Fantasy Baseball Today - Weekend Waiver Wire Adds! Mariners Promoting Lazaro Montes! (8/31 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 31, 2026

The Mariners are promoting top prospect Lazaro Montes (2:15)! ... Gunnar Henderson finally had a big game (12:30). ... Max Scherzer turned back the clocks (18:05). ... What's the latest in the awards chase (20:10)? ... News (29:25): Shohei Ohtani did not pitch this weekend. ... Walker Jenkins made his debut this weekend (55:07). ... How do we rank these shallow waiver wire pitchers (1:05:00)? ... Start or sit these SP (1:13:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:22:47).Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for the newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August 31st. I am Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers today on the show. Last day of August.

It's crunch time. Lots of waiver-wire names, lots of news, injuries, replacements, and much more. But we start with yet another prospect promotion. And the Mariners are looking for some offense because they are calling up their top outfield prospect. That is Lazaro Montes. And those who play in Dynasty Leagues, you have heard Montes' name for a while now. He is 21 years old, a big dude.

And early in his career, drew some comps to Yordon Alvarez. He's got legit power, but I'm not sure that we're going to get the same batting average as Jordan Alvarez here. He's at 38 home runs in the minors this season Montes has. He's certainly not a perfect player. Chris, he is 16% rostered. What are your expectations? And what size leagues are you looking to add Lazaro Montes, if any? I think any five outfielder league, it's fine to add him. I'm not going to say he desperately needs to be added in every league, because not only is their big swing and miss potential here, it's also Seattle.

So it's the most unforgiving hitting environment in baseball. Even if he's not overwhelmed by the Major League pitching, Seattle's not going to help, and it very well could hurt significantly. So there is some real potential here for Lazaro Montez to just be a complete nothing. He's striking out 32% of the time at AAA. He's still been very productive. down there, hitting 267, 564 slug, 13 homers in 43 games. He's got 38 homers on the season.

The power is very real here. It's a 94.7 mile per hour average exit velocity at AAA. Max 116 hits the ball in the air. I think he does a pretty good job of pulling the ball in the air too. He does all the things you want for power. He just doesn't hit for contact. And from a real-life perspective, he's not a particularly plus base runner either. He's probably going to be a negative defender in the outfield. So there are some outcomes here where Lizarra Montes just doesn't play at all for the Mariners down the stretch. And he's just a twice a week kind of guy. But the high-end outcomes, you know, you could see an as Merlin Valdez stretch from him.

it's not the likeliest outcome but he has that kind of skill set and you could go either way on that actually because he could very much

have an is Merli Valdez August where I think Valdez has two homers one homer I think two homers but yeah

he is completely fallen off yeah so that's the upside and downside here for Montes still a lot to like but yeah

yeah massive power as you pointed out the 38 home runs all the quality of contact that he offers but

17th percentile in strikeout rate, seventh percentile in whiff rate, second percentile in zone contact rate down in the minor. So obviously those things do not bode very well for Lazaro Montes. It's under 72 percent, the zone contact rate. So, I mean, I think the clear parallel we can draw here is Mutataka Murakami. Montez's peak exit velocities are actually a little higher than Murakami's, but the average exit velocity is similar. Murakami's strikeout rate has been even higher in the majors than Montez was.

AAA, of course, you've got to adjust that up. A player going to the majors from the minors, so it might end up being pretty similar. And Murakami, for the most part,'s made it work, batting average is under 230 now, but I think the totality is something will take in fantasy, obviously. I think it's under 230. Last I looked it was under 230.

So it's somebody, I made the similar recommendation to Chris where, okay, yeah, I'll take him to five outfielder leagues. Probably not in three outfielder leagues. Got to wait and see there, especially since Montes' profile isn't going to be a points league friendly profile. So somebody was saying, oh, so it's like Joshua Baez then.

And... I think the Brawl is better. I mean, Bayez is a base dealer in my... Montez isn't, so there's that. But on paper, I could see that. It's just ultimately the game isn't played on paper. And that's

the trouble with this kind of prospect that has such a glaring, obvious flaw. And the kind of flaw that could be a complete deal breaker is it could be a deal breaker or it could not be. He could just be one of those players that overcomes it.

It's, I think, I, my overall lean on Lazaro Montes is, is bearish, I would say. It's funny because all the years tracking them as a prospect. I think I started higher than the consensus, then I was lower, then I was higher, and now I'm lower again, I think, with the consensus on Lazaro Montes. But my overall lean is bearish, but like, ultimately it's going to be on the player, you know? I just, I always forget which one's the bearish is negative. So I always have to, you know, because it's like, ooh, a bull is scary, but a bear is scary too.

Yeah. That's how I think of them. Do you guys think Montez is going to play enough? Because if you look at their roster, they have Randy Rose Arena in left. They have Julio in center, Taylor Ward and right and Dom Kanzone at DH. I think that they could probably just throw Montez either at DH or in right field as a strong side platoon. And then Taylor Ward be the short side platoon. I don't know if that's what they're actually going to do.

I think I saw, I don't remember exactly, but someone on the Mariners beat was, it seemed to indicate it would be mostly at the expense of Taylor Ward. I mean, he's been an absolute disaster. Yeah. Since getting there. And even before getting there, he was a disaster in Seattle. So because Montes bats left-handed,

I'd be kind of surprised if he hit against lefties, at least to start out. But, yeah, I would expect. him at least for the first week or so to play more often than he sits. Yeah. And as we talked about on Friday's podcast, the Mariners have probably the best hitter matchups for the rest of the season. They have a series in Cores Field. They have a series in Sacramento. They have another series where they're facing A's pitching. So two series against them, two series against Angels pitching, which is not very good either. So really, really good

matchups down the stretch here for the Seattle Mariners. I'll give you guys a couple. I'm hearing right now, Frank, there are four lefties on the schedule. Oh, no. So maybe he won't play more than he sits the first week. That's not great. Well, I guess maybe for the second week of September, potentially. I'll give you a couple of either-ors here, and I think this one's pretty easy, but I'll ask it anyway, Lazaro Montes or Walker Jenkins.

Jenkins? Oh, Walker Jenkins for sure. I think even if you told me playing time was going to be even, it'd be Walker Jenkins. Yeah, I agree. Would you drop Esmerlin Valdez? for Lizarra Montes. Yeah. I don't think you're especially likely to regret dropping Valdez,

and they both have the chance to make you regret not having them. So sure, take the new guy, I guess. Would you drop Joshua Baez for Lizarro Montes? Yes. Yeah, I think so. I feel like Baez's playing time is more secure, and he has the speed. He's already sitting pretty regular.

I think he's set like two of the last five games. Okay. Let's check. I could be wrong, but I'm... It's two of the past five, yeah. Yeah. Which, look, that's not necessarily meaningful, but... Two of the last five, but also two of the last ten, if you look at it.

Sure. He's striking out 38% of the time, so it's also that. A couple other names here, Montez or Tristan Peters, who's one of your sleeper hitters this week, Scott? I think I'd rather have Peters, at least for this upcoming week. And to a certain degree, we're going week to week now. there are only four of them left. Obviously, Montez has a lot more upside,

but I think the likelihood of him meeting his downside is higher than that Peters is, I don't know. I can't. I put myself in the corner there with awkward phrasing. Yeah, I just think you've got to go with Peters for the upcoming week. Two other names. Scotty in the corner.

Two other names, Montez or Spencer Jones? Jones. I... I've been doing some things. Yeah. I worry that that Judge could return this week.

He is traveling with the team on the road. Like, because we saw with Juan Soto this week where he went from basically like the first day he took live BP, he was back in the lineup, what, like three days later? Not saying that it's definitely

going to go the same way with Aaron Judge. been out longer. Yeah. But he is traveling with the team. He's taking live BP on Tuesday. And I just, I, I think there's a chance. And then you, you know, just have no idea what's going to happen with Spencer Jones playing time.

So that's my only concern. Well, that is not my only concern with Spencer Jones. Yeah. But that is part of the concern in addition to all the concerns I have about his skill set. Last one, Montez or Hector Rodriguez, who's playing time is ticking up. And he actually homered off of a lefty here on. Sunday. Six games at home this week in Cincinnati. Yeah. I think it's the more talented player, but the profiles are similar-ish, and Rodriguez

has the playing time right now, so I kind of lean his way. I think so, too. Yep. All right, well, the Mariners, again, are promoting one of their top prospects, Lazaro Montez. If you need power in a deeper league, he is definitely an aim to look at. Let's get into the players of the weekend. Oh, what a prodigious blast. And we actually got two. I don't. know if they were prodigious or not, but we did get blasts from Gunner Henderson on Sunday. Chris, he is your player of the weekend. Yeah, he finally had a good game. It had been at least a couple of weeks since Gunner Henderson had a good game. And it's frankly been a pretty long time since Gunner Henderson has been good, which is very frustrating.

He went four for four with a couple of home runs, a triple. He drove in five runs. He scored three more on Sunday. Before that, he hadn't had multiple hits in a couple of game since August 17th. He hadn't had a homer since August 14th. He's basically had like three or four good games in the past two months. And honestly, not that many more all season. It's been an absolute disaster for Gunner Henderson. Things are trending up, I guess, in the month of August.

He has an 838 OPS, but one, Sunday's carrying a lot of weight there. And two, an 838 OPS isn't even that good. that's supposed to be like the floor for Gunner Henderson, at least what we thought he was supposed to become. And I'm starting to think about 2027 and what that's going to look like and where Gunner Henderson's going to get ranked. And obviously, look, September, he could go out and have a 950 OPS and look like himself, and that's going to change things.

But right now, is he a top 50 pick even? Because he's not even running like he did last year. At least last year when he didn't hit for power, his batting average was still 274 and he still had 30 stolen bases and this year he's got 10 he's been hitting for more power this season he actually has 22 homers but

everything has taken a wrong turn for him as expected Wobos down to 316 for the season that's just like a league average mark for a guy who is not running I don't know man I'm really struggling with where Gunner Henderson's going to rank next season I hadn't really noticed, but yeah, the steals are down tremendously, down from 30 last year to just 10 this season, along with everything else. Like, it's a down season across the board, but the steals really stood out to me this weekend.

In August, the expected numbers do look a lot better, but it still hasn't been a great month. Yeah. Basically, he was a like one-two turn pick this year. Do you think he drops further than like the fourth round of a 12-team league? That's a fall out of the top 50. Yeah, that was where I, you know, is he a top 50? That's the question I'm asking myself. I think he's probably in that range.

I think it's the right range. I think it's probably like round four or five. I mean, he's a fourth round pick just because we've seen the elite outcome from him. But you also have to remember, it's been two and a half years now since we've really seen elite production from Gunner Henderson. Remember, he was awesome in 2024 overall, but it was very top heavy. He had a 799 OPS after the All-Star break. So we're going on two and a half years of Gunner Henderson. being a sub-800 OPS guy.

The state of shortstop is kind of in an unfamiliar place right now because you say that he might not even be a fourth round or Gunner Henderson. And I feel that. I'm looking at shortstop, though. You know, we've obviously had Trey Turner fall off, Mookie Betts fall off,

Bo Bichette fall off. Yeah, but we're not doing position scarcity for shortstop. Let me build up to my point. Ultimately, I think Gunner Henderson is still going to be a top five shortstop for me. Put Witt ahead, you put De La Cruz ahead, you put Abrams ahead, you put Lindor ahead. Are we sure that McGonigal has... Are we sure Jeremy Pena's not better than him? I mean, he's...

He's having another really good season. I'm pretty sure. Like, I don't... He has been better than him two years in a row. Yeah. the thing is Peña's season has been constantly interrupted

so I don't even know how fairly we can judge it but it's it is a pretty large sample like Chris said it was last year and this year where Peña has kind of

performed like an elite player at this point elite's a little strong I mean for real life because he had so much defensive value but like he doesn't get on base much

I mean you're definitely taking Bobby Witt, Ellie De La Cruz C.J. Abrams and Francis Goulendor head of him so then it just becomes a question of you know Zachary netto he's kind of having a better version of the season

Gunner Henderson is having yeah I think Payne isn't that makes I think Henderson has a lot more upside I think the young guys are in that mix too like mcgonagall and although I don't know is mcgonagall going to have shortstop eligibility next year he should he's played yeah right I believe so

and then um and then Connor Griffin I think it's going to kind of be in that conversation oh yeah Connor Griffin's going to be ahead of him I think Yeah. So whether he should be, whether he will rank that, well, whether we will rank him that way is a different question. But yes, I think Connor Griffin will definitely be ahead of. Gunner Henderson. Yeah, Kevin McGonogos played 91 games. Weatherholt will not be shortstop eligible. I'm pretty sure. I don't think that he will. So yeah, interesting talking points to try and get, you know, the wheels turning for next season. And that's why I guess this is our promo to continue listening to the podcast. even if you've been eliminated from your league, is that we'll start to get those wheels turning for next season as well. Scott, over to you for your player of the weekend. I guess I'll do Max Scherzer.

The old Wiley Vet. Yeah. You had a big game against the Mariners on Sunday, struck out 10 and 7 one hit innings. It was really good. It felt like a throwback for Max Scher. it obviously justified me putting him and my sleeper hitter or sleeper pitchers for this past week

as little confidence as I had in that pick it was officially a pick and it turned out to be a good one I don't think we need to go anywhere with this though I can you look at the breakdown of this start for Max Scherzer it's not like he was thrown a

lot harder. It's not like the pitchers had different characteristics on them in any way. It was nothing under the hood really suggested, oh, this is a different Max Scherzer. Maybe we need to be interested in this. So I don't really know what got into them. Obviously, the Mariners is a really favorable matchup. So that had to help. I think you can do a lot better off the waiver wire than Shers are in most cases. And you're pretty safe just ignoring this one.

Let me see what his matchup is for this week. K.C., which isn't bad, but I'm not going to put him in my 10 sleeper pitchers. I think it's a name in deeper leagues if you need a stream, if you've suffered an injury

or, you know, you're just really desperate for a starting pitcher at this point in the season. He has been better in August in terms of results, 362 ERA, 105 whip. 28 strikeouts to 12 walks. you know, that's not a great ratio over 32 and a third

innings here for Max Scherzer. You mentioned he faces the Royals. They're middle of the pack against right-handed pitchers this season, but their offense has been better in August. They are 7th in Wobah in the month of August as a team. So I think it's pretty combustible here for Max Scher, but I do think he's a deeper

name that you can look to stream if you are desperate this week. My player of the weekend, it's just a bunch of players. I just want to talk about like awards, right? Because there are a lot of interesting things going on right now. And PCA, I mean, my goodness. Another monster day on Saturday, four for six with a triple dong, four runs, six RBI, and then another two home runs on Sunday. And that brings his season line to 283, 38 homers, 99 runs, 91 RBI, 32 steals, and a 954 OPS, obviously rooting for

him to get the 4040, like, not really worried about the steals. I feel like he can. I think he's going to get those eight steals. If he needs to get eight steals, I'm pretty sure he'll be able to do that. It's going to be like Otani when he was going after the 50-50. He's just going to, it's going to be like every time he's on base. Yeah. Yeah. And he's certainly fast enough to do it too. So look, anything could happen over the final month, but I kind of feel like PCA is running away with the NL MVP right now. Yeah, I wrote on last Monday's newsletter that the NL rookie of the year, sorry, NL MVP race was not over. And then since then,

Pekar Armstrong had a three homer game. He had a two homer game. And Shohei Otani's return to pitching was delayed. And he might not pitch at all anymore. Yeah. So I, that wasn't the only way Otani could make up the ground. You know,

he could have a 15 homer month or something. Like that's, you can't write anything off. But yeah, it's probably, I think PCI's got to be considered the heavy, heavy, heavy favorite at this point.

And it's, So he had never had before this season more than eight walks in a month at the major league level. His past four months are 13, 14, 14, and 16. He has just completely transformed himself as a player basically overnight. He's fixed the biggest flaws in his game while keeping all of the strengths that made him able to overcome those flaws, which is how you have to play to win MVP over Shohei Otani. I hate this idea that there's just nothing anyone can do to beat Shohei Otani for MVP.

You have to have a historic season. Well, Aaron Judge did that one time. He had 62 home runs. And Peek-Romstrong is playing some of the best defensive center field you're ever going to see while going 40-40, probably, maybe. And putting up a 380 on pace per se like he's having. an unbelievable season, and that's what it takes to beat Shoahatani for MVP. And Shoahatani's having a little bit of a downseason as a header.

Yeah, I think that all makes sense. Where PCA goes in drafts next year will be an interesting talking point as well. I know that way too early first NFBC draft, the first 15 rounds of that went down. And PCA was the first overall pick in that draft. So I think we're going to have to have that discussion too. Yeah, that is a very interesting one there for PCA. You mentioned NL Rookie of the Year, perhaps a Freudian slip here, Chris, for my guy, Sal Stewart, who had two hits and a homer in each game this weekend.

31 homers, he leads baseball with 105 RBI, has 12 steals and 827 OPS. This will be very fascinating to see how much the voters care about war for rookie of the year. because, I mean, based on war, both J.J. Weatherholt and Nolan McLean are better than South Stewart, but he's also just having a ridiculous offensive season. So I don't really know which way they're going to go with this,

but I, as much as the voting base has modernized, and look, as much as I am very much a modern saber-metrically minded fella, it's going to be hard to look at a rookie driving in 120 runs

and say, With 35 to 40 homers likely. Yeah, but the other guy played really good second base defense for five months. I'm not saying that's not the right answer. I think JJ Weatherholt has been the more valuable player so far, but it's going to be a pretty historic outlier if that is what the voters go with. I'm not sure what the right call is there.

The season is also not over. Nolan McLean has had a really good August and has put himself, I think he's kind of over. overlooked in these discussions as well. So, you know, I think maybe his, how good he was at the end of 2025, maybe is hurting him a little bit in terms of how his 2026 viewed. But yeah, it's, it's not over yet. I do think South Stewart probably has to be considered the betting favorite right now. I hope so.

And I have a preseason bet on South Stewart. So I hope it comes through. J.J. Weatherholt, I will give him a little bit more credit than just being a good second base. Like, he is an elite defensive second baseman. He is 100 percentile and outs above average. And that is very much so carrying his war number this year is the defense for J.J. Weatherholt. And then the battle for the A.L. Syung. I mean, it was on display again this weekend.

Dylan Sees against the Mariners, six innings of one-run ball, eight strikeouts. Velocity remains down, but it has not affected his production one bit. during the seven-star stretch with the V-Lo down, it's a 157 ERA during that time. And he is at 5.1 F-war exactly. And Cam Schlittler against the Red Sox, 5-and-2-3rd shutout, two hits, five walks, eight strikeouts.

He has three-plus walks in three straight and four of five, 5.3 walks per nine during his five August starts. But another one where it hasn't really affected his overall production, Scott, they are both exactly right at 5.1 F-Wars. So it kind of feels like a coin flip right now between Schlittler and Dillon C's. Yeah.

I mean, I'd give it to Schlittler if the season ended today, but the season doesn't end today. And it's close, like you said. So Schlisler has the better ERA. He has the better whip. 13 more innings, too. More wins, not that I care about wins, but some voter might, I don't know. Yeah. So it's definitely close.

And, you know, one implosion from either. of these guys could ultimately decide it. Yeah. But if it ended right now, I'd give it to Cam Schlittler. And both really came away with some very interesting, just like historical stats from the weekend as well. Dylan sees seven plus strikeouts in 19 straight. One more would tie the single season record

held by Randy Johnson and Kurt Schilling. And Cam Schlettler, one run or less in 18 starts, tying the Yankee single season record, which is previously held by Ron Gidre, Whitey Ford, and Jack Chesbrough. So some interesting historical stats there for both Cam and Dylan Cease. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder to like this video. Big thank you to everyone for being here.

We started a little bit later than usual on a Sunday. So thank you once again. And subscribe, stay subscribed until the end of season and until the end of time because we would really appreciate it. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back, Fantasy at Baseball today. Let's run through the news and notes. Lots of injuries, lots of replacements to talk about.

but up top, Shohei Otani did not feel right coming out of his bullpen on Friday, and as a result, he did not pitch this weekend as originally expected, and his return as a pitcher is very much so up in the air at this point, and we just don't even know if he's going to pitch again. It should not affect his hitting

and his ability to be on the field, so you can continue using him in fantasy as a hitter, but might not see him pitch at all again this season. The Mets reinstated Juan Soto on Saturday. He homered on Sunday, so make sure to get Juan Soto back in your lineups this week. Ellie De LaCruz left early on Sunday with left quad tightness.

He is listed as day to day. Very hard to say for this upcoming week. The Reds do play at 6.40 p.m. Eastern time on Monday. If Ellie is not in the lineup on Monday and we don't really have, they just still say he's day to day.

Would you guys use him in a weekly lineup league? That's Ellie De LaCruz. Hmm. What quad was it last year? that's the question I'm wondering there's the left quad yeah don't little bit that it's the same one

reds aren't playing for anything at this point yeah I do worry a little bit about that yeah if he's not in on Monday I think because of that history I would I would lean towards sitting him but it's a total guess yeah hopefully we do have more information on Monday some shortstop replacements Scott has for this week his sleeper hitters Cole

Carrig Willie Cash and then just some other names that could be out there. Cael and Cole Pepper is playing well. Anheel Hanow has been all right. Cooper Pratt and Trevor Story. All those names are under 40% rostered as a shortstop position. Byron Bucksson, go ahead. Well, since you mentioned Cole Carrick,

we should mention that he, his manager sat him out Sunday and said he was going to have him sit out a couple games because of what, the certain beat writers referred to as a I can't think of the word

a gesture like a bad gesture and I think you can tell what gesture I'm talking about he made it to the Braves fans who The bird is the word Yeah he went full stone cold Steve Austin on them Yeah now that's So his manager said he was going to sit him for a couple games He was out of the lineup Carrig Sunday,

but he still got two at bats off the pitch. A classic college football suspension. Yeah, I don't know. Originally, I was like, man, I got to find somebody else from my sleeper hitters list because of this. But now I'm like, I don't know that I really do because I still think Carrig's going to get his at bats

and it's a full week out. Rockies, don't mess this up, man. I know you want to discipline the kid, but full week of games in Corse Field, do not mess this up for Cole Carrig. Byron Buxton was placed in the IL with a right hip impingement, and that hip has bothered him all season. He's been really good whenever he's played.

He's appeared in 93 games. He's got 25 homers, 65 runs. These steals are way down this year from 24 to 7 for Buxon. And again, if you need outfield replacements for this week, Scott Sleeper Hitters, you have Cole Carrig. If he plays, we'll see if he's in the lineup on, I don't know if they play on Monday or Tuesday, but we'll see then. Walker Jenkins, there's Willie Castro, Tristan Peters, Tommy Edmund,

and Dalton Varsho, and then just some other names, rest of season that you can look at, Lazaro Montes, who we spoke about, and Hector Rodriguez, if you're in some deeper five outfielder leagues. J.J. Weatherholt was placed in the I.L. with right wrist tendonitis,

and he was really struggling offensively in the second half, so perhaps he's been playing through this injury for some time. And again, shortstop replacements for this week. Cole Carrig, Willie Castro, there's Kaelin' Cold Pepper, Hanal, Cooper, Pratt, Trevor, if you were using J.J. Weatherholt at second base. There's Tommy Edmund and Travis Pizana as sleepers for this week. And then again, Hano, Tim Tawa, Pedro,

Pedro, Ramirez, and Connor Norby are some names a little bit further down that you can look at at second base. Sticking with the Cardinals, they are promoting a prospect as well. Leo Bernal, who is at AAA this year was hitting 279 with 16 homers and nine steals in 833 OPS. he has mostly played catcher, but he's also appeared at first base in D.H. I don't really know where he's going to play,

if he's going to play. Scott, any interest in Leo Bernal of the Cardinals? I mean, maybe as a deep second catcher, but we've got to see how much he plays. I'm not moving to Adam in any league at this point. Maybe in L only.

That's about it. Fair enough. James Wood played seven innings at AA on Sunday, and it sounds like that will be his only rehab game. He went one for three with a homer. And manager, Blake Butera, said they'll give Wood Monday off, and then they will go from there. So if you have James Wood, I think he could be back as early as Tuesday, start or sit James Wood this week. Start.

Yeah. Sounds like he's going to be back. You don't know, I've already done. You mess around with a guy that I end. Yep. CJ Abrams finally made his first start at second base on Sunday, so he should gain eligibility on CBS this week. And assuming there's no injuries or anything, I think that means he'll have eligibility to start next season. season as well. He'll have both shortstop and second base. Again, that's C.J. Erooms.

I think it's worth noting. And Scott, you probably mentioned this last week in the Prospects Report podcast, but could be a path for Sever King. Nassim Nunez has slowed down, which isn't saying a ton, but he wasn't for a decent batting average for a while. But that was never real. And Severe King is a shortstop, who has eight home runs in August, I think. It's having a crazy August. It's having a huge August, yeah. Yeah. a good season, especially in August. Yeah.

No, I'm intrigued. I mean, there was a report a couple weeks ago saying, you know, they weren't they weren't necessarily looking to call up Seaver King this year, but I don't know, some people took

that as a flat, it's not happening. If you actually read the report, that's, it was more he'd have to force the issue and the kind of August he's having, seems like he might be forcing the issue. So it's just a question of how much they want to evaluate Nassim Nunez as a defensive shortstop.

He was a great defender at second pace. Or if they want to get Seaver King's feet wet for a possible rookie of the year run next year, which would theoretically help with draft pick incentives, though we'll have a new CBA by then

if and when the 2027 season happens, so maybe those rules will all change anyway. Sticking with the Nationals, Cade Covelli left early Saturday after getting hit in the leg by a comebacker. And on Sunday, Blake Butera said Covelli was fine. And before leaving, he threw four no-hit innings with eight trycouts to three walks.

So assuming that he is healthy and good to go, I think you have to leave Cade Covelli in your lineups the way that he is pitching right now. Pete Alonzo left Sunday after getting hit by a pitch on the bill of his helmet. And after the game, they said that he should be fine. And he just wrapped up a tremendous August. Oh, scary too, man. Yeah, I mean, anytime it's like up around the head, it's scary stuff. So it sounds like Pete Alonzo's all right.

Wilson Contreras left Sunday with hamstring tightness. He is day-to-day heading into Monday. I want to see if the Red Sox play on Monday, and they do at 6.45 p.m. Eastertime. So we'll see about Wilson Contreras. Connor Griffin started a rehab assignment at AA on Sunday. He went one for three with two strikeouts, and apparently he's going to going to be evaluated by the Pirates on Monday. 81% rostered is Connor Griffin.

It sounds like they might kind of push the issue here. Would you guys look to get Connor Griffin back in your lineups? In a Points League, no. I would take a look at what the reports are on Monday before I make that final call, though, in a Roto League, because he's obviously a big upside guy when it comes to stolen bases at least. but really everything if he is right. Yeah, I think I'd play it by year.

See if what they're saying on Monday, if something comes out early enough that you can make that decision. And if we don't hear anything, it would probably depend on what my actual middle infield need is. I would lean no. If I have a solid option there, I'm not going to force the issue. It's not like, you know,

Connor Griffin was showing some good signs before we went on the IL. It's not like he had established himself as a stud yet. It was like a 12 homer. It was like a 50 steel pace, but the hitting was iffy. It sucks that. It feels like, look, something crazy would have to happen, but I don't think the pirates are going to make the playoffs. They are six games out of a wild card spot.

They have three teams that they need to, well, actually four teams that they need to jump to get in there. So they probably want to get them back to try and push for it, but I just don't see it happening for the pirates, unfortunately. Riley Green started a rehab assignment at AAA on Saturday. He's a name to watch as well. See the reports early this week and even on Monday. And if there's any talk about him returning,

I think definitely would want to get Riley Green back in your lineups. Samuel Bessio left Saturday with an injury to his right hand and then was out of the lineup on Sunday. So another kind of day-to-day up in the air situation there with Sanwell Bessio. Both Roman Anthony and Trevor's story were activated on Sunday. Anthony is still 90% rostered on CBS. Trevor's story is 40% rostered. Mickey Gasper was sent back to the minors.

I only mentioned that because he had a pretty massive week. And you might have looked at him in a two-catcher league, but Mickey Gasper back in the minors, Roman Anthony, I think if you held on to him or picked him back up, obviously you get him back in your lineups. But what are your guys thoughts on Trevor's story here, 40% rostered? Well, he came back with a couple hits in his first game. so that obviously isn't much,

but it does kind of incline me to hold on if I had him stashed in an IL spot. I've had to make this decision in quite a few leagues. You know, a guy comes back from the IL. It's like, well, now I've got to carve out a bench spot for him. Is it really worth it? You'd kind of rather that guy come off the IL Monday or Tuesday rather than Sunday, so you get an extra week to look.

He only went 6 for 35 on his rehab assignment. That's a 171 batting average. so I really needed to see those two hits Sunday. I had Trevor Story as a bust coming into this season and he wasn't doing much before the injury, but it was so early. It's like he hadn't really established who he's going to be yet. I guess this is just a roundabout way of saying

I'm not optimistic, but he was coming off a huge power speed season for a shortstop, and we were just talking earlier about how a lot of short stops of disappointed. So in, in Roto especially, you might want to see it through, though I'm not eager to activate him just yet. George Lombard

Jr. left Saturday with a knee injury and apparently everything checked out fine structurally, but he does have some inflammation by the Patelotendin. He is day to day, and he has slowed down quite a bit offensively. I guess you could say defensively as well. So I would not risk

playing George Lombard Jr. in a weekly league this week. Some, unfortunately, Brave's pitcher news, Spencer Schwellenbach will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a fracture in his right elbow. He missed the final three months of last season with that same injury and then he had loose bodies removed

back in February. It's just been a brutal series of events here for Spencer Schwellenbach. Did you guys see, I looked, I didn't look again on Sunday, but I looked when this news was first announced. What is the nature of this surgery he's having?

Because he already had loose bodies removed from an elbow that it supposedly healed from a fracture and now he's having surgery. Does that mean they have to refracture the elbow? Like what exactly happened there? I mean, my interpretation is that he refractured his elbow while rehabbing in that he needs some kind of surgery to fix that now. Yeah, what is when you fracture your bone, the hopes are that heals itself over six to eight weeks.

We gave it that time initially, started playing catch again, had issues last year, then gave it another three months. We were trying to avoid. So I don't know. Yeah, it's like he's had several setbacks. There was a quote, he was barely able to feel his arm when he threw a bullpen session last year. He'll have a screw inserted to stabilize the right elbow. Okay.

All right, thought. Yeah, I don't know. But the fact that they wanted him to avoid that injury last year. Yeah, is there a timeline for that surgery? I didn't really see a timeline anywhere. Right. No, I mean, could return at, whether Swellenbach could return at some point during the 2027 season

will be determined over the weeks and months following the procedure. That's going, that's from Mark Bowman of MLB.com. Walt Weiss, it's going to be a long haul, but he's got youth on his side and he's got talent on his side. So yeah, I'm optimistic is what Walt Weiss said. But I think even looking at this from like a 2027 or 2028 perspective, I don't really think you can expect anything from Spencer Schwellenbach at this point. Yeah, I mean, it's really scary from a dynasty perspective too.

I mean... Yeah, no, that's what I'm saying. Like, I just... I think basically you have to view him as anything you get from him at this point is a total bonus, which is a tough spot to be in with a pitcher this young, but... And a pitcher that good, man. He looks so good before he got hurt, too. Hurston Waldrip will undergo Tommy John surgery,

which means he will likely miss all of the next season as well. and Spencer Strider is not expected to return this season. Scott, what is in the water in Atlanta? Or in the elbows, I guess. I don't know. Oh, because of all the injuries. Yeah, it's like swelbock, Walter. I thought you were transitioning to something else.

No, it's just all three of these guys. It's like, dude, what happened? My gosh. It's pitching, man. It's a volatile asset. And a couple of those guys throw really hard. another primary pitch is one that's really tough on the elbow, the splitter. But this is just the modern state of pitching.

And this is something to think about as you build your own dynasty team. I've altered my approach in dynasty because of it. Do you want to invest in a young pitcher or do you just want to pay a premium for an established pitcher and just build your farm system on hitting? And that's- Well, I think part of the part of it is established pitchers also, once they're in their 30s, tend to get undervalued anyway. Right, exactly. I kind of think that's the way to go is you just- like, you just have a do whatever you want with your hitting, like focus on hitting and then just have like a two-year window for pitching and just don't care beyond the next two years. I think that's the only way you can play.

Right. You can't count on any pitcher being more than just a flash in the pan. unless he's established durability over a course of years. And obviously the biggest assets to any team are the soon-to-emerge prospects, the ones that look like they're fully cooked and fully baked. I should say cooked means something else to today's youth. The ones that look like they're fully baked and have six, seven years of, Oh, that means something else today's use too.

Have six, seven years of team control ahead of them, including three or four years where they're going to be basically free. And so obviously teams cling tightly to those, but when it's a pitcher, you can't think that far ahead. You can only think of what can this guy do for me right now because you're not promised tomorrow with the pitcher. This is the argument I've always made with like the pirates and Paul Skeens.

Like, oh, we have all this time to build around Paul Skeens. No, you don't. You have Paul Skeens. You, like, the Brewers, you have Jacob Mizirowski. You may not have Jacob Mizirowski next year. You might have a guy named Jacob Mizirowski, but he might be on the IL or he might not be the same guy. I have watched way too many Marlins seasons where people were like, oh, Marlins have so much pitching, so much young, good pitching. This is going to be a great year. And then Ryan Gusto is in the rotation for two months. Like, that's just, that's not, if you have a good starting five, you have three, good pitchers at any given point.

And you have a window right now. There is no like three year window for pitching. It's just who if you're healthy right now, your window is right now with pitchers. That's it. And it'll be interesting to see how it affects pitcher contracts in the future too. Obviously Dylan C's got a long-term deal, but he was and still is, I guess,

one of the most durable pitchers in baseball. Look, you're durable until you aren't as a pitcher. But Scoobles contract this off season coming off that like nano surgery and like, you know, entering his 30s. It's going to be a very, very interesting contract, I think. He might only get 300 million. Yeah, right. Nick Povetta had a dominant rehab outing at AAA on Sunday,

four and a third shutout with seven strikeouts, and he got up to 64 pitches. He's 59% roster. I think he's a totally fine name to stash right now. And at 64 pitches, I think we can see him up with the Padres pretty soon. Again, that is Nick Povetta. Blue Jays manager.

I think Musker of only through 60 in his most recent start. And he's expected back ahead of Paveh. better. Yeah? Yeah, you could come back once you're to 60. I mean, that enables you to throw what 80 the next time out? So it's just a question of how, if they think you're commanding well enough. I mean, obviously, Pavetta got good results in this rehab start. His velocity has been down a mile per hour plus.

So that's something to keep an eye on. But I, you know, he was pitching in the PCL and had a dominant outing. So I think that counts for something. And the Padres need to, you know, it's pedal to the floor here because they are half a game out of a wildcard spot. So they are obviously playing for a lot. The Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, said Traja Savage, continues to play catch off flat ground.

And the Blue Jays are still hopeful he will return in late September. I can't imagine it will be as a starter that late into the season. Will Smith is expected to rejoin the Dodgers on Tuesday. So I think in all two catcher leagues and maybe even in some one catcher leagues as well, If you held on to Will Smith, go ahead and get him back in your lineups. The Mariners placed Emerson Hancock on the aisle with a left adductor strain, and Bryce Miller was moved to the bullpen earlier this weekend. My guess is that Miller will move back into the rotation.

But Chris, you brought up a very interesting name in your newsletter on Sunday. Yeah, I mean, we got to think Ryan Sloan could be at least a potential option when rosters expand because he hasn't been quite as good as Kate Anderson was at AA. but he's a very similarly ranked prospect who is doing well at AA. And Bryce Miller, for the last month and a half, hasn't looked like a major league pitcher. And we know he's been pitching through injury. So at some point,

they might just have to make the decision to pull him out of the rotation. That doesn't mean Ryan Sloan will get the look, but it's a name to keep an eye on as rosters expand. And a very exciting name. I don't think you should be significantly less excited for Ryan Sloan when he makes his debut, then you were for Kate Anderson. I know the numbers aren't quite as good, but the strikeout to walk ratio for Ryan Sloan is bananas.

I thought it was a typo. His last 15 starts at AA, 97 strikeouts to five walks. That's wild. Over 75 innings. And by all accounts, he has better stuff than Kate Anderson. Kate Anderson, more finished product, more polished. But yeah, that's something to keep an eye. I'm sure we'll talk about Kate Anderson shortly.

Let me rush through the rest of these. Andre Palante threw around 50 pitches in Live BP Friday and his on track to return this week. Jacob Wilson will undergo surgery on his left shoulder on September 16th. Old friend, Corbyn Burns, through two scoreless innings at AAA on Saturday. He only threw 17 pitches. He's 40% rostered. I just don't really think there's enough time for him to build up as an effective starter this year.

Connolly Early will begin a rehab assignment on September 8th, so not really much time left for him. The Mets placed Luis Robert on outright waivers on Saturday. He's had a big August, but it seems unlikely that a team will want to take on the $5 million that he's owed for the rest of the season. The Angels placed George Claussen on the aisle with lower back inflammation. That was fun while it lasted. Elmer Rodriguez will stick around for another start on Monday at the Angels. And I picked up in Tout Wars.

It's a 15-te-team Roto League, and I needed some pitching help. So I think it's a name for deeper leagues, but I, I don't really, anything shallower than 15 teams, I probably, I'm not sure Elma Rodriguez is even going to stick around past Monday, but he looked really good in his last start. It's a glue guy. Yeah. I just realized what you did there.

And I heard this on the Sunday night baseball broadcast. Caught my attention. The Reds color commentator said that this was Chase Burns' last real start of the season and that the Reds are planning to use him in short starts the rest of the way. So, I didn't miss something. I didn't really read that or I didn't see a report. I could have just missed it, but... Wow. Good thing you're watching that game, huh?

It sounds like they're only going to use him for... What he said was like three or four-inning starts, so... The Kyle Leahy plan, as I call it. That's not great for Chase Burns' value the rest of the way. No. No. No. Yeah, I'm looking for...

I mean, would you bench him as soon as... I'm going to find any quotes there. Would you bench him as soon as this week? Yeah. I mean, if we trust... If we trust what was... set on the Reds broadcast and I have no reason not to. They're plugged into the team. I think you have to lean towards sitting him because all I can find is a video of Terry Francona talking which is not as helpful as text because you got to sit and watch him talk.

But I'm going to feed it to AI. Let's jump to a break and I'll listen to this video now. Other players who went on the aisle this weekend, Gavin Sheets with a left foot sprain, Luis Reefo, the right knee sprain, Blaise Jordan with a left ankle sprain, and Brian Hayes with a groin injury, and Edwin Arroyo was recalled by the Reds. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll run through,

waiver wire names, starter sit decisions. We'll do all that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Chris, do we have an update on Chase Burns? Okay, what was the question? I was trying to listen to the Terry Brickota. He's speaking very slowly.

It's not really helping. I was just asking if you had an update on Chase Burns. I'm not seeing a mention in the recap either. The guy on the broadcast sounded very definitive that that is what was happening. Yeah, I haven't seen it anywhere else. I believe it. We might be the only podcast, fantasy baseball podcast in the world right now saying bench Chase Burns for Week 24.

But I'm inclined to say that based on your secondhand report here, Frank. Well, thank you very much, Scott. Let's talk Waver Wire hitters and Walker Jenkins. We talked a lot about him on Friday. He went one for three with a walk. In his debut, he went to one for three with a double in RBI and picked up a stolen base on Saturday. He did hit ninth in all three games.

Probably going to take a little time for him to move up the lineup. But still 59% rostered, a name that's out there. I think three, five outfield or leagues, you could still look at him and still saw some really big fab bids on Walker Jenkins, even though I didn't really think anyone had Fab left at this point. but maybe they were saving it all for Walker Jenkins. I do have a couple other shallow league names here. Luke Keishel stayed hot.

He homered on Sunday. And in the second half, he's hitting 311 with five homers, three steals in 889 OPS. He is 74% rostered. And Alejandro Kirk continues to hit and apparently run. He hit his eighth home run on Sunday. He had a stolen base on Saturday. Do not expect any of those.

But he had himself a huge August, 3.41 with five homers, 20 RBI, 946 OPS, 69% rostered. You know, if you've dealt with a, if you've been playing the catcher carousel in a one catcher league, you know, Kirk is one of the hotter catchers right now.

So I think that's a pretty fair name to go after. I think Luke Keishel needs to be rostered everywhere now. Again, I know he's under 80% on CBS. You gave the number since the All-Star break. Since the start of July, it's an OPS over 900. and his average exit velocity during that time hasn't improved that much. It's still only like 86 and a half miles per hour. But what has improved during those two months is the pull air rate significantly.

And this was something that Keishel excelled at in the miners. It was how he achieved so much power down there despite still modest exit velocities. And if he's translating that skill to the majors, I think we're going to see Keishol in full bloom. here soon. I also point out on Alejandro Kirk just catchers back to being

catcher in the second half of the season. I don't want to overreact because it's a month and a half sample at this point, but if you look at the catcher leaderboards since the All-Star game, Luis Torrens

is a top 10 catcher in fantasy. So defense does not count. I think that tells you everything you need to know. Hasn't he hit a bunch of home runs, though? Or am I imagined? I don't know if it's a lot. I think he has. I actually have in my NL only league.

That's the only reason I know about it. But, yeah. I think. Langalear's hurt and. Yeah, there are. Rushman's been heard and. Only two catchers in the top 100 overall. Tyler Stevenson is the third best catcher since the All-Star break.

And Luis Torrens, I mean, he has six homers in 58-played appearance. Six home runs? They're all in August. It's pretty crazy. It's a good. August, but... He's not playing that much either. It's weird.

Yeah, but the point being that it should take more than six home runs in a month and a half to make you a top 10 catcher if the position was as good as we thought it was, but it's been like a lot of those breakout names have either gotten hurt like Langaleers or just have fallen off. Ben Rice is only

the 11th best catcher since the All-Star break. He's going to be a really interesting one to rank with just first base eligibility next year. Yeah, I do think the absence of Aaron judge has kind of hurt Ben Rice, but I mean, maybe you have to bake in that judge is just going miss time moving forward, right? Like, he's a big dude. There was, there's always some kind of concern about whether or not he could stay healthy this late into his career. So, yeah, I think it's something you have to factor in. I wanted to bring up Esmerlin Valdez, who homered on Sunday.

He's starting to lose some playing time, too. He has sat out three of the past nine games. And look, he suffered that hit by pitch on his wrist on July 27th. In 27 games, he's starting to since then. He's hitting 183 with two homers, a 38% K rate. And it's tough because you guys were all over this. You always expected him to regress and kind of come crashing down. But it's like, is it just regression? Is it part of like he's not healthy and he has the wrist injury? So it's hard to say, but it is what it is at this point.

That's a tough question for 2027, not so much right now, I think. So you just think he's like an easy drop, right? Valdez. Yeah. Maybe not in a five outfielder league, but even then, I'd have to consider it if I was looking to squeeze somebody else onto my roster. Some names in mid-sized leagues. Pedro Ramirez is picking things up. He went one for four, with a three-run homer on Friday, two-for-three with three runs scored on Saturday. He is playing every day since Dindisi Swanson got hurt.

He is 33% rostered. He has second and third-base eligibility. Herberto Hernandez is heating back up. He homered on both Friday and Saturday. he added a steel on Sunday. He has started 15 straight for the Marlins. They have seven games this week and three against lefties, which is very good for Hernandez.

He crushes lefties. And then Kobe Mayo stayed hot as well. Two for four with a stolen base on Friday, hit his 19th home run on Sunday. His updated second half numbers, 269, seven homers, two steals, 875 OPS. And again, the Orioles does have that awesome schedule this week.

And I will point out, Mayo started all three games this weekend, even with Blaze Alexander back and Blaze Alexander started two games. So apparently there's enough room for everyone to go around here. Do you guys have any interest in these mid-tier names, mid-sized leagues, Pedro Ramirez, Herberto Hernandez,

and Kobe Mayo. I have about as much interest in Kobe Mayo as I do in Christian and Carnacian Strand, which means I think they're really good pickups for this week. I don't have faith in either of them in any kind of medium or long-term situation. This week because they are in Coresfield for three games

and they have three lefties on the schedule. Three lefties outside of Corsfield. Yeah. Yeah. They both have dramatic splits against lefties. Very good. Yeah, Mayo leads the majors and home runs against lefties. He is like 250th against righties.

Any thoughts on Pedro Ramirez or Herberto Hernandez? Yeah, I like Pedro Ramirez. I don't know if, I don't know how useful he is at present. I think he's in the discussion, but there have been a lot of middle infielder's added to the conversation recently, and I don't know if Pedro Ramirez is anywhere close to the top of that list, but I think he has a nice broad skill set that is going to make him have some sleeper appeal going into next year

if he has a place to play. Right now he has a place to play because Danesby Swanson injured. And so, you know. Swanson's out until he might be out for the rest. Very late, if not the entire regular season. Yeah, I was talking about next season. Ramirez has a place to play.

And I think that would require the Cubs to trade him lest they make him a full-time outfielder, which I guess is possible. They do have both, I believe both Hap and Suzuki are free agents. And, hey, P. Cromchon can just cover everyone. on the outfit. That's fair. And I think getting exposure to this Cubs lineup right now is a good idea. They

rank first in Wobah in the second half of the season. So they're putting off some big numbers. I know that game Saturday especially. The wind was blowing out 10 miles per hour to center and a ton of home runs hit on both sides. And it just seems like

at least in August, Wrigley Field was playing like an extreme hitters park. As it's as it does sometimes. Sometimes it's extreme pitchers park and sometimes extreme hitters. Just depend on the direction the wind is blowing, literally. And right now, it's blowing out. Yeah. No, I like all three of these names.

Mayo, Hernandez, and Pedro Ramirez. I think like 12-team Roto leagues are deeper. I'd be interested in any of those names right now. A couple names in deeper leagues. Brady House destroyed a baseball on Friday off of poor Yuri Perez, 1.10.9 EV. 445 feet. And he's 14% rostered, six games this week. Three lefties on the schedule.

That's good for him. He crushes lefties. But the lefties are also Chris Sale, Blake Snell, and Eric Lauer. It's like whatever. But those other two are amazing, obviously. Austin Wells has looked much better in the second half. Two for two with a double dong.

Five RBI on Sunday. One of those did come off of a position player. But he is hitting 250 with a 786 OPS in the second half. And Hector Rodriguez, who we've mentioned multiple times now, this podcast. He hit a three-run homer on Sunday off of Show to Imanaga, so lefty on left. He had two hits on Friday. He has started seven of the past eight games and six home games this week in Cincinnati. So I do like that quite a bit for Hector Rodriguez. Any thoughts on these deeper names? Brady House, Austin Wells, Hector Rodriguez.

I think Rodriguez is kind of interesting. It's obviously a great home ballpark. He was very productive in the minors, and he's been productive lately. So as a hot hand play with a little bit of upside, I think he's worth a look. I don't know about House. He just sits a little too often. Austin Wells, look, if you're streaming your second catcher spot, okay, sure, he's in that discussion, I guess, but not really a guy to get excited about. So Rodriguez is, I think the most interesting here, but still not a three outfielder league

guy and probably just five outfielders in deeper leagues. All right, let's slide over to the waiver wire pitchers from the weekend. And the shallow league names, I have Jake Bennett here, a great outing at the Yankees. Six shutout with seven strikeouts for him. And his last two starts, 13 innings, three runs, 13 strikeouts to one walk. Back-to-back quality starts after a rough stretch. He is at the Orioles this week, 78% rostered. Tyler Malley, a great outing here against the Rockies.

In Atlanta, unfortunately, the bullpen blew the win here for him, but six and two thirds, one run, nine strikeouts to zero walks. And five starts with the Braves, 148 ERA, 0.96 whip. And he is at the Phillies this week. Will Warren had his best start in a wild. Seven plus innings on Sunday. One run, one walk, seven strikeouts. But it is just his second quality start in his last 14 outings.

He is at the Padres this week. And the last name of the shallow leaguers, We have Andrew Painter, who had a rough first inning on Friday, but then he settled down for a quality start here at the Angels. Did it maintain that fastball velocity jump that we saw recently? The IVB was up one inch. The previous start was up two inches. So I know we're tracking that fastball to see if it can play better for Andrew Painter.

He is at the D-BACs this week. I guess we're just playing it week-to-week at this point. How would you rank these four Painter at the D-Backs, Will Warren at the Padres, Tyler Malley at the Phillies and Jake Bennett at the Orioles. For me, it would be Painter, Malley. Probably a little gap.

I think Bennett is okay. I don't love the matchup against Baltimore, but I don't hate it. Will Warren, I have very little faith in San Diego overall is not great against Ritey's, but that offense has been much better since about June, really, but especially the second half.

So I'm definitely ranking him fourth. if you need someone to start this week, I'm not opposed to Malley over Painter. I just think Painter has more upside in the aggregate. Yeah, I agree. I agree with that completely. So those are the two I'm most interested in by far. I will point out with Bennett,

after a rough patch there, he's emphasized to sinker again in his last two starts, and both of them have been solid. So I think he's hopefully seized upon that. and has a, has, has, has, has figured out what makes some tick more and, and is hopefully trending up again. But I don't think he has the upside of painter, obviously, and even the upside of Malley with what he's shown recently. Yeah, when he's locked in and he's starting that splitter a bunch, yeah.

Four mid-tier names, Merrill Kelly had his best start in a while, seven shutout innings with a season high, seven strikeouts here at the Giants. He also had four walks. He has three or more walks in six straight. He is at the Astros this week. Zebby Matthews, a great start against the White Sox, eight and a third, one run, five strikeouts to zero walks. And his last three starts have been very good. 21 innings, three runs, 16 strikeouts to two walks. He gets the White Sox again this week. Quinn Matthews bounced back for his first career win. This one against the Pirates, five and two thirds, one run, one walk, seven strikeouts. And he is at the Dodgers this week. So nice to see a good one from Quinn Matthews, but at the

Dodgers is pretty rough. And then Andrew Alvarez, a strikeout. strong start against the Marlins, six shutout innings with six strikeouts. He also is at the Dodgers this week. So, tough group. Alvarez and Matthews, a little bit of intrigue, but the matchups at the Dodgers are terrible. And then there's Zeb Matthews

at the White Sox and Merrill Kelly at the Astros. Any interest in this group of four? I don't think I could get behind starting any of these four this week, except in an emergency situation. I am encouraged by what Quinn Matthews did. he threw only 62% of his pitches for strikes.

So even though he walked just one, it wasn't like he was throwing strikes at a high rate. But Ali Marmal, as manager pointed out, it was just more competitive two-strike pitches. Did a better job of putting hitters away. And I think he showed this was the start from Quinn Matthews where we saw his upside the clearest, even if he wasn't facing the top.

Dodgers. I don't think it would be enough for me to say, okay, I'm comfortable starting Quinn Matthews now. And then the other one I wanted to touch on was it was Merrill Kelly, because I don't know that we brought it up on this show, but in his previous start, I believe it was against the Cubs. There was a hubbub over him tipping his pitches, specifically the Cubs third base coach was reading his pitches. And who knows how long that's been going on. They finally, Kelly finally discovered somebody

was doing it and then his next time out, it's his best start of the year, arguably. So I find that interesting because it's not like the characteristics of the pitches themselves had changed a lot from previous years. It's definitely been a hard pitcher to gauge since forever. So I'm not

ready to start Merrill Kelly yet, but some of those 15 teamers where I'm chasing starting pitcher categories, I was putting in some bids for for Merrill Kelly and I saw I don't think I actually got him I think I got outbid in all the leagues so I wasn't the only one thinking that way I do want to point out two things one uh that pitch tipping thing was very funny the diamond batch manager apologized to Craig counsel the next day because he was like oh you guys weren't doing anything wrong that was on us yeah it was weird that

he didn't know that was yeah you're allowed to steal pitches that's it's yeah totally legal to steal pitches as long as you're not using video. This isn't some rookie manager. He's been there a long time. Went to the World Series with them a few years ago. Yeah, I just thought that was very funny. The actual thing I wanted to say that's actionable is, yes, we do not want to use Quinn Matthews at the Dodgers this week.

That's a terrible matchup. We don't like that. But the next week looks like it's going to be at San Francisco and versus the white socks. So one incredible matchup and one pretty mid- one, but if he does well against the Dodgers, that could be a very exciting two-star week. Big if, but...

That's a gigantic gift, but I think Quinn Matthews is pretty talented. So I just wanted to put a pin in that one as a kind of looking ahead to next week. Two very deep league names. I'll quickly mention here. Matt Wilkinson, aka Tugboat, turned in his first career quality start.

He is 4% rostered and he is at the Mets and Nationals pitcher Jackson Kent turned in a solid outing seven innings one run four walks to three strikeouts they don't love that he is 8% rostered home against the Braves this week two very deep league names do you guys

have any thoughts or interest in Matt Wilkinson or Jackson Kent I have lots of thoughts about Matt Wilkinson but not a ton of interest in him for fantasy and even less for Kent all right a couple of names are we are we okay to drop these two Kyle Leahy was limited to

just three innings on Saturday, just 51 pitches. He's still 69% rostered. It stinks because he's pitched really well. It's just, you know, he's limited now. And then, uh, I think he's going to be a true sleeper next year because his overall stats still seem kind of iffy, especially the whip. It's going to be one of those. Oh, over his last, however many games, he had this, though.

And because he's not a big strikeout pitcher and because his season's ending this way, I think a lot of people are genuinely going to sleep on Kyle Leahy next year. Mm-hmm. but okay to drop him this and then what about Andrew Abbott he was crushed by the Cubs he's still 62% or officer it just feels too high to me

mm-hmm yeah I agree he's streamable but that's it all right start or sit these pitchers this upcoming week we had Zach Wheeler with a nice bounce back at the Angel six innings one run six strikeouts he had 15 whiffs on 108 pitches

but still walk three and the walks have been an issue here Scott what do we see from Zach Wheeler and are you definitely using him against the Braves this week? I'm probably using him against the Braves. The walks were one issue. He had also brought up the possibility after his last start that maybe he was giving something away in his delivery because he thought the hitters just seemed too

confident in their swings. I forget how he put it exactly. But something kind of tipped him off to the possibility that maybe he was tipping and then he follows it up with a good start. Still has the control issue. That's part of what's been going on with Wheeler. and maybe the tipping thing is just a red herring. But I think it's notable that he brought it up

and then the next start he looked good again. So I would feel okay about starting Wheeler against the Braves. Next up we have Cade Anderson, who has been pretty meh through his first two starts. This one was at the Blue Jays, four and a third, three hits, two runs, three walks, three strikeouts. The Mariners did say beforehand that he would be limited to around 80 pitches. He threw 85 in this one. and he is 36% started home against the athletics this week. Chris, what do you think about using Kate Anderson this week?

I think you probably have to use him against the athletic. Well, you don't have to, obviously. But I would lean towards it. It's only one start this week. I thought he had. Yeah. Okay, it's just the athletics. If he pitched this weekend, yeah, I think there's only going to be.

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah, I would lean towards starting him versus the athletic. in Seattle. Great place to pitch. Good matchup right now. I feel okay about that. I do think you have to be a little concerned about Kate Anderson just his chances of being a must-start fantasy pitcher the rest of the way.

Because what we've seen so far is one thing we should start with is the shape on the fastball was better in this start than it was in his debut. He got up to 17 inches of IVB. He was down to 15 in the debut. I think it was like 15.4. That's better. We like to see that. It was like 18 at double A.

Yeah, it was like 18.5 or something. It was really good at double. It was like an elite mark at AA. The ball is different. It moves differently. He was also pitching in a dome, which can increase IVB. So, you know, I don't think you take that. But on the whole, I think you can look at the stuff that Kate Anderson has brought with him to the majors and think, okay, the control needs to be really, really good for him to be an elite pitcher.

and the control hasn't been great so far. It's been okay. And then you have the limits on the pitches. There are 81 pitches in the first start, 85 in the second. He hadn't thrown more than 80 pitches in any of his starts at the miners. And in fact, the MLB.com recap by Daniel Kramer. It's not a quote or anything, but he mentioned in there that Katie Anderson, quote, was operating on a threshold of around 80 pitches.

So it does seem like that's something the Mariners have signaled. And they've pulled him mid-inning in both of his starts once he's hit a limit of some sort. So it does seem like it's not a soft limit. It's a pretty hard one. And I think this can be a larger discussion at some point, but I do think one thing that a less. we could learn from Kate Anderson,

and look, it's two starts. You can't actually draw any analytical conclusions about two starts. It's too small of a sample size. If he goes out and dominates the rest of the season, I would not be surprised. But I think we saw the 1.06 ERA at AA, and how high he's ranked as a prospect and all that stuff. And just, I know for me, maybe I didn't look past the surface enough.

I read the scattering reports, and it was all, you know, good stuff, elite command. But, you know, the pitch count limitations, the, you know, how iffy this stuff might translate to the majors, the whole thing with the double A ball being different. I knew that, but I just didn't factor it into my analysis. And now this is two years in a row of the best pitcher in organized baseball, making the leap from double A to the majors.

And we'll see how it goes with Kate Anderson, but obviously it did not go well with Jonah Tom. There is something... I thought you were talking about Chase Burns. I was like, who was the guy last year? No, because he pitched at least a little bit in AAA, didn't he? Yeah, I think of very little, but yeah. And Jonah Tong made, I think, 11 innings at double AAA,

but Jonah Tong was the most productive pitcher at any level in baseball last season. He was ridiculously dominant. The ERA wasn't quite as low as Kate Anderson's, but the strike rate was even higher. And I do think we have to start discounting AA production. even more for pitchers because it's just the environment is very different there

than it is at AAA and especially the majors. So that's something we have to keep in account. So that's just, I think I was a little, a little more skeptical. There was talk of Kate Anderson

is like a top 10 starting pitcher in baseball right now. And like anytime someone does that with a rookie, it doesn't matter who it is. I'm going to push back on that. But I probably could have done a little better job.

of digging into some of the things. Well, not really, because a lot of that data isn't available. Like, we don't have inadvert stats for AA. That's fair. I don't even think we have introverts stats for AAA. Some people do, but we don't. Yeah, you can get it, but it's not like on a dashboard. Let's move much faster to the rest of these starter sit pitchers.

Max Fried was okay, but limited in his return against the Red Sox. Three and two thirds, one run, four strikeouts, only through 63 pitches. and the velocity was down coming back from the elbow injury. 42% started. Would you use Max Freed at the Padres this week? I think so. It would just be the innings that might scare me away. So, you know, weigh your options as far as that goes.

But if it's a ratios thing, I'd start freed. Easier to stay in a points league. Tyler Glassnell was great at the Tigers. Seven innings of one run ball with six strikeouts. He is only 57% started. I think people wanted to kind of play it safe his first week back. he gets to nationals this week. What do you guys think about using Glass now?

Fire him up. Agreed. Kevin Gosman, another step backwards. This one against the Reds, five innings, five runs, seven strikeouts, two homers allowed. And look, the underlying stuff still says that he's, like, he should be better, but he's now going on, his last 16 starts.

It's a 563 area and a 142 whip. 71% started, and he's home against the Brewers this week. Very tough matchup. What do you guys do with Kevin Gosman? I probably said him for that matchup. And I wouldn't say he's beyond dropping in 12 team leagues or shallower. I agree. Jose Soriano had a strong outing here against the Mariners,

seven innings, three runs, six strikeouts. But these outings have been very few and far between for Soriano. He is 59% started. And at the Guardians this week, they're 27th in Wobo. What do you guys think about using Jose Soriano? I mean, it's an okay matchup. If that's what you're having to consider, you don't have enough good pitchers where you can just ignore matchups.

Okay, maybe you keep Soriano around for this start. But even then, I imagine he's going to do more harm than good to your whip. So his roster and start rate is a testament to the power of a very good start to the season. Because he's been decidedly mediocre for like three months now. and he's still almost universally rostered, very widely started, and I think he's just okay. Yeah. And that was Jose Soriano we were just talking about.

The last name on this list is Ranger Suarez, who still has not looked right since returning from injury this time at the Yankees. Six runs allowed over five and a third, and seven starts since returning 501, ERA 145 whip. 70% started at the Orioles this week. I think it's a pretty easy, just, You got to sit Suarez for now. He hasn't looked for it.

Yeah, I think so. What's been weird about this rough stretch is the strike throwing has actually gotten better just in terms of is it a ball or a strike. That doesn't mean command necessarily is improved. That's much harder to gauge. But that's usually, when things go wrong with Ranger Suarez, it's because he's not locating as well as he needs to.

So I just find it curious that, well, he is throwing more strikes. Well, this is... it's always, it's always going to be hard to put any number on command. It's such an ineffable quality anyway, but a bad at ball counts as a strike. So if you give up a bunch of hits, technically those are strikes. And so that's always the tough thing with a strike percentage is it's not necessarily just measuring commander control, you know? Mm-hmm. Sure.

It's a good shorthand, but that's one of the ways in which it can fall short. Some pitching leftovers. I'm not going to read off the line. I'll just mention the names. And if you guys have any thoughts, but the first group includes Terrick Scouble, Michael Waka, Hunter Brown, and Logan Henderson. Chris, do you have any thoughts on these four? Henderson, Brown, Waka, and Terik Scuba. I mean, Waka is the most surprising performance here.

10 strikeouts from Michael Waka. What? I don't really think there's much. much actionable there. He just, he's a pretty good pitcher who occasionally is pretty great. Vila was way up in this start

for what it's worth. In fact, he threw his hardest pitch since 2017. Wow. Which I found interesting. Everything was up like one to two miles per hour.

No reason to think it's going to continue for walk-up, but if it does, then, you know, obviously we'll have to change our evaluation of him. Yeah. And then I wanted to highlight Hunter Brown

just really good start from a guy who has been very up and down so far this season, but starting to look like he's putting it all together now. The curveball and slider were both excellent, and he commanded them really well in this start. The feel for the changeup wasn't great, but I think everything else was working really well. So he's looking a lot better lately.

I know it's been a very, very hard season for Hunter Brown, but nothing you do about the past. and looking ahead, he kind of looks like Hunter Brown now. I think we, you know, okay, you're probably not drafting him as a top seven starting pitcher next season coming off a shaky season

where he had a shoulder injury, but I'm not going to bury him down to like the 30 range or anything. I think he's going to be a top 15 or 20 starting pitcher probably. Yeah, last seven starts for Hunter Brown, 263, ERA 115 whip over a strikeout per inning. So he has looked much better as of late. And Logan Henderson, man,

And he just keeps doing it. The innings are getting better, too. Six plus innings in five straight. Seven innings in two of the last three. Last week, I moved him all the way up to my SP21, which is insane. But he's also pitching insanely well. That is Logan Henderson. Some pitching leftovers part two.

Blake Snell, Noel McLean, and Christopher Sanchez. Huge starts from all three. Scott, any thoughts here on Snell, McLean, or Sanchez? I think I did have a note on McCle. Let me check that out. It was that he threw his sinker 45% of the time instead of the usual 33%, which explains why he got only six whiffs. He was really leaning into getting weak contact on the ground instead.

And I think that's in the range of outcomes for what Nolan McLean's ultimately going to be. we've seen now this is probably the third different version of McLean this year, and the overall stat line is solid, and maybe better than solid. But he hasn't obviously had the kind of massive breakout that like a Kam Schlittler or Jacob Izurowski had when he was the highest rated of those three coming in. And I think this version we're seeing this year

is more in line with my expectations than what we saw for McLean in his trial run last year. I don't know that he's going to be near the level of bat missor as those other two. I think I said this before the season. You guys might have had a similar thought. Nolan McLean long term, it kind of feels like a Logan Webby profile. That was the exact prompt I was.

I made, yeah. Which isn't a knock on him, and they don't do it the same way, but just like high floor, SP2, we should have really good ratios. But I think the strikeouts could kind of fluctuate for him. In August,

While the numbers have been really good, it's just an 8% swinging Shrike crate in the month for Nolan McLean. Hitting leftovers, I have a bunch of names here again. Not going to read off everything, but I'll just mention the names, and if you guys have a thought, George Springer, Alex Bregman, Cal Raleigh, Jr. Comenero. Gamineux Camerro.

Jazz Chisham, Jose Ramirez, and Jeremy Pena. They all did some stuff this weekend. Do you guys have any notes or anything you'd like to mention quickly? It is nice to see Jazz Chisham. Chisholm doing some stuff. Because he has not done a ton of stuff this season. Well, I guess he's been running all season. But that's about it.

40 steals, it surprised me. It actually leads the American League. Yeah, I was. He hasn't done much else outside of that. He might get to half of that 50-50 prediction. Yeah. He could hit 32 home runs in August in September. You never know.

A home or a day. I'll point out that Alex Breggman is now the fifth best third baseman in points leagues this year. Yeah, he's going to end up. having the season we basically thought he would. Some of us. Cow Raleigh... That bus predictions not coming true after all.

Yeah, Cal Raleigh, looking more like the pre-20205 version of himself, and that's probably where expectations should be. So, you know, around the 100th pick, I think we talked about this last week, 100th, 125th pick, something like that is probably where Cow Rally is going to go. And you'll just have to figure out that's right for your team build next year. but 2025 is not going to not going to really factor into the expectations moving forward, I think.

With Jose Ramirez, I'll just mention he homered on Sunday. It was his first home run since coming off of the IL. So 31 games and his first home run since June 6th. Almost three months. We have been waiting a long time for that. The call to the bullpen for the Dodgers, Tanner Scott

on Friday picked up his 20th save. He is the guy. For the Royals on Friday, Stephen Cruz picked up his sixth save. And they've been mixing things up a little bit there. I still think I would put crews at the top of the ladder for the Royals. For the White Sox on Friday, Grant Taylor,

two and two-thirds scoreless innings of relief. He picked up the win. It was lefty Brian Hudson, who picked up his sixth save. And then on Saturday, Brian Hudson picked up another save. Do you guys have any deep league saves interest in lefty Brian Hudson

of the White Sox? Well, probably not outside of really deep leagues. he's been part of a pretty crowded group. We've seen Sean Newcomb get some saves. We've, of course, seeing Grant Taylor get some saves. And I just, I'm reluctant to say that now all of a sudden, Hudson's the guy just because in back-to-back appearance as he was.

His appearance before that came in the sixth inning. So I think they remained closerless in Chicago would be my guess. I guess the one thing Hudson might have going for him kind of is that those other guys are more multi-inning relievers. And so when those circumstances pop up, they're more likely to get used in a multi-inning role. But I don't know how, whether that has any predictive value moving forward.

All right, for the Angels on Friday, Ben Joyce got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. It was a ground out, a hit by pitch, a walk, a home run robbery, wild pitch walk, relieved by Sammy Peralta, who then gave up a grand slam. So, uh, that all sounds right. Ben Joyce, I think is still the guy, but it was not a pretty appearance for him. For the Orioles on Saturday, Andrew Kittridge picked up his eighth save.

And then on Sunday, Kittridge was unavailable. It was Yaneer Kano who picked up his third save. Uh, I think they're going to mix things up a little bit there, but probably still Kittridge at the top there for the Orioles. I think Kittridge has five saves in August, I think. I was looking at the game log, right? But I think they just had a bunch of save opportunities because I feel like even,

I feel like Rico Garcia has one. I feel like maybe Yanir Cano has like two in the month. It's just four for Kittridge. And they had one on July 29th also. Yeah, I mean, they have been mixing it up. But I do think Ketridge, most of his appearances, have come in the ninth, whether for a save or not.

So I think he's definitely the front runner, but it is still a bit of a committee there, for sure. And then for the Pirates on Sunday, Mason Montgomery got the ninth with a one-run lead. He picked up his seventh save, and he is the dude. I've started starting him at starting pitcher in some leagues. All right. 55% Ross, are he still out there in some leagues? Can I add two bullpen notes?

Sure. Kodai Senga, I don't know if you got a save this weekend, but he did pitch back-to-back games successfully, which is something he had not done before. Remember the first time he tried to pitch back-to-back games. He blew the save. It was first blown save. So that feels notable for his chances of remaining the closer moving forward. And then did you see how Mason Miller blew the save today?

Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, because as the Yanke said, I needed the race to lose. I need them to lose. Oh, that was brutal. So this was two blown saves in a row for Mason Miller. I think home runs in consecutive outings, technically. He gave up one to O'Neill Cruz last time out. Yeah.

This one was one of the dumber home runs. you're going to see all season. It was, I don't know who the left fielder was. Samad Taylor. Went up, got the ball over the fence, robbed the home.

Actually, I'm not even sure if it was going to be a home run. No. But he gets up and catches the ball. Then his arm hits the fence and he drops it for a two-run home run into the bullpen right next to the foul pole. It's an incredibly difficult play to make.

I am not criticizing Samad Taylor. That is really hard, but I'm also not criticizing Mason Miller for that one. Yeah. That was just dumb. I saw a tweet that said, insert, however number of batted balls that were hit the same exact way in the stat cast era before this, every single one of them resulted in an out except for this one, which turned into a home run. It's, what, 310 down the line in Tampa, 315? Yeah.

It's a very short fence also. So, like, that was only, Giant DeLucah only hit that one about 3.5. 315 feet. And it just happened to hit in the right way where Samad Taylor dropped it. And that was dumb. No worries about Mason Miller. He remains the best pitcher in baseball.

All right. And then we will wrap up with to stream or not to stream. On Monday, we have Walbert Arania against the Yankees. Elmer Rodriguez at the Angels. Bryce Elder against the Giants, Brady Singer, against the Padres. Jackson Job is at the Twins. Clay Holmes against the Brewers.

gauge jump at the Rangers Anthony K at the Astros and Aranola at the D-backs Okay, so at first I was really worried Bryce Elder was going to be the top pick and I would not feel good about that but gauge jump is clearly the top pick I think Wobbert Arania would be second

and then Bryce Elder's third. I'm not starting to Rainia his past two outings have been rough than yeah I'd rather start Elder I'd rather start Clay Holmes against the Brewers frankly actually Aranola is all the way up to 81% roster so I guess he has not qualified for this

So. It's two-star week, so it's... Yeah. I like Clay Holmes. I think gauge jump is boom or bust, but I like that he's on the road.

Elder, high floor, kind of quality start guy. I mentioned earlier, I think Elmer Rodriguez could be all right in that matchup at the Angels. Glugai.

On Tuesday, we have Grayson Rodriguez against the Yankees. Randy Vasquez at the Reds, Nick Ladolo against the Padres. Sean Mania at the Rays. A.J. Smith, Chauver at the Nationals.

Connor Prelip against the Tigers, Randy Dobnack against the Marlins, Robert Gasser at the Cubs, JT. Ginn at the Rangers, and Eric Lauer home against the Cardinals. Genn? Genn. I don't have any faith in anyone else. I know Randy Dobnack's got like a 2ERA or whatever it is, but no, even against the

Marlins. I was going to say, Dobnack, he's been a 55% ground ball guy. Yeah. That's really high. Yeah. And you can limit damage that way, even if you're not very good. Yep. Yeah, I don't have any faith in it.

Okay, fair enough. But Domnack would be my second choice for Tuesday. And I have him as a two-star sleeper this week also. I would go with Gain. If I had to choose a second, I think I would go with Grace and Rodriguez. I think it's very risky. It's combustible. But he pitched pretty well in August.

What about Shamaniah at the raise? I know four runs are more in three straight for him, but they're bad against lefties. And he was on a good run before then. So maybe. It's not a very good day. So honestly, if you have any level of conviction at all, I'm all right with it. I sign off. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris.

I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye. Mount Podcasts. Oh, and welcome to Plutofo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, The Matrix,

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