Fantasy Baseball Today - Worry-O-Meter! Royce Lewis Injury & Streaky Hitters (7/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

Luis Gil has struggled mightily over his last three starts (3:15). ... Dylan Cease got clobbered by the Rangers (8:10). ... We got big games from Elly De La Cruz, Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani (11:10). ... News (16:50): Royce Lewis is hurt AGAIN. ... Let's fire up the WORRY-O-METER for Cease, Gil, Jose Berrios and Nolan Gorman (26:40). ... How do we rank Zack Littell, Sean Manaea and DJ Herz (31:57)? ... Andrew Vaughn and Nate Lowe continue to hit (35:20). ... Let's get a temperature check on these five hitters (41:32). ... Bobby Miller had his best start since coming off the IL (52:30). ... We wrap up with a pitcher's duel, leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:05). 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, @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/ 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. With fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Over Louise Heels last three starts. He has a 14.90 ERA and a 2.38 whip.

Yikes. Welcome into fantasy baseball today. On Wednesday, July 3rd, I am Frank Stanfield. joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we are going to fire up the Wauriometer. Bobby Miller had his best start since returning. Not necessarily a great start in general, but his best start since returning from the IL.

And let's get a heat check on some streaking hitters right now. But first, players of the night. Oh, my goodness. Holy cow, do you believe it? All right, Chris, can you believe how bad Luis Heel has been? Uh, yeah. I can believe it. I mean, it's tough, right?

So I did some research. I wanted to look for how likely is it for a pitcher to have a month like Luis Heel did in May and for that month to be just a complete fluke and come out of nowhere. And there have been 36 pitchers over the past 20 seasons to post an ERA with a of 1.0 or lower in a month with at least 35 innings pitched. Now, there are some pretty. unremarkable names on that list. Martin Perez did it.

A couple years ago, Shelby Miller back in like 2011. Kenny Rogers way back in the day. But the thing that separated heel from those guys is he was getting a ton of strikeout. So I wanted to limit it to pitchers who have had, again, 35 innings pitched in a month, ERA below one, and we'll add a strikeout per inning. That list is pretty awesome. It is like 13 names long. I think there were four of them who didn't win a Sanyang Award.

Jack Flaherty, remember that crazy 2019 stretch. He had two months in a row like that. Zach Allen has done it August of 2022. Jared Weaver did it as well. Those are the only three who didn't win a Sanyang, but all three of those guys had top five Siong finishes. And then there's Luis Heel. right there between like C.C. Sabathia and Clayton Kershaw and Justin Verlander.

And basically it's a list of every, the best pitchers the last 20 years, those three other guys. And then what is starting to look like a fluke with Louise Heel because since the end of May, remember he had an 8.5% walk rate in May. He has a 14% walk rate since the end of May. over his past four starts, he has more walks than strikeouts, 13 walks in 14.2 innings of work. This is a guy who had an 18% walk rate in April. He had a 14% walk rate throughout his minor league career.

It was 8.5% again in May. I'm not saying we need to drop Louise Heel. I am definitely saying you missed your cell high window with Louise Heel because this might be an excuse for the Yankees to start managing his innings, right? Like, it's hard to do that when you're in first place and you're riding high and you got this rookie of the year frontrunner just mowing everyone down. It's a lot easier to do that when he has a 6.84 ERA over the past six starts and the Yankees are, I think it's fair to say, scuffling.

Oh, yes. Right now. So I think we've seen the high point of Luis. season as a fantasy asset. I don't think you should drop him because I think there will be a stretch where he is fantasy relevant again, but I think he's firmly out of the must start discussion. I moved him down in my rankings today into the, I think it's like the 40-ish range. It's where Carlos Rodan and Kevin Gosman and who was the other name I wanted to mention there? Kevin Gosman, Carlos Rodan, and was the friend,

Valdez? Not for Ambervaldez. Nick Povetta. Another guy who I think has a lot of talent. I think there will be good starts moving forward, but I don't think you have to view any of those four guys as must start pitchers moving forward. So unfortunately, that's where he is. He was top 25, you know, for a while before that. But I had to move him down after a start and a stretch like this, unfortunately. Yeah, I'm planning to update the pitcher. rankings on Wednesday and Luis Heel will be a faller. Look, it's hard to succeed when you just cannot throw strikes and that is a problem right now. First 13 starts for Luis Heel. He threw 62% of his pitches for strikes.

Last four starts, that number is down to 56% pitches for strikes there with Luis Heel. He has as many hit by pitches, six, as he does strikeouts over his last three starts. So just no command, frankly, has no idea where the ball is. going right now. So I completely agree. I'm not dropping Louise Heel. It wouldn't surprise me if we get another month-long stretch where he's really good, not historically good like you pointed out.

So yeah, I would not drop Luis Heel. I think he could bounce back and have fantasy value again at some point. But yeah, in terms of starting him, I haven't looked at the matchups yet for next week, but I agree. I do not think Louise Heel is a must start moving forward.

Speaking of struggling pitchers, This is an opportunity to talk about Dylan Cease. And this one is weird because he got crushed at the Rangers, three and two-thirds inning, six runs allowed, two homers allowed in this one. He only had nine whiffs on 84 pitches. And his previous start was great. And we pointed out how, yes, he's struggled over the past month,

six weeks, something like that, but it's not in the ways that he normally struggles. But here we are. We have a tense start stretch now for Dylan C's with a 615 ERA, a 146 whip well over a strikeout per inning. The problem is that he is giving up

lots of fly balls, lots of barrels, and that is leading to home runs. He has allowed 11 homers over his last 10 starts. The FIP, the X FIP, everything says that Dillon Cis has been pretty unlucky. Chris, where are you at, on the struggles recently of Dillon Cis? Yeah, I've made my skepticism of Dillon Cis

over the past couple of seasons. and pretty well known, but I'm actually not particularly concerned right now. Like, I don't want to say that this was just bad luck. You know, he had six batted balls in this game with an expected batting average of at least 470. That's not great. You would expect most of those to go for hits. All six of them went for hits today, including five for extra bases.

That's, that's not bad luck. it's certainly not neutral luck either though. And like you said, I think the biggest thing with Dylan C's is when things have gone wrong for him in the past, it has been because of his command. And maybe what we're seeing is just an approach change where he's throwing more pitches in the strike zone and it's leaving him more vulnerable to hard contact. I can see that being the case. But it still makes me more optimistic about Dylan C's pulling out of this and certainly more

optimistic about him being a must start pitcher rather than what he was last season when he had the command issues. He was giving up the hard contact. At least now, two of those legs of the fit triangle, as Scott likes to call them, are in the good part of the range of outcomes. The K-minus walk rate still looks really good for Dillen C's entering this start, despite having a higher barrel rate, 10.7% that ranks in the ninth percentile. So it's quite bad. His expected ERA was 340, according to Stackass. So that's actually still a really good number here.

If anyone in your league is panicking and you could look to buy low, I think this is a prime opportunity to try and get your hands on a Dillon cease right now. So I think we also have them ranked top 12 starting pitcher rest of season. Maybe I'll bump them down a few spots here on Wednesday. but overall I still do have a lot of confidence in Dillon Cease moving forward. I did want to highlight a few other just big performances from the night. I mean, just some of the best in the game just showing up on Tuesday. Ellie Dela Cruz versus Aaron Judge, the Battle of the Giants here.

Ellie Dela Cruz did get the better. The Reds won the game. Dela Cruz, two for five with a triple and his 15th Homer. 11.1 exit velocity, 425 feet. And then Aaron Judge went three for four with his 30. second homer, 112.5 exit velocity. Speaking of putting on a show, what about show? Hey, Otani, three for four with his 27th homer.

He has 10 home runs in his past 14 games. All of these guys are just, what do you say, Chris? I mean, they are putting up massive numbers. I know Ellie De La Cruz has had the streakiness, but it seems like he's back on one of those really good streaks once again. Yeah, I mean, Scott wrote a redrafting the first two rounds article on CBS Sports today or on Tuesday, I suppose. And I did that for the newsletter as well.

I know we're planning on doing a longer discussion about that once the All-Star break gets here on the podcast. But we both have L.A. Dela Cruz as a first round pick. I don't know if we have him in the exact same spot. It might be. I had number seven. He's freaking awesome. Even with the, you know,

things are never quite as good as they look at the best moments of L.A. Dela Cruz's seasons. And they are never as bad as they look at the worst moments. And I think it's worth keeping that in mind when we do our, our respective victory lapse at various points in the season. But the overall profile is just remarkable. And then, you know, Judge, I saw a, I think it was an ESPN radio segment that was presented as like, hot take. Aaron, Judge is the best hitting, right-handed hitter of our lifetimes. I don't even know if that's a hot take. Like,

two years ago he had a 210 OPS plus. He's doing it again this season. The last guy to have an OPS plus of at least 200 as a right-handed hitter who wasn't a PED guy, I believe was like Jimmy Fox. It's pretty, it's pretty bonkers what Aaron Judge is doing and the fact that he's doing it again. Sorry, it was Sammy Sosa, Mark McGuire, Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas. us both did it in 94. That was a strike short in season.

So Aaron Judge is the only, the first guy to do it in a full season without, let's say, PED implications since Jimmy Fox in 1933. Yeah, it's absolutely bonkers what he's doing over the past couple of seasons. Yeah, and it's especially crazy to think about

because we got to watch the entire careers of Miguel Cabrera and Albert Pujols, right? It's just, Aaron Hodge. Yeah, Albert Pooleholds never had a season with an OPS plus of 200. How bonkers is that that Aaron Judge is doing it twice in three years? It's the fact that not only is he hitting for massive power,

but he's hitting for a really high batting average. He's getting on base. The Triple Crown leader right now. Yes, I believe. I think it's because does Stephen Kwan not qualify? That would be the only reason why not. But once Kwan gets enough plate appearances, then I think it's going to make it pretty tough.

But yeah, as of now, Aaron Judge is leading the Triple Crown. So we'll see if he can. if he can get it done, that would be pretty awesome. A quick reminder and a heads up. A programming note for later this week. We will not be live on YouTube on Thursday night, July 4th. We'll all be celebrating my birthday. Yes, that's right.

We will all meet up in what would be a neutral location, like North Carolina or? Yeah, probably like Myrtle Beach, maybe. I like Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is fun. But we do have a podcast plan to drop on YouTube on Thursday night and then on Friday morning in the audio feed, we'll be doing sleepers, breakouts, and busts

for the second half of the season. So be on the lookout for that. Again, we will not be live on Thursday night, July 4th. Make sure to sign up for the FBT newsletter. If you haven't already, you can scan the QR code. That will take you right to the website. Click on the FBT logo, punch in your email address, and it's easy as that.

You get a newsletter delivered right to your inbox every single weekday. Let's take our first break. When we return, the news and notes right after this. Welcome back in the news and notes. And what do the baseball gods have against Royce Lewis? Because this is just cruel. Royce Lewis was removed Tuesday due to left groin tightness. And I saw this tweet from Dan Hayes, who covers the twins for the athletic.

Quote, Royce Lewis said he's not optimistic, but this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. He's not feeling that way because he's worried about this being a devastating long-term injury. Instead, this is a concern about if the twins will place him on the... injured list. So reading that, Chris, it does sound like Royce Lewis is going to miss some time. And what do we say about this? Right? I'm sure people will come out and say, oh, Royce Lewis, injury prone, which look at some point when you continue to have soft tissue injuries and things of that sort, I mean, they might be on to something. It's just, it's unfortunate because we're being robbed of seeing an elite hitter do awesome things in fantasy.

Yeah. And in this case, this is, has he messed time with a groin injury? previously. It was a quad earlier this season. So this is. And I think it was hamstring multiple times last year. Yeah. First time he's had a, he had an oblique last year as well. Um, yeah, it's, it's really frustrating. And I read that quote as just, he's as he's more frustrated than anyone. You know, that he, he, he doesn't, I think he's at the point where he doesn't expect good news when he gets hurt. hurt and rightly so with the run of bad luck or whatever you want to call it. It happened on a double, right?

Like it just he keeps on hitting and keeps on getting hurt. It's super frustrating. It makes him an incredibly difficult player to value for fantasy. But more than anything, it's just like you said, we're being robbed of a guy who looks like he could be one of the premier players in baseball if he could just stay on the field. So that's really frustrating. I don't have much else to say, unfortunately.

I hate to use the injury-prone label, but these are injuries that could be compensatory injuries, right? The fact that he's dealt with hamstrings multiple times and a groin earlier this, a quad earlier this year. I mean, those things are all kind of in the same region, so it wouldn't surprise me if, again, maybe he's compensating for something else that he's dealt with, and this is what leads to a new injury.

But, yeah, it doesn't sound good. We'll see what happens with Royce Lewis. Jack Flaherty will have his next star push back, to next week after receiving a second pain-killing injection in his back. And Chris, the vibes are off here for Jack Flaherty. He's dealing with his injury. The last start was a clunker against the Angels. So this is another one that I don't feel too great about.

Yeah, I mean, at least prior to this start, he had been pitching well. You know, he hadn't gone more than five and two-thirds innings since the end of May. But he was at least getting good results. and the most recent start kind of went off the rails a little bit. But yeah, it's frustrating. I think clearly the back is bothering him, given the second pain-killing injection. And it's a situation where I think you probably just have to hold Jack Flaherty.

And maybe the All-Star break comes and they give him a little extra time off there. Maybe, you know, schedule the rotation so that he gets an extra couple games off before and after the break. But I still think as long as he's healthy, he's going to be really. really good because that's almost everything that we've seen from him this season. It's just he's got to get past this back issue. Corey Seeger has missed two straight after getting hit by a pitch on his left wrist on Saturday in MRI and x-rays both came back negative. Vlad Jr. was back in the lineup Tuesday after sitting out Monday with discomfort in his right

hand. David Bednar has progressed to throwing from 120 feet and should resume mound work soon. Shane Boz was scratched from his start at AAA Tuesday in order to be a available as a depth option in case the race play a double header at some point this week. Their game tonight was delayed quite some time because of rain. And if rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days, they might have a doubleheader. So we'll see. I mean, yeah, Shane Boss is 64% rostered.

I think he's one of the top stash candidates right now and not sure that he's going to make a start. Not sure that he would even stick around after that start. But obviously there is lots of upside and he is someone, if you have the roster space, you should be stashing. Julio Rodriguez was dropped down to seventh in the Mariners lineup after going two for 29 over his last seven games entering Tuesday. Chris, I know that you wrote either an article or newsletter regarding Julio Rodriguez. If you can provide like a SparkNotes version of that, what's going on with Julio? Yeah, the biggest issue is his first home run in the season, I think was like April 23rd or something. And it was hit to like left field, but not down the line or anything.

and that was the furthest to the pull side home run that he has hit all season. If you compare it to last season, he had, I think, 13 home runs that were hit further to the pole side than his furthest so far this season. He has very few doubles down the line or to the pool side. It mostly just comes down to Holy Rodriguez is not doing damage on pitches to the pole side. He's not elevating the ball. He's not hitting the ball hard to the pole side. And it's weird because he's getting.

pitched inside more than he ever has. His, you know, his pitch rate on pitches on the inside third of the plate or off the inside edge of the plate is up from like 35 to 40 percent. And he's just not doing any damage with them. And the problem is he'd always struggled with pitches off the plate, which is not necessarily surprising that he's now getting jammed and not doing any damage with that is especially bad, given that the other issue is still there. So, It mostly comes down to he's still hitting the ball hard, not quite as hard as last season, but still pretty hard. He's just not doing any damage to the left side of the field. And that's why you get a 0.08 ISO through the first half of the season for a hitter with great power.

I still have a lot of faith in him. He still made the first round in my redrafting the first two rounds piece for the FBT newsletter. But I also don't have any concrete reasons to be. believe he will turn it around. It's just the track record and the talent level. Yeah, I think that's all fair. And I think Scott said yesterday, he has Julio in his second round. So mid-second, I would be somewhere in that, yeah, I think he's still a top two-round player. We hope rest of season, I mean, for all the reasons that you mentioned. So hopefully we get a big second half from Julio like we did last season. Robbie Ray will make his next rehab start at

AAA on Thursday. His last start came Friday at single A. He threw three and two. third's shutout innings with four strikeouts and overall he's pitched in six games so far a 277 era a point 92 whip uh 21 strikeouts over 13 innings Robbie ray 43 percent rostered if you have an iL spot to mess with i know there's lots of pitchers to stash on the aisle right now but uh Robbie ray you know we've seen the high highs the low lows he's going to have a good ballpark to pitch in I think there could be something there maybe more so for deeper leagues but uh yeah again that is Robbie Ray, hopefully back soon. We got a few D-backs news items.

Jordan Montgomery was placed on the 15-day IL with right knee inflammation, retroactive to June 29th. Both Gabriel Moreno and Alec Thomas were reinstated and in the lineup for the debacks. Michael Harris could begin running soon. He's two and a half weeks removed from suffering a grade two left hamstring strain. Clayton Kershaw has started throwing again after experiencing shoulder soreness last week. Chris, who would you rather stash, Kershaw or Robbie Ray? My expectations aren't super high for Ray, but I think it's got to be him ahead of Kershaw, Kirshall, given his age, given the shoulder surgery.

I'm not expecting much from him. David Hamilton was out of the lineup Tuesday and has now set out four of the past six games for the Red Sox, and you can't steal bases if you're not in the lineup. So I still think there's an intriguing skill set there for fantasy. I don't know exactly why. Does that coincide with Willi or Brayu coming back? It might. Because Raphael has been playing a lot.

a lot of shortstop. I think they're giving playing time to N. Manuel Valdez over Hamilton, which just seems a little weird. Yeah, that's frustrating. Yeah, we need more playing time for David Hamilton. Harrison Bader was removed

from Tuesday's game after hitting his head slash neck on the outfield wall trying to make a catch in the third inning. He's day-to-day. We'll see what happens. Ryan Weathers will be re-evaluated in one to two weeks in hopes of being clear to begin a throwing program at that time. Mitch Garver was out of the lineup

Tuesday after getting hit by a pitch on his wrist on Sunday. Isaiah Kiner Foleffa was placing the IL with a left knee sprain. Casey Mize will land on the IL at some point this week due to a left hamstring train. Tim Anderson was designated for assignment and Xavier Edwards was recalled from AAA. I think he's a name in deeper roto leagues. There's lots of speed there. Sounds like he's going to have an opportunity to play quite a bit for the Marlins. Again, that's Xavier Edwards.

and two deep league pitchers to watch out for in the second half. Ian Anderson threw three scoreless innings in a rehab start at single A on Sunday. He could rejoin the Braves rotation at some point in the second half. And Tyler Malley began a rehab assignment at AAA on Tuesday. He now pitches for the Texas Rangers. So they need all the help. They can get, again, this is pretty deep league stuff. AL, NL only maybe 15 team roto leagues.

But yeah, Ian Anderson and Tyler Malley there. Let's fire up the worryometer here on Wednesday. We already spoke extensively about cease and heel, but if we had to put a number on it, Chris, let's say one to 10, one you're not worried at all, 10 you are as worried as it possibly can be. Where does Dylan cease fall in the worryometer? I'm going to go with cease and heel.

I'll just group them together. I think they're kind of on opposite end of the spectrum. I'm a one or a two on cease. I can't say it's a zero, but I think he's mostly fine. and heel, I'm going to say eight or nine, just because there's going to be an innings limit at some point, and he's pitching poorly.

So I wouldn't be surprised if he was out of the rotation at some point pretty close, pretty soon. I was going to say, like a two or a three on CIS and maybe a seven on Louise Heel. I'm not dropping him again. I think he could still have starts that are serviceable. Will he be in your lineup when those starts happen? I think he's going to be a pretty frustrating

pitcher to own rest of season. Jose Barrios had almost nothing working against the Houston Astros. Five innings, five runs, two walks to just one strikeout. He gave up a home run in this starts. Seven hard hits allowed. And over his last five starts, Jose Burrios has a 597

ERA, a 115 whip, eight homers allowed during that stretch. Chris, where is Jose Barrios on the Wauriometer? I mean, this is kind of just who he is, right? Like, we go through these stretches where Jose Brrios looks awesome for a month

and it looks terrible for a month and then looks awesome for two months and I think at the end of the day he usually ends up, you know, right around a 3-8 ERA. The peripherals are pretty bad. Yeah. This season, he's getting a lot fewer strikeouts.

Walk rate is still good, but 5.06-fip, 4.47 X-FIP. I would say it's probably a two or a three just because I know what Jose Brrios is. And I didn't think he was an ace when he got off to a great start.

I don't think he's a terrible pitcher either. I think he's just fine. Yeah. I think it's a five just because those underlying numbers are worse this year than we have seen in years past for Brrios. And similarly to Luis Heel, if you had any hopes of selling Jose Brios high,

you've missed that opportunity. I mean, the overall numbers are still solid. 363, ERA 112 whip. So maybe you could sell him based on that for, you know, another top 30 or top 40 starting pitcher. He's not ranked as a top 40 starting pitcher for me. I don't, is Burrios ranked top 40 for you? I don't think he is.

I would be very surprised. So if you could turn Barrios into a top 40 starting pitcher, it's something I would still look into doing. But yeah, I'll put him a five just because. And even someone who's struggling right now, like you say Kukuchi or Nick Povetta who just has more upside. I think I'd be fine making the trade. What about Nolan Gorman?

He did hit a grand slam here on Tuesday, two for four with his 17th home run, but his previous 24 games before this, an 083 batting average, two homers, 305 OPS, with a 40% strikeout rate. The overall batting average is down to 192. I think this is just part of the profile, Chris.

I don't remember Nolan Gorman being this shrieky last year. I mean, I'm sure he did go through some ups and downs, But I mean, this year, it's been high highs and very low lows. He's down to 69% rostered. Where is Nolan Gorman on the Worryometer for you? Yeah, I mean, look, he did have like a 900 OPS through the start of June last year. Then he had a 440 Ops in June. Then a 944 in July.

All right. And then 628 in August. I stand corrected. Yeah, no, I think that that's just when you swing and miss as much as Nolan Gorman does, you're going to have stretches like this. And I think that's probably just going to be the case for him moving forward. But look, it depends on how you want to calibrate it, right? If you think Nolan Gorman is a must-start fantasy option, you should be pretty worried because I don't think he is that.

But I also don't think Nolan Gorman is just going to be useless moving forward. So I'll say a six or a seven. he's, if we were doing the dropometer, I think he'd be close to a five. I just think he is impossible in head-to-head leagues, any type of head-to-head league, even ahead-to-head points, head-to-head categories, because in those formats,

you want some level of consistency. Look, every player is going to go through struggles. It's a long baseball season. But when, you know, again, it's, he can win you a couple of weeks, but he can also lose you like a month's worth of act. Like, it's just, it's really fresh. have a player like that in your lineup.

So in a Roto League, I think you'll look up at the end of the season. Maybe he doesn't hit 240 or 250 like we thought. Maybe it's 220. But he's probably going to have his 30 to 35 home runs by the end of the year. And there's going to be a stretch where he's a monster. Yeah. It's just really like the way we get to that point is going to be really frustrating for somebody like Nolan Gorman.

Let's talk WaverWire pitchers from Tuesday's action. And Sean Mania turned in a strong start. the Nationals, seven innings, two runs. One of those earned with five strikeouts over his last four starts. He has a 199 ERA, a 106 whip. DJ Hers bounce back with a strong start against the Mets, five and two thirds.

One run, ten strikeouts with 16 whiffs on 92 pitches. Just a weird start to his career. He's made six starts, DJ Hers. Four have been subpar. Two have been really, really good. So not exactly sure what to make of that. and Zach Lattel, he's turned things back on, he's been solid recently, he's, you know,

through five shutout innings with four strikeouts. I think the raise have realized third time through the order, just don't even let it happen. They're limiting him to five innings. He's been fine during that stretch. I think he's okay. I just, I don't really think there's much upside there. But Chris, how would you rank Zach Lattel, DJ Hurs, and Sean Minia? I think I probably have Lattel ranked highest of this group.

Like you said, I think the upside is probably pretty limited. So if you want to chase that, it's clearly our friend David John Hertz, as he is known on CBS. There have been five pitchers with 10 strikeouts and zero walks in a start twice this season. Tyler Glass now, Zach Allen, Garrett Crochet, Bailey Ober. That one's kind of surprising. and now DJ hurts. I don't know what to make of that. He's had pretty bad starts almost exclusively outside of those two,

but that kind of upside can't be ignored. So I would prioritize him over Mania, certainly, and over Laetal as well. Some names in deeper leagues. Michael Mercado, who got the call up to the Phillies in Spencer Turnbull's place, pitched well at the Cubs, five innings, one run, four strike, He had 10 whiffs on 78 pitches, mostly a three-pitch mix, 95 miles per hour on the fastball. Really good cutter, actually, it was rated a 60-grade pitch, according to Fangraphs.

Mitch Spence pitched well for the Angels, excuse me, against the Angels. Five and a third, one run, five strikeouts there. Hayden Birdsong was solid in his second career start at the Braves, five innings, two runs, five strikeouts, and Carlos Carrasco. Six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. up against the White Sox. Quietly, last three starts a 318 ERA, a one whip on the nose, right at a strikeout or inning. Again, some deep league names here, Chris,

but any interest, Carasco, Birdsong, Mitch Spence, and Michael Mercado. Yeah, it would only be Mercado and Birdsong. I think I would prioritize Birdsong ahead of Mercado, but neither of them is a pressing need. I think Mercado, the cutter looked really good, the fastball looked okay. Birdsong, I think the fastball's a good pitch,

and he got some whiffs on the slider and change up today, which was a good sign after he didn't really do that in the first start. I think you're probably only looking at any of these guys in 15 team leagues. And in Carasco and Spence's case, I don't have a ton of interest in them,

even in 15 team leagues. All right. Well, let's talk some Waverwire hitters. And two corner infielders we've talked a lot about recently. They just continue. to hit Andrew Vaughn, one for four with his 11th homer. Last 32 games now, he's batting 317 with eight homers, 20 runs scored, and 24 RBI. He's hitting the ball hard.

He's barreling it up, up to 60% roster for Andrew Vaughn. And Nate Lowe, on his bobblehead night, had a huge game. There you go. Two for four with a double dong, four RBI, last six games for low, 10 hits, four homers, 12 RBI. It's been a down season overall. I wonder if it was an oblique strain for him, right? Right? I just wonder if that maybe lingered further into returning from the IL and maybe he's just kind of finding his footing now.

Who do you prefer between the two, Chris? Fawn or Nate Lowe? I have a little more faith than low just because I think the bar for him being useful for fantasy is probably lower. Because I do think the Rangers lineup is going to be much better moving forward than it has been so far. We've already seen it with Wyatt Langford starting to figure things out. I still rank both Corey Seeger and Marcus Simeon as top 24 players, so I have a lot of faith in them figuring it out. So, you know, Lowe, we saw he wasn't a particularly great player last season. He had 89 RBI.

So I think the context, if I think they're fairly similar players overall, I'll take the guy who's in a much better lineup. Would you drop someone like Justin Turner for either of those? Sure. Yeah, I think Justin Turner is, extremely fringy and you can certainly drop him in a league where, you know, Nate Lowe or Andrew Vaughn is still available. Yeah. Yeah. Justin Turner rostered in more leagues in both of those gentlemen, Andrew Vaughn and Nate Lowe. So I would make that swap as well. And if you lost out on

Bryce Harper, who went on the IL last weekend, I think both Vaughn and Nate Lo are fine replacement options for Bryce Harper. Two names in deeper league. Spencer Horowitz continues to hit. He went one for four with his third home run. The problem he's just not playing as much as I would like him to. He's started four of the past seven games for the Blue Jays, but he has a 442 on base percentage. If anyone plays in a deeper points league, I don't know how likely those are

or how many people actually play in them, but like if you play in a 14 team or deeper head to head points league, I feel like Spencer Horowitz would be like the perfect player in that format. And Daniel Schneeman has been pretty solid since getting called. up by the Guardians. One for four with his third home run. He has hit second in their lineup four games in a row. He has started eight of the past 11 games in 22 games so far. He's got an 864 OPS. Chris, any interest in Spencer Horowitz or Daniel Schneeman? It's so weird because it feels like the Guardians have just like produced a ton of different versions of this guy this year.

just like some guy you've never heard of comes up out of nowhere. He's like a 27. I think Scheneman's a 27-year-old minor leaguer who comes up and all of a sudden is making an impact. He's also not playing every day. So I think the utility for fantasy is a little limited, but he's hitting really well. He's getting on base. I think in daily lineup leagues and 15 teamers, Daniel Schneeman is. Certainly under rostered because he's only 7% rostered.

And I would think at least some of those 93% of CBS Fantasy leagues. And obviously a larger number in other leagues are 15-team Roto daily lineup leagues. So I would say Shneeman needs to be added a little more. Yeah, I picked him up in a 15-team Roto league this past week. He has second base and outfield eligibility. So that position versatility, you use them at middle. You can use them in the outfield. the fact that he's batting near the top

of a really good Guardians lineup right now. I think it's worth taking a shot as long as Daniel Schneeman is hot. And right now he is. Let's take our final break and when we return, let's do a temperature check on some streaking hitters. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in temperature check

for some streaky hitters right now and Brendan Donovan has really turned things up three for four with a walk, a run, and an RBI. Last 19 games, he is batting 366 with four homers, 15 RBI, two steals, lots of line drives. He's up to 90% rostered. And I don't know that he's a huge difference maker in a categories league, Chris, but in points leagues, Brendan Donovan feels like someone that will be a must-star player

at the rest of season, just based on his versatility and his skill set. Yeah, when you said must-start player, I kind of recoiled a little bit. But then having second, third, and outfield eligibility, you know, that does mean that in roto leagues you can start them in five different six different lineups spots i get with a guess with utility it means in a points league you can start them in you know three of the what seven overall uh for the seven for the eight lineup spots so yeah i think um i don't really buy brendan donovan as like a difference making player in in any fantasy format really uh i think the skill set is that more of a you know mid seven hundreds ops not

a lot of stolen bases, not a ton of power. But because of the versatility, I think a 90% roster rate feels okay. I don't think he should be dropped or anything. Yeah, in a Categories league, there's just not going to be enough power or speed. Again, deeper lineups, he has utility just because he plays every day. But in a points league, he's one of those guys where at the end of the season, you look up and realize, wow, this guy averaged three fantasy points per game. And he was just a starter all season.

and he just feels like one of those players. That's Brendan Donovan. George Springer has been turning things up. Ever since I put him on the drop home meter, Chris, last eight games, a 480 batting average with four home runs, 13 RBI. I don't really think anything has changed. I think, hey, maybe George Springer just got off to a really slow start

the first three months, and now he's turning back into George Springer. Yeah, I mean, look, I get it. Anytime you have a 34-year-old who gets off to a really, poor start like George Springer did. You always have to ask the question, right? Like, you're not doing your job. If you don't ask the question, should we be worried about George Springer?

Should we be dropping George Springer? You're not doing your job as a fantasy analyst. You're not doing your job as a fantasy player if you're not asking that question. But, you know, you look up and all of a sudden, George Springer's expected Wobah identical to last season, 332 for the season. What is his current actual Wobah? 288.

All right. So he's really, really trailing. Yeah. But like the batted ball profile isn't really that different. He's traded some fly balls for ground balls. That's a bad thing, obviously. But still pulling the ball, you know, the quality of contact isn't significantly worse. It hasn't been good in quite some time, but he's still remained a pretty productive player.

And, you know, the one thing we have seen from George Springer, last year and now this year is the bad isn't what it used to be, but all of a sudden he's running. You know, it's three years now where he had 14 in 2022, 20 last year, and now nine through the first half of the season. So I think Springer is someone you're just going to leave in your line at the rest of the year. Look, we're right about at the midpoint and he has nine homers and nine steals. So would it really surprise anyone if George Springer manages to go 20, 20 by end of season? I don't think so. Where the batting average will wind up,

that's a little bit tougher because he's at 215. I'd think something around 250 the rest of the way is probably where I'd put my expectation. Maybe 260. 250 the rest of the way. So that will probably only get his overall batting average up to 230. 230, 240. Yeah, that's probably where I'd peg at the rest of the way.

All right. Austin Riley has been much better as of late. He went one for four with his 10th home run. Last 17 games, 3.56 batting. average, seven homers, 14 runs, 12 RBI, and OPS over 1,200, 95.2 average exit velocity. This is the Austin Riley we've been waiting for, and I kind of feel like we get some version of this. I don't think we get a prolonged slump as long as it was this season. But Austin Riley, if you look at his month-by-month production previous years, he does go on these streaks,

where he's, you know, one of the hottest hitters in baseball, and then he slows up a little bit. did you have Austin Riley in your rest of season top two rounds? Did I have Austin Riley? If not, he was very close. Yes, he was my number 24 player. A little bit behind Rafael Devers, but I still think the two of them are very, very similar Devers. You know, actually, is he having,

is he on pace for his best season? Or if not his best season, in terms of power, it's like second most homers, batting averages, super high. So I'd take Devers over Riley right now, but in the long run, it's probably going to be pretty close to a coin flip for those two. Yeah, Rafi Devers right now, betting 287, 18 homers, 50 runs, 47 RBI. So again, we're right at the midpoint. You double those numbers. 36 homers would fall just short of a career high for Devers, but right around 100 runs, right around 100 RBI. It's, this is what Rafi Devers does. And specifically with

Riley, when you've got a player of his caliber at his age, he's what, 27, 28? Yeah, he's right. His prime. Three elite years in a row coming into this one, that's one where like, even if his quality of contact had cratered through the first month or two of the season, I just wouldn't really care because all that tells me is, yeah, this guy's slumping and he's going to be fine moving forward because I have a lot of faith in the skill set that he's shown over the past three years. You know, it's sort of similar to Holy Rodriguez where I can't give you one specific thing

about Austin Riley in the first two months that made me believe he was going to turn around, except that his name is Austin Riley and he did what he did for three years in a row prior. Yeah, and he does have a ways to go on the season. It's a 250 batting average of 752 OPS, but he's another one. By end of season, would it really surprise us if he, you know, winds up hitting 270 with an 850. to 900 OPS. That's what I expect. Yeah, would not surprise me one bit.

Sayas Suzuki has really turned things up over the past 30 days, 30 games, excuse me, 277 batting average, seven homers, 13 runs, 18 RBI, six steals, so running quite a bit as well, with a 9-11 OPS. He's hitting the ball hard, the barrels are there. He's striking out more. It looks like he's kind of sold out a little bit for hitting fly balls and trying to get to that power a little bit more. but yeah, last 30 games, this is exactly the player we were looking for with Sayas Suzuki.

Yeah, and feels like given the trade-off of more fly balls, more strikeouts, could also be a player who is adversely affected by the poor offensive environment that we saw in the first couple of months. And, you know, we've seen a big offensive turnaround league-wide. We expected Chicago to be a place that as the weather heated up, the ball would fly further. And that might just be what we're seeing with Sayas-Sizuki, where the skill set hasn't really changed as the season's gone on. It's just become a better environment for that skill set to thrive.

Yeah. Ask his teammate Shota Imanaga, how that's going right now. Yeah, it's kind of been the opposite for Shota Imanaga. Last name on this list is Jackson Turyo, who stayed hot. He's in Corse Field right now, so obviously a great place to hit. Two-for-four with his ninth steal. Last 25 games, batting 333, four homers, 16-11. runs, 18 RBI, two steals, just a 15% strikeout rate during that time. Still hitting way too many ground ball rate, ground balls,

58% during this stretch. But I think it's happening, Chris. I think if he can just raise that launch angle a little bit, get that ground ball rate to 50% in the second half, I really think that we could see just a big breakout second half for Jackson Trio. Yeah, I mean, we talked about him last week, and I think Scott was a little skeptical of, the apparent turnaround with Turyo.

And I think it's reasonable, right? Like, you know, he, like you said, he's still hitting the ball on the ground way too often. Is he playing like every day? Let's see. He's played like 21 of the past 22. He started 22 of the past like, looks like 27 or 28 games for the brewer. So not quite every day, but, you know, around 85 to 80% of the games.

That's fine. He has started eight straight, so maybe the fact that he's like really picking things up now, they're just, they're letting him loose. I think it's probably unlikely that he's going to be much of a power threat the rest of the way. And it's been, someone asked me about this on Twitter the other day about the lack of stolen bases for Jackson Turyone. And one thing I noticed is baseball reference has a stat called Stolen Base Opportunities. That is just, I think it's just the amount of times that a player has been on base with a, an open base in front of them on first or second. And Jackson Churio's attempts per stolen base opportunity was basically identical to Jake Bowers,

his teammate, who is 49th percentile in sprint speed, Jackson Churio, a little bit faster than Jake Bauer. So that's been a weird one where, you know, you've got this team that's let Bryce Terang run wild and has, you know, a handful of other guys who are running a ton. Christian Yelich, I think, has like a 15% stolen base per stolen base opportunity rate. Churios was like 11%. So I expect him to run more. I'm not quite sure why he hasn't been.

It's not like he hasn't been thrown out on the base as a ton. He hasn't been picked off. There's no reason that I can see for why Jackson Churio hasn't been running more. So that is the one thing that as the season goes on, I do expect Jackson Churio is going to start running a lot more. And if he, you know, even if the power doesn't come, if he can be a 275-ish hitter, I think he's going to be a very useful fantasy option. 97th percentile sprint speed for Jackson Trillo. That can should be running a lot more.

A little bit faster than Jake Powers, as you pointed out. Yeah, I think it's going to happen, man. If you're playing a deeper league or a five outfielder league, I would be putting offers in now to try and get Jackson Trio on my fantasy team. Let's get into some of the leftovers from Tuesday and Bobby Miller had his best start since coming off the IL. I do say that loosely. It wasn't a great start,

but it was his best start since returning up against the D-backs. Five innings, two runs, three walks to four strikeouts. He had 10 whiffs on 90 pitches, leaned a little bit more on the four seam and the sinker in this start. He does have exactly three walks in each of his three starts since returning from the IL. So I don't think he's right yet. his velocity was also down in the start, so that's a little bit scary.

But what is your takeaway? Does this start make you feel a little bit better, or the velocity being down? You're still kind of worried. Where are you at on Bobby Miller? I'm going to be honest. This is one where when you look at the box score at the end of the game, it's like, that wasn't bad. Actually watching it, it was pretty rough. You know, the velocity was way down, and it's not like it seemed to be a conscious decision where he was, you know, trading some velocity for better command. He was bouncing pitches. He walked three and five innings. I'm not dropping Bobby Miller, certainly, but I'm still not coming out of this start thinking, yeah, that's a guy I can rely on in my starting lineup moving forward. I may have had to start him

in one league because I didn't have another option, but my preference at this point is to sit Bobby Miller until I see, until he gives me a start that's really worth getting excited about. and that's not something we've seen from him yet. Okay, let's talk about a few other pitchers that we feel much better about. There was a pitcher's duel out in Seattle. It's time to do. George Kirby up against Grayson Rodriguez, and George Kirby, six and a third innings, two runs, five strikeouts,

had 14 whiffs on 95 pitches. Last seven starts for Kirby, a 187 ERA, a 0.92 whip, and Grayson Rodriguez was even better on the other side. Six and a third shutout, eight strikeouts had nine. 19 whiffs on 105 pitches. Nine starts since returning from the IL for Grace and Rodriguez. 329 ERA, a 110 whip over a strikeout per inning. Chris, your latest thoughts on Grod and Kirby.

Yeah, Kirby, he's throwing that slider more often, right? That's been the change that he's made lately. And I think it's a good pitch. I don't think it's like this overwhelming swing and miss pitch, But, you know, it's an approach that's working for him, certainly. And he's remained in my top 15, top 12 range at starting pitcher, despite, you know, what's been at times a rocky season. I feel very good about him moving forward. I still don't.

Like, you know, there were people who were ranking him and drafting him as a top five starting pitcher coming into the season. I still don't see that. I don't think the strikeouts are going to be there. They haven't been so far. But there's a lot to like about him. He's a very, very good pitch. I think he's just a little below the top tier. The only thing I'll add on Kirby is that he did throw his curveball a lot more in the start.

18% usage. That was the 6% entering. So tripled the curveball usage. It was a good pitch for him in this one. And perhaps that will be the next change we see from George Kirby. Already throwing a slider more. Maybe he's going to start to use that curve ball a little bit more as well. Some other pitching leftovers, Cutter Crawford, a strong start at the Marlins.

six innings, one run, seven strikeouts had 16 whiffs on 72 pitches. So really efficient here. They didn't bring them back out for the seventh. That is a 22% swinging strike rate for Cutter Crawford in this start. Terrick Scuba, a quality start up against the twin six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. He had 14 whiffs on 94 pitches. Has looked a little bit more human recently, but the underlying numbers are still fantastic for Terrick Scuba. And Nathan Avaldi was awesome up against the Padres, seven shutout innings, one hit, six strikeouts, only seven whiffs on 92 pitches, but obviously a great start for him. Chris, anything on Avaldi, Scuba, and Cutter Crawford? I have zero concerns about Terrick Scoobald. If his bad stretch is a 4.24

ERA and 1.07 whip with a strikeout per inning, yeah, zero concerns about that. We've seen a lot worse from from pitchers at their worst this season of all the i don't know i mean we go through this every year and he has these stretches where he looks completely dominant he has these stretches where he looks like a must start pitcher and then he has stretches where generally speaking as the season goes on he pitches much worse and that there tend to be some injury concerns and there tend to be times that he has to miss time all and all i i don't want to like i'm going to be wary of moving Nathan of Aldi too high in my rankings because, you know, we're waiting for the other shoe to drop and we know how inconsistent he's been throughout his career. But, you know, when he's

going well, I think it's perfectly fine to start him. And it just, you know, both of all the and Cutter Crawford, I think my main takeaway, if I can, you know, oversimplify for a second, is just these pitchers are why the bench exists, right? Like, when things are going poorly for Cutter Crawford as they were in May, I believe. He had a, or no, June. He, or May and June, actually. He had an ERA of like 4.85. He has still thrown at least six innings and seven of his past 10 starts.

Now, he's been remarkably efficient, remarkably consistent in terms of how deep he's pitching into games. And that leaves you with a decent chance for a win, a quality start, and strikeout totals, even when things aren't going well. And of all the, you know, it hasn't been quite as dependable. in that way, but I think both of these guys are just, when they're going well, they're easy starts, when they're not going well, or the matchup's not great, I think you go ahead and sit them. I don't think these are Cuttercropper or Nathan Avaldi are really guys you

should at all consider benching. They're not necessarily guys I would be looking to go out and add, you know, coming off good starts, but I think they're, they're very useful pitchers for any fantasy team. Yeah, I think as long as the velocity is there for Avaldi, he's a really serviceable pitcher. 315 ERA a 108 whip gets a lot of ground balls right at a strikeout per inning. Should have a good offense, you know, in terms of run support.

So as long as the VLO's there, I think of all these really good, but as we've seen, I think each of the past two or three years, it's usually that the velocity. He just always ends up right around a 380. Yeah. 3.7, 3.8, like three or four years in a row. He's been, it's one of those

ones where it doesn't feel consistent on the way there. But the end results pretty much always look the same. Yeah, 372, 375, 387, 363. And now he's down to what, 318 so far this season? I think you can look at the past few years and just kind of extrapolate as to where he's likely to end up. Some hitting leftovers. Luis Robert had a huge game on Tuesday,

2 for 4 with a sock and a shoe, his 10th homer, his fourth steel, 25 games since returning from the IL. only batting 215 the power and speed has been there eight homers three steals lots of strikeouts did you see the final play of that game that was weird like he wasn't going to throw the guy out no he wasn't but I mean but it was weird that he just didn't throw it the optics man that is bad that is so if you didn't see it uh I think it was one out in the ninth runner on third base and it was under simon as a very fast runner and it was like medium deep he's probably like 270 feet away from home plate.

There was no chance Louise Robert was going to throw this guy out. I don't think Ichiro. Roberto Clemente might have, but nobody else. It was a pretty tough play. He didn't even throw it. He just caught it and then just like, well, and that's not great. It was awkward. I wonder if maybe he lost his footing a little bit, but still, I don't,

I don't want to make excuses for the guy. It was, it's a bad look. I mean, look, the White Sox are really bad. I wonder if that's kind of weighing on Luis Robert. He's been subject to some trade rumors too, so we'll see what happens. But yeah, that was not the best look for him or the White Sox. Alec Berluson continues to hit. He went two for five with his 13th home run.

Jaron DeRan continues his breakout season, one for four with a sock and a shoe, his 10th homer, his 21st steal. I think I moved him up to outfielder 10 in Roto, which I don't know. It might be too aggressive, Chris, but he is the breakout in the outfield, right? He's just been so good, Jaron Duran. And yeah, I don't see any reason why not to rank him ahead of Adolus Garcia, who struggled for the past month and a half, or Randy Rosa Rana, who's had a down season.

So I think Jaronne has earned that right. So I've moved him all the way up. I've moved him to, I think it's 14. So he is still behind Adoles and Carl, Kyle Schwarz. Adolice and Randy Orozerana, as well as Fernando Tassiz and Kyle Schwarber, although obviously those guys being hurt, makes it a little tougher to know exactly where to put them, especially Tatis,

because his timetable seems completely up in the air. And if you wanted to rank Duran ahead of him, I think that's totally reasonable. We'll talk about this tomorrow. I finally, I moved Christian Yelich ahead of Corby and Carol. And I moved Christian Yelch into my first two rounds. Nice. All right. Yeah, that was a conversation that Scott and I had yesterday is,

at what point do we move Yelich ahead of Carol and Julio? because Yelich has been really, really good. I didn't do it with Julio, but he's within striking distance of Julio Rodriguez now. All right, make it back-to-back games with a home run for Yorana Alvarez. He hit his 18th of the season. Elliot Ramos continues to hit as well. Two for four with a walk and his 11th homer.

Trey Turner had a huge night, three for five with a double dong, four RBI, and Brenton Doyle did it again. Two for three with his 10th homer, two RBI. so far this week, he has played two games in Coorsfield. He has five hits, three homers, four runs, five RBI, and one seal. You know, I write a little like, hey, here's what you need to know about the schedule for the week 15 preview or every week's preview newsletter every Monday.

Where, you know, I do Scott's top schedules and all that. And obviously the big story this week was the Rockies playing seven games. I think I completely blanked on Brent and Doyle as one of the Rockies players. to get in your lineup. I just didn't think of it. And he's having a pretty good week. He has had a good week already. If he goes hitless the rest of the week,

this will have been a good week to start Brenton Doyle. Yeah. So, yeah, that's a little frustrating. Updated numbers in Corysfield for Doyle, 338 batting average, six homers, 965 OPS at home for Brendan Doyle. Some bullpen updates for the Cardinal. those Ryan Helsley struck out one for his league leading 31st save for the Blue Jays.

Chad Green got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit, but struck out two for his third save. 24% rostered if you are looking for some short-term save options. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz, has really turned his season around, so credit to him. He struck out one for his 18th save. For the Giants, Camillo DeVal struck out two for his 15th. For the twins, Yawain Duron, struck out one for his 13th save. For the Phillies, Jose Ruiz started the ninth inning with a five-run lead. He gave up three runs on three hits without recording an out. He was relieved by Jeff Hoffman, who struck out two for his seventh save.

Hoffman 33% rostered. I believe he has two saves in a row. I thought it was weird that Jose Alvarado didn't get the opportunity because he didn't pitch since Saturday. But I wonder if it was something where maybe Hoffman was warming up before and they had the big lead and they didn't think it was going to be a save opportunity. opportunity and then they gave up all those runs in the night. So they just went with Hoffman. I'm making excuses. But yeah, I think it's kind of like a co-closer role right now for the Phillies regardless.

Yeah, I don't think it's like, yeah, we have one closer, you know, but I would still think moving forward, Jose Alvarado is more likely than Jeff Hoffman to get the next one. And, and I do wonder if it's just they, they didn't want to get Alvarado up in a, you know, in the middle of an inning, you know, in a tough situation. like that. Hoffman might just have a little more experience being used that way this year. I don't, I haven't looked at the game logs. I don't know if that's true, but that was my first thought. It doesn't seem particularly alarming, given that it was someone else who started the fifth and it was putting out a fire. Yeah. So Alvarado has 12 saves and Hoffman has seven. Yeah. If you had to divvy up just a percentage of what they get of their team saves moving forward, how would you do it? Top of the dome, I'd say 50, 35, and then the rest is, you know, the random two-inning, say even a blowout and whatever,

other situations where someone else gets a save. Yeah, I think that makes sense. For the Rockies, Jalen Beaks pitched a clean eighth inning with the game tied. The Rockies then took a one-run lead. With Tyler Kinley unavailable, Nick Mears got the ninth. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks.

He took his second blown save and fourth boss. I just don't want to think about the Rockies' save situation. Do not do it. And on the other side for the Brewers, Trevor McGill got the bottom. of the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit, but struck out two for his 18 save. And what a job, man. Trevor McGill does to come in, and he's had a stellar season. It sucks that it's going to come to an end. Once Devin Williams is back now, anything can happen.

Back injury is pretty serious. We're obviously not hoping that, you know, something creeps back up. But it is a possibility. So even once Devin Williams returns, I don't think you should drop Trevor McGill. I would wait a couple of weeks for Trevor McGill. because we've seen several times this season, not just closers, but pitchers come back from injuries and they just aren't the same right away. So while I do fully expect if Devin Williams is healthy and is himself that he will be the closer, there are enough ifs there that I don't want to just get rid of Trevor McGill,

who has been outstanding so far this season. For the Orioles, Craig Kimbril, struck out two for his 20th save. And then we had a lot happen in that Dodgers and Debacks game. Evan Phillips got the ninth inning with the game tied. He gave up a solo homer to Jock Peterson. So it was a one-run lead for the D-backs going into the bottom of the ninth. Paul Seawald gave up two runs on three hits.

He took his first blown save and first loss of the season. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday. I think the top options, we have Brian Bayo at the Marlins, Christian Scott at the Nationals, Mitchell Parker versus the Mets, Andrew Abbott. I don't think so. Andrew Abbott at the Yankees.

We're going to come on here on Wednesday night, and we're going to talk about, I can't believe Andrew Abbott did it again. You're going to play the drop from Breaking Bad and all that stuff because he's going to have, you know, four hits, one earned run over five and two-thirds innings with three strikeouts tonight. It's going to be,

we're going to be so mad. Yeah. A couple other options, David Festa facing the Tigers, Michael Waka facing the Rays, and Davis Daniel at the Oakland days. Who are your two or three favorites? I think it's Beyo at Miami and Christian Scott at Washington by a healthy margin.

After that, I'd probably go. I like Waka. I like Festa versus Detroit. And I would not be surprised at all. Davis Daniel had a good start. It's Oakland. Yep. On Thursday, some options.

Jose Cantana at the Nationals, Andre Palante at the Pirates. Frankie Montas at the Yankees, revenge game. Drew Thorpe at the Guardians, Ben Liley versus the White Sox. We have JP Series versus the Angels, Albert Swares at the Mariners, Alec Marsh versus Tampa Bay, Landon Nack versus D-Backs. There are some options on July 4th. I wish I had some confidence that the Dodgers would let Landon Nack, you know, throw a complete, or a quality start if he's going well,

but we haven't seen much indication of that. So my favorite here is probably Ben lively. Yeah. And then, honestly, it might be Albert Suarez at the Mariners. Yeah, I think that makes sense. Lively versus the White Sox. Suarez at the Mariners. And if I had to choose one more,

I probably would say landed Nack versus. Yeah, I think NACs. Thorpe has had a couple decent starts, but I just wouldn't trust it against Cleveland, especially with very little strikeout upside from what we've seen. I agree. We are going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank.

Thanks as always for tuning in some fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again. tomorrow. Bye-bye. Podcasts.