Fantasy Baseball Today - Zack Gelof Keeps Mashing, Waiver Wire Moves & Start/Sit Decisions (8/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

Zack Gelof hit two more homers on Sunday (2:30). ... Dane Dunning has been sneaky good (9:11)! ... Gavin Williams is the top waiver wire pitcher from the weekend (15:40). ... Which other pitchers should we add (19:00)? Is it time to drop Reid Detmers? ... Keibert Ruiz or Cal Raleigh (28:25)? ... Do we start or sit names like Jesus Luzardo, Chris Sale and Charlie Morton this week (35:45)? ... News (45:04): we have an update on Wander Franco. ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (51:50). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ 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. 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, and Chris. What's up and welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, August 14th. Hope everybody had a fantastic weekend.

I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Zach Geloff continues to mash. Gavin Williams is heating up back-to-back double-digit strikeout. Starts for him, other waiver wire moves, and start or sit decisions. Before we get started, help us out by liking this video and subscribing on YouTube if you haven't already. And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Chris, how did it feel when your Marlins had one of the best comebacks of the season against the Yankees on Sunday? That was phenomenal stuff.

I don't know if you saw my my videos on Twitter, Frank. You should go check them out. I put the Marlins walk off win to some choice musical highlights. Because, you know, everybody remembers the Scott Stapp Marlins song. You know, come on Marlins make us for, you know, we all know that one. They also had a Pitbull song that is not as ridiculous as the Scott Stap one, but it's really ridiculous and it was fun to go through the archives and find those. Yeah,

they're alive. Yankees not so much. No, it's a rough go. I mean, look, I'm kind of a salty Yankees fan, so anytime I get to kind of, I don't know, stick the knife in the Yankees and then kind of turn it, I like to do that, but anyway, no one cares about the Yankees,

I'm sure. Both New York teams are in last place now, right? Oh, are the nationals ahead of the Mets now? It was close when I checked the other day. Ah, no, I think. Hey. Yeah. They're full game or half a game. Full game or half a game?

Half a game. Half a game ahead. Yep. It's a rough year. Rough year out in New York. Anywho, let's talk baseball. Holy Toledo. The element of surprise,

Brains Supreme. Scotty, you're up. Player of the weekend. All right. My player of the weekend, mostly because of his contribution Sunday is Zach Gelloff

Hit two home runs Sunday on a four for five day huge performance in the month of August now he's batting 366 with five home runs one stolen base has eight home runs in six stolen bases overall and just a little more than

a hundred plate appearances so he's been great he's been great since coming up to the majors and look you look at his surface level numbers at AAA they were great too under the hood. It's really not so great. I've been saying this all along,

and maybe Galloff will just continue to prove me wrong, but I'm trying to be disciplined here because I feel like whenever I back off, whenever I relent to the guy with bad data who is putting up good stats, I almost always end up regretting it. So I'm trying to be careful. And let me tell you exactly,

what I'm talking about with Zach Gelloff. So his 95th percentile exit velocity at AAA was lower than Luis Matos's even, who of course, is, you know, for all the good numbers he put up at AAA, has had a lot of trouble hitting the ball hard. Zach Gelloff's zone contact rate is about as low. low as I, at AAA, I'm saying, is about as low as I've ever seen, 74%. I don't know exactly where that ranked among all minor league hitters, but I can tell you there is not a qualifying major league batter with a zone contact rate that low.

And then if you look at his numbers since entering the majors, he basically has the same issues, that zone contact rate for Zach Gelloff as a major leagher, also about 74%. So what that means is he's swinging in. missing a lot at pitches he should hit in the zone. So he misses a lot of hitable balls. And relative to the league as a whole, his high quality contact isn't especially high quality. So that seems like a bad combination because I do think, I do think history, especially recent

history, has shown that you can overcome really bad. swing and miss tendencies if you make highly impactful contact when you do make contact. But can you do it without that? I'm skeptical. I'm very skeptical. I'm glad Zach Gelloff is hot right now, but I'm afraid that's all it is. If there is, if you are looking for a positive spin on Zach Gelloff, I can tell you, and this is true both in the minors and major so far, high line drive rate, high fly ball rate, high pull rate. So he may angle the ball in such a way that he gets maximum benefit out of the contact he does make.

But I'm struggling to think of a comp for that who has all of these things going on in the way Zach Galloff does. So I was able to, I pulled up prospects live. They have the AAA Stackass leaderboards. And I set the pitch minimum for 500. So guys who have seen 500 pitches. Gelloff, he was like bottom probably 25 in in zone contact rate, which is pretty bad when you're talking about 411 qualifying players. He was just ahead of Jared Walsh, I guess, who has played a significant amount at AAA.

But yeah, nobody below him, 74% in zone contact rate. Christopher Morel was at 73.6. Obviously, his quality of contact is much. better. Luke Voigt. Old friend Luke Voigt, 70.3%. Bobby Dalbeck, kind of the same thing. Gerard incarnacion. Bobby Dalbeck. You're naming a lot of guys who washed out of the major. Well, and Bobby Dalbeck's kind of a useful example for the downside because he has much more raw power than Zach Galoff and obviously never worked out as a major league. or Galloff in the majors, his in zone contact rate, 73.5%.

It hasn't gotten worse. And there are some relevant names below him. Minimum 100 plate appearances, Joey Gatto, Chris Taylor, Matt Wallner, Jose Siri, and Joey Gallup have worse in zone contact rates. But again, Joey Gallo has. Joey Gallo. I mean, at this point, 65 grade raw power, maybe 70 grade raw power, but still very, very high end. Jose Siri, Jose Siri is probably the close.

his comp because Jose Siri doesn't like crush the ball. He just hits the ball to the pull side a lot, hits the ball in the air, but his average XIVa velocities are are relatively middling and he's also a guy who is hitting 216. So, you know. And there are some built in disadvantages for for Gelluff that aren't even true for somebody like Siri. Bad lineup, bad ballpark.

I guess Siri's ballpark isn't great either. Yeah. Really the lineup is you can't get much worse. there than what Gelloff is in. Having said all that, I mean, I'm a realist. It's late in the season. If you're looking for middle infield help off the waiver wire, it's slim pickings. Why not pick up the red hot hitter who could also steal you some bases?

I'm fine with that. I'm just saying exercise caution because it could, I do predict it'll slow down at some point. And I have no way of predicting exactly when that point will be. Again, this is Zach Gelloff. talking about a four-hit game with two home runs on Sunday. The plate discipline, very scary. He had a 17% swinging tricrate entering Sunday's action as well. But I noticed the same thing, Scott.

When he puts the ball in the air, he's lifting the ball. His average exit velocity is still pretty good. His hard hit rate is good. So I think he's just maximizing when he hits the ball. He's lifting it and he's pulling it. And obviously, that's working out very well for Zach Gooff right now. I agree. In leagues with a middle infield spot, yes,

head to head points leagues probably still too shallow, maybe as like a utility hitter or something like that. If you're just looking for one of the hottest hitters in baseball right now, it's Zach Loff, and he's on the waiver wire. So 38% rostered, go out and see if he is available. Chris, let's go over to you. You're a player of the weekend.

Is what Dane Dunning's doing the most unexpected run that a pitcher has gone on this season? I mean, we've had, this has been, I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but I feel like this has been one of the more difficult seasons to predict in terms of individual pitcher performance. Maybe the most. It just,

it feels like we don't really know who's good and who's bad. Well, you get randomly a good pitcher will just draw the short straw for the day and give a big runs. Like on Sunday it was Eduardo Rodriguez earlier in the weekend, Jesus Lazzardo. Yeah. Yeah. Dane Dunning had 12 strikeouts in seven innings.

He had six strikeouts and six innings. The previous start, 11 in 7 and 2. thirds the start before that. That means, if I'm doing my math in my head correctly, he has 29 strikeouts over his past three starts. To give some context as to how unlikely this stretch has been, in his 10 starts prior to this most recent three starts, he had 36 strikeouts. That was two months. And he had seven more strikeouts than he has in his last three starts. I haven't really, I don't know if you guys have, I haven't seen a good explanation for,

I guess there's the why and the how, right? Because the why is actually pretty straightforward. If you look at the game log, I think he had, what, 15 swinging strikes on his slider today? Some bonkers number, his slider has just been ridiculous. 12. 12 of 23 total swinging strikes. The cutter has been getting a ton of swings and misses lately.

He hardly threw that today, though. It was mostly the cutter responsible for the first double-digit strikeout two starts ago. And then it was mostly the slider on this one. But yeah, his cutter swing and miss rate, his whiff rate, which is with swinging strikes per swing. Always confusing when we get into those distinctions. But his cutter whiff rate in the month of August is like 60%. His slider whiff rate is like 50%. The first four months of the season, Dane Dunning's slider whiff rate was 25.

which is pretty below, that's probably below average. I think average for a slider is about 28%. I don't know. There's no velocity jump here. There's not really a change in the shape of the pitch that I've seen. I don't really have a good. I don't want to point on one thing I noticed. And I noticed it with a few pitchers this weekend in particular.

So I mentioned, well, we both mentioned, I guess, that his slider was responsible for a large percentage of his whiffs in this start. His slider was down 1.2 miles per hour. And we've talked about that phenomenon with Chase Silseth a couple months ago, redebtors, who I know has been horrible lately. But there were a handful of pitchers like that.

Their slider specifically was down a little over a mile per hour and was super effective for them. Julio Arias is an example from this weekend. Let's see, Arkiti's velocity on both his off-speed pitches was down. There are several examples. I just don't have them listed here, one after another.

And so I wonder if there's something to that. I wonder if the league as a whole has discovered that. Because for a while, it seemed like the harder slider was trending. And now, since we're seeing it repeatedly, a pitcher takes a mile per off his slider and then starts getting more whiffs with it. I just wonder if there's something to do that. Yeah, I mean, one of the things,

one of the things that's really interesting about Major League Baseball right now is like, slider no longer has one meaning. There's like four different types of sliders that different guys throw. It's kind of a tough pitch to talk about as if it's just one pitch, because like, Dane Dunning has experimented with the gyro slider.

He's experimented with a more sweepy slider, which is all just to say that I don't know what's gotten into Dane. It looked like he was turning back into a pumpkin before this three-start stretch. You know, his ERA in. I thought he was out of the job. They acquired two starting pitchers. And instead, he's now turned in arguably the best stretch of his career, certainly in terms of strikeout.

So this is a lot of time to spend to get to the conclusion that I don't know. Like I just, I have no idea. I don't think Dane Dunning's good. I don't see how you can sit him for his next start right now. It's really hard to, that's a really hard thing to get your mind around because I'm trying to, it's, it's like Scott said with Zach Gelloff. We're trying to identify talent and project talent moving forward. And I don't think Dane Dunning's a, within the context of major league pitchers, obviously, a particularly talented pitcher. But right now what he's doing, if it's real at all, there's no way you can sit him.

But if he gives up five runs in his next outling, I also wouldn't be surprised at all. Yeah, I think that's the only actionable question is he's 70% started. He's 97% rostered, obviously. So there is room for people to get him in their lineup still. So he's at home against the Milwaukee Brewers this week. They're 23rd in Wobo against right-handed pitching. That sounds like a start Dane Dunning, right? I think so.

I do want to also mention real quick with Dane Dunning. When he first came up for the White Sox, I forget what year it was several years ago. He first came up for the White Sox. And he looked like a bat mister, kind of surprisingly because he wasn't known for that in the minors. And there was kind of Dane Dunning mania there for a month or so, and then it just kind of went away.

And I know the slider was largely responsible for it then, and I just wonder if maybe he, maybe whatever he was doing then, he's figured out again. But the movement profile doesn't look that different. That's the, there's no good explanation for it. Yeah. It looks like we're going to have to be reading some Lance Bresdowski tweets on Monday. I was frantically searching his timeline earlier, and I haven't seen any explanation for it. Let's talk about Gavin Williams.

my player of the weekend here. Back-to-back starts with double-digit strikeouts. He was at Tampa Bay. He allowed one run over five innings with 10 strikeouts to zero walks, 19 swinging strikes on 87 pitches. And his fastball is quickly looking like an elite pitch. 14 of his 19 swinging strikes on the four-scene fastball in this start. And so far it has a 207 batting average against 29% whiff rate.

To put this into perspective of just good pitches, right? in terms of getting swing and miss. Dane Dunning slider we were just talking about has a 30% whiff rate. Gavin Williams' fastball has a 29%. You don't normally see a fastball that high. It's even a good fastball. It's like maybe it's 20% whiff rate, 25%.

29% on a fastball is really, really good for Gavin Williams. And all of a sudden, his overall season line, a 2.80 ERA, a 1.17 whip over a strikeout per inning. He's up to 76% rostered, could be out there in some shallower leagues facing the Tigers this week, Scott. I think that of all the pitchers that I'm going to mention that are available in terms of, you know,

waiver wire options, I think Gavin William should be the number one priority given the prospect pedigree the way he's pitching right now. Yeah, I would say so too. And, you know, a lot of it is just his velocity, has gone up here in recent starts. And I did see something from him. You know, a typical thing you hear from a young pitcher.

He was, he felt like he was kind of nils. and he was convinced by the Guardians coaching staff to just air it out that your stuff is too good, that major, you know, all those cliches. But, you know, if you see a, if you see improved production and not up to in velocity, it would kind of lend credence to the idea that Gavin Williams was pitching kind of scared, trying to be a little too fine instead of just airing it out. And this is, if this is what airing it out looks like for him and given his prospect pedigree, that wouldn't be surprising either.

then yeah, we could be in for a very strong finish for him. And there's room for him. I don't know if like better than what is it, two consecutive starts with double-tigestrikeouts. That's pretty good. We're probably not going to do much better than that. But the slider and curveball whiff rates have not been great yet. And that was something that he, I'm trying to find it.

Because I remember when I was doing the research, when he got called up, One of the pitches was his out-of-the-zone whiff pitch. Yeah, the curveball. He hasn't quite figured out how to get the whiffs on the curveball yet, but it was 46% in the minor. So that's one that, you know, if he figures out how to throw that out of the zone more consistently,

I think is the biggest thing for him and get more chases. That could be a second swing and miss pitch. Because right now, the slider, whiff rate 29%. That's right around Spencer Strider's fastball whiff. which is about, you know, not as good as you can get, but it's like 12th in the majors. The slider and curveball are closer to average. And so there could be room for him to get even better with, you know, the rest of the arsenal. Again, that is Gavin Williams, 76% rostered facing the Tigers this week.

Number one priority in terms of waiver wire pitchers. Let's talk about some other names that could be in this vicinity. Again, I don't think anyone's going to challenge Gavin Williams, but let's find out. Chase Silseth turned in another. solid start at the Astros this weekend, five shutout innings with five strikeouts for him. Stephen Mats has pitched very well over the past month or so. He was at the Royals, six innings, two runs,

five strikeouts. His last five starts, a 1.24 ERA, a 0.86 whip for Stephen Mats. And J.P. France, another strong start for him, facing the Angels, seven innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts there. He's got a 274 ERA, a one-two-one whip, 77% roster. It looks like he's facing the Mariners this week. Chris, I'll throw this one your way.

How would you rank Silseth, Mats, and J.P. France. I would go Silseth, France, Matt. I don't really understand what Stephen Mats is doing, but I feel like we go, we've had stretches like this from him in the past and then they go away. So I don't want to buy in too much. But Silseth especially and France, to a lesser extent, are, you know, they've got a little bit of the aura of the mystery box to them. And, you know, Silseth in particular has been very impressive.

the last handful of starts. So I would give him the edge here. You know, he's got the good strikeout rate, gets a lot of ground balls, walks have been an issue for him at times. But I think Silseth is a pretty interesting pitcher. Silseth, Matt's in France. Really, Gavin Williams, too.

They're all among my sleeper pitchers for this week. So if you need somebody to pick up and play, they would all be fine. For Silseth, I will point out that his best start was his previous one. and remember he got a lot of whiffs with his splitter. I don't know where he pointed out the changes in his slider already. He pretty much put away the splitter in this most recent start.

It may have just been a start where it was on like crazy because he only got two whiffs on 21% splitters in this most recent start at Houston. I also want to mention for JP France. This was his first start after. his brief removal from the rotation. So they kind of just let him work out of the bullpen for one turn and then put him back in. They're doing that with Hunter Brown next time through.

Hunter Brown's getting a week in the bullpen, basically. And then they plan to bring it back in the rotation. So rather than having like a true six-man rotation, the Astros seem to be building and rest for each of their starters this way, just kind of removing them for a turn, letting him work out the bullpen if need be. I think they did it for Christian Javier, the first, all of them, right?

I think he did that right. I think so, yeah. Yeah. So that's how they're handling their starter surplus. So, you know, you may have been like, oh, I got to drop JP Francie's in the bullpen now. It's just, obviously just a short-term thing. It might have been like a lefties versus right-ease thing with the splitter for Chase Sillset. That's what I'm looking at.

But, like, Astros have four lefties in their lineup today. So I'm not sure that explains it. Okay. with Stephen Mats, I'll point out. It is a revenge game this week facing the New York Mets. They are pretty bad against left-handed pitching. So I agree with Scott in terms of sleeper pitchers for this week. It's a good matchup coming up here for Stephen Mats.

Hunter Brown. Again, Scott just mentioned not going to make a start this week. Don't drop him. Just make sure to get him out of your lineups. Waiverwire pitchers part two. Ranger Suarez turned in a quality start up against the twins, six and a third innings. Two runs eight strikeouts with 14 swinging strikes.

Jose Kentana, another quality start against the Braves, very impressive, six innings, one run, four strikeouts for him. Christopher Sanchez, a quality start as well, six innings, two runs, five strikeouts against the twins. You know, it's, I'm like, do we even mention starts against the twins anymore?

I feel like they're so bad and they strike out so much, but I mean, hey, they're good starts for Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. Brandon Williamson, I mentioned him last week. He continues to pitch well over his last six starts. He's a 3.15 ERA and a 105.

WIP and Hyunjin Ryu solid start this weekend, five innings, two unerned runs with three strikeouts there. Scott, lots of names here, five names. Give me your three favorites. Ryu, Williamson, Christopher Sanchez, Kintana, and Ranger Suarez. I'll say Suarez, Kintana, Sanchez, and mostly because I think they're the three most likely to give you quality starts with any consistency. Kintana's thrown force, straight with six innings, which is very encouraging to see from him. Because, like last year, he pitched pretty well all year, but it just didn't work deep enough into games to be hugely impactful in fantasy.

And I don't think he can be hugely impactful in fantasy now, pitching for the Mets. But he can be a solid streamer stabilizer type. Would you be okay dropping Reed Detmer's for any of these names that we've mentioned, Scott, all of them, some of them? He's got an ERA over 10 over his last six starts. I know. Like, well, that's, you know, I brought up the taking something off the slider. And like I said, he sort of led the charge with that.

And it's, you know, he's continued to do that. It's not like his velocity on the slider who's ticked back up. And that's why he struggled. It just stopped working for him. And I don't know that the rise or fall was necessarily tied to that. But yeah, 1030 ERA, 193, whip in his last six starts. There's no way you can trust Reed Detmer's now. And I don't know what it'll take to trust him before the season is over. I don't have a lot of confidence in

Williamson or Ryu, but I certainly wouldn't criticize anybody for dropping Detmer's for either of them. Two names in deeper leagues. I had some bids in on these two in my 15 team leagues. Javier Assad, great start at the Blue Jays on Friday. Seven innings, one run, two strikeouts for him. And Scott, correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't see or hear how to pronounce this guy's name. Is it Alan Wynens? It is. Wynens.

Okay. So Alan Wynens made a start for the Braves. Not sure that he'll remain in the Braves rotation. They have been using Yanni Torinos. He's not very good. So maybe they'll give this kid a shot. But he dominated the Mets. Seven shutout innings, nine strikeouts.

He had 15 swinging strikes. On 111 pitches, they just rode this kid. They let him go out there and do his thing. Kid. He's like two years younger than you. Yeah, but come on. He's a kid. It was the 21 to 3 game that he started. He better have given them seven innings.

Chris, any interest in deeper leagues? Javier Assad, Alan Wynens. I mean, Wynan's minor league numbers aren't uninteresting, except that he's 27. There's like something, Scott, maybe you know the story, but there was something in his story that caused him to be like a relatively older prospect, right?

I actually don't know the story. Okay. No, I think he recently turned 28 even, so you were giving him too much credit. But yeah, I mean, so the minor league numbers are a... Sub 3ERA overall. 279, 103 Whip. It's like 8K per 9, but the swinging strike rate is better than you'd expect for 8K per 9. So I would like...

I've seen enough of Yanni Chorinos that I'd like for them to give Wynanzaa shot at this point. I would bet against him being an impactful fantasy player, but he only needs to be decent to have fantasy value without offense backing him. Yes, it's actually like ridiculous. The Braves need to stop. Can someone in their lineup slump? Like, Michael Harris wasn't good in April, and basically that's it. Everyone has just crushed the ball all year long.

It's ridiculous. It is crazy. And more this weekend. My man, Matt Olson, three more homers. Austin Riley hit two home runs this week. weekend. Ozzy Albies had a pair of socks and shoes, two homers, two steals. I mean, their lineup is just going insane.

Left the game today, but. Yeah. Hopefully it's all right. It sounds like hamstring cramping. They were kind of playing it safe. So we'll see what happens with Ozzy Albies. I just want to point out an oh my goodness gracious, I guess, sequence of the weekend from Sunday.

Cedric Mullins, what he did in the ninth and tenth innings of that game was insane. He robbed a game tying home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. The next batter actually. hit a game tying home run. So it didn't feel as impactful. One of one of the bat flips of the season by the way by Dominic Kenzone that was I got to check it out. That was an incredible like he crushed that ball and pimped the hell out of it deservedly so. It was awesome. Yeah. So the game was then tied going into the 10th inning. Cedric Mullins comes up. It's a go ahead to run homer in the 10th and just

to rob a home run and then the next inning hit a game go ahead home run. It's just awesome superstar stuff there from Cedric Mullins. Let's take our first break when we return waiver wire hitters from the weekend. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back into fantasy baseball today. A quick reminder to sign up for our fantasy baseball today newsletter. It's free and you can find it at cbsports.com slash newsletters if you're watching us live, scan that QR code and that will take you right to the website. And if you're getting ready for fantasy football, then you should sign up for the FFT newsletter to support Chris and help you get ready for all of your fantasy football drafts. Let's talk waiver wire hitters. We already

spoke about Zach Gelloff, who is one of the hotter hitters in the game right now. As is Cabert Ruiz. He's doing big things here in the second half. He hit two more home runs this weekend. I was very skeptical of an optimistic power projection for Cabot Ruiz coming into the year. I think most projection systems had him for mid-teens in the home runs. We haven't seen any indication that he was going to do that. And here we go. He's already up to 14 home runs and it's August 13. So it quietly has been a very good season for Cabot-Ruiz. Scott, how would you rank this group, names we've talked about recently, Ruiz, M.J. Melendez, Cal Raleigh, and Yiner Diaz. I would rank them. I think I'm going to put Ruiz number one now. Certainly in points leagues.

You can maybe make the case for Cal Raleigh over him in Categories leagues. It's pretty close between those two in that format, I would say. And then who are the other two, Diaz and Melendez? Yeah. You know, it's funny. I mentioned. there were no qualifying batters in the majors, qualifying being a keyword there, no qualifying batters in the majors with a lower zone contact rate

than Zach Gelloff had in the minors? You know, who's lowest among qualifiers? It's MJ Melendez. Yeah, he's been pretty bad. And to add insult to injury, doesn't look like he's going to be catcher eligible next year. So I don't know. MJ Melendez, we hardly knew ye.

Yeah, might not be a third. top 500 fantasy player if he's not catcher eligible next year. I mean, it's been pretty bad. I don't know. Like, he still has potential. I don't want to write him off. But yeah, there's, there's not a lot to be optimistic about there. Yeah, Melendez has played better in the second half, but it's obviously a very small sample size compared to the larger sample that we have of his career, which has been pretty lackluster so far for M.J. Melendez. Maybe they figure out something to do with Salvador Perez. I mean, there were some whispers about them trading him around the deadline.

and maybe he just DHS. I know he's played first base here and there this season. And maybe that's a path to get Melendez back into catcher. But as of now, it does not look like he will have catcher eligibility for next season. Two outfielders from the weekend. Tommy Fam is heating back up. He hit a home run on Friday,

then had two hits and a stolen base on Saturday. He is one of Scott's sleeper hitters this week. I know the D-backs play, I believe, seven games, and they've got some of those in Cores Field. So obviously some great matchups. That's good matchups. But great matchups here for Tommy fam. Kerry Carpenter.

This next guy is in my sleeper hitters too. Oh, Carrie Carpenter, three home runs this weekend. That was entering Sunday. I'll pull up what he did on Sunday. But he had at least three home runs. And he's playing really well. 282 batting average for Carpenter, 15 homers and 855 OPS. He's playing every day now, even against left-handed pitching.

He is there. He is in the lineup and he is crushing it. Kerry Carpenter, 32% rostered. Scott, who do you have higher this week on the sleeper hitters? Tommy Pham? Carrie Carpenter. Carpenter, Carpenter actually.

Yeah, I think he's really good. Chris, who would you take? I know that you're a big Carrie Carpenter fan. Yeah, I mean, Carrie Carpenter, the thing is, like, they haven't given him a lot of opportunities against lefties. He hasn't been terrible against them, though.

And we always talk about that with young, left-handed hitters. And he's 25, so I guess we can still call him young, this kid. First full season. He's got a 748 OPS against lefties. It's 46 plate appearances. but only eight strikeouts.

It's like, it's nothing alarming yet. And I think that's the biggest thing. I would like to see him prove he can't hit lefties. And hopefully they'll give him that chance moving forward, because if he can just be a mid-700s OPS bad against lefties, you know, he might be an 850 OPS bat overall because he really hits righties well.

And plus, you're the Detroit Tigers, right? It's like, you got to give him a chance. That's what it never. made sense that they weren't playing him every day. Like, yeah. They weren't playing for anything in June. It's like,

who are you platooning him for? Eric Haas or Andy Abagnas? Come on, man. Let's just give Kerry Carpenter an everyday role, which right now it looks like he does have. So shout out to them. Very interesting time right now for Carrie Carpenter and Tommy Fam. Great matchups this week. Two names in deeper leagues.

John Singleton. Again, the, uh, the ghost of Nando Defino. His ears must be ringing. I know he loves John Singleton. John Stinkleton. Three for four with a double d'amando. Sorry. Three for four with a double dong on Friday.

Scott's like. Yeah, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. John Singleton. Three for four with a double dong. Two homers on Friday.

Both off of a lefty, I thought that was pretty interesting. Obviously, once upon a time, had some prospect pedigree. Big power for John Singleton. He's, you know, spent most of his career in the minor league so far. JP Martinez is the name I brought up on, I believe it was Friday, Thursday or Friday's podcast. He's a 27-year-old called up recently by the Rangers, started all three games for them this weekend, had back-to-back multi-hit games on Saturday and Sunday. Chris, any interest in deeper leagues?

Anything here? John Singleton, J.P. Martinez. I mean, look, Singleton's numbers at AAA were very, very good, but I tend to think there's probably nothing here. I think it was the longest anyone had gone between two Homer games. in Major League history, if I saw that stack correctly. It was a very long time, if it wasn't the longest, either way. So, no, I don't think there's anything there. Martinez, there's speed, you know, and a little bit of pop, so maybe,

but I would prefer Martinez over Singleton, but not super enthusiastic about either. I don't want to, you know, spend 10 minutes talking down Zach Gelloff and then talk up John Singleton. I am kind of interested in John Singleton because it was weird how quickly the Astros gave up on him the first time around. If you don't remember the history of John Singleton, this was the first guy who got a long-term deal before even debuting in the majors. That was the caliber of prospect he was. And he got $10 million over five years, something like that. And at the time, people were like, oh, he's crazy. He's giving up so much money.

well, this is, you know, why it might be worth the risk to go ahead and lock up life-sustaining money there when you can. Because you never know how it's going to play out. And it hasn't played out well for him, obviously. He is much older now, 31 years old. But both of his home runs were hit 108 miles per hour. He's an incredibly disciplined hitter. He went hitless in the next two games. The two-homber game was Friday.

He went hitless both Saturday and Sunday. but he's going to get an extended look here with Jose Brayew on the aisle, and just keep an eye on it. Because I do think maybe he didn't get a fair shake in his younger years, despite that early financial commitment from the Astros. Again, that is John Singleton, A.L. Only Leagues for now. If you're playing 15-team, mixed-roto leagues, deep corner infield spots, you're hurting for power.

It's a great lineup, obviously. I don't know that he's going to play every, every day, but kind of interesting right now is John Singleton. Let's run through some starter sick questions for starting pitchers. Obviously, this is a big time of year. People are trying to protect their ratios. They might be entering some prolonged head-to-head playoffs, so they've got to get the right decisions.

Let's talk about Jesus Luzardo, who was hit hard by the Yankees on Friday. He allowed seven runs over three in a third innings. Eight hard hits allowed in this game. It's been an up and down season for Lazzardo. His last three starts. He has an ERA over 10. His previous seven starts before that. He had a 148 ERA.

His five starts before that, a 6.15 ERA. So it's a roller coaster ride for Lazzardo. Chris, do we start or sit Lazzardo against the Astros this week? They are fifth in Wobah against left-handed pitching. I think it's okay to sit him. I'm probably going to start him where I have him, but it's not just the up and down nature of his season. It's also the fact that he's already passed his career high in innings.

So we just, we're in uncharted territory here with Hazer's Lazzardo. We know he's very, very good. And the velocity hasn't really been down lately as the innings have piled up, but it's just, you know, does he become a little less sharp? Because he has to reach back a little more. You know, I think that's a reasonable explanation, I guess, or hypothesis for why he's struggled. It's also just, he had three bad starts.

Could just be it. So I don't want to bury him, but it's, there's definitely more risk right now with Hazel Lazardo moving forward than there has been all season. Let's talk about Chris Sale, who had a solid return against the Tigers on Friday, four and two thirds, one hit allowed. Two runs, seven strikeouts with 12 swinging strikes. Got up to 58 pitches in that one. He's at the Nationals this week.

They're 10th in Wobo against Lefties. So actually have been pretty good there. Scott, are we starting Chris Sale this week? You know, maybe he gets up to 70, 75 pitches? Yeah, I feel good about starting him. I'm not saying you have to start him if you're stacked, but I'll probably start him everywhere I have him, which is quite a few leagues.

He looked really good against the Tigers. All right. Charlie Morton did pick up the win on Friday, but he walked seven in this start. He did go five shotout innings, three hits, those seven walks, four strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes. And over his last five starts, Morton has a 584 ERA, a 191 whip, more walks than strikeouts during that time. Chris, are we starting Charlie Morton against the Yankees this week who have struggled? Here's the question. How many wins does you have in that time? Probably a lot. Yeah, man, that's the thing. He might have won three. of those five starts with how the Braves are playing right now. Actually, they're, they've kind of been scuffling a little bit overall, just because they have, I think they have the worst starting pitcher ERA and baseball since the All-Star break or something. I would be inclined to start him, but I would certainly have him below Chris Salon,

Hazers Lazardo. So over his last five starts, he only has one win. And that came this weekend. Yeah, the Braves have actually kind of been like a 500-ish team since the All-Star break, haven't they? Scott. A little better than 500, I think, but they certainly, they still have the best record in baseball, right?

But they haven't played like that since the All-Star break. That's fair to say. Let's talk about Lance Lynn, who has pitched well with the Dodgers. He faced the Rockies on Friday. Five innings, one unearned run with nine strikeouts, 18 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. Obviously, a great matchup here

facing the Rockies outside of Cores Field. The velocity was up in this start. Looks like he's kind of changed up the pitch mix a little bit pitching for the Dodgers so far. Scott, are you starting Lance Lynn against the Brewers this week? Look, I mean three for three in terms of delivering good starts since the trade to the Dodgers. Maybe that change of scenery is all he needed. It's baffling when it happens, but it happens often enough, particularly for a pitcher

who had reasons to be encouraged even when he was pitching terribly. That, you know, this may be one of those cases. Brewers obviously make for a good matchup. I would lean toward starting Lynn. All right. Let's slide over to John Gray, who got back on track with a great start at the Giants. Seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts in that one. Still did give up eight hard hits in this game.

92.9 average exit velocity. He's kind of been up and down this year too, Chris. John Gray facing the Angels this week. They're sixth in Wobah against right-handed pitching. Are you start or sit, John Gray? I mean, I guess it's relative to the guys we've talked about, right? I think in that context, he'd probably only be ahead of Charlie Morton for me this week among the guys we talked about. So would lean sit.

Okay. Let's talk about Mitch Keller. We know he's struggled over the past couple of months. He did turn in his first quality start since July 8th. He was facing the Reds on Sunday, six innings, two runs allowed. Only one of them was earned. He did have seven strikeouts and 12 swinging strikes. He is facing the twins this week.

The thing about the twins, though, they're actually ninth in Wobah against Ritees. So when they make contact, it seems like they do some damage, but they also have the highest strikeout rate in baseball. Scott, starter said Mitch Keller against the twins. I mean, I wouldn't be afraid to start him. I'll put it that way. I'm not going to say he's must start at, you know, one good start after a stretch of four miserable ones. But this is a matchup that can yield a high outcome.

you know, Keller did turn things around. It seemed like he went really heavy on sinker and fastball on the start against Cincinnati. I don't know if he was just kind of trying to recalibrate, just really simplify things, because he has that wide variety of pitches. I feel like it's easy for pitchers to sometimes get lost in that. He's the new U. Darvish.

Yeah, yeah. And Joe Musgrove has had dramatic ups and downs because of that, too, I feel like. Yeah, I mean, he could have a big strikeout performance against the twins. And so if you don't like your other pitching options, I wouldn't be afraid to start Keller. Let's talk about Yuri Perez, who has struggled in his two starts back with the Marlins. He's giving up four earned runs in each of them. And he's at the Dodgers this week, who are third in Wobah against Ritey's.

Chris, starter sit, Yuri Perez. I think I would lean sit at this point. I know the problem is he's so talented that if he went out and gave us six shutout with eight strikeouts, I wouldn't be surprised. But they are being careful with him. They're not pitching him deep into games. He hasn't been quite as sharp since coming up. There's been some changes in his pitch mix as well. He's throwing his fastball and slider way more.

Overall, he's kind of turned into just a two pitch pitcher in the two starts since coming back. He hasn't, I don't know if he hasn't had to feel for the curveball and change up. but I would lean towards sitting. I think so too. It's more to do with the matchup than anything. That is the toughest matchup we brought up so far, the Dodgers here against Uri Perez. Dylan Sees, last one up.

He had one of his better starts on Sunday, seven innings, two runs with seven strikeouts against the Brewers. The problem this week, he is in Coresfield. Scott, your thoughts on Dylan Seas. I think he was, was he another one who took something off his slider? I think he just threw his slider a bunch more than this start. He threw it, like more than 50% of the time.

If I'm remembering correctly, Forrestfield is a scary place where I think you'd generally choose to sit most any pitcher. But I'm not going to call cease an automatic start either. I mean, the thing to remember with this is pitchers as a whole kind of sucks. So I don't know that many people who have Dillen C's can afford to sit him. But if you can't afford to, it's not a bad idea to sit him for this one. Would you, let's say, Scott, play one of your sleeper two-star pitchers against a, instead of a Dillen C's? Let's see.

So Gavin Williams is just a one-star pitcher. He's my top sleeper pitcher for this week. I would start him over John Gray, but he's only available in a quarter of leagues. Nick Povetta's my number two sleeper pitcher. He's the highest ranked two-start guy. That's an interesting one. He is starting against Washington, at least. I don't know about the Yankees start,

but they did confirm he's making his next start. And those are two good matchups. And even if he follows an opener in that Yankees start... Could still get a win. I mean, you're potentially talking 15 strikeout, a 15 strikeout week for Nick Povetta. So it's close between him and CIS. If you can afford to fit Povetta on your roster,

I'd probably lean him overseas. Next on the list is a two-star Miles Michaelis. I'd go with him overseas. You would? Okay, good matchups also. Great matchups, yeah. That's probably it. That's probably it.

My next highest two-star sleeper is Kyle Hendricks, who also has good matches, but I'd rather start Seas. No love for Graham Ashcraft, huh, Scott? He's right behind Hendricks, but no, I'd rather start Seas. All right, let's take our final break when we return. We'll hit the news from the weekend. Got some other leftovers. We'll do all of that right after this.

Welcome back. Let's talk news and notes from the weekend. This actually came out right as we went live. And this was a tweet from Jeff Passon, who said, Tampa Bay shortstop Wander Franco did not travel on the team plane to San Francisco, where the raise will start a series with the Giants on Monday.

Sources tell ESPN, the raise earlier said MLB is doing, quote, due diligence concerning social media posts from earlier on Sunday about Wander Franco. MLB is looking into the social media post and has yet to verify the information this early in the process without confirmed facts Franco could be placed on the restricted list

or administrative leave. The raise when asked about Franco not being on the plane, declined comment. And there are some pretty serious accusations out there. We'll see what happens. But I guess that means we sit Wanda Franco for now, right? Yeah, you have to, yeah. All right, Shohay Otani will not make his next scheduled

pitching start on Wednesday against the Rangers as he's dealing with fatigue. Make sure to get him in your lineup as a hitter instead of a pitcher. Mike Trout began hitting against a pitching machine on Friday, assuming there are no setbacks. Trout should be back sometime in August. Shane McClanahan, breaks my heart to say.

Season is officially done as he was transferred to the 60-day IL. I didn't miss something, right? We didn't get an official diagnosis or any type of like surgery announcement or anything like that, right? I haven't seen anything now. backdoor way to rule him out for the season.

Just sneakily slide him to the 16th GIL. It's one of those things where let's say he needs Tommy John surgery or they think that there's a chance he needs Tommy John surgery. If he has that now versus in March, it doesn't really change the timetable, right? Like he's going to miss all of next season and potentially the start of the following season anyway.

So they probably just, whatever it is, give him a couple of months to rest and then start ramping back up in the offseason and see what happens. That would be my guess. If I was a fan of the race, I'd much rather him have that surgery in October than March. I mean, that's six months of recovery time. Yeah. Just dead time. I mean, you might as well use it.

I'd be disappointed if they were. He probably wouldn't be back at the end of next season anyway. You know, that's the thought process. you're looking at the start of 2025 if that happens either way. Right. But it becomes the difference of for sure 2020. Right, yeah. Versus maybe not until midway through 2025.

Francisco Lindor was dealing with right side soreness, but was back in the lineup for game two of their doubleheader on Saturday. He also played on Sunday, so should be confident putting Lindor in your lineups this week. Tyler Glass now is targeting a, was retargeting a return this weekend, but instead we'll make his next start Monday, at the Giants, that sounds like he'll be lined up for two starts.

Scott, are we starting Tyler Glass now? Almost certainly. There's some risk that he doesn't make it through that first start. And then obviously he doesn't give you two starts, but he's so good. Got to take the chance. Carlos Rodon will face hitters during a simulated game later this week. If all goes according to plan, he should return when first eligible on August 22nd. The Astros, we mentioned earlier, we'll skip Hunter Brown's next turn in the rotation.

Make sure to get him out of your lineups this week. Kyle Schwerber is dealing with a left foot contusion and will be re-evaluated Saturday. I clearly wrote these notes in on Saturday morning, so I didn't update that one. Did Kyle Schwerber play on Sunday? I feel like he did he? I feel like he did.

I'd be making that up, though. Kyle Swarber, he... I don't room. Nope, I don't have it. He was not in the lineup. Actually, nope, he was. Sorry, I said that very confidently, and I was looking at the twins lineup.

All right. You know why? Baseball savant for some reason has the twins as the red team and the Phillies as the blue team. That doesn't make any sense. Makes no sense. All right. So I think we're good to get Kyle Schwerver back in our lineups. Jonathan India will receive a second opinion on his left foot and has been shut down from running for at least two weeks. Jordan Romano is back, is on track to return to the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

Marcus Stroman through a 50 pitch bullpen session and remains on track to return. when eligible on Wednesday, Chris, my guess is we should not start Marcus Stroman, right? He was struggling quite a bit. Yeah, I wouldn't think so now, given how bad he'd been the previous, I mean, month, really. Michael Waka is expected to return Tuesday against the Orioles. The Padres play seven games this week. So that sounds like Michael Waka will be a two-star pitcher, but it's right off the IL. Scott, what do we do with Michael Waka?

Ah, I probably need to get him in my two-star pitcher rankings. If that is the case. There are worse gambles to take than a two-star Michael Walker fresh off the I. Okay. Christian Encarnacio and Strand was removed Friday after being hit by a pitch on his hand. X-rays came back negative and he was back in the lineup Sunday. So should be good to get him in your lineups this week. Alec Menoa was option to AAA on Friday.

As we mentioned last week, he could and should be dropped in all of your leagues. CJ Abrams was removed Sunday with back spasms. The nationals are off on Monday, so we won't really find out until Tuesday. the latest on C.J. Abrams. Anthony Rizzo said Friday that he is aiming to ramp up baseball activities within the next week. He was placed on the IL August 3rd with post-concussion

syndrome. Nick Lodolo began a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League on Friday. Tanner Hauk will need one more rehab start before rejoining the Red Sox rotation and Mason Miller through another live BP on Saturday. It sounds like in order of when they'll be back

it would be Halk, Ladolo, Mason Miller. Chris, how would you rank stashing them? Who would you want to have most on your team? Ladolo, Hauk, and Mason Miller. I would be pretty surprised if Mason Miller made much of an impact this season. So I would probably go, I would go Lodolo, Halk, Miller. All right.

Players who went to the aisle this weekend, J.P. Crawford on the concussion aisle, Nestor Cortez, this is a rough one. He came back, made one start, looked good in that start. And out of nowhere, back on the aisle with a left rotator cuff strain, shut down from throwing for a month. Jose Ibrahim to the aisle with lower back inflammation and Dylan Carlson with a left oblique strain, which might get more playing time for your boy,

Alec Berluson, Scott. Yeah, let's do it. They have seven games this week too. I was looking at Berluson in some of my deeper leagues on Sunday night. I didn't get him, but I think in a deeper league, he's an interesting play this week. Let's talk some leftovers,

some pitching performances. Part 1. Spencer Strider, a bounce-back start at the Mets this weekend. seven shutout with six strikeouts and 18 swinging strikes. Sandale O'Consra has two complete games in his last four outings. He was facing the Yankees on Saturday. He threw a five hitter with 10 strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes in that one. Pablo Lopez has allowed a total of five earned runs over his last five starts. He's been pitching very well.

And Brandon Woodruff looks solid in his second start back from injury at the White Sox this weekend, six and a third innings, two runs, five strikeouts. Chris, four pretty big names here. Woodruff, Lopez, Alcansara, Strider, any thoughts? No, I mean, I know there was some, a little bit of panic about Spencer Strider, you know, going through a stretch where he was giving up a lot of home runs and the R. I was getting kind of inflated. If he's not the best pitcher in baseball, he's what the second best?

I have had no concerns about him. You take the high ERA, I guess, and live with it. He is an uncharted territory. with the innings now to the Jesus Lazzardo is. So that's,

you know, I'm not, I'm not suggesting anyone think about sitting strider. I'm not necessarily suggesting you think about

trading slider unless, you know, somebody knocks you out of your chair. But it does introduce an element of uncertainties. Just like,

how is he going to, how is he going to acclimate to this bigger workload? A fun, a fun Freudian slip there. You called him Spencer Slider. Maybe I did it on purpose.

And then, I mean, you have Sandy Alcantra who he's been much, much better over the past month or so. I don't really have a good explanation. This is what I've said every time I've talked about Sandy Alcantra this season is I haven't really had a good explanation for when he's struggled. I don't really have a good explanation

for what's happening now. This was an especially impressive start because I'm not a complaint about the umpire. guy, but we got a classic Angel Hernandez performance behind the plate on Saturday, and he still had a complete game. So that was, that was impressive. I will point out for Sandy, his, he struggled with the change-up so far this year. Seven of his 19 swinging strikes in this start were on that change-up.

So yeah. Hopefully good signs to come for Sandy Alconsohn. You mentioned two quality, two complete games in its last four. Three of four, eight plus one minus. I think he's gone at least six and eight straight starts or something too. Yeah. He's looking back on track. Thank goodness.

Pitching leftovers part two. Zach Allen turned in his first scoreless outing since May 30th. He was facing the Padres, six shutout innings with eight strikeouts for him. George Kirby with a tough luck, no decision. He went nine shutout innings. It was not a complete game because the game went into extra innings. But he did have seven strikeouts with 15 swinging strikes. His velocity has been up recently.

He's been pitching really well. George Kirby. So has Freddie Peralta in the second half, six starts. He's a 2.5 ERA, a 0.89 whip with 50 strikeouts over 36 innings. Scott, any thoughts on Freddie Peralta, George Kirby, Zach Galin? Well, like I said after Freddie Peralta's last start, I wish I could tell you with confidence that he's Pack-Ot track and you can just trust him in your lineup rest of season. That's certainly how it feels now, but there's a reason he has an ERA over four still, and this year, pitchers can go from very good to very bad at the drop of a dime. So I am cautiously optimistic about Peralta, mostly just based on his

history. And I'll leave it at that. All right. And pitching leftovers part three, Dane Dunning, who we mentioned earlier had the 12 strikeouts at the Giants. On the other side of that game, Logan Webb, eight and two-thirds innings, one run, six strikeouts. And Julio Arias put together a vintage performance against the Rockies on Sunday. Seven innings, three runs, 12 strikeouts with 22 swinging strikes. A great start here for Arias. Chris, any thoughts on Logan Webb or Arias? We already talked about Dunning.

Don't really have anything to add here. Logan Webb's having a really, really nice season. He's been kind of under-heralded for a while, but he's a really good pitcher. I know we don't talk about betting here. A lot of people probably don't care about it. But I've got to point out, National League's Cy Young odds. Spencer Shrider has the fifth best odds. There are four players ahead of him right now.

Zach Allen, Logan Webb, Blake Snell, Justin Steele. That seems kind of weird, no? Yeah, I mean... Zach Allen, Logan Webb, Blake Snell, Justin Steele. They all are more likely, according to the betting market, to win the National League Siong over Spencer Shrider. I feel like putting some money on Spencer Shreider. and the highest strikeout rate of all time

makes a lot of sense there. Yeah, that's interesting. Let's talk hitting leftovers. Trey Turner. Feel free to just, I got a bunch of names here. Wherever you want to jump in, just feel free. Trey Turner, back-to-back three-hit games, Friday and Saturday.

13 games in the second half. He's betting 3-33 with two homers, one steel, and a 9-39 OPS. Nico Horner, two-for-four with a sock in a shoe on Friday. He added another two-hit game on Saturday. He's been awesome lately. Salvador Perez had a breakout game. game on Friday. He went four for four with his 18th home run needed that. He's been struggling for

quite some time. Zander Bogarts has had a down year. Remember that, what was it, first two weeks? We were like all taking L's on Zander Bogarts and it's like he had a huge game on Friday. 4 for four, a home run and a stolen base. 12th homer 13th steel. He has 40 RBI this year. 40. Xander Bogart's. That seems been so weird. What is going on? Like, we recently talked about how Luis Arise, as great as he is, you know, hitting 350. I think he's, he had like 55 RBI or something like that. Sandra Bogart says 40 RBI. What is, how is it even possible?

Matt Olson had a double dong on Saturday. The Braves put up 21 runs on the Mets. And then Olson also went yard again on Sunday. Increases his league lead to 43 home runs. Ozzy Albiz, I mentioned it. Two socks, two shoes. Go ahead, Scott. Let me mention eight of those 21 runs.

came off a position player, which just, it's just rude, you know? I will also point out, Matt Olson, we've seen some fluctuations in his strikeout rate over the last couple of seasons. I think 2021, it went to go really low. Am I remembering correctly? Either way, his last, I think it's 54 games I saw. Since he got moved out of the number two spot, his strikeout rates down to like 17%. Oh, yeah. That's worth noting.

Like it's 20, 21. again baby. The Sunday night baseball broadcast pointed out differences in Matt Olson's batting stance this year and something that he's changing the offseason. If you remember in years past, Matt Olson has like held his arms all the way out and it looked actually kind of awkward while he was standing there waiting to hit. And it's it's not as pronounced anymore. His arms are a little bit closer to his body and it seems to have worked. I did notice that, yeah. Yeah. Justin Turner returned on Saturday. He's been dealing with a heel contusion, doesn't matter. I thought, you know, maybe this will affect his production.

Nope, hit home runs on back-to-back days. Tommy Edmund went two for three with a double dong. I didn't write down which day, but obviously it's a big game for him. He's been playing very well since returning from the IL, 325 batting average, three home runs and one steal for Tommy Edmund. Brian Reynolds went two for five with a double dong on Sunday. He's now up to 17 home runs. It was a huge weekend for Andres Jimenez. He had nine hits, including two home runs on Sunday. He is up to 11 homers and 20 seals on the year. Shohei Otani did more MVP things on Sunday,

one for three with a sock and a shoe, his 41st home run and 17th steal. And Trevor's story is starting to get going. He went two for four with a stolen base on Friday. He went four for four with two steals on Sunday. And I don't know if you guys realized, but Trevor's story became available in NFBC leagues on Sunday night. He went for $149 and $167 of festival.

respectively out of $1,000 in the two leagues that I play in. That's a huge amount. But I mean, Trevor Story in a league that deep, he could be a league winner down the stretch. I'm going to guess I did not win him in my leagues then. I haven't checked. I do not have that much money to spend. 68 in this league, Frank. Not to me.

And in this other league, 164. Yeah. Yep. I think I had a $6 bid and a $34 bid. I do not have much fab left at all. Let's wrap up with some bullpen updates from the weekend for Tampa Bay on Friday. Pete Fairbanks entered in the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He allowed three runs, only recorded two outs.

He was relieved by Robert Stevenson, who wound up with the win. For the Rangers on Friday, I rolled as Chapman once again pitched the eighth. Will Smith got the ninth inning, gave up a run, but did pick up his 22nd save. I believe Will Smith got the loss on Sunday, so I still think he'll be the guy, but worth monitoring. For the Blue Jays on Saturday, Jordan Hicks entered in the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a run and took his seventh loss.

So Jordan Romano sounds like should be back this week. Does that mean we're good to drop Jordan Hicks, drop Eric Swanson? Your thoughts? I mean, I would think so. If you can afford to, you know, it's not a bad idea to keep them stashed just to make sure Romano's really ready to go

because there was a flare up before. but roster limitations are a thing. For the Tigers on Saturday, they continued to bypass Alex Lang. It was Jason Foley who retired the final five outs for his fifth save. Chris is there anybody in the Tigers bullpen? I know Foley has gotten a save recently,

Jose Cisnero, Bo Brisky. We're talking deep leagues here, but anyone in the Tigers bullpen. You are muted, sir. I just think the problem is there's no one guy. I'm not sure any of them are all that good and it's a bad team so like I don't know maybe Jason Foley

but I don't buy the you know the ERA's really good but I don't quite buy it so I would probably just skip this one for the Guardians on Saturday Emmanuel Class A entered the ninth with a two run lead he gave up three runs and took his league leading ninth blown save of the season he also has seven losses it's

been a weird year for Emmanuel Class A for the Cardinals on Saturday Giovani Gallegos entered in the eighth with a three-run lead. He gave up a run on three hits. He was relieved by Jojo Romero, who would eventually escape with his second save. He's 4% rostered.

Scott, do you have a feel for the Cardinals' bullpen right now? It sounds like Ryan Helsley could be back soon. Yeah, it does. I mean, if you're going to roster any Cardinals reliever, I think it should be Halsley. So since they traded away Hicks, Romero got the first save. Gallegos got the second, Romero the third, which seems pretty committee-like to me.

And it's, you know, probably short-lived to begin with. All right. Let's talk about the Mariners for Andrus Munoz came in on Saturday. In the 10th inning with the Manfred Man on second base, he gave up a hit, took his fifth loss. And I believe he also gave up a game-tying run on Sunday as well. So I'm not actually worried, but... Yeah, that was him, yeah. You know, let's see where it goes.

For the A's on Sunday, Trevor May entered in the ninth inning with a five-run lead. He gave up five runs. Three of those were earned. It was not the greatest day for Trevor May. He's had some weird outings. You know, he had that one last week where I think he got five outs, didn't give up a hit or a walk and blew a save. It's just been a weird, weird stuff from Trevor May. Fittingly, I feel like.

That sounds like the Trevor May experience. For the Yankees on Sunday, as we alluded to earlier, Clay Holmes entered in the ninth inning with a four-run lead, and he imploded. He gave up five runs, four of those earned on a walk, an error, and three hits. He took his third loss. For the Angels on Sunday, Carlos Estevez picked up his 25th save.

He has been struggling recently, so it was nice to see him get back on track. For the Diamondbacks, Paul Sewell picked up his first two saves with the team this weekend, and for the Mets on Sunday night baseball, Brooks Raleigh-in-the-eighth inning with a three-run lead. Adam-Otovino would eventually get the save. Scott, do you think Adam-Ovino is the lead guy right now for the Mets? I mean, in leagues where saves are scarce,

I'd still be a little reluctant to drop Raleigh, but if I had to guess who gets the majority of saves for the Mets going forward, I would guess Adam-O-ovino, just given the usage of the two recently. Now, how many saves are they going to get, and how much will they stick with any one guy? Those are fair questions. I'm not sure it's a particularly appetizing bullpen situation right now. All right, to stream or not to stream, we will start with Monday,

and it's not a great day. Not a great day. Pretty bad, bad group of pitchers here. I mean, Thursday's going to be bad, too, I would guess, because it's just both of those schedules are so light this week, Monday and Thursday. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're forcing me to start somebody from Monday,

I am probably going to start J.P. Sears at St. Louis. If you're forcing me to start somebody who's among the available pitchers here, I should say. Right. Is Michaelis too widely rostered? I think he's up to 76%. Okay, yeah. I usually try to keep it 75 or lower. I use an 80% cut off for sleeper pitchers.

Yeah. If we use that one, then Miles Michael's. Yes, Michaelis would be the one. I know I may be starting Chris Flexen in a points league, but that is not an endorsement of Chris Flexon starting in your fantasy league. No, don't do it. Michaelis, I agree. J.P. Sears, if you, I don't know how you could be desperate on the first day of the week, but man, if you want the volume, I guess I'll point out Brady Singer up against the Maritors. On Tuesday, well, Nick Pavetta at the Nationals, that's pretty good. Yep.

I think Kyle Hendrix against the White Sox is pretty good. I think both sides of the Logan Allen, Graham Ashcraft matchup could be good. I think I like Ashcraft more, but I agree. And Emerson Hancock at the Royals? Yeah, I would prefer him to Logan Allen. Okay. Well, Tuesday's a pretty good day.

Like four or five names there. Don't bother with Monday. Just wait until Tuesday. All right, we're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.