Rates & Barrels - Hot Finishes, Early Starts

Episode Date: September 6, 2023

Eno and Welsh discuss the posting of Shōta Imanaga, Clayton Kershaw worries, Altuve vs Jazz in 2024, a prospect to get now and more. Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Eno on Twitter: @enosarris Follow Welsh on Twitter: @isitthewelsh Subscribe to the Rates & Barrels YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/RatesBarrels Subscribe to The Athletic for just $1/mo for the first year: theathletic.com/ratesandbarrels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello friends and welcome in, it is Rates and Barrels, I am Chris Welsh, that is Eno Saris, and there is no DVR because DVR is out for the month, but he will be back. And just a friendly reminder that Rates and Barrels is switching up. This is kind of the last week of the normalcy, if you will. We just did our season finale of Project Prospect. So thanks to everybody that has tuned along with that. But next week, I will be back on Monday with Eno. We'll be doing our shows with little prospect nuggets, and Al will be there on Friday.

Ina, we've got a lot to talk about. We've got a posting. We have got some injury worries. We've got some prospect notes. We've got a whole bunch of stuff to get to, and we can kick the show right off with the posting of what may be a big-time pitcher. Shoto Amanaga is going to be posted to the MLB joining what

is now going to be, uh, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Jung-Hoo Lee as the big posting international guys. And this is a 30 year old pitcher who has had an interesting career, has got an interesting arsenal and has had some really great results. So curious that your take on, uh, on a Monica overall, and then what we might see as far as like team, I think I've already seen like seven teams that are linked to it, but I just don't know if it's going to be to the same degree as we are going to see with Yamamoto with the five-year difference between these two pitchers.

Yeah, it's pretty interesting because Shota in Monicaaga beat out Yoshi Yamamoto by Stuff Plus in the WBC. So the overall Stuff Plus for starting pitchers, number one was Shota Imanaga. Number two was Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Number four was Urias. Darvish was five. Alcantara was six. You had Otani on that list. Roki Sasaki, who throws 100 miles an hour, was 11th behind Otani.

So that tells you that this is not necessarily about velocity for Shota. It's more about um the the shape of the fastball he has great ride and he's short so he's got the kind of shorter release point with the great ride combo stuff plus that it was a 148 fastball that's one of the biggest numbers i've ever seen even if you regress that, it wasn't 45 pitches, so that's a decent sample for fastballs. Even if you regress that, I think I can say here that he's got a plus fastball by shape.

He's got a really good slider-cutter hybrid, and he has a pretty good feel for all of his pitches. But he is the dreaded 5'10", though, I just want to point out. We talked about this yesterday. Dreaded in certain terms, but I think once someone demonstrates success, I care less about it. It's like if you're in the draft, I care a little bit about your height. If you've just come off a season, and this is what Imanaka did,

10.5 strikeouts and 1.3 walks per nine. That's an 8-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio for Imanoga. And he is 30, and Yamamoto is coming over through the posting process, I believe. So he's 20. I mean, they're both coming over the posting process, but Yamamoto is 25. But Yamamoto, great season for him, probably his best.

Just a 1-2-8 ERA, lovely, lovely ERA. But his strikeout and walk totals are not as good as Imanoga's. 9.2 strikeout rate for Yamamoto per nine and 1.5 walks per nine. So that's a six strikeout to walk ratio. So in certain ways, Imanaga is preferable in terms of fastball shape, in terms of strikeout rate, strikeout to walks. Age favors Yamamoto. And I don't know, certain sites, certain,

I would say maybe the consensus is Yamamoto is the better prize. I don't know if that's necessarily something that's shared in every front office. There are front offices that care more about something like Stuff Plus and some front offices that care less. So I would expect Imanaga to get a surprising maybe deal to some. And I might be okay in drafts next year kind of being like, you know, oh, Yamamoto just went. I'm going to take Imanaga this round. Yeah, a couple things adding in here.

2023 total stats to your walk and strikeout numbers. adding in here 2023 total stats to your walk and strikeout numbers he had 156 total strikeouts over 131 133.1 innings pitched 19 walks 19 total walks he had last year if you want to take the full spectrum of it you also i wanted you to cite you said something to me off air about the first pitch pitches was this in the wcbs no, this was in the no-hitter that he threw last year. I was just kind of fascinated by the amount of different first pitch pitches he was throwing instead of just, you know, pumping a fastball. What was it?

It was like five different pitches? Yeah, this is cool. A Sports Info Solutions article about Imanoga's no-hitter last year in June. There was just this interesting note where he said that Imanoga threw 13 fastballs, seven splitters, five cutters, and three curveballs on the first pitch. So I think that's just a note. It's just a little thing.

But I do think it speaks to he has a wider arsenal, and he uses them in all different counts and stuff. And he seems to have command of all those pitches. You never know. Some of these pitches don't port over. Some splitters have gotten better if they come over here because the ball is different. Some splitters have gotten worse.

But I think if you just look at somebody like Kodai Senga has come over, does not have great natural command, but he has a decent shape on his fastball, a really good split fork thing, and a pretty good cutter. And he's had good success. So there's a chance that Monica is better than Kodai Senga. And so had good success so there's a chance that monica is better than kodai sanga um and and so i i it's it's definitely a name for me uh to that i'm circling in drafts next year i don't know how hard to push him until i kind of see uh you know where he's being drafted but uh i'm gonna be into

him kodai sanga in his last year before he came over only had a 3-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio. And though it was heavier on the strikeout action, 9.7, that's not even as heavy as Imanaka. So Imanaka has some things going for him that even Kodai Senga didn't, and Senga has had good success in the major leagues yeah it'll be interesting because from a dynasty perspective like Yamamoto is going to be the one a lot of people have been asking me like where is he going to so I don't

tend to slot guys until there's you know at least close to confirmation like I don't put like the international class on my first year player yeah Yeah, I should mention Imonica posting was information that John Paul Marossi put out there. Oh, yeah. So that's been sort of, I would say that's close to confirmed or whatever. That's good news. We hadn't known that he'd be posted.

Yawmoto, like there's just a consensus that he will be, but I don't know that I've seen a report like that. Yeah, and I don't like to like, I'm not going to get into into crazy spec like put it down on like my own personal ranks until they are posted and a team has then i think you can start like jumping into that but like with yamamoto a lot of people have said like where is he going to slot in a first year player i could you could obviously justify like that could be a guy that could go one in a first year player if you're playing for now maybe more likely to be like three or i would probably slot him around like four after like yeah still a picture i mean i think they're i think they're yamanaga and yamato are both top

10 first year player draft guys but uh personally i always buy i'm always biased towards hitters and one of the things that you've said that i that i kind of admire and like is that um you know you're a little bit less concerned about how far away a guy is sometimes because we've seen how fast people are moving. And Dylan Cruz is a double A already, you know? So it's like, you know, for me, I think Dylan Cruz is 1-1, you know? I 100% agree. And some have Wyatt Langford and some want Wyatt Langford.

And the funny thing that could change, though, is with the Paulul skeens fastball shape issue that is out there we had a bad start first bad start yeah and it's first to get another one his well no let's see check this out yeah i don't maybe you didn't see this so his first double a start i think that was the bad bad start and then you have the shape well then i got text about this the other day because people were asking asking me, what does this mean? He's shut down. They put them on the developmental list. Frank Stanfield from CBS had hit me up and asked me about it. And I was like, I think it's nothing because the, you don't want to put them on the IL if they're not hurt and

cause a thing, especially with that guy. So what do you do to get the, you know, to get them off the roster, get the roster developmentalists. That's what Jack lighter did. Jack lighter was on the developmental list for five. I mean, it was a surprise that he was pitching anyway. So this is, this is more like being back to normal,

but it is funny. They came after the one bad star. And that's what I'm. So what I'm saying is, is like, you got Paul schemes that, you know, he,

we know all the positives, but then you've got bad shape, developmental list. If people were doing early first year player, I would not be shocked to see Yamamoto go ahead of Paul Skeens in drafts because he's 25. I've turned this reaction. I mean, you know, I think it is neither the Japanese guys throws as hard as Skeens and, you know, you know, who doesn't have great shape on their foreseeing fastball show. Hey, you know, you know how much that mattered. mattered well it matters a little bit right now but i guess but if you sit at if you sit 97 98 as a starter you know some of the shape stuff matters less you know yeah

it matters more for him on a guy actually because he doesn't he doesn't throw that hard so it's more like you know and that's where i'm turning it because I turned it into all these other guys. So it's to come back in a first year player. Yamamoto can probably go again. I wouldn't go higher than three, probably going to be four for me behind schemes, but whatever. Monica is a different story because he is older at 30 years old. This is always kind of like a really difficult thing for people to manage. How much do you care about that with starting pitchers?

You know, they seem to have a little bit of longevity. I think Monica has four or five, you know, six good years a little bit of longevity i think emonica has four or five you know six good years in him i mean if he since he has a good shape on these pitches and i live in a three i tend to live in like a three-year window world so his value will be up there you know a guy who's going to be in the big leagues next year and he's going to play for you for three years i mean and then back to like so i think there's a bigger gap in the dynasty perspective but might not be as big as people think. Then you come back to redraft.

And I kind of agree with you in this case here that Yamamoto is going to have a lot of the buzz, but it's going to be very contingent. I think also where he goes, you know, if he goes and plays, I know there's been rumors like Senga is trying to recruit Yamamoto to come and play for the Mets. And that's a great home park. That might create a lot of excitement. Park was something that yamamoto was supposed to get that that would be good for wins but you know it does give up some homers in that park but then what if a monica goes to the mariners you know or the giants or something like that yeah especially if you go to like a a pitching environment that we kind of revere a little bit, you know, moto still is going to go higher,

especially with a buzz. Like, let's say the Met, like, I don't believe the diamond backs are in on him. He's going to get a ton of money. Monica might get half the money, but the destination might be more appealing and there's a better track

record and a longer track record, I should say. And then you're talking fastball shape and stuff. Plus it kind of is in favor. He might be the better target because he's going after Yamamoto in drafts next year and something if I I'm completely drawing a blank will NFB will the the um like the NFBC stuff will they have these guys available in the drafts or it won't happen until they sign like for like the early you know like the first pitch draft they'll do in november

and whatever will you have a monica and you won't have them unless they have like agreed it's weird because some of the super early ones that we do at first pitch we can have placeholders i know that because we kind of do them offline and we don't always do them in the system you know because that i would i would target a monica i'm like i'm'm with you. I think that would be a guy I would be taking a look at. But I also just like the idea of once things are going, just sort of remember in your head that you can let the draft set the market for Yamamoto and then try to get Imanaga around later or whatever. Yeah.

So it's big news. It's big news to pay attention to with the posting outside of what has been an incredibly aggressive draft. We didn't talk about it on the last episode. Not going to really talk about it here, but you alluded to how Dylan Cruz is. He's not the only one. The amount of college bats that have been pushed up to double A is absurd.

Matt Shaw might be one of the most underrated guys with the Cubs. Oh my gosh. I saw some people speculating today that Matt Shaw should be the number one in first year player drafts i had him coming into uh after coming into the draft i had him at like six and he's around top five for me and he's just lived up to the hype he's been amazing paul skeens has moved up dylan cruz white langford has lit all these guys have lived up to it and been aggressively assigned that it's a really big positive. Take all of those aggressive assignments and what their production could be and now throw in a couple impactful international guys that are getting posted. It's going to make for a good first year player and then maybe some good values that are going

to be sitting out there. So we'll continue to talk about that. Some big numbers from Amonica and looks like he will get posted. We've got some injury problems. We got some big injury problems. One of those looks like it is from Clayton Kershaw, Clayton Kershaw, who the Dodgers need desperately.

We briefly talked about the Julio Urias thing yesterday, and it was mentioned the, after we had, we're done recording Dodgers saying they're super disappointed as they're doing whatever their investigation that tells you a lot of where this is going to go. This team desperately needs Clayton Kershaw. And he looked awful yesterday. Five innings, 300 runs. He walked five. The most concerning thing, almost a three mile an hour dip on his fastball, two and a half miles an hour down on his slider. Andberts after the game had said that or

alluded to is a report that he may not have been fully healed from this shoulder issue that um had taken him away six months of the season so like this is bad and i don't think they're going to shut him down but the velo coming down the question is like, what do we do about Clayton Kershaw right now? Because that is the alarming of alarming starts, but like they need to push him as best they possibly can. And can a fantasy owner justify not putting Clayton Kershaw out there right there out into his starts right now in the playoffs or into your roto season with, um, with Porsche results, you know, I mean, what's, what say you on Clayton Kershaw? Yeah. The, the, the hardest thing is just, uh, you know, as a, as a Dodgers fan, you're just on the edge of your seat a little bit and, uh, and you just know that they kind of

need him because I mean, otherwise, uh, who are your, your first, uh, three starters in a, otherwise, who are your first three starters in a playoff situation? You know, you're talking about Bobby Miller, you know, starting game two. And an uncomfortable feeling maybe thereafter. So, you know, you can put that aside uh and then you're talking about you know from a fantasy standpoint he's too good to to to drop it feels like and uh but if his stuff is coming down you could justify that that good goes away except you and i off air we were kind of looking at the schedule the schedule might be also a little too enticing to pull completely away from you know because even if he's throwing like 88 and whatever he's still

having a big old loopy curveball it's just nothing he didn't get away with anything in this last start with all these big decreases can he bounce back from this if he's not fully healed and the thing that doesn't help us in making a a tough decision you know by moving on or not starting or whatever it is is it's not like the worst rest of season matchups you said something really smart off air that you said a player what was a player is only as good as his remaining games or his remaining starts especially these pitchers yeah and when we looked at the schedule, it looks like he's probably got at Nationals, at Mariners next week, which is a double tap that you'd normally take given that Mariners good pitching environment, Nationals bad team. circled as maybe a bit of a trap, that velo is a big deal.

It is the worst single-game velo that Clayton Kershaw has put up in the major leagues. Wow. It's the very, very worst. And the last time he did something like this, he was at 88-3. He took a break thereafter, and he got it back up over 90. um he has been having decent velo like this year the velo overall has been better uh than it's been

in a couple years uh but uh the last sort of three starts have been bad worse and the worst. And so, you know, that at nationals game, I'm just, I'm just nervous for people. I don't, I didn't end up with any Kershaw shares this year. And I'm not saying that people didn't get value out of what he did this year. So that's, that's part of the picture too. You have to be happy about your value, but then, you know know just making decisions now is not about what you've gotten all season it's what's he gonna do in that national start and i'm not i'm not sure he ends with an at colorado too so uh if you decide that you cannot start him in that two start week you might as well drop him because you've got that two start week then you've got at giants which might be a good start, but then it ends with at Colorado. And you may just want the flexibility of trying to get another two-start pitcher instead of Kershaw if you can't stomach that at Nationals.

But most likely what people do is just sort of grin and bear it and start him for the two-start week. He could even get scratched and not get the two starts. That's what I think we could be heading to. We're probably not going to get to this. We made a nice robust show sheet and whoever does get to their whole show sheet, you get to your whole show sheet. You're not doing your show right.

So I doubt we're going to do this, but we did pull up. We were going to potentially take a look at some of the most picked up players over the last seven days using CBS's platform. I tend to think like the aggressive pickup platform of CBS kind of bodes well for what might be available in a lot of other people's leagues. Only reason I'm mentioning this is a couple of the pitchers. So let me quiz you here. The most picked up pitchers, if you feel that uncomfortableness of Clayton Kershaw, the most picked up pitcher over the last

seven days is Jordan Wicks with the Cubs. He's over 60% owned now. He's at 60% owned in CBS. He was 41%. Would you drop Clayton Kershaw to pick up? I'll give you a couple here. Jordan Wicks, number five overall, number

two pitcher is Matt Manning, who's under 50% owned. Jose Quintana at 45. Those are the three most picked up pitchers that are available in leagues would you drop kershaw for any of them well i might i might look at quintana schedule like if he had a two-star or who's at home i love quintana at home um wicks um would be scheduled dependent too yeah it's good change up um i don't uh trying to look i would probably hold kershaw with if that's what those are my options quintana ironically quintana's uh oh no no that's what he already did quintana looks like he would line up against the diamondbacks in his next start and out of that much but at home um i just went away from it let me pull that up

i think it was at home it was let's go back to it jose quintana pitching uh yeah that is at home against arizona and jordan wicks would be let's see his last start was the first he is he's actually got the diamondbacks at home coming up in i think that's right a couple starts here this weekend yeah yeah yeah so he's got he's got they both got the diamond back so would you start either one of Diamondbacks at home coming up in, I think, a couple starts here. This weekend, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they both got the Diamondbacks. So would you start either one of those guys against the Diamondbacks or you go with Clayton Kershaw?

If it's like a weekly league and I had a choice like that where it's one start against the D-backs or throw Kershaw twice, I'll throw Kershaw twice. Okay, and then for the full schedule. Overall on quality, I'd probably still hold kershaw twice okay and then the for the overall on quality i'd probably still hold kershaw i just hope that the next the velo is better in the next game or whatever yeah that's just like worried like how worried are you because like it's just one of those things we're just like oh this sucks but what am i really gonna do like i can't can't drop kershaw

he's in the big leagues it also looks like wicks actually wicks is pitching today by the way as we're talking he's got the giants today a double tap next week that means he has got yeah it but check this out it's at colorado on monday and then at arizona for wicks yeah sorry i can't do that okay so we moved off of it so we set all this up that like you should probably prepare if you have better options. Clayton Kershaw, we might be leaning into a territory where we should be worried that Velo dropped. You know, maybe, hey, this is actionable.

In daily leagues, maybe send him for that at-nationals game. Yeah. I mean, if you don't want to screw your ratios. He just gave up three runs in five to the Marlins. He could have a bad game against the Nationals. In a part that gives up more homers. If against the Nationals, if that Velo is back up, will you just feel like, oh, he figured out what the thing is?

I guess, yeah. If he can manage 90, I feel much better about him. We talked about it yesterday, so we don't need to go big on it, but I just wanted to talk about it one more time because there's a little bit more of a note. We talked about Shohei Otani and the situation, and you did a great job. I highly suggest everyone go listen back about the potential idea of that surgery. What did you call it again? It was like a rod.

Yeah, the internal brace. That's what it was. That's what Drew rasmussen got it's if you don't have a full tear you can basically just put a brace inside your body uh you know put that on and uh it's more of a six month timeline than a 12 to 14 month timeline which we were like go do it now because then you could hit after four months and then that right in january so but then the testing apparently was about something else that's the note you've got yeah so uh so phil ne Nevin talked on Tuesday night and they characterized this right oblique injury.

He's dealing with as a bit of inflammation, which was why he was scratched. They said he's currently going to avoid the IL for now. And they're monitoring it day to day. I just wanted to talk about it one more time because it's like, what is, what is the Otani team doing? Like you got this, you've got the oblique, there's inflammation,

like shut it down. And they also announced like he's got to have some type of surgery of some sort. So shut it down. I know they don't want to, you mentioned they might be going after some certain type of records, blah, blah, blah. It's thinking to get shut down.

I would be surprised personally. He likes to play, you know,. I just think he gets shut down. I would be surprised personally if he's playing next Monday. He likes to play. This dude is about baseball 24-7. Well, he can be around baseball. He wants to play while he still can, and then he'll get surgery in the offseason. I think that might be where he's trying to head, but it's a very real situation where we all have to realize that he could stop playing at any moment. Yeah, I'm in a head-to-head, and if I make it out of this week, I have a hard time accepting very real situation where we all have to realize that he could stop playing at any moment yeah i'm

in a head-to-head and if i make it out of this week i have a hard time accepting that i'm going to have otani into next week but he continues to push uh there's some other injury well i'm going to talk about this one pitcher and there's a couple hitters we'll just blow through this one was bad and i'll let you speak on it but uh i know it's not a huge name, but Mike Soroka was put on the IL. What's concerning? Numbness in the fingers. And that had you giving me an audible before we started going, oh, no, because there's a lot to it. So Mike Soroka's numb fingers on the IL could be something we have. Michael Soroka, I apologize, might be a career type of issue we're looking at with Soroka. Yeah, it's not good Brian Snitker said after the game that it was not good and that's also not good you usually have the

manager downplay and be like you know let's see what this is or whatever and he said it was not good so I'm officially on red alert the numbness in the fingers the best outcome I've ever heard was Brandon Woodruff who had some weird syndrome and it passed and he's been fine since. The worst case scenario is thoracic outlet syndrome, because if you have numbness in the fingers, something is affecting your nerve. And then usually that's compression. happens in thoracic outlet is if you just feel along your clavicle um you know out here to this this bone that comes down here in your neck here uh then you have a a rib that comes across the top here um and those two uh have a pressure between them i don't know if the rib is harder to feel we're like we're trying to feel this out on the video by the way yeah like you can feel the

clavicle that comes around your neck but but then underneath it, there's a rib. You have to kind of push in. I don't want to break mine. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it's like right here, I think. Yeah, so there's a rib that comes up, and that top rib and the clavicle, as you get beefier and stronger and throw a lot and you're a pitcher, there can be compression there.

It's called thoracic compression and uh so some of the good outcomes that we've had from thoracic outlet apparently alex cobb told me um that the good outcomes are because uh the blood one so your blood your your blood vein can get irritated there um and you can make blood clots and so you kind of throw blood clots down to your fingertips. And that sucks and it hurts, but it has better outcomes because it's a vein. When it's the nerve that's being compressed and you get numbness in your fingers because your nerve is getting depressed up there, those outcomes on those surgeries have worse outcomes. That's the Strasburg. So Strasburg was nerves, Cobb was veins, and those are different.

Also, I think I mentioned on here, but it might have been 3-0, so just if you haven't heard this before, Alice Cobb said they can't saw that rib when they get rid of it, so they take a wrench in and they go and they just snap it off. And he said it's all jagged.

It's a car? It's like a jagged end. What is this, like a car? I know, yeah. They take a wrench and they just snap it off. And he said that even though he was on like oxy-level meds, when he woke up, he reacted like he'd been shot. Like he came up out of surgery and he goes, oh! And he like grabs his shoulder like he's been shot.

And he was on meds. So he said it was awful. He says the bone that they took out, you can see the jagged edges where they just sort of popped it off. So I like and this is a pitcher who's like, I think one of the most things that I've ever been worried about for myself, because I'm never going get thoracic outlet surgery uh is that uh i've had achilles soreness and i feel like the one of the more other gruesome things is to tear your achilles because the ligament sort of sort of flaps up the back of your leg and you can kind of feel it sort of just it's like one of those ligaments that's a really tight ligament it goes around the bottom of your leg all the way to your foot whole thing is making me feel uncomfortable i'm one of those people it's like i'm feeling i'm like is my achilles hurting right now so you know and they go at 40 so uh yeah that's

why i kind of stopped playing pickup basketball but soroka now will like is in line for possibly the two most gruesome injuries that you can really get as a baseball player. So I feel really terribly for him. And I'm hoping that this is not thoracic outlet, but, uh, this is, this is, and this is Soroka is a player that I had a pitcher in camp with him the first time he ever saw him and said, this guy's a dude, he's got great command. He's an athlete, you know, this guy's, you know, put them on your radar. And, uh, this is just an awful, awful outcome, you know, given all the promise that he had so i feel terribly about this yeah i mean i remember i mean soraka still young enough that like that you know with enough time and blah blah blah we can recover it doesn't have i mean make it a little dramatic about like career ending but you know you keep

having you stack injuries up uh with the severity we kind of know where that ends up going but uh sky was the limit you know with soroka so it's really sad to see and uh we'll see the results you know we're not we're you know calling for the end here right now it's numbness at this point but yeah we can still be a rain node syndrome or something that's what um that's what uh banner would have had but numbness in the fingers is not good for a pitcher i feel like i have them all now i touched my the the bone up top you're like i can't feel my guards yeah go to imdb i'm like i have those problems this is i'm done i'm done uh the other injuries andrew mccutchen achilles i believe it was at achilles out for the season and he had tweeted i'm good and then he's like i'm not good and anthony rizzo shut down for

the season so both guys done for the rest of this year puts in quite i don't know if there's so much puts in question of like mccutcheon and you know where is he going if he's going to be anywhere next year i suppose rizzo kind of continues going but i kind of asked you do you care do you not to be crass about it i care for Kutch for his career. He's at 299 home. He's had a great career. Would have been a nice way to go out. But, you know, the Pirates could be a step closer next year to being good.

And, you know, there's still this chance that he's, you know, the last player on the roster for a team that's good. You know, that kind of the team player captain, you know what I mean, the player coach kind of deal. So I think I know a lot of players look up to him, and I would love to see him come back in a small role next year that's probably not going to be fancy friendly. But Anthony Rizzo is still on that cusp of like you think maybe

he has a full time job to come back to when he comes back you know he's under team control next year they're going to be paying him 20 million dollars I think you know I think they'll just invite him back and he'll be the starter, meaning that in model leagues, I would love to just be like, yes, I think he'll be a good value pick. You know what I mean?

Because I think they'll probably just play him, and I think they'll probably give him a lot of rope. But in mixed redraft 12, like 12 teamers, I see the worst whiff rate of his career, the worst strikeout rate of his career, the worst barrel rate of the last four years. One of the worst barrel rates of his career,

the worst max CV of his career, the worst ISO of his career. Like it doesn't look good. And he's 34 and projected bounce backs are less value like less less realistic at 34 so um i think i would stay away from him in 12 teamers 15 teamers uh like a util slot if you didn't like what you did with CI, I guess. But like a starting CI, starting first baseman in 15, a little bit weird.

But like a value pick in monoleagues at CI, maybe. I think I'll probably be completely out. You know, one thing I'm interested to see if it happens next year is with all of the, of course, my brain goes to it, like with prospects, but you look at all of these guys

that we've been focusing on these prospects that are getting to double A and triple A and the timelines and stuff like that. If we will see a tiny little push where fantasy baseball trends similar to fantasy football and in fantasy football, what do you do? You speculate a lot on who could be the next, you know, running back or a handcuffed running back or something like that. There's a bit more speculation that I wonder if instead of picking up boring old, like if you said, oh, I don't like what I did at UTIL, instead of picking up a guy like Rizzo,

that maybe you just gonna start speculating and drafting guys like Dylan Cruz. I'm not saying he's not gonna go higher, but you start speculating on double A, triple A hitters instead of even looking at guys like Anthony Cruz. I'm not saying he's not going to go higher, but you start speculating on double-A, triple-A hitters instead of even looking at guys like Anthony Rizzo. In fact, that seems like a... I like that. You could do something like Cruz at util

and Rizzo on the bench, knowing that you're going to play Rizzo for the first half and you're hoping that Cruz is up for the second half. I like that idea. And I also think that something left unsaid, sort of reading between the lines, what you're saying is that like, you know, if they are going to be so aggressive with these young players, that does mean something bad for the old players. You know, at some point

they have to go. I was just on the A's cast yesterday with, um, with Townsend. Um, and he was saying that, uh, right now in Oakland, there are some older players that, you know, are not going to be there next year. And there's just this is the sorting out process. And, you know, the some of the good and the bad is we're excited about Zach Geloff. You know, we're excited about Lawrence Butler. That does mean that somebody, you know, a veteran is on his way out. So I don't see. Do you see like do you know the Yankee is on his way out. So I don't see, do you see,

like do you know the Yankee system better than I do maybe? I know that they promoted Wells and Dominguez and we talked about them and Pereira and I like all those guys. Do you think any of them, like would they put Pereira at first or? I think they might put Wells at first. I mean, Wells doesn't want, he wants to,

I mean, that's the thing he told me, but this is years years ago like i think wells is a guy that can go over to first and i think that's where they're grooming let me pull up my ranks 100 uh wrc plus at triple a for wells i don't know 24 well i think they want to get kind of that back going so if you're talking about who else is out there that's coming close, the problem is is they did do this kind of a depletion of guys that are close. They've got a lot of

pitching prospects. They brought them all up, right? Yeah. Well, now here's the guy though. Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones. He's a six foot six. He can play in the outfield.

He doesn't really have a position right now in the major leagues. I think. Waiting for him. He's up in double a i think he's going to the arizona fall league and i think we see him play a lot of first base and there's always the possibility not saying spencer jones breaks camp i think austin wells would be

more likely but reversing back to what you were saying break camp but then you know i'm just trying to think of like who could take the job from him you you know, over the course of the season or what? Oh, Spencer Jones. Spencer Jones would be the guy. Wells would be a guy. But there's always a possibility kind of alluding to what you're saying is if there is the teams that have committed to the youth movement, is it unthinkable to for a team like the specifically a team like the Yankees to go, hey, listen, we're not going to play you like you're going to be on the bench. We can convert this money. We pay it over time, but we can convert this as a buyout or whatever it is, and you can

go play somewhere else, and we'll pay you your money. Would they be willing to do that? Or they look for a trade where they pay $10 million of it, and the team has to pay $10 million, and they get a Rizzo. Yeah, and they move a prospect. So I think there could be maybe a little bit- Would the Padres take Rizzo to be their DH when they've been looking for a DH forever, you know?

Would the Padres take him for a DH if they only had to pay $10 million and they could? He was part of their team at one time. A small prospect or something, yeah. Yeah, there's a history actually with Rizzo and the Padres. Yeah, that's a possibility, and they give up a prospect. Either way, I think one thing that I think that you have to think about is that

he may not play much against lefties anymore. When you're getting to that point in your career where you're not that good overall, then teams start finding ways to use you only at your best. And then Wells can platoon. Wells can be your righty, you know, he can be your righty guy. So that might be part of what Wells' job could be next year. And Rizzo gets into a platoon. And then it's like, you already don't like Rizzo that much. So would you really want to even invest any draft capital in a guy that could get platooned because this team has shown us how aggressive they will be with young guys at the end of last year?

I used to fall for these guys a lot, but I've been learning a little bit. I think that thing from Zimmerman about how you can't really bank on a bounce back from guys who are 34 and 35 has changed my approach a little bit. And what has he shown us? He hasn't shown us anything. So it's a fantasy thing. But also, you get all these young guys,

you also need team leaders. And Rizzo can play that role, but you got Judge and you got Stanton. That's something to pay attention to with those guys. Speaking of paying attention to, youth watch list. We have to talk about it because he's a darling of this show, but Edward Cabrera, you know, is back.

Our guy, Edward Cabrera, who we were trying to ship, we were trying to ship him before the trade deadline. He got good. He got bad. Went down to AAA, had a 2-2 ERA in AAA, picked up three wins over five starts, had 28 innings pitched, had a 9-5.53K per nine. He cut his walks down in AAA from what it was at the majors. He had over six walk per nine at the majors.

It was a 3.8, so that's still bad, but for him, it's good. But the Ks suffered a little bit. ERA was good. Obviously, he should dominate at that level. Any excitement? You're going to jump back into the Edward Cabrera train? Any excitement you're going to jump back into the Edward Cabrera train? I mean, he has monthly splits where I'm like, absolutely, this guy is a stud.

In May, he had a 28% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate. In June, he had a 31% strikeout rate and a 10% walk rate. If Edward Cabrera can do that, I mean, 10% is not even good. It's just okay. And if he could do 10%, he could be a stud. So that's what I'm looking for. I think that this minor league stint with the lower walk rate, I'll take it even with the lower strikeout rate because I think that needs to be the focus for him. And I'd say like we were talking about this list of most picked up. I'm not even that into most of the pitchers on this. I'm looking at the CBS fantasy most picked up list. We got Jordan Wicks that you mentioned, Matt Manning, Jose Quintana, Darius Vines just got sent down. Javier Asad, I think, is an up-down guy. Kyle Hendricks, I do not want.

Kyle Harrison, I'd like, but it's a little bit about his next matchup. Ryu is the same, where it's like, I like these guys, but I care about their matchups a lot. Cabrera is the kind of guy where I might care about the matchups in terms of starting him, but I want him on my team. You know what I mean? I want him on my bench. You know what I mean? Like I want, I want him on my bench that I can start him in all the good starts. He's that good. I think he's a step above Ryu. He's a step above Kyle Harrison. Don't you think? I mean, he's, he's a step above any name I've said, I think.

Yeah. I kind of want, I mean, I, maybe I know the answer, but like you cut, if you, you don't like the matchups you said, Hey, if you don't like the two start you you is this for clayton kershaw yeah yeah you know i was gonna do that you don't like the matchups you said hey if you don't like the two start and you got colorado would you dump out on kershaw to pick up cabrera i don't see the one thing that's interesting about this is i don't think you'll have the time to wait to see what happens in washington yeah yeah that's that's a good point i mean that's why you like you have to make the move that's kind of where i'm going with it. Have they also said, the only thing I worry about in this is,

are they committed to he's going to get starts? Or could this be something where, because we've seen a couple guys get put into leverage situations when they come back up. I've got this note from Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald says, Cabrera joined the Marlins taxi squad Tuesday

and is expected to be called up from Chipotle to start wednesday's game against the dodgers okay you want to kind of you want to watch that game wednesday and and see if you have if you're in a 10 team or 12 team you want to watch that game wednesday or what look at the box score and see how many walks he gave up like and you have that opportunity you think you'll be there for for your league, then do that. If he walks fewer than three, depending on how many innings he pitches, of course. But if he has a decent walk rate in that game, then

yeah, I mean, he's throwing a lot better than Kershaw right now. Dodgers, it's a rough matchup. That's a really rough matchup. I wouldn't necessarily want to pick him up and start him today. I would not. Yeah. I would not. And I,

I probably it's, it's encouraging. Like some of the stuff he did in the, in the minors, but what will it translate on the back half of the year? I probably still go into Kershaw. I feel, I feel like I feel a little bit better about the Washington start than you do.

And the, the, the tricky part about this will be is if Cabrera kind of deals against the Dodgers. He goes and strikes out eight, walks two, goes five. Then it's going to like open up our brains a little bit. And then this becomes a closer conversation. A guy that we talked about back in the episode way back earlier this year

where Eno and I were kind of digging into more of like the baseball savant, like just perusing the pages and stuff like that. And you know, and how useful it is. They can be pretty, we get these pages and we're like, boy, this guy has a pretty baseball. And they've been updated recently. I think it's a little better now. I like it. Yeah. I do like the new update if you haven't checked it out. Well, the guy that you and I can't both, we both agreed, like we we kind of can't help even though he is one of those players that there are guys that have like bad baseball savant pages and produce there's guys that have good and don't produce key brian hayes is the literal poster child of what we were talking about here

and we're both like man he just hits the ball hard if he could be consistent well don't look now he's starting to hit the ball hard again. 49.7% hard hit rate. Second highest of his career. Second highest average EV. Second highest barrel rate of his career. He's just getting things going again. And you had actually tweeted something out a little bit earlier today about that rolling average, that 15-game rolling average.

So where are you at? Are you kind of jumping back on the key? Brian Hayes train? This might be a build for the off season of investment into him early next year, but still any takes on key Brian Hayes? Yeah, I think the news,

the pages are a good example of why the new pages are better because, um, you know, there are extreme positives for Hayes that jump off the page. His base running value, his fielding value, uh, his average exit velocity, his hard hit rate. They still have some stuff on here that I don't think is that useful. Like average exit velocity is not super useful.

Um, but, uh, then you have some gray sliders. Those are all red sliders for, for Hayes. And then you got some gray sliders. Those are all red sliders for, for Hayes. And then you got some gray sliders. His barrel rate is 42nd percentile, a sweet spot, 46 percentile ex-wobo 56 percentile. So it's all about whether or not his bat can really, you know, catch up with you know, or you can make more out of that raw power that he's got. And what I posted today actually was a rolling uh average of his fly ball

rate oh okay and um you know somebody pointed out that for this year uh his his fly ball rate is pretty much average uh for cabrian hayes but um i like, yes, that would be an immense accomplishment for Cabrian Hayes. His fly ball rates coming into the last two seasons, 25% in 2021, 28% in 2022. The average fly ball rate around the league is 34%. So this is a guy who cannot hit fly balls. Now he's got a 38% fly ball rate and he's had some peaks this season where he was hitting 50% fly ball rate on the rolling chart. And now I

think that's too far. I've always said I don't like 50% fly ball rates and that's too much. But just to see this guy flirt with that and try it out tells me that he went too far and then he brought it back and now he's at a really good place. His rolling number is around 34%. That would be, if he did it for the season, would be his best of all time. It would be slightly better than league average, and it'd be a great way for him to take advantage of his obvious raw power, as evidenced by Brian Hayes' nice-looking max EVs, 113-plus the last two seasons. So this is a guy that I think if this is real,

then next year I think he could hit 275 with 20 homers and 20 steals. You need some 25 homers even. You need some good health from him to get that, and where you take him knowing that he could also regress and not hit those numbers is going to be a real tough one. I think it's more for 15 and mono. I would love to have him

as my third baseman in a mono league. In 15 team leagues, maybe somewhere between a back end CI or corner infielder or util. If he was able to take this maybe somewhere between a back end CI or corner infielder or util. If he was able to take this and finish out the rest of the season, would you, let me use the word, identify him as kind of like a sleeper target for you for next year because he was able to make that change, hold it?

The big question will be, does he hold it through the off season into next year? Because he has not really shown us a track record of being able to do that but if he were able to maintain this through the end of the year is that something where you're like you know what he's a major target for big breakout for you and you would identify him as that or is it still very wait and see and like well no one likes him and i'll just kind of take him and hope for the best i mean i'm just looking at this fly ball chart and if you want to look at it i I've got a tweet that says, could Brian Hayes finally? And he has been doing the fly ball thing all year.

The graph looks radically different. So it always depends on price and alternatives and stuff like that, but he's, he's, he's again, a sleeper for me. Yeah. Okay. I mean, I feel most comfortable in like a draft and hold as a third, third baseman or a second, third baseman, you know,

third CI. Um, but, uh, he'll be on my rosters. I think that a nice thing about him is that there is some floor here. And so, you know,

next year, the floor projection for me would be like 250, 10 homers, and 10 stolen bases. And I think that's still useful. Just not something you would take if you were to get pushed up. That's not like a 150. That's not a top 150 player. No, it's hard to – yeah, because that kind of floor,

you would drop in a lot of leagues. And you don't want to pick somebody uh too high that you might drop like i have to i'm on i have to be honest like you might drop yeah and the thing you pay attention to is like where does the hype end up going i mean he does have a post all-star break of a 305 average he's got seven homers but the stolen bases have completely depleted during that time he actually does not have to get hurt again. Yeah. He does not have a stolen base from August on. So that's something you'll have to watch, but he is also,

you know, he's hit lefties while he's hitting over 300 against lefties so far this year. So there's some big positive turns for key Brian Hayes. There were also some big days on Tuesday. I just want to mention a couple of these. Jose Altuve has been on some crazy tear. He had three straight homers and like three innings or three straight at-bats.

It was four straight at-plate appearances with a homer. Breaking history for the most homers in a short period of time. And it's essentially been like 300 at-bats this year that he's put up 15 homers. I had this long discussion on Fantasy Pros today with Casey Bubba about this. But like, I'm going to ask you this exact question. Going into next year, I felt Al to ask you this exact question going into next year. I've felt Altuve was actually kind of a buy around the trade deadline for what he had done in a short period of time that people weren't really accounting because he'd missed so much time,

but going into next year, Mookie is going to hold the top tier. He's got the second cause he's played so many games. He'll be, you know, second base one tier two will be Ozzie Albies and then making maybe like Marcus Simeon. You'll put those guys in there. But tier three, who would you rather have next year? Jose Altuve or Jazz Chisholm? Ah, just just slotting Jazz Chisholm in there. You know, with the age, I'll take Jazz Chisholm.

there. You know, with the age, I'll take Jazz Chisholm. You know, Jose Altuve, 33. I know that this year's injury was due to the WBC and getting a fractured hand there. And I know that probably people are fairly happy with what they got, you know, if they think back to that day when he fractured his hand and what they thought they might get out of Altuve this year. So people are probably still pretty happy with him. But I would remind Altuve backers that there's been other injuries this year, other kind of things that are going to pop up more and more as he gets older. And I know Jazz Chisholm has had his own injury problems, but I continue to hope for a 25-year-old finally putting together a full season. 25 year old, uh,

kindly finally putting together a full season. You know, if you just mushed last year together with this year, you get a full season of, uh, of jazz Chisholm jr. And that, uh, full season would be a two 55 average with 29 homers and 31 stolen

bases. Uh, I don't think I'll two base still has that upside. See, the only problem is, is I think I got to look here but I think Altuve's pace numbers are just about that I know I know his pace numbers are like 30 homers over the season with a like 300 batting he's definitely stealing more bases than I thought

he would steal this year yeah so like if you get into the pace numbers because what does he have he has 13 so yeah so he's almost a 30, 30 guy paced out over next year. His expected batting average is quite a bit lower than it's been in the last three years, but his Woba is, is in the top two percentile of the league and the second highest of his career.

And he was also, he continues to morph into being a power hitter. It's so crazy. Double digit barrel percentage, which you and I've talked a lot about. First time he's ever been double digit. So I throw all those things out to say that like his pace numbers are there

with a much better batting average than Jazz Chisholm. Jazz is just such a great decision because with anybody else, I would just point to plate appearances and say, I'll take the over on plate appearances for this other player. But with Jazz, it's kind of hard to be like, you know, it's almost the question of who gets more plate appearances for this other player. But with Jazz, it's kind of hard to be like, you know,

it's almost the question of who gets more plate appearances next year, Jazz or Jose Altuve. Yeah, and they both got injury worries. It's just one is younger, and it's just kind of a fun one. One has been sort of a better injury bet, but he's way older. I mean, 34 years old is... Yeah, you could argue

that Altuve could stay healthy, but the age works against some of the aggressiveness but like is Jazz Chisholm also the next Giancarlo Stanton where every year it's something it's just some new thing and aggressive swings something to think about another guy to think about for next year Brandon Woodruff on Tuesday seven innings gave up only two hits six K's now has three straight quality starts and has had really quite a season since another guy. You're talking about injury. 2-3 ERA with an expected ERA under three still.

The expected batting average against, if you care about that, is under 200. K percentage is over 30%. It's actually the highest of his career, 31.3. Any thoughts on Brandon Woodruff on what we've seen this year? And you can carry it into next year, Convo, if you want. Yeah, I mean, the injuries for him this year have included time on the IL for shoulder. The actual injuries, you know, lined up as they have it on Fox Sports, are an oblique 2019 illness in 2021.

I don't even know what that is. Maybe that's COVID. Ankle 2022 and shoulder 2023. Is any of these the ones where he had numbness in his fingers? I feel like this is an incomplete list. Fox. I don't know. No more numbness.

He had bone spurs. What is this? That's Wade. Miley has bone spurs. I don't know. It's, it's weird to like, look at it and be like,

okay, you know, it's been, it hasn't been a ton of injuries. It's just been, he's been out for those injuries it's i i don't what's the over under on innings for him next year he went 120 2020 he had 73 which is pretty much a full season so let's give him 180 that season right that's a 120 pace for 180 179 153 and he's going to end this year with like 60 but technically his two biggest

innings pitched were not counting this or were the previous two years were 179 and 159 so yeah yeah yeah because i paced him for 20 yeah yeah so i i would say over under you probably got to go like 130 yeah yeah 130 is so i, would you take the over the under? I, or how's his catnip for me, man? I love, I love established,

uh, mid career guys who aren't too old yet. We just had one, like, you know, I, I would, I would take Woodruff.

I would take the over. I'd take Woodruff. Okay. What do you think is going to be, uh, do you have some early ADPs? Like, is he going to be, uh as a as a as a number one

yeah there's not enough i think the only draft is one i've mentioned before it was a live draft uh rob dipetro did one yeah within fbc uh i the thing that only posted seven rounds and i don't recall seeing him go i don't recall seeing him go. I don't recall seeing him go, but I think that was also like a month ago. So I would imagine Woodruff is going to be somewhere. Maybe I'm off here. Probably not inside the top 25 SPS, you know,

maybe hovering right around that spot. I mean, cause okay, here's one just randomly throw to you. Would you rather have a Brennan Woodruff or Jesus Lizardo? You know, lazardo was money to start the year and has just kind of tanked down a little bit towards the end would you side back on the youth with lazardo and those strikeouts or woodruff with some of the inning concerns i'm taking woodruff woodruff went in the fourth to Waxman. Oh, okay. And let me see how many pitchers.

I don't know what to count. I'm not counting Otani as a pitcher. Strider, it went Strider, Cole, Castillo, Gossman, Burns, Wheeler, Gallin, Kirby. That's eight. Glass now. I'm going to be nine. I'm going to be way off then.

Wow. Okay. So I am way off then. He was SP 10. Okay. I mean, those are sharp. So they're onto that. I thought typical drafts, you might see him more in the 20 range or something like that.

But that is a buyback in of full health and that's well it's funny waxman took him and blake snell where maybe he's just banking on getting you know 180 combined innings i don't i mean blake's blake snell i feel like i would side on blake snell over woodruff but we also don't know his destination that's an interesting woodruff and snow was freddie peralta 11 sandy alcantara 12 yuri perez 13 to bubba scherzer 14 logan gilbert 15 snail snail 16 i feel like woodruff fits in that 15 range for me like not to say that he's not deserved at 10 but i feel like you have to bake in some of the risk in there as well something i don't like about that uh early draft board is how much risk is in that that range glass now woodruff peralta alcantara perez is a fairly risky group of

pitchers to me i might want to get clear of that for my first for my ace that's what i was hoping is that woodruff would be my number two uh and you know get a high number two and so um i you know corbin burns in the third i think that i think that's going to change corbin burns is going to go on the second because people are going to see that like burns wheeler gallon kirby glass now woodruff you know what i mean like you know with Wheeler Gallen Kirby you're like uh-huh yep yep I like this and then with Woodruff and Glasner you're like well if they're healthy you know I think what will be interesting

is paying attention to the drafts that we all end up doing over at first pitch those are usually a multitude of drafts boards will be not to say that this isn't because this is a first and also you know, the, another nice thing about first pitch data and what happens there is it's not all one format.

So you're going to have dynasty leagues drafting there. You're going to have, you're going to have draft and holds. You're going to have a NFP GC type. You're going to have monos, you know, you're going to have auctions. So you're going to get some,

uh, uh, an interesting influx of data where we're all going to say, I'll keep my eye on Woodruff, see where he goes. Me too. I kind of think he settles in around 15, but at the same time, if he continues at this pace, I'm going to, I'm completely wrong. So I was wrong about 25. Woodruff's class now is also an incredible thing to think about. Ooh, I like that. That'll be a fun off season debate. Uh, two, I want to mention this prospect thing.

One other quick note, Chris Bassett, who we talked about with major concerns in the preseason about the VLO stuff, he just rattled off eight, struck out seven. And I wanted to throw this out. Our friend Nick Pollock tweeted this, and he said, Chris Bassett held a 3-8-1 ERA with a 1-1-9 whip entering today.

If you remove his first start and include tonight's start, that is a 3-2-8 ERA and a 1-1-0 whip across 170 innings. That's pretty awesome, he said. This is one thing we were talking about,

spring training VELOs. He was down a lot. He's still down, so it's not like spring training was wrong about his Velo's. He was down a lot. He's still down, so it's not like spring training was wrong about his Velo. But I guess what I should have done is just identify him as someone where Velo is not as important because he has

eight pitches, literally, on StatCast. It's like Bieber. I was going to say, he was this year's Bieber to last year where everyone's like, oh, Velo's down. I mean, Bieber really struggled at some points this year, but it's the same to your point. Like Bieber has had VLO decreases, but there's also a pitch mix.

Arsenal. Long-term. How much do I value him? Maybe I'll undervalue him again, but it isn't the type of picture that I like to have very high in my rankings. So that's just one thing. We, we just let's throw some prospects out there real quick.

This is not on the rundown, but Connor Phillips debuted for the Reds. They need pitching. His stuff plus is off the charts. His location plus is off the charts in the bad way. And I think you saw both of those things on display in his first game where he gave up two home runs in four and two thirds, missed the zone sometimes,

walked two guys, but also had seven strikeouts in four and two thirds. So I don't know how to use him correctly, but he is definitely a guy that if you are in a stash situation that I would pick up and stash because of the stuff alone. I actually did that in a dynasty. We had a dynasty league where he was available

and I picked him up. On Mason Miller, we just talked about him yesterday. Mason Miller on the callback up. That doesn't mean it's great news. So what did you get on Mason Miller? Yeah mark katsay said in the huddle last yesterday when i was at the park that uh he expects him to be somewhere between the bull we like to put our bullpen and our and our starting staff together it's all just one staff

you know everyone's happy uh he doesn't talk like that but the idea is uh uh that he is somewhere in between a starter and a reliever, and they're going to limit him to 50 pitches in appearance. So that's going to make him hard to make an impact in fantasy. I don't really see him getting holds in that situation, maybe a three-inning save, but most likely they're just trying to push that innings total over like 50 so that maybe next year he can throw 80 or 100.

You know, I mean, this is this is one of those extreme cases. Somebody locally was talking about that reminds him a little bit the A.J. Puck situation where you have this extreme stuff and extreme inability to stay healthy. And, you know, there are guys that become relievers because they can't stay healthy that that's still in the realm of possibilities for mason miller like very distinctly he might be an afl return guy i'm just throwing this out there he might be one of those guys that has to return yeah because you need innings but by the way i also defend you i think a manager that puts a pitcher like him at 50 pitches they talk like. That's how they sound when they do that to the pitcher.

The last thing I wanted to throw your way was, I just feel strong about this. We mentioned him briefly, I believe, yesterday. Jordan Lawler, after talking about him, goes off, rattles off a two-homer night, hitting over 600 in September. He now has four straight multi-hit games. It's in the PCL, I understand.

But this was noted by a couple of people, so I'm not trying to like take this but i went and looked because i agree nick ahmed over his last 10 games someone tweeted this and i'm completely forgetting it so i'm taking their tweet and i wish i could cite them um but 10 games nick ahmed has a 0.045 batting average a sub 200 obp has one run and no other counting stats over the last 10 games Geraldo Perdomo in the entire month of August hit only 250 and had under 15 total combined run and rbi and is hitting 111 in the month of September Jordan Lawler is hitting out of his mind the Diamondbacks are one game back in the wild card I think he needs to be called up this week and I think he's one of those prospects that would be interesting to stash right now if you back in the wildcard. I think he needs to be called up this week. And I think he's one of those prospects

that would be interesting to stash right now. If you can in the league, you can get a boost in your middle infield because he is a power speed combo. I think he's a 2030 guy in the minors right now, close into 2040. He can defensively play. And that team is devoid of offense at shortstop.

So why they wouldn't would make no sense on the planet. They are one game back in a wild card. Jordan Lawler, I think comes up within the next week and he'd be a player. I would look to stash right now. And it can't even really be about places on the 26 man roster, the 40 man roster, because is Lawler already on it?

I, I, you know, I want to say he might not be on the 40 man, even if it's not, I have as, as extremely like easy solution for the D-backs. Release Nick Ahmed.

Yeah, take him off the 40-man. He's already a free agent at the end of the season anyway. I have the last 30 days up. It's not any better for Ahmed. He's a 24 WRC plus over the last 30 days. Perdomo is good enough to keep on the roster. You're, you're mentioning some of the worst parts of his aspects, especially from a fantasy angle. But, uh, for the last month, Perdomo still has a 97 WRC plus that might be why they haven't done anything like that's good enough. That's not the, that's not the problem on the

team, you know, uh, like a, a bat at shortstop. That's yeah. I don't want him off the team. I want him as a core piece to help to so you can platoon around and stuff perdomo goes nowhere but because you have perdomo you don't need nick ahmed i just looked uh he lawler is not on the 40 man roster but there's a spot waiting for him it's called nick ahmed i mean that's a hundred percent and they're going into a series this weekend it might be be worth speculative stash, even in redrafts, if you've got a spot. Oh, that's what I'm saying. Redrafts.

I'm picking him up right now. Yeah, because they're going into a big wildcard battle this weekend. We might hear the Lawler news tomorrow because they're going to play the Cubs. The Cubs are 75-64 right now, and the D-backs are 71-68. The Cubs are 75 and 64 right now and the deep backs are 71 and 68 like the cubs are who they're chasing and if they could do a sweep uh you know in chicago that would change everything yeah and i that's why i'm saying in redraft dynasty is no doubt if he's in some type of keeper format yes but redraft i would pick him up right now if i have some void in my middle infield

and you want to power you're looking for power speed combo guy. He's going to run. He's going to run. If he gets here, I'm back. Let their guys run. He's a power potential guy. He's been hitting like crazy. There's a ton of confidence.

And like I said, with Jordan, with Jason Dominguez, I don't think there's enough time in the league to make adjustments, especially if he comes out hot and see a lot of fastballs. And I think there's some good production. Yeah, exactly. So that would be a guy I would take a look at. That's going to do it. That's going to do it for us. A little bit of a prospect swing and a whole bunch of other things.

That is the final of the Wednesday episodes for this season coming up. You've got a, you and Al, you know, and Al are going to be doing the episode on Friday and we'll be kind of back to just Monday, Friday. I'll be back with you guys on Monday.

So thank you all for hanging out with us. If you guys don't, I think it's a dollar a month right now. You can go to theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. Pick yourself up a subscription. Check out all the great articles and you don't want to really miss anything.

So I would suggest going to do that. For Eno, I'm Welsh. Thank you guys for hanging out with us and we'll talk to you right here next time on Rates and Barrels.