Rates & Barrels - Brandon Pfaadt Returns and Tommy Pham Heats Up

Episode Date: June 30, 2023

DVR and Al discuss the Diamondbacks’ big news, as Corbin Carroll deals with shoulder soreness and Brandon Pfaadt struggles in his return to the majors, They also discuss the arrival of Orioles prospect Jordan Westburg, other hitters to target, including red-hot Tommy Pham, pitchers to consider adding and the White Sox’s bullpen situation. Rundown 1:12 The Diamondbacks lead off this week’s news items 6:57 The other news items of the week 23:06 Jordan Westburg and some other notable callups 31:34 A few hitters of note 40:03 Streamers and two-start pitchers 50:11 Closer corner Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at $1/month for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Derek Van Ryper here with Alan Melchior on this episode. We dig into some of the biggest fantasy stories of the week as we get ready for the upcoming FAB run in Week of the Leagues on Sunday. Of course, if you don't have FAB, we're still going to have a conversation that's helpful to you, too, as we dig into various players who are available. Rough week if you're trying to stream pitching. I'll say that up top. So it doesn't really matter how shallow your league is unless surprisingly useful pitchers have been previously dropped.

It's a very thin waiver wire. Not a lot out there for relief pitchers either. So it's also too early, I think, at the end of June to start throwing those speculative darts in bullpens where the closer may be traded you don't want to hold for four weeks you want to hold for one to two so we can't quite get out in front of that just yet but there was a lot of news that happened this week there were some changes to rosters that I think are going to be relevant to us the good news to start the show is that Corbin Carroll who left early this week with a shoulder injury,

fortunately doesn't seem to have a major setback. It's a surgically repaired right shoulder in which he left after a swing. So the initial reactions were highly concerned for good reason. I did see the D-backs recalled Dominic Fletcher. So we'll see if there's anything that happens with Carroll between now and the end of the weekend. But for now, it's still more of a day-to-day sort of injury. Fletcher, Al, is just one of those guys. I have always looked to him as kind of a product of Reno, where you're not really getting a whole lot of big league value. There's, to me, very limited power. I think we've seen it in hitter-friendly environments, but

I'm very skeptical of what he brings to the table as a big league player, even though there are some really nice numbers along the way in the minor leagues. Might be worth picking up, but I would just say relative to what we've seen, I would temper expectations. I would.

And of course, if Carroll's not out for long, maybe it's a quick return for Fletcher to Reno. And I agree with you. Obviously, you've got to take the AAA numbers with a grain of salt. I do think that if you were given regular play, he has the potential to be someone who could help you with batting average. But I think that's about the extent of it. It's like average and OBP and then maybe a little bit of speed. an OBP, and then maybe a little bit of speed.

I guess the key would be if he found his way into a prominent spot in the lineup, then, of course, run scored could be part of the equation too. But his limitations, I think, really are going to probably push him more to points leagues, deep, deep points leagues, if he's able to carve out an opportunity. But again, Corbin Carroll's injury doesn't look bad. We did see the return of Brandon Fott. I guess Fott would be one of the more interesting available pitchers in some leagues because he was dropped during his time in Reno. But the start was not a good one.

Tough matchup against the Rays on Thursday. Six runs on seven hits. Walked a couple batters, struck out three, but only pitched two innings against Tampa Bay. So another disappointing outing at the big league level for Fott, who really looked like he was turning a corner, having won three consecutive starts at Reno and pitching to a 23-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio during that span. So I hope for his sake that the tough matchup

and the overall struggles in the big leagues aren't completely held against him because I don't know what he has to prove at the AAA level. And we've talked all season about the opportunities in the back of this Arizona rotation. Right. It seems like there'd be every reason for the Diamondbacks to, well, I'd say with the exception of one reason, but almost every reason for the Diamondbacks to just keep putting them out there. The reason not to, of course, is that they're in first place, and I'm sure they want to maximize their playoff position. But as you mentioned, the alternatives are not very good.

So I just feel like there's not much to lose for them to keep giving Fott chances. I looked at that start and tried to find the positives. There was swing and miss there. Strangely enough, he did not allow a single barrel and actually did a lot of uh sort of geeky digging into that start because the average exit velocity against him was 97 miles an hour which is i you just don't usually see that in the in the box score very much and that i went looked and for pitch pitchers or for games in which a pitcher has had at least 10 batted balls, Fott just missed that cutoff.

But if he did, that would have put him in the top two percentile, or I guess you should say the bottom two percentile in terms of exit velocity. So really extremely bad in that regard, and yet didn't allow a barrel. So I'm hoping maybe between the difficulty of the matchup and maybe getting Bbitt a little bit in that one maybe uh it won't be so bad but i i do think it's an opportunity if you have the room to stash fought to do so because you're probably not well you may not be able to get

much uh cheaper than you do right now i suppose things could get worse but i don't think they will they shouldn't get a lot worse. The last turn he's supposed to make prior to the All-Star break would be a Wednesday start at home against the Mets. So in leagues where he's available or in leagues where he's already rostered, how intrigued are you by that

matchup? Are you picking him up and actually using him where available? Are you using him where you already have him? How are you handling that particular matchup oh no i'm sitting him just uh like i i do think that things should get better but i'm not 100 confident in that so i i definitely want to take the wait and see approach for the next start maybe even next two starts yeah looking even further their first series for the diamondbacks coming out of the all-star break is a road three game set in toronto and i'm trying to say like well which three stars are they going to use for that zach gallon sure he'll get the first game out of the break almost

certainly but then who starts the other two do you throw do you throw fought third you throw davies and henry in there ryan nelson's having better results than Fott overall. He's actually available in some leagues too. So I guess if you're trying to squeeze some value out of the Arizona rotation in the immediate future, Ryan Nelson with a home start against Pittsburgh, slightly easier matchup, I would argue. Maybe that's the way to go. Also curious to know, geeky digging, is that something you'd wear on a T-shirt or a hat or both?

I think hat more that seems more like a hat that's kind of what i thought too yeah yeah it seems like a hat that frank restitano would have worn on uh on 30 rock he always had hats that just said usually weirder things than that but definitely an out of context hat that would make a lot of sense. Getting away from the Diamondbacks for a bit and talking about a weekend opponent of theirs, the Angels. We talked about all the injuries that piled up on them in the infield on last week's show. They made some trades.

Eduardo Escobar and Mike Boustakis, both members of the Angels now, and David Fletcher brought back up. So you have a Dominic and David Fletcher matchup for the Fletcher family this weekend. So k have a Dominic and David Fletcher matchup for the Fletcher family this weekend. So kudos to them. Those are always kind of fun out of Escobar, Moustakis and Fletcher.

Is there any value within that group? Any players that you're interested in, in deeper mixed leagues, or is this mostly a group of monolig and very, very deep mixed league players at this point? Maybe deep mixed league for Moustakis because they have been using him in the middle of the order. It is a bit of a park factor downgrade, but not that much.

Angel Stadium is still a pretty good hitter's park. So I think given that context, that Moustakis may have some value in 15-teamers. I think for Escobar and Fletcher, it's AL only for me. Escobar, I think the best thing about seeing him get traded to the Angels is that Brett Beatty is just unencumbered now at third base. He's left to his own devices with the Mets. Stabilizing his playing time is pretty

nice. I think with Eduardo Escobar, as much as his career has sort of surprised me, I think the levels of power that we saw in 2019, we learned obviously the year of the rabbit ball. But seeing 28 home runs from him two years ago between the Diamondbacks and Brewers, even 20 last year as a 33-year-old, I never would have expected that when he broke into the league. He's the kind of player that in deep leagues sometimes gets overlooked, but I would say mostly mono league considerations for me at this point. The real-life value is sort of dwindling to the point where he's more of a bottom-of-the-order type hitter, like bottom half-of-the-order type hitter as well.

So the counting stats just might not be there even if the playing time is so a lot to a lot to discern there with the angels but at least they found a way to patch it back together pretty quickly after injuries really tore that group apart a change in milwaukee luis urias option to triple a nashville bryce terang comes back from nashville as part of the corresponding moves. We've seen enough of Terang, I think, at the big league level this season to understand that there's not going to be a lot of hard contact. That's just not his game. He's been young for the level everywhere he's played, Al. He's shown a lot of speed at nearly every stop. He was 34 for 36 as a base stealer spending all of last season at AAA Nashville. Hit for a pretty good average. Got on base. Plays really good defense up the middle. I mean, he's a short

stop playing second base. Has plenty of range, plenty of arm. So I think the glove could keep him in the lineup on a regular basis while Urias sort of works through some issues at AAA. Urias just hasn't been the same guy coming off of his injury. He's not making contact of the same quality. I think this is a little bit of a reset for him. I'm very skeptical of Terang's fantasy value beyond speed in particular, because I think he's stuck in the bottom of that order. And I think the occasional home runs he runs into are more of like a fluky thing you can't rely on as opposed to something you could actually pencil in as like a eight to 10 homer season for him i just don't see him hitting the

ball hard enough to buy that aspect of his game just yet yeah i mean he benefits from the the good home park but that's only going to help him so much when like you say there's not a lot of exit velocity coming off of those balls so uh yeah, to me, it was sort of a surprising move, but I think maybe it's the timing explains some of it that you're, you're seeing teams start to make these moves right before the break. You know, Jared Schuster, no reason to send him down yet, you know, went down. I assume that's a workload management thing and maybe hitters who are having a little bit of trouble, they get a bit of a break from facing major league pitching. And then maybe we

see Arias and other hitters who may go down in the next few days, see them come back after the break. So I'm not looking at Terang this weekend for sure. Not only just because he didn't do much the last time up, but I don't know how long he'll be staying up. Yeah, I think the way I would look at him would be if you need him in a weekly league as a speed play, you have to look at the schedule. The upcoming week for the Brewers,

they will face three left-handed starters in their seven games. So you're going to see some of their right-handed bench options taking those starts on those days. So it's kind of a partial week for Terang as you look ahead to what they've got before the break. And then coming out of the break, if Urias fixes it during his time in Nashville, we could be talking about him two weeks from now as a guy that's back on the roster. I imagine when everyone's healthy, they still have designs and Urias playing a bit. So I wouldn't necessarily hold Urias during his demotion period, but I

wouldn't write him off completely just because demotion period, but I wouldn't write him off completely just because I think when you have an early season injury, the way he did coming back into the pool when pitchers are in mid-season form is a little more difficult than we sometimes give it credit for. Yeah, no, I think that's absolutely right. So, you know, well, we'll see how this all pans out after the break, but I don't think there's any fantasy action to be taken here. What are you doing in leagues where Alejandro Kirk is available? He is now back from the IL.

It was a hand injury that sent him there. This season has been disappointing from the power perspective. The slugging percentage dropped all the way to 328 through the first 60 games. Only three home runs to this point. This is a guy that hit 14 over 139 games a year ago. It's not big time power, but it's supposed to be a very good batting average, ample power and good run production because the lineup that he plays in, do you think better days are ahead for Alejandro Kirk in Toronto? I think so just because this is not the kind of performance that I, or I think pretty much

anybody else was expecting from him this season. So you'll certainly see that a third of the way or so into the season. And, you know, even now players that have played the whole, you know, first half, there's certain players that have been mystifying and you figure they're going to figure it out at some point. I think the Nick Castellanos of 2022, for an example, there are very much the exception where you just have a player who's putting together stats all season long that defy everybody's expectations and make no sense. And I don't think Kirk, there's any reason to think that that's going to be Kirk's experience for the 2023 season. You start looking at the catcher pool, rest of season projections from the Bat-X. I mean, Will Smith, JT Real Mudo, Dalton Varshow, Sal Perez, Sean Murphy projected as the top five using the Fangraphs auction calculator, Adley Rutschman, Wilson Contreras, MJ Melendez, Danny Jansen, and William Contreras rounding out the top 10.

Kirk's down at 18. He's projected to be a $2 player, $2.7 player the rest of the way for a 12-team league. I think that cluster, once you get past William Contreras, you get down to the Travis Darnot, Cal Raleigh, Kieber Ruiz, Mitch Garver, guys

that kind of DH sometimes and maybe have partial shares of playing time. There's very little that separates them i think jonah heim probably belongs in that top 10 the rest of the way i think he's shown enough skills growth where projections might be underselling him a little bit but i guess this boils down to a question of is alejandro kirk still a guy that if you're in a 12 team league that uses one catcher do you feel like he's still a viable option if you don't have one of those more established top five top seven

type guys are you trusting him enough in terms of playing time and skills to see to see him like on your roster again i know i don't think so if he's if he was dropped in a two catcher league then obviously i would want to pick him up and i'm sure everybody else in my league would have the same idea but one catcher leagues like like you say, a 12 team, one catcher league. I don't really see the point because like you said, there's that top 10 that ended with William Contreras. Then you mentioned Jonah Hein could definitely be a part of that group.

I think Henry Davis could be a part of that group before Kirk, before Kirk is, even though Davis is not catching, he's catcher eligible. So I could probably come up with another name or two, but we have 12 right there that I would think should be rostered in a one catcher league. And Kirk is a bit behind that group. Yeah, I think one catcher leagues are actually kind of tough. I'm so used to playing in twos.

It just makes enough guys relevant where you don't have to think about those tricky decisions. But even Francisco Alvarez, there's a liability in batting average, but 12 homers already through 194 plate appearances. We've never had questions about the power. We knew this guy was going to show a lot right away. Run production has been solid. Defensively, I think he's been better than expected. I talked to Will Salmon a few weeks ago on the Athletic Baseball Show about that.

He's covering the Mets along with Tim Britton for the Athletic. And he said he's passing every test you could imagine. Everything you thought you had concerns about don't seem to be major issues for Alvarez defensively. He's really sort of taken that job and run with it. I would say Alvarez and Henry Davis have strong cases to be single catcher league relevant throughout the second half because they have that extra power. And in the case of Davis, I think we made it on this show last week is being in the outfield. He's not sharing time behind the plate. He's not splitting time with someone else. They're letting hedges and delay

handle the catching and letting Henry Davis play in the outfield, which gives him a max playing time ceiling that a lot of catchers don't have. So if he hits right away, I think you're absolutely right. We're going to see Henry Davis in 10 team single catcher leagues. If he hasn't been picked up already, that's going to happen at some point in these next few weeks. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. Forget the pressure to be crushing your workout on day one.

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All access memberships separate. Terms apply. Best Western made booking our family beach vacation a breeze. And it felt a little like... life's a trip make the most of it at best western let's get to a few other news items riley green is going to be toledo bound for a rehab assignment soon. I'm intrigued by Green in midseason opportunities to trade because I think Riley Green was having a bit of a breakout this year before he got hurt. Made pretty good quality of contact last season. The only thing I'd like to see is a lower K rate,

still striking out 28% of the time. But he's very young for a guy that's already racked up over 600 career plate appearances. Green doesn't turn 23 years old until the end of September. Good average this year, good OBP, showing some power with some speed. The park does work against them a little bit from a power perspective, but I could see Green putting together a really nice second half for the Tigers. I like that thought. And you're saying uh targeting him for trade i wasn't sure if you just meant dynasty because uh you know you were talking about kind of

the longer term development curve for him but whether you meant that or or and or redraft um i i like that idea because uh i agree that he seemed to have turned a corner earlier this year i think that lineup maybe has gotten just a little bit better than it was in the early weeks. And yeah, I think he could be a key part of it. Yeah, so the return will be in the near future to rehab games. Could be one of those players that gets activated coming off the break. Sounds like Riley Green's going to need a little bit of time.

Stress fracture in the left fibula was the injury that sent him to the IL in the first place. But I think it's redraft and keeper as far as the appeal. And trading for him now while he's still hurt will be a little easier than trading for him in a couple of weeks once he's actually back. Other good news for the Tigers, also potential good news for the pitching pool if he hasn't been picked up already. Tarek Skubal is expected to make his next start at the big league level. We talked about him as someone to stash a week or so ago. Gets the A's in his first start back, too. So that's an all-systems-go situation.

Skubal's been excellent so far during his rehab assignment. Last time out against AAA Columbus, it was four innings, four Ks, just a couple of walks. No earned runs allowed. Longest outing for him so far. Plenty of strikeouts along the way. And the big thing for me is that he hasn't really been walking a lot of guys so far on those rehab assignments. Only three total walks across those five rehab starts. Yeah. Now you mentioned he went the four innings, which was a new high for him in the rehab starts. Still just 68 pitches. So it's it makes the start set

decision a little bit easier this week with him slated to make two starts uh with the first one being oakland of course that makes that even a little bit sweeter but um i don't know that he's necessarily going to qualify for a win in either start and that's putting the tigers offense to the side uh but i still think it's a a for somebody coming back from a big injury like this. I feel like it's a relatively soft landing for Scooble. Yeah, I like this spot quite a bit even with the possible limitations in that first turn. I'm excited to use him where I'm able to do that during the upcoming week. Reese Olsen, by the way, hitting the leg by a comebacker. It sounds like he's

going to be able to make his next start. At least that's what he thinks at this point. We'll see what happens over the next couple of days. But keep a close eye on that if you're trying to rely on Reese Olsen with a nice matchup coming up during the upcoming week. The Guardians made a change. We wondered last week on this show what the hierarchy was going to be with Cal Quantrill nearing a return from the IL.

Logan Allen was optioned to AAA, so it looks like it's going to be Tanner Bybee and Gavin Williams sticking around and Quantrill basically taking the spot that was previously held by Allen. So how long are you willing to try and wait it out for Logan Allen to come back, Al? Do you think he's worth stashing,

given how difficult it is to find pitching in deeper leagues, or do you think you have to move on in redraft formats outside of AL-only leagues and just find some innings while you can come back and bid try to pick them up again you know later on once he eventually needs to rejoin the rotation because injuries seem inevitable i don't think we've seen the last of logan allen for 2023 no probably not and i'm guessing you're referring more to 15 team leagues i had him in a 12 teamer or actually dropped him a day before he got sent down. So that was just based on the performance and not going deep into the starts.

But for 15-team leagues, I'm not going to be quite so eager to drop Allen just yet. But it's one of those situations where bench spots are tight. And I'll hang on to Allen for as long as i can but i could definitely see him being a casualty uh you know two three weeks down the line if things get tight it's so strange like to begin his career nine big league starts he went five or more in eight of them and then he had this stretch before he got sent down three innings four innings three and two-thirds and he was throwing a ton of pitches it was 77 pitches against the Padres on June 15th that was the three inning start 89 pitches against Oakland over four innings back on

June 22nd and 98 pitches over three and two-thirds innings against the Royals last time out the efficiency just was not there and that ultimately is what caused him to go down also a lot of uh disconnect in the ratios as we like to say sometimes where a 347 era through 12 starts that's really good 144 whip not usually the whip that goes with an era that low so you know once he eventually comes back i i'm curious to know like are you still pretty excited about him and where would you where would you set the expectations for ratios based on what he did so far? Strikeout per inning stuff in your first 12 starts, that's generally good. To me, this seems like more positives than negatives.

I agree. So yeah, it's sort of puzzling how the quality of his starts deteriorated. Sort of reminiscent to me of Graham Ashcraft, too, where I'm not sure what happened there, but in the case of Allen, I would expect that when he comes back up, that we'll see a version that's more like the version we saw when he first was up with the Guardians.

In terms of ratios, I would think mid-to-high threes ERA, 120s whip, and that's not necessarily a must start pitcher, but somebody that would be worth at least stashing and probably using at least every other week. I think the other news of the week, I guess on the prospect side, we talked about it earlier in the week is Jordan Westberg being a part of the equation now for the Orioles. He's going to be the guy that commands some big bids this weekend, fab leagues. It first come first serve leagues,

and he's probably been picked up already. What are your expectations for Jordan Westberg? You know, seeing the numbers he put up over what was basically a full year at AAA Norfolk with 36 homers, 16 steals, a good average, a good OBP,

getting some opportunities at second base, kind of play all over the infield, which is the versatility that all teams want. It certainly looks like the Orioles have that now with Gunnar Henderson and Jordan Westberg. Yeah, the one thing I would expect to see is some power, even though it's still hard for me to get used to this DVR. The Canton Yards isn't really that great of a hitter's park anymore but uh based on what he did in the

minors I would expect that Westberg will be able to to help you somewhat in that regard I think that the projections on him in terms of batting average are a little pessimistic uh they're kind of hovering right around the the 240 ish mark and uh I don't expect him to hit in the 290s like he did with Norfolk this year, but I think 260s would be fair. So it's, to me, sort of a borderline profile for 12-teamers, and that's probably where he's available for the most part. But NFBC leagues, where he's probably not that widely rostered at this point, definitely one of those prospects that's still worth coughing up a chunk of what you got left,

maybe 7% to 8% that range. Yeah, now I'm looking at a top prospect list from my friend James Anderson over at Rotowire. And I'm like, okay, Jackson Holiday, not going to see him. Jackson Churio, we could see him, but I don't want to bank on it. I'm not going to say fab in redraft leagues because I expect to see Jackson Churio. I'm just going to be pleasantly surprised if it happens. Junior Caminero, probably not going to see him. We could see more promotions though. There's still a handful of players. I mean, mean I think Colton Couser another Oriole could actually come up this year and make

an impact Kyle Manzardo if he gets rolling at AAA the numbers look better now than they did last time I looked maybe there's a path for him to see some time to raise but as far as guys that could actually play every day a lot of these later season call-ups might be more to fill specific roles they may not have that everyday run i think jordan westbrook can have that so i think that's part of where the added bump for me would be as far as the bidding goes yeah the batting average in the short term might be a concern but i think he's going to make a lot of hard contact has that legit power has a bit of speed there are a lot of ways this can actually work a few other promotions i saw jared sciolo join the

pirates infield for me he just looks like more of a glove first sort of player that's mostly like an nl only sort of option for us from a fantasy perspective if we're digging real deep for pitching keaton win is at least interesting for the giants i don't really know how exactly they're going to use him if they're going to use him as kind of like a, like a Junis or a Sean Minaya, it's not necessarily a clear going to start him every time. He actually did start against the Blue Jays and actually went six innings on Thursday.

So that's going to probably draw some interest, even though it's just kind of a, it's like a bulk arm middle ground. Like we just don't know enough about usage here to bid confidently. His next appearance is scheduled to be on Tuesday at home against the Mariners if they keep him on a starter schedule. So what sort of interest do you have in Keaton Wynn, given our overall desperation for innings? I think desperation is the key word here. I think I'm looking at him as a contingency option this weekend.

15 teamers, minimum bids pretty much, just because of the uncertainty of the role, the shelf life. So I think he's a little more intriguing because of the home park and maybe somebody that you could stream. But yeah, I'm not thinking much beyond that very minimum kind of investment in him this weekend. It looks like the pitch mix is mostly

it's four seamers and splitters. He's throwing a splitter 58% of the time during his brief time in the big leagues. So it's splitters, four seamers, splitters. He's throwing a splitter 58% of the time during his brief time in the big leagues. So it's splitters, four seamers, a few sinkers. There's one slider in there. So we'll see if we see a change in this mix as he spends more time in the big leagues. But plenty of velo on that four seamer coming out of the bullpen, averaging 96.1 so far. So four seamer, splitter, sinker, maybe it could work.

It just seems like it's more of a two pitch mix than a real three pitch mix and those guys tend to be used very carefully so i think it is the park that draws you in maybe the usage is such that if they throw an opener in front of them win probability will start to go up i would treat him the same way that al described i see him as more of like a contingency bid backup option if If you just need a pitcher to fill a spot, you could do a lot worse than Keaton Wynn. And believe me, we'll talk about the guys that you could do a lot worse with.

You added Jared Young to the rundown for this week. I think you picked him up in Maki too overnight. I did. So what led you to pick up Jared Young? Well, this is the type of player that we've talked about, it seems like a few times a year, every year, an older player, 27, third go around in AAA and not really great numbers before this year. So I'm coming around to being a little bit more open-minded to, you know, these older players that put up good numbers in, in AAA. Cause I've been wrong a number of times in the past,

passing on players that I shouldn't have. And Maki's pretty deep league. He's basically replacing Kobe Clemens on my roster, and I just think Clemens doesn't really have much upside, not really a long-term regular job with the Phillies. And whereas Young, he's been up. He started three straight games, absolutely hammered the first

batted ball that he hit off of aaronola earlier this week so so there's that i mean for for max ev fans out there um with that one hit with that home run he uh catapulted himself past freddie freeman on the max ev uh leaderboard. It's a stat you like. Jared Young's a player to consider this weekend. I would say I would look at Young for deeper leagues. You mentioned, Maki, it's 16 teams. Yeah, it's deeper than most. I think he's more of a

Keaton-Wynn equivalent on the hitting side. You're just trying to fill a spot in a lot of those leagues. The reason for me is they've got Matt Mervis still stuck at AAA. What is Jared Young supposed to do for your team that Matt Mervis can't do? What are you doing, Cubs?

Mervis is hitting right now at Iowa. I don't know what the... It's not like he's been in some kind of slump down there. He's seemingly fine. He missed like a week, it looks like. So maybe that was the reason, but I don't know. That's really strange.

I think we're going to see Matt Mervis again in the second half. I hope. Yeah, I was going to say, I hope so. I've been stashing Mervis in a few leagues, I think including Maki. So yeah, I think Young may be a short-term play. I mean, he can DH, he can play outfield. Just kind of want to see what he does. It was a $1 bid that got him.

It's a little bit of an experiment. As far as Mervis goes, I figure he'll probably be down at least until after the break. He's not really been down for that long. I don't know. I would actually have been surprised if they had called Mervis up when they called Young

up. I think the recall for Mervis is probably after the trade deadline. I mean, I think it's either because the Cubs are pushing better players under the roster trying to make a run, or because they've traded some veteran away and they've got a clearer path to everyday playing time for Mervis as a result of shifting some guys around. I think that's probably the timeline you're looking at, barring an injury that opens the door a bit sooner. But just strange to me to see this left-handed hitting first baseman who's a couple of years older than Mervis. And it's like, well, you have a guy.

Why? Good for Jared Young, but not good for all of us waiting on Matt Mervis. A few other hitters of note, you were looking at the schedules for the waiver column. You got a couple Nationals players. Jamer Candelario and Luis Garcia. Seven game weeks on tap. Four against the Reds.

Three against the Rangers. Are you seeing anything in Luis Garcia's profile that points to the growth that would maybe make him more than a streamer in the relative near future? I think Eno and I were kind of split on what Garcia brings to the table. I don't see it, but I'm curious if you see this as a young player that could still take another step or two. Well, I still think and hope that there'll be another step in terms of power,

but we haven't seen that at all really this year, but he's slashed his strikeout rate almost in half so that's i mean that's gross maybe it's asking a lot to ask for more than that that's a pretty big deal and what i wrote about garcia in the column is that this is a matchups play i don't really see him as as being all that hopeful uh outside of deeper leagues uh with a you know kind of a normal schedule but they've got good matchups the The Rangers are typically not a team that I would say are, you know, that's good matchups, but they're going to miss both of all the and gray in that rotation. So they're getting the lesser part of the Rangers rotation and the Cincinnati rotation

is just a total mess. And they won't even face Andrew Abbott. Who's the one picture I might worry about in that. So it's good matchups all the way through. the one pitcher I might worry about. So it's good matchups all the way through. And so he could help you with batting average and maybe run scored as a streamer. That's really the appeal of Garcia.

To me, the more interesting player is Jamer Candelario, who I was surprised. I knew he was hitting well, but since I believe it's May 15th, I did a little custom search on CBS for the Roto rankings. He's third since that date. For the last month and a half, he is the third ranking Roto third baseman

behind Spencer Steer and Jose Ramirez. So that's somebody with good matchups. He needs to be rostered a lot of places right now. Yeah, I think the interesting thing with Kendall Arios, we've seen some improvements to his strikeout rate as well. The improvements for Garcia, that is notable. I think the thing thing with Kendall Arios, we've seen some improvements to his strikeout rate as well. The improvements for Garcia, that is notable. I think the thing that's holding him back, at least in my mind, is he continues to hit the ball on the ground a ton.

If the Nationals or some other hitting coaches can help Luis Garcia elevate the ball, that changes everything. And he's young enough where it could happen. So there are reasons to consider him. I think it's more of like a keeper dynasty, like easy guy to add into a trade and just kind of see what happens. Candelario, I think,

has become a lot more shallow league relevant in this recent run. You know, 10 homers now on the season, good run production because he's playing every day. If he doesn't get traded, he's kind of pacing out for a low 20s home run total, 80 runs scored, 76 RBIs, and possibly eight steals. He's already got a career high. He run total, 80 runs scored, 76 RBIs, and possibly eight steals.

He's already got a career high. He's four for five so far, part of the Everybody Can Steal Bases Now program, which is wonderful. Interesting that he's doing this with a slightly lower barrel rate, but he is lifting the ball a bit more often. I think Jamer Candelario ends up being one of the better third basemen who moved at the trade deadline,

so his supporting cast could get better. And it's nice to see a player in his late 20s showing that kind of improvement with the strikeout rate. He's never had a bad strikeout rate, but this is the best we've really seen from Jamer Candelario as a big league player. Joey Weamer also with a packed schedule, four against the Cubs, three against the Reds.

I've been wondering if Weamer gets a little overlooked, even within the Milwaukee lineup. They don't wondering if Weimer gets a little overlooked, even within the Milwaukee lineup. They don't really move him up in the order very often. He's got power. He's got speed. The glove continues to bring him back into the lineup every day. I think that affords him some time to work through slumps when those

come around. K-rate's still just a tick below 30%, but a 12.1% barrel rate, double-digit homers, double-digit steals, so-so run production in part because of being stuck near the bottom of that Brewers lineup, but I'll take off the blue and gold glasses.

What do you see with Joey Weimer? Do you see some pass for improvement here in the second half, given how much he's playing? I mean, I can certainly hope for that, and again, the reason that I included him in the column, included him in that and again the reason that I included in the column included him in the rundown is that I do like the matchup so he gets

three all the Brewers get three games against the Reds right before the break they get four at home against the Cubs so these are all home games there's also three lefties projected to be on the schedule so Weimer has much better splits against lefties much better splits as one would expect at home.

So yeah, the matchups definitely work in his favor this week. And in terms of the longer term, well, he does have to start hitting righties better. Would be nice to see him move up in the lineup, but got half a season left. So I think that could happen. Yeah, we've seen a couple of instances where they faced a lefty in early June,

and Weimer hit fifth in one of those matchups and hit second in the other. And they've only seen one, no, two lefties in the time since then. He's been back down in the eighth spot. So we'll see if they make any other adjustments with a few more lefties coming up. Looking for ways to put runs on the board with that Milwaukee lineup. It seems like that would be one way to tweak things and possibly get a better result. Definitely some streaming

appeals, someone that can help. I think once a week we ask a question about a player on this show. Should this player be universally rostered? This week, it's Tommy Pham. I mean, is there a shallow enough league where you'd say, yeah, I'm not interested in Tommy Pham. It seems like everything as far as the quality of contact continues to be excellent.

And now playing time has sort of pushed up to that everyday role. That was probably what kept people away in the first place, but it seems like he's ticking all the boxes right now. Yeah. Well, to me, for several years, Pham is somebody who, if he is playing every day and he's playing at a level that's near his best because he's been very inconsistent, that's a 12-teamer player. I never really have thought about him,

at least not in many years that I can remember, thought of him as somebody that's got to be universally rostered, that's got to be an eight-teamers, 10-teamers. And we've talked some about kind of philosophy around that. And if it's a player maybe who was putting up these kinds of numbers but was a younger player or prospect where there was more ceiling it's like yeah you know put them on your eight team or see what happens you can you know always uh discard them for a good hitter uh a week or two from now with fam i mean i think we know

exactly where the ceiling is and i'm not sure that that makes him relevant in the shallowest leagues, but I think it does make him somebody who needs to be rostered much, much more widely than he is being right now. I know Pham has already been traded a few times in his career. It could happen again if the Mets are at least flipping players that they don't have under contract for next season. Pham is there on a one-year deal. It kind of projects out to a 2020

player over a full season's worth of plate appearances when you look at the bat x 253 34 414 line to go along with it that will work that will help a lot of teams in their respective lineups so the run production could actually tick up a little bit if that trade happens swinging away from the possible shadow league question mike talkman getting opportunities for the cubs in what leagues are you interested in rostering him uh well maki for one so again to remember that's a 16 team dynasty league uh i did get him there i was trying to think if i got him or not i did get him i think for two dollars so that's pretty indicative of you know 15 16 teams pretty minimal bid but somebody

who has very specific appeal uh leading off against right-handed pitchers so could score some runs he's getting on base he's hitting for average i think those are are all things that can be sustained i think the playing time could be sustained and i held back on tockman uh up until now because i didn't trust the playing time i just just kept waiting for the Cubs to move Bellinger back into center field or find some other solution there. But he is producing, and it seems to be working. So I think if you have those particular needs, Tachman's a good and probably a pretty cheap solution.

Yeah, I wonder if we'll see a little bit more power from him going forward too. We saw it back in 2019. Yes, it was the year of the rabbit ball, but the barrel rate this year, 6.3 in 2019 yes it was the year the rabbit ball but the barrel rate this year 6.3 same as it was that year i know the parks wildly different at that time he was playing his home games at yankee stadium now he's playing his home games at wrigley but that might be the extra thing that helps him a little bit in some deeper leagues getting a little bit more out of that category to go with the average being kind of just okay and the obp being very good i think if you're in an obp league just looking for playing time mike talkman definitely scratches that itch you've always wanted to be part of something bigger than yourself

you live for experience and lead by example you want the most out of life and realize what you're looking for is already in you. This is for you. The Canadian Armed Forces, a message from the government of Canada. Let's get to our pitching considerations, digging into the potential guys coming off of injuries. Talked about Scooble a little earlier in the show. Jose Quintana is scheduled for one last rehab start this weekend before a possible return to the Mets prior to the All-Star break. So what is your level of interest in Jose Quintana, Al? I think it's not a bad idea to pick him up in 12 teamers if you've got some bench space, because I think he's, you know, if he comes back sound, he's somebody who's not a must start for me, but definitely a stream off the bench kind of pitcher. that you know probably you don't have to make that move right now but i would definitely you know watch closely see what happens with his roster rate over the weekend uh see what kind

of buzz you might be hearing about quintana because i wouldn't want to wait too long uh to try to add him yeah i think you'd probably have to do it now to do it very cheaply and then if he comes back pitches well against the padres going into the all-star weekend it's going to cost you a bit more people have seen it. I think the interesting thing with the Mets is, much like we talked about the Diamondbacks coming out of the break, they end up with three tough matchups. They have a three-game set against the Dodgers.

They at least catch them at home, which helps a little bit. You assume Scherzer and Verlander will be part of that first three, but is Quintana their three? Is it Senga? Do they throw Carrasco in that spot? It could be a really tough matchup to use coming out of the break. So that's the drawback with Jose Quintana if you're trying to stash him now. It's not a particularly easy matchup against the Padres the first time out either,

catching them on the road at Petco Park. As I mentioned, dip top streaming, not easy this week. If you're in a 10 or a 12 team league, Reese Olsen probably still out there as long as his leg is okay. After getting hit by that comebacker, I actually think Reese Olsen against Oakland is one of my favorite streamers for the upcoming week. It definitely was one of mine until the injury and hopefully it's,

it's not too serious. It was called a contusion. So it sounds like the sort of thing where he, he should be able to make that start, but that would definitely pay attention to the updates over the weekend, because I agree with you DVR. That's, that's, that's a really nice matchup.

He's been very consistent and solid. He had one hiccup against the Braves and he's not alone in that regard. So it's a tough matchup that I think you can kind of discount, especially when you're looking to pitch somebody against Oakland. I saw the Astros have a home series against the Rockies. That got me a little bit excited. But Ronel Blanco is kind of the only pitcher that you might actually be able to get from the waiver wire right now. I looked for interesting things in that profile.

I didn't turn up anything. So is there anything more than just picking on the Rockies here with Blanco? Yeah. I mean, if you're going to make that move, that would be the reason because I had the same experience as you and didn't find anything that really made me want to take that chance. So I think it's a risky play. For an organization that's had plenty of useful pop-up players in recent years who've gone to become a lot more than that, I thought there'd be something.

I guess you could say last year as a 28-year-old, 58 Ks, 19 walks, and 44 and two-thirds innings. That was as a reliever, though, at AAA, like at Sugarland. So I just don't see it. This is more of a desperation sort of situation for the Astros right now, and I would expect them to go out and try and add starting pitcher depth at the trade deadline. A couple Atlanta starters that are a little more interesting, risky, but more interesting.

Michael Soroka coming back. The good news is we'll get a look at him on Friday before having to make decisions this weekend. And then Colby Allard, both guys line up for starts on the road against the Guardians. So really nice matchups. I think because Soroka has pitched better at AAA, I've at least left my mind open to the possibility that he's got something fixed that he didn't have in his first run in the big leagues this year. But Friday's start will sort of dictate whether or not he's anything more

than a very, very deep league bottom of the contingency list sort of player. I think I'm actually a little more intrigued by Colby Allard right now coming off a pretty big performance last time out. Yeah, really, really good performance. So, yeah, it's a pretty good matchup for both of them. But I do trust Allard a little bit more to take advantage of it. And I'm not sure how deep Soroka would necessarily pitch in that start.

I also don't know if that's more of a just a one, you know, one and done if you were going to get Soroka too. Because again, I don't know what the Braves plans are post-break. If they're going to bring Schuster back, I would expect that they would. But Allard looked awfully good in that first start back with the Braves. And I would trust him against Cleveland. Big time change to his pitch mix too. He was throwing a curveball in that start. He threw it 29.6% of the time.

Curveball usage a year ago from Colby Allard, 5.4%. So that's what's different about this guy. He doesn't throw particularly hard. It's a four seamer, cutter, Kerr ball, occasional changeup mix. But that big shift at least makes me think twice about him. Whereas I kind of thought I had him figured out prior to this season. This is enough of a change for me to be somewhat excited about what he could do, especially in an easier matchup like the one against the Guardians. I know you like Wade Miley. We talk about that all the time.

Wade Miley and Adrian Hauser both get the Cubs at home this week, so I think that's sort of in the if you need innings, okay. But I watch a lot of Adrian Hauser, and I just can't figure out. When he's good, I just don't understand why. I really don't. I wish there was more to the profile. The good news this season, I guess, he's got the walk rate down to 6.9%. The bad news is he's still not missing a lot of bats. This has been the problem for Adrian Hauser going all the way back to 2020. He's run sub 20% K rates in every single season, and now he's under 15%.

It is very difficult to allow that much contact and live to tell the tale. Yeah, and that's the difference to me between Hauser and Wade Miley is that Miley is not likely to help you with strikeouts, but may not hurt you. As I recall last year, I think he wasn't as effective or as consistent in that regard, and that's always been the appeal that Hauser has has been keeping the ball in the park and getting a lot of grounders. So he's been pretty consistent in that regard, but it's definitely bottom of the contingency list status for me. Be very, very careful with Adrian Hauser. I just

don't see it working out. Kyle Freeland gets two outside of Coors. He gets the Astros and the Giants though. So I'm curious how you'd handle Freeland in your pursuit for innings versus some of the other streaming options out there. It's good that he gets two starts in weekly leagues, but those are not two starts you'd necessarily cherry pick. in weekly leagues, but those are not two starts you'd necessarily cherry pick. No, I mean, at San Francisco is not bad. I mean, the Giants aren't a terrible hitting team at home, but they're definitely affected by playing in Oracle Parks.

But that combined with Houston, and right now Houston's not a top-of-the-line opponent. I mean, they're more sort of middle of the pack without Jordan Alvarez, but there's just not quite enough there. The Giants matchup isn't easy enough to kind of raise that profile for Freeland, so I'm definitely passing there. Other two-start pitchers to consider in some shallow leagues, you might find a couple Yankees.

You might find Domingo Hermann and Clark Schmidt out there. Their matchups are against the Orioles and the Cubs. I think I'm still more intrigued by Schmidt than Hermann. The perfect game is a perfect game. It's one day. Look at the starts before that. Look at the overall body of work. It's not going to change my assessment of his skills overall. But you look at those guys compared to Freeland versus someone like Alec Mills,

who actually no hit the Brewers once upon a time. And I think I still owe Michael Beller some beer for that years later. So that's embarrassing. Adam Wainwright's got a two-step. Zach Davies has a two-step, both at home. And is there anything with these bulk options that you that you should, you should be excited about? I can't find a DVR. I just can't.

I mean, Wayne Wright to me is pretty much untouchable, but not, you know, not in the good way. Davies. We've, we talk about Davies every week is why,

why is he in this rotation? So that's not encouraging. And again, the pirates, frankly, I don't even really trust Davies against the Pirates, but when you throw the Mets in there, that definitely disqualifies him.

So no, Mills, Wainwright, Davies, there's nothing there that I really like. And to go back to those Yankees options, I mean, Hermann, I wouldn't want to add him in any league where he's still available because it's probably going to be a shallower league. And I agree with you that he wasn't looking very good before that perfect

game, which, which did come against Oakland. Clark Schmidt's been good and consistently good. So I, you know, and he's not that widely rostered either. So even checking your 15 teamers just maybe is available there. 12 divers, 12 teamers should definitely be available. And Schmidt is, is pretty high up there in the two start options I would consider in a 12-team league. Yeah, I remember the start of the season was pretty bumpy. Those first few outings were pretty bad for Clark Schmidt.

He's got a.344 ERA going back to April 23rd now. So once he kind of settled in, went 5-2 against the Blue Jays when nobody wanted to use him. He had 8 Ks in that start. The only thing that's a little concerning with clark schmidt the strikeouts have been down a little bit recently for june yeah one four three three and three so that's a total of like 14 strikeouts in his last five starts the results have been kind of okay but i'm surprised like part of the appeal for me with clark schmidt from the beginning was that even if the ratios weren't good i thought he'd miss a lot of bats.

That has not been the case in these more recent outings. A quick bullpen check-in on our way out the door for the week. It looks like the White Sox bullpen is still pretty unsettled while Liam Hendricks is on the IL. Joe Kelly pitching the best of the late-inning bunch right now, better than Ronaldo Lopez and Kendall Graveman recently. the late inning bunch right now, better than Ronaldo Lopez and Kendall Graveman recently. Is this a bullpen that you're willing to speculate in right now if you're chasing saves, or is it just too much of a mess to be worth the time?

I think it's too much of a mess. I mean, the good news is for 12-team leagues, you might still have a shot at Scott McGuff or Jordan Hicks, obviously not in deeper leagues. And in the deeper leagues, I mean, sometimes you do just have to settle for somebody who's got a one half or a one third share of the saves,

but I'm not really confident that who I would pick would be the one to get the larger share. So I'm leaving that situation alone. All right. Well, I didn't see a lot else out there for closers this week. I'd looked,

I thought there'd be some changes somewhere, and it's been a pretty quiet week on the bullpen front, which probably means it's going to be chaotic over the weekend. That's usually how it works. The one spot that I'm still intrigued by, I guess, is in DC with Hunter Harvey. I think there's a good enough chance that Kyle Finnegan gets moved at the deadline and Hunter Harvey's already getting some saves. So you could in more shallow formats where you're still looking at guys that get partial shares of saves. I think Harvey should be rostered probably more than he is, but otherwise that's about it for the closer front this weekend. Yeah. And I liked that call even just for this

coming week, because we talked about the nationals having good matchups so they could be in in some tight games perhaps and uh you know harvey at least might pick up uh one or two saves along the way and then long term i think that's a that's a really good call a little extra boost on the on the weeks when you've got seven games no off day as if you're sharing someone might not be available So option B may actually get saves a little easier in those weeks where there's no off day built into the schedule. So if that's the case with the Nats having seven on the slate for the upcoming week, that's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. On our way out, a reminder, you can get a subscription to The Athletic for $1 a month for the first year at athletic.com slash ratesandbarrels.

You can check out Al's weekly waiver column that is already up for the week i know eno wrote a little bit about best speed we talked about that on the show earlier this week so if you didn't get a chance to listen to that episode yet that article might help kind of put some context what we were talking about a little earlier in the week on twitter you can find al at al melky or bb you can find me at derVanRiper. Have a great weekend.