Rates & Barrels - Shane McClanahan Injury and Post-Deadline Closer Changes

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

DVR and Al consider Zack Littell’s fantasy value in light of Shane McClanahan’s trip to the IL, Tyler Wells’ recent demotion, the returns of Brandon Woodruff and Brendan Rodgers and Randal Grichuk’s appeal for 12-team leagues. They also discuss an intriguing group of streamable pitchers and the recent changes in the Mariners’, White Sox’s, Royals’, Mets’ and Cardinals’ bullpens in the aftermath of the trade deadline. Rundown 0:42 The biggest news of the week 15:47 Hitters of note 27:49 Pitchers of note 33:18 Curtis Mead promotion 37:41 More pitchers of note 41:08 Streamers and two-start pitchers 52:35 Closer corner Follow DVR on Twitter: @DerekVanRiper Follow Al on Twitter: @almelchiorBB e-mail: [e-mail] Subscribe to The Athletic at $2/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

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, it's Friday, August 4th, Derek the Riper here with Al Melk here, getting ready for another weekend of pickups, this time coming out of the trade deadlines. We've talked a lot about some of the depth chart movers that are more interesting players now than they were this time last week. We're going to try and look past some of those players and find a few other interesting guys that could be helpful to your fantasy teams. With a lot of leagues having pickups again on Sunday, we'll start as we do each and every Friday with some of the biggest news of the week. And Al, it's Shane McClanahan

going to the IL with forearm tightness as our lead story for today. It's interesting too because this overlaps a conversation we had on Tuesday on Project Prospect about Taj Bradley getting sent down and kind of wondering how long it would be before he would get another look at the big league level.

With McClanahan's injury, the answer to that question is probably not long. The Rays have a couple off days on the schedule that enabled them to send Bradley down in the first place. But there was a pitcher we did not discuss on Tuesday. Rob DiPietro, PoleHitter podcast, mentioned this. Rob DiPietro, Poll Hitter Podcast, mentioned this. Zach Littell is actually getting stretched out like a regular starter. Just last time out against Houston, he threw five innings, as the Rays often do. They have messed with Zach Littell's pitch mix a good bit.

We've got a nice graphic here that was sent by one of our followers, Thomas Nestico at TJStats on Twitter. Made a nice graphic showing some of the differences here i've got it popped up on youtube but the important takeaways are that they've lowered his four seam fastball usage they've increased the slider and they've added a new sweeper so this is a guy that's very different right now than he has been bouncing around the league kind of in between mostly bullpen rolls and starting roles for the better part of five seasons now. I mean, he's been mostly a starter as recently as a AAA in 2018, 2019. So it's not unheard of for Littell to be used this way.

And given some of the needs with all the injuries and even with the acquisition of Aaron Savali, it looks like the door is opening here as a result of McClanahan's injury. Yeah. it looks like the door is opening here as a result of McClanahan's injury. Yeah, and we don't know the timetable yet, but yeah, there could be maybe a longer-term role. And as you alluded to earlier, DVR, that when Bradley was sent down, it was really because the, at least my assumption was,

it was because the Rays didn't need a fifth starter for, I think it was about a week or so. So I would expect Bradley to be back up pretty soon, particularly if McClanahan is out for longer than the minimum, which very well could be the case. But yeah, Littell, that's interesting. Yeah, he went from pitching a couple of innings at a shot to five innings, which was rather surprising. I don't know, given that it's been so long since he's been a starter,

how trustworthy he is. I think for me, he's more of a monoleague pickup at this point, but definitely somebody to watch and watch closely because maybe his shelf life in 15-teamers isn't, on the 15-team waiver wire, is not going to be that long. Yeah, it kind of feels like now is the weekend for him in 15-team mixed leagues. And if he pitches well, I think he's got another start coming up tonight against the Tigers. If Littell pitches well in that layup matchup and goes 5-plus again,

that's only going to add to the intrigue going into the weekend. It's not unlike what we saw just from a, this guy's going to have meaningful innings. What? How's this going to happen? It's not unlike Jeffrey Springs a year ago right I mean Jeffrey Springs not a year ago but in the last couple of seasons becoming this guy that didn't have a lot of success at the big league level I mean Littell's at least look good occasionally as a reliever in the big leagues you couldn't even really say that about Jeffrey Springs during his time in Texas and in Boston. And he goes into Tampa Bay and becomes this really useful starter. We've seen it so many times before. And it's not just a raise thing. When you go to a new organization, it's new pitching coaches, it's a new philosophy, sometimes hearing it a different

way, even if it's similar information, or just getting some new ideas completely changes who a pitcher actually is out there. So I'm intrigued. I picked him up in Maki. It was an inexpensive pickup for me. Willing to see what happens with this. The organization certainly helps in this instance, but I would not write off the possibility of Zach Littell sticking around just because of the need that the Rays have for innings every fifth day. We got another situation to monitor here in Minnesota. Joe Ryan placed on the IL with a groin strain. His recent performance sort of reflects something being wrong. At least we kind of know what that something might be with an injury. And this actually overlaps an opt-out clause that was triggered in Dallas Keuchel's contract. The

Twins had Keuchel pitching at AAA St. Paul. After the trade deadline, Keuchel triggered that opt-out clause. There was a brief window with the Twins had to add him to the roster. Well, that's going to happen. So it looks like Dallas Keuchel is actually going to line up for a two-start week on the road against the Tigers and Phillies as the schedule appears as of Friday afternoon. Dallas Keuchel did go to driveline during the offseason, was pitching pretty well at AAA. So I'm curious if you have any sort of interest in Dallas Keuchel making some sort of comeback here in 2023 with the Twins. I don't, to be honest.

And I just pulled up his fancrafts page just to make sure I was remembering things correctly. things correctly. And maybe my memory exaggerated the recency or how far away it had been since he had been really fantasy viable. And it's been maybe not that long. I forgot 2020, that shortened season, 199 ERA, which granted was probably not a real reflection of how well he really performed. But he was doing what Dallas Keuchel does. He was getting ground balls. He wasn't walking too many batters. So it really was just in his last couple of seasons where things kind of fell apart,

and last year really completely unraveled. So I might be being a little unfair, but that said, I'd rather be watching from the sidelines, maybe Adam in mono leagues, but otherwise, I'll be happy to let somebody else take the risk. And raise your hand if you would not have used Dallas Keuchel with the combination of Arizona and Texas on Immaculate Grid or Atlanta and Arizona. Didn't know that was a possibility. I mean, there's a few little twists in his career that

you've kind of forgotten about. I mean, most of what few little twists in his career that you've kind of forgotten about. I mean, most of what you remember, of course, is the time he had success in Houston and then the window that he spent with the White Sox, but brief stops elsewhere along the way. I would tread carefully. I think it's more of a monoleague sort of play right now. A wait and see for mixed leagues, even with that two-step. We're at the point in the season, we come upon this every single year, Al,

where you could start to say if your ratios are bad to the point where you either can't lose any more standings points at ERA and WIP or you can only lose one or two in each category, where you start playing the bulk game. Maybe in those circumstances, you could consider him as a contingency bid for the two-start week, but I don't think there's a reason to be aggressive picking him up right now,

given the recent struggles that we've seen. Hopefully for his sake, though, we can see him turn the corner. And the second of those two matchups at Philly is a pretty tough matchup anyway, so that's part of the problem with that two-step for me. Timetable for Joe Ryan, I don't think I've seen one yet, but the groin strain might not be that long

before he's back in the picture. We saw Marcus Stroman go on the I.L. with hip inflammation. This one may have very little fantasy impact outside of Stroman's absence itself, but much like Joe Ryan, recent performance had taken a turn in the wrong direction, so perhaps this injury has been lingering a bit longer than we realize. The Cubs actually have three off days on the schedule in the next two weeks, so they can get by with a four-man rotation. They can use Justin Steele, Drew Smiley, Jameson Tyon, Kyle Hendricks

to get by without pushing Hayden Wesneski into starting duty. So if something changes, Wesneski looks like he's still the next guy up in that rotation, but the next couple of weeks especially are set up where the Cubs can actually get by without Marcus Stroman. Here's an interesting story that popped up in the last 24 hours. Anthony Rizzo was placed on the I.L. by the Yankees with post-concussion symptoms, and I didn't even remember this collision happening, but he was involved in a collision with Fernando Tatis Jr. at first base back in May, and Rizzo has had a really rough stretch at the plate in the time since that collision occurred, so it makes some sense that there was actually something wrong this entire

time. That also makes me think that the absence could be longer than the typical short window that you can see sometimes with a concussion. It always seems weird to have a short absence with a concussion. It's a brain injury, maybe err on the side of caution with those, but hey, what do I know? I'm not a doctor. So more Jake Bowers at first base, and as Waldo Cabrera is back on the roster after being recalled from AAA, do you see anyone else playing enough in Rizzo's absence to possibly merit consideration this weekend?

No, I don't think so. I think it does solidify the playing time for Jake Bowers. So in leagues, for example, where I've got him, where I was not so sure about the playing time, now I would feel pretty comfortable starting Bowers. Cabrera, obviously now on the roster, maybe gets three starts a week or so. But yeah, I don't think there's any other major playing time gainers

that I see here. Yeah, the stabilization for Bowers is a good thing for those deeper leagues. Still got to keep an eye on the schedule, though, with Bowers. You would imagine that it's still going to be kind of a big side platoon sort of player. Tyler Wells is getting a break from the Orioles rotation. This is not entirely surprising when you consider that last season, Tyler Wells' usage was monitored pretty carefully by the Orioles. This year he's been used more like a regular starter, but getting some time out of that rotation right now.

I had a stretch of three appearances where I think he threw a combined nine innings over three starts and gave up 11 earned runs. He's had an issue with home runs all season, 25 homers and 113 and two-thirds innings. That's your skills flaw. But Tyler Wells has pitched very well overall. I'm curious what you're doing with Wells in leagues where he gets dropped. A lot of first-come, first-served leagues, he is falling off of rosters. You wrote about that in the waiver column this week. In what types of leagues do you think Wells is worth immediately picking up where he becomes available? I think where he's likely becoming available based on his roster rates is 10 and 12 team

leagues. I don't think he's a must add back in 10 teamers, but if he's been dropped in my 12 teamer, I will pick him up because prior to that three start stretch that you mentioned, which was immediately after the all-star break. So basically going into the All-Star break, Wells was the 13th ranked starter in standard Roto. So, you know, you're talking about essentially a fantasy ace. And I've also, I wrote earlier this year

that I think he was due for some regression, but not so severe that he couldn't be a contributor in 12-teamers. So I think, yeah, somebody who's performed as well as he had, there's obviously the possibility that he comes back as a reliever, that he's in some kind of hybrid role, possibility that whatever is wrong isn't made right. But I think that for the upside that he showed in the first half,

that if you've got a room to stash somebody, Wells is the guy to use that spot for. What is your outlook for Tyler Wells in keeper leagues? There are some leagues where 15-team mixed leagues, kind of like Maki's 16 teams, where he might have been a $1 guy during the auction. AL only leagues, he was even pretty expensive, and the performance has been so good so far

that holding him makes a lot of sense. Do you actually see a window to possibly trade him? If you're contending right now and you need innings and you were relying on Tyler Wells, do you think other teams are interested in trading for him for next season with the hope that a heavier workload is still possible? I'm kind of torn between believing in the skills and being worried that this is the peak. Because I actually have Wells in an AL only keeper league, and I keep thinking he might be more valuable right now to a team looking to the future than he is to me if I'm trying to cash this year. Yeah, well, it sort of depends. I mean, he's the most dropped player

right now in ESPN and CBS League. So if your trade partner is one of those people who didn't believe enough in Tyler Wells to drop him, then I would disagree. I think that there's an opportunity for him to recoup some value. But then again, if you're trading with somebody like me, who's always been pretty high on Wells, that's probably a good move. So I think it's worth the ask. Yeah, I think he's down a full tick in fastball velocity this season, even though he's having that success. I'm with you on expecting some regression anyway.

Rest of season projections, seeing the bat right now is the most optimistic of the fangrass projections. A 4.10 ERA, a 1.17 whip the rest of the way. You kind of think about that, even in a year where offense is up a little bit, that's probably more of a SP4, SP5 sort of projection for a lot of leagues. So still more of a matchup-dependent starter, someone you like a little better in the pitcher-friendly confines of Camden Yards. Weird to say that out loud, but that's been the case since they moved the fences back. Probably someone you use a little more situationally than a set-it-and-forget-it sort of pitcher at this point.

K rate closer to 8 per 9 as opposed to the just below K per inning level he's been at so far. Be aware of all of that if you are either trading for Wells or thinking about stashing him away. I don't think it's a bad idea to stash him because it's so hard to find pitching, but I think you're right to point out that with the addition of Jack Flaherty, especially at the trade deadline, they don't necessarily need Wells quite the same way they did when the season began. But there's a possibility someone else gets hurt, someone else in that rotation struggles. The door could open again pretty quickly given how well Tyler Wells was pitching.

A couple of players back from injuries. Brandon Woodruff is coming back on Sunday. So just some good news there. It's going to be against the Pirates. Been waiting a long time to see that. And we'll see how the Brewers adjust their rotation here in the coming days. Corey Seager

came back from the IL and homered right away. His first at-bat back. So nice to see Corey Seager back in the mix for the Rangers. And then we've been keeping an eye on Shohei Otani. He had the start on Thursday night. It was cut a little bit short because of the ongoing issues with cramping in the middle finger on his pitching hand.

The good news is he was able to stay in the game as a hitter. Hit his 40th home run of the season. So at the very least, it looks like Otani is sort of good to go. Has the green light as a hitter during the upcoming week. Even if you may have to be a little more careful about using him as a pitcher in the near term. Yeah. And I've got him in a head-to-head points league where you can use them in either capacity, but it's not a daily league. It's a

weekly lineup league. So you've got to choose. And I've used him several weeks in a row in the utility slot, which I think is given how well he's hit this year versus how well he's pitched is probably the good move anyway. So in that particular situation, it's hit this year versus how well he's pitched is probably the good move anyway. So in that particular situation, it's not that much of a change, but obviously it's an impactful thing for a lot of people who have him in fantasy. Yeah, just be sure to keep an eye on the news and notes each day because that situation is one to monitor carefully. The Angels want him to pitch as much as he can, but they don't also want to break him if he can't grip the ball the way he

needs to. Let's talk about a few other hitters that might be of interest. I saw Brendan Rodgers get sneaked through as a cheap waiver pickup in Maki. He came off the aisle recently for the Rockies and coming off a major shoulder injury. So I think it's not as easy in a redraft league to say, I definitely want Brendan Rodgers. I think in keeper leagues, if you can get him cheap, makes all the sense in the world because he's a guy that plays a lot in Colorado. I think the average is really solid. I think the run production is steady, and there's reason to believe there could be one more level of power for Brendan Rodgers if he could lift the ball more consistently. We saw the hard hit rate jump up to 45.9% last year. Unfortunately, it was accompanied by a 52% ground ball rate.

Nevertheless, Brendan Rodgers is back. What are your expectations for him in these final two months coming off a big-time injury? Yeah, no, they're definitely restrained. And there's all that upside that you alluded to. But it would be a lot to expect him or anybody to come back from that kind of injury and be at, you know, even their normal, much less their, their upside level of production. So not really looking to add Rogers and 12 teamers, but I would absolutely do it in any 15 teamer where he was available. Rest of season. If you were looking at

Brendan Rogers versus Brandon Lau, who would you rather have as you're starting MI? I would say Brandon Lau for sure. Yeah. Like I said, I don't have really great expectations for Rogers at this point. And, you know, and there's the lineup context, too. The Rays have not been hitting a lot of late, but I do think that there's more potential in that lineup for Lau to contribute to some counting stats. Okay, I'll go further down. One more toss-up.

Would you rather, for the rest of this season, have Brendan Rodgers in your lineup or Michael Massey in Kansas City? He's been playing a lot and playing a little better over the last 30 days or so. Yeah, that's interesting. I think I have to go Rodgers there, but that's a tougher one than I would have thought, especially

if you'd asked me that a couple weeks ago. Brendan Rodgers is about to come back. Are you taking? I wouldn't have even hesitated with picking Rodgers there, but Massey has not only hit well lately, but this is somebody who's had a profile in the minor leagues and also with the Royals of being somebody who hits a lot of fly balls, a strong pole tendency.

So even though there's not the hugest amount of raw power there, there's enough that he could continue what he's been doing the last couple weeks. So it's close, but I think I've got to go with Rodgers there. Looking at the rest-of-season projections, just sorting by WOBA among second basemen, the Bat-X has Brendan Rodgers tied for fourth in rest-of-season WOBA among second-base eligible players. That includes Bats, Quetel Marte, Jose Altuve.

They're all ahead of him. Ozzy Albee's equal. Of course, Ozzy Albee's runs and has been healthy. So there are some questions behind it, but I think it just gives you an idea of why you could be excited about Brendan Rodgers' return, even if you're in a shallow league. And again, keeper elements especially, I think that's where you really want to try and stash him away.

Dominic Canzone, we've talked about him a lot this week. I don't think we have to get back into his appeal here. I think he'll be a somewhat popular outfield bid. It's not going to be massive fab bids. I think it would be 3% to 5% probably at most for him, but it looks like the Mariners are going to give him an extensive opportunity. I saw Brendan Crawford is playing a lot. I can't believe the Giants in the midst of this battle for the NL West

are going to play Brendan Crawford a ton. It's deep leagues only for me. I mean, mostly NL only. Maybe he'd be on my bid list for a middle infield spot if I was trying to replace somebody who's hurt. But the overall production from him has just been down going back to last season. He's been a below-average offensive player by WRC Plus since the start of 2022. Do you see anything left in the tank? I mean, I guess you could point to that 10.3% barrel rate

this year as something that points to at least better days ahead compared to what he had done pre-injury for the Giants this season. Yeah. Yeah. You could certainly look to that and say that maybe Crawford has some better things ahead. I also just wonder, and I just took a quick look at the depth chart to see if there was a good way to make this argument, but Tyro Strada should be back fairly soon at some point this month. But looking how the roster is currently constructed, I'm not sure that that does change anything for Rodgers. I'm surprised that Ison Diaz has been getting a look lately, but you know, he would be the obvious one to,

to lose playing time. But you know, also with the giants too, you can never be too sure if they're going to stick with their lineup configuration for more than a week or two anyway. So it might look really good for Crawford right now, but maybe two weeks from now you'll, you'll see a different mix in there.

Okay. Which of these players that we seemingly think are kind of dust at this point is going to be more valuable the rest of the way? Brandon Crawford or Abisail Garcia? He's back from the IL after a long-term injury as well. Both have projections for the rest of the season that are quite a bit better than what they were doing before they got hurt. Well, and it's a similar thing with Abisail Garcia that he too has a nice barrel rate. So you can point to that and say, well, maybe there should be more production there, but then you also look at the batted ball profile. And this has always been the thing with Garcia is he's always, you know, riding a very thin line of, you know, maybe hitting a few too many ground balls. And that's definitely been the case in a couple of years with the Marlins. So not making a lot of really high quality airborne contact.

So that said, I think I give a slight edge to Garcia. I think there's a little bit more left in the tank there, but I think that's a really good comp with the two of them. I think the probability of either one helping you a lot in fantasy is probably not very high. I expressed some concern about the possibility of Brian De La Cruz losing some playing time because of Garcia being healthy and because of the Marlins additions at the trade deadline. De La Cruz went out and homered Thursday night, so doing his part to make sure that doesn't happen. I'm okay if that happens. If he plays well and they just keep playing him, that's fine, But I just thought he was someone that was playing a ton

that could play less as things get a bit more crowded. You were doing some schedule hunting. It looks like you are a fan of the Red Sox schedule for streaming hitters purposes. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's a seven game home schedule for them this week, four against the Royals, three against the Tigers. And it felt a little funny to make this argument. I focused it on Adam Duvall, but I think there are some others that you could stream this week because of that schedule. But then I also kind of talked up Brady Singer and Cole Reagans too. So the Royals certainly get up there on a six game winning streak. The pitching does look a little bit better. The starting pitching looks a little better than it has recently, but it's not anything that I particularly trust to hold up.

So I like those hitter matchups. Duvall, I was surprised that his roster rate is in the 40% on CBS. So that suggests that he's widely available in 12-team leagues. I would definitely be looking to add him over the weekend because of that schedule. I would expect some good power numbers over the week from him. I was thinking maybe Yu Chang, but Trevor Story maybe is back sometime next week. That's not clear. Connor Wong, I think two catcher leagues. If he's out there, I think he's a good addition. Yeah, the story's taking a few more days at AAA over the weekend.

We'll see if early next week he's back in that Red Sox lineup. He was someone I was targeting in keeper leagues, hoping for a slightly faster return. The bottom line is I just wanted to come back healthy and be the player that he was before he got hurt, before that disappointing season in Boston. We had a couple Twitter questions come in before we started recording about the waiver pickups this weekend.

One from Kevin on Twitter. Thoughts on Randall Gritchick as a pickup. And there's a connected question here. Is Byron Buxton a drop? So this is probably something like a 12-team league, kind of shallow, medium-sized league. Gritchick has started four consecutive games for the Angels. He hit fourth on Wednesday, hit fifth on Thursday, so maybe even settling into the middle third of the lineup

with his return to Anaheim. If you're looking at Gritchick straight up versus Buxton, where are you at right now? I would make that move, and I mean, the way you just framed it, you know, straight up versus Buxton, I think if we were talking earlier in the season, but, you know, with Gritchick hitting as well as he's hitting right now, I think I still would go Buxton,

but I think it's a point in the season where, you know, somebody like Buxton who's had a really disappointing year, it's, you know, it's a time where you can start to cut ties. So I think if you want to make the hot hand play with Gritchick and like you said, hitting in the middle of a potentially dangerous lineup, that's a doable move into 12-team league. Yeah, I think you could defend it. I think I'd stick with Buxton if I were faced with that exact decision. I might try and find someone else on the roster to drop instead. I think it's interesting how much the projections for the two players differ.

When you look at Grichik by the Bat-X, 242, 293, 430 is the rest of season projection. By Woba, that puts him outside the top 100 outfielders, which is pretty surprising that he's that low. I think I would take the over on those numbers. The same projection system has Buxton at 253, 253, 331, 534, but a 365 Woba. We know the twins need Byron Buxton to play well, if they're going to be a dangerous team in October, if they're going to actually even win the AL central at all.

I just wonder with Gritchick, you have the health concerns with Buxton that keep him potentially from an every single day role. And they've DH'd him all season. With Gritchick, it's a little bit of a crowd, so I could see him kind of falling out of the everyday role, but they're more similar than projections would lead you to believe. So definitely not a landslide decision, even though I'm still going to be a Byron Buxton truther, Al.

I'm going to be the last one, I think, when the dust all settles. I got a question here from Michael about another twin. It's Matt Wallner. Is Matt Wallner a legitimate option for a team looking for average and chip-in counting stats, the last guy in the lineup? Now that we've seen a little more of Matt Wallner, how are you valuing him at this point? I feel comfortable with the power output from him. I'm not so sure about the batting average,

but if you need to catch up at home runs, RBIs, I like him as an ad. I've added him a couple of places. I think, well, I was going to take that back. I was going to say, maybe you're having to look at shallower leagues now, but on CBS, his roster rate's 11%. That actually was quite shocking to me.

So he's still out there in some deeper leagues, and he is absolutely a must-add in anything with 14, 15 teams. Matt Walner has started every single game for the Twins going back to July 18th. So he has become an everyday player for them, mixing and matching between the two corner outfield spots and getting run at DH when Buxton's not available. So I think the role is there. The counting stats should be there. I think the one part of Michael's question that does give me pause is, like you said, the batting average. There's a lot of swing and miss in Walner's profile. He does enough damage, plenty of hard contact to get away with it. So I would just be hesitant to expect more than like a 240, 245 average in a typical year for Matt Wallner with this approach, but the power is good enough where the payoff should be there. And he's starting to settle in a little more often in the middle third of that twins lineup in that stretch since July 18th. Most of his playing time has come between the cleanup spot and the sixth spot. Occasionally he drops down and hits a little bit lower. Usually that's against left-handed starters.

One question here on the pitching front. This relates to the breaking news item I mentioned a little earlier on Brandon Woodruff. Should Brandon Woodruff be activated right away? It's a matchup against the Pirates, his first time out. I mean, how much of this is the nature of the injury being a shoulder, something that really took him out for a prolonged stretch this season, and how much of it is wondering about the workload? I mean, we can kind of speculate on how much the load and pitch based on what he was able to do during his rehab assignment. If you look back, his last time out was four and two-thirds innings at AAA, so five seems to be within reach.

We're always looking for that as far as being eligible for a win. is a triple a so five seems to be within reach we're always looking for that as far as being eligible for a win from a health perspective are you comfortable throwing woodruff red back out there this weekend if you have the option to activate him i'm pretty comfortable with it my advice would be as it often is i think for both of us in situations like these is you know explore your options i don't think he's a a must start that first start back, even with a great matchup. But when I say explore your options, you'd have to be pretty stacked, I think, for Brandon Woodruff not to make that cut. So I think chances for me would be very, very high that I would find a spot for him in my rotation this time out. Yeah. Even if I were worried about an innings cap coming up at the end of the season,

I'd still be erring on the side of using Woodruff. The Brewers brought him along pretty slowly. It was a grade two subscapular strain. And in that last rehab start at AAA Nashville, it was 72 pitches. Usually you can add about 15, sometimes 20 on a start-by-start basis for someone coming back. 85 to 90 pitches for Woodruff does actually make six innings possible. If he's cruising along, the matchup is good enough. It's a go for me. It's not just me being a Brewers fan homer in this case.

I think it actually is sound enough logic because when he's healthy, Brandon Woodruff has top 10 fantasy starter stuff. So I think you want to go ahead and take advantage of the fact that he's coming back this weekend against the Pirates. Some other pitching things to discuss. We saw Emmett Sheehan piggyback Julio Urias against the A's on Thursday, and he went four innings and finished the game and got a save, which was kind of a nice bonus for anybody that had him in the lineup in weekly leagues. I'm curious what you're doing with Sheehan, though, right now, given the role change for him.

I think that makes him borderline droppable. And where I'd be rostering him would be 15-teamers. So I could definitely see him being on the cusp, going in on Sunday and needing to fill some spots and seeing him being expendable. some spots and seeing him being expendable. So, you know, that said, if I had room to keep him, this might be a net positive, you know, sort of looking at the Nick Pavetta experiment recently and how his value went up in that bulk reliever role. Not only just, you know, certainly he performed a lot better,

but also he did vulture some wins, and that could actually be a good thing. Yeah, and it looks like Clayton Kershaw is getting close to a return too, so that complicates things even further. The way the rotation would line up, assuming they stick with five starters, of course, would be some combination of Kershaw, Bobby Miller, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin, and Lance Lynn. So with that, Sheehan is kind of an extra guy in the short term, but maybe three or four innings at a time ends up being useful enough in those deeper mixed leagues, as Al suggested.

I think if you're using him in 10 and 12 team leagues without a keeper component, you're going to want to try and find an upgrade in that roster spot. Is Brady Singer someone you could use as an upgrade in some of those leagues? I think in deeper leagues, people have already caught on to how well he's been pitching, but over his last 11 starts, weird cutoff because it goes back to the start of June, 348 ERA, 120 whip, 55 Ks, and 67 in the third innings. That'll play, and the surface numbers for the season look kind of bad, so I think that's kept Singer available in some places with the ERH tick above five and the whip at 139 for the season. Do you trust the adjustments that Singer

has made? Because the good news is the Royals let him pitch deep into games. The bad news is the Royals let him pitch deep into games, right? It can work against you. If he's getting hammered, they just let him stay out there. We've seen it with Brad Keller for years, but I think Singer is showing us more going back to last season and now this stretch this season. He's showing us more as a starter than Brad Keller did

throughout his time in Kansas City in that role. So what do you do with Brady Singer right now in leagues where he's available? Is he becoming shallow league viable? I think so. And I thought he had two starts coming this week, but the Royals actually have a week from Sunday off. So he's just got the lone star against Boston, which makes him a little less interesting for the coming week. But I think it's a situation where, because like you said, he's trending very clearly in the right direction. So I think if you have room to stash Singer this weekend, you pick him up,

you go ahead and stash him and wait for the following week. But it also was a little bit under my radar, DVR, because like you said, for two solid months, he's been putting up good ratios, but he wasn't really supporting that in June. The underlying numbers didn't look a lot better, so I just kind of slept on him. But in July, he started getting the swings

and misses, which has never really been a big part of his profile. So in all but one of his starts, including the start that he made on Thursday against the Mets, in only one of his starts since the beginning of July has he not had a swinging strike rate of at least 11%. So some consistency there, some good results. So I think we might actually be seeing the best version of Brady Singer right now. We might be. And guess what? We've got breaking news too. From the hitting side, we have a prospect promotion. Curtis Meade is getting called up by the Rays. Mark Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has that news item.

And Curtis Meade's interesting because he probably has more power than we've seen this year at AAA. He had a wrist injury that cost him a lot of time in May and June, so he's only played 46 games this year. injury that cost him a lot of time in May and June, so he's only played 46 games this year, but a nice 291-379-453 slash line, controls the zone really well. I think it was last year was really making a lot of good hard contact in the minor leagues, so the average should be solid, kind of sprays the ball to all fields. The question will be in-game power over time, right? Is he a 15, 20, 25 home run bat like there's probably a wide range of debate about where he'll actually land over time the other

question is how does he fit into the always seemingly crowded raise infield machine like how much do you expect curtis mead to play the good news is if you're in a weekly league and you have Sunday pickups, you get a weekend to see how it looks. The bad news is many times the Rays have brought players up, used them even in prominent spots in the lineup and decided, well, we got someone else healthy now. We can go ahead and send this guy down even though he looks like he's major league ready. So based on what the Rays have, who's healthy right now and and the decision to bring Meade up, how do you see this playing out, and how interested are you in picking him up this weekend? Well, yeah, I'm not going to pursue Meade in 12-teamers. I think 15-teamers, you've got to make some sort of bid.

But like I said, there's so many question marks here with the Rays' usage patterns, both in terms of cycling players in and out of the lineup, cycling them back and forth from AAA. So it's hard to say. This might not be the best of news for Isaac Paredes, because I think he would stand to maybe lose the most playing time. But I tend to think that if Meade plays a lot, it's going to be not just one player, but maybe a few players who are getting an extra day off a week or so. But yeah, there's always the risk that he's back down in Durham four days from now.

So I would keep my bids light in 15-teamers, probably like 1%. Yeah, it's similar to when Jonathan Aranda gets a chance and you're like, where does he fit? And he plays a little, and he gets sent down. I think Meade is a, excuse me, Meade's a better prospect than Aranda, so that's where my elevated interest comes from. Luke Raley's a little banged up right now so maybe we see more Brandon Lau in the outfield and then that opens up a spot on the infield this is just grasping at straws sort of as we as we get the information I mean looking through recent game logs that little bit of time we saw Brandon Lau spend in the outfield previously it hasn't really been something they've brought back this year he's played second base it looks like almost exclusively a couple starts at dh this year so that's probably not it barring some kind of indication from the team that they're going to shake things up that way uh meet himself i guess

that's the other question is like how much do you think they'll they'll deviate from what they've done with his defensive usage in the minors. I think he's moved around a little bit this year, looking at the fielding stats over at Baseball Reference. Most of the playing time this year at Durham has been at third base. He's played a handful of games at second. Last year was the same thing, mostly third, some second, little bit of first, I think, in the fall league.

It is just one more guy added to the mix, and he's also a righty. That's what makes this even more complicated. You can't necessarily look at it as a lefty-righty thing. Curtis Meade also hits from the right side. So as well as Paredes has played, yeah, maybe his playing time is affected. Harold Ramirez hasn't been playing a lot, so you're not taking much of a share away from him. I'm a little

bit stumped. I guess I'm cautiously proceeding with those bids, even though I like Curtis Meade a lot as a hitter, because this could be a classic temporary call-up for the Rays. Again, barring further information. Alright, let's move on to a few other pitching notes.

Lyon Richardson may get a chance with the Reds. When we started recording, it was not confirmed, but they scratched him from a AAA start without reason on Thursday, they being the Reds, and Richardson could be a replacement for Ben Lively, who ended up on the aisle after a 13-earned-run performance earlier this week. Richardson's kind of a sneaky good prospect. Now he's gone through a Tommy John surgery that cost him 2022. Like all prospects, lost his 2020 season to the pandemic.

This is a guy the Reds took 47th overall back in the 2018 draft. So he's a second round pick. He throws hard. He's got a good changeup. The command isn't bad. The short-term concern would be the usage during his time in the minors has been a lot of three and four inning appearances. Part of that may have been to preserve innings for the end of the season. So you can't rule out the possibility that he'll start to throw

a little more, maybe get to four and five inning outings on a regular basis, but that's a little bit of a leap of faith. So in dynasty leagues deep keeper in dynasty leagues i see it i see the case for trying to make richardson in an expensive pickup as soon as possible what do you do in redraft leagues though where do you draw the line because the reds have a need for pitching if richardson comes up and pitches well i think he could stay in their rotation for the rest of the season based on talent. It's the question of how careful they're going to be with his usage. Yeah. Well, this update definitely for me is confirmation that I made a good decision to not write about

Connor Phillips in the waiver column this week because I nearly did. And the reason I was going to focus on him over Richardson is the usage pattern. I wasn't sure what the Reds were going to gain by bringing Richardson up, given that he's apparently not all that stretched out. So maybe that will happen over the next few weeks. I also wouldn't rule out Phillips coming up. Not that the Reds couldn't probably use both of them, depending on what the timetables are for Hunter Green and Nick Lodolo. But yeah, I guess that's a long way of getting around to saying that. I'm puzzled and I'm really not that interested because I think by the time that Richardson would be ready

to pitch five or six innings with regularity, we're getting probably pretty late into the season. Yeah, so consider him more as a stash, an auto-news another spot where you could probably make the case if you're playing for next year, you get a roster spot to stash him away. Or if he's going to be used as a reliever, you could just throw him as a bulk reliever. They have that sort of added benefit too.

The thing that really stood out in the schedule was if he ends up starting during the upcoming week, a possible road matchup at Pittsburgh. That's really caught my eye for a possible streaming opportunity. But that usage makes it just a little bit difficult to rely on in most formats. So more of a watch list player for the purposes of redraft leagues. But an interesting keeper and dynasty prospect to consider stashing away. I mentioned Tukey Toussaint I think last week when we were discussing possible replacements in the White Sox rotation.

He's chewing up a lot of innings, missing some bats, still having problems with walks. I think you want to be really careful with him outside of mono leagues. I just think there's too much of a track record of control being a problem. If that changes, then we can reevaluate and maybe put Dookie Toussaint into the streaming conversation in a future week. Looking at streamers and two-start pitchers though for the upcoming week, Al, not a terrible group.

We've certainly had worse weeks. I wanted to start with Hyunjin Ryu. He is back after a lengthy absence, and it looks like he'll have Cleveland on the road and the Cubs who have been red hot at home for his second part of a two-start week I know Eno's pitching model didn't love what Ryu was doing from a stuff perspective the location numbers were pretty good and I think even

beyond that it's been two full years so we could rely on this guy so are you chasing Hingen Ryu anywhere or is he more of a wait and see even in deeper leagues? I think definitely wait and see. And I noticed those stuff plus numbers too for Ryu, which for me definitely cooled off my interest in terms of picking him up this weekend. And yeah, those matchups I don't like too much. The, the guardians are not a team that really swing and miss a lot. And maybe that's changed a little bit with, with the trades, but you know,

that's the thing with, with Ryu is I wouldn't expect a lot of strikeouts from him in the first place. So I don't think that that's really a great matchup for him. So yeah, I'm just waiting and seeing if he, if he does do well on that start that definitely would, would go a ways towards changing my mind.

Yeah, I think that's where I'm at with Ryu as well. Brandon Fott, a regular on this podcast, probably the most mentioned player of the 2023 season on Rates and Barrels, has a two-start week coming up, and he's available in some 12-team leagues. Tough matchups. Home against the Dodgers, home against the Padres. Pretty good against the Giants.

Actually, very good against the Giants this week. It's been kind of a three-start run since he returned to face the Reds back on July 22nd, where Brandon Fott has pitched well. 16 Ks against two walks over his last 18 and two-thirds innings. Maybe, just maybe, it's finally happening. Five homers allowed during that span, so still a bit of an issue with the long ball to be aware of but if you can at least cut those walks down and miss some bats at least there's a floor here that we weren't seeing earlier in the season when he was giving up some some pretty big

ratios damage albeit against some pretty tough opponents too where do you stand on brandon fought where available uh pick him up now for this coming week. I know a lot of times people will say, well, why pick up somebody with two starts if you don't plan on using them? But I like what he's done the last few starts. I think there's value there. It's just these are two potentially really tough matchups. Like you say, the home run problem is still there.

That's something that scares me a little bit for this particular set of matchups. is still there. That's something that scares me a little bit for this particular set of matchups. But I do think it's a week where, like you say, if ratios are something that are kind of already set for you, I'd feel fine with starting FOT. If it's a head-to-head league where you're sort of desperate to tack on extra starts,

I think I'd cross my fingers and hope for the best there. But I think in other situations, I'd be a little bit more cautious this week. But I still think you could pick him up and have useful situations going forward after this week. Yeah, I think there might be some people who are interested in the other young Diamondbacks starter that we saw this week, Slade Ciccone. Unfortunately, his next start is coming up. Because of off days, it will line up against the Rockies at Coors Field as the schedule currently goes. So you wouldn't be able to use him during the upcoming week. And you'd have to use him against Colorado to use him the following week.

So I would say that's more of a wait and see keeper dynasty stash than someone you'd be considering in redraft leagues right now as well. But I think I'm with you on the use case for Fott right now. If you're in that damage ratio situation already you might as well take a chance and see if if the bulk comes through and maybe he finds his first big league win during this upcoming week as well I'd have to bet on that being against the Padres as opposed to the Dodgers but you never know Dane Dunning who I think I also besmirched on this podcast earlier this week, pitched really well last time out, and he's staying in the rotation over Martin Perez for now. It comes down to shadow leagues in 10 and 12 team leagues

where Dane Dunning might still be available. Are you eager to throw him out there against the A's and the Giants on the road as part of a two-start week? Eager might be a little too strong of a word, but willing. Yeah, definitely willing with those matchups. And it's very much a matchup dependent thing. I think we both expressed our skepticism about Dunning. You said this week, but I know on previous weeks we've done that, but can't pass up those matchups. As far as the other two-start pitchers go, I'm curious if you have any interest in Drew Smiley at the Mets and at the Jays, Yanni Chirinos at the Pirates and at the

Mets, Cole Reagans at the Red Sox home against the Cardinals, or Xavier Curry home against the Jays on the road against the Rays? It's a no for Smiley. He did have one good start a couple starts ago, but it's been a pretty long stretch of largely bad starts and bad indicators for him. I'm intrigued by Reagans, and I did write about him this week. So I think actually he and Chirinos of the group that you just lumped together, I think they're the ones that I'm most interested in. For Chirinos, it definitely helps to have that at Pittsburgh on the slate. Reagan's has a couple of pretty tough matchups, like you said, at Boston at home against the Cardinals, but he's throwing a new slider. So, you know, going back to the beginning of the, of the podcast, when, you know, you were

talking about Zach Littell and the new pitch mix, there's, there's a new slider there since he came over in the Eralds-Chapman trade. And good results in the two starts that he's had, that Reagans has had with the Royals. So it's obviously very risky to go just based on those couple of starts. But out of this group where everybody's kind of a question mark, I think there may be more upside with Reagans than the other three. Yeah, I mean, a first rounder once upon a time for the Rangers. So there's definitely some pedigree there.

And maybe these adjustments will actually lead to some success. I think it's definitely in the playing the bulk game range with just about anybody you're considering from this group is a pretty big tear break from the likes of Fott and Dunning. I think Ryu belongs in this group, too. I just brought him up first because we hadn't had a chance to talk about him in a while. And this was our first look at him here just a few days ago. Xavier Curry does end up being someone who maybe wins more opportunity in Cleveland as a result of that Aaron Savali-Kyle Manzardo trade that we discussed earlier in the week.

But I wouldn't go anywhere near that combination of matchups for him. I want to see a little bit more. From a streaming perspective, there's one player I want to make a case for who's probably more than a streamer, but even if you don't trust him, if you don't believe anything I say in the next 30 seconds, that's fine. You could at least consider using him

for his matchup this week. It's Luis Medina going on the road to face the Nationals. Maybe we have to ask, can we trust these recent improvements? But his season walk rate is now at 10.8%. It's the lowest it's been at any stop other than a 10 and two-thirds inning stop at high A in 2019. So yeah, you can pretty much say this is the best walk rate we've seen from Medina as a pro.

He's got four pitches. He averages 96 on his four-seamer. He's one of four pitchers who's been a full win above replacement in the last 30 days alone. Short list, of course. The walk rate's all the way down to two per nine during that span. And if you look at the Stuff Plus model, another reason to believe, 16th out of 112 pitchers in Stuff Plus during that span with a location plus number of 99, right? So he's locating well enough to sort of justify the improved walk rate.

And the pitch model's really optimistic about him. Everything in his arsenal is grading out above average right now. Plus he calls Oakland his home park. So the team context is probably your best argument against Luis Medina. Wins might be pretty hard to come by, but this looks like a pretty nice development in the A's rotation and someone that you want to think about in some deeper leagues. Yeah. Good call. Good call. Yeah. No, the peripherals are pretty good and that's a good, you know, good matchup. And like you said, if wins are something that you really need, maybe you pass on Medina, but otherwise I think, yeah, 15 team leagues probably could slide them in with a pretty low bid and see where it goes.

I like that. One pitcher we haven't talked about who does have a two-step, and maybe we haven't talked about him yet because I certainly was making the assumption he was more widely rostered than he is. But Cutter Crawford is not that widely rostered and he's got two starts this coming week. So with everybody that we've talked about, I would actually rank him first. Yeah. So Cutter Crawford versus Brandon Fott might be the biggest decision you'd have to make and both are available, but Crawford, even down to like a 18 league should be used in weekly leagues pretty much everywhere. It's the home against the Royals and home against the Tigers this week.

There's no excuse at this point to not use Cutter Crawford. He's looked pretty good. I think you can use him in more difficult matchups than those two. It's not just easy layup for the matchups. It's that he's pitched pretty well. Instead of looking at this group of Red Sox starters and they're using Chris Murphy for bulk and that's actually going pretty well. James Paxton's pitching well. Nick Pavetta has been better since going to the bullpen.

Brian Baio's got his ERA under four now. There's actually some stuff going right in Boston. I know they had a disappointing trade deadline. They weren't the only ALEs team to do that, but they've had a lot go right in a group that I think I know I had pretty low expectations for collectively. When I looked at the Red Sox going into the season, I said they need Chris Sale to do a lot of heavy lifting if they're going to be anywhere near the playoff picture late in the season. And Sale's been hurt and he's been up and down when he's even been healthy. They've had other things that have just gone way better than I would have expected. Yeah, I mean, this is not the group that I certainly envisioned

that would make this a competitive team. Tanner Houck, Garrett Whitlock, they'd be playing bigger roles. But yeah, like I said, Bayo is doing pretty much what we had hoped and expected when he came up last year. And then Pavetta's resurgence, Murphy being what you know, being what the Red Sox need him to be. And then yeah, Cutter Crawford, who's really turned out to be pretty, pretty consistent. And yeah, it's that time of year where sometimes roster rates are a little misleading because

maybe shouldn't be saying this out loud, but some people they're, they're more focused on football this time of year. And we see it every year where somebody like Crawford, who you think maybe should be 60, 70% rostered on CBS, is down around 40. So somebody else who's napping, you can take advantage. Take advantage if you play in a league like that. Now, the other streaming opportunity, I think, is Wade Miley. Once again, home against the Rockies, perpetual streaming option, Wade Miley available a lot of places. It's a pitch and ditch situation, unless your ratios are absolute garbage, because his next two starts are at the Dodgers and at the Rangers as part of a two-start week next week, or not next week, but the week after this Rocky start. So I don't think you want anything to do with that combo with Wade Miley. I say that now, he'll probably go 12 innings, one earned run with two wins or something, which would make me very happy for other reasons. Let's shift over to the bullpen.

Gregory Santos really looks like the new closer with the White Sox. He was picked up in most competitive leagues last week. A lot of 10-team, 10 team 12 team leagues with first come first serve moves those are the types of leagues where the roster rates are still a bit lower I like him I think he's good I'll say it over and over and over again until that number goes up and fortunately we learned this week that Liam Hendricks had Tommy John surgery so he's likely out at least until this time next year but probably probably all the way through 2024. So it looks like Santos is the guy for the White Sox for the foreseeable future. We did get some clarity on Carlos Hernandez's role.

At least it seems like it. I just saw as we were recording, though, the Royals have a new Barlow. They have acquired Joe Barlow, I believe, via waivers. So Scott Barlow out, of course. The deadline going to San Diego, Joe Barlow in. But I think Carlos Hernandez, as we've said on this show many, many times, has some of the all-around best stuff, lowercase s, in the Royals organization. It's not an exaggeration. The way they've been using him all season has been pretty frustrating.

Now it looks like high leverage, late inning spots and even saves are part of the plan. So if you haven't picked him up yet in a daily moves league, I think you can still justify doing that even though the Royals are bad. Carlos Hernandez is very good. I want to get your thoughts on the Mariners bullpen. Is it as simple as Andres Munoz moves into the Paul Seawald role now that Seawald is in Arizona? I think it is. I don't think that's an absolute slam dunk because Matt Brash, I think, could be a part of that picture. But Munoz has been, now granted he hasn't logged as many innings as a lot of other pitchers in similar high leverage situations, but he's been for, for the, the number of innings he's pitched one of the best relievers in baseball this year.

And that's not shocking. I mean, when he's healthy, he's got incredible swing and miss stuff. So it would be sort of strange to me for him not to get the bulk of the, of the save opportunities. And given that they already set that pattern with Seawald, when they had other options,

I tend to think that that's a pretty safe move to pick up Munoz, even though of all the newly minted post-deadline relievers, he's the one who's probably the least available. I think, again, because he's got some of the best numbers in the major leagues for relievers, he's got to be added anywhere that he's available. major leagues for relievers, he's got to be added anywhere that he's available. And I think with Munoz, we're further away from all the injuries now. The kid gloves in terms of just making sure he stays healthy around the past injuries, that seems like it's gone away. He's had saves on consecutive days this week. In the shallowest of leagues where Munoz might be available, he's the best of these options. I think he'd be number one for me pretty clearly ahead of Hernandez and ahead of Santos.

Santos versus Hernandez is a little bit of a tougher call because I am a White Sox apologist for some reason. I don't know why I've chosen this as a role. It was completely voluntary. I am fine. No one's forcing me to say nice things about the White Sox, but I think the White Sox are less terrible right now than the Royals, so that could lead to a few more opportunities for Santos.

That might be something that leads me to choose him over Hernandez if I were in a position to pick between them. As far as other bullpens, we've looked at the Mets tearing down their bullpen a bit. There's a few more guys that hung around than I expected. Adam Adovino's still there, for one. Drew Smith is still there. Do you think they're just going to roll with the committee? I mean, because they're to me kind of like the White Sox. They're not atrocious right now. They're going to win some games. So there will

be some opportunities if you can figure out where they're going to go. For me, actually, the tough toss-up is Hernandez versus Brooks Raley. Because I think Raley is the guy there based on the very early returns. I mean, he's just that that's who they've gone to in a couple of situations after trading David Robertson. And I tip my hat to Eno because he called this weeks ago saying that Rayleigh was probably the guy. Although I thought maybe he'd be traded or I thought maybe that it would be more of a matchup dependent thing. But it's not looking that way so far. And then just from a skills perspective, I like Rayleigh a lot, and he has a little bit of closing experience with the Rays as well.

So I think it's a really tough choice between him and Hernandez, and I think I'm going to rationalize it the same way you did with Santos, that I expect the Mets to have more save opportunities and better chances at winning ballgames. So I would actually slot Raley probably behind Santos, but ahead of Hernandez, but it's, it's very close.

A familiar place. As we return to the St. Louis bullpen, the update for the week is that Ryan Helsley has faced hitters in live BP. That was as recent as Wednesday. So he's getting close to a return, but it doesn't look like he's coming off the IL in the next few days. At least with Jordan Hicks gone in Toronto, is this the Giovanni Gallego show, at least until

Helsley is ready to come back? I think so. And with Helsley on the way now, I don't know how long that lasts. I also just, not only because of maybe the limited shelf life, but also just it's not been the best year for Gallegos so far. So I think he may be the least trustworthy of everybody that we've mentioned so far. And the favorite closer question of Rates and Barrels on a monthly basis, are you taking any shots in Philly given the recent struggles of Craig Kimbrell and Gregory Soto?

I think both had save opportunities this week that did not go well. Kimbrell's been really good overall, though. 326 ERA, whip under one, 65 Ks so far this season in 47 innings. In my estimation, it's not enough for him to be replaced. It's more of a the door is opening slowly, and all he has to do is pitch well for a couple of outings, and it's quickly closed again. Yeah, and I think that's probably what's going to happen. for a couple of outings and it's quickly closed again.

Yeah. And I think that's probably what's going to happen. And in full disclosure, I picked up Gregory Soto early in the season because Kimbrell was struggling and I think Soto got one shot and blew up and it was back to Kimbrell and he was fine. So I tend to think that given he's been pretty good for most of the season that Kimbrell, Kimbrell will keep the job.

Yeah. Soto's got two saves this season and and they're stretched by about two months, one in May and one in July. So just sort of like a matchup-based thing. Kimbrel's not available because of usage. That's really been the opportunity for Soto. The other candidate would be someone like Sir Anthony Dominguez. His overall performance this year,

still surprisingly inconsistent for a guy with really good stuff. 445 ERA, 158 whip so far. He's got 10 holds. He played in a holds league. There's still something there. But a 32-12 K to BB and 30 in the third inning so far for Sir Anthony Dominguez. No more questions from Twitter, so I think we'll call this the end of the show. If you've got questions for a future episode, you can tweet them our way.

At Rates and Barrels is the show's Twitter handle. That's a good way to get them in, especially on Fridays. You can find Al at alamilkierbb. You can find me at Derek Van Ryper. If you don't have a subscription to The Athletic, you can get one for $2 a month for the first year at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. It gets you all of our fantasy baseball coverage

for the rest of the season. It gets you that weekly waiver column that Al writes each and every Friday. It also gets you fantasy football, Women's World Cup, everything else that you want all for one low price. That's going to do it for this episode of Rates and Barrels. We're back with you on Monday. Thank you.