Fantasy Baseball Today - Weekend Recap! Can Tatis Keep This Up? (08/10 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 10, 2020

Fernando Tatis is the best hitter in Fantasy! Is it for real? If we're redrafting today, how many hitters should be drafted over Tats (4:47)? ... For the OMGG players of the night, Dinelson Lamet was unreal on Sunday (6:51). How good can Lamet be? Nathan Eovaldi has upped his curveball usage and that should have your attention. Justus Sheffield was very impressive Sunday going with a slider heavy approach as well. Onto news and notes, down goes Giancarlo Stanton (17:04)! Are we interested in any Yankees as a result? Zach Plesac was sent back to Cleveland for partying Saturday night. Can you start him this upcoming week? The Cardinals-Pirates series has been postponed so get your Cardinals out of your lineups. ... What do we do with these performances (30:16)? Blake Snell has thrown less than 60 pitches in all three of his starts. His teammate Tyler Glasnow has really been struggling with walks, too. ... Which of these waiver wire SP are we most interested in (34:48)? Is Framber Valdez legit? Is Spencer Howard worth the hype? ... James Paxton, are we buying or selling (39:36)? ... Do any of these deeper league SP matter (46:21)? Kevin Gausman's velo is up while Antonio Senzatela has pitched very well. Are guys like Jesus Aguilar and Miguel Cabrera "back" (49:53)? Do we like Renato Nunez more than those guys? We wrap up with bullpen notes (58:25). Rafael Montero and Trevor Rosenthal are THE guys on their respective teams. ... Email us at [e-mail]. Subscribe to our new YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday '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: @CBSFantasyBB, @AdamAizer, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday 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/ Download our printable Draft Kit from CBSSports.com/draftkit! To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

Your number one hitter in both Roto and Head to Ed points. To this point in the season is Fernando Tatis. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today. on Monday, August 10th, Frank Stamphle alongside Scott White and Chris Towers. Guys, are you ready to eat your words on Fernando Tatis? Uh, I don't know, man. Like, this is really hard. We were talking about this before the show.

He played his 100th career game today. And that means we still don't really know exactly who he is. Like, we know Fernando Tatees is awesome, an incredibly skilled baseball player. I think it is fair to say one of the best baseball players in the league right now, certainly one of the most talented. He still has a 406 Babbup this season and a 32% strikeout rate. And he's like succeeding in ways that almost no one has,

really nobody has ever succeeded in this way. And that doesn't mean he can't do that. Like, well, no, like he can't be a 400 Babbat. I'm sorry. Not year after year. I mean, we see occasionally a player will do that for a full. season, but now we're asking him to do it for a second full season. But having said all of that, Fernando Tatis, in the early going this season, has done what we said

he would need to do if he was not going to regress. And that is, he has shown better skills, especially with the batted ball. He's still striking out 32% of the time, but he's hitting the ball a lot harder on average right now, higher barrel rate, like all of those things. He is mostly earning the results when he puts the ball in play. And he's running, which we were worried he might not do all that much. And I mean, yeah, I don't feel good about it.

What do you mean by good about it? About having him as a bus pick. Yeah, I mean, we were all kind of worried about him entering the season because in Roto leagues you had to use a second round pick on him. But at the same time, Chris, we acknowledged that if everything goes right for him, that was the last time you were going to get him in the second round.

Like, we knew that there was a chance he can perform like a top five player. And to this point, I mentioned it. I mean, he is the number one hitter. He's batting 333, eight homers, four steals, 18 RBI, 14 runs scored. I mean, he is a five category contributor in every single sense of the word. He's hitting, he's like Aaron Judge, but he's an elite base stealer right now. Like, that's what he's doing right now. He has a 97.8 mile per hour average exoner.

of velocity. It's ridiculous. He has a 24% barrel rate. He has a 68% hard hit rate. He is hitting the ball better than anyone in baseball right now. And, you know, if he can keep doing that, it's not going to matter that he doesn't hit the ball as much as you. Yeah. I mean, he's not like he's over, he's still overachieved to this point in this season. I feel confident saying the disastrous, the disaster scenario. Yeah. I was afraid would happen. is not going to happen. He's probably going to live up to his ADP. I don't feel bad about calling him a bust

because I think the risk relative to what you were paying for him didn't add up for me. And I don't think that process was a bad process. You're giving up other second round talent to get him. That was dangerous. That was dangerous. There was always a possibility it could work out. It appears to have worked out.

Despite calling him a bust, I managed to get him in a couple leagues myself just because, I don't know, I guess some others were nervous about him too, and he fell to a point where I was like, all right, the risk is worth it to me. So, yeah, I'm, I don't regret the call. It, uh, looking back on it, I don't think it'll be,

I don't think we'll be thinking of it as a good call. Yeah, but I mean, it's, it's kind of like my Shane Bieber bust call, uh, where for me, that was as much about saying he was a bust as just highlighting the things about his profile. Like, if Shane Bieber remains an elite strike,

breakout guy, he's going to not be a bust. But he does have that flaw in his game that he gets hit too hard. It's just he may be good enough that it doesn't matter. And that happens all the time. It seems like it might be early to ask a question like this, but Tatis has played 15 games, so he is a quarter of the way through the season. At this point, Scott, if you were redrafting today in a Roto League, how many hitters would you take ahead of Fernando Tatis? Oh, it's difficult to say off the top of my head, I'd have to stack them up. probably like a dozen. I probably would still take like a dozen ahead of them.

A dozen hitters or just a dozen players in general? Players, I mean probably like, no, hitters, probably like 15 players total. You know what? Let me look at where I had in my most recent trade chart because that would probably... Yeah, because I was going to say, if you have 12 hitters ahead of him, that means like nothing has really changed for you

because that would put him probably... Yeah, that would be probably... In the early to mid-second round, an ADP. Right. I had him more like an early third-rounder in my own rankings, though. Okay. So I wouldn't say nothing's changed. It's just, you know, I'm not...

I'm not somebody who, after 15 games, is going to completely turn his rankings upside down. I don't think most people are. And this is the really difficult thing about this season. Because a lot of people say, well, you don't have time to wait, for someone to turn around. And that is true,

but that amount of time doesn't change their likelihood of turning it around. If you believe that Fernando Tatis is really an 840 OPS hitter, this, like the fact that he's gotten off to this start shouldn't really have changed that any more than it would have in the first 15 games of a previous season. Like, I think there are probably some situations where like, like,

and Yelich did talk before the end of camp that he didn't feel like he was fully up to where he would normally be. Maybe there are reasons like that to change. But like, for the most part, you should still treat this like 15 games. And for some teams, even less than that. All right, we'll move away from Tatis for now. And I'm sure we'll talk about him a ton for the rest of the season.

But there was a lot to get to from over the weekend. So let's jump right in, Susan. Oh, my goodness gracious. I'm going to stick in San Diego and get us started. with the oh my goodness gracious player. And it's Denelson Lamett. I mean, we had an idea of what his upside could be. It seemed like some people might have been

a little more excited about him around the industry than we were, especially based on early ADP. And then he kind of settled in as like a mid-round pick. You can get him as your SP4, your SP5. But Lamet, today, against the Diamondbacks, six and two-thirds, one hit, one earned run, zero walks, 11 strikeouts,

21 swing strikes on 83. pitches and looking at his profile, whenever anyone throws the slider as much as, you know, Lamette does, I think our minds automatically go to like Patrick Corbyn. And his profile is very similar. And it's, it might even be better. He's not a better pitcher than Corbyn yet because he throws so hard. But it's four seam, it's two seam, it's slider. That's exactly the same pitch mix as a Patrick Corbyn. Scott, how good is the Nelson Lamet right now? This is the deepest he has gone into a game. He has not allowed more than one earned run in any of his starts,

but it's nice to see him get some distance today against the Diamondbacks. Yeah, I think he's turning the corner. I think he is. From now till he gives me a reason not to. I'm considering a must start, which may seem obvious, but that's not where he was at the beginning of the season. And I wouldn't put more than 30 or so pitchers in that category. So he's joining them.

We knew he had this kind of bat missing potential, but we weren't really sure if that two-pitch mix would, you know, because the ERA was actually kind of high last year, and he didn't have much of a track record with the time he missed for Tommy John surgery. But I just, like, it's working. It's continuing to work, and it's working better than ever. And yeah, I think he's in that must-star category now. I'm really upset that I made such a,

a wrong call apparently because like him and Matthew Boyd are the same picture basically like one's a lefty, one's a righty, but everything else about them is pretty much the same thing. And I have a lot of Matthew Boyd and I don't have any Denison Lamett. And boy, does that look bad right now. Don't worry. I'm right there with you, Chris. I still think Denelson Lamet is very much the same guy he's kind of always been. And like obviously the sample size isn't huge there, but he is the kind of guy who I would generally, if someone was going to underperform their peripherals as a pitcher, his profile is the kind that would do it

because he is so susceptible to the home run ball. He is susceptible to walks. And he's had some split issues as well. And he has two pitches. You know, it's a really tough profile to succeed with. And so I'm still a little, skeptical of it. That is fair.

I mean, the difference that I would make between him and Boyd is that Boyd just really doesn't have a third pitch. And Lament uses it. He doesn't either. According to baseball Savant, he went four seam, two seam, and slider

today. Oh, yeah, I don't that is kind of my thing. I don't consider like four seam and two seam distinct pitches. Like they are, but when you're talking about the depth of a repertoire, having two fastballs is not the same thing as a fastball and a changeup.

I agree. I agree with that. But that's why I compared it to Patrick Corbyn. Because if you look at Corbin's pitch makes it, it's basically four seam, two seam and slider. And the thing is Matt Boyd just doesn't have any form of a third pitch. He doesn't have like a second fastball he can go to the improvements we were hoping to see from like the curveball and the changeup just haven't been there for Matthew Boyd.

So he's basically basically just slider with a 91 mile per hour fastball. And that's just not getting it done right now. So, yeah, that's the biggest difference. I think I'm buying into Lament right now. I haven't updated my ranks yet, but he's going to be inside my top 35, maybe even inside my top 30. So I'll make that adjustment.

Scott, who is your, oh my goodness, gracious player of either Sunday or the weekend, whatever stands out to you most? Yeah, I'm going to go with Sunday also. I'm going to go with Nathan Avaldi, who had a terrific start against the Blue Jays. He went six innings, did allow three runs,

because he gave up two home runs, but 10 strikeouts to no walks. And he had 19 whiffs in getting those 10 strikeouts. But beyond that, beyond just the way he actually performed was the pitch selection for him. He's a guy who's always thrown hard, but basically every pitch he has is some variant of a fastball. You know, you got the splitter, you got the cutter. They're all basically different kinds of fastballs. He didn't have a true off speed pitch. And that's always prevented him for meeting his.

potential. There was talk going way back to spring training about this curveball. He actually introduced late last season. And, you know, he finished the season pretty strong with it. Yeah, it was true off speed pitch. Hadn't seen much of it. Until this start, he threw the curve ball 25% of the time. It got eight of those 19 whiffs and seemed to elevate the rest of his arsenal as as a good off speed pitch would. So, you know, right now it's a one-off. But, like, if that continues, of all the, of all he might become a big deal finally. So he's not somebody I'd, I'm not sure what his ownership,

how old he is, but he is not somebody I'd let go unroastered. He is 74% rostered on CBSports.com right now. And in three of his four starts, he's allowed to earn runs or less. The strikeouts haven't been anything like they were, you know, heading, obviously in today's performance with the 10 strikeouts. I actually dropped Nathan Avaldi for Christian Javier. So don't really feel too great about that right now. But let's see where it goes from here.

I'm not sure what, I'm still not sure what to make of Javier. Weird pitcher. He is an extreme fly ball pitcher going back to the miners. So it's not surprising to see the A's hit three home runs off him today. And, you know, he didn't get many swinging strikes. He hasn't even when the strikeouts have been there for him. It's just such a weird profile that had so much success in the minors.

he shut down the first two major league lineups he faced, and then this happened, and it's like, well, is this his true talent level. You know, his next matchup, Christian Javier's, is against Seattle. So I'm going to extend the leash for that. If that goes poorly, though, he's probably headed toward Dropsville. Would you start him against Seattle or Nathan Avaldi at the Yankees this week, Scott? I'd start Javier.

Yeah, I would agree with that, too. although I agree that of all these should be owned. Chris, hey, who is your, oh my goodness gracious player of either Sunday or the weekend? I'm going to go with, how about Justice Sheffield, someone who there was a little bit of hype around this off season, especially late in summer camp, and he got off to a pretty rough start, his first couple of starts,

but he did strike out seven over his six innings today against the Rockies. and he threw his slider like 45% of the time. 41 of his 91 pitches were sliders. That's been his best pitch so far. He got nine whiffs with it. And that's the kind of thing where if you're looking at someone like Justice Sheffield who just hasn't been getting results yet, that kind of approach change is something that you should keep an eye on

because it could, you know, it could be a key to unlock something and making him a fantasy relevant pitcher. Justice Sheffield is rostered in 29% of CBS League. So he's kind of in that mix with some other starting pitchers that I was going to get to a little bit later on. But Chris, would you rather own him or Pablo Lopez right now? Like those are two pitchers that I know that you like. And Lopez is also owned in less than 30% of CBS leagues.

That's probably one where it would depend on what the next matchup is for each of them. And, you know, because neither one is going to be a guy. At least, you know, they would have to do a lot to prove that they can be someone you're willing to start against a tough matchup. And so, you know, if you're figuring, trying to figure out which one of those you want to add, it's probably going to come down to who they face next.

So Sheffield is at the Astros, it looks like. And Pablo Lopez is against the Braves. So I know everybody thinks the Astros can't hit right now because their offense is not doing well, but like, oh, trash cans, they don't know what pitch is coming, but like they still have the third lowest strike out right in the league, so it's not a good matchup

and you should not be sticking them out. You should still treat them like the Astros. I might have Jordan Alvarez back by then. I wouldn't start either of those guys. Yeah. Against those matchups. Who just has more upside in general, Chris, if you're just stashing one for upside?

I think Lopez has more upside. Ooh. Yeah. I think of the other one. Could be, yeah, I mean, it could just be, look, I'm, I really like Pablo Lopez. He is a stallion. Homer. But he throws harder. And I think there's more margin for error when you throw harder.

And yeah, so that. Justice Sheffield's velocity was down today on the fastball too. Yeah, that wasn't great. Something to pay attention to 90.7 miles per hour on the fastball. He's normally like 92. It's really about getting to the slider for Sheffield, him ditching the four seamer for the two. Seamer. It's just so he could get it over the plate more to get to his slider. So I'm not even

sure I care about how the fastball looks for Sheffield. Yeah, I mean, the zero walks is probably the biggest key to his line today. Seven strikeouts to zero walks is great for Sheffield. So a name that you're probably, I'd say put on your scout team for now if you're just in a 12 team league. Some news and notes. Oh, Chris, it was only a matter of time, my man. John Carlos Danin, remember all the victory laps on opening day, hamstring, Dunzo. Hopefully he's ready for spring training next year, Chris. The victory laps being Chris's. He took like eight victory laps, right? Himself.

Chris, all I'm going to say is the people who told you you can't draft John Carlos Stanton because he's always hurt and he will never stay healthy. We're also the same ones who told you not to draft Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa. And you look really dumb if you didn't draft Carlos Corray and Aaron Judge right now. That's all. We're not going to talk about it anymore. he got hurt. That sucks. If you're happy that he got hurt, no, no, I'm not. No, I'm just saying this generally, like, to all the people who, like, trolled me on Twitter and, like, responded with the news and, like, quoted me, like, you're a jerk. Like, stop celebrating this guy's

misfortune. He's one of the most exciting players in baseball, and we don't get to watch him. Like, that sucks. It does suck. And I am one of the people who also called Aaron Judge and Carlos Correa Bus. So, Chris is clearly talking about me, but don't worry. I mean, look, there's still time. Look, I'm not rooting for it. I'm not rooting for it, but I'm just saying there is still time. To be clear, Frank, definitely not just you. Oh, no, I mean, there's a lot of people.

Look, in a short season, I was just, I was very weary of injury prone, if that's what you're going to call it, but guys who have dealt with multiple entries over the past couple seasons, I was wearing by my position. Of those guys. There was value in drafting John Carla Stan. He showed that while he was healthy. Hopefully, this is just a

short stay on the aisle. Yeah, we don't even know how long it's going to be. So, you know, two weeks is not good in a season of this length, but two weeks will also go by quickly. Scott, are you interested in anybody on the Yankees? It seems like they're probably going to mix and match DH for now. Uh, yeah, Mike Talkman's been playing a lot more. And he's not actually hitting well, but he has four steals. Yeah, it's very weird. And he walks a lot. Mike Ford started on Sunday against right-handed pitcher Charlie Morton. And you know, I like Mike Ford too. Yeah. Um, I, I, in five outfield, deep five outfielder leagues, I put in some big bids for Talkman.

Because I do think the hitting profile is better than he's shown so far. And if he's going to run some too, I mean, in that lineup, why not? Like, Aaron Hicks is off to a terrible start. So it's possible he gets phased out a little here too. It's just, yeah. And I like Mike Ford, like you said, but I don't, it's not as clear the avenue to, I guess, DH, but we don't know how long that would last. Yeah, I think Talkman's probably the one to go after.

here. There's a weird thing with Talkman where he hit lefties a lot better than Wrighties last season, even though he's left-handed. And I don't know if that's something that they're going to like, you know, maybe try to play him against lefties, but it's always worth remembering that we're dealing with very small sample sizes

for part-time players and even smaller when you talk about splits with them. So I am not convinced that he's like the left-handed hitter who can hit lefties really well. So yeah, I don't, I don't know. I, like, The Yankees have some kind of weird magic

where they turn these marginal organizational prospects into really good hitters every single year. So he is playing every day. You should probably add him, yeah. Charlie Morton, I mentioned the name he left Sunday start with right shoulder tightness. Not great there.

After the game, he told reporters on Sunday evening that he is, quote, not worried about missing much time. I would be very surprised if he made a start this week. Yeah, probably. it's probably safe to say and his velocity's been down all this time.

You don't know if that has to do with the health of the shoulder or what. His previous two starts before today's were pretty good in spite of that, but the velocity is not recovered. Yeah, and I believe the velocity was up today before he left that start. I was watching a game, so he was hitting like 93 more consistently than I've seen before, but...

But still down from last year when he averaged 95, right? One of the weirder stories, Zach Plesack was sent home by Cleveland after he went out with friends in Chicago Saturday night, per Ken Rosenthal and Zach Meisel of the athletic in the article that they wrote, the pitcher will be quarantined for 72 hours and tested daily, and the team could take additional preventative measures.

Sources said, again, regarding Zach Pleseck. Chris, I feel like this is kind of up in the air right now as to whether or not he's going to start this week. I don't know that we will know by the time, like, your weekly lineups actually lock. Yeah, it's a weird situation. they forced him to rent a car and drive home from Chicago as well. So I will point out that they did this with Fram Mil Reyes during summer camp.

Like they seem to be especially proactive about this, which is good. I mean, obviously don't want another outbreak in a team. And Framil Reyes returned in very short order. You know, obviously if PlaySac during the 72-hour quarantine test positive, then obviously he's not made. making a start this week. Yeah. I would probably expect him to start this week.

Would you still start him, Chris? Well, I guess they're off Monday and Thursday this week, right? I believe they do have just five games. Yeah, so that would be he would have to pitch during the weekend series and those two off days would give them the flexibility if they wanted to to skip his turn in the rotation and keep everyone else on schedule. So it's possible, but like he is technically their fifth star. He's been awesome, and he was awesome this weekend.

That's probably why he was out partying. Because he's celebrating a good start. He had some friends in town, apparently. He had some old friends that he knows in Chicago who he wanted to hang out with. Stupid thing to do. Very stupid. He was very good.

Six shutout innings, seven strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes. His next star was supposed to come against the Tigers, so that stinks because that's a great matchup. But it still may happen. still may happen. Still may happen. It's tough.

It's the kind of thing we can't really answer. I think if you don't have an answer by the time you have to lock your lineup, I think I'd probably stick away from it. But given the fact that two teams are already not playing Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, as they were scheduled to, you may not have that flexibility. Yeah, I will say, so they don't play until Tuesday, so you'll have to make a decision by then in weekly league. just pay attention.

If we don't have news, I probably would not start him myself. You mentioned the names that, the teams that are not going to be playing, Chris. And remember on Friday? Scott, we said, well,

hopefully we come back on Monday and there's no more, you know, positive COVID tests. Well, look what happened again. With the Cardinals, the positives are up.

They're up to 17 total now. 10 players, seven staff members, and their series with the Pirates, which was supposed to take place. I believe Monday through Wednesday this week, has been postponed. So the biggest concern there would be the what two straight days with no positive tests followed by a third with a positive test

It could be a false positive, but that's just that would seem to indicate that it was still circulating and Or that this guy was you know not symptomatic yet like it it's just this is always this is the kind of concerns that you're dealing with And they're like they haven't played in 10 days I think I think? They have not played a game in August. You're reaching a point where it's really going to be tough to make any of this up. I just don't know what's going to happen. I was watching the Sunday night baseball game, and I believe they said on the broadcast that if they were to return,

if they were to return tomorrow, they had to fill like 55 games in in 48 days. And obviously that's not happening. Yeah. And I know when the Marlins were shut down for a while, there was, this became a talking point. And I think, I think the eventual conclusion was that

some teams might just have fewer games this season than others, which happens sometimes during regular seasons too. And usually it's a case where the standings won't be impacted so they don't make up a rain out and the team plays only 160 games or something. But they may just have to go off winning percentage, win, yeah, winning percentage if it doesn't, if the calendar doesn't allow for more than that. But getting to a fantasy context,

obviously this means the Cardinals are at most playing five games this week because they were scheduled for eight. The pirates who they were scheduled to play first half of this week are only going to only get to play four. So really the pirates are the team that are definitively impacted to a degree that you probably don't want to use them. But I don't think you can start anyone on the Cardinals. Right, right.

It's not a, we can't assume the Cardinals will be back for that double header against the Tigers on Thursday. And we can't assume they'll be back for their three game series against the White Sox to close out of the weeks. So though those teams are impacted too. I mean, the Tigers are playing six games even if that double header is canceled. So they're probably fine. The White Sox would have only three if their series against the Cardinals gets canceled. So this is, this is going to start causing like the Marlins, I think at one point will, finish the season with like a 27 games and 23 days stretch or something wild like that with no

days off. And this stuff is going to, there's been a lot of injuries and a lot of closer issues and uncertainty all around. And this stuff is just going to keep getting compounded. It's going to be even more difficult moving forward to keep track of things than it has been so far, unfortunately. Madison Bumgarner was lifted Sunday due to a backspatchew. I don't back spasms. I don't know. Well, maybe that is what he's dealing with and that's why his velocity is down and why he's getting crushed. Four miles per hour. This is one that nobody can even victory lap. Like, none of us wanted him this year. And it's not even like, you can't even say you got it right because nobody thought he was going to be throwing 87 miles an hour. It's genuinely sad too because it's someone who's been around for so long. You can't. No. You can. No, you didn't say. I didn't say Madison Bumgarner was going to be bad because he was throwing to 87 miles an hour. You said he was. going to be mediocre because he threw 91 or 92.

That's a completely different thing. And because he was leaving in San Francisco. Yeah. But still, even if he was in San Francisco and he was throwing 87, he wouldn't be good. So, like, this is just, it's a completely unforeseen circumstance. I mean, when I go back after the season and look at my sleepers breakouts and bus column, I just tally result. Look, Grangey's throwing 87 right now and he just threw a quality start over the weekend.

So it's not impossible. Scott, would you drop Madison Bumgarner right now, who is 92% own? Two games in a row where he's been destroyed, and it wouldn't surprise me if maybe he lands in the IL now with this back issue. Yeah, I don't see much reason to hang on to him. My one remaining hope for him was that, okay, he just needs more time to get the velocity back, but there hasn't really been any kind of improvement there,

and absolutely can't start him, obviously. So it would have to be like an NL only league, I think, where I'm still holding on to him. Nick Goody has been unavailable the last couple of days due to tightness in his lower back. Raphael Montero picked up saves on both Friday and Saturday, just thrown right back into the fire. So if you are desperate for a closer or if he needs to spend some fab to get him, Rafael Montero looks like the guy. Corey Seeger remained out Sunday because of lower back discomfort. Apparently Dave Roberts said he is not considering the IL for Seeger at this.

time, two players who did land on the aisle this weekend. Mike Moussakis, where they left quad bruise retroactive to August 6th, Josh Donaldson with a strained calf retroactive to August 4th, which kind of makes Marwin Gonzalez interesting, because he's only 12% rostered, and he has three different eligibility, three different position eligibilities. Scott, I think if you lost Donaldson,

I wouldn't mind just picking up Marwing Gonzalez because you get another player in the Twins lineup. Yeah. I mean, depending on the depth of the league, probably in those 15 teamers, you might not be able to do much better than that. But there's not a lot of hitting skill there. The twins probably aren't going to start banging on trash cans.

That's true. That's the appropriate way to put this. That was the one year he was like mixed league relevant. Yeah. The year of the trash can banging where he seemed to be getting among the most bangs. Last but not least, Max Scher is scheduled to make his next scheduled start on Tuesday against the Mets.

So finally some good news regarding injuries. All right, we have a lot of performances to get to from over the weekend. So I'm just going to jump in. And with this first group of names, I've tried to like group all the names together and figure out what do we do with these performances? So Blake Snell has yet to throw more than three innings in any of his starts.

He's gone 46 pitches, 53 pitches, and 59 pitches. Scott, I know his name is Blake Snell. and he just won the Syung two years ago, not two weeks ago. But, I mean, I don't think you should be starting Blake Snell right now. Until we kind of see him go at least five? I mean, they're just ranting him up so slowly right now, Scott. Yeah, I would agree. I mean, the performance in the three innings over the weekend was the best we've seen from him.

And so that's encouraging. He was originally in line for two starts. And so I probably would have started him in that scenario to start week, given if they're only three, four innings piece. But, you know, whenever he's scheduled for one start like he is now, you got to just keep waiting. You know, I think eventually he's going to become somebody you want in your lineup every week, but it's happening slowly.

Yeah, I mean, right now. The 59 pitches being the max is the even more. Because, like, he could have thrown four innings on 59 pitches, and it would still be just as concerning to me because, like, 59 pitches, that's probably 30 pitches away from where he really needs to be maxing out to be worth starting in fantasy. Yeah. He's got to give us at least 75 to go. I'd have any shot of going five innings.

Yeah, I mean, no, like he's an inefficient pitcher. He always has been, even, you know, the, the Cy Young season, he was, you know, still not throwing very many pitches and didn't average six innings per start. He's someone that, you know, to get to five or six innings, it's going to be really hard for him to do that if he's maxing out, you know, even halfway through the season at 85. And one other thing, because I did say I was confident, and he'll eventually become somebody you can rely on. I don't think the pitches have been ticking upward

with any real consistency either. So that is, let me check here, 46, 53, 59. Okay, that's at least a trend. It's not a big jump from start to start. He'll get to, he's jumped 13 pitches in three starts. at least Walker Bueller today was up to 87. Yeah, I mean, at that pace, you know, if he continues that pace, Blake's now will be at 89 pitches and five starts.

I don't know what else you can do other than just hold Blake's now at this point. You sit him. Yeah. How about his teammate, Tyler Glassnow, against the Yankees over the weekend, two and two thirds, five hits, four earned, three walks, five strikeouts. He now has eight walks in 11 and a third innings pitched. Last year, he was 2.08 walks per nine. in the three other seasons before last year,

we know walks were a huge issue where he averaged at least 4.2 walks per 9 in each of those seasons. Chris, this seems like an issue right now, and he's going into Boston this week, which is not really a daunting matchup because Boston is not really hitting either. Yeah, but he threw 88 pitches in one start,

and then 72 and 71 and the other two. So they're bringing him along pretty slowly and handling him with kid gloves as well. You know, one thing. It's a little different because he wasn't effective these last two starts. So I think it was just pulled. Well, the second one was 88 pitches. So they did, he did throw a lot of pitches.

Okay. All right, fair enough. Yeah, I mean, look, he might have just gotten pulled because he got pulled in the middle of an inning this time. He wasn't effective. It is worth noting that, you know, in those four games, he came back for the injury from. He had five walks and four on 47 batter's face. So that was like close to double the walk rate that he had. add before it was obviously a very small sample size and we're still dealing with a small sample

size. The problem with Tyler Glassnow in general, however, is even the successful stretches for Tyler Glass Now are very small sample sizes. Chris, would you start any of these pitchers that have good matchups this week? Single start streamers, Christian Javier against the Mariners. Would you start him over Glass now? No. Framber Valdez against the Mariners. We had a great start over the weekend. No. No, I mean, I like Framber Valdez. I think he's someone who should probably be added in pretty much every league if he's available, but no, I would still rather have glass now. The upside's so much higher.

Anthony DiSclofani against the Pirates. That's another one. I'd rather have to have glass now. You're going to have to go pretty far up, I think, to get to where I would sit glass now. Yeah, me too. It's probably worth talking about Framber Valdez since we brought

him up or should we wait. Do you want to wait until later? Yeah, you could jump right into it. Yeah, Framber Valdez was over the weekend against the Oakland A's in Oakland. seven innings pitched two runs only one of those were earned one walk nine strikeouts nine strikeouts yeah he only had nine swinging strikes but i don't know that that's really the metric to focus on with him because his the biggest and best thing from bravaldez does is get ground balls his ground ball rate so far this year is 55.1 which would have been the third highest among qualifiers

last year so we're talking extreme ground ball ability and by the way that's actually lower than his ground ball rate usually is. So it could get even better from there. You're getting ground balls to that extent. You can't kill yourself with walks, which has been an issue for him in the past. You only need to be like an average strikeout pitcher to be a real asset in fantasy.

And he's shown the ability to do that in the past. Obviously, he struck out nine in this game. Astros supporting cast. I mean, it could all go. There was a stretch in the middle of the last season where I had a couple starts like this, and I was banging the drum firm pretty hard, and it fell apart pretty quickly,

and maybe it will again this year too. But Mariners next time out, maybe this is the year he takes off. And to be clear, like strikeouts were part of his game in the upper minors. He had a 27% strike guy rate in double A and like a 31% strike rate in AAA. So, you know,

it's possible that he's better than what he's shown in the majors in that regard, too. Scott, I thought that there were a few names that really emerged on the waiver wire in terms of starting pitchers from over the weekend. So I'm just going to throw all these names together and you tell me which one or one or two that you're most interested in adding right now. Framber Valdez was one of them. He's only 37% roster right now. Dylan C's five shutout innings on Friday. He goes up against the Tigers this week. He is 48% rostered.

Chris Bassett, seven innings one run against the Astros on Friday. He goes up against the Angels. He's 56% owned. Austin Voth against the Orioles this weekend. Five shot-out innings, five strikeouts. He goes up against the Mets. De Siklfani is someone we've talked about a lot so far, and Spencer Howard made his debut on Sunday. It wasn't really great, but obviously a hyped-up prospect.

Spencer Turnbull, very good on Sunday, seven innings of one-run ball, Pablo Lopez and Shoemaker. So Shoemaker, Lopez, Turnbull, Spencer Howard, DeScoffani, Valdez, Bassett, Sees, Voth. Or like the two or three that you're most interested in. Yeah, there are three that stand out to me above the others. Okay. And that would be Howard just because of the pedigree.

Big prospect getting called up and so-so debut, but whatever. There's plenty of upside there. Let's take a flyer on it. Valdez, who we already talked about. And the third one for me is Matt Shoemaker, who got 17 strikes in that start against the Red Sox. I liked him already. I liked him as an efficient pitcher who seemed to get a lot of weak contact.

And really, I don't think we've seen the full extent of his upside because since he became so splitter-heavy, Splitter being his best pitch by far, one of the best splitters in baseball. And since he became splitter-heavy a few years ago, he kept getting hurt. So he's healthy now, obviously. He featured the splitter,

high even by his standards and this starts Sunday and we see the result. He missed a ton of bats. If he's doing that, he's going to be a success. So those are three who I think you could pick up plug in right away

and hope to get good results. Some of these others like cease and turnbull. Not sure about Voth, but you know, they haven't seen a lot from Vos, off yet and then Bassett also. Really, I mainly

want to talk about Seas and Turnbull. Like, I feel like, I feel like it's been Fools Gold for them so far. Like, Seas having that matchup against the Tigers this week, okay, I could see picking him up as a one-off, but his profile especially, like it's going to depend

on him missing bats, and he just hasn't done a lot of that, even as he's been decent the past two times out. Yeah, just eight strikeouts to six walks over his last two starts for Dylan, Turnbull, another one. Not really missing bats, but he's been efficient thus far. Hasn't allowed more than two earned runs in each of his first three starts.

But you heard it there from Scott. He liked Matt Shoemaker, Framber Valdez, and Spencer Howard was the other name as well. Made his debut against the Braves on Sunday. Top pitching prospect for the Philadelphia Phillies. A few other pitching performances that I just wanted to mention, like, what do we do with these from the weekend? James Paxton on Sunday. I'm not ready to say that he's back I mean this was an interesting start

that's how I'll call it a six and a third he was shut out through six innings he was great through six innings and then kind of fell apart in the seventh where he allowed back to back homers but had 11 strikeouts in this game 13 swinging strikes Chris his fastball velocity was up from his last start

but it was still just 92.3 miles per hour which is down you know almost three miles per hour from where it was last year he was 95 last year so would you use this opportunity to just sell James Paxson because he had one great start, or do you think this is a sign of things for him to come? Like, things are going to continue to get better as his velocity ramps back up. This is always the problem with these velocity questions, you know, is how much,

and it, like, is one start where it's, where it's higher, a sign that he's getting it back? Well, we won't know until his next start. That's the thing is it could be the same next start. It could be down. It could be up. Point three miles per. Like there's really, it is like even in the start where his velocity was up a little bit.

He maxed out two miles per hour or a mile per hour lower than his average last season. So he's still very far away from where he needs to be. And he's always been someone who struggles keeping the ball in the yard, doesn't have the best control. I'm not sure he has the kind of command. to survive at 92 miles per hour, or at least to thrive at 92 miles per hour. And this start, I don't know what to do with it, frankly.

Yeah, I'm still very skeptical, I guess, is the easiest way I can put it. I'm still very much a skeptic on James Paxton. It sounds like you're closer to if you own him, if someone in your league is buying this, use it as an opportunity to try and flip him. If someone wants to, you know,

if someone in your league views James Paxon is still that guy who was worth the top 100 pick before the season, I would be trying to move him, yes. And I'll admit it could be wrong, but I think James Paxton's iffy enough already, even before the velocities down, that I'm not necessarily all that worried

about getting hurt by it. Scott, some studly performance from, not so studly players. Some of them kind of are. Again, I'm trying to lump all these players together. Masahiro Tanaka, five shutout endings, five strikeouts, only 59 pitches, but 10 swinging strikes. So, Sunaka has looked pretty good so far

in his first two starts back. Aaron Savale, seven innings of one-run ball against the White Sox. Frankie Montas, seven shutout with five strikeouts. Love the zero walks here. His last two starts, he has 14 strikeouts, over 14 innings pitch. And then Merrill Kelly just quietly continues to get it done.

First three starts, three quality starts, 15 strikeouts, just one walk to start the season for Merrill Kelly. Which one of those performances were you most impressed by, Scott? Most impressed by... I mean, Tanaka, I may be to a point where I'm starting him again. So that's probably the most actionable advice I could give based on these four starts. El Montas's splitter rate was He threw it about as often as he did last year in this start So you know, that's good

But that started in the previous start Savale he didn't get many swinging strikes Against the White Sucks team that gives everybody swinging strikes But we've seen that from him before this year Him getting the swinging strikes So I'm not freaking out about that He seems to have a pitch mix that really generates weak contact I still feel good about him after this start

So Naka's probably the one that changed the most for me with the performance. Quickly promote a few things. Sign up for our newsletter. CBSports.com slash newsletters. You can sign up for the Fantasy Baseball Today newsletter, the Fantasy Football Today newsletter. Chris, I know that you're doing a lot right now

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we've put together a little It's like a 32 page downloadable printable guide that's got consensus rankings for PPR, non-PPR, half-PPR, positional tiers, strategies from all of our experts where they actually tell you like what their five rules for drafting is, what their strategy and their sleepers breakouts a bust, and a round-by-round guide that will tell you everything you need to know about every player. So really excited about that. And Fantasy Football Today newsletter relaunching sometime, maybe today. I'm just waiting to be told

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We have some more waiver wire. I want to talk about some deeper league starting pitchers. Some hitters, are they back? Jesus Aguilar. Is it for real? We'll talk about that here, Fantasy Baseball today. Welcome back to Fantasy Baseball today. I just want to look at some deeper league starting pitchers,

some pitchers that have been pitching well and just find out whether or not it matters. Zach Davies, yes, Zach Davies. Five and two-thirds, innings pitched, zero earned runs, six strikeouts against the Diamondbacks. He's changed his pitch mix this year. He's lowered his sinker usage, like 15%,

and he's using his secondary pitches more. His next start is against the Dodgers. Don't think you want to use them there. Jake Arieta, six shutout endings with six strikeouts against the Braves. Zenzatella, Antonio Sensitella of the Rockies. Six innings pitched, three runs, only two of those were earned.

Um, he's lowered his fastball usage this year, and he's throwing his secondary pitchers more as well. He's allowed two earned runs or less in all three of his starts. And then Kevin Gousman, gosh, it feels like the fantasy industry has wanted him to be a thing for so long. But against the Dodgers on Sunday, six and a third, shut out innings, six strikeouts, 11 swinging strikes on 80 pitches. And of course, he got Kaplered because he wanted to go deeper into the game and Kapler didn't let him. he was averaging 97 miles per hour on the fastball and 86 on his slider, whereas in his career, that's been like 93, 94 on the fastball

and like 83, 84 on the splitter. So, Chris, I'll go to you first. Gousman, Sensitella, Arieta, Zach Davies from over the weekend. Any interest whatsoever? More so for deeper leagues. Some interest, probably less so in everyone except Gossman because I am a member of the fantasy baseball industry and thus I am irrationally interested in Kevin Gosman.

I thought he was going to be a potential ace. But look, he pitches half his games in San Francisco. He throws hard. He throws that splitter a lot. And he'll have the occasional good game. I will be starting him in one league this week. So there you go. Kevin Gosman, possible streamer.

I think he's been. We're praying for you, Chris. I don't feel great about it. Not going to lie. He's been sneakily good all season. This was his third good start in a row. He's been missing a ton of bats. I think he had 11 swinging strikes in this one.

15 combined strikeouts in 9 and 2 thirds innings the previous two starts, 14 swinging strikes and 12 swinging strikes in them. I don't know. I mean, this was the first start where he was allowed to go long enough to get a quality start. And I think it's going to get, you know, it was against the dodge. I think it's going to attract the most attention for those reasons.

But this has been something I've been monitoring for a few starts now. And I think he's clearly the most exciting of this group. Yeah. I am keeping an eye on Antonio Sensatela. The odds are obviously against him pitching for the Rockies. But his curveball was getting some hype back prior to the season. Of course, he's a Rockies pitcher, so I wasn't really caring. But it's been his best pitch.

It's new and it's been his best pitch so far. And he's had gotten good results. So I don't know, something to keep an eye on. I'm not making a move for him. But Antonio Sensitella, I am monitoring his progress with that curveball. So Galsman definitely paying attention to in Sensatela to a lesser extent, but on the radar,

it's just the odds are against him pitching in Colorado. Hazer Sagalore, someone I teased before we hit the break, I don't know if we can confidently say that he is back yet, but he is doing things differently this year than he's ever done before. And not just during his breakout season. He had two more hits on Sunday, including a two-run homer off of Jacob de Grom, who was arguably the best pitcher in baseball. And entering Sunday, he was striking out just 23% of the time,

27% line drive rate, 41% flyball rate, and a 51% hard contact rate. and his statcast page has a lot of red. Scott, I'm, I was pretty, I'm pretty bullish on him right now. I rushed out and picked him up in a couple of leagues today.

He's 27% roster on CBS. Is Aguilar back, Scott? I'm not ready to say yes, but I think it's probably an appropriate time to pick him up just a case. Yeah, I mean, I liked the data two years ago, obviously when he,

I was buying into him heading into last year, I was buying that 2018 as a breakout, and obviously he didn't deliver on it. But he still did some things really well last year. The walk-to-strikeout ratio for a purported power hitter was still good. He didn't hit the ball as hard. And it seemed to have an exaggerated impact on his numbers. Like I'm more curious about what went wrong for Aguilar last year at this point than I am maybe what's going on with him this year, which is bouncing back. So the tough thing is he's played, what, 10 games?

Yeah. And so he has an even smaller sample size. And it's not like he's, when you look at like the plate discipline data, you know, he is not striking out at all, but he's swinging at pitches at basically the same pace inside the zone and outside of the zone. So it's not like he's, you know, decided to stop swinging in pitches that he can't hit. He's just making contact now. And maybe he, but like he had a low strikeout rate last year. Right, right. not this. Right, right. But it's, yeah, 13% would be, like, he would be a must start player.

Altuva. 13% powerheader. So that I'm not quite buying, but, you know, yeah, you should add him. I've got him in a couple of places and I'll be starting him probably. It's, yeah, he's showing enough right now that it's definitely worth taking a look at. He's batting third. not a great lineup. Even when they were winning games, they weren't doing much offensively. But yeah, I think, yeah, go ahead, Hazers Aguilar. Look, I've got to start someone for Paul Goldschmidt. It's either in a couple leagues, it's either him or CJ Crone, who I'm going with. Well, Chris, are you more excited about what Aguilar has done to this point, or Miguel Cabrera, who has five hits over his last three games? And it seems crazy because he's very old. But three of those hits on Saturday,

he had three of those hits on Saturday, and one of them was a home run. And his bad at ball data on Stackass is great right now as well. Grants, it's small sample size. I mean, the thing with Miguel Cabrera is he never stopped hitting the ball hard. Even when he was bad. Like, in 2018, tiny sample size, he had a 94 mile per hour average exit velocity.

2019, he was 90.3, 44.7% hard contact rate. the problem for Miguel Cabrera, and this is something that I think, you know, Saras pointed out, I believe he has the, I want to get the number, or the stat correct.

I believe it was the deepest average infield alignment of any player in baseball. And that's just because he's really slow. And you can play deeper when the guy that you're trying to throw out is really slow. And so I think that's going to be a drag on his babbip and his batting average. And I think that will explain why he's,

he seems likely to underperform his very, very good expected stat numbers as a result of that. But there's probably not nothing there. I think I would rather have Aguilar, though. You'd rather have Aguilar. How about a few other first basemen that I've kind of popped up recently? Mitch Morland, it seems like this happens every year. There's always a stretch where he just hits a bunch of home runs. He had a double dong on Sunday.

He now has six home runs. Scott, any interest in Mitch Morland. no he's i think he started uh yeah he's not playing even close to every day basically just a platoon player who's off to a hot start like you said and yeah i know who mitch morland is i'm not interested he always hits right he's well if you're in a deeper daily league and you know when he's going to face a right-handed pitcher yeah you could probably use him but that's a lot of work that sounds exhausting uh scott how about this name you know probably in shallow league someone you could look at And a name that we brought up last week,

but continued hitting well over the weekend, is Renato Nunez, who's batting 273 with five homers. I actually consider dropping Reese Hoskins in one league for Renato Nunez, and I just can't tell if that's too reactionary or not. Oh, man, I don't think I'd do that. I don't have any shares of Reese Hoskins, so I don't know. I can't share in that experience of how frustrating it must be.

But, I mean, Renato Nunez, He was good last year. There was some skepticism about it coming into this year. I think that skepticism has been eliminated, and he's a solid power hitter. He's not a stud, and I would personally have trouble starting him in any league that didn't have the corner infield spot,

you know, the larger roto lineup. But he's going to provide you with some power. That's obviously useful. You would... Austin's... Sorry. Would you rank... Scott, would you rank Renato Nunez ahead of Aguilar and Miguel Cabrera right now?

No, I'd rank them between them. I'd go Aguilar, Nunez, and then Cabrera. Okay. Chris, what were you going to say? Reese Hoskins is just apparently trying to win a war of attrition with pitchers right now. He has just some kind of protest against his bat. He has just refused to swing. He has like a 34% swing rate. He has changed his swing profile.

It's not good still. But, you know. It's like a 25% walk rate. 29% walk rate. Oh, my God. He is just, he refuses. He is just, I'm just gonna just walk me. The law of averages.

It was only a matter of time for some of these players. Ronald de Cunia had five hits on Sunday, including two homers, no, three homers, rather. Two homers in one game, but he had three homers total in the double header on Sunday. Christian Yellich has now homered in three of his last four games. Guys, I traded him. and Matthew Boyd for Clayton Kirshaw and Austin Meadows

in our head-to-head points podcast league. Great to trade. Wouldn't have done it. But Matthew Boyd stinks. Yeah, but, yeah. I mean, you got two players you're probably going to start every week, but you gave up Yelich. In which league was it, the 16 team or the 12-te-te-team?

The 12-te-head points league. Yeah, that's... I just lost Charlie Morton, so I guess a... kind of helps. I made the trade before that, but I'll be generous and say C minus. Oh, gosh. Well, Scott really doesn't like it. All right. Fran Mill Reyes, six hits over his last three games. He had a second home run on Saturday, so I hope you didn't drop Fran Mill Reyes, especially in some of those five outfielder leagues. Some people are, we're just freaking out about names like Reyes and Chris Davis with a K. But Fran Mill Reyes looks like he's coming around. Someone else who looks like he's coming around,

Byron Buckson, who is on a six-game hitting streak and has now homered in three of his last four games. So I don't think that he's floating around. I think he's like 80% owned in CBS leagues, but someone tweeted me asking today if they should pick up Byron Buckson. And yeah, I think if he's available in any of those leagues, you probably should.

Yeah, I mean, his strike rate is up in the early going. It hasn't stolen a base, but, you know, the steals should come. He is someone in a Roto League, especially if he's out there. I don't think you want him in a three outfield or head-to-head points league. But if he's out there in a Roto League, yeah, I think you should add him. Some bullpen notes from the weekend, guys. Taylor Williams picked up his third save of the season on Sunday. I know that, you know, Dan Altavia picked up a save maybe two weeks ago.

Carl Edwards picked up a save last week. So the closer carousel continues for the Seattle Mariners, Scott. And, of course, in our other podcast league, I dropped Trevor Williams for Miguel Castro. Carl Edwards, Carl Edwards seems like such an easy solution here. Like, he was billed as the closer of the future with the Cubs, had the kind of numbers to support that. I ran into some armed troubles last year, no longer on the Cubs. Like, why was he not the answer all along? So I blew some fab dollars on him this week.

And then Trevor William, Taylor Williams, what's Williams first name? Taylor Williams, yep. Yeah, he comes right back with this save, struck out three, and an inning in a third, and still looks like the front runner there for the Mariners, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone else got a save next time. I do think we're starting to see things come together for the Royals here, because I'm forgetting his name, Trevor Rosenthal.

Trevor Rosenthal got a save on back-to-back days, Friday and Saturday. They did have Scott Barlow get the save on Sunday, but that's partly because Trevor Rosenthal had already worked back-to-back days. I assume that's the main reason. Mathini's still playing this close to the vest. He's still including Ian Kennedy as a potential closer option, even though he's come nowhere close to working that situation. I think Trevor Rosenthal is the unspoken closer now for the Royals.

and anywhere where he needs saves. He's the guy. He's the guy you want there. I would say the same thing about, yes, Scott. Although he wasn't the biggest saves choice to emerge this weekend, because we have a defined closer for Texas now. In Raphael Montero.

Rafael Montero. He is the closer. He got two saves over the weekend. And look good doing it. I saw, I think in Tau Wars, my Tout Wars League, a 15-team rode a leak, he went for $500. Somebody spent half their fab budget on it.

Yeah, I think it's subtle. I can't remember who it was, but I think I saw them tweet that it was their largest fad bid in Tout Wars, and they've ever made in Tout Wars. They got him. They got him. So I hope he sticks for their sake. And, you know, to the degree we can expect any newcomer closer to stick,

I think Rafael Montero's chances are pretty good. So like that, that is, worth a big fat bit. I don't know that I'd spend 50% of my fat budget on him, but it's worth a big bit for him. One interesting thing with him is he was recovering. He was coming back from an elbow issue, I think, that he had in at the start of the season. He hasn't thrown his slider yet. I think he, according to baseball Savani, he's thrown one. So he used that 14% of the time, had a 39% whiff rate. So something to watch there. He's been much more fastball heavy, but it's obviously only a, you know, what, two outings, I think, three. So,

Yeah, that's just something I noticed. Trevor Gott also looks like the closer for the Giants. He picked up his fourth save on Saturday night. Sean Doolittle allowed back-to-back home runs on Saturday. Daniel Hudson in the same inning allowed a three-run homer, and he took the blown save and the loss in that game. I would still believe that Daniel Hudson is the guy because he has just pitched much better than Sean Doolittle all season.

Joe Jimenez, three earned runs on Friday. He blew the save, bounced back on Sunday, picking up a save in a one-run game. Edwin Diaz. Friday, he pitched in the top of the 9th with the team down 4 to 3, and then on Sunday he pitched the top of the 8th, and then Seth Lugo came in in the 9th for the save and has the Mets last three saves.

I'm starting to think that Seth Lugo is the guy here, Scott. Yeah, and I wouldn't have said it before today. Edwin Diaz's past few outings had gone well. I thought he was trending toward being put back in that role and that the Mets didn't really want Seth Lugo in it. But he set up for Zad Lugo today. A traditional one-out, one-inning save for Seth Lugo. Edwin Diaz worked the eighth.

So, you know, I would be hesitant to dump Edwin Dias and a save where you're constantly, a league where you're constantly pursuing saves. But right now it does appear that Lugo has the leg up. Yeah, that's pretty much everything from the bullpen. Nick Anderson picked up a save on Saturday. came in for one out against Aaron Judge with a runner on first base. Oliver Drake's on the IL.

Oliver Drake is on the I. He went like a week between appearances and appeared Saturday and then went on the IL after the game. So I'm not sure. I'm not sure it won't be Nick Anderson getting the majority of the saves there for the time being. Though with with the raise, of course, you can never expect it to be just one guy. I would definitely take the field. Yeah. But I'm not sure if there was, if there's a specific pitcher, I would,

name. Get ready for Chaz Roe for the next five save opportunities for the Tampa Bay. I would expect that if there are three saves for Tampa Bay in their next three games, they will go to three different pitchers. All right, guys, the last thing that I will add from the weekend is that Mani Machado had a double dung

on Sunday and now has more home runs than John Carlos Stanton for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today on our YouTube channel. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.