Fantasy Baseball Today - Welcome Back, Brandon Woodruff! Emmet Sheehan or Joe Boyle? (7/7 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

Brandon Woodruff looked great in his return (3:15)! ... Trevor Rogers keeps pitching well (8:00). ... Zack Wheeler tossed a complete game and the Astros swept the Dodgers (11:07). ... News (15:28): Clarke Schmidt needs Tommy John surgery! Add Emmet Sheehan or Joe Boyle? ... Lucas Giolito tossed another quality start (36:20). ... Trevor Story or Ceddanne Rafaela (47:03)? ... What to do with Jesus Luzardo, Carlos Rodon and other struggling pitchers (50:11)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:49). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@FBTPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CPTowers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Roto_Frank⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. Welcome back, Brandon Woodruff, and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, July 7th. I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Chris Towers.

Today on the show, Brandon Woodruff looked great. his return. Very happy to be wrong about that one. We'll rank a bunch of waiver wire names, starter sit decisions, and much more. Hope everybody enjoyed their July 4th weekend. Chris, how was the birthday? What do we got? Anything good? I'm too old for gifts now. I got a hat. Not this hat, but I got a hat. It's a different. I'll wear it at some point. It's a Paddington hat. Not the hat that Paddington wears, but a hat with Paddington on it, to be clear. That was a good birthday.

Went out to Long Island for a much-needed pool and barbecuing day. And yeah, you know, it was nice. How about you? Oh, it was a very busy weekend. Long Island on Friday, also pooled July 4th. That was awesome. But then also drove upstate on Saturday, drove back on Sunday. So it's just been a very long weekend.

Happy to be here. let's let's let's let's let's let's let's wrap this up let's get through this podcast Chris because I need to go to sleep but let's jump in oh my good goodness gracious all right Chris is only one place to start I will let you take it Brandon Woodruff man he was awesome yeah we've been very skeptical of Brandon Woodruff and at least for one start he made us look very bad because he returned from capsule surgery on his right shoulder for the first time against the Marlins on Sunday and was excellent six innings two hits one run on a home run that wasn't even particularly hard hit it was like a hundred mile per hour home run he had eight strikeouts no walks 10 whiffs on 70 pitches that's really good uh four on the four seamer

four on the change up one on the sinker and sweeper this was his first start in 22 months almost and I don't know how you could have asked for more. I guess you could have asked for the velocity to be back where it was in 2023, but other than that, I mean, the results, he looked like Brandon Woodruff, right? Like 29% whiff rate on the four seamer. That's what you've come to expect from Brandon Woodruff. A ton of weak contact despite throwing his four seamer in sink or 60% of the time. That's what you've come to expect from Brandon Woodruff.

I didn't think he was going to be able to do this. And to be fair, the reason I didn't think so is because he maxed out with his foreseemar at the same velocity he used to average in 2020. He averaged 95.8 in 2023, maxed out at 95.6 in this one, average 93. on average 93.2. And it's, I don't know. This is a guy who throws his fastballs, his foresemer or his sinker, around 60% of the time. That's about what he did today. And in the past, that was able to work because his four seamer was an elite putaway pitch.

And both pitches generated a ton of weak contact. And he commanded them excellently. And he did all of those today. if you combine the four seamer and the sinker was a 50% CSW rate because he had the four whiffs with the four seamer he had 11 called strikes with the sinker um new cutter like a harder three three mile per hour harder than his old slider he has a sweeper now it wasn't exactly the same version of brandon woodruff and maybe those changes new sweeper new cutter or harder slider whatever they want to call it maybe that will be enough to offset whatever he loses from the fastball. Or maybe he just won't lose that much from the fastball. Maybe he can still be that effective at 93 as he was at 96. He was for one start at least. And I was pretty much ready to, for Brandon Woodruff to come out, average 92, 93 with his fastball struggle. I was ready to come out and say, okay, you stashed him. We got to look. We can drop him now.

now I don't think there's any way you can and in other leagues you know he's like 90% rostered in CBS fantasies so there's nowhere to go but in Yahoo I'm sure he's much lower and I think you should probably go add Brandon Woodruff I'm not saying he's a must ad I'm not saying he's even the highest priority ad right now but yeah I think we've we've got to take this performance seriously yeah Brandon Woodruff you mentioned 89 percent rostered on CBS, 69% on Yahoo. So definitely available in some of those leagues. He gets the nationals this week, which is typically an okay matchup. They don't strike out very much, but they're kind of like lower third against right-handed pitching. So with as good as he was here, as efficient as he was, I don't think he's a must start. But if you need a start and you have Brendan Woodruff, I think it's totally fine to use him here. And look, we knew the velocity was going to be down. but on his rehab assignment, it was 91.9 miles per hour with the fastball. 93.2 here today, still a far cry from where it was years ago,

but that's better than the majority of his rehab outings. And I thought it was interesting that he could still kind of like reach back and max out and get that fastball up to 96 miles per hour. And I saw the velocity get that high on a few of his strikeouts too. So like when he needs it, he can kind of, you know, rear back and still get some of that. So awesome return for Brandon Woodruff. If you picked him up,

looks like you might have stumbled onto something here. And I think totally fine to use him this week if you want to against the nationals. Absolutely. Yeah, I think he's a perfectly fine streamer right now. Yeah, player of the weekend for me is going to be Trevor Rogers, who I've been kind of skeptical of not completely buying in,

but the more he does it, the more I slowly start to buy in here. And he is doing some interesting things. So against the Braves this weekend, six and two-thirds shutout, six strikeouts, had 14 whiffs on 88 pitches, five on the fastball, five on the slider, sweeper, excuse me. And he mixed in more sweepers in this one.

He used it 15% of the time. It was only 2% entering this start, and it was a great pitch. I mentioned it had the five whiffs, a 56% whiff rate. And his fastball has just been really good thus far. Had five of his 14 whiffs that fastball, 29% whiff rate on that pitch overall.

That is an elite whiff rate on a fastball. Now, I don't know if that will remain for Trevor Rogers, but he's done a pretty good job, you know, getting whiffs on that pitch and maintaining that so far in his return. So it's just so interesting the way it played out, Chris, because while he was down in the minors, he was awful. He looked awful, and now he comes up, and he's just looked great. He's allowed a total of five earned runs through five starts.

He's gone six in a third plus shutout innings in three of five starts. And you put it all together. It's a 157 ERA. It's a .87 whip. You know, you like more strikeouts here from Trevor Rogers, but overall the results have been great. And this week, a revenge game against the Marlins. So if you do need a streamer, you need someone to pick up an ad.

I think Trevor Rogers against the Marlins, totally fine this week. I think it's fine, but I'm certainly. a little more skeptical of Roger's success so far a big part of it's just he was in 2021 one of the most interesting young pitchers in baseball and

his stuff was just much better back then I think that's the biggest thing is that he was averaging 94.5 with his foreseamer now it's more like 92 93 I think it was 93.5 in this one the whiff rate like you said, has still been there, but

I just have trouble buying it. The stuff's not as good as it was. He's executing really well, and it's a big win for Baltimore and for Trevor Rogers that I think he's a legitimate major league pitcher again, and I wasn't sure he'd get back there, but

I think he's probably just a streamer. A high 3SRA guy. That's useful. And, you know, in a matchup against the Marlins, it's probably a bottom half team against lefties. I think it's fine to use him. I don't think Trevor Rogers is, needs to be rostered in all leagues though. And we're going to talk about many other waiver wire pitchers that are more exciting, you know, the Emmachians, the Joe Boyles of the

world, totally get that. But I don't know if you picked up Rogers in a deeper league and, you know, again, like we said with Woodruff, not to the same extent, but you might have stumbled across something here. And I do think it's a good matchup this upcoming week against the Marlins. Want to give a shout out to Zach. Wheeler, who just demolished the Reds on Sunday. He threw a one-hit complete game, 12 strikeouts, zero walks, 22 whiffs on 108 pitches. His only blemish was a solo homer allowed to Austin Wells.

His last two starts, Zach Wheeler, 17 innings, one run, 22 strikeouts to zero walks. He just continues to... He keeps getting better. Yeah. This is the best strikeout rate of his career by like four percentage points. he has the lowest XERA in baseball. I think he has the lowest FIP.

He has a 0.84 whip. He's just really, really good. Get this man of Cy Young. Yeah, and you were able to get him in what, the third round in most leagues? That's pretty cool. Second round. Probably second, but yeah.

A clear third pitcher off the board. And Scoobel's probably been better on the whole, but it's a pretty close. race between the two of them. Also wanted to give a shout out to the Houston Astros, man. They are red hot. They went into L.A. They swept the Dodgers.

They won 18 to 1 on Friday in that game. Jose Altuva had a big one. Three for three with a double dong, five RBI. He added another home run on Sunday. And, you know, we've received some emails. No doubt it's been, you know, a down season here for Altuva. But you look now, 272 batting average, 16 home runs. counting stats are okay.

Pretty close to 30 Homer pace. You want more speed. I get that from Altuve here, but, you know, the state of the second base position. I think all in all, you'll take what he's giving you this season. Christian Walker, four for five with his 11th home run in that game. Then Homer again on Sunday, that dude just loves playing in Dodgers Stadium.

He just, going back to his days with Arizona, just absolutely crushes the Dodgers in Dodgers Stadium. And Victor Caratini, Just a name we've mentioned recently, deeper two-catcher leagues. He has a pulse. He's doing some things. Last 15 games, he's hitting 264 with five homers, 18 RBI. Again, just the name there for some deeper two-catcher leagues, Victor Caratini.

Before we hit our first break, just a reminder to sign up for the FBT newsletter if you haven't already. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code. That will take you right to the website where you can sign up for free, and you'll get in a newsletter delivered right to your email inbox every weekday of the regular season again for free. And big thanks to those watching live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube as well. Let's take that break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

You could tell it's been a long weekend. I couldn't even say this going to break right after this. I just couldn't even get it out. It's been a long one, Chris. News and notes. Long week. long weekend for the Yankees as well. They learned that Clark Schmidt will likely need Tommy John surgery,

which sucks because he has pitched well this season. 332 ERA 109 whip will likely miss most, if not all of next season as well. And it sounds like prospect Cam Schlittler is expected to take Clark Schmidt's spot in the rotation. And he's done some interesting things in the minors. He's a bigger guy, six foot six. He's 24 years old. Big strikeout potential here.

well. So a deep league name, one that I'm watching. I have some slight interest here, Chris. What do you think about Cam Schlittler of the Yankees? Yeah, I put in some very low dollar bids and some 15 team leagues in an AL only. There's a really good piece on him on fan graphs actually last Sunday, I believe, by David Lorela, talking about how he, you know, throws from a high arm slot, gets a lot of ride on his foreseamer. It's, it's, should be a very good foreseamer for generating whiffs. Might be some homer issues, but you know, you'll live with that if he gets a lot of strikeouts. He's been very good across the two highest levels of the minors this year. 282 ERA and 76 and two-thirds innings, a lot of strikeouts.

He's a little bit older for a guy who just got to AAA a couple starts ago. He's 24 already. That seems to be pretty typical for Yankees pitching. prospects. So yeah, I definitely think it's a name to keep an eye on in deeper, you know, 15 team or mono leagues, AL only especially. Don't think you want to add him in NL only. In A.L. Only leagues. I think he's a, Cam Schlittler's definitely a name to know. Yeah. Again, 22% rostered. We'll see what he does should make his debut Tuesday or Wednesday this week. Not a guarantee he'll stick around for sure because, you know,

Stroman just came back and Luis Heel is getting set to return shortly. He's going to start his rehab assignment soon, right? Yeah, it sounds like that could happen this week, and I think he'll be back shortly after the All-Star break. But as we know, life finds a way, and there is upside here with Cam Schlittler. Hunter Green will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. The D-Backs reinstated Corby and Carol on Saturday, and that was fast. Yeah. Get him back in your lineups, I guess?

Yes, you have to. He did strike out four times and four played appearances on Sunday. Five of his first nine with no hits strikeouts. So I'm a little wary about how quickly this happened. No rehab assignment. I'm wary. But hopefully I'm wrong. What about Wyatt Langford?

He was also reinstated by the Rangers. He was struggling quite a bit before this injury. Is he an auto start as well, Wyatt Langford? Probably not in a three outfielder points league especially because he's pretty fringy there anyway, right? Like it's been another frustrating, disappointing season for Wyatt Langford. There are tools here, but you know, you look at the underlying data and it doesn't necessarily suggest that he's a superstar

who just needs to, you know, put a few tweaks together. He looks kind of middling right now. Certainly a lot of talent. I wouldn't blame you if you started him, but in a three outfielder league, I think it's okay to sit him. Let's get all the Dodgers stuff out of the way because, as usual, there's lots of updates coming out of L.A. here. The Dodgers recalled Emmett Sheehan to start on Sunday against the Astros, and he looked pretty good. Once again, five innings, one run. Four strikeouts had 14 whiffs on 80 pitches.

And look, everything looked pretty good here for him. He's made two starts. Nine innings, two runs, 10 strikeouts to one walk. 57% rostered. I think it needs to be 100. Is he at the top of, you know, Waverwire pitchers right now? In like the 11% of leagues where both him and Brandon Woodruff are available, might be lower than that, but stick with me.

I have a really hard time saying who I would rather have. I think it's Woodruff just because the Dodgers do have a lot of guys coming back. Yep. And he went down to AAA to build his arm strength up. And he comes up and goes five innings and 80 pitches. So it's just, it's a question of how long, how long of a leash are they ever going to have with him? I think it helps that both Ben Casperius and Justin Robleski were terrible. in their appearances this weekend.

Those would probably be his main competition for staying in the rotation and not great for either of those. So I do hope Emmett Sheehan is in the rotation for good. And I feel very good about the upside there. Yeah, the upside is tremendous. There's no doubt about that. I do worry about, you know, will he stick in the rotation?

I just, you can, I don't think you could ever trusted Dodgers, right? And they do have Tyler Glass now coming back and Blake Snell's kind of working his way back as well. But let's hope. Look, I think based on the upside and the team he plays for obviously, you got to take a shot here. He's just been so dominant. Yeah. Every time he's pitched this season, except for what, one start at AAA. So I just think Emma Sheehan has earned the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully the Dodgers agree. Yeah. I, I, I, I would put Woodruff at the top of the list as well, but then, yeah, I think Emmett Sheehan's probably the next name up there. Blake Snell will throw two innings in a rehab game this week and could return to the big league rotation in late July.

Tyler Glass now will make a start for the Dodgers start on the Dodgers's upcoming road trip before the All-Star break, which means this week he's making a start. And Chris, are you actually using Tyler Glass now for, I don't know, one of his 10 or 12 healthy start? starts the season. I would probably not use him for his first start back. He got up to 78 pitches, so it should be at least five innings, but it's probably not going to be much more than five innings. And you just,

you never know how guys are going to look in their first start back from the IL. So I think it's fine to keep him seated. And part of that is also now you don't have to make the decision on who to drop when you take him off the IL until next week. And really, you don't have to do it until the Thursday or Friday of next week. So, you know, you kind of give yourself an extra almost two weeks to have to make that decision. You don't know what's going to happen between now and two weeks from now. The Dodgers have some hitters banged up as well.

Tommy Edmund and Teoscar Hernandez were both out of the lineup on Sunday. Edmund dealing with a toe injury and Teosker with his left foot. He did go for imaging and that came back negative. So it seems to be good news. for now on Teoska Hernandez. Michael King is not yet throwing off a mound, but he is pain-free and has been able to increase the intensity and distance of his throws.

Pablo Lopez will start throwing this week after an MRI showed his inflammation and swelling are totally gone. Grayson Rodriguez threw 25 pitches, including fastballs and breaking balls in a bullpen on Friday. The raise were called Joe Boyle on Sunday, and he looked great in long relief. Five innings to hit. It's one unearned run, one walk with seven strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 95 pitches.

Through 62% of his pitches for strikes, I think typically you'd like that number to be higher, but only one walk obviously is good news for Joe Boyle. Oddly enough, Drew Rasmussen started this game, he only threw two innings. So I guess we could get to that part next, Chris. But Joe Boyle obviously was lighting up the miners. He's exciting. The race kind of feel like they've worked their devil magic on him once again. is Emmett Shee and a head of Joe Boyle

in terms of WaverWire pitcher ads right now? Yeah, I think so. But Boyle is a high priority for sure because he's he's kind of doing the Edward Cabrera thing where we always said if he could just throw strikes, well, it's not like his command is great. You know, his walk rate at AAA was like 3.8 per 9, I think.

But with Boyle's stuff, I mean, he sits like 98-99 and misses a ton of bats and always has. If he's an average control pitcher, he might be really, really good because of how many bats he misses, how much we contact he can generate. Yeah, he looks super talented, and it sounds like,

it sounds like him and Drew Brasserson are just going to be a tandem moving forward. And it sounds like Boyle is going to be the bigger part of that tandem. So he might not start, but I think we're going to get five innings from him more often than not as long as he pitches well. So I think Boyle might be more valuable than Rasmussen moving forward. I don't know if you want to, if you want to set it up, but it does sound like Drew Rasmussen's just going to be limited the rest of the way because he has a he's up to 89 and a third innings. The team has a 150 inning limit for him. and they want him pitching in the postseason. So I'm looking at a piece from the Tampa Bay Times right now.

And the race came up with a plan. Rastverson would continue to start on his normal turn, but make abbreviated appearances, kind of like a multi-inning opener, so he can contribute throughout the season and potentially the post-season. Sunday, he worked two innings during 32 pitches. Then Boyle would take over in baseball jargon, piggybacking, and work like he was starting.

Typically in the four-to-six inning range, Sunday he went five innings starting 95 pitches 14 at 99 miles per hour. Rasmussen, who often praises the raise for their incredible handling of him, said he understands the move. I think it does two things. It lets us get the Joel Boyle experience, which is electric. And then it also allows me to just stay on routine as well as limit some of the innings for this year.

Kevin Cash wouldn't say how long the race would use this pairing, but it's expected to last for at least a few turns through the rotation. So likely past the All-Star break. I don't know. I think Rasmussen, yeah, it might be, he might be done as a must-star fan. Well, I think he's almost certainly done as a must-star fantasy option. And even as a must-raster player, I'm not sure Jarasmson's going to stay there because you start to do the math. And let's say he has 150- inning limit.

He's at 89 and a third. That's 60.2. innings, I believe, is the math on that. If you've got 12 starts the rest of the way for him, that's five innings on the dot. Okay, maybe they're cool with that, but if they want him available for the postseason, then let's say that number drops to 45 innings the rest of the way. Now you're down to less than four innings per start at 12 turns through the rotation. I really think it might just be Gary Crochet from last year with Drew Asmson,

unfortunately. Yeah, this is a tough one too because he's been so good all season and typically Rasmussen's value would be higher in a head to head points league where he has that RP eligibility. He's a spark,

but if you're not getting Volgium, I think the only leagues where you, I would hold him for now and let's see how it goes next time out next couple times. But if they're using him like this, he almost has no value in a points league. In Roto, you know,

if he's pitching a couple of times a week and he's, you know, throw four or five innings. Like, he can still give you good ratios and, like, okay, strikeouts. But that's pretty fringy. Yeah. You're not going to get any wins. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, he's not a great source of strikeouts anyway. So, yeah, I don't know. Like, if that was my worst player to drop for Edward Cabrera, I have to really think about it. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, even in this situation, dropping him for Joe Boyle or Emmett Sheehan, it's like. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I might be willing to do it.

I think I would, yeah. Yeah. Just because the upside's not there for Rasmussen, even in a best case scenario. So that's the thing that makes it tough is like he's a floor play without a high floor. You know? Yeah, it is tough.

Anthony Santander could begin swinging a bat late next week. He's been out since May 30th due to a shoulder issue. Max Scher was only able to throw four innings on Saturday due to significant thumb inflammation. And it sounds like that was by design. He's going to make another start, but obviously this continues to be a huge issue for Scherzer and his workload. Mackenzie Gore will get extra rest before making his next start on Wednesday.

Jad Chisholm was out of the line of Sunday with a shoulder injury. He said he's been dealing with this for three weeks now. We wouldn't know because he's been crushing the ball, obviously. Chris, are you okay keeping Jen? Jazz in your lineups this week? I think so, yeah. You, Darvish will make his season debut Monday against the D-backs. He's 63% rostered.

I believe that will make him a two-star pitcher against the D-backs and Phillies. I assume you want to just sit and take a, you know, wait-and-see approach with Darvish, right? Yeah, in a points league, it could be fine just because, or even a, you know, a weekly categories league where you don't have the long-term component. I could see it being okay. I want to see how many pitches he got up to only through 51 pitches. Actually, no, this is, has he even made a rehab start? I think he's been throwing off the side.

Live BP and stuff like that. Okay. Yeah, he's probably going to be limited. No idea how effective he's going to be. I'm excited to watch him. You Darvish is always fun, but I think I would try to avoid it if I can. Yeah, so Darvish threw a four-inning 64-pitch simulated game on Tuesday. Okay, yeah, probably looking at like 80.

75, something, yeah, something around there. 75 to 80 pitches, I would imagine, on Monday. Louise Heel may start a minor league rehab assignment this week, which we mentioned earlier. Shane Bieber said Saturday that he will likely throw one more live BP before returning to game action. With Brandon Woodruff back, we didn't know who would get sent down. It turns out it is Chad Patrick,

who would send back to AAA. Masataka Yoshida will return from the aisle during Boston's upcoming homestand. He is 10% rostered. Chris, any deep league interest in a Masataka Yoshita? He's a good hitter. He's not a great one. He probably won't play against lefties. And is he DH only right now?

I believe so, yeah. Yeah. He's played a little outfield on his minor league rehab assignment, but there's not really anywhere for him to play. He has taken some reps at first base in practice. nothing seems looming there, but that's a possibility in the long term. So that's something to watch. I think in points leagues no and probably most 12-team Roto leagues know,

but anything deeper than that, I think Yoshida's okay. Yeah, yeah, I think 15-team Roto, deeper daily lineup leagues, if you just want to throw him in there whenever he's playing, has hit 280-plus in each of the two seasons that he's played. I think you know what to expect. If he's healthy, if he's good to go, you'll probably get a solid batting average and modest pop here from Masataka Yoshita.

The Phillies option, McAable back to AAA, which makes sense. We are officially on Andrew Painter Watch. The Nationals fired their GM, Mike Rizzo, and their manager, Dave Martinez. And, yeah, I mean, that dates back to them winning the World Series with that tandem and now going in a different direction to, you know, help.

coach up this young nucleus that they have there with the Washington Nationals. Other players who went on the IL this weekend, Reese Hoskins with a grade two left thumb sprain, Jameson, with a right calf strain, Gary Sanchez due to a sprained right knee, which sucks because he was hitting well. But let's watch for Samuel Bessio.

The universe wants the Orioles to call up Samuel Bessaya. They now have four catchers on the IL. they are starting Jacob Stallings and who's their backup? Their backups their backup has like a career 440 Major League OPS so yeah it's

I understand not calling him up right? Like I understand if they want him to just focus on his defense this is not a team that's going to be making Alex Jackson was the guy that they called up Yeah this is not a team that's going to be making the playoffs I get it. I also just think they're clearly not putting their best team on the field right now. And that's frustrating.

Well, we've seen that. Right now, he'd be able to play every day. We've seen them do that many times before, right? You know, just kind of mishandling of prospects and, you know, the whole Kobe Mayo thing and not calling him up when he was at his hottest. And even when they called him up, they didn't play him every day. So, yeah, some questionable decisions here from the Orioles. I totally get it to, like, they're not playing.

playing for much. Maybe they want to save his rookie eligibility for next season. If he's up on opening day, you know, they can compete for a draft pick compensation. So they could, you know, look at it from that perspective as well. Lane Thomas went on the aisle with Plansartor fasciitis and his right foot and could be chased to lauder time. So another deep league name to pay attention to there. Andres Jimenez with a left ankle sprain and Pavin Smith with a right oblique strain.

And last but certainly not least, Chris, my wish has been grand. Granted. The Yankees signed Jamer Candelario to a minor league contract. They desperately need third base help. Not sure he's going to be the one to give it to them, but I guess there's a chance. I don't think he's done yet, but he might. I put in a bid for him in AL-only towel wars, so we'll see, or labor, sorry. There you go. All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll run through some of the waiver options from the weekend. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Let's take a look at the Waverwire pitchers from the weekend. And Gialito's already up to 78% rostered.

So this is for the shallowest of leagues out there, but continues to pitch well this time at the National. Seven and two-thirds innings, one run, seven strikeouts here. Still does not have a pitch with a whiff rate over 26%. But something is working for Gialito, who now has five quality starts in a row. Back-to-back starts. with seven plus innings.

He gets the Rockies this week in Boston as well. So obviously that is a fantastic matchup. Chris, I don't completely buy what's going on with Julito here, but he's pitching well as an awesome matchup this week. Yeah, I don't really buy it either, but I would say he's pretty close to Mustart with a Rocky Road matchup on the way this week. I don't buy it, but yeah.

He is very clearly behind Woodruff, Sheehan, and Joe Boyle, right? And behind Edward Cabrera for me as well. All right. And what about Trevor Rogers? Who do you prefer between those two? Kind of feels similar, right? Yeah, I think it's Chilito.

Yep. Two other names here. Ryan Nelson did it again this time against the Royals. Great matchup. Seven innings, one run. Five strikeouts to zero walks. His velocity was up in the start, leaned heavily on.

on the fastball once again. Since joining the rotation on May 20th, Ryan Nelson, a 244, ERA, a 0.85 whip, 69% rostered, and he's at the Angels this week, so that is a very good matchup as well. Edward Cabrera, who we've mentioned, you know, multiple times already today

over the past couple of weeks, did take a tough luck loss opposing Brandon Woodruff, seven innings two runs, five strikeouts to zero walks, but that last number there, zero walks. it's, you know, we're getting much better control here from Edward Cabrera. It's back-to-back seven inning starts the first time he's done that in his career.

So you mentioned you have Edward Cabrera near the top of that list. Where does he rank among the, like, Joe Boyle, Woodruff, and Sheehan group? Is he behind those three? Hmm. I think I'd take him ahead of Boyle. Okay. I think him and Sheehan's really close. but I would give the edge to Sheehan.

What about Cabrera versus Ryan Nelson? Who do you like between those two? Cabrera for sure. What about Nelson versus Golito? Nelson's weird because he throws that fastball 70% of the time, and it's a really good pitch. According to Baseball Savant's run values metric, it's tied for the most valuable four seamer in baseball.

It's been worth 16 runs above average or however they calculate it. The thing that I struggle with is it's like among, make sure I have the stat right among 200 pitchers who have ended at least 50 plate appearances with their four seamers so that's the way they track that metric um he ranks 110th out of 200 in whiff rate with the four seamers so it's a really good pitch it doesn't miss a lot of bats so it relies heavily on a lot of weak contact he generates a ton of weak fly balls with it that's all great it's not typically a uh uh uh approach that we think will lead to long-term sustained success. I think Gialito probably has a little more strikeout upside. So, gosh, it might just be whoever has the better matchup coming up.

And I think that's Gialito versus Colorado. So I would take him over Ryan Nelson. All right. The next group includes the aforementioned Trevor Rogers, who again is pitching well. Charlie Morton continues to pitch well at the Braves this time. Five and a third, two runs, seven strikeouts, 19 whiffs on. 57 pitches. And since rejoining the Orioles rotation on May 26th,

a 297 ERA 132 whip. That's high, but, you know, that's always the Charlie Morton thing, though. It's like even when things are going well, it's always a high whip. Also 11K per nine during that time. So he's doing his thing. Gets the Mets this week.

That is a tougher matchup. Lance McCullors bounce back with a great start at the Dodgers, six innings, one run with four strikeouts. Nice bounce back. He allowed. He earned runs in his previous start. He gets the Rangers this week. And speaking of the Rangers, Kumar Rocker continues to pitch well lately.

He was at the Patre's. Five and a third, two runs, four strikeouts, continues to lean on that cutter. And it's been a really, really good pitch here for Kumar Rocker, who is at the Angels this week. So I think that's a totally fine matchup. And he's done it long enough now. You know, four starts, a 249 ERA, a 11 whip. I don't completely trust it. but if you do need a streamer,

I think Kumar Rocker is fine. Chris, how would you rank this group? Rocker, McCullors, Charlie Morton, and Trevor Rogers. I think I'd go Rogers, Morton, Rocker, McCullors. 20 feet of, yeah, I don't have any interest in Lance McCullors. He's got 582 ERA and it doesn't look like a fluke. I think Morton is kind of interesting.

We are at the point in the season where we have to be careful about looking too far ahead for matchups because Charlie Morton seems all but certain to get traded before the deadline. And the deadline is in 24 days. So who knows how long he'll actually be on the Orioles? That being said, you mentioned his matchup against the Mets this, against the Mets this week. That's not great. I agree with that. If you look at the schedule coming back from the All-Star break, though, if he's still on the Orioles, for the first three series.

Two of his first three starts will be some combination of the Rays, Guardians, and Rockies away from Corsefield. It could turn out to be Guardians and then versus Rockies. That'd be a really excellent pair of matchups to open, but even if it's not that, it could be, or no, it would be a two-start week if it works out that way. He could have a two-start week

the second week back from the All-Star break, Guardians versus Rockies. for Charlie Morton. That'd be awesome. Oh, yeah. So want to keep him stashed for that, at least. And then Rocker, he's just doing some interesting stuff lately. The strikeout rate

still not great, but the walk rate much improved. That cutter has been really good for him. He seems to command it better than his foreseamer. It seems to be working. All right, next group includes Eric Lauer, who's been pitching well for the Blue Jays.

Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts against the Angels this weekend. He gets the White Sox this week, so totally fine. Deep League streamer there. Slate Sikoni turned in a quality starting against the Tigers, six innings, two runs with five strikeouts. He's at the Astros. Adrian Houser continues to pitch well for the White Sox. This time he was in Corse Field, eight innings, two unearned runs with six strikeouts. His velocity is up this season, and through eight starts, he has a 160 ERA, a 111 whip.

and he gets the Blue Jays this week. They are hitting the ball well and they don't strike out very much. And J.P. Sears look great against the Giants. Six shot out innings, six strikeouts, 13 whiffs on 92 pitches, back-to-back scoreless outings after a rough stretch for him, and he gets the Atlanta Braves. Chris, do any of these names stand out for you, J.P. Sears, Adrian Houser, Slate Ticconi, and Eric Lauer?

I think Lauer's a great streamer this week. The Blue Jays will not stop winning games, and he gets the white socks. So I don't really buy it, but it's a, like the underlying numbers mostly back it up, 321 XERA on the season. Strikeout rate's pretty good, even though he doesn't miss a ton of bats. The four seamers playing really well. So I think Eric Lauer is a good streamer this week.

Everyone else I could take or leave, but I do think Adrian Houser, like he was a legitimately fantasy relevant pitcher back in 20. 2023, I believe. And he's on a bad team, sure, but he's throwing harder than ever. The underlying stats mostly back up what he's done. I'm not saying I think Adrian Houser is someone you need to run out an ad, but like he has a lower roster rate than Jose Cantana, Tomuuki Sagano, J.P. Sears, Bailey Falter.

I think I'd rather have him than those guys at least, or at least it might depend on what the next matchup is. I guess I don't love the Toronto matchup, but I think Adrian Houser deserves a little more respect than he's gone at the very least. And for those who play in a points league, he is a SPARP. So it would feel dirty to make this move,

but I mean, if you have Rasperson and you want to go from one SPARP to another, Adrian Houser is pitching well right now, so I think it's something that you can look at in that format. And the last group includes Logan Allen of the Guardians. He turned in a quality start against the top. Tigers, six innings one run with five strikeouts for him. Last five starts, 341 ERA and a 114 whip.

Michael Lorenzen, a great start at the D-Backs. Seven shutout with seven strikeouts, had 17 whiffs on 82 pitches. Great start for him. And Ryan Gusto, solid outing at the Dodgers, six innings, one run. Only one strikeout, but 13 whiffs on 80 pitches. Probably deserved more than just one strikeout here. Very deep league stuff, Chris. any of these names stand out.

Logan Allen, Michael Lorenzen, Ryan Gusto. I think they're all streamers at best. Lorenzen's probably the best of them, but I think he's a low fours ERA pitcher. The most interesting thing about him, I was watching him pitch whenever this start was or his previous start. I can't remember. I didn't realize Michael Lorenzen's like Tyler O'Neill levels have jacked.

He's jacked, yeah. I had no idea. I don't know how I missed this, but yeah. Michael Lorenzen's like goaked. It looks like a professional wrestler. Yeah. That's my takeaway. He's got the hair and everything too.

He's got the long hair. Like, yeah, he could just throw that. I had no idea. Throw that guy off the top rope. That'll probably work out. Logan Allen, by the way, for very deep leagues, if you need a streamer this week, he is at the White Sox. And so, you know, stream almost anybody against the White Sox.

Yeah. Some waiver wire hitters. Two Red Sox players, who we've mentioned. a lot lately, but still available in some shallower leagues. Trevor Story stayed hot this weekend, four for five with a sock in the shoe on Friday, hit another home run on Sunday. Last seven games, he's hitting 4.48 with three homers,

10 RBI and two steals. And Sadan Rafael has picked things up. Homer twice this weekend, last seven games for him. He's hitting 370 with two home runs, 67% rostered. Chris, who do you like more between the two? Trevor Story or Sadeon Raphaela? Well, they're both bad in points leagues.

Yeah. So I'll just go with the guy who has three more homers and three more steals, I guess. And that's Trevor Story, because they're both play discipline is so bad that I don't think either can really matter in points leagues. And as a result, they're both right around 70% rostered. It's hard to imagine there are a ton of leagues where either of them is really worth adding. But I'll give Trevor Story the edge. Sean Murphy looks like he's picking things back up last seven games hitting 318 with four homers and nine RBI

the problem which has been a problem for him a large majority of the season is that he has started just six of the past 10 games so Sean Murphy's 31% rostered he's I think just a name for two catcher leagues Chris unless like if something were to happen at Drake Baldwin maybe you know Sean Murphy just plays a lot more but for now I still just think it's two catcher leagues. Just a number two catcher right now, yeah.

Colson Montgomery got called up this weekend. He started all three games for the White Sox and a very soft landing spot in Cores Field against Rockies pitching. Had three hits on Saturday, two more hits on Sunday, 18% rostered, very up and down minor league career, but this was a top draft pick. There is pedigree here. Chris, were you looking to add Colson Montgomery anywhere this weekend? Yeah, I think he's an okay ad in deeper leagues. The thing with Colson Montgomery is the minor league track record is really mediocre. At basically every level, it's mediocre.

So you're kind of just hoping that the White Sox maybe had him working on specific things when he was at AAA. They saw something over the final week there when he had the two two homer games. And you can kind of throw the minor league production out of the window. It's a former first round pick. It's possible that that's the case. and the fact that he's been good in his first three aims, you know, of course field helps, but I'm willing to take a chance in deeper leagues.

It's not a 12-team play, but in deeper leagues, yeah, let's see if there's anything here. All right, and the last name up is Mickey Moniac, who had a huge game on Sunday, three-for-four with a sock-and-a-shoe, his 13th home run, his fifth stolen base. He has started three straight,

but alternated starting and sitting each game from July 24th through, June 24th, excuse me, through July 3rd. So, you know, there's a little bit of power and speed here, but just not playing consistently enough is Mickey Moniac. So, you know, deeper leagues with daily lineups, maybe, but anything besides that, I think it's a no-go on Mickey Moniac. What do we do with these starting pitchers, Chris?

Another clunker from Jesus Lozardo, this time against the Reds. Two innings, six hits, six runs, five of those earned. three walks to four strikeouts. And look, we know he had that awful two-star stretch where he allowed 20 earned runs. But even lately, it's four plus earned runs and two of his last four. Walks in hard contact have been a problem here for Lazzardo recently.

What are you doing this week? He's at the Giants. I'm starting him. I know the 444 ERA is frustrating. The 147 whip is bad. It's a 365-exam. XERA, it's still a 27% strikeout rate, walk rate is still right around

average. I'm still gonna view Hazis Lazzardo as someone I'm starting more often than not. Until the results have been bad, the skills still look really strong. So I'm gonna have faith

in that. What about Sandy Alcantara? I mean, we've talked about all season long. It's back-to-back rough outings for him. This one against the Brewers, six innings, five runs with four strikeouts to just one walk. The control has been much better, which is a good sign. That was a major issue for him early on in the season.

He's also just not getting whiffs. So we had that stretch, Chris, where it looked like, all right, you know, Sandy was turning a corner a little bit, but, you know, now 12 run runs over his last two outings again, you know, down to 79% rostered is, can you go ahead and drop Sandy for Emmett Sheehan or Joe Boyle, someone like that, or even his teammate, Edward Cabrera? I wouldn't want to. I would hope I have a pitcher I feel has less upside. But I'm certainly open to it.

Yeah, I think I'd rather have, yeah, I think I'd rather have Edward Cabrera than Sandy Alcantra. He's pitching like a better version of Sandy Alcantra right now. So the one thing that you do like from Sandy is like you said, the control's been much better, two or fewer walks in six straight start. he's pitching deep into games. He's gone at least six innings in five of his last six. It does feel like he's not far off. But the fact that he's taken this step back,

some of that has been just getting bab-uped a little bit, but he's given up a couple home runs as well. I don't think Sandy Alcounter is a must roster player, sure. Yeah, and he's at the Reds this week too. So the way he's pitching, there's obviously no way you can start him there. But yeah, I think we're getting back to, to dropping San Diego Concert here. What about Carlos Rodan?

He has struggled a little bit recently. He was at the Mets this weekend. Subway Series, five innings, seven runs allowed, six of those earned, gave up two homers in this one. Twelve hard hits, 95.5, average exit velocity against. And last six starts for Rodon. It's a 534 ERA, 128 whip, 13 walks, seven homers allowed. Gets to Cubs.

Tregard rates way down too, right? Gets to Cubs this week. I don't know, Chris, this one's tough because he's been, you know, must start all season. I think we all rank up as a top 20 starting pitcher, but, you know, starting to look a little bit like Carlos Rodon of old. What do you think here? Yeah, I want to look into like the pitch level stuff and just see what's really gone wrong because, all right. So early on, slider was like 40% whiff rates, July one start. It was, hmm.

everything looked okay in June for the most part and he's only made the one start in July so I don't want to take too much from that yeah I don't know like the the change up's been a little less effective but it doesn't really look like a huge deal the slider was still awesome in June I'm inclined to say that this is just a

little bit of a speed bump for Carlos Rodon more than a sign that he's turning back into a pumpkin You know, maybe it's like he was pitching like a top five starter for the first two and a half months of the season. Well, he's not that. But I still think top 24 is reasonable. And that's where we have him ranked, right? He's right around 20 for all of us. I think I have him around 15 or something like that.

At this point, it's probably too high. But, yeah, even if I- It's a little, even if I drop him down a little bit, I can't see him being outside the top 24. Yeah, it's a little tough. Like the matchup against the Cubs this week is scary. I don't think I'm sitting him, though. All right. Chase Burns was okay in his third start at the Phillies.

Four and two thirds innings, one run, four walks, seven strikeouts, had 13 whiffs on 91 pitches, only through 57% of his pitches for strikes here. And his fastball got hit hard, 98.9 average exit velocity. It's tough because he gets the Rockies this week in Cincinnati. So now you're starting him. Normally you just want to get him in there for that start. He's only 54% started right now, Chase Burns. I'm starting me against the Rockies.

I think sitting him against the Phillies was perfectly reasonable. And you look at the strike zone plot for this game for Chase Burns. And I think he mostly did what you want, right? He didn't, it doesn't look like he threw any of his sliders in the strike zone, which is fine because he probably got too much of the strike zone. with that pitch against the Red Sox. It was the Red Sox who had destroyed him, right? Yes.

But you look at the four seamer, mostly when he missed, it was inside to Ritees and it was above the zone if he missed. Sliders, if he missed, down and away to Ritees. That's the approach you want. It is fair to wonder whether he has enough to get through lineups that have multiple lefties. You know, the Red Sox had more lefties than right he's in today. You kind of need more than just the two pitches unless they're really, really good. Right now, everything looks promising, but he hasn't locked in yet.

So I remain optimistic. Is he a must-start pitcher? No, he's not. But I don't think I'm going to sit him against the Rockies. It's the Rockies. Come on. Yeah. On the road.

I know Cincinnati is a tough place to pitch. I feel very confident in him against the Rockies. Show Hey Otani, the pitcher, has pitched well thus far, but the Dodgers are just bringing him along so slowly right now. I mean, he only threw two shutout innings this weekend, three strikeouts, a zero walks. He's made four starts, and during that time, it's six innings, one run, six strikeouts.

I mean, that would be great for one start, not four starts. So he's yet to throw more than 31 pitches. Obviously in leagues where he's one player, you're using him as a hitter, this doesn't matter for you. But in leagues where he's two different players, I guess you're just stashing him on the bench. This just looks like it's going to be a really, really slow build here. Yeah, you just have to look at it as just a stash.

You know, like, who throws five innings in a major league start first? Shohei Otani or Bubba Chandler? Shoaheotani or Andrew Painter? I will Like I think that's the way you have to look at him Yeah Painter's closer yeah I don't know I mean yeah painter might just be up and ready to go

In 10 days So I SP only show Hey Otani is not a must roster player This was this always should have been the expectation And yeah That's I think it's probably At least another month before we

we see him really fully stretched out. I think we're going to see continued really brief outings from him. All right. Next up, Gavin Williams had one of his best starts of the season against the Tigers, six shutout, one hit, three walks, eight strikeouts, had 18 whiffs on 97 pitches. His eight strikeouts here were his most since May 9th, and he used his fastball less,

really just had everything working. The breaking pitches looked really good for Gavin Williams here. I know last week I said he was dropable. I still don't think he's a must roster player, but if you've held on this long, he's at the White Sox this week. Yeah, if you didn't drop him yet, don't drop him now.

That's the best I can say. I will, if Edward Cabrera was available, I think I would still drop Gavin Williams for him. If Amishian was available, I think I'd still do it. Other than that, certainly this week,

I'm just starting him against the White Sox. I do trust him there. All right. Next up, Jacob Lopez had another mixed outing. This one against the Giants. Four and a third. Five hits, four runs with eight strikeouts, had 15 whiffs on 88 pitches. He actually left with two earned runs. Two runners on.

Reliever came in, allowed both base runners to score. So that's how we wind up with this line here. But, you know, second start in a row where he went less than five innings. Chris, I know you've been a little bit more skeptical, I think, than Scott and I have been on Jacob Lopez. I'm still holding. What do you think about Lopez here? All right, well, let's think about it this way.

Are you starting them this week against the Blue Jays? Probably not. They don't strike out against lefties. Probably not. They don't strike out. They're red hot right now. Everyone's hitting in that lineup. He's probably not starting the week after that just because it's a three.

I mean, I don't know. Is he one of the first three to go for the athletics? I have no idea. Probably should be. I don't know. Yeah, I think in terms of, yeah, he's probably one of their three best. I don't know how it's going to work out. but you may not start him for the next two weeks.

Yeah, that's fair. That's a little, you know, if you're in that spot and you can get two starts from Edward Cabrera or Amishian, who are not guaranteed to make two starts in those two weeks either, to be clear. You know, I think those guys are better than him. Yeah. So I'm not saying Jacob Lopez is a must drop, but I didn't expect this to last. it didn't necessarily fall apart the way I thought it would in this one. Like it wasn't, you know, three homers.

So I don't know. I'm, I think he's fine. Yeah. It is tough for Cheyenne, who just looks like he has so much upside. So I would probably make that swap. Edward Cabrera is close. If you need someone to pitch this week, I would get that move. But I still think there's a lot of swinging miss potential here from Lopez.

bad park to pitch in bad team as well but I would like to hold Lopez if it's possible and last name here Eduardo Rodriguez he had been pitching well but man he got blown up again

eight earned runs second time this season he's allowed eight earned runs so if you were holding on to Eduardo Rodriguez he's 52% rostered go ahead and drop him for any of the names that we've talked about today it's just when it's bad for him

it's so so bad. The underlying numbers are still okay. Yeah, there's no in between. It's like either he's pretty good or he gives up seven runs and he's given up at least four in five straight starts now, I think. So, no, sorry, I was looking at the wrong guy. That's funny. That's funny. I meant to type Edward Rodriguez. You know who I typed? I typed Bailey over. Someone who also was getting rocked, so I get that. No, okay, Eduardo Rodriguez has actually been pretty good lately. Yeah, before this. Strikeout rates solid.

It's just, yeah, when he gets, it was two earned runs or fewer and five straight before this one. And it's now three starts of at least six earned runs. Yeah. I think it's totally fine to drop him. All right, let's get back over to the hitters here. And can we please just have a healthy Jordan Westberg rest of season? because I want to see what this guy can do. He was a breakout for all of us coming in.

He returned from that finger injury on Friday. He homered in back-to-back games. He's looked good since being activated on June 10th. We just need him to stay healthy, stay on the field. He gives you second, third base eligibility. I still think there's a lot of upside here, Chris. We just need him healthy. Yeah, that's good to see after all the time he's missed with that finger injury

that he was able to hit a couple homers this weekend. That was very good to see. Hitters who stayed hot. Michael Bush, red hot. 4-4 with three homers on Friday. He added another home run on Saturday. Also started that game against the lefties. So perhaps playing time,

trending up a little bit here from Michael Bush, who is now batting 2.97 with 18 home runs and a 950 OPS on the season. Juan Soto got his revenge against the Yankees. Mets took two out of three. he went three for four with his 21st home run on Friday just one National League player of the month for June so you know

it's not an all-star yeah that that was kind of interesting I saw people put Corby-Carrill and Fernando Tatis side by side and Soto's numbers are pretty much better across the board so interesting there but he'll someone will drop out and he'll be the first choice it'll be fine

but you know we had that slow start it looks like Soto's just completely back on track now. Randy or Rosarena also red hot. Homer two more times this weekend last 17 games hitting 338 with six home runs and an OPS over a thousand. Brandon Nimmo had a huge game on Saturday, two for four with a sock and a

shoe and Juergson ProFAR is raking since his return. He had two more hits on Sunday. He let off in that game but Ronald Ocuna had the day off but you know five games since returning it's six hits, two home runs. Didn't include him in waiver wire hitters because he's all the way up to 81% rostered.

But, you know, only 49% started. If you have Profar, get him back in your lineups. Yep. Anything else to add on these names here, Chris? No, I mean, a Rosarena, it's just all of a sudden, his numbers look great, right? Like 14 homers, 15 steals. It's like a 25, 25 pace at least. Yeah.

Didn't look quite that good literally a week ago. But, you know, that's, you'll take it. some hitting leftovers PCA Pete Crow Armstrong another huge game on Friday 4 for 4 with two more home runs for him Jason Dominguez is picking things up on Friday went two for four with two homers and a steel he let off that game against a right-handed pitcher and if I do say so myself Chris give myself a little pat on the back this is I think one of my better calls on Thursday night we did the podcast and I said I think Dominguez is about to break out man just watching his at bats he's looked much better I hope they still give him chances to lead off because they just don't have a dedicated leadoff hitter right now

and he's playing well. So I think that makes sense for the Yankees. Aaron Judge hit two more home runs this weekend. He is now batting 360 with 33 home runs on the year. Cowellie will not stop two more home runs for him. He's up to 35 now. Vinnie Pee! Baby!

Vinny Pass Quantino, three for five, with a double dong, six RBI on Friday. Pete Alonzo, looking to get back on track, two home runs on Saturday for him. Jackson Holiday, quietly, it's just had a solid season. Four for four with his 11th home run on Sunday. He's hitting 260. He's got 11 home runs.

He's got nine steals. And another huge game for Byron Buxton, who went two for five with a sock and a shoe, his 20th home run and 16th steal that happened on Sunday. Anything to add on these names, Chris? Anything stands out? the only thing I have to add is one Brian Wu in his postgame press conference after his start this weekend was wearing a stepbrother's shirt with him in Cow Rally and as he was going into the post game interview room as Kyle Rally was going into the post game interview room Brian Wu was coming off the podium and he was like oh cow cow how does it feed him? you broke another record, you hit two more home runs, wow. That was just, I thought that was a very funny interaction between the two of them.

They all seem to love Cowrally in that team. Yeah. Why not? He's on pace for like 89 home runs. Yeah. Do you see outside of their stadium, T-Mobile Park, I guess this was for voting for the All-Star game, they had a dump truck outside with Cowralli's face on it saying to vote him for the our team, which is just hilarious.

The whole team before one of their recent games was wearing peach emoji shirts. I just, I love it. I love it. Very nice. Let's get into the pitching leftovers here from the weekend. We did have a pitcher's duel out in Seattle. Paul Skeens up against George Kirby. Skeens, five shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, had 18 whiffs on 78 pitches.

Kind of interesting that he only threw 78 pitches after. 88 pitches his last time out. And then George Kirby on the other side, six and a third, shutout innings with nine strikeouts, had 19 whiffs on 93 pitches. And kind of just looks like Kirby is back. That's three quality starts in a row.

He's allowed just two earned runs total during that stretch. Anything to add on Kirby and Paul Skeen's here? Skeens has a 155 ERA since his last win, which is only seven starts. Could be longer. Getting the Jacob deGrom treatment. I have faith that the pirates can take this winless streak longer. It's ridiculous.

Kirby, yeah, I want to say he's back. And it was good to see in this start he did have the full arsenal because his previous start, which was a pretty good one. He didn't throw his splitter or his curveball at all in the previous start. And I think it had been a couple starts like that. So it was good to see him working the splitter and the knuckle curve back in. seems to suggest he's got the feel. And yeah, look, I don't know how you can judge a start against the pirates at this point. Their offense is horrible.

But he's faced other bad lineups and hasn't been this good. So it's good to see. All right. Some other pitching leftovers here, Terik Scouble, doing what he does at the Guardian. Seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts on Sunday. That's back-to-back seven shutout with 10 plus strikeouts. Ridiculous. His sixth start with double-digit strikeouts this season.

Brian Wu dominated the Pirates. Sixth shutout with eight strikeouts for him. Casey Mize was great at the Guardian. Seventh shutout with four strikeouts. And Luis Castillo, an awesome start. What do you know? Also against the Pirates, seven shutout with eight strikeouts here. Anything on Castillo, Casey Mize, Brian Wu, and Terik Scouble.

I don't trust it with Casey Mize. he has basically the strikeout rate is below average the walk rate is pretty good it's like 6% that's that's a very good mark the biggest thing that he's doing right right now is generating weak contact and maybe this new harder slider this harder splitter that he's throwing maybe that is enough to make kC my's an outlier in terms of quality of contact allowed but that is a stat that takes a long time to to stabilize. And to highlight that, I think there were 13 pitchers last season who qualified for the ERA title and had an expected Wobah on contact below 350.

So league average is 368, 350 and below. That's really good. He's at like 336 right now. Among the 13 last year who had a 350 or lower X-WOBA on contact, this season there are more with an X-WOBA over 370, so worse than an average, than there. are below 350. It just, it fluctuates a lot from year to year, from month to month. And that's really the only way Casey Meis stands out right now.

So I just don't, I don't buy it. I think he's an obvious sell high candidate. Speaking of Terrick Scouble, just wanted to mention, I made a blockbuster trade, Chris, in Tout Wars with Justin Mason. I gave him Juan Soto and I got Terrick Scoubles. So we'll see, Matt. winning with Soto, I figured. You know, why, I'll change you up. I get it.

Yeah. I'm in the middle of the pack right now, and I lost Cole Regens. I lost Bryce Miller. So, yeah, let's have, let's have some fun. I just got like jerks of pro farback and Austin Hayes. So look, they're not Soto, but I've got some outfield depth and we'll see how it works out. Let's go. Let's go. Terrick Scouble. Call to the bullpen for the Mets on Friday. Edwin Diaz was unavailable. Reed Garrett pitched the final two innings for his third save. for the White Sox on Friday. Grant Taylor struck out two for his third save.

Kind of looks like he is taking over as their closer. For the Tigers on Saturday, Will Vest was unavailable. Tommy Canley picked up his ninth save. For the Rangers on Saturday, Robert Garcia started the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He got two outs, but allowed three base runners. He was relieved by Sean Armstrong, who got the final out for his third save. For the Red Sox on Sunday, Aroldest Chapman, entered in the eighth with a two-run lead to face James Wood and Nathaniel Lowe.

He allowed a hit but picked up his third hold. And then it was Jordan Hicks, who got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a run, but picked up his first save. And just interesting, the Red Sox have thrown Jordan Hicks right into high-leverage situations here. This has happened a few times with Chapman, where if there are lefties coming up, they'll use him in the eighth inning. I think he's still very clearly their closer. but, you know, it happens from time to time.

Trade deadlines coming up. He seems very likely to be traded. Fair. I think there's a decent chance Hicks closes the season out as the Red Sox closure for the final couple of months. Yeah, that's a good point. Then for the Rockies on Sunday, Seth Halverson got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He walked one but picked up his eighth save, only 10% rostered, deep league name for saves. And he didn't get a save this weekend, but I just wanted to point out with Ronnie Enriquez of

the Marlins, the Marlins don't have a closer, but if they did, I think Ronnie Enriquez is the closer. No, I'm not, I'm not willing to say it, Chris, because every time I have done that, then like the next three saves have gone to somebody else. So, yeah, I mean, I think he has three of the last four for them and, um, the other one was not Calvin Fosha. I can't remember who it was, but yeah. I think he's the closer. Yeah. All right.

I think so. You said it, not me. I'm not jinksing that guy. All right, to stream or not to stream, I'm just realizing now that I didn't write down any names. So, all right, we've got to have fun and kind of piece this together on the fly. So let's see what we've got on Monday. Jansen Junk at the Reds.

Er. Richard. The people in the comments of the F. FBT YouTube are really big on Jansen Junk. I don't get it, but there was way too much Jansen Junk talk in the chat a couple of days ago. Take that for what you will. I am not using him at Cincinnati, but if someone out there wants to, you can go for it. Richard Fitz gets the Rockies in Boston, so that could work out.

Noah Cameron against the Pirates, kind of like that. Andrew Haney at the Royals, they don't. hit either. Sean Burke gets the Blue Jays. Colton Gordon against the Guardians. They're not hitting either. Anybody else? Hmm. And Landon Rup against the Phillies. So I would go with Noah Cameron first. Heaney's fine as well in that game. And I think I would say Colton Gordon, but I don't think he's very good. But the Guardians just cannot hit right now. Yeah, I'm okay with Gordon. That's, that's an okay trio, yeah. And then on Tuesday, we have

hmm, Brian Beow gets the Rockies, that definitely could work, that's in Boston. Nick Martinez against the Marlins, that could be okay. Yeah, that's okay. Simeon Woods Richardson against the Cubs, no thank you, Aaron Savali against the Blue Jays. Probably not. Kershaw at the Brewers.

Palante against the Nationals is okay. I like Joey Cantillo. I wouldn't use him here, but I'm interested to see what he does. Brandon Walter against Cleveland, I don't know if he probably isn't rostered highly enough to not qualify anymore, right? He probably still does. I have, I see Hunter Brown for Tuesday.

Okay. ESPN has Hunter Brown on Monday, but yeah, maybe. We also have Jeffrey Springs against the Braves, Didier Fuentes, at the athletics. Yeah, for Tuesday, I would go Bayo against the Rockies and Martinez, Nick Martinez against the Marlins, I think it's fine. All right, we're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today.

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