Rates & Barrels - The Angels’ Surprise Call-Up and Masyn Winn’s Arrival

Episode Date: August 18, 2023

DVR and Al discuss their expectations for the two latest top prospects to be called up to make their major league debuts, Nolan Schanuel and Masyn Winn. They also identify other prospects who could be promoted soon, including Jordan Lawlar and Pete Crow-Armstrong. DVR and Al also discuss some outfielders seeing increased playing time, a healthy cohort of streamable pitchers, and the bullpen situations for the Mariners, Mets, Diamondbacks and Rays. Rundown 0:52 The big prospect debuts: Nolan Schanuel and Masyn Winn 16:59 More big stories from this week 22:53 Other hitters to consider 32:45 Streamers and two-start pitchers 47:37 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 Check out these offers from our ad partners... HelloFresh: Go to hellofresh.com/50rates and use code 50rates for 50% off plus free shipping! LinkedIn: Right now, you can try LinkedIn Sales Navigator and get a sixty-day free trial at LinkedIn.com/rates23 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to Rates and Barrels, it's Friday, August 18th, Derek Van Ryper here with Alan Belkier on this episode, we'll discuss the big stories of the week as they impact fantasy baseball. We'll dig into a few players that we learned are on the way to the big leagues. And there may be more coming. We'll talk about why that is over the course of this episode. Got a few players moving on and off the IL. They're shaking things up on depth charts around the league. We'll have our usual group of other hitters to consider.

Some streamers, some two-start pitchers, and a few bullpen names as well as we get ready for another weekend on the waiver wire. Probably the most surprising thing that I've seen so far today, and I'm saying this at just after noon on the East Coast, the Angels are promoting Nolan Shaniel to the big leagues. He is joining the big league lineup, and this is a guy who was the 11th overall pick in this year's draft. So, 96 plate appearances in the minors on his way to the big leagues. A total of 16 games at the level he played the most. That was with AA Rocket City. Yes, that is the Trash Pandas. the most that was with double a rocket city yes that is the trash pandas at that level shaniel hit 339 with a 480 obp 475 slug popped a homer drove in 12 runs and probably most notably drew 16 walks against nine strikeouts during his time there so certainly looks like a player with

advanced eye but this is even more aggressive than the Angels' progression for Zach Netto, who cruised through their system. Yeah, so that's something to tuck away in the future, I guess, as we see prospects come into their system, and maybe we can expect them to continue to be aggressive with the promotions. But obviously, from our perspective doing fantasy analysis, it makes it extremely difficult to know what to expect. And in Chanuel's case, I'm not sure where the playing time is. He's obviously not going to be DHing, and I don't see a full-time share at first base. But again, maybe the Angels will surprise us in that way, too.

I wonder if this is a pretty good indication that Anthony Rendon's not coming back this year. Yeah. The last update I saw over at Rotowire was from later July, and it said, shut down two more weeks. No one really seems to know what's going on with Anthony Rendon. I know he has told reporters I'm not here when he's in the clubhouse, when asked for updates about his status. I will take the full responsibility for leading folks astray. I thought Rendon was a good rebound candidate this year. He's been a complete disaster for all sorts of reasons, mostly health related. I guess the other part of this too is CJ Krohn

has been dealing with a back injury. You could maybe look at the first base situation and say Shanual platoons with Krohn. That could be the other part of this, but I think this just means Mike Moustakis plays a ton of third base the rest of the way because there's one more guy in that first base mix, and they probably brought Shanuel up to play at least somewhat regularly. Now, here's the kick. Here's the thing.

Here's why Shanuel might be up right now. Here's why other prospects may be called up from the time we started this recording until Fab runs on Sunday. We've reached the point in the big league season where a player will not accrue 45 days of service time. And that's one of the thresholds for losing rookie eligibility. The other thresholds could still be met if you promote somebody. 50 innings pitched for a pitcher, which would be pretty aggressive usage the rest of the way. And I don't think we're going to see a lot of pitchers get called up and debut at the end of the season anyway. Or 130 at-bats.

So the examples that you want to think about from last season, Corbin Carroll wasn't seeing time against lefties very often, and Gunnar Henderson. They were late promotions in August. They ended up having semi-regular roles, kind of got their feet wet in the big leagues, and of course have gone on to have great seasons here in 2023. So I think that's what we're going to see from a lot of players like Nolan Shanuel, and the other that we know is already on his way to the big leagues is Mason Wynn. And this is not as much of a surprise as Shanuel. Because there were some reports that were going around.

Post trade deadline. That Wynn was going to get a late season look for the Cardinals. Makes all the sense in the world. Defensively. He should be a great shortstop. From the jump. We've seen the arm in the futures game last year. He made that throw from short.

That basically broke stat cast. Could have the best arm in the entire big leagues. From that position. Really nice speed. Developing power, very young for the level everywhere he's played. I look at Wynn and I have more confidence in immediate fantasy value because I think there's more ways he can help us than there are for Nolan Shaniel. I also think there's a better chance that Wynn comes close to that playing time max. They probably won't put him over it for all the right reasons for them in terms of preserving the status,

having a shot at draft pick compensation if he's the rookie of the year in 2024. But I think they're going to push him and really get a sense for how ready he is to be their everyday guy for 2024. Yeah. And I'm sure this doesn't really factor in to organizations' decisions, but you mentioned that that threshold is based on at-bats and not plate appearances. Yeah. Shanuel, just let him go because he walks a ton anyway. That seems like a problem. Maybe something in the next CBA that players want to iron out is, hey, a plate appearance should do what we're counting. Why are we counting at-bats? Like I said, sure, nobody's really should do what we're counting. Why are we counting at bats? Like I said,

sure, nobody's really doing the math on that too carefully, but yeah, that would be my expectation. That win does come pretty close to that threshold, and maybe that's why he didn't come up sooner, because I had written a piece, I think probably just a few days before the deadline, and the gist

was, here are the players you should expect to be coming up. And I think when in Ronnie Mauricio at this point, we're the only ones who weren't up and yeah, maybe that means we do see Mauricio soon. That's a, you know, a name maybe to tuck away,

but there should be plenty of playing time there for when, and I like your point too, that he's got a lot of different ways to help us. You mentioned the, the emerging power really took a nice step forward up from from double a uh in terms of the power at memphis and um didn't run as much this season but there's there's some speed there there's some stolen base capability doesn't strike out a lot and like i think he brought the strikeout rate down going from level to level so yeah there, there's a lot to like there.

Obviously, you factor in some erosion across the board there, and what you wind up with is not somebody that I think you need to worry about in 12-team leagues, but 15-team, 14-team, with play time, there's a player that can help you. Yeah, I think there could be a case for some 12s as well for your MI spot. I think it depends on how deep your starting lineup is. If you're going to try and go after Mason Wynn in a shallow league, I was thinking about some would you rather toss ups for both of these players. We'll go through some options that you would look at versus Wynn and try to decide if there's a potential upgrade there. I mentioned Zach Netto earlier. He's hurt and missing a few more weeks probably

before he's back. I think if you've been waiting on Netto, this would be an opportunity to go ahead and make that August, because you're talking about maybe half of what's left of the season, if not more for players that are on the shelf right now. But if you were looking at Mason Wynn versus Ezekiel Tovar, I feel like that's always the starting point. The guy that you keep leaving in your lineup, he plays in Colorado, he's young, he shows occasional flashes. Wynn versus Tovar for the rest of the season, who would you rather have as your MI? Yeah, that's a good place to start. And also, Colorado is young. He shows occasional flashes. Wynn versus Tovar for the rest of the season. Who would you rather have as your MI? Yeah, that's a good place to start. And also kind of fits my conception of Wynn as somebody who's maybe at best sort of borderline 12 team.

That's how I conceive of Tovar. I think I would go with the more known quantity of Tovar at this point, but I think that's an excellent place to set for, for lack of a better term, the over under. Yeah. I'm looking at the rest of season projection from the bat X 279, three 16,

four 51 for Ezekiel Tovar. That slugs a little higher than I would have thought five homers, four steals, decent counting stats. It's the average, right? Being in Colorado gives you that extra buffer in that category. You could see Mason Wynn maybe struggling a little bit at first with strikeouts and as a result being

a slight drain on batting average, but I don't think it's an unreasonable sort of comp. I mean, we've talked about Tim Anderson several times this year on the show. If you've been waiting and waiting on Tim Anderson, he's in the midst of serving his suspension, which did get reduced by one game, so it's a five-game suspension for him. Would you look at Mason Wynn as an upgrade over Tim Anderson? One home run in 397 plate appearances for Tim Anderson. If it hasn't turned around by now, why will it turn around over the final month of this season?

Well, and maybe it's the case I've got Tim Anderson in a 15-teamer. He's spent a lot of time on the bench, and I absolutely would look in that league to pick up Mason Wynn and substitute him in Anderson's spot. If I can afford to hold on to Anderson in a league that is that deep, maybe. There's enough season left that if we see you know if we see regular Tim Anderson in September I wouldn't necessarily want to miss that but I don't know that I'd necessarily be beyond dumping him either if that was the way to get win onto my roster yeah I think back in June I was very patient with Anderson I wanted to see what happened over the the middle third of the

season and what we saw just wasn't enough to keep holding through the end. So I would go to the Mason-Winn side of that toss-up. Let's see, one more to think about here. So many of these guys are fringy, but okay, how about someone that actually is taking steps forward this year? Bryson Stott as your middle infielder, hitting.297 this year, 11 homers, 23 steals. I mean, he's reaching a level that no one expected him to reach. I think that's a pretty clear hold Stott situation, right? You're not trying to make an adjustment there, are you?

Oh, absolutely not. No, I mean, we've had almost a whole season of that kind of production from Stott, and he's not too far removed from being a top prospect himself. So I don't feel like he's done anything to tarnish that and toss him aside for Mason Wynn. So that's a pretty easy call for me. It's interesting that the rest of season projections, pretty much all the rest of season projections too, this isn't just cherry picking the set that I use the most, and projections too. This isn't just cherry picking the set that I use the most. Split the difference between Bryson Stott 2022 and Bryson Stott 2023 for rest of season expectations.

But he's 23 for 25 as a base dealer. And it's a Phillies lineup that seems like it's putting all the pieces together at just the right time. They can get more from Trey Turner. They can get more from Bryce Harper. That has a nice carryover effect on some of the other players in that lineup.

But I think you can find some cases for Mason Wynn. Shaniel's even tougher, though, because you did mention the crowding on that Angels depth chart. Who are you thinking about dropping if you're trying to pick up Nolan Shaniel this weekend? It seems like a 15-team league would be more of the cutoff there. A corner guy that should have some power. We didn't see a lot of power in the brief time he was at AA, though. What if it's

average and OBP initially and not much power until 2024? That's a tough one because I'm just thinking of my 15-team rosters and how Joey Gallo hasn't cracked the starting lineup in a long, long time.

And, you know, thinking about a platoon type like Ryan O'Hearn. And at this point, I would definitely take O'Hearn over Shanual, maybe Joey Gallo. And I think it's a categorical call as well, because I don't think it would take much for Shanual to obviously outperform Gallo in batting average. So if that were my need, I think that's the move I would make. But I can't think of too many 15-team viable corner infielders that I would dump for Shanual, top of mind. How about Jose Abreu? He's got that lower back inflammation that put him on the IL last weekend. Even if he's back quickly, given the shape of his season so far, would you actually take the flyer on Shanual

over Jose Abreu the rest of the way? Well, because I have some questions about playing time for Shanual, I don't think I would. It might be a situation like I was describing with Anderson, where if it was a question of one or the other in the starting lineup, I might want that option to have Shanual

to replace Abreu, but whereas I could see dropping Tim Anderson, I can't really see it with Abreu at this point unless we get some further report on his back that makes it sound like he's not going to be very useful the rest of the season. Yeah, fun story to see Nolan Shanuel in the big leagues, but harder to find ways to fit him on the roster in the immediate future.

Kind of an interesting player for people who play auto-new, though, where you have the keeper components, the deep rosters. Might be able to pick him up for a buck or two and just sort of see what happens down the stretch. You might end up with a nice cheap keeper on your hands. The other prospects that could be up soon, if not this weekend, but this weekend doesn't seem out of bounds for some of these guys. Jordan Lawler just recently got to AAA. The Diamondbacks are still in the thick of that wildcard race in the NL. I wonder if Lawler can hit his way onto the roster. I think I'd be even a little more excited about Lawler than Mason Wynn in the short term, just kind of comparing them, but they'd be very similar as far as some of the things they can offer categorically. We've talked about Colt Keith several times on Project Prospect this year. The Tigers, they're probably not going to the playoffs. They're not mathematically

eliminated, but there's not really a compelling reason to hold Keith back. If they think his bat is ready, they can afford to let him iron out any sort of remaining defensive issues at the big league level. So I think Colt Keith is someone to keep an eye on. And then Pete Crow Armstrong. I think Pete Crow Armstrong is pretty interesting because defensively, he's always had a clear path to being an above average big league center fielder. And the bat has really come along in a big way this year as he's moved through the Cubs system. Nice start to the year at AA, really complete player with both power and speed. He sort of picked up right

where he left off with a second half promotion to AAA Iowa as well. So I could see Pete Crowe Armstrong maybe being the most likely of those next three position players to debut quickly because the Cubs could use him as a semi-regular, right? They could sit him against lefties. They could bring him off the bench and use him as a defensive replacement late in games if they want to get that upgrade over Mike Tauchman. And I think he also has a lot of ways to really help us if he gets the opportunity.

Yeah, I think that Crow Armstrong could definitely help the Cubs, but not in a way that necessarily helps us in fantasy. Like you said, maybe a late inning defensive replacement or spelling Tachman a couple times a week. But Tachman, at least offensively, he's really been a big part of that surge. And you reminded me now, because Crow Armstrong was another player that was in that column about these are the the guys you should expect expect up soon but that was before the cubs uh looked more like buyers than sellers so uh that that changed that picture a lot cody bellinger is still there uh so yeah i think that changes the picture because i i anticipated that crow armstrong would not only be up but be somebody who's fantasy viable. Unless they just want to

really diminish the role of Tachman, which would surprise me at this stage. I'm not sure that we can expect that from Crow Armstrong. Lawler, I think, is a good call because the Diamondbacks are clearly feeling a little bit of desperation there and just are

starting to just kind of throw things at the wall and see what sticks. And why not? Why not call up Jordan Lawler? So I like that one. I know you've got Evan Longoria working his way back from the IL, but Jace Peterson at third base right now. You could certainly roll the dice, bring Lawler up and move Perdomo to third for defensive purposes or try Lawler there. I guess that's the tricky thing. Breaking someone in a new position is not always the best way to begin a big league career.

But don't be surprised if there are more names that get the call between now and Sunday. So keep an eye on the news before setting up all those waiver wire cues. Let's talk about a few other news items. Royce Lewis is back. He's made consecutive starts at third base for the Twins this week. Hit third and fourth in those two games, given where he was hitting in the lineup and a chance to really offer a lot to this Twins lineup down the stretch. Do you think Royce Lewis now has a case to be picked up in more shallow formats where people might be looking for some help? I think so. And with Lewis, it's still a lot of projection. We still haven't seen that. It seems like we've seen more of him in the majors than we actually have. But he still has that prospect pedigree, still got the power speed potential.

And I like the fact that, like you said, not only that he started these two games in a row, that he's hitting in the heart of the order, but has gotten on base a bunch. And I think, and this is in the column so i could fact check myself but i think he's got six batted balls in those two games and only one of them with an exit velocity below 98 miles an hour so he's you know it's not like you're worried about him you know shaking rust off or not being ready uh he's he's hit the ground running yeah ever since you know the results he put together during his little bit of time at AAA last year, and even in the brief time he was in the big leagues, it seems like the floor has been higher for Royce Lewis coming off of the ACL tear in 2021, the lost minor league season in 2020. So

I think you can strongly consider him in a 10 or a 12 team league because there's plenty of those where he's actually still available given how much time he missed on the IL. Speaking of the IL, kind of a brutal development in weekly leagues. Ozzy Albies landed on the IL early this week. Initially, it was expected that he was going to play just because the report was that he was out with cramps on Sunday or left that game early because of some cramping. Going on the IL after lineup lock. Or right around lineup lock. Is always pretty tough for a weekly format. So tough break there. We talked about Von Grissom. And some of his long term appeal.

On Project Prospect this week. The short term opportunity for Grissom. May not be there. Nicky Lopez has collected all of the playing time. In Albie's absence. So far this week. Nicky Lopez is a better real life player than fantasy player. But as we've seen with this Atlanta team before, at least in terms of the

guys that play up the middle, that moves the needle for them. They care about that. The things that Von Grissom doesn't do well are things that Nicky Lopez does exceptionally well. You know you have a great defensive player every time you put Nicky Lopez on the field. So this looks like a spot where Lopez is the deeper league pickup if you're just looking to fill someone in in the lineup. Yeah, so the question is, is he more than that? Is he just somebody to hopefully run into some counting stats while he's accumulating plate appearances?

And he had that one season with the Royals where he hit for average, stole bases. I don't know. Well, I say I don't know. It's clearly an outlier, but that's a ceiling that's there for Lopez. And on this team, maybe there's an opportunity to approach that ceiling. And then like you said, there's the context. He's in a great lineup. So if we see a better version of Nicky Lopez, we also see somebody who maybe scores and drives in some runs. Yeah, I think if nothing else, Lopez doesn't make a lot of sense for me in most mixed leagues. I think in mono leagues, he's the guy you'd want to pick up just filling in. Grissom probably just misses my list completely this weekend, barring some changes in the series that plays out between now and Sunday night. Whereas if you'd said early in the week,

who are you interested in between those two? I actually would have thought they would have turned to Grissom a bit more. So pretty tough turn of events. If you were hoping for Vaughn Grissom to get an opportunity. And we learned earlier this week, Marcus Stroman actually has a rib cartilage fracture. It looked like he was close to returning from the IL. That is not the case.

And rather than the people's sleeper, Hayden Wisniewski, Javier Assad is getting chances in this Cubs rotation right now. I see skills that just point to the best case scenario being what he's done last year and this year combined. A low ERA, but a middling whip, a low K rate, someone you really have to be careful with with matchups. It kind of reminds me of the Dakota Hudson, Adrian Hauser profile. When it's good, you're surprisingly really happy with him. When it's bad, it can really mess up your ratios, and you're not getting enough in terms of juice in the strikeouts category.

So we do have a window this week in particular in Stroman's absence where Assad could be a two-start pitcher. It's against the Tigers and the Pirates on the road. That seems like kind of the sweet spot. Like this is the window and Javier Assad has some mixed league appeal. I think beyond that, he'd probably be a drop for me going into the following week when he has to match up against the Reds. Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't want to have anything to do with that. And given that he doesn't get a lot of strikeouts, you look for, okay, what is there to compensate for that? He doesn't really have a history of good walk rates. a history of good walk rates.

But at least during the time of the majors, which is still fairly limited, he gets a lot of pop-ups. So it's not entirely fluky that he's got the decent whip and has been able to put up a better ERA than you would expect given the strikeout rate. But yeah, you'd have to be really, really careful with your matchup. Sort of reminds me a little bit of back when Chris Young was in the majors. And I always liked him as a streamer for those kinds of situations. A ton of fly balls, a lot of high flies.

Where can I take advantage of that matchup? So I think Assad's got that sort of appeal. Yeah, that's pitch and ditch, though, as they used to say on the old Fantasy 411 show. I do not think you want to hold on to Javier Asad beyond this two-start week, even though he seems to be that preferred option to fill in for Marcus Stroman. Other hitters to consider, Jonathan Aranda back in Tampa Bay. And we wondered the same thing a couple weeks ago when Curtis Meade was promoted. How do the pieces fit?

Aranda's been fantastic at AAA I think the corresponding move for his call-up from Durham was actually Manuel Margot going on the IL Aranda's defensive limitations are pretty well known at this point if anything I just expect Curtis Meade to play a little bit more because they brought Curtis Meade under the roster before Aranda so at this point I see an AL only player based on usage, unless someone starts playing shortstop unexpectedly. Right now it's Oslevis Basabe who's taken over that position with Wander Franco's move to the restricted list. So love the bat with Aranda. I just don't know how the Rays are going to fold them in. Yeah, I don't either. And it would be tempting to just say,

well, Basabe has made the four starts in a row and they're clearly just going for defense first here. But these are the Rays and you could see this thing flip next week. You know, I just think about having Harold Ramirez on a bunch of teams about how one week is not predictive of his usage the next week. So maybe that's how it goes at shortstop and that's how it goes for Aranda. But it is frustrating because he's been yo-yoed back and forth on and off the roster and hasn't really ever gotten a good look. So it would seem like this would be the opportunity. And if it's not, I don't know when, if not now, I don't know when. Did some really deep searching into the Curtis Meade defensive usage throughout his professional career. And as an 18 year old in rookie ball with the Phillies,

different organization, seven games at shortstop. Those are the only seven professional games he's played at shortstop since coming over to North America. So I don't know. I don't know if they've got someone else in that group that they trust to try and play shortstop. But, yeah, if it's Glove first, Basabe continues to be that guy. And I just think he's more much like Wade Meckler, who we also talked about earlier

in the week on Project Prospect. I think Oslavis Basabe is a monoligue player. It's like it's better than Nicky Lopez if you're kind of comparing just two guys that are playing a lot right now that have questions about power, but it's still not necessarily enough to get excited in most mixed league situations. There's a pretty interesting group of outfielders. That are up in playing time right now. There's JP Martinez in Texas.

Nelson Velasquez in Kansas City. And Stone Garrett. For the Nationals. Getting more time in recent weeks. I'm curious if you're just looking for help. In a league where you've got to start five outfielders and you're looking at that combination, how would you order those three players? How would you prioritize them as potential adds this week?

Well, I think now that he's getting the playing time, I think I would give the top priority to Stone Garrett. And I sort of liken him to Lane Thomas as a guy who seemed like he was quad A until he got an actual chance. And so I don't know if this is a trend for the Nationals, but it's kind of interesting that they've got both of these guys on the roster and playing regularly. So I like Garrett the best. I think it's tough. I think that there's not a lot that separates the three, It's tough. I think that there's not a lot that separates the three, but probably going Martinez over Velasquez.

I trust the playing time a little bit more. You've got the steals potential there. But yeah, when I looked at the rundown, I was actually kind of mad that I overlooked Velasquez for my weekly column. Because I think he's a good 15-team pickup if you need some power. Yeah, I think I fully trust the power. It was on display at AAA this year. It's been pretty consistently there most of Nelson Velasquez's stops along the way. He came to the Cubs system, got flipped at the deadline. It was the Jose Cuas trade, Cuas joining the Cubs bullpen going the other way. Velasquez has collected 261 plate appearances in the big

leagues. He struck out in 30% of those plate appearances, not a surprise given the approach, given his age and first exposure to the big leagues. And he's only hit 224 overall during those opportunities, but he's done it with a 15.2% barrel rate. This is a good power hitter, right? And a team like Kansas City can afford to just see what happens when you play him a lot. So it could be an even higher K rate than what we've seen overall during his opportunities in the big leagues. But I kind of like this. There's a little bit of improvement already this year. He's getting the power consistently.

He's got non-zero speed. I think he hits the ball hard enough to be less of a liability in batting average than the projections suggest he'll be. So as long as the K rate doesn't get up in the mid to high 30s for a stretch, I think you're going to be pretty happy with Velasquez. But I find

this to be a really tough toss-up. I think Martinez's playing time could dry up the most of the three and being on the best team of the three, that certainly makes some sense. I think he's like the clear number three of the group. Maybe the min-bid player I put behind the other two. I think with Garrett, there's a little more in this body of work so far where I just trust that the floor is solid. The barrel rate's not as good as Velasquez.

But we saw some signs from Stone Garrett at the end of last season in Arizona. It's a 10% barrel rate. He's at 272 with a 483 slug. And I think you're right. I think there are some similarities to Lane Thomas where you have these guys that come through, they're a little bit old,

they are right-handed hitters, and they end up breaking in more as bench guys that play against lefties, and there's questions about whether or not they can hit same-handed pitching, and sometimes they just never get a chance to play. Garrett's at least getting that, and he's played really well with that opportunity. So I'm going to go, I'm going to put Velasquez narrowly ahead of Stone Garrett, but, geez, I think I like both of those guys quite a bit as fifth outfielders for

deeper formats. A couple other names to throw at people as we close the book on hitters for the week. John Singleton getting a regular run for the Astros, Al hitting sixth and seventh in that order while Jose Abreu is out. He had that two homer game against the Angels last week, has just one hit otherwise since joining the Astros. It's a really nice story, but I just don't see a whole lot there. The plate skills look okay.

10 walks against 15 Ks over 19 games between his time with the Brewers and the Astros this year. You highlighted Andrew Monasterio as a deeply glue guy, someone that can play all over. He's been pretty important for the Brewers because they've had a handful of injuries around the infield. Monasterio's been an above averageaverage contributor offensively from a real-life perspective. Fantasy-wise, it's just sort of okay because there's not a ton of home-run power in his bat. He runs a little bit. If you're taking his numbers so far and you stretch him over a full season, you're talking about an 8-10 homer guy that's going to steal 12 or 15 bases,

but do it with a pretty good average in OBP. an 8-10 homer guy that's going to steal 12 or 15 bases, but do it with a pretty good average in OBP. So I see him as more of a deep, deep league glue guy than anything else, but a player that I knew very little about, even though this is a team that I follow very closely. Yeah, well, and I just picked him up in Maki. And also just to put this in a context of what is he an upgrade over, I picked him up in Maki and he's taking the place of Jace Peterson. So I don't know that there's a whole lot

that separates the two besides playing time, but that is a separator at this point. And in Monasterio, he is hitting for average. And the one thing is, you know, you talked about if you just prorate this over a full season, the one stat that looks sort of surprisingly good is the run scoring. He's scored a run for every two games.

So for a full season, that's 80 runs. And this is a guy, like you said, he gets on base, not in a great lineup, but he's getting the reps. He's missed one start out of the last 30 games, which is astounding to me because when he first started popping up in the box score, I was like you, games, which is astounding to me because when he first started popping up in the box score, I was like you, like, who is this? And then as he remained in there, it was sort of like, okay, you know, when is he going to go to the bench? And it hasn't happened. So he's, he's useful for, for getting on base. And as long as the Brewers find, find that a useful thing,

and as long as the Brewers find that a useful thing, he'll be a good stack compiler. Former teammate of his, Luis Urias, getting some run now in Boston. I was looking to see what his playing time looks like. Monasterio might be part of the reason why the Brewers were comfortable moving Urias at the deadline. Urias has started nine of the last 13 games for the Red Sox since joining them on August 4th.

Hit a grand slam on Thursday. That could open up the window for a little more playing time in the short term. It kind of seems like it's Urias versus Pablo Reyes at second base right now for Boston. So I'm curious what your interest level is in Luis Urias as someone that has shown some flashes, but just hasn't put together a complete and healthy season going back these last two years now. Well, I think he's definitely viable for 15 teams. And if the playing time looked a little bit more steady for him, I think you could talk about something shallower. I actually, early on this season, had him rostered. And I think this this I don't remember exactly when he went on the IL but um

maybe it was opening day I had him on a 12 team roster uh so I think there's that that potential with Arias but in this situation I I don't see him getting everyday play at any point between now and the end of the season yeah I think it would just take Reyes either playing somewhere else or going into a prolonged slump and then you could maybe see the playing time tick up, but at least in the short term, it's more of a semi-regular role, and I think that puts a bit of a cap on the leagues in which Urias is viable. So if you're chasing the volume playing time, Monasterio is a better fit right now, even though Urias might have a little more ceiling for us with the bat if you're trying to find

the typical roto categories. Let's shift the focus over to pitchers. We'll start with a stash. What do you think about stashing Nick Lodolo? He's starting to make some progress in his rehab assignment. Three innings pitched, six Ks last time out. That was against AA Birmingham. Probably one to two more turns in the minors before he's back in the Reds rotation.

But we talk about a lot of similar pitchers on a weekly basis on these Friday episodes. And Lodolo is kind of a cut above many of them just in terms of talent and expectations. But because of the struggles he had before he went on the I.L. and the duration of his absence, he's pretty widely available. Sort of feels like now or never if you want to stash him away for that final month of the season yeah now you i like the way that you frame that because he isn't necessarily going to deliver what we expected from him back in march but that that possibility is there and that's not something you're just going to get from any pitcher off a waiver so i think for that reason that if

you have room to stash lodolo i think even in 12-teamers, that's a good move. You've got Hunter Green coming back this weekend. You've got him coming back on Sunday. Lodolo just a couple of steps behind him. Green had a really nice outing in his last rehab assignment. It looks like he's going to be ready to go uh you know five six innings right out of the gate maybe Lidl will be ready to do the same when he's uh activated yeah I'm hoping that's the case and I could see him pitching really well in that final

month the Reds certainly need those boosts in the back of that rotation looking at some other potential streamers focusing on the one-start pitchers first. Jesse Schultens has a matchup against the A's. It's an improving A's lineup, as we talked about on last Friday's show, but he's gone at least six innings in each of his last three starts since joining the rotation after the deadline with the Giolito and Lynn being moved by the White Sox. 17K is against five walks during that span that included a road start against the Rangers one against the guardians and a home start against the Brewers. So I'm curious if you have any interest in Jesse Shultz, at least as a one-time streamer with that matchup against the A's.

Yeah, I like it. 15 teamer. I wouldn't, wouldn't trust him in a 12 teameramer, even with that great matchup. But I think it's the only circumstance right now that I would think about rostering Schultz and actually start him. But I think he passes the test for that. The other names I saw on the grid, I saw Wade Miley again. He's home against the Twins. Nobody strikes out more than the Twins. So if you want to take Wade Miley's flaw and paper over it a bit, put him up against the lineup that strikes out a ton.

So I think there's some appeal there. Cole Irvin. Here's a tricky one. Cole Irvin would match up against the Rockies. Five scoreless last time out against Seattle, including six Ks. He only threw 67 pitches in that outing. We know there are some moving parts with this Orioles rotation. I'm starting to think that the Orioles are an above average organization

for pitching development, right? This was a signature of the Astros for a decade now. A lot of the Astros front office members made their way over to Baltimore. Mike Elias, part of this rebuild. With Cole Irvin, there's a new cutter. So the pitch mix has changed over the course of this season. I think it's still, you know, stream very carefully. This is not a pick them up everywhere. It's going to work out because they did it with Kyle Braddish and they did it with Tyler Wells. But I just think I need to be open-minded to pick up some of the back-end starters that they are trying to work with because they've got a few success stories now in the last couple seasons. Yeah.

And, you know, Irvin was a pretty reliable streamer. If you pick the right spots, I say reliable. You had to know which spots to pick. But he was a decent streamer with the A's. So with a really good matchup in Baltimore against Colorado, I like reliable. You had to know which spots to pick, but he was a decent streamer with the A's. So with a really good matchup in Baltimore against Colorado, I like that. I like that call a lot. And in terms of your reference to the moving parts,

he and Wells are on the same schedule. So that may not be coincidence. So if you do pick up Irvin, first of all, I guess there's absolutely no guarantee that he makes that start but I would assume that he does but maybe each start is going to be something

we're going to have to look at carefully and look for some reassurance that he's going to make the next one yeah so it's a reasonably short list of single start streamers that are widely available but watch closely with Cole Irvin. You might be surprised.

The park changes in Baltimore, the other thing that opened my eyes to being more willing to take some chances with a few of their starters. If you're at the point where you're chasing wins, especially, hey, the Orioles pitchers can get you some wins. Good team, of course. Jose Quintana pitching well.

Unfortunately, looking ahead at the schedule, it's Atlanta this week. It's the Rangers the following week, so that's an easy pass for me for the time being. And I started to wonder, like, what am I becoming? Luis Medina and Ken Waldachuk, widely available. We talked about Medina a few weeks ago. Home against the Royals is his matchup.

I think I might go back to that well one more time in deeper leagues. Waldachuk has pitched a little better over the last couple of turns. He's at the White Sox. There's more prospect floor with Waldachuk, but I think the stuff for Medina gives him a higher ceiling. Are you taking a chance

on either one of those Oakland starters who seem like they're constantly available every single week in my 12-team leagues I look, and pretty much that whole rotation can be picked up yeah well I know we're going to get to Blackburn later and uh to me that that's he's in a different category I don't trust either Medina or Waldachuk even with these starts and I'd say generally I I might give a little bit of an edge to Medina, but the Royals, and I'm not saying this with any picture, like fear the Royals, avoid the Royals,

but with somebody I'm already kind of iffy about, the Royals are trending upward offensively. I mean, they've been hitting well the last few weeks. So I could see that one going south. And the White Sox to me right now are a better team to stream against than the Royals, but I just haven't seen enough from Waldo Chuck to think that that one might not turn out well. So I'm going to pass on both.

I don't blame you. I just wanted to bring him to the conversation because anytime you see a glimpse of something changing on the pitching side, you have to check it out. You have to at least think about it. This looks like a pretty good week for two-start pitchers, especially if you're playing in slightly smaller leagues, 10- and 12-team leagues. I think you're going to find a decent number of guys that can give you a lot of innings during the upcoming week. You wrote about Tanner Houck in the column. Tough matchups, and he's coming off the IL, too, right? At Houston versus LA, at least catches the Dodgers at home. So is this a pickup for stash purposes or are you also suggesting that if you're kind of tanked already in the ratios that you might as well throw

Hawk out there because the skills are actually pretty good. Yeah. I would say both that he's a good play. If you need the bulk, you need strikeouts, you need innings. But yeah, the ratios that you're,

you're taking a big, big risk there with those matchups. But I think that even if you're in a situation where it's going to pay you to be cautious, I think it's now's the time because what if Houck does really well in both of those starts? Then I don't know that you can say the sky's the limit in late August with fab bidding, but as high as the bidding could get in late August, I think that he'd be very popular. So I think even in 12-team leagues, if you've got room for Houck on your bench, if you don't want to start him, now is the time to make that move. Yeah. Another guy where you think the skills

are probably just a tick better than a lot of the pitchers that come up as the widely available names. I mean, the K rate this year is still kind of similar to what we saw a year ago. I think when he broke in with a higher volume of innings in 2021, Tanner Howe looked like he was going to be completely dominant against righties. The ratios have been pretty good over the course of his career. 366 ERA, 117 whip over a strikeout per inning over his first 213 and two thirds innings now for the Red Sox. So something, there's something there. And I'm curious to see what he can do with it.

Also, I know you may have the Fear the Royals shirt on next week. Tanner Howe gets the Royals after the two-step, too. So if you are doing the stash thing, the payoff could be a pretty nice one against Kansas City at that first start in September. We've mentioned Graham Ashcraft on a few recent shows. I don't know why he's still available in shallow leagues. It might be the low K rate, but he's gone at least six innings in eight of his last nine starts. The one where he fell short was five and a third with eight Ks against the Brewers.

It's a 217 ERA, a 109 whip during that span. Season numbers don't look very good. The thing we keep wondering about with Graham Ashcraft, I know he pops an Enos pitching model. Will there be more Ks down the road? I would say there's a good chance there is. It may only be 7.5, 8 Ks per nine, but that's still better than what he's done for his career to date.

At the Angels, at the Diamondbacks, are the two matchups, so it's not a pair of cakewalk matchups, but it's just someone that I'm starting to trust because it seems like he's pitching the way he should have been pitching all along. Things are starting to fall into place for him. It leads me to a toss-up because we've talked about Zach Littell a lot in recent weeks too. They're both more widely available in leagues with 12 or fewer teams. Ashcraft versus Littell, both to me have some limitations in strikeout rate in the short term. Who do you prefer if you're choosing between the

two? For me, it's pretty easy. I'm going with Ashcraft there. And I think that there's an even lower strikeout floor with Littell. I think what he's done so far is a little bit fluky. He's had very good, consistently good results since joining the rotation, but he's only walked one batter in the last four starts. And yet when you look at the plate discipline table for him on fan graphs, it's like, okay, he throws an above average percentage of strikes, but there's nothing else there that really points to him being uber stingy with walks. And that's kind of how he's gotten where he is right now.

So with Ashcraft, I think there's at least the hope for a decent, if not a great, strikeout rate and a ton of ground balls from him. So I give him a substantial edge. I would put both Ashcraft and Lutell ahead of the rest of the two-start pitchers

that are part of our conversation this week. That includes a group with Bryce Elder, who has become a bit more available in recent weeks. Again, more for shallow leagues. A 5.06 ERA and a 1.25 whip over his, I think, last six starts since the All-Star breakdown. I mean, he had seven scoreless against the Yankees this week. That's baked in to the ERA North 5 during that span. The Ks just haven't been there throughout the season for Bryce Elder. It's home against the Mets, road against the Giants.

Not cakewalk matchups, but if you're playing the bulk game, I get it. So you got Elder, you got Paul Blackburn with nice matchups, Matthew Libertor, who for a brief moment against the Rays looked like he figured out the keys to life and happiness and then came out and didn't go 5 against the A's so uh Lodum's gonna take its lumps I am fully aware of that uh Bailey Falter who's very borderline but gets two at home with the Cards and Cubs on the schedule it's a tough group to to sift through I get the sense that you like Paul Blackburn the most though because he was featured in the column this week. Yeah. And in fact, what I did right was that he's my favorite waiver targets. I wasn't including

Ashcraft in that group. If I did, I think I would put Ashcraft at the top, but Blackburn is next and he's got good matchups. But I just like what he's done. He's not the pitcher he was when he first came up with the A's. He's a decent strikeout pitcher now, but still doesn't give up a lot of hard contact, doesn't give up a lot of airborne batted balls. Walk rate is decent. I mean, all those peripherals are decent to good. And he's got a good home park.

So any two-start week, the matchups are, you know, favorable to, to neutral. Uh, I'm, I'm riding with Blackburn. Yeah. I think it's, it's still more of a, the matchups have to be right for me situation with Paul Blackburn, but I would say that the matchups are right in this instance, a bunch of two start pitchers. I put in the no fly zone, uh Noah Sindergaard, I saw the post-game comments he made after his most recent start. He seems like a man who's just been broken by the lack of success. You feel bad because he was so good when he was good, and he's just so far away from that right now. I thought maybe going to the Dodgers this season was going to help him turn it around.

It's the second year in a row in which he's been traded. You have no idea what the future holds for him, but he's got two tough matchups. He's home against the Dodgers, road against the Jays. So not going anywhere near that. You've got Ty Block starting games for the Rockies right now. He avoids Coors for two, but he gets the Rays and the Orioles. So that's an easy pass. Tukey Toussaint, who gets two at home, one against the

Mariners, one against the A's. I just can't do it. The walk rate's still a problem that keeps the innings as a problem. I can't get on board. Well, what do you think about that scenario that we keep coming up with if you don't care about ratios? Because those are two teams that strike out a lot, and he's been getting strikeouts. Yeah, that's the use case for him. I would still consider Tukey to be more of your contingency bid, bottom of the list, min bid sort of player if you're going to do that and play that bulk game. I just, I mean, yeah, the ratios have to be pretty messed up.

If you look back at this most recent body of work, last four starts, he's had the Cubs, the Yankees, the Rangers, and the Guardians. You're right about the case. 26 strikeouts in just 19 and a third innings to come with 15 walks. So it's an ERA north of five. It's a whip in the one six range. It's likely going to hurt you in those categories. So if you have nothing to lose in those categories, it works. But if you have something to lose in those categories, it really doesn't. Mike Clevenger gets the same matchups, by the way. I don't have him anywhere. I don't really want him anywhere, but he's pitching well. There's nothing to gain there. You're not going to get strikeouts. Between the two, I don't really want to start either, but at least I can make

a specific case for using Toussaint. Yeah. Alec Marsh, not, not using him at Oakland at Seattle and then Johnny Cueto at San Diego home against the Nats. I wish we could throw Johnny Cueto because he's fun, but it's just, it's not working out so far this season for him in Miami around the injuries. Let's go to the bullpen for just a bit before we go. Matt Brash earned his fourth save of the season. Really looks like the Mariners are going to keep a committee

approach similar to what they've done for the last couple of seasons where it's Andres Munoz at the top and other talented relievers like Matt Brash, maybe a few others, getting occasional saves. It comes back to that philosophical question of do you like for your third closer spot? Are you comfortable using

someone who doesn't get all the saves, but gets enough of a share to maybe be a difference maker in the category in leagues where things are really tightly clustered? Yeah, I do like that approach for the third reliever. And especially if it's somebody who's just a quality pitcher like Matt Brash. I am a little surprised that he's getting the saves that he's getting because Munoz is just so dominant. I kind of figured he'd have that one all but locked up, but it makes sense. Brash in another bullpen on another roster could be a full-time closer, no question. Yeah, you look back at Matt Brash too. He's put together a nice stretch over the last two months, last 24,

and a third innings, 30 Ks, 11 walks, just one homer allowed, a 259 ERA, three saves during that span, a 115 whip, but saves in back-to-back games this week. So it just makes you wonder, is there a path for him to actually become the leader of that committee if they want to use Munoz in higher leverage and let Brash be the next best option that they turn to. Ongoing question for the Mariners. No clear answers on that. Trevor Gott picked up a save for the Mets. I don't think we mentioned him as someone that could emerge in that bullpen as a source of saves.

I've seen a little bit of Trevor Gott in recent years. I think he's a decent reliever. I think if he's the guy, then it can work. But it's his only save of the season. Is there any reason to bid on Trevor Gott this weekend? I don't think so, just because that's a pretty crowded situation. We talked about Drew Smith as maybe being that third option. Maybe still could be.

It looked initially like Brooks really was maybe going to be getting all or most of the saves. That was a little premature on my part to make that assumption, even though that was the early pattern after the Robertson trade. Adovino is going to be in that mix. So there's just too many options around to really invest in the third or fourth guy. Yeah, and they may just not have a closer. That could easily be the plan because it was Adam Adelino that got a save on Sunday for the Mets, so it could just be a grab bag from here on out.

So just be very careful about throwing darts in that Mets bullpen for the time being. You may have seen Justin Martinez pick up a save for the Diamondbacks this week. That was because Paul Seawald and Kevin Ginkle were not available due to their recent workloads I thought Martinez was kind of interesting back in the winter when the Diamondbacks didn't really have a closer and it was sort of like the Scott McGuff show or bust because Martinez was coming off Tommy John surgery had an electric arm big time K numbers in the minors, but he has the classic phenomenal stuff, horrible command combo that you see sometimes in the bullpen. Moore's the guy to watch for the future. If he can find a way to locate more consistently, he can become part of the high leverage unit in Arizona.

But so long as Seawald and Ginkle are available, I don't think we'll see Martinez in save spots again anytime soon. I also saw Andrew Kittredge was activated from the IL. It's really been the Pete Fairbanks show when Fairbanks has been healthy this year. We've seen some Jason Adam in the closer role for the Rays, but for folks that say that the Rays never lean on one closer, this year has been kind of a pushback against that just in terms of Fairbanks being the guy when he's been available. Yeah. And I've been surprised by that. Not because I thought that the Rays philosophically wouldn't do that because I can remember seasons where Alex

Colomay was clearly the number one guy, but I figured that Fairbanks and Adams were sort of close enough skills-wise that there'd be more of a split there. And it just hasn't worked out that way, like you said, when Fairbanks has been healthy. So I don't think this is going to be like years past where you could look at the second or third option and think that there's really something useful there for fantasy. Yeah, I'm right there with you.

But keep an eye on Kittredge because he was supposed to be the guy before he got hurt last year. Maybe he emerges to be part of a committee before the end of this season, and then he becomes an interesting late-round flyer for us in 2024. On our way out the door, a quick reminder, you can get a subscription to The Athletic for $2 a month for the first year at theathletic.com slash ratesandbarrels. You can check out Al's weekly waiver column.

That's already up for this week. It goes up each and every Friday fantasy football is just around the corner. So if you're playing that got custom cheat sheets, lots of great articles up on the site for that. Got tons of other stuff for the stretch run for baseball and NBA season, not far away either. So everything you want for one little price, $2 a month for the first year at athletic.com slash rates and barrels on

Twitter. You can find out at L milk, your BB. You can find me at Derek and Riper. You can find the pod at rates and barrels. That's going to do it for this episode of rates and barrels. We are back with you on Monday. Thank you.