Exploiting friendly vs. unfriendly schedules | Rotoworld Baseball Show (FULL SHOW)

hello welcome to the road World Baseball show I'm your host Eric smolski joined this week by my Q&A friend James shano James how you doing man wonderful Q&A friend I think we're friends otherwise besides the Q&A no yeah I mean well well one there's one more Mets red oh no the Mets Red Sox series is done so yes no one more game all right today's Wednesday you know what James Labor Day weekend daycare hasn't opened yet my son's been home for what feels like in eternity and I don't know what the days are anymore but yeah that makes sense uh so yeah one more day tomorrow we can be friends again there you go perfect those are longest problems I don't have a sweep a sweep right now that you know would basically all but end the Red Sox postseason hopes uh would just be real real sad yeah there was a report from I think some of the Mets beat Riders yesterday that um the Red Sox didn't even leave the clubhouse for like a half hour after the game 45 minutes they said de sat with his jersey on with the bat in his hand for about 20 minutes after the game just staring forward blankly it that was a tough tough few games to the Red Sox and a tough in general and look you know I mean I know you know we're going to get into some teams that are struggling struggling um and also some teams that are making some Curious decisions the Red Sox thing it's like look they probably weren't a playoff team they made some moves at the deadline to shore up the bullpen those guys didn't pitch great and and wound up on the iil like there's not a lot you could do about it in the loss to the Mets yesterday it's like cutter Crawford pitched pretty well did what he does and allowed a home run that happened to be a big home run to Lindor and then Chris Martin who was one of their best relievers got lit up so it's like I don't know what else you know they were always going to go to Chris Martin in situations like that he's been pitching great the lineup is healthy I mean you've got O'Neal back and kasus back and Des is in there and you know I know stories still hurt whatever I mean they're just not they're not producing and but you know what they have four prospects in the newly revamped uh MLB pipeline four in the top 26 overall prospects are all Red Sox guys they're all at Triple A um so they might be up next year and so uh it'll be interesting to see what the AL East is like next year um so what James and I are gonna do we're obviously going to run down a little bit of news and notes at the top um and then we're going to try to go just right into some schedule based stuff did this a little bit a couple weeks ago but the decisions you're making in your fantasy leagues right now really have to be like schedule over all else um you got to attack uh pitching staffs that are pitching really poorly right now picking up hitters even if you're streaming hitters for a week at a time those are decisions you have to make and you have to cut pitchers um even if they're like 80% rostered if you're looking at their schedule and you're like I don't want to use them in their next two starts okay they they probably don't have a spot on your roster you don't have two weeks to put it to keep a guy on your bench right now um if you are trying to win a league and if you and maybe you have one right maybe if you're in nfbc format you know we don't have IL stashes there so maybe you are thinking I'm gonna use this guy I'm glass now I'm keeping him because when he comes back I'm gonna use him cool then that that's your bench spot for I might not use this guy this week or next week but you can't load up your rosters with guys you don't think you're going to use because you're scared of what's going to happen if you put them on the waiver wire we we can't play that way anymore no you can't and that's it makes it a hard decision it kind of gives you probably a little bit of a stomach ache when you have to look at some guys on your roster you expected to be there through the thick and thin but that's if you weren't going to start them why are they on your team right now yeah exactly you got to be ruthless right now um so we will get to that but I just wanted to cover a couple of quick uh like real world baseball things before we dove into the news and notes obviously the clip has gone viral of the white sock players running into each other in left field yesterday um the white socks are currently sitting at 31 and 109 um but listen they're within 50 games of first place they are 49 and a half games out of the division um but I I is this the worst baseball team you can remember watching for me as someone who's under 30 years old yes this is the worst baseball team I can remember watching I barely remember that 2003 Tigers team and then besides that it's just a mess of those early Nationals teams and some of the bad Marlins teams here and there but this white sock team it's it's comically bad Kevin Brown summed it up the white sock Co full White Soxs also while Alex fast shout out Alex fast on the color broadcast was um was trying to compare stuff versus Command as one of the big most tra one was gonna become one of the most classic baseball Follies that we remember happened live so shout out Alex for sticking to the analysis there but this team's horrible and I I've made the full heel turn in every fantasy league over the last month six weeks to be like I'm going do anything I can to get anybody in my lineup who's facing off with this team last week Tyler McGill with the mess Tyler McGill has been bad for years basically now gota win seven strikeouts and five in the thirs Innings one run last night Kade Povich who's been horrible this year seven third Innings 10 strikeouts win against the white socks it's just every single opportunity you have to play a guy against the team you have to we posted a blurb on our site last night um I don't know who was covering the White Sox game but that Luis Roberts Ops is either already or dangerously close to being lower than Andrew Ben and tendy's Ops this year which is it's it's disgusting I don't know how that's the case it's wild um we don't need to talk about the white sock anymore except for here's my question in even though my back hurts from just hearing that you're you said you're under 30 um we're we're just gonna roll with it we're GNA keep going um the 2018 Oriol lost 115 games the white socks are already at 109 we think the white sock are going to lose more than 115 games this year correct yes okay so then the next one in the mo not the modern era but the era of those of us who are recording and you know I'm sure some people saw the 1962 Mets even though you might not want to talk about that um but the the 2003 Tigers lost 119 games Okay um the white socks have played exactly 140 games so the white sock have 22 games left they need to lose uh 20 to top the Tigers can the white socks or will the white socks lose 11 of their next 22 games I I think there's a good chance think the only thing that could stop them and we'll get to this soon is I think there's six or seven against the angels in there so that's going to be a real test of will for both of those rosters but it's it's as bad as it ever been it's fun you brought up the Mets because that was a Hot Topic this weekend the Mets played the White Soxs and there was this major age war between Mets fans old and young about whether or not they wanted that record to fall and I know how he rose the Mets radio voice of the Mets my dad was telling me he doesn't want to see you go down because I think Mets fans have some weird pride in the fact that they spun around and won the world series seven years later where this white socks team looks far away and that's also why I think that Orioles team doesn't feel as bad now in 2018 because it took them four years to become a very competitive team again so I think that so four years from now the white sock are going to be World Series contenders is what you're saying think that's the difference I think five years from now this White Sox team looks like there's very little hope to even compete for a 500 record three years three years ago we thought they might compete and the record James is talking about um it the the record for most losses ever it's not um by percentage right because obviously like the 1916 Philadelphia a Athletics have the worst winning percentage they lost 117 games but they played fewer games overall Etc the Mets the 196 2 Mets have lost the most losses in Major League Baseball history at 120 um so again that the White Soxs are at9 so if the White Sox lose 11 of their next 22 games basically if the White Sox still manage to play 500 baseball the rest of the way they will tie for the most losses in baseball history I think we feel pretty confident in saying that the white socks um are going to break that record and I'm looking back on our betting show at the beginning of the year when we knew the white sock were going to be B and I don't know if many of us took their their under on their win totals um and we should have because it's coming in way under that um a good team that's making curious decisions right now I want to talk to you as a New Yorker about the Yankees um Kay Holmes blew a save yesterday um you know John Boy and a bunch of the people that like work with the Yankee media have basically said they keep losing the same way over and over and over again and then just call it bad luck I believe is what the the Tweet said a lot of my Yankee fan friends say the same thing the managers the organization they don't learn we keep doing the same things over and over again what are the should first of all should fantasy managers be worried about Kay Holmes but also like should we be concerned about what the Yankees are doing like they're continuing to play Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham over calling up Jason Dominguez are we ever gonna see Jason Dominguez like is Trent is Klay Holmes is gonna keep running out there like what is what can we make sense of what's happening right now the clay Holmes thing is weird because from a fantasy perspective the blown saves the 11 blown saves are egregious it's ridiculous because if you add even half of those to a save total you're like wow nice Klay Holmes another 35 save season with a month to play this is another fantastic season and then you look at his ratios and they're not even bad the whip is bad because I mean the whip will kind of always be bad because has a sinker baller he's going to give up a lot of balls in play but the 3.27 ra with 11 blown saves in it doesn't make sense which is why the Yankee fans can keep going back to this Narrative of unlucky unlucky unlucky even his home run rate isn't really tremendous High home nothing is really that his bad bip is high but not even that crazy compared to like what it could be in terms of like a standard deviation but it is peculiar that the Yankees keep going back to him and it's they I think it comes back to the Yankees have a strange Bullpen alignment year after year because the Yankees just love sinkers curveballs and change ups and sliders for some reason they seem like they don't like pitchers who really throw very many foram fast balls while they have a good ballpen statistically they don't have a lot of these flamethrowers that get a lot of swings and misses that you want in the ninth inning when you don't want balls in play because you want these games to end as quickly as possible because like the Jake cousins Resurgence has been fun do you want him to close games over Kay Holmes right now Luke Weaver as well Tommy kanley those are three pitchers that weren't in baseball basically for the last year and a half and they're the Yankees primary setup men right now I don't know if any of them you still trust in a vacuum over Klay Holmes but Klay Holmes seems so broken mentally you might have to give one of those guys a chance and that could give an opportunity your fantasy baseball down stretch yeah uh Michael tonan who they released who the Mets also released was pitching pretty well for the Yankees um but gone and yeah as you mentioned if I go to the game game leverage index on fangraphs from August 1st on the game leverage index tells me the The Leverage index like how pressure packed the situation was essentially when the pitcher entered the game behind homes it is Tommy Canley Jake cousins Mark lighter um so yeah maybe that's why they keep they keep doing it um you know cousins was interesting in Milwaukee times um you know last year not so much but that was an abbreviated season um you know there there were some high strikeout rate low ER years back in 2021 2022 when he was um first coming up so maybe maybe there's a shot there but yeah the Yankees love veterans they're gonna keep running Verdugo out it's horrible They're Gonna Keep Their Rizzo's back in the lineup um you know I I guess we're done with lame Hugh but who knows hopefully uh John Birdie's coming back that's good he's also AET veteran so he might get on the field for them um they'll probably just play him uh against lefties and left field instead of Verdugo uh so who knows man it is a it is an interesting situation there in New York um and frustrating for Fantasy managers because I don't think we can rely on the Jason Dominguez September call up that most people were hoping for at this point yeah that's a shame um bad news out of Chicago even though they're telling us it's good news um because Justin steel was scratched from his start um with elbow inflammation uh the good news on the MRI was that it's elbow inflammation um I guess that's good news because they're saying there's no immediate tear however for Fantasy purposes is that good news I mean elbow inflammation from Justin steel would seem to imply in iil stint we only have four months to go four sorry four weeks if we had four months oh my God our i' would be banging my head against the wall right now we only have four weeks to go in the baseball season if Justus steel lands on the I and you are in a league without iil spots is it is it time to cut you kind of have to he said he expect to pitch again this season but I'm sure a situation like this where you avoid the structural damage it depends a lot on where the Cubs wind up in the playoff picture and they have been surging of late I think they're now three or two and a half games behind the Braves with the last wild card spot and Ne a game or two behind the Mets for the team that's just barely in the outside looking in but if they fall out and you get to 10 games left and you're five out does Justin Steel make that start maybe you get one start one four or five ining start from Justin steel so to me it's it's almost it's almost a guaranteed drop which sucks because steel has been fantastic again but it's just not someone you can really hang on to right now yeah they are four behind the Mets which means four and a half behind the Braves at this point um and so yeah to your point like if you're not and they've been playing well but if you're not closing that Gap in a week right if you're still four out five out with like 14 to play that that's tough to push you know your your Ace back if he's not fully 100% healthy we'll see what happens yeah um speaking of Aces returning um we're gonna get Jacob to grum um kenned Landry reported on Twitter yesterday I haven't seen any update since then that the Rangers are talking to deg Gro about just pitching this weekend for the Rangers not doing another Rehab start um there's no indic of how how many innings that would be whether that's going to be happening again that was a report that she tweeted on Tuesday and so we haven't had an update yet but the degr return is imminent it's hard to pick him up in fantasy leagues because he was rostered as soon as he started making rehab starts but I'm just curious what you're what are you expecting to see I mean like you know we kind of thought about this with Clayton Kershaw Max Scherzer when they were coming back they're both hurt again um and may not Pitch again this year are we gonna see like some fun Jacob De Gro starts or is does it make you nervous it only makes me nervous as a as a baseball fan that wants to see Jacob deg Gro do something in the Twilight of his career just so we can remember the great times that were had but I think in terms of what he's going to be and what these appearances look like for the Rangers I think it'll be very similar to what's been going on with Drew rzm with Tampa Bay where you're going to see Jacob deg Grom throw two innings three Innings Max 45 50 pitches just get on the mound feel good stretch that arm out get the adrenaline down get rid of the butterflies and just something so we can have a regular offseason and believe next year something different will happen but that depending on the league you play in there's probably a modom of value in that if you happen to be in a daily League put them in the lineup That Day get your five strikeouts get a couple get a couple Innings of nice ratios but it's hard to it's hard to say I'm going to trust this in a real sense yeah um and just if he were to come back again we don't know what when it's G to happen what but as of right now Roto wire probable starters has Jacob deg gram for Seattle Toronto Oakland As the three games that he would get um so you would love to see that if you have Jacob deg Gro on your team even if you're getting three or four Innings against those teams they're probably going to be really good the downside of this um is you know you and I have been just really pounding the table for um for Cody Bradford as an ad hard um adding de gram into the rotation has reshuffled things and again this is projected by RotoWire so don't make any drastic Cuts right now but um we had before the Jacob deg Grom potential comeback we had Cody Bradford set to I'm scrolling down to where I wrote it down we had Cody Bradford set to face the Angels the Mariners the Blue Jays and the A's to finish his season now he's set to face uh the angels and then get the Arizona Diamondbacks um and then Toronto and then Oakland um getting the Arizona Diamondbacks is significantly significantly worse than getting um the Seattle Mariners especially the way that the Diamondbacks are playing right now um it does kind of like temper some of our enthusiasm on Bradford we'll see what we'll see what happens obviously you're loving the you're hopefully loving the angel start this weekend um and then you know you might have to even the the Bluejay start isn't a lock right so if it's now Arizona and Toronto like you he may not be a guy you hold um and we'll talk about that kind of stuff a little bit later in the segment um also with the Rangers we got this weird Bruce bochi report that uh Cory Seager didn't play yesterday because they were managing his workload but he also then said he's not at 100% right now but who is at 100% And we had an internal conversation you know on slack with among the writers about like how do we blurb this right was the read that bochi was saying just this outing was load management or going forward was load management I took him also mentioning that Seager was not 100% to H for him saying there will be some load management going forward um and so he'll miss some games here and there when they just want to give him a rest because he they're not really in playoff contention and he's not healthy is that how you took it and if you have Cody Bradford in fantasy or sorry Cody Bradford Cy Seager in fantasy there's not really much you can do right I mean you you have to kind of keep him in the lineup and just hope he's not missing more than like one game a week yeah you really you can't do anything because what like it does five games of Cory Seager make a difference to you in terms of six games of the shortstop you're deciding between a utility guy you're deciding between you just can't you just hope that isn't something but this is sadly a weird just part of the Cory Seager experience there's always some Cuts some bruises some Nicks I feel like as long as he's playing shortstop which I'm sure with that contract he will for a few more years going forward you're probably just looking at someone when you're in your drafts next February and March that you have to anticipate like 145 Max games played and then you just have to do your projections from there no matter what the projection system say to expect from Cory Seager it's just a sad part of the reality and now because he creates these very annoying awkward decisions this time of year but you can't if if he's there you can't change anything you just have to keep rolling with it yeah um I my our recommendation on the blur my recommendation here just make sure you have a backup Short Stop on your roster because if it gets to the point where they do say like hey seager's Gonna Miss This series and come back you know what you just want to have somebody ready to go on your roster in case we get something more definitive about what that load management means otherwise you're just putting Seager in and hoping for the best uh today Wednesday we are going to see you darish pitch again for the Padres um the reports were that while darish was away tending to a personal matter he was throwing right he was throwing two hitters they were like local high school hitters or whatever in San Diego so it wasn't like he was getting you know a bats against MLB hitters but in terms of his arm Health the expectation is that his arm health is close to what maybe it should be at this stage what are your expectations of you darish because the the landing spot you know against Detroit is good then he gets Seattle which we also like then he gets Houston which isn't great but then he gets the white socks yeah so like Detroit Seattle and the white socks in three of his next four starts seems like a a great stretch for UD darish but are we expecting him to be UD darish I think that um I think sometimes analyst and his fans we we forget the human element of fantasy baseball and the fact that darish was struggling early in the year and then it turned out that he was tending to a family matter and now he's been throwing he's coming back so I think there's just there's any way that this could go I think it's hard to be able to predict it and as as a Met fan I've been very keyed into the Padres and the Diamondback schedules as we end the year here as terms also with the fantasy baseball uh in play and that weird little land mine with the Astros then they have the White Soxs and after that Dodgers and the Diamondbacks it's it's a it's such a waitand see game with darish right now it's hard to pretend that this is a darish we can rely on because even without this almost basically Lost season we have to say now darish is a guy who' been a hopeful Resurgence trending down getting older like a lot of things were happening with darish where I don't think this is like the the same smash of darish that it would have been two years ago if he came back off this kind of layoff so it's a it's a certain wait and see it's a probable for as long as everything goes okay today even the one start week in Seattle that's probably a matchup you have to smash just because that's the time of year it is but it's very Wai and see with darish I wouldn't I wouldn't let darish come back and expecting like a top 25 top 30 pitcher like we come to expect from darish over the years right uh he is rostered in 69% of Yahoo leagues so that means in 31% of leagues he is available um there was you know that nature of like nobody knew what his timeline was so he was dropped in a lot of formats because also when he was put on the exempt list he couldn't be held on the iil in any format so a lot of people did drop him so it's just worth checking your waiver wire um just to see if you darish is out there if you're in an nfbc format obviously you'll have until this weekend so you can see what he does against Detroit but that is a name to keep an eye on yeah um lastly I just want to ask you we got former top prospects called up um as part of the expanded rosters uh Jordan Walker is back again um he was back a little while ago he got sent down but then the Cardinals de the Cardinals DFA Tommy fam who was one of their deadline Acquisitions because whatever um so Jordan Walker has now started five straight games in right field it seems like he's going to be the every day right fielder um Kobe Mayo came up when Ramone urius was put on the iil and so we the expectation was that Kobe Mayo was going to be the everyday third baseman but instead uh Emanuel Rivera has started the last three two games at third base uh three in a row because he also started at first so Mayo has made one start in the three games um that he has come up and then we also got Kyle manzardo back up for the Guardians um as part of the expanded rosters he has d8 three games in a row since coming up all three have been against right-handed pitching and so I think maybe the implication there is that he will DH um against righties only uh he went he's gone five for 11 in those three games um with two home runs two RBI two runs scored so manzardo Walker Mayo are you interested in adding any of those three for like a strong September rebound from these former top prospects it's still probably the opposite of what I think about all three of these guys' full career Dynasty wise but I think in the near term right now one month manzaro is my leader I think he's the one who's going to get the most consistent playing time I think he's the one as we'll talk about later with by far the easiest schedule the fact that the Orioles seem to clearly not trust Kobe Mayo in the field is really relevant they just won't play him there they refuse to because Emanuel Riva is it's a rare thing in baseball these days but he's a pure glove first third baseman you don't see that very often like he's on the field Justice for a glove I think Emanuel Riva if I'm not mistaken crush his left-hand to pitching I think that's the one thing yeah but but he's been playing because iess he's been I mean to be fair he's been a hitting well over the last couple of days so the Orioles might just be saying let's see how many hits we can get out of you before we have to turn the page yeah but yeah I mean they're just keeping him in the lineup right now so it's it's out of that right now and then we talked about in the Q&A yesterday but the Guardians kind of need the spark right now they need the bat they need the power man zard though fits everything they need really well as Josh Naylor is also dealing with injuries so you could see time first base he's playing through it but he's he is banged up at knee I can't remember if it's a KNE or hip I always forget but it's it's weirdly man's are though like Walker just until he does it I don't know if he's gonna do it but Mayo you can't you can't really Bank on bad playing time right now especially bad playing time for right-handed hit in the worst part for rties to hit in all of baseball it's to me as manaro by a good length yeah I I agree there and then Walker for me over Mayo just because Walker's playing every day um he had Walker had that huge game um on Sunday night I believe it was yeah where I'm pulling up the exact box for but I think he had five hits um he and that was like another one of those again Jordan Walker's 22 years old like I think we sometimes maybe forget because he's been up and down yeah he went five for five with a home run four runs scored three RB and a steel um and then he's gone 0 for four with four with 0 for eight sorry with four strikeouts in the two games since then um but again a little bit of an understanding of the potential has and if he's going to get everyday playing time uh worth a look yes couple things to round out real quick notes you can jump in at the end let me know um anything you want to add on to uh both Christian Walker and Xavier Edwards were activated from the iil if they were Dro and for Dan tatis yes that was earlier in the week so if they were dropped in any leagues uh make sure to add them Azie albz has resumed Fielding drills and then they said um you know he'll continue to kind of ramp up the return uh but that he hopes to come back at the end of the year just keep an eye on it um you know I don't know if he was dropped in a lot of leagues he's probably stashed on iil but that's somebody um that could be interesting for you uh the or the Astros mentioned that Kyle Tucker did fracture his shin which I'm sure shocks everybody here that it wasn't just a bruise um but no they did say that like Kyle Tucker himself said there was a lot of inflammation immediately after and so they couldn't see the fracture but then they diagnosed the fracture but it's been a fracture that team has probably known it's been a fracture for weeks now um he's running more I guess we'll maybe see him next week I I don't know at this point we we can't expect to but it's supposed to be soon um B bashet is running the bases today as he looks to come back from a hamstring injury so we could get B bashet back um for the final weeks of the Season yoshinobu Yamamoto started at triaa um he threw just a little over two innings but he's working his way back um you'd like to you you'd expect that since the Rogers want him in the postseason rotation they might try to get him actually stretched out to at least five or six Innings um by the playoff time right because they don't want they want him to go into the season or playoff sorry able to throw a game so he's not a guy I expect to come back and only pitch three or four Innings I think if he's back on the mound for the Dodgers you're GNA get five six Innings out of him uh so keep an eye on that Tyler glass now is throwing a bullpen later this week and that will determine a little bit more about his timeline um Luis heel will come back for the Yankees on and start on Friday and Clark Schmidt is going to come back for the Yankees and start on Saturday um and Garrett Cole fully expects to start on Sunday despite the calf cramp that took him out of the game on Monday um so what that means is that as of right now it seems like uh Nester Cortez is going to get skipped in the rotation and then they're going to go back to Cortez next week he's lined up to face the Red Sox um so something to keep in mind for the Yankees it looks like they're going to a sixth man to kind of manage the rotation heading into the postseason um Tyler Mai and John Gray are both done for the year with injuries and well Mali it's just like he doesn't have enough time to get back um that has opened up the room for like deg Grom and guys like that and then just names that I wanted to highlight Marco Luciano and Luis Matos for the Giants were called up they had been fantasy relevant in the past but the expectation from Giants beat Riders is they are called up right now to be off the bench so if you log into your fantasy leagues and see their up I don't believe it's a situation where they're up to get regular playing time so they're probably best left on the wire for right now yeah luchana did start at second base last night against the right-handed pitcher so I think that is uh that's something and Matos came in late for defense and center field so those are guys that they still value somewhat in premium positions could get on the field yes um all right we're going to jump into our schedule the schedule portion of our analysis hopefully giving you tons and tons of names to consider rostering or cutting but before we do that week one of the NFL season is finally here the season begins with NFL kickoff on Thursday September 5th as the Ravens face the Chiefs on NBC and peacock the following night it's Packers versus Eagles in Brazil exclusively on peacock it's back-to-back games uh for us over here back-to-back great games uh all four of these teams very likely to be playoff teams um so make sure you check that out um it'll be fun it's fun to listen it's fun to have baseball back in our lives um the US Open also heating up right now we going to have the first American in a grand slam final since 2006 people that's a long that's a long time since 2006 uh it's gonna be either Francis TFO or um Taylor Fritz they play each other um on Friday night um so make sure you check that out but yeah good time good time for sports here uh sept good month so uh with the month of September that we're talking about the idea is uh James and I are trying to look at hitters right now we're going to start with hitters who have appealing or not appealing schedules really over the next couple of weeks the idea here was to try to see if we could land on some hitters that you you're not really streaming so like not somebody you're picking up for like a you know they're going to Kors for three games and then you're going to drop them trying to look at guys who have schedules that are are pretty appealing for the final you know two three four weeks that you can hold for a while um or some guys that have some bad schedules that you might need to drop the first one I want to highlight is the twins um so we put this together I looked at the fan graphs like er Sierra all that kind of stuff from August 1 on so we're looking at over a month of production from the pitching staffs which pitching staffs are really struggling right now um the twins get a series against the Angels a series against the Reds a series against the Guardians that's not as good but then a series in Fenway against a Red Sox rotation that's struggling and in Fenway as an offensive friendly environment three of the next uh four serieses starting next week we're doing all this starting next week but three of the next four serieses for the twins look really good uh who are some guys on the twins we're looking at guys like under 50% rostered but who are some guys that you'd be interested in in trying to add also after that Red Sox series for the twins is the Marlins coming to town so it's just more more more and more bad pitching yeah you highlighted some names here I think are all are all worth talking about they are brooksley Matt walner and Trevor lck some platoon guys on there but this Twins lineup I think has underperformed a bit of late and usually WI a team that's pretty good underperforms you can expect a slight over performance as we keep moving on there especially from a guy like lnac and walner who against righties are in the top of the batting order when they play they have a few lefties coming up in schedule I see Tyler Anderson but I think that is it for the immediate schedule for them in terms of left-handed opponent so I think those are guys that next week if you could see him on your wa for wire get him in the lineup yeah and I will say that I mean it's only it was only one so like Matt walner sat last night against a lefty but he played last Wednesday against the Lefty so you know it's hard to know for sure like if he's get I mean if that was a consistent Trend where they're willing to play him slightly more against lefties than they are lck um but those are two guys you know that we should mention you know Brooks Lee coming back off the I is interesting um because he is somebody who we were really interested in picking up earlier on in the year before he got hurt um I'll just say like Matt walner has cooled off a little bit um in August he was kind of on like a really hot stretch after the All-Star break he's cooled off a bit but Trevor LNO has really been crushing the ball um hitting 286 in 25 games in August with four home runs 17 runs uh 14 RB lak is a guy I I really like hate saying it but I think L is the guy I'm most interested in if I see a stretch of like mainly righties here for the Twins and we have one again this say rotation bad so it's worth it's worth grabing these guys yeah um I mean we were going to talk about some Cubs hitters anyway because we we know the Cubs are running hot but the Cubs also get a nice schedule coming up um again we're starting here we're starting this like from Monday on so they're not necessarily guys you would pick up this weekend some of them are are hitting the ball really well um but the Cubs at the Dodgers not great but then they go at Colorado versus Oakland versus Washington um at Philadelphia which is a decent pitching staff but a hitter friendly Park and then end against the Reds um you had some Cubs hitters that you thought were interested in adding yeah major I think PCA right now is taking the fantasy world by storm you mentioned it in our live stream that we did on Tuesday that he's one of the best players in the player Raider over the last two weeks of play stolen bases run scored finally hitting for average he seems to have covered up a hole that was up and way in the strike zone he's been hitting at for more power more contact now and it's it seems like pitchers need to find a new way to approach him Miguel May is another guy we talked about on Tuesday who while both him and PCA are still trapped in the bottom of the Cubs lineup they're turning it over so well that they're both getting on base scoring runs a my hit for more power than he has I think someone else not to forget I think sometimes we forget about like guys who could have been dropped in your average 10 12 team leagues Dansby Swanson Dansby Swanson over his last 30 days four homers 21 run score 20 RBIs eight stolen bases and 872 Ops after a miserable horrible first four months of the Season can't how bad Dansby was but right now yeah if you take away these if these 30 days right now the fact that he's running more is super relevant I think this whole Cubs team has finally turned the leaf and running more too because there's another guy I want to mention quickly he's Nico horer for some reason stopped being aggressive on the base pass early in the year when everyone wanted him to be but he has attempted five basis in his last 10 games alone been successful on four of those so if if you see a Dansby or a Nico on your way for your 10 or 12 Team league you need something you need steals run score I think both them are good sources that right now despite still being in the bottom of the lineup yeah for sure and we talked about this a little bit on the Q&A yesterday but the Miguel Amaya thing that the reason why we'd like um you know recommending him even though he's still you know in like maybe he catches two-thirds of the games for the Cubs but it's connected to a clear swing change he changed the swing at the beginning of June he got rid of a leg kick that he had been using for a while so that that mechanical shift then he goes on a hot streak like those things can be tied together a little more than just hey this is a dude on a hot streak and it's gonna you know wind down yes he may not hit 320 like he was in August but he could still be a very useful player for you I think he has moved onto the one catcher radar should certainly be rostered in all two catcher formats but is worth looking at there is a catcher in particular later on who were talk about it has a bad schedule and also has been struggling I think you can make the swap just one for one um so we'll get to that in a second but the Braves are another team with a really good schedule upcoming um they get the Reds and after the Reds they do get the Dodgers again again Dodgers pitching staff generally good but there's a lot of question marks there right now um after that uh the Braves go to Cincinnati again and then they go to Miami um so pretty solid stretch uh for the Braves a lot of Braves hitters are rostered in over 50% of format so they can't really be picked up but I wanted to highlight a few of them here um and they're guys who like just picked up off the scrap Heap um the Braves you know turned them around and and do some solid production out of them but from August 1 on so since he has been a member of the Braves uh Ramon laano is hitting 326 in 29 games he has five home runs 12 12 runs scored 11 RBI three steals um he's hitting towards the middle of the lineup um and so yeah Ramon laurano like he has been a great pickup it's a it's a 333 average over his last 30 games it's kind of remarkable what's happened he's totally usurped Jared Kellick as an opposite platoon guy for that Starling spot and he seems to have become weirdly an emotional leader in this brace team which it feels like acid coming out of my mouth because I hate all of that but he's hitting too well right now ignor fantasy yeah and even like Gio orella um you know 12 games with the Braves hitting 318 um in 12 games he has only two runs scored in four RBI because he's hitting at the bottom of the lineup but the Braves lineup is good and if ell is GNA keep hitting 318 you have to assume those counting stats are going to go up a little bit um and so I I like him as a possible ad and then another low rostered guy I mean listen Orlando arcia has six home runs and his like last 30 games I don't really understand I don't know how you know that how consistent that will be how much he'll keep that going but um yeah I mean that you got to use him while you can I think yeah besides the home runs it's been it's been quite bad everywhere else and in that stretch he had he had his first multi-home run game in five years about a week and a half ago which is really funny since 2019 which shouldn't even count anyway but he's playing every single day that has to be worth something this time of year yeah it does um the last offense with a good schedule has fewer options for streaming but we just want to mention them it's the it's the Pittsburgh Pirates uh they get Miami they get Kansas City um the Kansas City starters are starting to struggle a little bit you know um rean still looks good but Lugo has taken a step back lorenzen's hurt uh then they get the Cardinals and then they go to Cincinnati um right now the the Cubs the Cubs sorry the Pirates hitters who are playing well who are under rostered um it's Jared cholo triolo and it's rowy toz um you know deeper formats you know Tes is going to sit against lefties um triolo has been playing every day since the team moved O'Neal Cruz to center field um are you interested in either of those guys are you just like that's cool that the Pirates have a good schedule but I'm not going to do anything about it absolutely not I I'll even find the pitchers that are pitching against them because this lineup stinks it's terrible right now besides for O'Neal Cruz O'Neal Cruz is amazing and Brian Reynold is still having a good year but oh man the rest of these guys there's not much to cheer about okay so you know super deep formats NL only formats we'll go with that uh you also wanted to highlight um two guys particular team just for like a for a a short series oh yeah so I basically as we're doing schedule stuff here it's anyone that's playing the white socks I'll find a way to give them an edge of someone else and I think I want to highlight a few guys on the A's right now who two are hitting really well one is not but they have a series against the white sock next week so I think it's worth Seth Brown has come back and been very hot over over the last week or two JJ bade his entire second half his entire season he's someone who's emerged kind of tremendously from the Athletics team this year someone who looks like he can play center field his Ops for the season is approaching 800 20 homers like he's he's been a real he's been a real main State real truly an MVP in deep leagues I think he's played every single game but two this year for the Oakland Athletics and he's been great and then just someone who can get hot can steal a base can hit the Home Run Zack Loff just you're playing the white sock good things can happen for you and I think it's worth the good things happening for these three guys agreed you also had some hot hitters who were just hitting the ball well that you wanted to point out yeah two guys who I think were most likely dropped in almost every single 10 12 Team league as the season began and got going even to the second half who now suddenly are blazing hot and can have really really good septembers to help you one is Lars Newar another one similar to Dansby I mentioned before miserable for three months this year with an injury but over three weeks he has a 280 349 440 triple slash and 11% battel rate and another guy who's come back with a vengeance and been blazing hot after a bad first week off the I Josh Young has a hit in 169 games half of those are multi-hit efforts with three homers and three steals over that same stretch so he's getting every day playing time he's hitting I think fourth or fifth every single day in the Rangers lineup he's finding his way right now and these are two guys Newar and Jung who we were excited about early in the season so like maintain think about why you were excited about them now and now seeing that they're hitting well playing every day nar's also up to about fifth in the Cardinal line every single day so good guys to keep on your radar if you just want some allaround players to put in your lineup next few weeks I will admit to overreacting on on young because when he came back the power wasn't there and given the nature of his injury with the the hammade bone the wrist you know all that stuff I kind of thought okay maybe we're not going to get the power this year and if we're not going to get the power why is he on my roster yeah um and that's unfortunate because obviously he's been really good and i' I've missed a little bit of this yeah uh let's talk about schedules to avoid we got four teams who have tough schedules and the question is just are we avoiding these guys or not like do we actually want to cut any of these hitters uh the Angels don't have a lot of hitters we roster uh but they get the twins the Astros um the white socks which is okay we can play them there but then they get the the Astros again so three of the next of the four starts starting three the four serieses starting Monday are not good for the Angels uh Logan ohop is rostered in 65% of leagues Zack Neto is rostered in 68 Taylor Ward is rostered in 53 um and I'm just curious if you're willing to cut bait on any of these guys probably not there's enough with all their profiles I think is good Taylor Ward especially has just come out and vocally said I can still hit good pitching the last few weeks so I give him the credit because in a lot of these instances he actually has hit the good pitching so hats off to Taylor Ward for Francis is not not good pitching though yeah not good pitching I think also the same think about Gman who also think probably is still a good pitching but hats off the Taylor Ward for talking talking his game and backing it up Neo just too many homers and steals there he's been he has trended down a bit after it was really hot July and August but you never know what's going on there and noop if you're one catcher maybe you can find another guy there like we talked about Amaya before yes yeah but two catcher it's still just too much there to to stop yeah ohop has been pretty bad over the last month that I'm willing to make the move to Amaya but yes in two catcher formats um I could I could leave him but yeah I I think um ohappy was the guy I was alluding to earlier when I said I think there's a catcher who's rostered in too many one catcher leagues unless 65% of those people are all in two catcher formats listen the Phillies have a great lineup we probably wouldn't want to drop any of these guys but they get the Rays the Mets the Brewers and the Mets um all of those teams are in the the top 10 in a lot of pitching categories over the last month I mean the Mets you know they're running hot right now their pitchers have been pitching well baby I don't think you're you're dropping many of the Phillies hitters but I just wanted to point out two guys who were struggling of late and with the with the tough first schedule and the struggles recently of Bryson stot and Alec Boone are you concerned about either of those guys or just like good lineup good team I don't care what the pitching matchups are like yeah stot is the guy I I it's hard to even roster Bryson stot right now the stolen base are keeping him fantasy relevant but since the All-Star break we're looking at a 250 hitter with seven steals four homers that's not it's a 690 Ops it's not just not a guy that is a real productive player day in and day out he had that hot April I think a lot of people clung to that that April didn't even wind up being that hot at the end of the day it's just that it's been overall not a very good season for stop there hasn't really been a step taken his approach seems to wax and Wayne with wanting to go for power they wanting to go for contact not really finding assemblance there he's going to wind up with 35 deals in about 12 homers which I guess in a vacuum is a fine season for a back in middle infielder but he's not someone that if you if you could find a better option Bryson St is probably a good time to do it but there Philly do still have a lot of home games and home games will always help guy like Bryson stot sure if you could have made the swap like two weeks ago grabed Dan SP Danby Swanson and moved on from stop that would have been decent move right or nio um the Guardians uh the Guardians have a great first game uh next week against the white socks we talked about that but then the next two series are the Rays and the twins those are top five pitching staffs over the last month of the season um there are some Guardians that are struggling uh Stephen Quan rostered in 89% of leagues he is the 592 ranked player over the last month in Yahoo formats hitting 173 um with just two steals over that time uh we have talked about uh lay Thomas' struggles uh since coming to the Guardians um andr Jimenez is stealing bases and so that's important um he's hitting just 250 over the last month but he has nine steals are you concerned are you will to drop any of these three guys uh with the series is against the Rays and the twins coming up probably not I mean Quan's just the guy because the trend down has been so bad but you just hope you can still get that one week where he scores like six or seven runs and hits the 400 again like we saw but the White Sox series is good enough and if that Tampa series was in Tampa Bay where it's much harder to hit than if that game that series of home against Cleveland I'd say maybe but the Tampa rotation is not it's still not terrifying to me right now like pepio is still hot and cold Taj Bradley has been running Ice Cold they're using a bull drop him drop Taj Bradley drop Taj Bradley who yeah has been really bad just all fell apart but um and using a ballpen day uh game one day a week now two is there I'm not I'm not avoiding Tampa Bay I'm not I'm not focusing on them either but I think that these hitters especially with Jimenez he's moved up to second in the order with some regularity so I think there there's still enough here to keep to keep these guys going and everyone is still running they're still stealing a lot of B at least attempting it so it's worth worth having for that reason yeah and we should note that lane Thomas has been much better over the last two weeks hitting 286 with six runs scored five RB three steals over the last two weeks um and he's kind of like bringing that value back we talked about what manzardo is doing so maybe this lineup gets a little bit deeper and that helps the counting stats of guys like Quan who you talked about aren't scoring as many runs as we want so I would hold on these guys um you know but gu White Thomas is probably the most vulnerable but he's been playing well of late uh the last one the San Diego Padres they get the Mariners uh we know how good that pitching staff is they got the Giants solid not great though they get the Astros who have the number one pitching staff in baseball by ER over the last since August 1 then they got the white socks um so two really bad matchups one kind of bad matchup one great matchup uh the three names I'm putting on here are jerx and profar who's rostered in 91% of leagues Xander Bogarts rostered in 87% of leagues and Jake cronenworth rostered in 77% of leagues um I wanted just to point out to you that over the last month jerks and profer is hitting 194 um he has 16 runs scored and he has four stolen bases so the the overall fantasy numbers he's the 287th ranked player over the last month but you know that that 280 batting average you're seeing if you're looking at his stats for like the full year he hasn't been that guy for like six weeks now profile um 91% of leagues feels High to me yeah Al I think I don't think he has an extra base hit since he went deep off of Jose budo to beat the ti the game against the Mets a few weeks ago which twist the knife of me a little bit more but still you're still seeing a lot of contact with profar you're still seeing him hit in uh hit high in this lineup he got got an off day on Monday but with tatis back so it's going to be interesting to see how they Shuffle this Outfield but most likely it's just David peralto who hits the bench which makes sense he's kind of cooled off after his hot month but now makes sense that we'd be out there cron the W's interesting too because I think he has the beginning of the year was so good the power seems so real then The Middle's bad now he's been swinging a bit of a better bat but Donovan Solano has gotten some playing time over him especially against the lefties because Donnie barl just eats lefties alive he always has and he always will it's it's a weird lineup right now I wonder if we've seen Luis Ry seed some playing time of late Bogart is too good right now I think he's hitting well and they just they have they kind of have to play him but it's it's gonna be an interesting mix I I I I tend to hold proar definitely hold Bogarts maybe if I have to drop someone's Cronin worth but I would definitely keep an eye on these next few weeks just again schedule thing against the lefties looks like Dom slam's going get that playing time and probably r as the first base too but he's the one who's the most risk of losing roster spot on your own fantasy team say sure uh just for the record I mean Bogart's over the last month the 290th ranked player in Yahoo formats hitting 240 he's hitting just 205 over the last two weeks but 240 10 runs scored 11 RB four steals um I believe three in them three of them came in one game um but the steals are kind of propping up the value here a little bit uh we talked about Zack neto's struggles but Zack me Netto also has four seals in the last two weeks six in the last month um he his stats are better than Bogarts does over the last month um I I don't know like I I'm not actively looking to drop Xander Bogarts yeah but if like Dans B sponson is still available in my league I I would make I would make that switch um I just think like look at some of the hot middle infielders the guys who are playing really well like Swanson is 75% rostered in Yahoo formats which means they are 25 leagues 25% of League sorry in Yahoo where Dan B sponson is out there because of how bad the beginning of his year was um he's the 15th ranked player over the last month like swapping Dansby sponson in for Xander Bogarts is not an issue for me and if you're like oh well you know I know Dansby sponson is playing really well or I know you know niiko Horner's 91% roster so he maybe doesn't qualify but I know Nico you know Nico's playing really well I don't have a place for him if that's Xander Bogarts I think you have a place for him and I think that um it's like you mentioned before with Josh Young and the it didn't seem like the power came back but now it has the Bogard shoulder and Drew was incredibly serious and we haven't really seen the return to prominence that you would have hoped for him so yeah maybe that is just someone where you have to take the that was see I did that horrible thing where I had the name in my head rather than what's actually going on in the real world like I can't trop zand Bogarts but yeah maybe you just have to cut loose and see what happens there yeah I think that that is the that is the goal of what we're trying to do is to to we got to make those hard calls at some point uh we're going to tell you what hard calls to make with your pitching staff but before we do that fantasy football season just got $1 million better uh create or join a private Yahoo fantasy league and enter the $1 million NBC sweep Stakes plus earn extra entries to win when players on your fantasy roster score a touchdown during an opening weekend game on NBC or peacock download the redesigned Yahoo fantasy app or go to nbcsports.com fantasy million to learn more obviously the are still days before the F the NFL season starts um and you can do your own leagues you know up until kickoff right there's lots of time um so yeah make sure you get you take advantage of that uh we're going to go quickly on these pitchers because we want to make sure that we give you as many names as possible um so we're just going to kind of I will give James the pitchers uh and the matchups that we have for them currently uh and James you know you can give me your opinion on just whether you'd roster this player or not whether you'd pick up this pitcher right now or not um and just a disclaimer at the top these are the current pitching matchups based on the Roto wi probable pitchers on Wednesday afternoon this could change by Thursday afternoon Friday afternoon so we're just going to give you the best advice we can right now based on what the matchups are uh David Peterson is on fire and still under 50% rostered he gets the Blue Jays and Nationals next you have to add him yes have to he he got a big hit procedure in the offseason he has said that it's helped him with his St he say helped him with his command both of those things have held dramatically true this season he's holding more velocity through starts he doesn't have that much to begin with so holding is really important and he's been pinpoint with his Sinker his fast balls change up his slider his curveball it's really it's all coming together for Peterson somehow in some way yeah got to add him if you got him there uh Ben Lively also 40% rostered gets the white socks the Rays and the Cardinals um so even if you're not sold on the Cardinal start the next two starts with the White Soxs and rays are locked in like must add I think you kind of must add Lively even in 12 team leagues for those two starts yeah I believe that's also a two start week so whatever we say about Lively it's just those two starts are are better the red lineup you wouldn't like probably think it if you're just casually paying attention this year it's so bad right now it's it's ter disgustingly bad it's they they it's amazing sometimes they get five hits in a game they their lineup stinks yes it does it's sad because we like to think of the raises a feisty offense and they are not um we talked about this Rangers rotation a little bit and we talked about how it's you know hurting our boy Cody uh but Andrew he's next four starts are angels Mariners Mariners Angels um and again that could change with the Rangers mixing things up but I I don't know that there's a starting pitcher in baseball who has a better next four games than Andrew Heeney from a scheduled perspective no and Andrew heene has been sneaky on fire through through the second half of the season 32 324 e in August the 1.08 whip Mo in the strikeout per inning he does this all the time so it's everything's with a grain of salt with Andrew heene and there's only that as that hot month went there's only been one quality start for Andrew heene since the end of June so you're probably not going to get length you got to get lucky probably to get a win and this schedule could shake up because of the injuries coming back uh to Grom and stuff but it's it's worth a shot because those matchups are unbelievably good yes great um Frankie Montas like I was never a huge Montas fan he's been really good since coming to the Brewers and relying heavily on the fast ball um he gets the Rockies at home so not inors and then the Giants um those are also two pretty good matchups for a guy who's on a good team and pitching well right now and the Brewers always do this they're so good at this little game planning stuff especially with new pitchers they acquire they've had Montes throw more CS they've had him kind of manipulating his fastball usage more like you said it's just uh seeing something tangible with Montes like he changed teams he changes pitch mix and he's pitching better that'll let me trust a guy more in this like short window kind of situation yeah I I enjoy Montas with these two starts I I don't want to get like too locked in I think the the giant start is not like something I must do uh but it's something I could do um I can't believe I'm even mentioning the next name Patrick Corbin is 15% rostered and most of that is because he got the Miami Marlins last night and did fine um he just missed a quality start by by one out but he was fine uh he gets the Pirates this weekend and then he gets the Marlins again next week um are we doing this this like are we are we the year 2024 we're going to dive in on on Patrick Corbin again I'm putting my hand up I did it in many leagues this week and I even faced him in a few so seemed like he was active everywhere and I gotta give credit to our mutual friend Nick Pollock for even in March saying that he liked Corbin relative to where he was being valued in the fantasy baseball space because of this new color that he's throwing hard it's a pitch that's in between we hear pitch and Coach talk about that a lot movement velocity in between the Sinker and his slider and it's good and those match ups are are too good to ignore I think Corbin's a guy that's good enough to beat a really bad lineup yeah and I'm I'm pulling it up on stat cast right now because I wanted to make sure my my numbers were right but Corbin has been leaning into the the cutter even more um like since the summer started um and going kind of like Sinker cutter a lot um in September uh and that's been useful for him he's also uh gone back to the curveball a little more and kind of abandoned the four seam fast ball but you got pitch mix changes which have led to good results good matchups yeah I think we're doing it with with Patrick Corbin for sure um what about the two rookies in Minnesota David Festa 17% rostered zebie Matthews 14% rostered uh Festa has pitched really well of late he gets the Angels next week which we like then he gets the Guardians zebi gets the Royals he gets the Reds at home so the reds are on the road they're much worse on the road he gets the Guardians then he gets Miami so Debb's kind of like an up and down is Festa like I'll start him versus the angels and then I'll move on I'm all in on Festa right now I'm I'm so in love with the way he can mix his uh his slider and change up his change up moves so much that he's not afraid to throw it against righties and he he's also leaned more into the slider which is definitely his best pitch over his last few starts with still a good fast ball is totally fine rockco Bal Deli has started to trust him more deeper into games I shout out Shout Out New Jersey shout out seen hall for David Fester right there grew up in the same county which is kind of hilarious the same time but I really like Festa I like that pitch mix I think zebi we saw a little bit over the weekend that it's it it's kind of feast or famine with him because he's not missing as many bats right now with his pitch mix being very cut heavy so he's a little more susceptible to blowups I'm very scared that at Casey casy start for for zebi but the other ones I'm not I'm not afraid of Cleveland's offense really at all and I think those are these are guys to be on Radars going forward I agree and I I'm with you on I lean more toward zeas or sorry to Festa as well uh we talked about covich a little bit at the start k poic % rostered right now um he gets Boston in Fenway uh which is a little bit dangerous um I know you mentioned as you put on the sheet that Boston has the highest strikeout rate in baseball against lefties Boston's offense has really been struggling Boston's offense in Fenway is pretty good but then Povich also gets the Tigers and then the Tigers so even if you wanted to skip the Boston start tigers and tigers is pretty good I feel like Kade Povich is back on the radar it's weird because because it's not really anything he's done differently but he's striking more guys out he's um he's walking fewer hitters I had him in too many lineups the single start against the white socks last night and he rewarded me with 10 strikeouts in seven and third Innings and the Boston thing is kind of real against lefties because de definitely still has a pretty significant platoon split they wind up playing hitting Roman Gonzalez I think it was last night fourth or fifth against David Peterson is David Peterson had a career high 11 strikeout so in Fenway makes that scarier but if you're staring at a two start week for Kate Povich and the second one's going to be in Detroit you're going to think long and hard about that Boston start and the fact that they have one of the worst offenses in baseball this year against left-handed pitching it's I don't know it's put up or shut up time that might be one you just have to you just have to squeeze tight for and like close your eyes and look at the box score 11m and hope something could happen yeah and again you're you're getting a decent chance at a win which matters um I can't we're getting into the nitty-gritty here um these are guys that are rostered in like 2% uh but Jack k k canowitz kanowitz I think pronounce this for the angels and Griffin canning for the Angels they get the twins next week which is not great but not awful and then they both get white socks white socks yeah to wrap it up um I've been burned by Griffin canning in the past I really I'm weirdly leaning K canowitz and Nick Pollock as you mentioned has kind of like talked me into that because he mentioned that he's so Sinker ball heavy so you're not g to get a lot of strikeouts but you're likely against the white socks in particular that it it would be it's far more likely that he goes six or seven Innings maybe gives up one or two runs and is in a good position for even a win against the White Soxs because even the angels are better than the White Soxs right rather than canning who throws more pitches because he goes for more strikeouts he tries to lean on that slider and so there's a chance that Canon only goes like five but both them have great matchups and are are worth looking into K with really has even got more Sinker heavy of late his first few starts in the major he was around 50% Sinker with a lot of curve balls and change ups and now it's just 80% sinkers he just goes out there throws a 96 97 mile a sinker and just dares people to hit it he's getting a 60% ground ball rate like it's not I don't trust this against most teams in Major League Baseball but against this White Sox lineup I would I would weirdly be very willing to just have him in the lineup and hope you get that win yeah I agree with that last one and then we'll get to Some Cuts so we can wrap it up here uh former Mets Prospect yeah JT Jin uh with the Ang with the Athletics now looked pretty good in his start last night um he gets the Tigers and the white sucks which is why I'm like I I I can't believe we're I didn't really think that we are going to go here um he was called he was when he was called up the expectation was that he was just going to be like out of the bullpen um but they've now kind of said that they're going to give him starts rather than Joe Bole right right the Joe Bole ship sailed um are you willing to to bank on this because of those two poor offenses against the White Sox for sure against the Tigers I'll say I'll say maybe ginna gimma was actually traded from the Mets to the A's for Chris Basset and he's yeah a long time ago the Mets also do this weird thing where I think it's nine of 10 drafts they've taken a Mississippi State Bulldog which is unbelievable and gin was part of that mix but he's throwing 95 mph Sinker mixing in pretty solid bullet slide and a change up that's a that's a decent that he's using a lot against um a lot against the lefties it's not the it's not the worst approach right now and it's someone that can again definitely beat the White Sox but you'll probably hold your breath against the Tigers which says a lot about where gin is but it's not if it was any other team I would say definitely not but those are two where it's like why not yeah look again I mean yesterday against the Mariners six Innings three runs allowed seven strikeouts um I mean and I think the offense as bad as it is is probably better than the Tigers offense so I'm personally willing to do in deeper formats I'm willing to do it again for both these offenses yeah um all right quick I'm goingon to give you pitchers and their next few matchups and you tell me if you would cut them or not these are all players who are rostered in over 50% of league so they are not streamers so the idea is are we just going to cut these pitchers now to add any of the streamers we were talking about before yeah um Eduardo Rodriguez gets Houston Milwaukee and at Colorado cut yes easy cut Brandon fought gets Houston Milwaukee and then Milwaukee again hold I'll hold f um I'll cut I'll cut um I'll cut in 12 I'll hold in 15 I would take I would I take montis would you take you take montis over over fought I I've had always had some concerns about fought against lefties um and I guess the Brewers don't have without Yelich don't have a lefty that like really concerns me so maybe I'll amend mine to to for f yes I'm so scared of Jake Bowers I can't start a picture against him um cter Crawford at Baltimore versus the Yankees versus Minnesota Recon C bias look so good against the Mets last night I'll lean slight hold for C Crawford but I think that it's similar with that montis line like that's probably the spot where it's like am I really dropping these guys I think I probably Dro Crawford for lively in the two start week maybe for heene but that's one start week then you have M uh yeah if if you're getting a really good two star there next week I think Crawford does have a two start week next week but much much worse matchups yes yeah just it's a that is one where you think about but the color looked so good last night it really did looked awesome you kept the Mets line up down I know if I need the spot I'm happy to cut cutter Crawford because I I don't see starting him against Baltimore and the Yankees if I if I'm in a place where I can hold him fine but you know I think we can potentially move on um Tobias Meyers has a start against the Rockies at home which is great but then he faces the Diamondbacks and Phillies so after that Rocky starter you moving on from Tobias Myers yeah I'm gonna move on from Tobias Myers I like Tobias Myers but still just not it's not an approach I tremendously trust right now especially against good offenses yeah not against the Diamond Backs and Phillies so take the rocky start thank Tobias Meers for his service um and then move on uh I think I'm doing the same thing with L SE Luis srino uh he gets the Reds at home um and as we talked about the Reds away from Great American Ballpark are a different offense but then he gets the Phillies twice and then the Braves to end the season um I'm cutting srino after the red start one thing I'll say about srino is that he gave an interview where he said in the middle of the Season he was focused more on pitching the contact because how bleuer the Mets staff was and that in doing that he went hard away from his sweeper because he was like I I can't worry about stri guys need to stay in these games long as I can since then he's gone back to a sweeper and I did a I did a split of his season when he throws a sweeper at least 15% of the time and we throws a fewer than 15% of the time when he throw a sweeper at least 15% of the time which now he's done for five straight starts since he gave this interview and said he was in there for strikeouts again he's a guy who's almost 20 uh 20% strike out minus walk rate and erra about 3.5 so with that pitch mix that he does I know the Phillies have a lot of lefties so that's those are the two match ups that really scare me but I I might I might hold on to him because the two start week one Philly one Atlanta I don't think it's because Atlanta's not this isn't the scariest lineup for the world right now it's not even close to it I think he's done enough this year and he's still throwing hard he's maintaining the velocity especially with home starts because he feels such a great place to pitch it's he's someone I'm a little more willing to hold on to Fair uh that Atlanta start three starts from now so it's possible Al's back in the lineup for then so just yeah um Robbie Ray is on the I it comes off the iil if he comes off the I if he comes off the iil in time we don't even know he'll get the Brewers in the Padre's are you holding it has to be a drop you'll know what you're going to get and if you get those matchups it's probably not not worthwhile Milwaukee crushes left-handed pitches too tough but fair yeah yeah yeah tough but fair um last two their Tampa Bay Rays teammates Shane BOS uh get the Orioles the Guardians and the Red Sox uh the Red Sox at home not in fedway um and then he gets or Ryan pepio gets the um the Orioles the Guardians and the blue I want to believe in pepio so bad but there's some starts where he goes out there and looks like he just doesn't know where the ball's going still and can't figure out to SL I'm having technical issues um yeah are you cutting either Shane BOS or Ryan pepia cut pepio keep BOS tight though I might keep pepio those match ups aren't after Baltimore is not really that bad he's look bad it's hard do I have you yeah um I hear you on that I I'm I'm yes I'm having I heard what you said I'm having some audio issues uh which is a perfect time to wrap up uh this podcast um I don't know what's happening here but I will uh get with it on Verizon um so we'll be back with you again next week for another episode of the road baseball show uh I am Eric smolsky you can find me on Twitter samsky NYC and James is on Twitter jamesoro s c i a n o uh good luck at your leagues this week and we'll get you back next week for another episode of the roto world baseball show