4 HITTER QUESTIONS! Reynaldo Lopez's Return & Waiver Wire ADDS! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

Intro [Music] welcome back Ronaldo Lopez and welcome in fantasy baseball today on Wednesday August 21st I am Frank stanel joined by Chris Towers today on the show we have lots of waiver wire pitchers how many of them actually matter for Fantasy I'm not so sure welcome back to Ronaldo Lopez who had a big return start up against the Phillies we've got some hitter questions and much more but let's jump in is this happening it is all right Chris over to you the player of the night the player of the night obviously is Spencer Spencer Torkelson Tolson who had three singles and a double I think he drove in one run and scored another and that's not like a huge performance necessarily but I do have a fun fact that I think tells you where Tolson is right now I believe he has multiple hits in two of his first three games since coming back from Triple A and yeah he had four batted balls today all four of them had an expected batting average over 900 now that's one of those stats that we don't necessarily site on a per game or per at bat basis so I do want to say that yes that is as impressive as it sounds the last player to have four batted balls in the same game with an xba of over 900 is Nelson Cruz which one that tells you how long it's been because he's been retired for a little bit now that was in 2019 it has been five full seasons since a player had four batted balls in the same game with an xba over 900 that is pretty impressive and obviously we we saw with Spencer Tolsen he was a disaster early on this season got sent down to the miners and nobody really thought it was weird that he got sent down it was welld deserved he had a 596 Ops when he got sent down on June 1 then he went to the miners and was just okay didn't really like dominate at Triple A the way you'd hope but this is a guy who last season had 19 home runs after the All-Star break was frankly arguably a League winner after he got recalled or uh after he got hot last season and so we know he has that kind of upside he's six for 10 uh with two doubles and a triple since returning from uh Triple A and I think if you're looking for Corner infield help you should probably take a look at Spencer Tolsen because as we saw last year when he gets hot he can get really really hot and help carry him and overall his time at Triple A was not great but he did start to heat up right before he got called back up last 21 games at AAA a 256 batting average six homers 18 runs 21 RBI and a 934 Ops for Spencer Spencer Tolson who is only 36% rostered I think you said it right Chris in leagues that have a corner infield spot so 12 team Roto are deeper my guess 15 team Roto he's already rostered but in some of those 12 team rooto leagues it's kind of slim pickings for Corner infield and someone who's less than 40% rostered might actually be out there so I I think that makes some sense but obviously I don't think we're taking him over you know other first basemen that have been hitting for quite some time someone like Michael toia right you wouldn't would you take turkelson over him um toia has really slowed down himself hasn't he I thought he did but then I looked at his game logs today and and it still really good to me yeah okay he has a 906 Ops in the month of August that is pretty surprising because it's only three multi-hit games uh yeah I would take tolio over Tolson but I do think Tolson if he gets right probably has a higher ceiling than toia uh what about yeah I mean Carlos Santana's I don't know 42% roster he's totally fine but if you want to chase upside with Tolson I'm fine with that as well yeah I I think that makes some sense so let's let's remember you know tlon a former first overall pick it obviously has not happened consistently so far in the majors but we've seen these spurts of him hitting for massive power and perhaps he could do that again here over the final six weeks of the Season let's slide over to Ronaldo Lopez who had a big start in his return from the iil five innings one run 10 Reynaldo Lopez strikeouts up against the Phillies 18 whiffs on 90 pitches eight of those on the slider five on the curve three on the fast ball two on the change up had everything worked in this start and I think anytime a pitcher is returning from an elbow a shoulder a forearm type injury anything like that the velocity how does that look and it was fine for Ronaldo Lopez here in fact the fast ball was up one mile per hour the curve was up 1.3 the slider was up half a mile per hour both of his breaking pitches look great I know that we've expressed skepticism for a large majority of the second half here Chris where you know the numbers are going to regress at some point but in an in a time right now where it's kind of hard to find valuable reliable pitching excuse me uh maybe Ronaldo Lopez can do that at least in his first start back what do you think yeah I think at least in any head-to-head points League he's a must roster player and and I say that being the biggest skeptic of Ronaldo Lopez on this podcast maybe the biggest skeptic in the fantasy industry in head-to-head points League there's no question he's must roster he's a he's a a relief pitcher in those formats I still think I would place the erra the rest of the season over four you know he has a 440 x for the season one of the biggest gaps in baseball but what we saw today is what the upside can look like now it was you know we haven't seen this many strikeouts from him but the strikeouts were T trending up before the injury the fact that he came back and his velocity was actually a little bit up is a good sign so yeah if you want to be if you want to take the optimistic view of raldo Lopez I think that's reasonable I just I don't know how much I share it I and I totally get that it's just again it's it feels like once we get outside the top 20 25 starting pitchers it's just I can find something wrong with many of the starting pitchers that were ranking absolutely you know from 25 through 70 basically so you know Ronaldo Lopez has had a huge breakout season I don't think anyone's expecting him to to pitch to like a sub three er uh rest of season but yeah if he could just be serviceable we will take that the way that pitching has been trending over the uh the past couple months here quick reminder to sign up for the fbt newsletter if you haven't already you heard us talk about it all season long things are winding down uh you might not have as much time to consume all of our Fantasy Baseball products here the podcast and all the articles but you can do that with the newsletter that gets delivered right to your inbox so scan the QR code that will take you right to the website where you punch in your email address and you will get a free newsletter delivered every single weekday right to your email let's take our first break and when we return we will uh get into the news and notes we'll do that right after this college football is back SMU at Nevada on CBS Sports Network welcome back in what's the latest on the Kyle Tucker Saga well let's fill you in he took batting practice and was News: Kyle Tucker update involved in Outfield drills on Monday but manager Joe asata said Tucker won't be close to a rehab assignment until he runs the bases and apparently Tucker remains limited to jogging for the time being while he recovers from a bone bruise in his right shin one of the more confounding mysterious injuries that we've dealt with the past couple of years I I think we could all agree there was probably something more there than a bone bruise or maybe it was just a really really bad bone bruise but uh yeah I have a few head-to-head playoffs that have started up and I was depending on Kyle Tucker being back by now he is not yeah no it I mean it's what else can we say at this point you know it does seem like we're at a point where there is legitimate progress being made and and that's the the basic that you can hope for um in this situation but I don't like there's 10 days left in August nine days left in August I I don't know how many days there are in August 30 right um 31 31 days in August I think so right genu I know there was like a little pneumonic device that some people remembered and I never bothered with that nine or 10 he's not going to be back in August like there are 31 days he's going to have to go on a rehab assignment um it still seems like he's got some hurdles to clear before that I'm I'm guessing he's gonna have to go on a rehab assignment but I you know I think that's what they've said as well and I mean the the head-to-head season might be done before Kyle Tucker's back unfortunately like I'm not dropping him anywhere I have him because we know he's a first round caliber player when he's healthy but it's um it's just been maybe the most single most frustrating situation in baseball this season and I always find it so interesting when a team loses one of their best players and they just rally around everybody else and that is exactly what the Astros have done the time that he went out of the lineup early June they were way out in the AL West now have a four and a half game lead over the Seattle Mariners which is just crazy and then that's going to that's going to grow because as we're speaking the Mariners just blew a a three nothing lead and are down 63 heading into the ninth against the Dodgers so yeah that's uh it's it's weird I I don't think they're like they were 27 and 33 with Cal Tucker and he was playing at an absolute MVP level so I don't really think there's anything to it I think they just were playing way under their heads for the first two months of the season and then everything came back together and they'd be even better if Kyle Tucker was healthy yeah my pre in World Series prediction Phillies over the Astros there might be something there let's uh let's see if the if the uh Phillies can heat back up here lots of Yankees news where do we start first up Luis heel left his start early with lower back tightness he was pretty bad before he left three earned runs over three Innings he walked six and he threw just 47% of his pitches for strikes which is about the lowest number I have seen in a start all season long we know Luis heel has had his struggles with with control some inconsistencies throughout the the course of the season but uh this was especially bad and maybe it's because he was pitching through a back injury so uh we will wait to learn more I think Clark Schmidt is working his way back so uh it might afford the Yankees the opportunity to maybe shut Lise heel down a little bit here as his Innings have uh started to add up a little bit and and as we've said in the past if Clark Schmid had never gotten hurt I think it already would have happened for heel you know he he had that rough patch I think in around June um and I think we would have seen them dial him back if they had had another pitcher available because he's thrown about 130 more Innings than he did last season so uh yeah they needed to manage his Innings one way or the other and and maybe this is kind of a little bit of an excuse to do that if it ends up not being that serious and it's hard to speak in hypotheticals but man they absolutely could use an arm like lis in their Bullpen so yeah I don't know eventually maybe September Comes and and they make some kind of transition there but we will wait to learn more on Luis heel next up Aaron Boon indicated Tuesday that he still plans for Kay Holmes to be his primary closer Boon added that he could be more open to using Holmes earlier in the game if he feels the matchup is Right Klay Holmes currently leads baseball with 10 blown saves he did Pitch on Tuesday he got the ninth inning with the game tied he walked one but struck out three some names to watch here Tommy kley Luke Weaver I have kind of speculated on Jake cousins who has a wicked slider and he threw uh two scoreless innings in actually in Extra Innings here on Tuesday uh so we'll see my guess is Klay Holmes still gets the next save opportunity but at least it's on Aaron Boon's mind we know that uh and one more with the Yankees Boon said it would be a little ambitious to think Jazz Chism could return When first eligible on August 24th Jazz has already resumed Fielding ground ERS and hopes to begin swinging a bat soon one thing on Holmes it's so weird like he's got a 288 ER he's got a 246 fit he has 10 blown saves with 16 earned runs allowed this season it's just weird like I don't know if he's just pitching in a lot of one-run games and there's just been no margin for error but like he's been really good this season and I if just seems like it's been like he's bad against lefties because he of the the Arsenal that he has but I don't know it's just it's weird I don't feel like he's been that bad even though obviously I I understand the frustration yeah his babip is 350 on the season so that is that is pretty high there I obviously I watch a lot of Yankee games it's he doesn't miss as many bats as a traditional closer he gives up lots of you know hard ground balls so sometimes those Qui he also has just been Doom he's bad against lefties like he's got like a 750 Ops against lefties he's a a sinker sweeper slider guy which there's not really a weapon there to get lefties out so like he's not perfect I just I don't think they have a better option they might not I can tell you just watching the games it feels a lot more frustrating than the actual numbers would indicate but I just yeah no I get it I don't know how we've gotten to that point it's just it's it's it's a weird season for him uh Red's president of baseball operations Nick crawl said that an MRI on Hunter Green's elbow revealed the injury is not as significant as originally feared crawl added that green will get a second opinion the Cubs released Hector mer nerys on Tuesday and a save opportunity came up right away uh Porter Hodge was used in the ninth inning with a two-run lead he gave up a hit but struck out two for his second save Hajj has actually had a really good season 208 ER point 89 whip over a strikeout per inning we mentioned Jorge Lopez on our uh weekend recap podcast he didn't pitch in this game he did Pitch on both Friday and Saturday you know two three days later it feels like he should have been available so not exactly sure where they go but the first up the first opportunity was Porter hodj yeah and uh what was the oh the the Dodgers game that we're talking about it's it's funny how we think we get a handle on what teams are likely to do and then they they throw a curveball and in the Cubs scenario it was Lopez not getting the save and for the Dodgers it's Daniel Hudson who is one out way from getting the Save which makes three different pitchers getting a save in a row for the Dodgers now which is very funny musical chairs as it has been for a long time now with uh Dave Roberts and the Dodgers they did say yesterday that Michael cop has yeah he's gassed so they wanted to give him a few days off and of course they have two save opportunities in those two days but I would guess we'll see copc Wednesday or Thursday something like that and uh more often than not as long as he he pitches the way that he has I I think he will uh get the probably the majority of the saves moving forward for the Dodgers assuming Ranger Suarez does not suffer a setback in his Bullpen session he will return Saturday against the Royals Hassan Kim was placed in the iil with right shoulder inflammation he jammed his shoulder on a slide on Sunday this injury came out of nowhere the Orioles placed Zack effin on the iel with right shoulder inflammation he didn't really show any signs of the injury after uh you know posting four straight quality starts since joining the Orioles he actually looked really good and we spoke about that after his last start so pretty bad timing for Zack effin Alex bregman has now missed five straight due to swelling in the back of his right elbow jamer candelario was placed in the Isle with a fractured left big toe the red started Noel V Marte at third Ty France at first and Jonathan India at DH here on Tuesday the Rangers are hopeful Max sherzer can return from the I as early as next week Jorge Solair was out of the lineup but said he thinks he'll be ready to play on Friday he has not played since August 14th due to a left hamstring strain that's like nine days they have a 10day iil the Braves did this with someone else earlier Yeah Austin Riley I think and Rael Des earlier there was a similar situation yeah yeah it's it's always frustrating when that happens yeah weird stuff the uh Rockies manager Bud Black confirmed that Victor vodnik is experiencing soreness in his shoulder and was shut down in his warm-ups before Tuesday's game that's why they did not use him in the save opportunity we'll get to that later on ree olssen will throw a bullpen on Wednesday his first time throwing off a mound since going on the I with a shoulder injury the Cardinals optioned Jordan Walker back to Triple A he started just three out of six games while he was up Tyler Mali was placed in the I with shoulder stiffness uh with with Ronaldo Lopez back from the I the Braves are moving Grant Holmes back to the bullpen uh speaking of the Braves they signed Gio orella to a one-year deal to help fill in for Austin Riley welcome back to Johnny quo the angels have selected quo to start Wednesday against the Royals and just a few interesting tidbits I found while updating the rankings on Tuesday Brandon La now has first base eligibility I had no idea he was close but yeah he has it now so good for him uh three names that have lost pling time recently Lane Thomas has started just four of the last eight games Michael Garcia has started just three of the past six and Austin Wells has set three of the last four yeah all against left-handed pitching which the Yankees admitted they plan to use Jose TR against lefties but also Jose trino is gar Cole's personal catcher so that starts to get a little hairy because all right trino is gonna start one out of five then you figure about one out of five maybe you know three out of seven or whatever the number would be uh for left-handed pitchers and you know it starts to get pretty close to just an even split moving forward if you project it out but I Austin Wells has shown enough that even if he's in a pretty even split I'm still G to rank him as a top 15 catcher just maybe not the top 12 guy it looked like he could be and I I one thing the the Cardinal sent Jordan Walker down which makes sense he's not going to play against he's only he was only playing against lefties they they wanted to have him play every day whatever uh have you seen the numbers of the guy they called up luk Baker I know that he's put up some numbers in the past I did not look at his absolutely stupid numbers he's 27 years old at Triple A he's played 192 games over the past two seasons he has 65 home runs in those 192 games with like get an 1159 Opa he's probably nothing he's probably just a platoon bat but I just noticed that one and wanted to shout it out in you know deep NL only leagues luuk and Baker is someone who has been very very productive at Triple A yeah 32 home runs withs in 108 games of AAA this year it also comes with a 231 batting average he hit much better last year but we've seen stories like this happen before I mean Christian Walker was a quad a player before he got his chance with the Dbacks and then it worked out and this actually kind of reminds me a little bit of uh another name that was originally on the Cardinals Luke voy who got the chance to play and and he ran with it too so I'm not saying that's it's going to happen but crazy things happen I think he's a name only NL only people need to know about but yeah know about it yeah I did want to just mention with Lane Thomas you know it was either you or Scott I think it was you who mentioned you know some skepticism when going to the Guardians where the splits Lane Thomas is much better against left-handed pitching he's now sat out four the past eight games if if you play in a three outfielder head-to-head points League I think you probably drop Lane Thomas for any of these names that have emerged recently TJ fredel masatake Yoshida yeah anyone who's hot right now I think you know between this and must or uh between this and Richard love lady getting a save maybe we need to start taking Chris Towers a little more seriously guys luk and Baker you heard it here first exactly keep an eye on him uh let's get into some of those waiver wire pctures lots of names that are available Waiver wire pitchers but are any of them good the first group Shane BOS turned in a strong start at the Oakland A's seven and two3 shutout Innings with four strikeouts in that one Eduardo Rodriguez a solid start at the Marlins five and a third one run with five strikeouts Frankie Montas turned in a quality start at the Cardinals seven shutout Innings one hit one walk Three strikeouts did have 13 whiffs on 89 pitches and Cody Bradford continues to pitch well this time up against the Pirates seven innings three runs eight strikeouts zero walks he's a soft tossing Lefty but he has really good control flyball pitcher he's managed to avoid home runs decently so far and his fast ball and change up combination looks like a really really good one I don't know there could be something here uh Chris any enthusiasm for Bradford Frankie Monas rrod and Shane boss yeah Shane Bradford who or Cody Bradford who was met with a chorus of who when I drafted him in one of our head-to-head points leagues yeah uh no I I think Eduardo Rodriguez probably needs to be closer to universally rostered yeah it was the Marlins he hasn't been like incredible but what we've seen from him when he's going well in his career is not a ton of strikeouts generally there have been some outlier Seasons but on the whole average-ish good control is what you're hoping for and very good quality of contact suppression that's what he's shown so far and he's obviously got a very good team backing him up so I think Eduardo Rodriguez looks pretty good Shane BOS it just it's like different versions of kind of interesting every timeout like previous start he went curveball heavy got more of his whiffs with that one and this one it was the slider that was a little better two quality starts in a row at least seven innings in both not getting the strikeouts we're looking for this is one that like I think he should be universally rostered because the floor seems pretty high for Shane BOS I don't know if the path to unlocking that ceiling is there yet I'm interested in like breakout 2025 he's going to be on my list for sure um but he's not doing it consistently enough and then Montas I I don't think there's anything there he was one of the two start Sleepers for this week looks like it's going to work out I'd rather have Bradford um who also has RP eligibility for those points leak so I think Bradford at the very least should be rostered in all points leagues yeah the Frankie Montas thing is weird because I me he's RP eligible as well but I just don't think he's very good the Frankie Montas thing is weird because his splitter still looks like it's really good 262 expected woba 40% whiff rate but he only threw four of them in this start and it's a 19% usage on the season so I'm not sure why he doesn't use that splitter more but yeah I'm I'm not really buying in on this start from Frankie Monas uh how would you just rank the group BOS Rod Monas and Bradford BOS Rod Bradford Monas all right and the next group includes Dean Kramer who turned in a strong start at the Mets six Innings one run with seven strikeouts Javier Assad pitched well up against the Tigers five and two3 one run with seven strikeouts DJ a solid start up against the Rockies five and 2/3 two run two earned runs allowed three runs total with seven strikeouts 13 whips on 93 pitches and in six starts since being recalled DJ hers 307 ER 123 whip over a strikeout per inning and Edward Cabrera turned in a quality start up against the Dbacks six Innings three runs three walks three strikeouts only two whiffs on 90 pitches uh feels a little bit fortunate to Come Away with this result how would you rank this group Chris Cabrera hers Assad and Dean Kramer I honestly think I might put hers at the top of the list and then I think so too I'm I'm not that interested in anyone else Kramer it's almost entirely if you have any interest in him because of the team he plays for but it's got to be against a good matchup for me to trust him so not a must roster Assad it was just his first time throwing more than five innings since July and he had only thrown five innings once twice sorry in his previous nine starts so I I think Javier Assad's actually a decent talent but he just hasn't been going deep enough lately to to have much fantasy peel at all so I think um her is by far the most interesting of this group then it's probably Kramer I want Edward Cabrera to be something but it just doesn't seem like it is I remember before the season there were rumors that like the Marlins were going to trade him for Nick Gonzalez and I thought that would have been dumb and now I really wish that they had um so yeah I think hers is the only one that's more than a streamer I would actually take hers over Frankie Monas from the previous but uh I think I would still take BOS rod and Bradford ahead of hers but it's kind of close I think all four of those names are are pretty interesting there uh with Javier Assad one thing I wanted to point out the control just bad it's been bad this season four walks per nine uh and although he has a 260 ER over his last six starts that comes with a 141 Whip and 15 walks over 27 and 23s Innings so uh you know the ER results are there but everything else under the hood not looking great for Javier Assad here in the second half uh two two names in deeper leagues that pitch very well Joey Estus up against Tampa Bay seven and twoth thirds one run with five strikeouts and Austin gomber at the Nationals seven Innings one run with five strikeouts he had 13 whs on 96 pitches both of these are Under 20% rostered so pretty deep League stuff but anything here Chris with Joey Estus and Austin gomber now is running well right now he's got a 282 erra in the second half over seven games but I don't see any reason to buy into it he was awful in the first half his underlying numbers are still pretty bad overall he doesn't get very many strikeouts I I don't really see any reason to be excited about either of these guys gomber like maybe if he played somewhere besides Colorado for half his games but this game wasn't at Colorado he's gonna have a few more starts there I I think he's a streamer away from cores at best M this next segment is not the dropo meter this is Two pitcher drops the please drop these pitchers off your team om meter that that is what this is called and the first name is Nick Peta who uh had another rough start in a really tough matchup I you know I'll give him the benefit well not really the benefit of the doubt but I guess an excuse five innings five runs two homers allowed his last five starts Nick PETA has a 750 ra a 138 whip 10 homers allowed he has allowed two home runs in each of his last five starts and his overall ER is now up to 470 on the season and he's still 82% rostered Chris would you drop Nick Peta for any of the pitchers we talked about previously no not for Austin gomber I don't think I would do it for Frankie Monas or or Edward Cabrera but anyone with a pulse yeah I would um and and that includes Kramer it might just depend on what the next matchup is um hers I would I would do that Bradford Rodriguez Shane BOS I do like when I say something that's kind of just like a half formed idea like off the cuff and then like a smart person comes up with data to prove it and uh I mentioned something I think on Sunday's podcast or maybe last week of how the Red Sox you know that there was a lot of hype around the Red Sox pitchers in April with um Andrew Bailey as their pitching coach and their their relationship with the drive line guys and and this approach where they just stopped throwing fast balls basically they they threw they've thrown fewer fast balls as a team or a lower rate of fast balls than any other team in baseball and I mentioned in a previous podcast maybe we were talking about Tanner Hal or Cutter Crawford or or Nick pavetta that that's an approach that can run into problems in the long run like you you can reach a point of diminishing returns we saw it when the sweeper kind of took baseball by storm a couple years ago and then as hitters saw more sweepers they got better at hitting sweepers and as hitters got saw more High fast balls they got better at hitting High fast balls it's just one of the things that's always true in the push and pull between hitters and pitchers and it's it's a constant arms race and Eno Sarah had a good piece in the athletic today about just that topic about how the Red Sox pitching has become much less effective as the season has gone on and I I think that's a little bit of what we're seeing with all these guys cutter Crawford Nick Peta Tanner ha and then also just this is who Nick peta's always been you know like he'll have these stretches where he looks good he'll have very good FIP because that assumes that a pitcher or X FIP I guess would be the one that assumes that a pitcher doesn't really have any control over the home runs they give up but Nick Peta just always gives up a lot of hard contact and he'll have gems down the stretch for sure but he's not someone I want in my lineup right now gosh I Nick Peta if you play in a best ball league that is where you want Nick Peta you don't have to decide when to use sure yeah but when he has that seven shutout inning with 12 strikeouts all right I'll get all those fantasy points but I don't have to worry about you know deciding whether or not I ever want to use Nick and or not he's got a 515 ra since May 1 like it's not just the last seven starts or five starts whatever he's been bad for most of the season now you know your hypothesis or I guess you know Theory regarding the the Red Sox pitching it's interesting I wonder if there's a little bit of a chicken or egg going on there because I think I mostly agree that when you throw that many Breaking balls like how sustainable is that over the course of a season just the ability to land those for strikes and the more that opposing batters see those breaking balls they kind of learn to lay off a little bit and things like that but also a lot of the Red Sox pitchers are just in Uncharted Territory with their in I just wonder if it's like is it about the pitches or is it about the work Lord is it a little bit of both it could be a little bit of both is probably the answer and but but I just think one thing that is that has always been true for pitching or for baseball is that the more hitters see of a pitcher or a pitch or a pitch type the better they tend to do against them and so it's why the third time through the order penalty is such a real thing it's why pitchers in the pre uh balance schedule days especially did tend to do better when they switch leagues and hitters would tend to do worse when they switch leagues and vice versa so you know that it's just I I think it's a little bit of both and with Hal and Crawford I think especially um pavet is a veteran so I don't know how much like the workload plays into that I I think that's just this is this is Nick pavetta being Nick pavetta 100% the other name on this uh please drop these pictures off your Teemo meter Walker ber and I know some people might scoff and why are you still talking about Walker ber 75% rostered still 75% rostered on CBS so I don't know if the are just all the teams that have like gone into fantasy football mode and they're just they're not checking their Walker bu fantasy teams anymore but even against the Mariners Walker buer could not get it done four Innings seven hits three runs uh three walks to one strikeout two starts since returning he has more walks and strikeouts in each of those uh he has also four strikeouts or less in eight of 10 starts so there is just nothing redeeming for Walker buer right now and I I hate to be so harsh on him because it's the second time back from Tommy John surgery and I hope he can figure something out I my guess is he probably has to take like a one-year Pro it deal with somebody this offseason and hopefully he can get back on track but the point is he should not be 75% rostered in fantasy no I I I agree with that there there's there's nothing there's nothing that we've seen from him this season in either the minors or the majors uh that would suggest that he can still be an effective pitcher I think you know with an offseason of work maybe but the fact is he went back down to the miners worked on his mechanics worked on his Arsenal went to off-site training and still looks this bad so yeah I don't think there's um there's any reason to be optimistic at this point all right let's take our final break and when we return we'll slide over to the hitters we'll do that right after this [Applause] [Music] welcome back in let's talk waiver wire hitters and JD Martinez has homered in Waiver wire hitters back-to-back games but he has slowed down a bit overall uh previous 14 games before this one a 178 batting average one home run 635 Ops still hitting the ball really hard seems like maybe he's been a little bit unlucky quality of contact is there expected numbers look good 62% rostered you know if you have JD Martinez Chris would you hold or would you maybe swap him out for one of these hot hitters that we continue to talk about the Yoshida TJ fredal Jake McCarthy types I think Yoshida is okay if you're just looking for a utility and McCarthy I guess if you need speed um but I don't really buy McCarthy's run I can't really explain why it's happening so I'm pretty skeptical of it and Carpenter just doesn't play against lefties so I think that puts a ceiling on how valuable he can be but Yoshida when he gets locked in he really locks in and he's super locked in right now so I'm okay with Yoshida for Martinez but that's probably it do you think there could be something to JD Martinez underperforming his expected stats I I know you used to bring this up with like Miguel Cabrera where slow Sluggers kind of tend to underperform their expected stats do you think something like that could be happening for JD Martinez yeah that's absolutely a thing and it it makes a lot of sense right like you if you're really really slow and you hit the ball really hard what defensive players are going to do is just take a couple steps back and that gives them more time to react it gives them more time to throw you out and it shouldn't impact your power production but Martinez has taken enough of a step back in his underlying power stats last since last season that yeah maybe there's a little bit of a decline there and then you know the the batting average specifically is where he would continue to to decline so yeah I think that's I think that's reasonable two middle infield options who have been hot lately Jorge palanco had two more hits here on Tuesday Gavin Lux hit another home run Chris who would you uh prefer between palanco and Gavin Lux man uh I think I said palano when we talked about this on Sunday maybe and then what has Lux homered twice since then um yeah I think I'd still go palano I believe in it a little more but Lux is making any skepticism look pretty dumb did did you see the weird home run today yeah that was crazy it went over the wall and then it kind of like snuck back under the wall I think what happened is it went between the padding and the wall which would be a home run but then it fell through the padding and came out through the field it was it was super weird so weird yeah it was like an optical illusion watching live I just thought okay the the ball must have fell up against the wall and it got like wedged in there but yeah you watch the replay it did go over the wall yes another home run for Gavin Lux it's close between these two I don't think that they're you know must add players 12 team head-to-head points league but again if you play in uh any slightly deeper format with a middle infield spot 12 Team league uh yeah Gavin Lux he's consistently betting fifth in the Dodgers lineup so the counting stats could be there I like both I think I would lean a little bit more with Lux uh just with how hot he's been recently one other name here Alejandro Kirk has been solid since taking over as the main catcher for the Blue Jays one for three with a walk in his fourth home run last 19 games he's batting 297 he's got two home runs 11 RBI only 14% rostered probably just a name for two catcher leagues I think he's pretty clearly behind that group of Austin Wells Joey Bart and Dell Castillo right yes for sure okay again that was Alejandro Kirk let's get into some hitter questions and you know one name we haven't talked much about this season Hitter questions is O'Neal Cruz two for three with a triple in RBI and his 14th Steel in uh in Tuesday's game and overall it's a 262 batting average 18 home runs 14 steals a 789 Ops he had that really bad April has been much better since the start of May strikeout rate has improved throughout the course of the Season uh but overall it I I I think it has been a let down based on how much helium we got coming into the season how would you evaluate O'Neal Cruz's 2024 to this point I think you kind of nailed it it's been for the most part for Fantasy a pretty you know you you look at the the numbers overall but you know especially since May you're talking about a guy who's is on a 25 home or 20 steel Pace but he's really bad against lefties 33% walk rate or 33% strikeout rate Ops 610 um decent power against them which is enough to make me think that it might be playable moving forward like he's not someone who's destined to be a platoon bat but yeah it's been a disappointment you can clearly see the upside and you can clearly see like when he locks in he's a pretty special hitter and maybe it all comes together next season or maybe he just goes on a stretch here at the end of the season that gets him to 30 homers and you know 20 Steals and and all of a sudden we look at it at the end of the season it's hey he pretty much did what we hoped he would but yeah it's it's harder to see the Superstar outcome now than it was before the season the quality of contact is still topnotch I mean Elite level stuff here from O'Neal Cruz actually looking at his stack page now he is 100 percentile in bat speed which is a metric that a newer metric this season which we don't site often but looking at it now and then just below that you see all of his plate discipline metrics that are ice cold blue I wonder if it would benefit O'Neal Cruz to maybe take a little bit off of the swing I think he still has enough power where if he did that and focused on putting the ball in play a little bit more he would just be a more well-rounded player you know it's hard for to tell someone to like change completely who they are but I I just wonder if that would benefit someone like O'Neal Cruz because the plate discipline it's pretty bad 77% Zone contact yeah he chases there's lots of swing and miss you mentioned the numbers against lefties in his career a 43% strikeout rate against lefties that is abysmal um it's not impossible to improve we we've seen both gunar Henderson and CJ Abrams do that this season um yeah I I think he's still an unfinished product but yeah a bit of a let season here from O'Neal Cruz at least point one thing that you know the the release of the bat speed data on stack has has shown is there is an inverse relationship between bat speed and swing length um the longer your swing is the faster your swing tends to be which makes sense yeah makes sense I think that's in Luis Aras has the shortest swing in baseball and one of the slowest right like that that makes 100% sense so it it's hard to know like what do you lose when you try to swing slower we've seen a few situations like Gavin Lux where he is swinging notably harder than he did in the first half I think his uh average bat speed is up like two miles per hour or or thereabout since the the All-Star break which is something Scott White has mentioned a few times and it's really worked out for him the the problem with Cruz is he both chases a lot uh 32% career Chase rate 33% this season League average is 28.5% and he swings and misses a lot and like that's that's where you're super aggressive you got to make a lot of contact if you're not g to make a lot of contact you got to be selective and he kind of falls on the wrong side of both and for as much as we've talked about upside and youth he's 25 not old but not so young that like we compare him to Ellie De La Cruz a lot Ellie De La Cruz is a couple years younger um so it it suggests that there's not as much time to figure things out yeah and I'm happy you mentioned Ellie day Cruz because uh I am big on accountability and transparency and I know coming into the season very often I would say ah why take Ellie in the second or third round when you can get O'Neal Cruz four five rounds later well we are seeing why pass LED L Cruz uh for O'Neal right now what is going on with Bryce Harper who is ice cold along with many of the Phillies right now 0 for four with three strikeouts last 23 games for Harper it's a 204 batting average three homers a sub 650 Ops 27% strikeout rate isn't egregious he's still hitting the ball hard lots of line drives but only two barrels during this time so I think that kind of explain some of it but I've had some people in the mentions recently Chris asking us to uh evaluate way Bryce Harper and and what's going on here so what say you I I'm sure I could look into the data and find some explanation for why things have gone wrong like you mentioned the barrel rate is low we've got a decade plus of Bryce Harper being one of the best hitters in baseball but also it's worth noting having some inconsistencies from a year to year and month-to-month standpoint so I think it's just that I think it's just this is what happens sometimes you know I'm looking at uh 23 game rolling averages and he had a stretch at the beginning of 2022 that was actually a little bit worse than this uh obviously last year coming back from the elbow injury he had several stretches uh worse than this but this you know he's got a 278 wobo over his past uh 23 games he's had a stretch about that bad or worse in every season of his career basically yeah so I I can't say I haven't noticed it because I have the whole Phillies lineup has slowed down I just I don't think there's anything there yeah I think most people you know when they see something like this going on they want an explanation because this is a really important time of the fantasy calendar you're in your head-to-head playoffs or you know you're trying chase people down in in Roto leagues and stuff so it's uh under a microscope a little bit more but it's also a really long season and there are just there are es and flows with every player right like no player is just good for six months straight and I I think we're just see some of that right now people were worried about Aaron judge in April people worry about Francisco Lindor literally every April these things happen uh Frank have you seen uh Forest Gump I have it's been a long time okay he wears a shirt in that movie I don't know if you remember uh or maybe that some he says I I don't it's been a long time since I've seen it but blank happens is the the the gist of what I'm saying yeah and that I think explains Bryce Harper struggling let's talk about jiren Duran who continued his amazing season with a perfect night at the plate four for four with a walk a double a homer three runs and two RBI obviously one of the biggest break outs this year uh and the question here is and Scott kind of brought this up the other day is how early can you see someone like jiren Duran going in next year's drafts it's so hard to answer but I don't know like we're putting our thinking cap on The Season's winding down we'll start to have more conversations like this what do you think about jiren Durant yeah know I I think it's absolutely the right time to start spinning some of these conversations ahead I've been doing that in the fbt newsletter um I plan on working on a piece about like the X number of players who can help their status the most the rest of the way and Duran you know I think it's mostly just about avoiding a collapse because he's playing like a second round caliber player and has been doing so pretty consistently all season so I don't know man he's just gotten better like he's got an Ops over 900 the past two months now in each of the past two months um M I don't think he's quite that good I think he's probably played over his head a little bit um but he played over his head last year that might just be a skill that he has uh for one way or another but I think third round feels reasonable yeah I was thinking third or fourth round probably third round yeah that probably makes sense you know we kind of liking jar Duran coming into the season where if it all works out he can give us a season that Josh low gave us last year right and he actually not far off from what Josh low did last season I think there's a little bit more juice with someone like jiren Duran so you know before all the injury stuff happened I think Josh low was like a top 75 pick yeah in early drafts so yeah you you'd say probably doesn't have the same platoon concerns doesn't have the same playing time concerns you know say what you want about low and and getting hurt and all that but like this felt like a reasonable outcome for him going into last season you know it was a one-year breakout whereas Duran had an 828 Ops last season he just didn't play every day um so he's mostly in a lot of ways doing what he did last year he's been better but if he was an 830 Ops bat but was doing everything else I I still think I you know we'd feel very similar about him I do think like I don't know how long the if he's long for the Reds socks um you know there's been some Rumblings that the team isn't like super thrilled about him so I don't know um that's one thing to keep an eye on in the off season but I don't know how much that would change his value Fenway is actually a really tough place for left-handed uh Power so it might not even be a bad thing it's a very good place for batting average though so let's stick with the Red Sox and talk about Tristan casus who had his first big game since returning from the iil two for three with his seventh home run two walks three RBI in five games since returning seven hits has that one Homer four runs and three RBI he's up to 86% rostered he's you know not available on Waiver Wires or at least he shouldn't be uh the question here is where do you plan to rank Tristan Casas down the stretch because I moved him up to my 12th rank first baseman here on Tuesday yeah I I haven't done that yet but that was what I was thinking when you started to ask the question so I think that feels reasonable he's 16 in my latest update but like moving ahead him ahead of Alec burles would be easy is Luis oras would be easy yeah I I think he can get into the top 12 pretty easy um remember that we started to see it in the second half last season and obviously the the injury derailed what should have been or what we hoped would be a breakout season for Tristan Kus but had a 1034 Ops with 15 homers in 54 games in the second half last season get it it's possible that Tristan Kus is just I I think Scott's made a a Freddy Freeman comp I don't know if I I think but that one but like I think he's more Matt Olson than Freddy Freeman yeah Matt like Paul goldmit without the steals um I think there's a little more batting average than than Olen but yeah like a really Anthony Rizzo like Peak Anthony Rizzo but without the Rizzo was actually a pretty good source of stolen bases at one point as well um that's the kind of upside I think he has and it's a small sample we have no idea which way his season would have went overall but seven homers in 27 games I mean if we're just pacing that out that's 35 to 40 home runs over a full season so man the the power is there and kasus is hitting right in the middle of one of the best lineups in baseball with the Red Sox so mhm yeah I think long term we're still we're going to get some big breakout Seasons from Tristan casus let's get into some other leftovers here and uh some big pitching bounce backs Mitch Leftovers, bullpens, streamers Keller had a great start at the Rangers seven shutout Innings with nine strikeouts 13 whiffs on 98 pitches and Robbie Ray up against the white socks everybody bounces back against the White Sox six and two thirds one run nine strikeouts to zero walks which is the key this is his first start with zero walks on the season 22 whiffs on 996 pitches a big one here for both Robbie Ray and Mitch Keller yeah it was 21 whiffs I think on just the fastball and slider alone for Ray uh he only threw seven curveballs so he didn't need anything else because it's the white socks and if you're a major league caliber pitcher you should be able to do well against them but the 488 ra is ugly there's no question about that 112 whip that's pretty good it's like a I think it's a 333 ra if you just take out the last start where he gave up five earned runs in a third of an inning or whatever it was uh I I feel very good about Robbie Ray moving forward I I think you just want him in your starting lineup um Mitch Keller this is frustrating because he gave up 15 earned runs in his previous two starts then goes out and shuts out the a decent Rangers lineup with nine strikeouts the problem with Mitch Keller and I think it's just always going to be a problem and it's something we've talked about a lot with like Aaron Nola in years past where um I I think the margin for error for Mitch Keller might just be really Slim and on the whole he's going to be very good but these stretches where he just gets bombed are not a fluke because he is like 90th percentile in inzone Pitch rate the the number of pitches he throws in the strike zone he pounds The Zone he doesn't have swing and Miss stuff and if you look at the guys who are among the leaders in in zone rate you have a couple of like Garrett crochet actually surprisingly and Tyler class now two guys that we don't necessarily think of as having great control or command those guys have massive swing and Miss stuff and they can get away pitching in the zone it's a little harder to do when you're Mitch Keller and you kind of pitch to contact and there are going to be times when babip or hard contact whatever it is just screws him over and I think that's just life with Mitch Keller you know Mitch Keller to me is just eerily similar to someone where about to talk about Jose BOS yeah I think it's a better a better version of Jose BOS these are pitches where and I think like a month ago we probably said to drop Rios and and looking at it now that that was probably an overreaction but these are guys that you just leave in your lineup through the ups and the downs and by the end of the season they're just going to give you their mid to uper three zra a solid whip they're going to go six Innings per start they're going to give you a chance at a win like okay strike outs but not great strikeouts and that's just who they are and there you know there is a place for those pitchers in fantasy they're just they're probably not ever going to be anything better than that and I think the biggest thing with both Brios and ker is like you're gonna drive yourself crazy trying to figure out okay Now's the Time I can like so just leave them in just yeah it takes a certain kind of uh will or you know a a willingness to stomach the truly bad starts because they're going to be there and a lot of the people that we hear from don't have the stomach for it you know a lot of people I'm not saying it's bad but a lot of people are very reactionary uh to these kind of things or reactive I guess would be the better word and if you know that's you don't draft Jose BOS yeah because what you're probably going to do is start him through a bad stretch get frustrated drop him and miss out on the good stuff yep and with that let's talk about some other pitching leftovers two good and two bad the good Jose Brios that's right you guessed it up against the Reds seven Innings two runs seven strikeouts he had 16 whiffs on 96 pitches and over his last five starts it's a 273 ER and a 103 whip so uh if you didn't start him for all those then then you're you're probably pretty upset and he probably had a six ER over two months prior to that that sounds exactly right the other good one was Zack Wheeler a quality start at the Braves six Innings two runs eight strikeouts 20 whiffs on 97 pitches he has turned in four straight quality starts anything else on Wheeler and BOS no like I said like you can oh Brios threw his F his for seamer and his change up more and like I don't think that stuff really matters in a macro sense like it might maybe there's something about Cincinnati that those things worked against them but there's no guarantee with Jose brius that if he does the same thing the next time out it's going to lead to the same results consistent inconsistency has been Jose Brio's brand for close to a decade now I don't see any reason to think that'll change two bad pitching leftovers ronal bonco three and two3 five runs four walks to six strikeouts last six starts for him a 534 ER and a 140 Whip and Tyler Anderson has given up a lot of damage over his last two starts this one he was at the Royals six Innings 12 hits five runs two walks to two strikeouts oddly enough still had 14 whiffs on 95 pitches but it only turned into two strikeouts um and he now has a 15% swinging strike rate over his last seven starts but it's two really rough outings in a row so uh what are your thoughts here on ronell Blanco do you continue to just start someone like him and Tyler Anderson do you hold on after these two bad ones I'm more comfortable actually holding on to Anderson um given the whiffs that he's been generating and the strikeouts lately I I I think he'll be he should turn it around Blanco you know for a guy like we usually think about Innings concerns for young pitchers but renal Blanco has what what he go today uh three and twoth thirds Innings so he's up to 137 and two3 innings this season last season I think he threw 125 before that he had never thrown 100 innings in a season I don't think he had thrown like 50 innings in a season before last year so you know this is a converted reliever they're asking him to go deeper there's been talk about having to limit his Innings um maybe what we're seeing is ronal Blanca just running out of gas a little bit and probably playing over his head a lot for the first four months of the Season some hitting leftovers Corbin Carroll continues his power binge two for four with his 14th home run he has six home runs in his past 13 games George Springer clearly listens to the podcast I brought him up on the dropo meter earlier in the season with Chris Chris said Don't drop him I said ah you could drop him and he went off yesterday I brought him up 28 Days Later segment and what did he do he went off two for five with a double dong three RBI I don't know I I guess I'm just really bad at timing up George Let's just schedule a an anti- George Springer section every like three weeks or so just to make sure he he stays on track yep yeah early to mid-september that sounds about right for George Springer Zack Netto continues his big August two for five with his 19th home run he has a 1047 Ops in the month Juan stto and Aaron judge went backtack in the first inning of the Yankees game that's about the nicest thing I will say about the Yankees here on Tuesday Ryan Jeffers has homered in each of his last three starts I say starts because he has uh alternated games with Christian Vasquez Jeff Vasquez has been really good lately yeah I I can't even knock the twins for doing that because Vasquez is hitting here in the second half so if you're in a 15 team Roto league with two catchers I think Vasquez is in play uh but I just did want to mention Jeffers he's up to 20 home runs so a nice little breakout season for him as well we have waited all season to see if jerks and profar would slow down now August has been a pretty bad month for him but he hit a clutch go ahead home run here on Tuesday and maybe that can help get the August numbers up and and finish strong in sept as well I did want to mention for Max Muny make it two for two he has been back for two games he has homered in each of those some Bullpen updates for the Dbacks Justin Martinez struck out one for his fourth save of the season for the Rockies I mentioned vikor vodnik dealing with shoulder soreness it was let me get this right anhel Chi which is spelled c hi v i l i if you are uh looking for him in the deepest NL only leagues uh he got the ninth in and picked up his first save of the season and it did sound like there was a chance vodnik might miss like might need to go on the iil from what I saw so it's yeah it's the Rockies um but you know maybe shevi can be a very very deep source of saves there's enough guys out there that I don't think you want to go out and get him in a 10 team even categories league but a name to keep an eye on yeah and while it's the Rockies vodnik was pitching well and you know he was racking up some saves recently so it's not crazy for the Braves ryel glacias pitched a clean ninth inning for his 27 save for the Brewers Devin Williams got himself into quite the jam in the ninth inning with a one-run lead he gave up a walk two hits but he struck out all three for his fifth save of the season for the Red Sox Kenley jansson pitched a clean ninth for his 24th save for the Rays Edwin USA which is spelled UA got the final four outs for his four first save of the season and this was their first save opportunity since Pete Fairbanks went on the I and uh useta is having a an awesome season 090 er0 57 whip 10.8 K per9 14.5% swinging strike rate so another name if you play in deeper leagues you it wouldn't surprise me if the Rays kind of mix in match here but this was the name that got the first opportunity for the Padres Robert Suarez struck out one for his 29th save for the Mariners Andres Munoz came in in the seventh inning facing the heart of the Dodgers lineup I believe in the seventh he gave up the tying run and then in the eighth he gave up a three-run homer uh for the Braves to blow it open so just annoying usage for Munoz and uh obviously a bad outing for him and then as we mentioned with the Dodgers Daniel Hudson in a one-run game uh picked up the save there for for them to stream or not to stream on Wednesday some options here we have Jameson tyion gets the Tigers Michael renen up against the Angels Tobias Myers is at the Cardinals yariel Rodriguez and Nick Martinez are facing each other Mitchell Parker gets the Rockies on the road uh Andrew heene against the Pirates Woods Richardson at the Padres there are some decent options what do you think about Wednesday yeah I think my favorites are probably Tobias Myers against the Cardinals and Jameson tyon against the Tigers and Yar Rodriguez against the Reds I agree on Meyers and tyone I know Parker's been bad but the Rockies on the road I I could see it working out for him sure yeah that's fine on Thursday we have Gavin Williams who's at the Yankees we have uh Jeffrey Springs at the Oakland A's Oswaldo beo is on the other side he's pitched well recently he's facing Tampa Bay Spencer arti at the Orioles I don't know I mean he was so good his previous two starts and then he goes out and is just me against the white socks I I he's probably going to be awesome against Orioles arti has more upside than anyone on this list anyone on Wednesday probably anyone we really ever talk about in this segment but I can't say affirmatively you should start him I I would go with Jeffrey Springs ahead of him I think yeah Jeffrey Springs probably shouldn't be rostered low enough to count for this segment anymore yeah I agree with that Springs at Oakland is the top one if you are desperate I uh beo is second arag Getti third it it at least it's at Baltimore which is a better place to pitch but he just hasn't shown any consistency I was gonna say arag Getti second and beo third but yeah we we have the same uh top three there we are going to wrap it up for Chris I am Frank thanks as always for tuning in to Fantasy Baseball today please make sure to follow and leave a f star rating on Apple or Spotify and we will be back again tomorrow bye-bye