Fantasy Baseball Today - What Year Is It? Rankings Movers & Is Cody Bellinger Back? (8/12 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 12, 2021

What were you doing back in 2010? Well, Joey Votto won the MVP and Adam Wainwright finished second in Cy Young voting. Those guys are turning back the clocks (1:54)! ... Wow, Corbin Burnes, just wow (9:50). Is Cody Bellinger back? ... News and notes (18:54). Mookie Betts went back to the IL, Jack Flaherty is set to return Friday, and Carlos Rodon went to the IL. ... Where should you add players like AJ Pollock, Lewis Brinson, and Cal Quantrill (29:11)? ... Alek Manoah, Sandy Alcantara, and Frankie Montas were all awesome on Wednesday (39:32). ... Which players are rising or falling in our rankings (46:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates, and streamers (53:30). ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive. Center field. What is magnificent? Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality.

Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam. Joey Votto just had another double dong and Adam Wainwright threw a two-hit shutout. What year is it? Welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, August, Frank Stamphle joined by Chris Towers. Here to talk some rankings movers, more waiver wire ads. Lewis Brinson might finally be happening.

Corbyn Burns is amazing and much more. But first, Chris, what were you doing back in 2010? 2010, I was 22 years old. I was already married. So like this time in 2010, what was I doing? Yes, on August 12, 2010. I think I would have just been moving into my college house. the last place we lived in in college see all my friends and I we were we were slackers and we

all needed a fifth year to to finish college so year five of college we all um got a house together near campus we we dubbed it the bone dome that was the name of our house and uh yeah I would have just been moving in like August yeah like August 12th something like that we would have just been getting settled in at the bone dome I don't know how family friendly that is, but I feel like I need to make some kind of segment revolved around the bone dome. I've got some thinking to do on that. 2010, August 12th, I would be going into my second year in college, which just sounds so weird. What a youngster I am. But the reason why I bring that up, 2010, right? That was the year that Joey Votto won the MVP. Adam Wainwright

finished second in the Siong voting. Miguel Cabrero finished second in MVP voting. Bust POSI won rookie of the year, Elvis Andrews was an all-star. Why do I bring all this stuff up? Well, I told you what Joey Votto did, and we'll talk more about him. But he had a double dung. He's now up to 25 homers on the season. Wainwright threw the two-hit shout-out. Miguel Cabrera on Wednesday hit his 499th home run.

Buster Posey just hit his 15th home run. He's hitting well over 300. Elvis Andrews had a sock and a shoe. His third homer, his 10th steal. What year is it? This is crazy, man. It's awesome to see these players that, really, when I started, playing fantasy baseball, they were superstars in fantasy.

And now they're much older, but they're still performing. So it's really fun to see, even at this advanced age, you're getting it done. Joey Votto, man. I mean, we're going to talk about rankings a little bit later on, Chris. But four for five, he's now up to 25 homers. He leads all hitters in the second half with 14 home runs. Overall, he's betting 285 with a 958 OPS. And I was trying to figure out how high is too high to move him in my ranks.

because I don't want to react too much, but he's now done this for like a two-month span. It seems pretty legit. Well, I mean, we don't even have to splice up the, oh, he's been doing this for two months. And I mean, he's got a 927 OPS for the season coming into today. It's 958 now.

Yeah. Coming into today over the last calendar year, so going back to last season, he's playing 125 games. Well, he has 126 now. 33 home runs, I think 85 RBI, 70 runs, with a 260, probably 275 batting average now. That's a pretty good season.

That's a really good season. Is it an overreaction to put him fifth? Put him fifth at first base just behind Vlad, Freddie Freeman, Matt Olson, Max Muncie. That would put names like Chris Bryant, Pete Alonzo, Jose Abraeu, just behind him. but Alonzo has slowed down. Chris Bryant has been pretty good over the past month or so, and since joining the Giants,

Jose Ibrahim's been inconsistent. I kind of feel like Vado deserves to be fifth. I'm going to put him eighth. I think you could make a case that he should be above Jose Abrae, who is having a very non-2020 Jose Abraeu season where he's like driving in a ton of runs. He's probably going to end up with another 110 RBI season

or something like that. But he hasn't really actually been all that. that good otherwise. So it's, you know, it's hard to know how to value that exactly, but I think I would still put, yeah, I'm still going to keep Alonzo for sure. Alonzo's fifth for me, then Bryant, then Obray, then Votto. But, you know, that's a, that's a big glow up for Joey Votto because, like, even when before he got COVID in the preseason, you know, I was somewhat higher on him than the consensus. I don't think I ever had him. higher than like 18th or 19th.

I think, I think his preseason ADP in NFBC was outside the top 400 picks. Yeah, because I remember him being like a 200 to 250 player before, before he had COVID. It's crazy. He had COVID, right? It wasn't. No, yeah, that happened. That happened in spring training. I think he either returned right before the season started or right after the season started, but

you are right about that. Joey Votto, definitely at least inside of our top eight first baseman. Let's talk about Adam Wainwright. Two hit shut out at the Pirates. Obviously, it's a great match up there. Zero walks, seven strikeouts, only had five swinging strikes. This is so Adam Wainwright. He had 38 and a half fantasy points if you play in CBS points leagues on Wednesday.

He's down to a 3.27 ERA, 1.06 whip, five straight quality starts of at least seven innings pitched for Adam Wainwright. And he entered Wednesday averaging more fantasy points than Jose Burrios, U. Darvish, Kyle Hendricks, and Lucas G. Alito before this start. So I moved them up to SP 44 in points leagues. The guy has a rubber arm. He's going to go deep into starts just ahead of names like Dylan C's, Sunny Gray,

Zach Gallen. I actually, I think you could probably make the argument he should be even higher. But yeah, inside of the top 50 starting pitchers now, Chris. Yeah, here's, did you mention that it was on 88 pitches? Yeah. This was the, uh, I saw it was the fewest pitches for a complete game shut out by a Cardinals pitcher in the last 90 years. Wow.

I believe it's the, he has five complete games over the last two seasons that leads baseball. I mean, it doesn't make a ton of sense. You know, he's, he's not getting a ton of strikeouts, although he's,

you know, not far off. He's about league average. He's got good control. He's doing well when it comes to limiting damage on contact. His XERA coming into tonight was 396. I don't know what it's updated to now, but he's,

He's been at least a half run better than his XERA each of the last three seasons. So, you know, maybe there's something to this being sustainable. He's pretty much done it all year, so there certainly has been something to it being sustainable. I don't know. It's, I can't tell you not to start him at this point. That would be stupid. No, you have to start him. As long as he's pitching this well, I mean, he's giving you depth consistently.

Again, five straight starts, at least seven innings pitch, quality starts in each of those. So one of the unsung heroes of fantasy baseball this season, Adam Wainwright, mentioned the others. He's probably not a Hall of Famer, but like... I would have to dig a little bit deeper. Joey Votto, by the way, I'm so happy that this is happening for him because he, like, this just cements it now. Like, he's a Hall of Famer. He needed one more kind of push like this, but I think... Now, if he has another like 25 homer season next year, gets to 2,000 hits, you can't keep

mount. I mean, Wayne Wright's got 2,300 endings of a 339 ERA. That's real good. How many strikeouts? 1960. How many wins? Not that it matters for us, but... 177, which for this era, he's averaged 16 wins per 162 games, which is really good.

Four top four, four top three Siong finishes. Yeah. Might get another one this year. I don't think he's, I don't think he's going to get there, but maybe with like postseason accolades. They look at stuff like that, too. I don't know. Great, just great career for Wainwright.

Great career for all these guys. That's the point. Yes, of course. What a career for our guy. Miguel Cabrera actually is heating up a little bit. I don't think you need to add him anywhere, but if somehow we're starting him in an AL-only league, he's been pretty good recently.

Again, hit his 49th home run. Buster Posey hit his 15th, Elvis Andrews, third homer, and 10th steel of the season. Let's just wrap up, put a bow on 2010. Chris, do you know what the number one song on the Billboard Top 100 was in 2000? 2010. For the whole year?

Yes. For the whole year? Was it like bad romance? It was not. I don't think that's a bad guess though. Are you going to play it? No, no, no, I can't. I mean, copyright.

What is it? Oh, it was TikTok by Kesha. Oh, that's a good song. That sounds like a Chris song, right? I would guess that that is a Chris song. Do you want to take a guess at what the Oscar was for Best Picture in 2010? 2010, that was, that wasn't the no country year. That was, was that Argo?

It was not. I don't have any more guess. It was Hurt Locker. I haven't seen it. Oh, I've never seen that one. Yep. So we're in the same boat there. All right, what year is it?

Apparently it's 2010. Let's finally get to, oh my goodness gracious. There was a lot. Oh my goodness gracious. All right, Chris, where would you like to start? By the way, the number one song in 2010 on this date was Love the Way You Lie by Eminem featuring Rihanna. Okay. There you go.

Solid song. Better out. Oh, my goodness gracious, Corbyn Burns. Yeah. What an unbelievable performance. What's more impressive? A complete game shutout on 88 pitches or eight shutout innings with 15 strikeouts on 99 pitches. That is...

Corbin Burns. absurd. He matched the MLB record for consecutive strikeouts with 10. Second person to do that this season, joining Aaron Nola. And then obviously, Tom Seaver did not do it this season. He did it like 40 years ago. He's not the number one pitcher. He shouldn't be the number one pitcher next season.

But I don't know. He's not not in the discussion. You know, like he's been so good this season, even with, you know, the concerns about the spin. rate, eight innings, four hits, no walks, 15 strikeouts in this one. I believe this is the second highest caught strike plus whiff performance since we were able to track that, going back to 2008. The previous one, I believe, was a Garrett Cole start in 2019. I mean, the only reason he shouldn't be in the discussion for the number one pitcher is just he doesn't have the

innings. You know, he's at 121 right now, or 129 now, I guess, after tonight's start. But conceivably, Chris, he's going to get built up. They're going to make the postseason. He's going to pitch in the postseason. You have to imagine, unless that's a concern going into next year because the jump is so massive. But by the end of this year and the postseason combined, he's probably going to get to close to 180, I would imagine. Yeah. He's on pace for I'll do some quick math in my head about 260 strikeouts and 170 innings. Yeah. Which is ridiculous.

He's got a 223 R.A. I believe he still has the best XERA in baseball, if I'm not mistaken, at least among starters. Let's see. Second, well, second best. Jacob de Grom has been a little better. This start produced a negative FIP and X-FIP. Love when that happens. How often have you seen that in your life?

Here's the top five in XERA. Here's how good Corbyn Burns has been. It's Jacob de Grombeau, Corbyn Burns, and then, let's see, six straight relief pitchers. Liam Hendricks, Blake Trinan, and it's a lot easier to pitch that well when you're doing it one inning at a time. Sure.

The Brewers have two of the top three in XERA this season among starting pitchers, him and Freddie Peralta actually, which is pretty amazing. Corbyn Burns. Incredible pitcher. He's, I think he's got to be top five at least.

You're in the discussion, at least. I'm looking at it. I do have him sixth. So I guess he doesn't got to be top five. But man, like, Corbyn Burns are you Darvish right now?

Corbyn Burns or Garrett Cole. Yeah. You probably take Darvish and Cole, but you feel better about Corbyn Burns right now than those two guys. I have Burns ranked higher than Darvish, just in general, right now. I have Burns at 6. I have Darvish at 10.

Garrick Cole currently on the aisle. Let's see how he bounces back, but we know that there's been a lot of inconsistency for him since he cracked down on sticky substances. So yeah, no, I'm with you. I think going into next year, like, I have Zach Wheeler ranked ahead of Corbyn Burns right now, but for next year, just projecting forward and drafting for upside, I would not draft Zach Wheeler ahead of Corbyn Burns. Yeah, I think I think I probably would do the same.

Yeah. So I'm thinking it's probably going to be DeGrom and Garikohl, maybe one and two. And then early second round, you're probably looking at Brandon Woodruff, Max Scherzer. And then I think Corbyn's is right in that mix. And Walker Bueller, who, you know, we got to give credit because we were lower on in the industry coming into this season. So I think those four pitchers, Scher, Woodruff, Corbin Burns, Bueller, you'll see as like that next tier. And probably Shane Bieber somewhere in there too. But we'll see if he returns at all this season and what he does.

Cody Bellinger. Let's talk about his Cody Bellinger. Is he back? A modest eight-game hitting streak. He has four home runs over his last four games, a double dong on Wednesday.

And looking into August, obviously it's a small sample size. I believe it's eight games. The strikeout rate is way down, below 20%. The line drive rate is way up. The fly balls are way up. His average exit velocity

entering Wednesday, only for the month of August, 90.9 miles per hour. Strikeout rate down, hitting the ball hard. This is the Cody Bellinger that were used to the past couple of seasons.

I don't know that he's going to get back to a first round player rest of season, but boy, Chris, he is showing signs of what we expected from him when he was drafted

in the late first, early second round for this year. Yeah, I let you do all that talking while I was trying to find something and I ended up not being able to get to it in time. So I'm still trying to get there. Come on, how do I do this?

Okay. Sorry. I'm trying to look up how many of his played appearances in the month of August since this stretch started have come against lefties. So he has six played appearances against lefties out of 22 overall. That was coming into tonight. Because my concern right now is that he's just not going to play against lefties, really. I think with Mookie Betts going on to IEL, that probably helps his playing time. Yeah. It, Scott and I were talking. last week at one point, should you drop Cody Bellinger? We both said in like a 10 team league, you can.

Now you don't. You know, if you, if you didn't drop him yet, certainly you don't based on what he's doing now. But I'm still pretty skeptical just because, you know, looking at the underlying numbers, the, the component stats at this point in the season, even including the recent stretch, there's really nothing positive here. Yeah. Like he's hitting too many fly balls. he's hitting too many infield pop-ups.

He's hitting the ball less hard than he did at his peak. He's striking out more. His plate discipline has gone in the wrong direction across the board. His sprint speed is actually a career low. He's like 66th percentile. Obviously, injuries can play a part in that. But now that he's doing this, you know, you can't drop him. And maybe you start considering starting him.

In a three-outher league, I think I would still leave him on my bench, but it'll depend on the matchups. If they've got, you know, five rights, he's on the schedule next week. Maybe I'll start Cody Bellinger. Let's see if I could pull up the schedule real quick for next week for the Dodgers. I'm a little bit more optimistic. I hear you, Chris, like the overall numbers for Bellinger, they're still awful.

And I know that you're big on full season statistics are more predictive than short sample sizes, obviously. But we needed something. We need some kind of hope for Cody Bellinger. And right now we are getting that in the month of August. So it's been a nice little turnaround for him. For sure. Next week they do have seven games. and it looks like, as of now,

six of those are right-handed pitchers. So I would say... I would probably start Cody Bellinger next week. Get Cody Bellinger back in your lineup. Oh, my goodness, gracious game of the night. The New England Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Bucks. 20 to 8 out there in Fenway Park. Six different Red Sox had multiple hits,

led by J.D. Martinez with four hits, and Zander Bogart's hit his 17th home run of the season, which was nice to see, considering his power had been down. And then Nathan Avaldi, just a masterful performance against, the Tampa Bay raise, seven innings pitch, one run, one walk, 10 strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 98 pitches.

It's been an inconsistent season for Nathan Avaldi, but overall, the underlying numbers are still really good for him. His previous five starts, 6.35 ERA before this one, but featuring some really, really bad luck. So I know that there's been inconsistency. It's a lot like his teammate, actually, Eduardo Rodriguez, but I would continue to stick with Avaldi based on those underlying numbers. Before we hit the news and notes, Magic, Jordan, Barkley, Bird, Malone,

the 1992 Dream Team changed the game of basketball forever. Dream Team, birth of the modern athlete is a new five-part original series streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. The documentary takes you deep into the greatest basketball team ever assembled with never-before-heard audio interviews from the players themselves, hear from the team as they break down

the greatest exhibition game ever, Team Magic versus Team Jordan, and how the torch was passed. You can watch Dream Team Birth of the Modern Athlete, a new five-part series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. News and notes, Mookiee Betz was officially placed back on the IL with that hip injury. He's headed back to L.A. for additional tests. Rough season four, Mookie Betz continues.

And he was showing signs of life. They were playing him at second base. He was doing awesome. And then they throw him back in the outfield and he winds up getting hurt. So let's see what happens with Mookiee Betts. We're rooting for you, bud. Jack Flourty is scheduled to return from the 60-day IL to start Friday against the Kansas City Royals. Nice match up there. The pitch count is built up. I think if you're playing a daily league, go out there, get Jack Flaredi back in your lineup.

He has been out since May with a severe oblique strain. Carlos Rodon, this is not so good. Not so good. Carlisorne was placing the aisle with left shoulder fatigue, and Tony Larusa indicated that Rodon could miss more than the minimum time. and it's unfair to say, Chris, but I kind of feel like we were waiting for that other shoot of fall, right? He had just been so good, velocity just so high this season for Carlos Rod throwing 96, 97 miles per hour

consistently, but he hasn't been able to stay healthy and the endings were just building up. And we saw recently, you know, some performance was, some inconsistent performance from Carlos Verdant. So how worried are you about this injury? Yeah, I'm very worried about it. I don't think you, I don't think there

any way you could not be. One thing I will say is, you know, you don't want to make it sound like this was inevitable because, I mean, frankly, if you're talking about any individual pitcher and you say, well, he's going to get hurt eventually, there's a pretty good chance you're going to be right within the course of the next season.

That's just how pitching goes. But obviously Rodan, with his history, clearly carried more risk in that regard. And it's frustrating to see because he was finally looking like the guy we thought he was going to be back when he was drafted, really. Hopefully it's nothing serious. Hopefully it is just fatigue and not, you know,

fatigue would not be a surprising thing for a guy who's thrown as little as he has over the last couple of seasons. So, you know, hopefully this isn't like a structural thing. He misses, you know, maybe two weeks and then comes back and finish the season strong because, you know, he's been a, you know, border, he's become a borderline top 12 pitcher for me in the rankings over the course of the last couple of months. And I don't know, he'd probably be in that discussion at the start of next season if he makes it out of here healthy. Yeah, I mean, I've come up with some conspiracy theories

recently, but I'm going to throw another one your way, Chris. But it wouldn't surprise me if this is kind of like a phantom IL stint just to kind of hold back those endings a little bit and they want him to be healthier for the postseason. Obviously, they need Rodon for a postseason. run and they're geared up to make it. They have an awesome bullpen and awesome pitching staff. And they don't need him now. They don't need him now. That's exactly right.

They have a massive lead built up in the American League Central. So it wouldn't surprise me. He's probably dealing with something. But it could be a, hopefully it's a kind of situation where he said like, eh, feeling a little dead arm. I'm feeling that, you know. And they were just like, take a couple weeks. It's fine.

That would be the best case scenario, obviously. Well, let me ask you about Ronaldo Lopez, who made a spot start on Wednesday. He went three shutout with four strikeouts. And on the season, he's only pitched 20 innings, 1.35 ERA, 0.75 whip, 22 strikeouts to just five walks for Ronaldo Lopez. And he's been used mostly as a reliever.

He has scrapped the change-up. He is mostly fastball slider. Mixes in a curve 8% to 10% of the time. He's only 3% rostered. Is there anything here? Should you be paying attention to Ronaldo Lopez? I don't think so. I don't want to say no entirely,

but... You know, it's not like the fastball and slider have necessarily been, you know, incredibly good pitches for him. The slider's been pretty good overall. It wasn't great last season. But the fastball, you know, doesn't get a lot of whiffs despite how hard he throws. It gets hit reasonably hard. So I don't know if this is necessarily, you know, something that I'm excited about. I've been burned by Rinaldo Lopez too many times.

but we'll watch it for sure. Pay attention to, throw the name on the scout team. If you play an AL only or even a 15-team Roto League, I might take a stab at it and see what happens there because the White Sox have done wonders with turning pitchers around, right? Rodon, Lucas G. Let's go to the past couple of years. Even Dylan Sees, who, you know,

we had some concerns about the past couple of years when he first got called up. So let's see, maybe another reclamation project in Rinaldo Lopez. Josh Hader is set to make his return on Thursday coming back from the COVID. IEL. Jared Walsh made his return on Wednesday. He was batting third and playing first base for the Angels. Andrew McCutcheon returned and hit cleanup for the Phillies. Akil Badu was placed on the seven-day

concussion IL after that nasty collision on Tuesday. Hope everything's all right. Derek Hill, by the way, the guy he collided with also went on the IL. Javier Baez was out a second straight game with that lower back tightness. Yasmani Grandal began a rehab assignment at AA and I saw that he picked up two hits. so Grandal could, by next week, you know, weekly lineups, could be back in your lineup as soon as then. Evan Longoria is expected to return from the 60-day IL this weekend. He is 33% rostered and has awesome stat-cast numbers. 288 expected batting average.

562 expected to slug for Longoria. Chris, would you drop someone like Brian Hayes or Matt Chapman who really are giving you nothing at this point for Evan Longoria? Probably not Hayes. But maybe. Longoria was crushing the ball. I do wonder if he's going to play every day. You know how the Giants like to mix things up?

Yeah, they've got a lot of guys. I would guess he doesn't. Given the injury, I would think he doesn't. Yeah, I lean that way as well. Tanner Huck is expected to be recalled and start on Thursday for the Red Sox with Garrett Richards being moved to the bullpen. It seems like the team is finally going to leave Tanner Huck

in the rotation. And I'm excited for it because there's some good news. numbers. It's only 25 and two-thirds endings pitch this season, but he has a 2.45 ERA, 12.6K per 9, and is just 39% rostered. Chris, would you be looking to add 10 or Hauk wherever he's available? I'm not. Is he

RP eligible? That is a good question. I don't think he would be because he made, that would be in a 12-team points league if he is RP eligible, I would. I don't know if he is. If not, maybe that shallower format, I wouldn't, but look, we're 42 innings into his career, which isn't very much, 10 starts or 8 starts, 10 appearances,

but he's got a 169 ERA with very good peripherals, 231 FIP, the XERA is in the like 3-2 range for his career, tons of swinging misses. His slider is a legitimate swing and miss weapon. Yeah, I think any Roto League, I would be looking to add Tanner Halk. Yeah, no, I think that's a good call. He does not have RP eligibility on CBS in points leagues, so you won't be able to use him as a spark. But in Roto Category Leagues, he's not going to give you a lot of depth, but even if he goes five endings at a time and gives you a good amount of strikeouts, definitely could be valuable. I love that the walks are down this year for Tanner Halk. That's what we needed to see. And that was the case in the minors, too.

I mean, he had a 415 ERA. It's only six starts, but you have 415 ERA, but the peripherals were better than that. And, you know, it was only seven walks in those 21. innings. That's totally manageable. Kyle Swarber could begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. Johnny Quato was placed in the IL with a right flexor strain. Ross Tripling went to the IL with an oblique strain. Travis Darno returned and was batting seventh

for the Braves. He finished one for four with a walk and a strikeout. Gio Orchella has been shut down recently after he received a PRP injection. Hazu Sanchez could begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. Actually he did begin a rehab assignment and he

promptly hit a home run. He's been on the COVID-I-L since mid-July. I would imagine he is back soon, more on the Marlins' outfield than just a little bit. And a few prospect updates. The Rangers' second-based prospect, Justin Foskew, and their first round pick from last year in 2020, was promoted to AA.

He was batting 296 with 14 home runs at high A ball this season. And then Red shortstop prospect, Jose Barrero, has hit 299 with nine homers, seven seals, 30 RBI, 23 run scored, across 36 games since being promoted to AAA. He also hit a 426 foot homer in the futures game back in July where you're going up against the best prospects in the game. He hasn't really gained that much hype Jose Barrero has,

but I'm a fan of what I've seen so far. And if he ever gets, whatever he gets to call to the Reds or if he's traded away to whatever team, if he's with the Reds, it's great ballpark to hit in. So a name to watch there, Jose Barrero. We are going to take a quick break when we return. where should you add these players? We'll talk about it next here on Fantasy Baseball today.

Let's start off with A.J. Pollock, who went two for four with his seventh steal of the season on Wednesday. And this just seems so weird to me. I guess I could have went back to 2010. I don't know if Pollock was actually good that far back, but this is another blast in the past. And in 22 second half games, A.J. Pollack is betting 3.98. He has played every game but one since July 28th. He will continue to play now with Mookie Betts out. 68% rostered.

Chris, is this just a universal must add at this point, A.J. Pollack? I think so, because you don't just have to go back to a point in this season. Go back to the start of last season. He's played 141 games, 516 plate appearances, 30 homers, 80 RBI, 68 runs, 8 steals, 295 average. If he got 600 played appearances at those paces, you're probably looking at 8. runs, 90 RBI, 10 steals, 35 homers. If he's playing every day, yeah, I think he looks like a must-star guy right now. You know, I guess we didn't really take last year all that seriously,

even though he did play pretty much every day. And, you know, he was okay in 2019. 2018, I remember he had gotten off to a very good start after reworking his swing. And then I think there was like an elbow injury that got infected or something. There was something weird about that season that, you know, kind of wrecked things. But yeah, I think what we've seen from AJ Pollock, he's still a very good hitter. Would you drop Adolese Garcia for AJ Pollock in a points league?

Sure, yeah. All right, go out and make the move. How about Anthony Santander? He went three for four with his 10th home run of the season. He now has four homers in his last three games. And much like Cody Bellinger, it's small sample size. it's only been eight August games, but Anthony Santander has a 10% strikeout rate in the month,

36% line drive rate, 52% fly ball rate, 92.3 mile per hour, average exit velocity. He's still just 50% rostered. I brought the name up yesterday to Scott. He's like, I'm not really buying it. It's only been two games where he's hitting home runs. Now it's a third.

Are you buying in a little bit more, Chris? Where should we add Anthony Santander, if anywhere? 12 team roto I don't think he needs to be rostered everywhere but you know he's doing enough in this small sample size that you know he's at least worth having there

yeah the thing is he's doing it the way that he did it last year and it was a little bit more of a sample size last year I think it was still only maybe 40 50 games but he had something close to a 900 OPS last year he was really good and and this is how he did it a lot of fly balls keeping that strikeout rate down and that will definitely play in Camden Yards. Lewis Brinson, we finally got there.

Three for four with a double dong on Wednesday. 20 games since being recalled by the Miami Marlins. He is betting 3.49, 5 homers, 92 mile per hour, average exit velocity. 28% strikeout rate. It's still high, but it's manageable. He's hitting more fly balls and more line drives. Chris, you've seen the whole Louis Brinson experience.

He was, he came over. over in the Christian Yellich trade was regarded as this great prospect. Maybe he was a little bit raw. Kind of got thrown into action. I think maybe a little bit too quick with the Miami Marlins. It hasn't worked out. But right now, he's doing things. He's 10% rostered.

Where should he be added? Yeah, I mean, he's 27 at this point. So, you know, he's past the like, oh, he's still young enough to turn this thing around. But what we've seen so far from Louis Brin's, is he still has the elite physical tools that made him such a promising prospect in the past. 89th mile, 89th mile,

oh man, sometimes it's just 89th percentile max exit velocity, 91 mile per hour average exit velocity, 88th percentile sprint speed. So, you know, the physical tools are still very, very good. You know, I don't know, I haven't really taken a look at the plate discipline numbers too closely, but...

He's not walking. I think it's a 5% walk rate, but 28% strikeout rate since over his last 20 games, basically. Chasing a lot still, 40% chase rate's actually his highest. 18% swinging strike rate, also his highest. Yeah, it's, I don't know. I mean, maybe it's a situation where it's just like, Let it hang out. You know, like you've got nothing to lose.

Maybe you just need to, like, you've got these physical gifts. Maybe it's time to just put them out there. And maybe that's what we're seeing. I think it's a long shot that this is sustainable, but it's certainly the longest stretch of success we've ever seen from Louis Brinson. And he's going to get a lot of playing time down the stretch. So sure, in a 15-team, Roto League, Adam, why not? we've got a raunchy Chris Towers

after dark here referring to Lewis Brinson quote let it all hang out and what was it earlier the bone dome is that what it was called the bone dome all right I got to write that down

that was just the name of our house it's a proper noun and I don't think anybody needs to be weird about it all right 10% rostered Lewis Brinson where are you adding him Chris 15 team rotos 15 team roto

I'm not sure you know maybe a deeper like a 12 team roto with deeper benches but it's definitely something to watch. Seven games next week for Louis Brinson. Four of them are in Cincinnati in Great American Small Park.

So I do like those matches for him quite a bit. Next up we have Cal Quantrell who went up against the Oakland A's, six innings, two runs, three walks, five strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes on 93 pitches. He has allowed just five earned runs over his last six starts, not getting a ton of whiffs, getting a lot of ground balls, inducing soft contact. 65% rostered is Calquantral.

Spark eligibility. Must add, Chris? I'm hesitant. I don't see a ton there with him that is super impressive. Being a very, very good ground ball pitcher, it's a thin line to walk. And his underlying peripherals,

he's got a 459 XERA. So, you know, yes, you need to be really, really good at quality of contact suppression. And he's been pretty good. But I don't know. I'm not necessarily buying it. It's fine. Like, every point league, I think he should be rostered.

Maybe some, you know, maybe some 12-team rotos. But I wouldn't feel super great about rostering him. Would you rank him behind both Josiah Gray and Logan Webb? Because I consider those two, probably the hottest waiver wire ads in terms of starting I would have those guys ahead of him. Okay. Hunter Dozier had two more hits on Wednesday. In the second half, he's betting 300, five doubles, two steals,

just no power. He isn't no home runs during this man. I'm not overly excited about Hunter Dozier, but he's doing some things, some nice things. He's 34% rostered. Adding him anywhere? His first third and outfield eligibility. Man, I liked him so much.

That one year, right? That one year that he's been right. Yeah. It was 2019. It might have even been 2018. It was a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. The multi-eligibility is interesting. That's useful. Yeah, it was 2019. You're right. It's hard to see him being startable in most leagues. You know, like right now it kind of looks like he'd be better in a points league with the skill set as it is, but you're not going to have room for him in your roster and your starting

line up in a 12 team league. All right, let's quickly wrap up with a few more here. A Ledmas Diaz went three for three with three RBI, and he has started the last 13 games for the Houston Astros during that stretch. He's batting 339, three homers. He's only 11% rostered, has first, second, third outfield eligibility on CBS. However, Uly Guriel is due back Friday. Alex Bregman could be back next week. I guess they could find a way to get Oledmus Diaz in the lineup. He's a utility bat. He's performing well.

It's a great lineup, Chris. 11% rostered. Any interest? About the same as Hunter Dozier, probably. I don't think, like, sorry, is Breggman, I haven't seen. He had a, is he coming back or he had a set back yesterday, right? I believe he is expected to start a rehab assignment on Friday.

and the hope is that he could be back by next week. Yeah, so, no, if you're in a daily league, sure, but if you're in a league where the lineups lock by, you know, the first pitch of the first game on Monday, I don't think you'd want to start him, so I don't think there's a lot of value in chasing him. Yeah, I think I would take a Ledmus Diaz over Hunter Dozier. It's a little bit more exciting.

It's a much better lineup, obviously. Last one here is Tuki Tucson, up against the Reds, five innings, two runs, three walks to five strikeouts. He has now allowed two earned runs or less in four of his five starts. He's 52% rostered. Are you looking to add Tuki Tucson anywhere, Chris?

Do you like him more than Cal Quantrell? No, I like Quantrell more. Okay. I don't see a lot to like about Tucson. I know there have been flashes, but really it was like a two-start stretch and then he kind of, he's had the command problems

have been consistent throughout his career. and there's just a long track record of him not being very good that makes me think it's better to just stay away. All right, let's talk about some awesome pitching performances, and it's a little late to get to this, but do it anyway. Alec Minoa, he was at the Angels, six and two-thirds, two runs, 11 strikeouts.

He had 22 swinging strikes on 114 pitches. They just really let him go in this one. 11 of those swinging strikes came on the four-scene fastball. Sandy Alcantara at the San Diego Padres. We needed to see this one. Seven shutout with seven strikeouts. His strikeouts had been down. I mean, the previous seven starts,

he had a 5.91 ERA, Sandy Alcantara did. And then Frankie Montas... Yeah, but that was one really bad start, you know? Sure. But the swinging strike rate had been down consistently anyway. It was 9.9% during that seven-star stretch. So the fact that he got 15 of those against the Padres, I was pretty encouraged by that.

And then Frankie Montas at Cleveland, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts. And what I really liked about this start was he threw close to 30 pitches in the first inning and then just really bounced back and he hampered down the rest of the start. And you've seen at times with Frankie Montas if he gets rattled early, it can just kind of like snowball out of control for him. And he really kind of hampered down here. And 17 swinging strikes on 103 pitches. Last six starts for Montas, 2.42 each. R&19% swinging strike rate.

So Montas, Alcantara, and Manoa, Chris. What did you see from those three? Yeah, interesting thing for Montas. I know you're probably tired of us talking about it, but it's the only thing we really talk about when we talk about him is the splitter. And he threw it 21% of the time, which is a little lower than he'd been using it recently.

So, you know, it was good to see him succeed in spite of that. And overall, I think the splitter usage has been, you know, hired this season than it's ever been. And, you know, that's a good thing for him. So I'm generally feeling pretty optimistic about Frankie Montas. I think Alec Manoa is just awesome. I haven't really been given much reason to think he's not. You know, the underlying numbers don't quite back up what he's doing.

But he had a 328 XERA coming into the start. his his slider has been a really good swing and miss pitch his fastball has been really good as well and he's actually gotten really good results on batted balls with the four seam fastball especially so that's a good sign

I think Alec Manoa is pretty much just a must-start guy at this point so he's really good I'm really excited to see what he can continue to become and then a concert

like, yeah, the swing strike rate had been down over the course of the season and then maybe he wasn't, you know, it looked like he was going to be a, an above average strikeout guy early in the season. Maybe it's more like he's still an average to slightly above average guy, but the control has still been, you know, much better recently or much better for the season and it's not like this stretch has coincided with a diminishment of his control. He still does an excellent job. of limiting damage on contact. So the fact that he's not getting the strikeouts or the swinging strikes, okay, maybe Sandy Alcantara can't be like an elite ace type pitcher, but he's really, really good and really solid. He's kind of, I don't know, I kind of think a better version of Jose Barillas at this point. You know he's going to pitch deep into games. You know he's going to do a good job of limiting damage.

He's going to be pretty consistent. I, yeah, and that's pretty much where I'm at with him. Yeah, I think those are pretty similar pitchers at this point. You know, they're going to give you mid-3s, ERA. I know Burrios for most of his career has been a higher three's ERA, but it's lower this season, you know, an okay whip about a strikeout per inning. I think that's a pretty fair comp. The only thing that I see with Menoa, which I wonder how sustainable this is going to be,

is that he's allowed a lot of fly balls this year, and he pitches in the American League East. So long term, I'd like to see that kind of reverse. course a little bit, but it might just be one of those things where like he pitches up in the zone and he's just going to give up fly balls. Like that's basically who Alec Mino is. That's that's not really that rare for you know, there are a decent amount of high end pitchers who do give up a lot of fly balls. And it comes down to one, can you limit the damage on contact? And you know, more importantly, can he sustain a strikeout rate in the 29 to 30% range? He's at 20. 28% this season, or at least he was coming into today, it's a little higher than that now. I feel pretty confident that that's, you know, it may lead to some inconsistencies and frustration, but for the most part, I think Alec Minow is going to be very good.

Yeah, and look, just because you give up fly balls, it's not like a death knell for starting pitchers. I mean, Max Scherzer has been a flyball pitcher his entire career. Justin Verlander is another one. But what those two pitchers do so well is that they don't walk many guys. So when they give up home runs, a lot of those home runs are solo shots. So Manoa, he does have to reign in that control a little bit. He's still very young. So I have no doubt that as he progresses, that's something that he can work on.

Chris, I think we're in great hands. I mean, this next wave of starting pitchers for next year, that hype guy group that I think a lot of people are going to be excited about, Manoa, Shane McClanahan, Logan Gilbert, I feel very good about all three guys. So I think we're in pretty good hands there when it comes to some young starting pitchers. Chris, did I lead one of our listeners? listeners astray because I got an email from a gentleman named Ben Cooper earlier in the night

and he said that he was offered Marcus Strowman and Patrick Sandoval for Alec Manoa and I said non-keeper he said I think Patrick Sandival's better yeah I said go run and take except you know hit accept on that offer because I know Stroman has struggled a little bit but you're getting two pretty quality pitchers there for Alec Manoa who has upside but as much as I like Manoa I think Sannevall's a top 30 pitcher top 30 Patrick Sanneville he's been he's been good really damn good maybe I need to move him up then I think I got him just inside my top 50 but could move Patrick Sandival up a little bit more and speaking of which let's talk about some rankings movers here before we get to some leftovers and some risers for you Chris I'm still kind of working

through updating my rankings I you know you go on vacation for a week you miss a week of baseball it's just like, just get buried, man. Yeah, it's just, it's on top of you. Just the thing.

Just give up at that point, right? Like, it's just, oh my gosh, I'm still catching up. But I think by Thursday, when you're listening

into this podcast, I'm going to stay up late. I'm going to get my rankings all kind of evened out here. And I'm still in the process. But some risers for you recently, Chris, George Springer, Jonathan India and Chris Sale.

Yeah, you could throw Patrick Sandoval in there too. George Springer has, you know, arguably been, he was number two in OPS. since the All-Star break when we did the feud the other day.

And he just hit another, he hit two more home runs. Wow, I didn't. He must have hit that second one late in the game. Yeah, ninth inning. So he had two more home runs on Wednesday. A double don for George Springer. He's now betting 285

with a 1016 OPS overall. Yeah, I mean, his per 162 pace, going back to the start of last season. Last season was a little bit of a disappointment coming off his career best 2019. but if you just, you know, take the larger sample size, his pace is 125 runs, 48 homers, 110 RBI, 6 steals with a 272 batting average. And he has been red hot since coming back.

I think you're always going to have injury concerns with him. But like basically any time he's healthy, he needs to be rising. And I've got him up to number six at outfield, just behind George Springer in a points league. Yeah. And he's ahead of Nick Castiano's. I think you could kind of flip a coin there. But with how hot Springer's been, I'm comfortable with him there.

Yeah, I'm looking at my rank. He's now trying to figure out how high I'm going to move him up. Definitely inside the top 10. But what I'm thinking is, Kyle Tucker 6, Starling Marte 7, Marte has been amazing with Oakland. Jesse Winker, Nick Castellanos,

I think I'm probably going to put, going to put Springer right there at 10, just behind those Reds outfielders. I mean, that's no knock on him. Those guys are just really, really good, too. So, man, George Springer has been awesome. Chris Sale, I believe, if I saw this correctly, you moved Chris Sale inside of your top 20 starting pitchers?

I mean, outside of the first couple of months before he had surgery in 2019, there hasn't been a point, I don't know if it's back to 2010 quite so far, but pretty close. There basically hasn't been a point since 2012. where Chris Sale hasn't been a top 10 at least and usually a top five starting pitcher. Yeah, I'm concerned about, you know, how, you know, whether he's going to have an adjustment period coming back from Tommy John surgery, although there certainly wasn't one in the minors.

Now, granted, it's unfair to have, you know, 20-year-olds or 18-year-olds when he was pitching in rookie ball facing off against Chris Sale. but the fact that he looked so sharp, the fact that the velocity seemed to be back to pre-injury levels, the fact that he was so ridiculously overpowering, 35 strikeouts on 83 batters faced, 16 per 9. He might just be a top 10 starting pitcher after a start. If he goes out there and throws six innings and strikes out 10, like, yeah, I might rather have him than Aaron Null the rest of season.

Yeah, no, you're spot on about that. I have him at SP 33 right now. I want to see it, and I think that's fair. I want to see him do it, and if he does it that first time out, yeah, I mean, he's going to skyrocket up. He'll be inside my top 20 or whatever it might be, so I want to see him do it first, but I think that makes a lot of sense for Chris Sale. Some risers for me, Jorge Polanco, I moved inside of my top 10. I have him at 7 at second base, and he's my 11th best shortstop.

He went 2 for 4 with a triple, and his 21st home run of the season on Wednesday. been running more this year, hitting for power in spite of the twins lineup, which lost Nelson Cruz, Josh Donaldson has been in and out. Polanco has still been amazing. Austin Riley moved up to my eighth best third baseman, Frankie Montas, with what he's doing right now. I moved him inside of my top 40 starting pitchers, and I think I want to move him up a little bit more. So I'm going to tinker with that a little bit tonight. And I know Jonathan India was another name that you moved up, Chris, and I have him also inside of my top 10, top 10 second baseman and third basement. He's been that good. I mean, since the beginning of June, this guy is 100% must start, awesome. Jonathan

India, curly mustache. I think I called him the captain, Captain Jonathan India. He walked out to the Pirates of the Caribbean music early in the season. I don't know if he still does, but definitely makes sense for him. Some fallers for us in the rankings, Chris, you have Trevor Roger I think that's Trevor Rogers, right? Yeah, Trevor Rogers. I was like, there's so many T. Rogers in baseball right now. Trevor, Taylor. It wasn't Tyler or Taylor.

Although, you know, I guess Taylor's on the IL, so he's falling, I guess. Yeah. Trevor Rogers falling for you. Cody Bellinger. I don't know. Maybe we have to rescind that one. Yeah, that's, I'm not sure yet. He's definitely, like, before this most recent stretch,

I was pretty much done with Cody Ballinger. So... I don't blame you. I mean, I think a lot of people were. So it makes sense. But like, a guy that that's talented, I mean, we've seen that, right? Luis Castillo, same thing from the pitching side

earlier in the season. It's different circumstances because Bellinger was coming back off to shoulder surgery. But, I mean, guys that are that talented, they can really just kind of flip it on a dime. And it looks like that's what Bellinger is doing right now. Another follower for you from Rvaldez, who did go up against the Rocky.

He's on Wednesday, six innings, one run, four more walks, did have eight strikeouts. He now has 31 walks over his last eight starts. A few of those starts, he had six walks. So, I mean, this was an issue for him big time in the minors. It wasn't last year, and, you know, kind of worried, was that going to kind of rear its ugly head? And right now, that is what's happening for Framber Valdez. Yeah, and I mean, even, so what was it, eight strikeouts today? Yes.

entering today, he had a 21% strikeout rate over that eight-start stretch. Now, it was 38 strikeouts and 40 innings, so that seems pretty good. But if you actually, because he's walking so many guys, it's a lot less impressive than it seems. He's been laboring through these starts. He's still pitching deep pretty consistently, which you love to see. And the ground ball rate is always going to make him someone who can potentially outperform whatever his peripherals are. but I just, I don't know, I was skeptical of him coming into the season. He looked really, really good when he first came back from the injury.

But now he's starting to fall back on bad habits that he had in, you know, 2019, 2018 that made him intriguing, but not someone that we were fully bought into. And I just, I think he's more like a top 40 starting pitcher now. Some quick Wednesday leftovers that I did want to mention, Eloi Jimenez now has multiple hits in four of his last five games. Batting average is up to 289. Bailey Ober up against the White Sox. Five and a third shutout, six strikeouts.

17 swinging strikes, all of them came on his fastball. His slider velocity was up four miles per hour. And I saw this quote after the game. I wanted to tighten it up, throw it a little harder, and make it look more like a fastball. I felt pretty good. Some pitches moved the way I wanted to. I need to get a little more consistent.

I was happy where the Vilo was. he is under 10 he's 6% rostered Billy Ober who would you rather speculate on Chris him or Ronaldo Lopez Ober

yeah yeah he's a giant he's 6 foot 9 6 9 and so you know that's the kind of thing where

the fastball can play up because it's you know probably feels like it's being released three feet in front of you so yeah he's more interesting

to me than Ronald to Lopez for sure. He hasn't failed as much. Speaking of which, have you seen that AJ Puck returned, I believe it was Tuesday night? His velocity was way up.

He looked awesome. Yeah, he said he dropped his arm slot like four or five inches and immediately had like all of the velocity he had lost back. So that was a very good sign. Yeah, there's a few guys like that

that high draft picks, prospect pedigree. You just kind of root for those guys. Another one that comes to mind, Kyle Zimmer, right? He just dealt with so much throughout the course of his career that, you know, once he kind of found a role in the bullpen, you're rooting for him. Same thing for A.J. Puck. I hope he continues on here. Whitmerfield has a steal in six of his last eight games, including four straight. He is now at 33 on the season.

Starling Marte, two for five with his 31st steal. He now has nine steals in 11 games with the A's. Yeah, so much for my concerns. I was going to pause there and see how long it took you to say something. He's freaking awesome. He's so awesome, man. It's a contract year. I hope he gets paid, man. He certainly deserves it.

Shohei Otani hit his 38th home run of the season. Another one here for you, Chris. I mean, you said there's no such thing as a home run derby curse, but Shoahe Otani is betting 220 with a 38% strikeout rate in the second half. I mean, isn't Vladimir Guerrero struggling a lot lately? Yeah, I don't know. I don't actually believe in that. Didn't participate.

Yeah, there's, there is, a, this guy had an unsustainably good first half curse. Sure. I believe that. It's called regression, everybody. Ozzy Albies went two for five with a sock and a shoe. He had been struggling recently. His 19th home run, his 14th steel. I said he shouldn't be in the home run derby. I told him. Ozzy Albies?

Just a little joke for you. You know me, Chris. Not great with jokes. I don't know. Call to the bullpen. Some bullpen updates. Alex Colomé now has five saves in his last eight days. He has a 2.40 ERA since the start of July. Only 32% rostered. I still don't think that Colomé is good, but he is the unquestioned closer.

He's only 32% rostered. That needs to be higher. I'm sorry. It just needs to be. Yeah. He's getting saves. There's nobody else there to get saves besides him. So yeah, absolutely. For the Yankees, Chad Green pitched in the sixth and the seventh.

Jonathan Loisga was in the eighth. Zach Britton picked up the save in the ninth inning. He now, God bless you, Christopher. I couldn't get to the mute button in time. I'm sorry. I tried to reach for it and just the sneeze came over me. So I had to just duck away. He ducked away.

Zach Britton picked up his save, another save here. And he's now been using the ninth for two straight games. Looks like the closer in the meantime. While Chapman is out, he's 9% rostered. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz got his 24th save. For the Tigers, Gregory Soto got his first. 14th save for the Braves. Will Smith, two runs allowed, took his fourth blown save.

The ERA is approaching four. I don't think that they're there yet, but we're getting closer with the Atlanta Braves, and they did bring in Richard Rodriguez, so just something to pay attention to at the back end of their bullpen. And then with the Cincinnati Reds, Michael Lorenzen pitched in the ninth inning

with the game tied. Michael Givens was used in a 10th. Lucas Sims came in for the save in a one-run game in extras, so runner starts on second base. It didn't matter. He gave up a three-run home, run to Ozzy Albies and takes another blown save. So if I had to guess, I don't even know what you do.

I think the next save opportunity for the Reds goes to Michael Givens. He converted too recently. He's been very good this year. Some to stream or not to stream for Thursday. Logan Webb. Wait, I want to go back for one quick point. Sure. Add Starling Marte to the list of buy guys whenever they get suspended from PEDs. Because, remember he had that PD suspension in 2017. I know this is going back a ways, but he has aged so well. And his stolen bases

per 150 games since that suspension, which happened in his age 29 season. So this is all age 29 and later. He's averaging 37 steals per 150 games over his last four seasons. He hasn't shown any signs of slowing down.

In fact, you know, this year's been arguably his best season ever. I will probably not have a lot of Starling Marte next year. And the reason being, everyone's going to look at what he did this season, the steals, the batting average, playing for a contract, he's going to get something somewhere. And if you believe, if you subscribe to like the contract year theory, whatever it might be,

Charlie Marte is getting up there in age. He's dealt with a lot of injuries. So if anyone is, you know, pushing him up to what, second round of like a Roto League draft next year. I think he's got to go in the second round though. Yeah, I'm not going to have him. I'm not going to draft him there. He's on a 60 steel pace this season.

Yeah, he wants his money, Chris. I don't blame him. He's like, we'll see what happens. But man, better than a 60 steel pace. It's probably a 65 steel pace now. Yeah. No, he's been amazing. I have him in my most important league.

NFBC main event. It's huge price point entry, 15 team roto. I need him. So I hope, I hope. I hope it continues running. To stream or not to stream 4, Thursday, Logan Webb versus the Rockies. Yes, pick him up at him, keep him on your team. Marco Gonzalez versus the Rangers.

Eli Morgan versus the A's. Kyle Muller versus the Reds. Vladimir Gutierrez at the Braves. And J.T. Brubaker versus the Cardinals. I think, oh man. I don't love any of the other options. Kyle Muller versus the Reds. I wish it was a better matchup, but he's probably number two.

and then... Marco G. We got to do it, Chris. Yeah, against Texas. I think that's probably the right call. They're just so bad. Texas is so bad. It's just hold your nose and pray.

Eli Morgan. Eli Morgan's been pretty good recently too, so he's in that Kyle Mueller discussion. I don't love it, but Marco Gonzalez is the next one up for me. I know at one point this season, Marco Gonzalez had an XERA above seven. It's still 6-5-4.

He's been terrible. Yikes. All right. To stream or not to stream for Friday, Brett Anderson at the Pirates. Jesus Lazzardo versus the Cubs. Adbert Alzali at the Marlins. Who else do we got here?

I didn't write these down, so I'm looking at them now. Patrick Sandoval? No, he's two rostered. Madison Bumgarner versus the Padres. No. Chris Flexen at home versus the Blue Jays? No.

I do like Brett Anderson at the Pirates. I think that can work. I mean, they just made Jay. They made Jay Havre look good. There are a handful of interesting guys. Tyler McGill against the Dodgers. You don't want to start them against that matchup. Chris flexing at home,

but it's against the Blue Jays. You probably want to pass on that. Alzalai at the Marlins. I think that works, Chris. He struggles with home runs, but Big Park. I think Alzalai and Anderson and maybe Hazelos Lazzardo, but probably not.

The Cubs just struck out 15 times against Corbyn Burns and 10 times in a row. Granted, Corbin Burns is really good, but the Cubs are also very bad. I can get behind Lazzardo. I think I would rank them, Al-Zalai, Brett Anderson, and Lazzardo in that order. We're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.