your boy, Ranger Suarez. What do you think about that? I know. Man, world's colliding. Did not know what to make of it. It was the Larry David Giff.

Yeah. Yeah, so Frank Schwendell, Brandon Belt, the Giants are going to be in Colorado for three games, and he's been crushing it, plus I think only one lefty on the schedule. Tyler O'Neill and Adam Duval, they both have good hitter schedules. this upcoming week.

Andrew Benintendi had a five-hit game on Wednesday and has been pretty hot really since going back to mid-August, but especially over the last week or so. So Andrew Ben-attendi is somebody to look at, Nikki Lopez, his teammate. Like the Orioles matchups this week, so Anthony Santander is on here.

I left Austin Hayes off, though, because it's almost all righties that the Orioles are facing, and Hayes does most of his damage against lefties. I mentioned the Giants matchups, Evan Longoria. It seems like he's playing close to every day. He just had another big game on Thursday,

a double in a home run, continues to produce. So I would call him a sleeper hitter for next week. With the Rockies at home, of course, I got to put Brendan Rogers on here. Leas Diaz didn't make the list, but it's worth mentioning with all those home games. So there's a lot of good hitters to choose from.

Andrew Ben, and Tendie, Scott, you mentioned dating back, to mid-August. His last 30 games, he has a 352 batting average. Not really hitting for much power or stealing bases. Only four home runs during that span, but batting average has been great for Andrew Benintendi over the last month or so.

Brandon Belt, really happy you brought him up. I mean, the guy is just red-hot right now. He has five homers over his last nine games. And you mentioned that the Giants have one lefty on the schedule. What I saw on CBS was that that was Blake Snell. I don't know if you saw a different lefty Scott, but if Blake Snell doesn't start, there might not be any lefties on the schedule against Brandon Belt.

And if that's the case, that he could... Those Rockies pitchers getting pushed back, pushed Kyle Freeland back into the Giants schedule. So I still think it'll be one. All right. As much as we can predict these things ahead of time. Yeah, for sure.

But I'm with you. I'm right there on Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria with the Giants. Again, the five teams with the best header matchups, the Phillies, the Reds, the White Sox, Cleveland, and the Dodgers, the five teams with the worst hitter matchups, the Rays, the Padres, the Mets, the Red Sox, and the Diamondbacks. So there you have it, the week 26 pitcher and hitter planners presented by lining coogles, and I snagged my Summer Shandy at City Field last weekend.

Awesome game between the Yankees and Mets on Saturday. Summer Shandy was glorious. That smooth blend of beer and refreshing lemonade that hits the perfect spot when relaxing, watching a baseball game, checking your fantasy teams, whatever you might be doing, make sure to grab a Summer Shandy. not all Lining Kugles has to offer. They also have their Session Hellas, which has all the flavor of a crisp German-style beer, and it's only 99 calories.

And let's not forget about their Lemon Hays, IPA, a well-balanced hazy IPA that blends hops with delicious lemonade. No matter what type of beverage you're craving, Lining Kugles has you cover. Just head on over to Liny.com. That's L-E-N-I-E-D-com or follow Lining Kugles on Instagram or Facebook. for more information about all the delicious beers that they brew. I do have two would you rather's here, Scott, and your name is Scott, not squat. But none of these names were on your sleeper hitters list.

So I'm digging a little bit deeper here. But let me know what you think. Some top prospects-ish, Hesu Sanchez, who had a double dong on Wednesday, both opposite field. One of them came off of a lefty. You look at his splits, actually very fair between lefties. and Ritees, there's not much of a difference. I think it's right between 750 and 800 OPS

against both of them on the season. 29% rostered. He has five homers over his last six games. Hazu Sanchez does. And then Brandon Marsh, who is still striking out quite a bit, but last seven games, he's hot again. Nine hits, one homer, one steal. He let off on Thursday for the Angels.

They have seven home games next week. He's 23% rostered. Let's say you're in a five outfield of league, Scott. Probably depends on what stats you need, but just in a vacuum. Who do you like more? Hazer Sanchez or Brandon Marsh next week? Sanchez, he has the better matchups,

though neither team has great matchups. And his production's been more relevant to fantasy, but he is very home run dependent. He's happened to hit a lot of home runs recently, but doesn't walk much and is in a bad lineup. So I'm not thrilled to start Sanchez either, but I would prefer him to brand, and Marsh.

I am depending on you here, Scott, because you have to keep me grounded. Because I'm sure this happens for a lot of people, but I just develop an affinity for anyone on my dynasty team that's in your league. And Hazieu Sanchez is one of those players. So I just get very ecstatic about anything that he does,

and it was pretty fun to see him hit an opposite field home run off of the lefty. So I'm getting more excited about Hazer Sanchez. But whenever I do this, just you could still have a good future. Yeah, just starting out. I mean, just keep me grounded. I don't want to misspeak just because I have this guy on my dynasty team. Someone who you might have waited on your dynasty team for to do anything is Gavin Lux.

He has started six straight games for the Dodgers. He has seven hits during that span, 35% rostered. He has six road games this upcoming week. At the Rockies, at the Arizona Diamondbacks, it does look like there's two lefties on the schedule as of now. Gavin Luxe either won't play or he hasn't performed well against lefties. or Josh Harrison. 35 games since coming over to the Oakland A's. He's betting 299, 2 homers, 9 doubles, 4 steals,

7 home games next week for Harrison. Not very exciting, but a floor play. Someone who I think will give you something. Who do you like more between those two for next week? Gavin Lux or Josh Harrison. Again, some reconfiguring of the schedule here. It looks like no lefties actually for the Dodgers next week. And they have the fifth best matchups.

Three games at Colorado. So I did consider Gavin Lux for the 10 sleeper hitters. I believe only one of his hits since coming back from the miners is an extra base hit. So I'm not sold on Gavin Lux having figured things out all of a sudden. But, you know, he's worth, yeah, he's a sleeper on some level, I guess, for next week. Yeah, again, if you need hitters, refer to Scott's sleeper hitter list. But maybe if you play in a deeper league, these are some names that are available. I just want to bring up the other Oakland A's hitters.

I mean, these are for deeper leagues. Tony Kemp is 5% rostered. Elvis Andrus is 16% rostered. Both of those guys are hitting pretty well right now. So, again, they have seven home games next week against the Astros and the Mariners. But it sounds like you don't really like their matchups, right, Scott? No.

No, I mean, it's kind of some pitchers who can be great sometimes, but, you know, like Fromber Valdez, Zach Granky, you say Kikuchi, Chris Flexen. You could see how it would end up being a really good week for the A's lineup, but it could also be pretty bad week. So it's hard to say. My favorite of the ones you mentioned is Josh Harrison, but it is a floor play, as you mentioned.

Okay. How about in even deeper leagues? Matt Manning put together a quality start, a pretty good start against the Brewers, his most recent timeout. Six innings, one run, six strikeouts. He has allowed three earned runs or less in five of his last six starts. The one where he didn't, he got blown up.

He's 23% rostered at home against the White Sox next week, it looks like, and a gentleman named Josh Rogers for the Nationals. Pitched five shutout endings on Wednesday. Against the Marlins, he has allowed just five earned runs over three starts here with the Nationals, 17 and a third innings pitch during that stretch. 1% rostered, he has SPARP eligibility, and it looks like he's at the Marlins again next week. He's got any interest in the deepest of leagues Matt Manning and Josh Rogers.

I'm not ready to trust in Manning. This was his best career start, obviously. But, you know, it has a lot to prove still. And it's not like he lit up the Brewers. It was just, you know, pretty good start. Josh Rogers, I don't think he's anybody. 27-year-old, his numbers in the minors this year were a 448 ERA, 136-3K per 9. You know, he's done fine in the major so far,

but I would not put my trust in Josh Rogers. Josh Rogers has no name, according to Scott. Something like that. You said he's a nobody. Man, you know, I was thinking about this recently. My brother-in-law is watching Game of Thrones for the first time. I really wish that they did more with the Aria Stark storyline, with like the faceless jock and hagar.

It's completely random. But when I said that, it just made me think, I wish they did more with that. That to me was one of like the most compelling subplots in Game of Thrones. and they didn't do anything with it. Yeah, I mean, I was, I was underwhelmed with the direction that went, I would say, yeah. While it was happening, I was super into it.

I'm like, man, they've got to use this towards the end of the show. I mean, something crazy's got to happen. She's going to take Jamie Lannister's phase or something, and something's going to happen with Circe. And it's never happened. Like, this didn't do anything with it. She did use it to, I don't know.

Scott. We are, any spoilers here. way past spoilers. Spoiler alert. Maybe not. I don't know. She did use it to get back at that guy for the Red Wedding. That's true. To open season 7, I think it was.

That's true. I wish there was more, though. Yeah, I just found the whole thing to be not very interesting. Like that character when they first introduced him, and I don't remember the name. I'm sorry. Jackin Agar. In season 2,

yeah. Like, he seemed like the most awesome. person ever right and then when you find out more about him it's just like it's just you know goofy um goofy good well you know i'm not i'm having a hard time with words tonight but that's all right man a just another just another religion that's not a bad and a bad rendition of a religion of a religion. Unfulfilled potential. That's basically the story of Game of Thrones the show, in my opinion.

A few other deeper names here. I wanted to mention Matt Duffy, back-to-back games with a home run. He's 2% rostered. Six games next week against the Twins and the Cardinals. It looks like he's going up against some pretty bad pitching. Griffin Jacks, Jay Hap, Jake Woodford, John Lester. Let off, I think in his most recent game. So this is a deep league play.

And then Willie Calhoun, who we mentioned returned on Wednesday. three hits with a double, an RBI, and a run scored in two games since returning, and the Texas Rangers are at the Yankees and at the Orioles next week. 15% rostered. He's got any interest. Willie Calhoun, Matt Duffy. No.

All right. Some quick leftovers. He needs to play more. If you played more, maybe. Some quick leftovers I want to hit. Trevor Rogers has not gone more than four and a third innings in three starts since returning. He is up against the nationals next week,

who has a 3.86 ERA against the season. And then he, it looks like he's lining up for at the Mets and at home against the Phillies in the final week. Scott, should we hold on to Trevor Rogers or is it okay to drop him if one of your sleeper pitchers are available, let's say? Yeah, I mean, I don't expect to use Trevor Rogers anymore this season. He's probably drop a whole, since returning all three

have been less than five innings. His fastball was down 1.8 miles per hour. It's got to be a really hard player to figure out where to rank him this offseason because obviously he looked like a world beater for the first three months or so. And then it's just, you know, I imagine managing workload has played into it a lot. But definitely underwhelming, even with the endings he's gotten. Yeah. I've got him in the Scott White Dynasty League too.

How about this? Three of my best players are Marlins. How did that happen? I have Trevor Rogers, Pablo Lopez, and Hazu Sanchez. So let's go Marlins. Robbie Ray, awesome. Again, seven innings pitch, one run, 13 strikeouts to zero walks

against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday. He is the SP8 in fantasy points per game, a 264 ERA, a 101 whip. Fantastic, awesome. Any word you want to use to describe, that is Robbie Ray this year. Another one, which will be pretty interesting to figure out where we're ranking him for next season.

John Means over his last five starts has a 3.30 ERA. However, that comes with a 4.3. 9-2-X-FIP. Would you start him next week? Do you have him for two-starts, Scott? Because CBS had him

for Texas and at the Phillies. If it's not two-starts, then he's just at home against Texas, which is pretty good. I have him for two-starts. Okay. John Means, he's in my two-start pitcher rankings.

He is in the better left for points league's category. So he's the top player on that list. but he's better left for points leagues. Yeah, I think that is definitely fair given those underlying numbers. Tyler McGill, come on, man, you're making us look bad here. We just talked about him.

Weekend recap two podcasts ago. Tell people to use him against the Cardinals. Guy just goes out there and gets absolutely clobbered. Three innings, nine hits, six earned runs. He's 56% rostered. He's at the Red Sox next week, so you're definitely not using him in that start. But it looks like he might face.

the Marlins and the Braves in the final week of the season. Either way, I just don't think I want to trust Tyler McGill, even if he has two starts for that final week. Yeah. I don't think he does,

but I wouldn't trust him either. Kyle Tucker, we spoke about Bryce Harper's monster second half. Tucker, 342 batting average, 11 homers, six steals, 1053 OPS. I think he's definitely in that discussion. Not one-two turn,

but I think he's a second round pick, pick probably closer to like that two-three turn, but Kyle Tucker, awesome season after a slow start in April. Jose Arkiti at Texas Rangers, six innings, one run, had six strikeouts. He's only 47% started on CBS, Scott, and it looks like he's at the Angels. Well, no, because if Framber Valdez is starting Monday now, this is kind of up in the air because Jose Orkitty might have two starts next week at the Angels and at Oakland.

They should both, unless... The Astros insert a sixth guy. And I think it's time to activate her, Kiti again. He's stretched out enough to go six innings last time to start week. Matchups could be better. Angels has turned out to be a pretty good matchup recently. I think it's time to get him active. All right.

I like it more than John Means. I agree with that. Tyler Malley at the Pirates on Thursday. Six shutout with four strikeouts to one walk. How about this? I did not realize how Stark his splits were to the season. 609 ERA at home, 185 ERA on the road for Tyler Malley. And he's at home next week for two starts.

It's against the Pirates and the National. So I assume we're still starting him, Scott, but he's been very bad at home. I hadn't noticed that either. Interesting. Obviously, Cincinnati is not the greatest place to pitch. Now, he has been on a good run recently, so I imagine there's been a number of home starts in there.

And, oh, wow. Those are all the not-so great starts. Except for the one he had against Pittsburgh back on August 8th, at home, struck out 10 and 7 innings to earn runs aloud. And Pittsburgh is one of the two teams he's facing this week. I just think the matchups are too good. And yeah, I'd call Malley a must start for this week. Get Malley in your lineups next week.

Salvador Perez hit his 45th home run of the season, and that ties the league lead with Vladimir Guerrero. I mean, just another one. It ties Johnny Bench for the most home runs ever hit by a catcher in a season. Wow. So. I know he gets some games at DH, so it's probably not technically the same, but...

Johnny Bench didn't get all those games at catcher either, so we're not even considering that. Just as somebody who primarily played catcher during the season, Salvador Perez is now tied for having hit the most home runs. Now, I don't want to jinx him, but, I mean, he's going to break the record. Salvador player. Yeah, presumably. Yeah, the way he's playing right now, we still have two and...

Two and a half weeks left. Two and a half weeks, yeah, it's going to happen. Wow, what a ridiculous. He's going to push 50 home runs, Salvador Perez, a catcher. That is, wow. Jordan Montgomery, last time we spoke about him, I said, ah, he's pretty mad, you know, he's inconsistent. Well, he showed me at the Orioles, five and two thirds, one run,

12 strikeouts. He had 22 swinging strikes on 99 pitches. He's currently 50% started on CBS, and he's at home against the Texas. Rangers next week. Get them in your lineups. Yeah, I would say so. I mean, I've never been that wild about benching him.

And I think, like, 22 swinging strikes in this start, 18 in his previous start, he entered today with a 13.6% swinging strike rate, which would be in the top 10 if he had enough innings to qualify. I'd be up there basically with all the Cy Young contenders and Dylan Cs. and Jordan Montgomery's up there with all of them and swinging strike rates. So I, this was his first full season back from Tommy John, right?

Because we can't count last season as a full season. I don't know. He might have a much higher ceiling than he's given credit for. Last year, he, he made 10 starts last year, but yeah, I mean, he's up. He was healthy the full season, but it obviously wasn't a full season. Yeah. This is what Montgomery does.

those guy. That's what's so interesting about it is the swinging strike rate is always high and earlier in the season I'm saying all right well is this a breakout but I feel like for a couple years now I'm dating back to when he was healthy it's been higher than ever this year. Yeah.

And I would just I would just say there's a chance he can make a small adjustment potentially and go from being good to great. I think it's in there. He has to develop more consistency. I mean, I've watched a lot of him, and it's like when he's off,

he just like misses his spots within the zone, and, you know, he doesn't throw very hard. He's pretty crafty. He throws like four or five different pitches, but when he misses, he can get hit hard. So there is some inconsistency, but I think you're right. Like, if he just, if he tweaks something, I don't know what that thing is, there could be an extra gear here for Jordan Montgomery. Is there an extra gear for Kyle Hendricks? I don't think so. He gave up seven Run runs over three and two-thirds innings against the Phillies. His ERA is up at 4.81 and

it looks like he is one start next week against the Minnesota Twins and then it could be, it looks like at the Pirates at the Cardinals for the final week but I just, I can't trust Kyle Hendricks at this point, Scott. Yeah, I mean if he happens

to pitch well against the twins in a points league, maybe you go with them for those final two turns but it's not. Don't talk yourself into this. I'm excited to do. Let's see how he does against the twins first. I'm not using him against the twins. All right, before we hit the bullpen updates, and we got some streamers to the weekend,

a few emails too. We're probably going to run a little bit long here, but I want to help the people out. It's the second to last week of season. It's obviously very important. I tease at the top that we have a special treat from our guy here, Scotty Dubbs. And this is in conjunction with one of our good friends,

friends of the podcast, who we haven't had on this podcast yet, but I do plan to do it this off season. David Mendelsohn, who hosts the triple play fantasy podcast, they just had their 100th episode. So it's a nice milestone for them. I hopped on with a couple other people, Jeff Erickson of Rotowire. And we had some fun and we were talking out.

They've had me on their podcast before. But even more interesting is that they've had Ty Buttery on their podcast, Scott. And they played your Michael Kane impression for Ty Butchery. And it was like an awesome experience to see. So if you want to go see it or you can watch it on YouTube, you could go listen to it. It was pretty cool then playing your

Michael Cain impression for Ty Brochie Day. It was mind blowing, right? It was awesome. Ty but... Ty butchery hearing me do my tie buttery in the Michael Cain voice.

But I heard a little rumor that you might have you might have something for us here last couple weeks of the season a nice special treat. Well, Frank. I once knew a man named Lorenzo, last name Kane,

like mine only, spell differently, no E. So the season-long tournament is coming to a close. So I've been told, anyway, it's not my sport of choice. But as I recall, the population as a whole loses interest once American football is back in session, as it is now. It causes certain young men to be overlooked, underappreciated, if you will, which brings a certain level of discord to the proceedings.

And so I've been advised to raise. recommend to your fictitious baseball club two young men, in particular, who you haven't heard of, neither of I, Ranger Suarez, and Frank Schwindell. No idea what these young men bring to the table, but as I understand it, their vitality, their manner of skill, is off to charge. It reminds me of another young lad who played the sport not too many years ago. Di Buttery, of course, was his name. but die didn't die no die didn't die he's still making the rounds doing the talk show circuit which is a matter of Michael Gain knows little something about my own favorite part is if you're rich and famous enough you get your own private area backstage complete with refreshment

usually some sort of scone or biscuit occasionally filled with some kind of fruit be it strawberry, blueberry, cranberry, boiseumberry, all the breeze, really, golden brown and delicious, and of course, buttery, just as thy, and of course Michael Kane would have it. Oh man, job well done from Scotty there as always. I mean Michael Kane, of course, what am I saying? Yeah, that wasn't me. What are he talking about? Special guests of the podcast, Michael Kane. great work there. As always, I encourage everyone to check out Ty Butcher. He was on the Triple Play podcast. So really fun ending to the season here. And let's finish Strong. Scott, some call to the bullpen. Bullpen updates. Kyle Finnegan, four hits, four earned runs, takes his third blown save, his seventh loss of the season on Wednesday for the Marlins. Dylan Floro picked up his 12th save for the Tigers. Michael Fulmer picked up a two-ending save. Gregory Soto through two innings the day before for Oakland on Wednesday.

Andrew Chafin gave up a run, but picked up his fourth save of the season. Lutrovino used in the sixth and the seventh inning. And then for the Reds on Thursday, Michael Givens picked up his eighth save and now has the last four saves for the Cincinnati Reds. I hesitate to ever get excited. Scott, if I have a Reds Closer on my team, a Reds Closer, I'll put in quotation marks. But it looks like Michael Givens is the guy. Yes, I would agree.

I would agree. And like it's kind of crazy here. Very into the season. Looks like the Reds have finally settled on a guy. Looks like the Royals have finally settled on a guy in Scott Barlow. And it even looks like the Rays have finally settled on a guy. And Andrew Kedridge, five of their last seven saves. The other two were crazy three-inning saves.

And it's worth pointing out. I mean, the last two seasons, the Rays eventually settled on a guy too. Last year, it was Nick Anderson. And two years ago, it was Emilio Pagan. and by the end of the season, they were basically the guy. I know once the playoffs came last year, Anderson was having some health issues

and they ended up using other guys. But yeah, I don't think Kevin Cash is totally opposed to that. So Kittridge, I think, is the most interesting of that group and is available on half of all leagues. All right, let's do some to stream or not to stream, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I did not write these down, so we're going off the cuff here. I'm going to read these on, according to ESPN, and you let me know, Scott.

Who are we rocking with? You know, you're right? What? We have probable pictures. Okay, go ahead. Should I use CBS? Where do I find them? You don't know.

We can talk about that after the show, I guess. Actually, I did find the little probable pictures tab here. Should I do it? What's today's date? Today is 17th. How much do you trust this, Scott? MLB.com is most reliable. I used to use MLB.com, but they put up so many TBDs.

Yeah, that's why they're the most reliable. Right. All right. So we'll rock with ESPN. for now. Josiah Gray versus the Rockies. We can't do it, right? No. How about Michael Panetta at the Blue Jays? No. How about

Luis Petino at home against the Tigers? I would rather not. I mean, it's a pretty good matchup. It's the best you've mentioned so far, but I think his last start was against the Tigers, wasn't it? Yes, and it was not very good. How about Eliezer Hernandez versus the Pirates? So that's my new favorite. Still don't love it. All right. How about

Taylor Hearn versus the White Sox? Nah. How about... All right, I think I found it's got Adrian Hauser at home against the Cubs. Yeah, I guess that's a new favorite. It's unlikely he goes to the minimum required for a quality start,

but it's a stretch for Eliezer Hernandez, too. For sure. How about Brady Singer versus the Mariners? No, he really burned us last week. Yeah, it's like every... He puts together a three, four-star stretch. We buy in, and then he just, man. He lets it.

Yeah, a three-four-star stretch where it doesn't look like anything's different, though, you know? Yeah, it's sink or slider. He's not very exciting. How about Cole Irvin at the Angels? Oh, that's not bad. That's not. He's the best choice for length, if you're looking for length, and he's coming off a great start.

Yeah, I don't mind that one. All right, so Cole Irvin, maybe Adrian Howser. Let's move on to Saturday. uh, Louise Heel, man. And the guy's getting strikeouts,

but he's giving up a lot of home runs. He's, he's walking a lot of guys, too. He's at home against Cleveland. Three true outcomes pitcher. Yeah.

And, um, hmm, you know, all of these are desperation plays. There's not one that I said, that would say,

you have to get this guy in your lineup, you know? Right. But, I mean, these are all under 70% roster, so.

Sure. Yeah. Uh, let's see here. Kyle Freeland at Washington? No. He's going to pitch next week, right? Didn't you say he got pushed back?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, they got push back. No, no. Well, no, no. I think he'll go Sunday, not Saturday. Yeah. Don't really want to use Freeland anyway. Okay, would you use either of Edward Cabrera

or Bryce Wilson who are facing each other? Nope. How about no there, no there? Chris Bubidge versus the Mariners? Nah. No. How about Jose Swarer?

and Dalton Jeffries are going up against each other on Saturday night, apparently. No. No, let's go on to Sunday. And how about Paolo Espino at home against the Rockies? A really good star last time, and, you know, decent ERA and Webb. No. How about Dylan Peters at the Marlins? I have to be really desperate.

It might go okay, but I just... I can't imagine who I'd bench for Dylan Peters. I mean, it's not a matter of benching, Scott. I think people, you know, they get to the weekend. They might be in a playoff matchup. They're desperate for a streamer. They're just trying to pick up some strikeouts or something like that. I understand.

How about... Just putting it in context. I like this one. Eric Lauer against the Cubs. Yeah. Yeah. That might be the best one of the weekend. Nope, no, nope.

I found the best one of the weekend. and Logan Gilbert at the Royals. Yeah, that's the best one. Okay. Yeah. How about anyone else here stands out? Da-da-da-da-da. No, Rich Hill against the Phillies?

Not bad. It's not bad, but we like Logan Gilbert more, right? Yeah. All right, let's wrap up with some emails. Man, it's late here. But whatever. Let's go. From Dan in Plymouth.

I am in a points league where I can only start a maximum of 10 pitchers each week. It's a daily lineup change setting, so I have a decision to make about whether I start Casey Mize, who's on an innings limit for the Tigers, or pick up one of the following for a start. So these are a lot of pictures we just talked about. But Taylor Hearn versus the White Sox,

Kyle Freeland versus the Nationals, Rich Hill versus the Phillies, Josiah Gray versus the Rockies, Chris Bubich versus the Mariners, Patrick Corbin versus the Rockies, Paulo Espino versus the Rockies. Of the ones he named here, Rich Hill as probably the one I'm most,

in favor of. But, you know, check to see if those others we were a little more enthusiastic for, more enthusiastic about her, also available. You definitely can't start Casey Mize.

Agreed. From Andrew, can I drop Christian Yellich for the playoffs? I have Jesse Winker coming back. Yeah, probably. I mean, the part of, I'm partly thinking,

oh, what if Yelich, this is when he findsly turns it around and your opponent picks him up and he kills you. But it's just, seems like such low odds of that for Christian Yelich at this point. Yeah. I know there was like a two-week stretch.

He was okay in August. He had an 829 OPS, but in September... He's no power. No power. Yeah. In September, he's got a 495 OPS. He gone. He gone.

He gone. He gone. Nope. And he gone. I'm done. Last question here. Any interest in Yanni Hernandez? We've mentioned him before in a 12-team category league,

or is he basically another Billy Hamilton, tons of speed? slash no power. I think that's probably what you're going to get, but if you need speed, the Rangers, like, they let their guys run. So, okay. Sounds good to me. All right, Scott, it's not very enthusiastic about Yanni Hernandez. I can't blame him. All right there for Scott and Frank, thank all for listening and watching. Fantasy baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.