5 STRUGGLING PLAYERS Including Sonny Gray & Lane Thomas! | Fantasy Baseball Advice

let's take a look at five struggling players and we will start things off with sunny gray who got burned by the long ball in Cincinnati five innings six runs allowed still did have nine strikeouts but three home runs allowed in this start and that has been a problem for sunny gray this year if you remember last year the Home Run rate was minuscule 39 home runs per nine 5.2 Home Run To Fly ball rate this year that jumped up to 1.17 home runs per nine 15.5% home runs to Fly ball rate and uh over his last eight starts a 589 ER and a 131 whip Scott what do we do with sunny gray I think we just keep starting him and accept that there are going to be bad starts sometimes the previous two starts were great went seven innings in both he probably won't be the runner up for Sai Young this year like he was in the AL last year um but he is somebody who puts the ball on the ground more than in the air so the home runs are a little surprising a little out of character for sunny gray and uh I don't want to make too much of them the underlying numbers are fantastic 315 FIP 273 X FIP I mean that's more than a run lower than his actual erra at some point you can't just completely rely on those numbers because you know someone like Pablo Lopez had great underlying numbers all season and at one point he had an the area over five so it's frustrating but it seems like Sunny gray should have better overall numbers than he does right now what about Taj Bradley he got rocked by the Astros four in a third inning six runs allowed gave up two homers in this one still did have 13 whiffs on 93 pitches looks like he really only had the curveball working he he struggled with the fast ball and the splitter which has you know those have been his money pitches uh over the past couple months maybe he's hitting a wall the last three starts have all been pretty bad for Taj Bradley a 964 ra a 193 whip Scott what do you think about Taj is he uh hitting the proverbial wall here you know I don't really know what's going on with him I actually was spending time prior to this podcast putting together uh a list of pictures with Innings limit concerns and Taj Bradley didn't make the cup for me remember he missed time with injury earlier this year and he still has a ways to go uh to get to his career high in Innings so I I don't think that's going to be an issue for him he does allow harder contact than he might expect for a pitcher who has been as dominant as he's been this year and maybe that's all catching up to him at once I know two of the three bad starts here for Taj Bradley he's given up two home runs in them and it's hard to have a good start when you give up two home runs it's not going to happen very often uh so that might be factoring in you you look at the indivi the breakdown of his pitches individually everything but the fast ball has a batting average against below 200 so maybe he was maybe it's just a lot of regression catching up here and he was overperforming for so long Ian he was Untouchable for like two months right yeah Taj Bradley uh so I still think there's a ton of talent uh because this is a two start week you probably had him activated I had him as a must start two star pitcher so he'll make the second start and we'll see how that goes if it turns out to be bad you could think about sitting him for whoa it's been a while but Ro oh Scott is back here we go oh boy wow I didn't I wasn't expecting appearance from this guy I know everybody's been saying they've been missing him well he's I don't know what that says about me that they prefer my robot alter ego but you can hear me now right I'm not just speaking into a void I I think that was just a temporary internet blip and not a reversion of my past issues but anyway what was I saying Taj Bradley I was saying probably more than I should I think he's good if he's bad as second start this week you could think about benching him but as soon as he turns it around You're Gonna Want to Start him again yeah I I mostly agree I I think some regression here he was so good for so long and even after this rough three star stretch it's a 349 ra and a 114 whip with a great strikeout rate so I don't think anyone is complaining what they've got from Taj Bradley overall this season let's talk about William kras who really struggled in June and July he has picked things up so far in August but this is a name that we just didn't really talk about because he was so good for so long but two for three with his 14th home run here on Monday June and July combined 47 games contas hit 230 with just three home runs a 638 Ops and a 58% ground ball rate so far in August he's up that 333 batting average three homers 11 RBI 1191 Ops this could be just a similar thing here Scott where there's ups and downs throughout the course of the season and here's where we've landed it's still a really good year for conteras but uh what do you think about those you know that like two month struggle that we saw from uh William contus recently well I mean since he's turned things around here in August I'm inclined to think it was just a a little blip maybe a mechanical issue uh maybe an approach issue the the fact that the ground ball was up near 60% uh leads me to believe he was maybe overswinging or swinging too early or something was off something was off for him but it doesn't seem like it was a permanent situation and now that he's come out of it yeah I think William contras is going to be the number one catcher rest of season and like we could do this anytime of player slumps we could say oh look that there's there's probably going to be something you could find in the numbers other than just the batting average down in this case it's the ground ball rate was way up but it doesn't mean it's going to be any more permanent than the drop and batting averages let's talk about Spencer steer who had himself a big game on Monday two for three with two socks and a shoe he's now up to 18 home runs and 19 steals he needed this game previous 15 before this a 182 batting average a 519 Ops I don't think you can complain you've gotten 18 home runs 19 seals already but it has come with a lower batting average 237 any concern here at all Scott about some recent struggles from Spencer SE well I mean since he's picked things up here recently not so much uh he's he's been kind of his batting average has been kind of underwhelming all season but there's been enough power and speed that he still ranks among the top hitters at every position he's eligible and so I haven't really worried about him too much yeah last five games eight for 16 with three home runs did you say that already for Spencer steer last five games I just brought up his last uh 15 total which was before the start which was looks like he's coming out of it yep it does what about Lane Thomas he has plummeted since joining the Guardians he went 0 for four with two strikeouts in this game 13 games with the Guardians he's 5 for 46 with 20 strikeouts that's a 109 batting average of 40% strikeout rate it's obviously a really small sample size still has a 92.1 average exit velocity during the span still 94% rostered what do you think here Scott Lane Thomas struggling in Cleveland I think he's more of a 237 hitter which is now what his batting average is overall than the 253 hitter he was in Washington and we did right when he was Trad that it does seem like Cleveland could be a worse place for him to hit uh they aren't as aggressive of a base stealing Club as as Washington is I know it doesn't matter when he's getting on base as little as he does so I I'm not goingon to say that it's terribly surprising to see Lane Thomas have a two- week stretch like this whether or not it it's just a coincidence that it corresponds to his move to the Guardians I can't say at this point I would guess so I would guess so for for what to whatever degree the Park's going to hinder him and the approach on the Bas is going to hinder him I don't think it's going to make him a 109 hitter you know he's still a hold right you're not dropping yeah yeah I would say so I I do worry that it could cost him playing time if it continues much longer is much better against lefties than righties [Applause]