Fantasy Baseball Today - Welcome Back, Logan Gilbert! Pitchers on the Rise & Fantasy Feud! (6/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Lucas Giolito had a season-high 10 strikeouts (2:42). ... Jose Soriano now has two great starts in a row (8:41). ... Josh Lowe and Brandon Lowe homered in the same game (11:55). ... Welcome back, Logan Gilbert (18:01)! ... News (20:38): Kyle Tucker's finger is not 100%. ... Another year, more drama with the baseball (27:13). ... Ryan Pepiot, Sandy Alcantara and Clarke Schmidt are on the rise (32:22). ... Ben Casparius is pitching well but the Dodgers don't let him throw too much (38:23). ... Nick Kurtz is picking things up (47:20). ... Let's play Fantasy Feud (51:15)! ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:04:45). 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. Hey there. Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, June 17th.

I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, welcome back to Logan Gilbert. Pitchers who probably should be risers in the rankings this week, we shall discuss, and we will play. Fantasy feud. Oh, snap, I had no idea. I thought we would have to do something. This is the best day of my life. There's only, what, seven games today?

Only seven games on the slate, but surprisingly, lots of good performance. Yeah, lots of talk about here. So let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. Oh, my Yankees, woof. Let's not talk about them. And let's start with Chris, because you claimed this was the breadstick of the night. Is it?

I don't know. I think Lucas Gialito striking out 10 is the breadstick for tonight. For those who don't know, this is a reference to the fact that Olive Garden, they'll give you one more breadstick than there are people at the table to try to psych you out of asking for another bag of breadstick or a thing of breadsticks. And I say, just take the breadstick and ask for more. don't be worried about it. Don't let them play those mind games with you. And Lucas Gilito is the last remaining breadstick. And I will take him here because this is by far the best Lucas Gilito has looked all season.

He had 10 strikeouts and six innings, three hits, no earn runs against the Mariners, only 91 pitches. He had 18 swinging strikes on 42 swings, including at least four on the fastball slider and changeup. The fastball velocity was up 1.2 miles per hour, 94. 0.5 is what he average. That's the highest he's averaged since coming back from his internal brace procedure. And it's kind of funny that both Lucas Gellito and Spencer Strider pick the same week to finally look like themselves after coming back from their surgeries. I don't actually think there was any kind of deadline that turned them around.

It's probably just noise. And in Gialito's case, I mean in both his and Strider's case, I don't think this performance proves anything about what you should expect from them from him moving forward. And I want to point out some other pitchers who have had 10 strikeout games this season. Shane Boz has had two, I believe. Max Meyer had a 14 strikeout start. Bryce Elder, literally last week. Lance McCullors, Eduardo Rodriguez has had two.

Tosh Bradley, Tyler McGill, Luis Ortiz, Chris Panic. not only are none of those must-start pitchers, for the most part, they're not even worth rostering. Or at least they're not must-roster players. And I don't think Lucas Gilito after this start is a must-roster player. We have to keep in mind, it was in Seattle, a park that inflates strikeouts more than any in baseball. And he still got hit really hard. There was still a lot of loud contact when the Mariners did manage to make contact. So I don't think you should look at this and say,

Lucas Gileo is a star pitcher again. But this is the first time he's really shown any upside since coming back from his surgery. And that matters. It's not proof that Lucas Gileto is going to be good again. But I wasn't sure he was capable of this kind of performance anymore. And now we know he is. So at the very least, I think he's 46% rostered in CBS Fantasy Leagues. If you've got a spot to play with,

sure he he can be added i'm not saying lucas gilio is a must add pitcher here but we are in we've talked about it a lot over the past week or so we're in a law in terms of pitchers to add and gilito is one of the more interesting is coming off one of the more interesting starts for a guy who is this available if you got to take the breadstick if you're going to take the bread stick don't lick it and put it back i did take the breadstick. You licked it and put it back. You said, I don't want a part of this, but I don't want anyone else to have it either. First of all, that seasoning, nothing wrong with licking the olive garden breadstick. That seasoning is delicious.

I can use some breadsticks right now. Oh, my God, I would kill for a breadstick. I got pizzas for dinner, but there was no garlic rolls. Uh, I, I, I, I don't entirely disagree with your take. I obviously, it doesn't prove anything for Giolito. I, I still think we should have a vast amount of skepticism for him. And yeah, so I don't disagree with that. But he has been trending a good direction here, I feel like. The velocity has been ticking up. We've pointed out the last few starts, the velocity is basically looking like it did in his last

good season, 2021. It's closer to 94 on average on the fastball than the 93 and 92 we had seen. in later seasons. And with this start, he now has a 284 ERA in his last five, with one dreadful start in there. It's worth pointing out. This is now two starts in a row where he's had at least a dozen whiffs after not having, I don't know that he had double digits even prior to that.

So we're starting to see the whiffs come around. It's not just an isolated incident. It is the best start for Gialito. But those details I pointed out are, big reason why I had him. Did I have him among my two sleeper pitchers for this week, or did he just miss the cut? I think he missed the cut. But he was not in the no-thanks section of the two-start pitcher rankings.

So I was open to the idea of it at least. And I think I am more interested in Gialito right now than I have been in any other point this season. Oh, unquestionably, yeah. And like, among other pitchers who pitched tonight, I would rather have him than Mick Abel, who got good results again, but continues to be, I think, pretty underwhelming since that first start. Like, Jose Soriano is an interesting one because he's more rostered. If they were both available, I don't know who I would prefer. You can give us your thoughts on Jose Soriano right now. Yeah, because he's my, what do we call it?

I don't even know what we call this anymore. Player of the night. Just player of the night? Okay. Well, tonight it technically was, oh my goodness. We had Susan on, so. Yeah. And it's been over a year, so I should probably know by now.

But anyway, Jose Soriano's my guy. And I actually did have him in the two-start sleeper picture rankings. Or, yeah, two-star sleepers for this week, for sure, because he was, I cut a nice photo of him and made it the, he was the cover boy for the article. Anyway, he was great. And this was the start I was worried about because it was at the Yankees. And he was great. Nonetheless, seven shutout innings, struck out six, walked only one, had 14 whiffs. This followed, of course, the best start of his career where he had seven, two hit innings and 12 strikeouts against the athletics.

So two great seven inning starts in a row, one run in between them, 18 strikeouts between them. for the best ground ball pitcher in baseball. I think that's pretty noteworthy. Now, it doesn't prove anything for him either. You look at his season stats. They're still pretty ugly, especially the whip. But I can't help but notice, the one thing that changed the most for Jose Soriano

in these two starts, the start against the Yankees, he threw 66% of his pitches for strikes. That previous start against the Yankees, athletic 65% of his pitches for strikes. His season average is just 60%. And it's amazing how often just that one number strike percentage for the night, for the day that the pitcher is throwing, how well it corresponds to how successful he is.

And that's certainly been the case for Soriano, the last two. The stuff is there. He just needs to locate it well. And he has these last two starts. We see the result. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting, both him and Gilito talking about. about these two specific pitchers, they're both extremely volatile, right?

It's just we can get blow-up performances. If Soriano's not throwing strides, if G-Lito's getting hit hard. I was going to mention with G-Lito, like, through nine starts, one earned run or fewer in five, three earned runs in one, and then six-plus earned runs in the other three. So just that level of volatility is, it's kind of hard to get behind a pitcher like that. And we've seen some big blow-up starts from Soriano this season as well. but both are trending in the right direction. If I had to choose one of the two, I would go with Soriano.

It sounds like Chris would go with Geolito. And Scott, you break the time. Soriano is the higher floor. I think Giolito is the higher ceiling. So it might depend what you're looking for. A points league Soriano seems like the better play. But if everything goes right for Gialito, he's probably the better strikeout source

and the better pitcher overall. If I put Noah Cameron and Brian Bayo in this mix, How would you rank those four? It seems like those were probably the pitchers we were most excited about yesterday. So Cameron, Beio, Soriano, Gileo. I think it'd be Beio. Like if all four were available in a league

and I had to add them. I think I would go Beio, Gialito, Cameron Soriano. Oh, man. Red So close to being... Red So close to being the exact opposite of what I was going to say. Cameron Soriano, Gialito,

I'm going to cheat a little bit here for my players of the night, and it was a great date to be a low or allow. Either one, it didn't matter. Josh Lowe and Brandon Lowe, both homered in the same game, and that deserves its own soundbite. Josh Lowe, one for three with a walk in his fourth home run, and since returning, he's batting 241, four homers, four steals, 724 OPS, has started 14 of the past 15 games, and his strikeout rate is down quite a bit this season. hitting the ball hard still. Expected stats look pretty good here for Josh Lowe.

73% rostered. Do you think he needs to be rostered in points leagues if he's going to play this much for Tampa Bay? Well, I think we're leaving out an important factor that I'm trying to figure out. How many lefties have they faced in that time? Yeah, so basically, how many games did you say, Frank? 14 of the past 15.

Yeah, they've faced two lefties. I assume he's sad against one. They've had as somebody who writes the hitting planner and or 10 sleeper hitters, I guess is what we call it, is somebody who writes that and knows that there are a lot of lefty-righty issues in the raised lineup specifically. I can tell you the last few weeks. I've recommended a lot of raise because of all the right. Josh Lowe was in there this week, right? Yeah, he was the number one sleeper hitter.

last week, it didn't work out. He was the number two sleeper hitter for this week, and so far, so good. It is a very small sample this season, but if this will load, I'm pretty sure he has been great against lefties. He is nine for 25

against lefties this season. Again, really small sample, but yeah. That's a lot. I mean, that's more plate appearances than I would have expected. Yeah. You know, I am looking at the all the times he started against lefties this year. So when he's sat, it's been against a lefty.

But he hasn't sat against every lefty. Yeah, Preservius in the chat is saying... Half the lefties. Preservius in the chat is saying he started four of the seven games against lefties this season. That he's been healthy for. So hopefully, yeah, hopefully he's winning Kevin Cash over. That'd be cool. And, yeah, I would say there's top 30.

upside, which is the sort of situation you're talking about. It's upside. I mean, I think there are probably 50 outfielders with top 36 upside. So it's ultimately going to be tied to performance, which hasn't been so great lately for Josh Lowe. I think he's batting like 151 in June even after this game. And the underlying stats are decent, but not, they don't scream head-to-head points league, Star.

he's probably like a viable low end option there but the lack of power if you're if you're a 20 30 guy you're going to matter in all formats if you're playing every day and you're a 20 homer 30 steel guy you're going to be but that's that's the upside case for low not really the the it shouldn't really be the expectation right now this is actually really disrespectful to nathaniel low who was benched today so i think actually it was not a good day to be allowed or a low If you play for Tampa Bay, it was a good day. Brandon Lowe, by the way, two for five with his 14th home run, and he is posting a career high, 92 mile per hour, average exit velocity.

Expected stats look awesome. He had a rough April, but from May 1st on, 40 games for Brandon Lowe. He is hitting 291 with 10 home runs and an OPS around 900. Shout out to the Rays, by the way, who are 19 and 6 in their last 25 games. They are really hitting their stride. Part of that, Ryan Pepio. We'll talk about him in just a little bit as well. Also shout out to Roman Anthony, who is on the board with his first career home run.

What a way to kick off the post-Rofale Devere's era, then, you know, to have the top prospect hit a home run here, his first career homers. They don't need them. Want to know without him. There you go. Courtesy of Roman Anthony and Lucas Heelita. Before we hit our first break, reminder to download and follow our 10-minute podcast, Fantasy Baseball Today Express, wherever you listen to this podcast.

And big thanks to those watching us live. to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Big welcome back to Logan Gilbert who looked great in his return. He was facing the Red Sox, five innings, two runs with 10 strikeouts, had 21 whiffs on 84 pitches here. Fastball velocity was fine, slider and curve down just over one mile per hour.

But I think that's within the range of outcomes for those specific pitchers. pitches and in classic Mariners form, Logan Gilbert got no run support in this start. What did you guys think here of Logan Gilbert's return? Great. And everything, he looked the same. Before he went on the IEL,

the slider, splitter curve all had a whiff rate better than 40%, which is spectacular. And he got plenty of whiffs with all 3, 21 whiffs on 84 pitches and all. It's actually refreshing because how many high-end pitchers have we seen come off the IEL this year and it's taken them like three or four starts to look like themselves again feel like Gilbert hit the ground running which is funny because there was that one rehab start the first one I think where his velocity was way down it was a little concerning and

then yes comes back and shows no signs of of anything being a miss yeah he looked great I'm always a little wary that first start back um but I think we lucked out because it wasn't too two start week, so it would be hard to get away from him, and it worked out. It was definitely worth the dice roll now. All right, and then also we got Chohei Otani making his pitching return, and also his Dodgers pitching debut, only through one inning here, two hits, one run allowed, zero walks, zero strikeouts, had three whiffs on 28 pitches, definitely amped up. His velocity was way up. Everything was up between 2.3 and 2.9 miles per hour. His fastball maxed out at 100 miles per hour in this one.

Limited to 28 pitches, so I think it's pretty clearly going to be a long buildup here for Otani. Yep, but a good first step, I would say. Yeah, I don't expect him to average 99 miles per hour as a starter, but it's fun to imagine what it would be like if he was just a one-inning reliever, isn't it? Well, I don't know if, I think it was you guys, I don't know, I feel like everyone has kind of made this case at some point, right? why can't Otani?

And maybe he will be later on in his career. Just an awesome hitter and like the best closer and baseball. Yeah, like I think he could be Mason Miller if he was a closer basically.

No disagreement. It would be really good. It would be awesome. But maybe this year he could still be a service a little starter. It's just going to take a while for him to get built up.

Let's get into the news and notes. Craig Counsel acknowledged that Kyle Tucker's sprained right ring finger still isn't 100%. He suffered the injury on June 1st and hasn't been hitting

very well since. So they gave him Sunday off. They had Monday off here. The hope is give him a couple days off and maybe that can help that finger heal up for Kyle Tucker. Bryce Harper fielded ground balls at first base Friday, but the Phillies aren't certain when he'll be ready to swing a bat or resume throwing. He is currently on the aisle with right wrist inflammation.

Yoron Alvarez has not resumed hitting yet. He still shut down with a small fracture in his right hand. It sounds like he might not be back until after the All-Star break at this point, which is pretty bad. This one came out of nowhere. Lance McCullors Jr. went on the aisle with a right foot sprain. Ryan Gusto started in his place on Monday, and he was pretty good.

We'll talk about him a little bit later on. Shane McClanahan played catch from 100 feet last week and said that this is the best that he's felt. He's been dealing with this nerve-related triceps injury all season to this point. We still are without a timetable, but it's obviously good news here for him. Bryson Stott hyper-extended his elbow while swinging the bat Monday. He'll undergo further testing and evaluation to determine the severity of the injury.

He also quietly dealt with an elbow injury all of last year that he played through. And Rob Thompson said he didn't know if these things were related. So I guess we'll just wait to learn more about Bryson Stott. Kate Povich was placing the aisle with left hip inflammation. Zach Geloff will begin a rehab assignment with AAA on Tuesday. He originally had a fractured hamate bone in his right hand. and then suffered a stress reaction in his ribs. 37% rostered for Zach Gelloff.

Any interest there? I mean, not zero. It would be limited to roto leagues because as much as he strikes out, it's hard to see him factoring in points leagues. But he did have, even last year, which was a disappointment, he had 17 homers, 25 steals.

You know, that kind of pace at a position is weak as second base has been this year. It might be of interest to some people. I don't know that everybody needs to pick them up, but if you're hurting there, you need steals especially. Not a bad idea. I was going to ask where he's going to play,

but I realize the A's confusingly are starting their maximum see a third base now. So it's actually not a problem. All right. Next up, Esok Parade has returned to the lineup after missing three straight with a strained left hamstring. He went 0 for 3 with a walk and a strikeout. Colton Kousa,

turn to the lineup after missing three straight following a collision with the outfield wall on Thursday, and he went 0 for three with three strikeouts. So not great there. Justin Verlander will be activated to start Wednesday against the Guardians this season, a 433 ERA, a 140 whip, under a strikeout per inning 43% rostered. Any interest in Verlander? Only if it's a deep league where pitching is just like Gialito's gone. and Zorianos gone. All four of those guys we mentioned, I'd rather have them than Verlain.

Yeah, for sure. It just feels like a streamer at this point, so maybe in the right matchups, but yeah, not much more than that. Frankie Montas may rejoin the Mets in a bullpen role rather than being a starter right away. He is currently getting crushed in the minors. Michael Tolio returned to the Rockies

with Kestinjura designated for assignment. In 11 games at AAA, he hit 273 with three homers, 921 OPS, 91.8 average exit velocity. 17% rostered, a deep league name just to watch Michael Tolia, because we saw him get hot in the second half of last year. There's a possibility it can happen again.

In the Red Sox first game without Rafael Devers, Christian Campbell, was the DH with David Hamilton starting at second base. And in deeper category leagues, Hamilton could potentially have value, so a name to watch there. John Carlos Stanton was back as the DH for the Yankees. Ben Rice started at first base versus a right-handed pitcher with Paul Gulchman on the bench. This is now two games in a row.

Goldschmidt has been on the bench against a right-handed pitcher. And I know everybody's going to sit a little bit here. The Yankees have their log jam going on. But I think it's bad news for Goldschmidt if he's going to start to sit out some games against right-handed pitching. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, it is. It's kind of frustrating the whole Yankees lineup right now because Aaron Boone's trying to make all the pieces work other than what the only two guys playing every day at this point are judge and vulpe right by forgetting somebody jazz i think it's gonna yeah jazz yeah yeah yeah yeah that's that's gonna be frustrating i i've thought paulgulchman was a fairly obvious sell high candidate for a while even though the underlying numbers are very good it just doesn't feel like a bet i want to keep making on a 37 year old who's been in clear decline for years.

So now might really be the time to try to get some offers out there with Paul Goldschmidt. To go back to the previous news item, Christian Campbell was playing DH in the first game, Sands Devers. I wonder if they're going to revisit Christian Campbell at first base now because there was a report from Yahoo that Devers was upset with Christian Campbell for volunteering to play first base when he was on when Devers himself was unwilling to so he just wanted everybody to be miserable he wanted them to have no first base basically yeah if i'm if i'm gonna play if i'm not gonna play first base nobody's gonna play first base either yeah so i wonder if that had something to do with them

punting on the idea of of transitioning campbell to first base for the time being is just okay we got but we've got a suezade devors here. And now obviously that's a moot point. I do think it's worth pointing out. Stanton had three batted balls in this game. All of them were at least 101 miles per hour. The hardest hit of them was 111.1, which already after one game puts him in the 73rd percentile in Max Exavilo for the season.

Again, it's not like Gialito, it's not proof that Stanton is going to be good. but it does show that at least the skill set he's supposed to have does appear to still be there. And another year, another baseball. According to an article written by Enosaris on the athletic, there's more drag on the baseball this season, which has led to a four-foot reduction on long fly balls. So as we've gone over countless times over the past handful of years,

baseballs are... It's seven years now. Baseballs are handmade. Obviously, there are variants. There's variants from ball to ball, batch to batch. But that should mean, in what I think, that there should be more drag on some balls. There should be less drag on others.

That explanation that MLB always trots out that, well, guys, they're artisanal, hand select. Like, that doesn't, that wouldn't explain why the whole population of baseballs is behaving differently. Like, that explanation doesn't actually add up. on all but four individual days this year there has been more drag on the ball than last year's season's average.

So again, there should be some days where there's more, some days where there's less, but there's just been a lot of days where there's more drag. And as a result, the ball is not dead in, but I mean,

it's not flying. From what I've seen, 2024 is kind of the outlier, and the ball is playing more like it did in 2020. in 2023. That last year there was a little bit of a boost in slugging percentage on batted balls. Now it's more,

it's playing more so far this season like it did in 2022 and 2022, from what I've seen. I'm kind of tired of revisiting at this point. Like, yeah, there's going to be variance. It's just there always was variance probably. We just know how to measure it now. And it's like,

I don't think there's some grand conspiracy. I think like this is kind of the whole problem with the social media age is like everybody sees conspiracies everywhere when it's just like, you know, people are flawed and they don't do everything perfectly a lot of the time. That's that's almost always what it is. And I think that's the case here too. And it's just we're going to drive ourselves crazy with this. It's like we've talked it to death for this is not actually year seven, but it's probably like year four. I thought 2017 was like the first big. big juiced ball year.

Okay. Remembering that wrong? No, I mean, that was the start of the juice ball era, but I don't remember us examining every ball with a fine-toothed comb back then. That's started, I think, at 2021. But the point is, like, let's. You got to, we got to play with what we've got. Yeah.

And it's, it could change in a week. You know, it's not like it's even confined within a year. So it's kind of, it feels kind of pointless. Plus, if a player is going for some kind of league specific home run record, they might get special balls. All right. There you go. No, but the actual, the actual analysis here is, you know, we talked about it, I think, on Friday show or last Thursday show, one of those shows. Or maybe yesterday's show, I have no idea.

there are many more players underperforming their expected stats than overperforming. You would expect that to be fairly constant. You would expect it to be a random distribution, basically, and that's not what we've seen. We've seen way more players underperforming. This is why. The expected Wobah on Flyball specifically is 43 points higher than it is on the actual Wobah on fly ball. So we're clearly seeing it. It's only on fly balls. You see maybe a 10 point spread online drives. It's almost entirely drag related. So it's the further the ball travels, the more

the impact is felt. And it's just something that we have to account for. But it doesn't dramatically change. I think the biggest thing is just if you see someone underperforming, maybe they're not. You know, like maybe they're performing to what they should. Now, If someone's underperforming by 100 points of Woba, okay, then that's probably still there's room to grow. But if it's like 15 to 20 points, your mental model should be that that's just normal right now. All right, let's move on to pitching.

Hang on, can I add one last news item? Sure. Kyle Schwerber is now outfield eligible in standard CBS Sports League. Oh, nice. Nice. All right, that'll help. That'll help. Five a piece.

is the standard in-season for CBS and on many other platforms, but perhaps not in your league. But he has made five appearances in the outfield now. So no longer DH only is Kyle Schwaber. That will probably make him a top 15 outfielder, top 12th. I think I'm going to have him 12th and roto ninth in points. Yeah, just eyeballing it, I would think at least 10th, 12th. All right, I have three names here who I think are deserving of being rankings risers,

later this week when we all update that. And the first one is Ryan Pepeyo, who is on fire lately. This time against the Orioles, eight innings, one run, 11 strikeouts. He had 18 whiffs on 98 pitches. That fastball is back. He wasn't getting whiffs on that pitch earlier in the season. He has eight plus whiffs on the fastball in three straight starts. And over his last five, he has a 162 ERA, a 0.75 whip, 37 strikeouts over 33 and a third

innings. So I think Ryan Pepeyo deserves to be a pretty big riser at this point. Yeah, it's gone a lot better than I thought it would. And I mean, part of it is he's not as fly ball oriented as he was in the past. And so that's, well, you know what? Actually, the fly ball rate is trended up recently. So it's about, it's about what it was the past couple years. And yet it hasn't mattered even and pitching in one of the game's most homer-friendly venues now, Ryan Pepio has improved. He's taken a step forward, and his numbers look great, and probably a little too good.

I would expect some regression is coming, but is he pivotal part of any pitching staff he's on? Yes, I think that's fair to say at this point. I really wrestled with Pepio this offseason because I initially wanted him to be one of my breakout picks at pitcher, and then the move out of Tropicana and the impact that was supposed to have on the fastball specifically

scared me off. And the nice thing moving forward is the Rays have played like a huge outlier number of games at home so far because the schedule was built to avoid playing as many games as possible in the summer in Tampa. So I don't know exactly what their home road split is, but I remember there being a big difference between the number of home and away games early in the season versus late.

So if you are worried, yeah, they played 44 home games, 28 road games so far this season. So if you are worried about that, Ryan Pepio is going to have at least a few more road starts than home starts moving forward. And so far, season 10 starts at home. Ryan Pepio at 325 ERA 115 whip on the road 283 ERA 101 whip so I don't know maybe even some I look he can't get better than this but maybe

it will help him kind of maintain some really good starts here playing on the road a lot in the second half of the season there for Ryan Pepio. So so how high do we want him because we all have him around 60th in our starting pitcher rankings? I think he's definitely worthy of being a top 50 pitcher. I mean, that whole once I get out of the top like 40, it's just kind of a jumbled mess right now.

But I think top I'm looking around 45 and I have like Andrew Abbott and Drew Rasmus in there. I feel like Pepio belongs. I think he belongs in that group, yeah. Yeah. So top 50 you could argue that I have some of the IL pitchers too high and

maybe that makes them closer to 40th. want to move like the Tyler Glass Nows and Blake Snells of the world down. But yeah, I think that's about right that that's bought in the rankings. Let's talk about Sandy Alcantara, who was solid against the Phillies, five innings, two runs, five strikeouts here, had 12 whiffs on 100 pitches, still allowed a lot of hard contact in this one. But three starts in June. It's a 212, a 0.88 whip, 15 strikeouts to just three walks.

That, to me, is the biggest key. The control has been much, much better for. Sandy Alconcer. The latest I've seen is that the Dodgers and the Cubs are both paying very close attention to Sandy. And I think obviously that would be a pretty big boost for his value as well. So I'm not saying he's moving all the way back up, but the more that he starts to look like Sandy Alcansara, I think he's got to slowly creep back up the rankings. Yep. 70% strike rate in this one. It's been 65% and up three straight starts. Prior to that, it was 62%. So as I said with Jose Soriano, it's amazing how often just that one number coincides with success. And it's happening with Sandy Alcantra in a way that's more familiar in a way that we saw from him prior to Tommy John surgery. And let's talk about Clark Schmidt, who turned in a strong start against the Angels 7 and 2 thirds shutout innings with three strikeouts. Did have 13 whiffs on 97 pitches.

Nice to see zero walks from Schmidt here as well. This is the deepest he's gone into a start. this season. He's been pretty consistent. Three earned runs or fewer in 10 of 11 starts. And he's allowed just three earned runs total over his last four outings. Scott, I know he's, you've talked about how it's a little bit harder for you to buy in on Clark Schmidt. But if you look at those last four starts, just three on runs total. And he's, you know, been more efficient lately. I like a 13% Whiff rate, which is about where his is. I'm sorry, swinging strike rate, a little different from Wiff rate. But that's a high.

swinging strike rate. And yeah, there was, we were talking about he didn't work deep into games with much consistency. Well, this is six of eight quality starts. Six of his last eight have been quality starts. So they've all been six innings or more, obviously. And yeah, that's, I think at this point, Clark Schmidt is under-roastered. Do I? He's all the way up to 89% by the way.

Okay. He got picked up a lot for the two-star week then. Yeah. Yeah, so not under roster now that he's up at 89%, but you might just want to hold on to him beyond the two-star week. Yep, agreed there. Let's move on to waiver wire pitchers. We spoke about Giulito.

We spoke about Soriano. Jake Irvin, a quality start against the Rockies, six innings, three runs, five strikeouts. I don't think we have much interest in Jake Irvin. We're not throwing it again now. Okay. Let's talk about Ben Casparius, who pitched okay. The Dodgers just don't really let him pitch that much.

He was up against the Padres in relief, three and two thirds innings, two runs, two strikeouts. Last time out, they said they were going to use him as a starter. Next thing you know, Otani's back, so, you know, conspiracy. And the she's about to be back. Yeah, so I don't really know exactly what the plan is. It can work in a two-start week to start week where, you know,

he'll probably wind up with seven or eight total innings on the week. But in a normal week, I mean, is he going to pitch enough to matter? I don't know. I would guess no. I think it's still a name to watch, but not. not a name to add everywhere. Yeah, I think deeper Roto Leagues for sure. 12-team Roto Leagues, I might want to hold on just to see what happens here,

but anything shallower than that, probably not right now on Ben Casperius. Anything to see here with Ryan Gusto of the Astros. He pitched well at the athletics, five innings, one run, eight strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 76 pitches, and his last two starts, it's 11 innings, three runs, 15 strikeouts to two walks. Anything to see here with Ryan Gusto. So he threw a sinker 24% of the time in this one. It seemed to have replaced the cutter.

And I was looking, I mean, definitely a different velocity band. So I just wondered if Stackcast was misclassifying his cutter as a sinker now. Doesn't seem like it. Cutter was gone. The sinker was there. If that's true, if what Stackcast is showing is accurate, that it seems like a good trade because his cutter had a 425 batting average against.

So if you can find something else that works better, it makes me a little more open-minded to Ryan Gusto. I don't think he's, I'm not rushing out to Adam after this start, but he's in the streamable category, I would say. I just, the whole arsenal just looks, like nothing really stands out yet for him. I guess the four seamer is probably the closest. That does look like a pretty good pitch, 28% whiff rate.

330X well, but actually for a four seamers not bad. And so maybe there's a little bit of like what they did with Hunter Brown last year. The Astros starting rotation in June has been absurd. I don't know if you guys have realized this, but they have a 31% strikeout rate before tonight and a 263 ERA from their starters in the month of June. That's pretty wild. Would you take Gusto over any of the deep league names we talked about yesterday? Brandon, Walter, Jacob Lopez, Mike Burroughs?

I would think they're all pretty much the same. I might take Burroughs over all of them. I think I would take Gusto over all of them. I am particularly intrigued by Walters upside. Yeah. But I just don't feel like his role is that secure. Is Mick Abel a hold, Chris? You barely, I mean, you briefly touched on him early on,

and he was at Miami, five innings, one run, three strikeouts. He's been okay. He's just not really generating many whiffs right now. Three strikeouts are fewer in three straight starts since returning from the minors. He's 78% rostered. He got picked up for the two-star week. Is Mick Abel a must-hold player? I don't think so.

I've been pretty underwhelmed by him since that first start. And that first start was a pretty big outlier for even his minor league career. He was pitching better so far this season, but that was what, nine strikeouts and six innings, no walks. That's not what McAbel was doing in the minors. What he's done so far looks more like it. He's not holding his velocity deep into start super well. The command comes and goes.

He's hanging a lot of breaking pitches. I just, I haven't seen. ton to be enthused about with McAble. It was weird that he was as successful as he was because it seemed like he did not have his curveball, which had a 44% whiff right up to this point. Got just one whiff on it. It was moving, like breaking way too much, it seemed like.

And I think he just was fortunate that he was facing the Marlins in this start. Yeah. All right, last name I want to ask you guys about here. on the dropometer, Zach Eflin, who got crushed at the raise, five innings, 12 hits, seven runs, two homers allowed in this one, Ted hard hits

allowed. Velocity was actually up here, but it didn't matter. This is the second time Eflin has allowed seven plus earned runs in his last six outings, and he's up to a 481 ERA. He's got a FIP over five. Still 93% rostered. Where is Zach Eflin on the dropometer?

Man, I feel like my feelings on Zach Eflin vacillate wildly depending on how he's going in a particular moment because I don't know I have I was high on him

coming into last year I was low on him coming into this year and I was down on him for most of this year until his previous two starts which were both excellent or previous three starts I should say combined four and runs between the three with plenty

of strikeouts and so things seem to be trending up for efflin again okay i'm back in let's rank him as one of the the the higher let's put him high in the two-star pitcher rankings for this week and then of course this happens so i don't know he probably shouldn't be dropped but i think it wouldn't surprise me if he went on a bad run because his stuff is not that it's just not that impressive. It can get hit hard. Yeah, he's trying to go like the Seth Lugo route and just kind of throw everything around the same amount

just be unpredictable. It's pitch usage rate between 13 and 22% with all six of his pitches. Maybe there's some value in that. Maybe he'll continue to avoid barrels that way. I think the problem is just going to be limiting hard contact is really a noisy as a skill. It's a skill, and I think Zach Eflin has it.

Like he has had below average expected mobile on contact now four straight years. The problem is when you don't get any strikeouts and you live inside the strike zone as much as he does, I think you're just going to have these kind of starts. I think it's a he's a poor man's Bailey Ober right now, and Bailey Ober has been pretty bad this season. I wouldn't drop either Aflin or Ober because I think it'll be more good than bad. but I don't think Zach Eflin is a difference maker at this point anyway. All right, let's take our final break when we return. Some quick waiver wire hitters.

Fantasy feud will do all of that right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Quick look at WaverWire hitters. And Nick Kurtz looks like he's heating up one for four with his seventh home run. That's back-to-back games with a homer in the ninth. Sunday, a go-ahead homer, Monday, a walk-off home run. And now has five home runs in his last 11 games. if you include games before he got hurt.

So overall, looks like he has been coming around. 72% rostered. Would you guys drop a Ben Rice or Jack Caglione, who hasn't really done anything yet for Nick Hertz? Ben Rice is a tough one because they don't play the same position anymore. Yeah, like if you're using Ben Rice and catcher, I get it. But if you're using him at first base, I think I would make that swap. Yeah, if you have Yvonne Herrera or Wilson Contreras or one of those.

those guys who's broken out or, you know, whatever, then yeah, if you're not going to use Ben Rice at Catcher, then I think I'd rather have Kurtz, yeah. Sure. Yeah, let's go with that. My opinion on Kurtz hasn't really changed since he got called up. Scott is over it, man. I agree. No, I agree.

The production's been a little up and down, but that's to be expected. He's young, but I think he should be 100% rostered. that's what i thought we don't call up like you just got to be patient with him all right so i mean how much it's tough because like if we say nick kirt should be 100% but he's at 72 like he's still out there in a good amount of leagues so

i know it's tough yeah i know i i feel for you people i play in leagues too i wish i had a more definitive answer you can look at my rankings page right now i have the two rookies ahead of ironda and book And I know why I have them ranked that way because they're full-time players in Aranda and Bush aren't, but it still feels kind of wrong.

And if you'd rather have Aranda or Bush, I understand. Reese Hoskins has got ice cold. I would make that spot. Yeah, that would rank that swap. Fairly similar. Yeah. Some deep league outfielder's Max Kepler, Signs of Life, one for four with his ninth home run. He has three homers in his past six games.

Jake Mangum quietly hitting well. Three for four with a double. Three RBI. He's hitting 315 with 10. steals for the raise and Mickey Moniac two for four with his eighth home run he has multiple hits in three of his last four games he has also started just four of the past nine games for the Rockies so deep league names here does anyone stand out Kepler Jake Jake Mangum and Mickey Moniac I think they should remain deep league names Moniac would be more interesting if he played more

regularly because he is on a nice heater right now but and he plays for the Rockies obviously great home ballpark, but he's not even playing consistently against Ritey's. So, yeah, it's hard to be interested in that. Max Kepler, I had high expectations for him coming into the year and he's fallen well short of them heating up now, but his overall numbers actually aren't that far from his expected numbers. 244XBA, 438X slug. That's just, that's not going to cut it in most leagues, even if he, even if Kepler lives up to it.

He is hitting a little hard though, Max Kepler. On average, yeah. I will just point out with Mangum, he's on a 40 steal pace in the games he's played. So like, I think 19% is probably too low for a guy who's hitting for a batting average and stealing a ton of bases. And like pretty, plays pretty close to every day when he's healthy. I don't think it's every day. But I think 19% rostered for Jake Mangum is probably too low. All right.

Yeah. Look, in deeper leagues, I'm sure everyone can use more seals, so definitely does make sense there. I just want Chandler Simpson back. If you want steals, you should be rooting for Mangum to fail so that Simpson will come back. That is one way to look at it. All right, let's play a little fantasy feud, and we'll do a best of three questions here. And let's prop up a little game show music here. All right.

Is that loud enough? I think it is. Should be all right. Anyway, let's go. Are you guys ready? Yeah, are we going to buzz in? Yes. Just say your names, I guess, is your buzzer.

So there are, the first question, there are nine names on the board. Nine pitchers with 100 plus strikeouts this season. Chris. You're up. That's not my guess. Mackenzie Gore. Numero. Do I get all nine?

Well, you choose now. You got the number one answer. So you get to choose pass or play. So Scott now has to get eight out of 11 to win. And if he doesn't, I would need just one, right? Yeah, you would steal. Game theory, pass for sure. Get out of here.

You can take it. All right. Sky, you're up. Nine is a lot. Yep. And you've made it eight now. Okay, I'm going to go with Zach Wheeler. Zach Wheeler is correct.

I'm going to go with Terik Scoople. The number three answer. That's correct. I'm going to go with Chris Sale That is the number five answer I'm going to Now I'm going to run into trouble here I'm going to go with I'm going to go with

Hunter Brown actually He is on the list, keep going Oh, Chris is getting a little antsy here I haven't gotten an X yet have I I'm going to go with Garrett Crochet Yeah that's the obvious one Air Crochet is number two. Mm-hmm.

Scott might sweep the board right now. How many do I have left? You have one, two, three. So close. And yet I'm running out of steam. Um, oh man. I see you looking at a side screen, Chris. No cheating.

I'm just looking at a list of teenage, all right? I'll share my screen. If you're going to impugn my dignity. And don't read the chat either, because I'm sure they're throwing names out there. Oh, now it gets hard. I'm going to go. I got to go with somebody.

I need an answer here, Scott. Or else you need an answer. I'm going to go with Yoshinobu. First X. Okay. Okay. I don't know why I went on a first name basis there. 100 plus strikeouts.

If you've got to do it, the guy who is the only person who's ever had that name. in major league baseball is not a bad one yeah with the first at least you didn't say chris i'm gonna say paul skeins just because i'll feel bad if he's not on there okay all right all right that's one of the ones i was thinking yeah hey i should have left it for you then but i didn't know i didn't know if he had 100 strikeouts okay i'm down to one guess i got to come up with three answers still oh man i'm gonna say need an answer this is kind of a weird one i'm gonna say Ryan. It is not Joe Ryan. All right Chris, the chance to steal. And he is stressing. I'm gonna go with a guy who I think has like three or four double-digit strikeout game, so he's gotta be there.

Jesus Lizardo. Take that game theory. Ah, Jesus Lizardo is not on the list, but now I want to look up to see where he ranks because you might be pretty, you might be pretty close on this. that list. Let's see. He currently has... Oh, okay, yeah. 93. We're missing the guy who was the number one

starting pitcher in fantasy. Yeah, like last week. Carlos Rodon. Yeah, Carlos Rodon. Dillon, Dillon, Dillon, Dillon Cis, and Logan Webb. I should have gone with Dillon Cese. And then Logan Webb, I wasn't thinking him. Yeah.

All right, we have eight hitters with an OPS above 1,050 in the month of June. Oh, man, in the month of June. We're halfway there. A little bit over halfway. All right. Chris. Aaron Judge.

Aaron Judge is not one of them. Oh, man, that weekend series against the Red Sox really killed him. Actually, I think he leads all hitters and strikeouts this month. Yeah, I mean, well, he had like a 1300 OPS like in June, like on Thursday of last week. I'm pretty sure.

Okay, so now I got to make a guess here And then it just keeps going back and forth Until one of us gets one I am going to say Gosh, I can't even I can't come up with a good answer Okay, Otani Thanks Chris

Willie Castro That's a good guess But that's not correct Oh, come on Like yesterday's podcast We were talking about He has like a 1300 OPS Over the last two weeks

Come on Jonathan Arronda That is not correct. I should probably stipulate these are qualified hitters, so maybe they don't qualify. Raphael Devers. Raphael Devers is not correct. This does not bode well for us getting all eight. I think we're just playing first to one here.

Okay, let's go with Pia Lanzo. Judge has a 1040 OPS. Oh. So just missed. Pete Alonzo is correct, Scott. Would you like to pass or play? I would like to. You know what? I'm going to play. You should probably play, yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to play. Okay. Pete Alonzo was the number four answer on the board. Good. Okay. So let's come up with some other answer, shall we? Let's come up with a really good answer here, Ronald Acuna. Ronald Acuna is not correct.

Oh my God You know what? This is the I think you should leave prank sketch You did way too much Yeah Okay, so I got it Okay I think

I love it still got the music in the background too Some of these some of these names I think you'll kick yourselves for not Probably But I understand it's hard in the moment Um Man who's been insanely hot Okay let's let's go with Jose

Ramirez. Jose Ramirez is not correct. Of course he isn't. Let's go with... He has a 951 OPS. I need one more Scott. I know. I know. One more, two more. That was my first X, right? No, you guess Acuna. Okay, fair enough. I'm gonna go with the one, the only James Wood. It is not James. would. All right, Chris, you have a chance to steal. I'm going to go with a guy who I know has been good lately, but I have no idea if he's been this good or this lately. Jeff McNeil. No chance.

Come on the list. All right. All right. Notes himself, no more doing OPS by month. I will, I will write that down for future reference. Eight hitters. They have one, right? Two or three. Yes. Oh, Jeff McNeil's at 9. 73. That was a good guess. Eight hitters with an OPS above 1050 in June. Ellie De LaCruz, guys, he's homered in four straight. Yeah, I thought about him. Pete Alonzo's teammate, Juan Soto.

Okay, well, I said a Pete Alonzo teammate. Hunter Goodman, who has two multi-homber games in the month so far. He's got six home runs. I'm just wondering how high is too high at this point to rank him. Hunter Goodman? Yeah, like he's got to be playing as much as any catcher right now. Would you take him over, William? I'm sorry, Wilson Contreras, the Cardinals Contreras.

I don't think so. He's been really good for a while himself. I think he's been a top five catcher this season. What about Goodman or Herrera? Herrera slow down a little bit. I think I would still take Herrera, but Goodman's got to have a playing tag. Yeah, Goodman's fourth at the position and played appearances.

Yeah, that's tough. So after Ellie, Juan Soto, Goodman, Pete Alonzo, Josh Smith of the Rangers, Marcus... Marcus Semyon, who's picked things back up. Jacob Wilson and J.P. Crawford, who had a huge weekend for the Mariners. Gosh. Yeah, some of those, I would... Yeah, there's about three of those that would have never crossed my mind.

Honestly, I did just want to highlight how good Marcus Semyon has been and the fact that, you know, he might be back. In June, he's hitting 354 with three homers, two steals, and a 1085 OPS so far. Again, that was Marcus Semyon. All right, we'll play the last one for fun, even though Scott has already won. Well, all right.

There are seven hitters currently underperforming their expected Wobo by 60 plus points. Chris. Yep. Vladimir Guerrera Jr. He's right under the... Oh, come on.

This is a dumb game. Adley Rushman. Adlerichman is not. one of them. Qualifiers. Joe Adele. Joe Adele. I should,

I put it up to, hold on a second. No, no, no, we're not changing. No, I didn't get it right. It's fine.

No, no. So I did a minimum, minimum balls in play 150 because like Andrew Vaughn was at the top of the list. So I was trying to get him out of it. We don't need to talk about it. Salvador Perez.

Salvador Perez, the number four answer. Scott, I'm gonna play. Alright? So everybody can listen to me go, uh, um, uh... Seven hitters currently underperforming their expected will, but by 60 plus points to season. Feed the cats.

Uh, okay, let's go with Juan Soto. Actually, they're not in the room, so you might see the door behind me just fall. What was that answer, Scott? Juan Soto was the answer. Juan Soto is the number one answer. Who right now is hitting 247 with a 309 XBA, 4407,000. XBA, 455 slug with a 611 expected slug.

His ex-wob is 445. Just because he's been so bad, I'm going to say Matt McLean. He is not one of these names. Fair enough. Fair enough. Your first ex. Okay. I know Matt Olson was for a while.

I'm going to guess Matt Olson. Matt Olson is 24th on the list. Yeah. It's gotten better. Okay, so I'm running down to one more miss. One more miss. You got the number one answer, Juan Soto. The number four answer, Salvador Perez.

Julio Rodriguez. Julio Rodriguez is not correct. He is 65th. He's underperforming by 17 points. All right, Chris, double or nothing. I don't have any confidence in this answer. O'Neill Cruz. O'Neill Cruz.

For all the marbles. is not one of the answers. So the top seven, Juan Soto, Brian Reynolds, who we've talked a lot about this season, Ben Rice, who we know is still hitting the ball extremely hard. His stat cast page is still blood red. I don't blame Aaron Boone for

for sitting him as often as he has lately because the performance hasn't been there, but I still think Ben Rice is a super talented tenor. Yeah, I agree. Salvador Perez is fourth on the list, and then three middle infielers, Luis Garcia Jr. Otto Lopez and Luis Renhifo. Okay.

Yeah. Pretty random names there, but look, Soto, we still think is going to get right. Brian Reynolds, we would bet on. Obviously, Salvador Prez the same. And I think, look, if you play in a deeper league, maybe look at a Luis Garcia, Otto Lopez, Luis Rehnhifo. Maybe those guys can get going at some point. A lot of people in the chat are saying Corey Seeger.

It's not true for him. He's not. He might not qualify. He doesn't meet the 150 balls in play. I do want to give a shout out. to the chat. Corey Seeger is, if you just look at qualified hitters, he's third on the list, uh, with a 293xBA 535x slug. I think we talked about this on Friday's podcast. Please try and buy Corey Seeger right now if you can. And then Mike Trout, 274 XBA 578 X slug.

So he's been a big underperformer as well. All right. Congrats to Scott. Our winner here today with, uh, fantasy feud. And of course, I backed into that victory. I got to be honest. On a day where there's seven games, of course, we're going to go long here. So let's get into some other hitters who are having big June's. Adley Rutchman picking things up in June 356, three home runs, 1023 OPS. Hunter Goodman, who we talked about, a double dong here on Monday. He is hitting 364, six homers, 1230 OPS in the month. Trey Turner continues his hot stretch, 328, three homers, five steals in the month.

And Max Muncie, I'm cheating with this one. It's since May 2nd when he got the rec specs, the glasses. He can see the ball now. It's now 39 games. He's hitting 276, eight home runs, 32 RBI,

four seals, and an OPS over 900 during that stretch for Max Muncie. Anything that you guys would like to add on Ruchman, Goodman,

Turner, and Max Muncie. I'll just say, I also have a stigmatism. It's not bad enough that like I need to wear glasses all the time. But I have trouble

seeing the ball at night when I'm playing softball. So that, that's a, you know, that's a big deal. Me and Max Muncie, basically the same. That's all I'm saying. Who doesn't have a stigmatism?

Let's be an astigmatism, right? You put an article in front of that, right? Yeah. Who doesn't have one? Let's be honest. You could have just one stigmatism. I haven't been to an eye doctor in over a decade, so I probably should change that.

Adley Ruchman, I think, is just like people have been waiting all season, and hopefully this is the start of things, actually happening for money people have been waiting about a full calendar year that's true uh so yeah hopefully this is the start at his expected stats have still been very good i i expect him to be much better than this moving forward some other hitting leftovers james wood keeps on doing his thing two for three with his 18th home run cj abrams uh does not have an oPS over a thousand in june though he does not famously you know i i wanted to just point out james wood is crushing lefties this season. I just, I'd love to see that from a young left-handed bat.

Like, obviously there are no questions about his playing time, but there shouldn't be because he's crushing lefties. So I love that. CJ Abrams, two steals here on Monday. Jose Al-Tuvae hit another home run. And I know Manny Machado's been hot. He added another home run here on Monday as well. Anything on Wood, Abrams, Al-Tuve, and Machado. Abrams stealing a couple bases is a good sign because he's batting. He got moved to third and has stayed there, right? Yeah, he's been hitting third for them. And yeah, that's always a question.

When a player gets moved out of the lead off spot, are they going to run as much? So it's good to see him being aggressive here. And in a way that, you know, the steals have not been quite as robust as I think we'd hoped for C.J. Abrams. But any drop from that makes the profile, even though he is hitting the ball better this season, makes the profile a little ifier. So it's good to see him still being aggressive there. We mentioned Dylan Cease. He is in the top 10 in strikeouts this season, but he had a rough one against the Dodgers,

five innings, six runs, nine strikeouts, 15 whiffs on 101 pitches. He was cruising and then gave up five runs in the fifth. I was watching, it seemed like a lot of just kind of dink and dunk hits here and maybe just got bad-bipped in this one. It's also back-to-back starts against the Dodgers, which is just so tough. Yeah.

Yeah. I still think CIS is a buy, but it might just be one of those seasons, you know? like unlucky season all year or maybe he's just Dylan Seas well he's getting hit really hard that's the one thing that the quality of contact has been really bad for Dylan Sees this season

and that's something that's fluctuated a lot over the course of his career but his XERA is still 360 entering this start so there's still even if it's a mid-3s ERA and a ton of strikeouts and a probably pretty bad whip I still think CIS is a will be better moving forward than he has been.

Yeah, that's the point I was going to make is all the ERA estimators are 360 or better for Dillon C's this season. So a mid-3s-ERA, you know, 115 to 120 whip. I think that's kind of what he's deserved, but it doesn't always play out that way. Call to the bullpen for the nationals. Kyle Finnegan got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up three runs on three hits and took his fifth blown save, second loss. Kyle Finnegan kind of turning back into Kyle Finnegan.

For the Rocky, Seth Halverson got the ninth inning with a two-run lead. He walked one but picked up his fourth save. Zach Agnos was optioned back to the minors recently, so I guess Seth Halverson is the top name on a really bad team. Probably doesn't matter. He might give you a save a month. For the Phillies, Jordan Romano pitched in the seventh inning with a two-run lead. He struck out two.

Matt Strom got the eighth. He allowed a run on two hits. And then it was Orion Kirkering who got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He struck out one for his. its first save. Just wondering if this is a full-blown committee now for the Phillies. Maybe. Or maybe they are transitioning to Orion here.

He has long had closer-in-waiting hype attached to him. And he has a 0.53 ERA since May 1st. Now, the whip is kind of high. The strikeout rate's kind of low, certainly by closer standards. But it's not like Strom or, or. Romano are imperfect either or are perfect either. So I don't know. I think Kirkering at least needs to be rostered on the same level as Romano at this point.

And he might be overtaking him. I do think Strom's just the best pitcher here, though. For the Angels, Hunter Strickland got the final out for his 11th save of the season. First out in the 11th inning for his first save of the season. Kenley Jansen pitched the ninth inning when the game was tied. for the Red Sox, Aroldus Chapman picked up his 13th save and for the Dodgers, Tanner Scott

pitched in the eighth inning and Kirby Yates got the ninth and picked up his second save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, we have Will Warren against the Angels, Michael Soroka against the Rockies in Washington, David Festa at the Reds, Dean Kramer and Zach Lattel are facing each other,

Shane Smith against the Cardinals, Ben Brown, home against the Brewers, Slate Cicconi at the Giants. What do you think? Shane Smith, Mike Soroka, and who was the third one I said yesterday? Ben Brown. I think Will Warren.

Will Warren, yeah. I don't hate Ben Brown, but he's behind those other three. I agree with those three. And then on Wednesday, we have Ryan Yarbrough up against the Angels. Andrew Hini is at the Tigers. Mitchell Parker gets the Rockies.

Eduardo Rodriguez at the Blue Jays. Paul Blackburn at the Braves. Severino gets the Astros. gross don't do this yeah don't love any of these look edwardo rodriguez your boy frank at toronto he might be the best one i said it about jake irvin yesterday i'll say it again about mitcher starting pitchers have a quality start against the raki's like 67% of the time this season so it would not surprise me at all if mitcher parker was part of that 67%

all right we're not going to get to team name tuesday today but i will keep these in the notes for next week and we will reveal them then. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in 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-bye.

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