Waiver Wire Cage Matches! Pete Crow-Armstrong vs. Parker Meadows! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

let's do some waiver wire cage matches up next on fantasy baseball today in [Music] [Applause] five welcome into epbt and5 on Tuesday August 27th I am Frank stel joined by Scott White and for my non wrestling fans out there the cage match is exactly what it sounds like in W wrestling cage comes down around the ring two wrestlers enter mono Mano and one man wins so that is what we are doing we are pitting two players up against each other who are available on the waiver wire and we will begin with Pete Crow Armstrong versus Parker Meadows Pete Crow Armstrong had three Steals on Monday and over his last 26 games he's batting 307 with four homers and eight steals Parker Meadows since returning from the iil batting 333 with two homers five Steals and a 951 Ops Scott you are up PC a versus Parker Meadows well these are two players that I've been lower than the consensus on uh but I'm coming around to both and it for kind of the same reason the strikeout rate is is as much improved for p Crow Armstrong It's 22% during his time in the majri this year which is certainly manageable and they're letting him Ram Wild on the bases so if he's giving himself an opportunity to succe Ed on contact and he's going to steal that many bases I I think there's a chance he he's a true fantasy asset there's some power there I don't think there's a ton of power but there's enough uh that with all those stolen bases I think P Crow Armstrong is going to matter I think we're to a point where we have to roster him in five outfielder leagues maybe even some three outfielder leagues if you need help in the stolen base category uh so PE R Armstrong is my choice here because I do think he's going to be the bigger base stealer but I don't want to just right off uh Parker Meadows here because also showing big strike at Improvement about a 16% G rate since returning from the miners and um the peak ex of velocities are very high on him you but in both the majors and the minors average ex a velocity a little lower so there seems to be some uh issues with consistently making hard contact for for Parker Meadows but he has it in him to hit the ball very hard and if the outs become less of a concern also a bit of a base dealer himself I do think he has a future in fantasy as well let's say you need a slugging Corner infielder Spencer Tolson three for five with his sixth home run three RBI and has hit well since returning from the miners and Jean Kenzie Noel who has 12 home runs in 43 games with the Guardians Scott who are you taking Tolson or Noel if it was Dynasty leagues I'd definitely say Tolson I think former number one overall pick clearly there's a pedigree there and he shown enough signs of of meeting that potential as bad as he was to start this year he's shown enough signs that I wouldn't give up on him at a dynasty League he'd clearly be my choice but right now rest of season John Kenzie Noel he's been mashing basically since the Guardians called him up and we finally gotten to a point where Steven vote is playing him close to every day and I I I think for the short term he's he's earned a little more of my trust than Tolson has since it's been going on like I said basically from the get-go um plus he's Outfield eligible in the most rotisserie leagues where I'm considering adding somebody and I need an outfielder more than I need a first baseman it's a close call but I'm going to go Noel let's stick with slugging outfielders and uh two names in deeper leagues five outfielder leagues Matt walner continues to hit for power since being recalled on July 7th he is batting 317 with nine home runs and an Ops over 1100 MJ Melendez has three home runs in his past six games and over his last 23 games total he's batting 301 six home runs and an Ops over 900 Scott who would you rather have walner or Melendez I'd rather have walner because he's been doing it a lot longer and I don't want to say I'm totally sold on walner I I think given that he strikes out at over a 30% rate and this has been true even since he's come back from the miners as productive as he's been given that uh he's 26y old who has never rated particularly high as a prospect I I think there are a lot of downside concerns for Matt walner we've seen him run extremely hot and cold in in his major league stint his multiple Major League stints so far just happens to be really hot right now and uh hits the ball hard enough that when he's hot he's going to hit a lot of home runs so I think Matt walner has just been too productive lately to to uh to continue to pass him over if you need Outfield help uh MJ Mendez is heating up too as you point out pretty much starting exclusively against righties now so that limits his utility I guess wner has the same issue so you may need to play B matchups with both of them but um I think we've seen from walner before that when he gets hot like this he's just a wrecking ball and I'm not I'm not as convinced that in the short term Melendez is going to be as useful all right for more extensive Fantasy Baseball coverage listen to the fantasy baseball Today podcast on Spotify Apple podcast The Odyssey app or anywhere else podcasts are found thanks for listening to Fantasy Baseball today and five and we will be back again tomorrow bye-bye