Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle. I am Ryan warmly joined. Bye.
Speaker 1: Guess who's back back again? Mayo's back, Tello friends Mike
Speaker 1: Mayer back after his long vacation which immediately followed my
Speaker 1: long vacation, so we didn't do a show together in
Speaker 1: all of June. Now Here, first week in July, we
Speaker 1: are back the dynamic duo ourselves. How was your trip, buddy?
Speaker 2: It was great. It was a great June to not
Speaker 2: spend it with you, so that was great all around.
Speaker 2: I went to Switzerland, which was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I also went to Long Island with two really young
Speaker 2: children on a plane, which was a lot less fun,
Speaker 2: of course, But happy to be back and happy to
Speaker 2: be back talking baseball.
Speaker 1: We weren't totally not in each other's lives, because you
Speaker 1: did call me while I was sitting on the beach
Speaker 1: one day to discuss work related matters for like forty minutes,
Speaker 1: and the rest of my family was like, why are
Speaker 1: you on the phone talking about work when you're sitting
Speaker 1: at the beach. But so we had a nice little
Speaker 1: chat there, but no, Yeah, it's been basically a month
Speaker 1: a month apart, so we've got a lot to catch
Speaker 1: up on here time baseball quickly though. Also, this is
Speaker 1: July fifth, What did you do for the fourth?
Speaker 2: I just since we just came off that big trip,
Speaker 2: we just kind of like hung at the house and
Speaker 2: you know, barbecued and stuff. And luckily, like I was
Speaker 2: just telling Blaine and Pat, the like neighborhood, like right
Speaker 2: around the corner of from mine, like literally walking distance,
Speaker 2: they do like a huge professional fireworks setup. So I
Speaker 2: took my almost four year old over there in a
Speaker 2: wagon and watched fireworks and it was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I'm not a huge fireworks guy, but you know, when
Speaker 2: you have young kids there into fireworks and so it's
Speaker 2: cool to see, like, you know, them experience that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've always found fireworks to be overrated and to
Speaker 1: each their own. Like, if you really enjoy it, go
Speaker 1: out and do it. I don't have a problem with it.
Speaker 1: I do have a problem with the people in my
Speaker 1: neighborhood who were doing it like after midnight, because like
Speaker 1: I do have a dog, and the dog actually did great.
Speaker 1: So my buddy has he's got this house with a
Speaker 1: really nice rooftop right just on the outskirts of the
Speaker 1: city of Denver. So it's a perfect view for fireworks
Speaker 1: over the city. We actually got We watched the Rocky
Speaker 1: you know course Field had some fireworks going on. All
Speaker 1: these neighborhoods were doing it. All this city sponsored professional stuff.
Speaker 1: So that was really cool because a lot of times too,
Speaker 1: you can't really do that in Denver because of like
Speaker 1: fire warnings and it's so dry out here. But we've
Speaker 1: gotten enough rain that they were able to do it.
Speaker 1: So it was really fun. And my dog did great.
Speaker 1: I brought him. He was up in the rooftop. He
Speaker 1: was anxious at times, for sure. I mean he has
Speaker 1: a dog, and there was a lot of loud noises
Speaker 1: going on, but relative to what dogs could have been,
Speaker 1: he handled it really well. This this was my first
Speaker 1: Fourth of July with him because I got him mid
Speaker 1: July last year, so this was my first chance to
Speaker 1: see how he did. And he did well, so that
Speaker 1: was so that was nice and it's cool to just
Speaker 1: go over and we grilled some I grilled some Omaha
Speaker 1: steaks and we uh, you know, we watched the fireworks.
Speaker 1: So it was fun. Like I said, so you're.
Speaker 2: Saying you had a dog on a rooftop with fireworks,
Speaker 2: is that what you're saying.
Speaker 1: We weren't doing fireworks, we were watching fireworks, but yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I had watching fire Well, the roof has like a
Speaker 1: little bit of a railing, so it's not like he
Speaker 1: was just gonna be like go run off, and he
Speaker 1: is generally a pretty calm dog, so I kind of
Speaker 1: had faith you be fine. And like I said, there
Speaker 1: was like a little bit of anxiousness, but largely was
Speaker 1: if you think of a typical dog is like, you know,
Speaker 1: eight out of ten nervous with fireworks, he was like
Speaker 1: three or four, like he little but was generally fine.
Speaker 1: So while he was a champ. That's enough preamble. Let's
Speaker 1: get into the show here. Quick note for everybody. If
Speaker 1: you like this content, the best freeway to show your
Speaker 1: support and encourage more content like this is to leave
Speaker 1: a positive review at fantasypros dot com slash MLB review.
Speaker 1: By the way, before you jump into the round the bases,
Speaker 1: did you listen while you were out? Because I did
Speaker 1: listen to most, but not all, of the two shows
Speaker 1: you did without me.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to lie and say yes, but I
Speaker 2: feel like I'll get caught in a lie because I
Speaker 2: did listen to the first episode with Bogman. I have
Speaker 2: not yet listened to the episode with Welsh, but I will.
Speaker 2: I will listen. I just haven't caught up yet.
Speaker 1: The episode of Welsh is way better, so not just skiddy,
Speaker 1: They're both great. You did hear Bogman cheat in the
Speaker 1: two start pitcher competition, which we'll we'll get to at
Speaker 1: the end of the show. All right, let's dive in.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start with Louis Hill. And I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: how much you wanted to kind of jump into stuff
Speaker 1: that's been going on since you have been out or
Speaker 1: kind of what we normally do more recent to this
Speaker 1: specific week. But Hill has been bad ever since that
Speaker 1: Oriole start where he gave up seven earned runs in
Speaker 1: an inning and a third, he has not gotten it
Speaker 1: back the last three starts an inning and a third,
Speaker 1: four and a third, four innings. He's giving up at
Speaker 1: least four earned runs in each of those. He has
Speaker 1: not struck out more than three batters in any of those.
Speaker 1: We had talked a lot in the early part of
Speaker 1: the year. You have been on this train for a while.
Speaker 1: Of the innings, you know, count being a problem and
Speaker 1: somebody to consider in the back of your mind. It's
Speaker 1: why he was a sell high for you for a
Speaker 1: lot of the first couple of months of the season.
Speaker 1: That window is probably not entirely closed, but it's certainly closing.
Speaker 1: And after these last few starts you think it's fully clear.
Speaker 1: I mean sure there are some leagues whe there's somebody
Speaker 1: out there who will look at the season long stats
Speaker 1: and say like, hey, everybody's allowed to have a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks, you know, off, But it is it is
Speaker 1: very nearly closed, if not all the way closed, at
Speaker 1: the very least. What is your evaluation right now? Are
Speaker 1: you saying he's somebody that like if you had him
Speaker 1: on your team, would you be selling him at any costs?
Speaker 1: Would you be holding would you be considering dropping if
Speaker 1: that you're in a redraft league and saying, listen, I
Speaker 1: don't think we're getting anything out of him in the
Speaker 1: second half. If it's a shallower roster, what are you
Speaker 1: doing with him right now?
Speaker 2: So I actually did, like I think in most leagues,
Speaker 2: you're not dropping him in our company ESPN leagues, which
Speaker 2: are you know, pretty shallow rosters. I dropped him in
Speaker 2: my league, and I was talking to Kelly who also
Speaker 2: dropped him in her league, so both halfs of our leagues.
Speaker 2: Louise Hale is currently a free agent. But that's because
Speaker 2: you know, est pan's a little bit shower of a format.
Speaker 2: We're getting into the playoffs because we do a really
Speaker 2: condensed season to get ready for football.
Speaker 1: Or the playoffs. Already it's it's daily lineus. But you
Speaker 1: have like three total bench spots. There's just there's it's
Speaker 1: very very shallow, and it's a ten team league. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because there's multiple.
Speaker 2: Times I daily transactions in those leagues. I'm always streaming
Speaker 2: starters and streaming hitters. I make daily transactions, especially now
Speaker 2: that I'm in the playoffs. But I did I did
Speaker 2: drop him in that in that league. I know I
Speaker 2: started him against the Reds. I was like just rolling
Speaker 2: the dice. I wanted the volume. Whereas uh, I think
Speaker 2: Kelly dropped him before that start. I kind of wish
Speaker 2: I dropped him before that start. Although it wasn't as
Speaker 2: bad as the previous two starts. I think he's no
Speaker 2: longer a cell high, and I almost think he may
Speaker 2: have completely flipped to maybe being a bilow.
Speaker 1: Now I was gonna ask think that is he if
Speaker 1: you can get over on the cheap would you actually
Speaker 1: be buying I.
Speaker 2: Think I would because I like I as much as
Speaker 2: I think all season he was like a cell high
Speaker 2: and I could come on here and like take a
Speaker 2: victory lap. But but I do I do think like
Speaker 2: it's kind of unprecedented, like just how good he was
Speaker 2: to like completely fall off. So like the real Louis
Speaker 2: Hale is probably somewhere in the middle, and I think
Speaker 2: there's gonna be value there. I do think he's gonna
Speaker 2: need the All Star break to kind of like take
Speaker 2: a break. Like I think a lot of things are
Speaker 2: happening here, their innings are catching up.
Speaker 1: I think you think do you think it's fatigue is
Speaker 1: that Do you think it's more fatigue like hey, the
Speaker 1: innings stuff that we've talked about all years catching up
Speaker 1: or do you think it's like kind of getting figured
Speaker 1: out a little bit to a degree, Like to what
Speaker 1: do you attribute this mostly because it's probably multiple factors,
Speaker 1: But to what what fact did you mostly attribute this
Speaker 1: kind of falling off?
Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of everything. Like I,
Speaker 2: like I talked about a few weeks ago when I
Speaker 2: was talking about selling high on him, like I had
Speaker 2: concerns about the approach and the fastball usage, and also
Speaker 2: like he is someone who historically has had a pretty
Speaker 2: high walk rate, and he was just like walking no
Speaker 2: One all of a sudden, and I kind of thought, like,
Speaker 2: you know, this is probably gonna regress at some point,
Speaker 2: at which at which point, like his you know, there's
Speaker 2: not a lot of room for error there, and so
Speaker 2: I figured some aggression was coming. But also like you
Speaker 2: have to consider the innings because it's not just like,
Speaker 2: you know, he threw a bunch of innings last year
Speaker 2: and then you know he's getting to like his innings
Speaker 2: kind of threshold. He threw no innings last year, and
Speaker 2: the year before he threw four innings. Yeah, and in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one he threw twenty nine innings, and so
Speaker 2: he's already up to close to ninety innings now, Like
Speaker 2: this is an unprecedented workload for him as a professional
Speaker 2: pitcher over the last four years, and so you almost
Speaker 2: have to consider that fatigue is you know, is a
Speaker 2: factor here.
Speaker 1: By the way, we're not talking about him in this
Speaker 1: week's episode, but Garrett Crochet is similar, like the drasticness,
Speaker 1: like the degree to which he is out you know,
Speaker 1: pitching his previous career highs just in terms of workload
Speaker 1: and volume is like really remarkable, and it's it's the
Speaker 1: reason why I don't really want the Orioles to trade
Speaker 1: for Crochet with what he's going to cost, because I
Speaker 1: think that's a trade for twenty twenty five. Like, I
Speaker 1: don't think you can sit there and say he's going
Speaker 1: to be, you know, slot in behind Corbyn Burns and
Speaker 1: Grace Rodriguez in October. So I talked about that with
Speaker 1: Bobman have been a couple of weeks ago, but it's
Speaker 1: a similar thing and we're seeing it not play out
Speaker 1: with Crochet yet, we are seeing it play out now
Speaker 1: with Heel for whatever it's worth. And I know, you know,
Speaker 1: expected Dra isn't perfect his era on the season in
Speaker 1: three forty one Expected Dra three forty five. So it's
Speaker 1: not really you know, there's like, you know, obvious regression
Speaker 1: in either direction coming with that. Now that number was
Speaker 1: a lot lower prior to the last three starts, but.
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, it's kind of like this is the regression
Speaker 2: that was being predicted. Yeah, the numbers now fantastic.
Speaker 1: And now it's caught up. Yeah. I mean for me,
Speaker 1: I'm probably not training for him, even on the cheap.
Speaker 1: I'm probably just trusting that I can find somebody else.
Speaker 1: It like, I would rather pick up somebody off waivers
Speaker 1: and see if somebody's taking a step forward or hold
Speaker 1: out for a prospect or whatever, then have somebody on
Speaker 1: my roster. If I have him, I'm gonna be really
Speaker 1: afraid to drop him, and it's it's gonna be one
Speaker 1: of those roster cloggers unless he kind of flips the
Speaker 1: switch back, because I'm gonna be so beholden to his
Speaker 1: april and may that even if he's bad, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be starting him. But he's just gonna be taking
Speaker 1: up a bench spot. So I maybe it's the cowards
Speaker 1: way out, but I don't think I'll be training for him.
Speaker 2: It would have to be really really cheap for me,
Speaker 2: given given the kind of pitching landscape. Even though we're
Speaker 2: seeing like hitting come back a little bit now that
Speaker 2: it's getting warmer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's go on. Excuse me, then lose my voice
Speaker 1: from fourth July. Let's go on to the next topic here,
Speaker 1: James Wood. Do we finally have an elite, top high
Speaker 1: level hitting prospect who is actually gonna hit the ground
Speaker 1: running this year. So far, he's played four games, all
Speaker 1: of them against the Mets since he was caught up
Speaker 1: on Monday. He went one for four, zero for three,
Speaker 1: two for three, one for three. He has one RBI,
Speaker 1: He's got one run score. He does have a walk
Speaker 1: in every game. He's only struck out twice. He's got
Speaker 1: a stolen base as well. And you've seen it right,
Speaker 1: Like obviously the numbers, the sample size is small enough
Speaker 1: that the numbers aren't really that relevant, but you've seen
Speaker 1: it with the eye test that this is as advertised.
Speaker 1: He's a big, strong dude, who's gonna hit the ball
Speaker 1: really hard, who's gonna run really fast, who's kind of
Speaker 1: electrifying Washington to a degree. Like the fan I am
Speaker 1: from the DC area, I follow a lot of Nationals fans,
Speaker 1: they are talking about him the same way they talked
Speaker 1: about Bryce Harper and Steven Strasburg when they made their
Speaker 1: debuts over a decade ago. Now that comparison is probably
Speaker 1: a bridge too far, because those are two of the
Speaker 1: greatest prospects of all time. But that is how people
Speaker 1: in the organization and people in the city are thinking
Speaker 1: about James Wood and how excited they are for him.
Speaker 1: Obviously he was a part of their return for want
Speaker 1: So too a couple of years ago. But we've seen
Speaker 1: so many guys struggle this year on the on the
Speaker 1: hitting side. You know, Jackson Holliday is the biggest example.
Speaker 1: Jackson Churio is now starting to turn around, But those
Speaker 1: first two months were really brutal. I mean these and
Speaker 1: these are not top one hundred prospects. These are top ten,
Speaker 1: top five prospects who have not made the transition of
Speaker 1: major league pitching very smoothly, very immediately. This year. There's
Speaker 1: been a lot of talk about how the gap between
Speaker 1: Triple A pitching and major league pitching has never been
Speaker 1: wider than it is now. But James Would through four games,
Speaker 1: very very small sample size, looks like he could be
Speaker 1: the exception and a guy who is a very viable
Speaker 1: fantasy asset here even in redraft. You obviously know what
Speaker 1: he is in dynasty, but even in redraft as a
Speaker 1: rookie making the sleep at the age of twenty one,
Speaker 1: what do you think about what we've seen from him
Speaker 1: so far?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's someone that in that same league I
Speaker 2: picked him up. I dropped fluv seal for James Wood,
Speaker 2: So I was kind of surprised he was available, but.
Speaker 1: I was let meanerly and say I had the same
Speaker 1: reaction where I knew in all the leagues I had
Speaker 1: that are relevant with keepers and prospects, he was not
Speaker 1: going to be there. And I almost didn't even check
Speaker 1: my leagues that were just regular redraft leagues to see
Speaker 1: if he was available, because there's no way. He's the
Speaker 1: most obvious waiver stash. And he was available in two
Speaker 1: of my leagues, and so I was, okay, I'll go
Speaker 1: Like so I just say that to say, go check
Speaker 1: if you think somebody might not be available. I mean
Speaker 1: a lot of the names we could talk about on
Speaker 1: the show are not one hundred percent rostered. Even if
Speaker 1: they're ninety five percent roster, you might be in the
Speaker 1: five percent where they're not. So it's worth checking because
Speaker 1: I got him in two leagues that I couldn't believe
Speaker 1: he was available in. So I was totally with you.
Speaker 2: There, Yeah, And same thing for me. It was, it
Speaker 2: wasn't something where I went in and I was like,
Speaker 2: let me search for James Wood, Like I just went
Speaker 2: to go find someone on waivers and I was like,
Speaker 2: whoa James Wood is there Okay, I'll pick him up
Speaker 2: and see what we got. Like, you know, I'm a
Speaker 2: little worried about what we've seen with all the other prospects,
Speaker 2: you know, this year, but you know, whenever, like there
Speaker 2: could be like fifteen like not bus but like prospects
Speaker 2: in a row that just like kind of fall flat.
Speaker 2: I'm still gonna roll the dice on number sixteen because
Speaker 2: like there's just always the opportunity in the chance that
Speaker 2: this is a league winner, and so you have to
Speaker 2: kind of roll the dice on that, especially if I'm
Speaker 2: not if I'm like dropping like Ian happ for him,
Speaker 2: like no problem, I'm fine making that move and just.
Speaker 1: And it's important to really differentiate between Again, you're not saying,
Speaker 1: like the fifty sixth ranked prospect in baseball is an auto,
Speaker 1: like no matter what, Like we're talking about a guy
Speaker 1: who was a top three prospect in baseball, and when
Speaker 1: thinking about terms of fantasy, like maybe you could argue
Speaker 1: even higher like elite, elite, elite. That's just I'm never
Speaker 1: gonna not take a chance on that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And like you said, he's got power speed, so
Speaker 2: check check. And this year at TRIPAA he cut down
Speaker 2: on his strikeouts like a big check there. So he's
Speaker 2: someone who's cut down on a strikeouts, he's walking a
Speaker 2: lot more and so that raises his floor. Now obviously
Speaker 2: that can just completely flip it on its head at
Speaker 2: the major league level. But you know, if you have
Speaker 2: a guy that gets on base and he runs, like,
Speaker 2: you're already checking a lot of boxes. And like you said,
Speaker 2: like the Nationals. I think we talked about this a
Speaker 2: few weeks ago. It's it's wild to me that the
Speaker 2: Nationals are not worse than they are. I kind of
Speaker 2: don't understand how they're like just like hovering around five
Speaker 2: hundred and like kind of good.
Speaker 1: I agree, and like James.
Speaker 2: Wood is going to make it even better. And so
Speaker 2: it's you know, he's a really exciting prospect. I'm really
Speaker 2: intrigued by the contact and I'll you know, I'm interested
Speaker 2: to see kind of like how how he adjusts. And
Speaker 2: also one of those other prospects that you didn't mention
Speaker 2: is why at Langford is heating up. Yeah, after he
Speaker 2: got off to a really bad start, but now that
Speaker 2: he's back from injury, he's really heating up too.
Speaker 1: I didn't mention him because he hit a cycle against
Speaker 1: the Orioles, and I'm still annoyed by it, even though
Speaker 1: the Oriols took three out of four in that series.
Speaker 1: But no, he's he's a good call as well. Would
Speaker 1: you have any just quickly interest in selling high just
Speaker 1: something hype and excitement of wood or are you kind
Speaker 1: of holding on him like no matter what, just giving
Speaker 1: the pure ceiling.
Speaker 2: Not in Hebrew Dynasty, obviously I'm not moving him, But
Speaker 2: in Redraft, I'm always interested in selling high. So like
Speaker 2: if you want to make me a godfather offer, I'm
Speaker 2: always listening for something like that.
Speaker 1: Well, Millie Mays was the say hey kid, you are
Speaker 1: the cell high kid. You are all in on selling high.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to the next topic here. I
Speaker 1: labeled this one ace who But essentially what I wanted
Speaker 1: to do is ask you who are the actual fantasy
Speaker 1: aces this year? Because you've talked a bit about how
Speaker 1: we've seen some of the regression we've been expecting from
Speaker 1: pitching just in the landscape in general. You know, there
Speaker 1: have been a lot of pitchers who have been really
Speaker 1: really good, like better than expecting, Like Chris Sale has
Speaker 1: been way better than I expected him to be. I
Speaker 1: still would feel a little uncomfortable given his age in
Speaker 1: history saying like he's one of the elite, like would
Speaker 1: be a top five starring pitcher drafted by me going forward? Right,
Speaker 1: so you know when trying to be Garret Kroshet another
Speaker 1: good example, somebody who's been elite elite this year, but
Speaker 1: how much do you trust him the second half? So
Speaker 1: when looking ahead to the second half of the season,
Speaker 1: this isn't like a twenty five projection. This is if
Speaker 1: we were redrafting for the rest of the way, how
Speaker 1: many guys because it's less than twelve. It's not just
Speaker 1: all the sp ones, it's it's fewer than twelve of
Speaker 1: these these arms you would feel comfortable with. And it's
Speaker 1: a bit of a nebulous term. It's you. You can
Speaker 1: kind of define fantasy ace in different ways, I suppose,
Speaker 1: depending on the person I want to hear, how you
Speaker 1: define it and how many guys you think and who
Speaker 1: they are are actually fantasy aces, no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: You the complete ultimate faith in them the second half
Speaker 1: of the season. Who are they?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And I think that's the way you put it
Speaker 2: that makes it interesting is kind of where's the line
Speaker 2: and how are we defining Ace? Because I you know,
Speaker 2: like you can make the argument if we're talking like
Speaker 2: Ace Ace like top of the really like top of
Speaker 2: the top, Like I think there's a tier after the
Speaker 2: top four, Like I think it's like exactly where schoolble
Speaker 2: burns Glass now and maybe like a drop off.
Speaker 1: So I was gonna say that for me, four is
Speaker 1: the easy part, and then after that, like I would
Speaker 1: hear the argument that there's only four and it's those
Speaker 1: are of course the four, But I think there's a
Speaker 1: case to be made that there's nobody else that really
Speaker 1: fits into this category. I think you could make arguments
Speaker 1: for like again, like I think our expectations for like
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about Pablo Lopez, you know, as
Speaker 1: a by low in the first half of the season. Again,
Speaker 1: Chris Sale has been doing it this year so far,
Speaker 1: you know, Dylan Ceese has the super high strikeout potential.
Speaker 1: Max Freed was really bad in April, but then just
Speaker 1: really figured it out. Since I mean, like, there's there
Speaker 1: are names that are interesting and you'd be happy to
Speaker 1: have leading your rotation, but I think it might just
Speaker 1: be the four as like the true elite aces.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was gonna be my definition. It's like you know,
Speaker 2: we're defining it as like the top of the top.
Speaker 2: I think it's four, and then you can probably make
Speaker 2: a case for like twelve as like auto starts. I
Speaker 2: mean probably more like auto starts than that if you're
Speaker 2: in it, depending on like your definition, but like that
Speaker 2: you're like really comfortable starting just like running him out there,
Speaker 2: and it's like like Luis Castillo is pretty high my rankings,
Speaker 2: but like his eras in near four and he's kind
Speaker 2: of like done this before where he's like up and down.
Speaker 2: Jared Jones is really interesting, even though he's on the
Speaker 2: injured list now he's another one I was like worried
Speaker 2: about like his innings, but he did at least throw
Speaker 2: a decent amount of innings last year, So I remember
Speaker 2: like being surprised earlier in the year when I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: like how many and is he gonna throw? Because they
Speaker 2: were like babying him right out the gate, and then
Speaker 2: I was like, Okay, he threw like one hundred and
Speaker 2: twenty innings, like he can actually, you know, maybe throw
Speaker 2: one forty this year, so there's not as much concern there.
Speaker 2: So Jarra Jones, assuming the health, is someone that kind
Speaker 2: of like I could see putting in that top tier
Speaker 2: or close to that, like second tier. Chris Sale. We're
Speaker 2: waiting for him to you know, we're waiting for the
Speaker 2: eventual injury because you know, with how great he looks
Speaker 2: and how great of a like bounce back story, this
Speaker 2: is like we know he's just gonna, like, you know,
Speaker 2: go get something from the fridge and break his elbow
Speaker 2: or something, just because like that's what happens to Chris Sale.
Speaker 2: Dylan Ceese hit a rough patch, but he's you know,
Speaker 2: someone I've been on this year, but you know he's
Speaker 2: he's up and down again. Zach Gallon again, like health
Speaker 2: permitting has been really good. I think he's up there,
Speaker 2: and then it's a lot of like you know, up
Speaker 2: and down. Like even like someone I might have considered
Speaker 2: in this upper tier a few weeks ago has showta Imanaga,
Speaker 2: but he's you know, kind of hit a rough patch too,
Speaker 2: so he's he's not in that upper tier. Maybe he's
Speaker 2: in like this. I think I have him at like
Speaker 2: fourteen right now, and my rest rankings.
Speaker 1: Ranger Suarez another one who like based on how he
Speaker 1: looked in.
Speaker 2: Best Picture in Patrol.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you know there's there's like, there's pictures that
Speaker 1: I like that I think are maybe a little undervalued.
Speaker 1: I've talked that about Grayson Rodriguez, like I think he's
Speaker 1: undervalued as SP twenty four here in our rest of
Speaker 1: season rankings with consensus, you know to me, So here,
Speaker 1: here's how I want to phrase this, because I have
Speaker 1: an answer to this. If you had to pick one
Speaker 1: picture not in that top four and you had to
Speaker 1: place a bet on them being in that, not just
Speaker 1: like n SB one, but like an elite like making
Speaker 1: it a top five rest of season, you had to
Speaker 1: bet on one, who would it be?
Speaker 2: So there's an easy answer to this one, and it's
Speaker 2: kind of cheating, but the easy answer would be health
Speaker 2: permitting Gary Cole.
Speaker 1: That is a good easy answer. Is not the one
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, but it's a you know, it's
Speaker 1: a good one. I mean, we talked a bit about
Speaker 1: Cole with Welsh last week. It's it's it's a totally
Speaker 1: reasonable health permitting answer. I was gonna say, like I
Speaker 1: might say, Paul Skeens, and I know the innings are
Speaker 1: gonna be a thing for him as well. And in
Speaker 1: the Pirates aren't Pirates aren't very good? But like, like
Speaker 1: I think he might just be the best pitcher in
Speaker 1: baseball already. Like he is so so good just nine
Speaker 1: starts into his career. That like, how is there a
Speaker 1: question mark other than innings, like if the innings are
Speaker 1: there in the second half of the season, Like, what
Speaker 1: is the case against him being fifty third innings he's
Speaker 1: thrown at the big league level. Through nine starts, he
Speaker 1: has seventy strikeouts. This is as a rookie who was
Speaker 1: drafted a year ago. His era is two oh six,
Speaker 1: his whip is one oh three. I mean, like seventy
Speaker 1: strikeouts to ten walks. I just like, like, what is
Speaker 1: the case against him outside of inning? To me, that's
Speaker 1: really it. So you can't guarantee innings from anybody. I mean,
Speaker 1: anybody can get hurt. This is pitching. So I'm if
Speaker 1: I'm kind of building out who I'd like to have
Speaker 1: on my roster, I don't think there's anybody that would
Speaker 1: be more fun outside of that top four to have
Speaker 1: on my roster right now. The Paul Skins.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the probably the most impressive thing I've seen from
Speaker 2: Paul Skins in this short that's like small sample size,
Speaker 2: is like I've seen him go out there and like
Speaker 2: not have one of his best pitches, like he always
Speaker 2: has that fastball, but like I've seen him go out
Speaker 2: there and like he clearly like didn't have a feel
Speaker 2: for his like the like splinker. I guess, yeah the
Speaker 2: one day and he was like, no problem, Like I'll
Speaker 2: just lean on the fastball, maybe throw a few more sliders.
Speaker 2: Like he just like worked around it. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: for like a young kid like that to just like
Speaker 2: not have this like new bread and butter pitch and
Speaker 2: just like like unfazed and just adjust is like kind
Speaker 2: of work while to kind of see that maturity from
Speaker 2: And I guess it helps when you throw a hundred
Speaker 2: miles and urd like, no problem, I'll just throw one
Speaker 2: hundred few more times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one other guy that I'll throw out there, Like
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to elevate into that tier,
Speaker 1: but I did him so fascinate whenever I watch Cole
Speaker 1: Reagan's pitch, Like, I just I think he's really really talented. Obviously,
Speaker 1: he ended last season so well, like basically as like
Speaker 1: a true ace from whatever point it was on in
Speaker 1: like the middle of the summer, and he's been good
Speaker 1: this year like for sure, like tons of strikeouts, and
Speaker 1: you know, his era is under three three and a half,
Speaker 1: so it's not like he's been like bad or anything.
Speaker 1: He's just another one that I think is perhaps a
Speaker 1: little undervalue there. But yeah, so, I mean I think
Speaker 1: we agree that like essentially, like depending on your definition,
Speaker 1: there's like four of them.
Speaker 2: One one more name I want to ask you about.
Speaker 2: How do you so like, obviously he's gonna miss some
Speaker 2: time and there's some real health concerns there. But let's
Speaker 2: say he comes back in a month and he's perfectly
Speaker 2: healthy and we have no concerns. What about Yamamoto?
Speaker 1: It's really hard to just throw away the injury concerns,
Speaker 1: Like that's hard that it's hard off. I think he
Speaker 1: might for me fall more into the category of like
Speaker 1: a top twelve starting pitcher, but not in that elite
Speaker 1: like kind of Mount Rushmore tier of who we have
Speaker 1: rest of season? Would he be up there for you?
Speaker 1: I think I think it's a reasonable name to bring
Speaker 1: up and ask about. But even if you guaranteed me health,
Speaker 1: I think he'd be more like in that five to
Speaker 1: twelve range rather than that one, two, three, and four
Speaker 1: are so locked in.
Speaker 2: I think that's where I had him before the injury.
Speaker 2: I had him at five just because of like do
Speaker 2: you just leade upside and being on the Dodgers, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I mean, I mean, now I have him like in
Speaker 2: the twenties or something.
Speaker 1: Those four names we mentioned Glass now on the Dodgers,
Speaker 1: great team, gonna get like, I just think of wins,
Speaker 1: let alone, strikeouts and everything else on the Dodgers, Zack
Speaker 1: Wheeler on the Phillies, Corpa Burns on the Orioles, and
Speaker 1: then Scooball on the Tigers. Obviously he's just really really good.
Speaker 1: But three of those four are like on very very
Speaker 1: good teams. So yeah, all right, let's move on to
Speaker 1: the next topic here. I've been going to do this
Speaker 1: for a while and I figured kind of the day
Speaker 1: after fourth of July. We've both been on vacation for
Speaker 1: a while. It felt like a good, you know, time
Speaker 1: to come back with this is I want to make
Speaker 1: the case for rules changes that we want to see.
Speaker 1: So we've talked a bit about some rules stuff that
Speaker 1: we're not big fans of in the past, and I
Speaker 1: have one big one that I have I've talked about
Speaker 1: on podcasts for years now. But not on this one,
Speaker 1: so our audience I don't think will have heard it.
Speaker 1: But it's it's the biggest rule change that I love,
Speaker 1: and it will never happen, but it's just a fun
Speaker 1: one for me, and I want to hear what rules
Speaker 1: changes you would like to see too. There are, you know,
Speaker 1: smaller ones that I've thought about in the past as well,
Speaker 1: but I kind of have one big one and I
Speaker 1: need to clear my throat, so I will let you
Speaker 1: go first.
Speaker 2: So for me, I have some like some obvious ones
Speaker 2: that I can go through. For me, the one rule
Speaker 2: change I want to see is I want to bring
Speaker 2: the shift back. I want it back. Maybe I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't like this whole you're not allowed to move.
Speaker 2: I want play wherever you want. I wanted. I want
Speaker 2: to get nuts. I want to see like just little
Speaker 2: numbers down the third third base line with no one
Speaker 2: in that vicinity going for a double. That's what I want.
Speaker 2: I want, Like you know, live and die by the shift,
Speaker 2: and you really kind.
Speaker 1: Of still see that to be fair, like, because teams
Speaker 1: will shift with the short step like just to the
Speaker 1: left to second base and the third baseman at shortstop
Speaker 1: accent you do still get those little numbers that go
Speaker 1: for doubles every now and then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you don't have the guy playing like shallow
Speaker 2: right field, which I love. I mean, it was kind
Speaker 2: of annoying to watch games games like that, but I
Speaker 2: hate that we remove the ability to do that. And
Speaker 2: the kind of crazy thing this year is that even
Speaker 2: without the shift, like Babbitt is down and like averages
Speaker 2: are down, and it's kind of weird that we like
Speaker 2: remove the shift, which and like everyone was like, oh,
Speaker 2: like batting average is going to go way up, but
Speaker 2: like it hasn't at all.
Speaker 1: I disagree with this one. I'm fine with. I don't
Speaker 1: think there should be like very regimented you have to
Speaker 1: stand in this spot, certainly. I the thing that I
Speaker 1: like is two infielders on either side of the bag.
Speaker 1: I do because I hated, like a very clean single
Speaker 1: just oh right to this the third basement playing in
Speaker 1: shallow rightfield. I hated that.
Speaker 2: To me, that's not I love because then you get
Speaker 2: like a guy beating out an infield single to that
Speaker 2: guy in redfielder was great.
Speaker 1: I would rather just be a clean hit, like that's
Speaker 1: a good piece of like Like to me, the shift
Speaker 1: most negatively impacted pull hitters, right, And to me, there's
Speaker 1: nothing inherently wrong with being a pull hitter, So I
Speaker 1: don't like that they are punished whereas somebody who's capable
Speaker 1: going OPO is it isn't less. So like to me,
Speaker 1: a good clean hit is a good clean hit. And like,
Speaker 1: infielders have been standing where they were for a one
Speaker 1: hundred years. I know, like Ted Williams was shifted on,
Speaker 1: Like I'm not saying that it was never done in
Speaker 1: the past, and it's not. This is like a hill
Speaker 1: I'm super willing to die on. But personally, I like,
Speaker 1: you can stand wherever you want as long as two
Speaker 1: infielders are on either side of the bag. To me,
Speaker 1: that's a big one. And and you know what, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't care if you want to call an outfielder in
Speaker 1: to stand in shower, if you want to pull the
Speaker 1: left fielder over to stand in shallow right and say listen,
Speaker 1: if you want to go opa, we're giving you all
Speaker 1: of left field. Like I'd be more okay with that
Speaker 1: because then the reward is like commensurate with the risk
Speaker 1: that you're giving up. But like, yeah, just moving like
Speaker 1: the third basement or shortstop over there, Like I never
Speaker 1: was a big fan of that. It would be really frustrated.
Speaker 1: Like even like teams are still shifting to a degree,
Speaker 1: Like just yesterday, I was watching the O's game and
Speaker 1: Gunnar Henderson hit a ball one hundred miles an hour
Speaker 1: off the bat, a rocket up the middle that got
Speaker 1: past the pitcher, and the shortstop fielded it so cleanly
Speaker 1: because he was standing six inches to the left of
Speaker 1: second base. Like that is a clean hit in every
Speaker 1: iteration of baseball that has ever existed, and it's still
Speaker 1: being taken away by the shifts because teams are smart.
Speaker 1: So like it's still happening.
Speaker 2: You don't want to be able to do that. You
Speaker 2: want to just play shortstop play Derek g no I.
Speaker 1: Bring that story up to say, like teams are still
Speaker 1: finding a way to shift and take away base hits,
Speaker 1: so it's not like it's completely gone. I am not
Speaker 1: a fan of When I was a scout, we called
Speaker 1: it a full ted. Williams was three in fielders on
Speaker 1: one side of the bag. I'm not a fan of
Speaker 1: a full ted. I prefer the halfted where it's sort
Speaker 1: of shifted but not quite over that second base line.
Speaker 1: To me, I think that's I think it's good to
Speaker 1: have at least that little bit of delineation.
Speaker 2: It would be great to announce a new rule where
Speaker 2: you can't shift at all and call it the Derek
Speaker 2: Jeter rule, like you can only shift five feet in
Speaker 2: either direction. Yeah, it would be great.
Speaker 1: I do love a good shot at Jeter. Okay, so
Speaker 1: my And there's some little ones, like we've talked before
Speaker 1: about how I really think the official scorekeeper should be
Speaker 1: allowed to choose which pitcher deserves the win in a game.
Speaker 1: Like like to me, if a guy goes seven strong
Speaker 1: and then his bullpen gives up the lead in the
Speaker 1: eighth and then they happen to hit a walk off
Speaker 1: in the ninth, like the guy who went seven innings
Speaker 1: should get the win. I don't care who was on
Speaker 1: the mound when score change happened, Like I feel really
Speaker 1: strongly about that. But the big one that I have
Speaker 1: said for a while, and this was I first brought
Speaker 1: it up back when they were debate. There was a
Speaker 1: lot of debate about like pictures hitting versus the DH,
Speaker 1: and my stance has been I want neither. I want
Speaker 1: lineups to be eight batters long, No DH and no picture.
Speaker 1: And I like this for a couple of reasons. One,
Speaker 1: I don't want the picture hitting because why why do
Speaker 1: I care about this guy who's coming up?
Speaker 2: It was terrible.
Speaker 1: He's just gonna sacrifice bunt every time the occasional Bartolo
Speaker 1: Colonne home run is not worth it. Like I'm I
Speaker 1: don't need pictures hitting. I also don't need the designated hitter,
Speaker 1: like I don't need a guy who's only up there
Speaker 1: because he can only do half the game. Baseball is
Speaker 1: fun to me because the same it's unlike football, the
Speaker 1: same guy's played both sides. You have to field and
Speaker 1: you have to hit. And I like that a lot.
Speaker 1: And I know that it will never happen because the
Speaker 1: DH has extended careers and like the NFLPA will never
Speaker 1: allow it to change. And I also know that people
Speaker 1: like the symmetry. Oh yeah, no, I don't think they do.
Speaker 1: They keep for correcting me. I've lost my trand oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I know it don't ever have. People also like the
Speaker 1: symmetry of like a nine inning game, three outs, like
Speaker 1: it all kind of divvys up. Well, you know, nine
Speaker 1: batters in the lineup. A perfect game is everybody hits
Speaker 1: three times exactly, you know, get through like twenty seven outs.
Speaker 1: I get all that. I think this would help a
Speaker 1: It gets your best hitters more at bats. I mean,
Speaker 1: Gunnar Henderson leading off, if he's hitting every eight batters
Speaker 1: instead of every nine, is gonna get I haven't done
Speaker 1: the math, but what like, I don't know, thirty more
Speaker 1: at bats in a season? Like that's fine. I want
Speaker 1: to see the best players of baseball hitting more often. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably more. I that was a very quick shody math
Speaker 1: by me. I want to see that happen. I want
Speaker 1: to see hitters get through the lineup more often, which
Speaker 1: means modern pitchers, you know, don't always love going through
Speaker 1: the lineup a third time. Okay, well, now maybe you're
Speaker 1: getting to the bullpen earlier, and because you're going to
Speaker 1: the bullpen earlier, they have to cover more outs and
Speaker 1: can't come in throwing ninety five mile an hour wipe
Speaker 1: out sliders and one hundred and three miles an hour
Speaker 1: all the time. Maybe this actually helps get us more
Speaker 1: contact because the pictures, it's a more difficult task to
Speaker 1: get through the lineup as many times as you need
Speaker 1: in nine innings, and so maybe there's you know, maybe
Speaker 1: it actually helps the hitting, which has been a huge
Speaker 1: talking point about more balls and play and fewer strikeouts
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. So I really like this idea.
Speaker 1: I think if we were starting baseball from scratch, nobody
Speaker 1: would say, hey, why don't we add a guy who
Speaker 1: only does half the game, And nobody would say, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't we have this specialized arm also hit. It
Speaker 1: would be obvious that we would just have eight hitters
Speaker 1: and nine fielders, because the ninth is the guy you
Speaker 1: know on the mound. So I think that it's so
Speaker 1: entrenched that clearly it will never happen. This is me
Speaker 1: very much wish casting that I think this would be
Speaker 1: a fun rule change. But I thought of this like
Speaker 1: years ago when people were having this debate, and ever
Speaker 1: since I've yet to hear a good argument against it.
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 2: I'm on board with it. You know, it's hard for
Speaker 2: me to be really anti DH as a Red Sox
Speaker 2: fan who just watched David Ortiz just like own the
Speaker 2: world for a while, like as a DH, but I
Speaker 2: also think oprated he would have he would have been
Speaker 2: now he's not overrid. I think he would have been
Speaker 2: fine if he just had to like go out there
Speaker 2: and play first base. Maybe not the last two or
Speaker 2: three years of his career when he could like barely
Speaker 2: walk because he literally had to like stop playing baseball
Speaker 2: because like his feet hurt too much, even just as
Speaker 2: a D eight. So I don't think he would have
Speaker 2: been fine the last few years. But like two thousand
Speaker 2: and four, he played a little bit of first base
Speaker 2: here and there, like it was fine.
Speaker 1: He was a grown man, threw temper tantrums and once
Speaker 1: destroyed the Orioles bullpen phone because he was mad about
Speaker 1: a call.
Speaker 2: What was he doing in the Orioles bullpen?
Speaker 1: No, like they're they're in the dugout, like the phone.
Speaker 1: It was at like the phone front of the visit's
Speaker 1: dugout to the bullpen. He took a bat to it
Speaker 1: and shattered it.
Speaker 2: I'm fine with that.
Speaker 1: I'm no Yankees fan, but I was all is like,
Speaker 1: whenever there's like an MVP debate, like a Rod Ortiz,
Speaker 1: I was like, it's clearly a Rod because he's as
Speaker 1: good of a hitter and also doing all this stuff
Speaker 1: in the field that orties can't do.
Speaker 2: That's just butteroids.
Speaker 1: Well that's a different conversation for a different day. But
Speaker 1: in the moment, I felt pretty strongly about it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're important. I think it's I think it
Speaker 1: would be a great rules change that would make the
Speaker 1: game more fun with the stars would get more opportunities.
Speaker 1: It would, I think, help hitters in general, like you know,
Speaker 1: got to take back some of the power from pictures
Speaker 1: are so darn good now and we wouldn't have this
Speaker 1: like useless debate of like pictures hitting versus h which
Speaker 1: is largely gone now that they've made it universal. But
Speaker 1: I just think it's to me, it would be a
Speaker 1: no brainer. I would love to see that.
Speaker 2: I think you'd get more cool stories like like the
Speaker 2: Moneyball story where Ron was it Ron Washington had to
Speaker 2: teach Scott how to break how to play first base
Speaker 2: like that, Yeah, because he couldn't throw, like as a
Speaker 2: catcher anymore. I think you would. I think you would,
Speaker 2: you know, see some cool stories like that where like
Speaker 2: you know someone who you know, like a David Ortiz
Speaker 2: like has to play first base, or someone has to
Speaker 2: you know, like a Kyle Schwarber like can play the outfield,
Speaker 2: but like his value as a hitter or as a
Speaker 2: player is drastically different. If you have to put him
Speaker 2: in left field every night, then if you can just
Speaker 2: date him, so I think you'd see some interesting it.
Speaker 1: Also, I think would incentivize teams to have more depth
Speaker 1: in the lineup because if you have like kind of
Speaker 1: that defensive specialist who's really bad in the lineup, well,
Speaker 1: now he's not one of nine, he's one of eight.
Speaker 1: He's a higher percentage of your at bats in the
Speaker 1: course of a long season, which is a lot of
Speaker 1: at bats.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I just would also kind of bring back
Speaker 2: some of the because like, really the only good thing
Speaker 2: about pitchers hitting was late game like pinch hitters, and
Speaker 2: like the kind of like strategy that was involved, and
Speaker 2: like having you know when your pitcher was up in
Speaker 2: the lineup, and like double switches and like all that stuff.
Speaker 2: You would bring some of that back in the opposite
Speaker 2: with like if you have kyleeg Schwarber and left field,
Speaker 2: if you have a lead in the seventh or eighth inning,
Speaker 2: you probably need to pull him for someone who can
Speaker 2: play a little bit better out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm that we see ida Aye. This has been
Speaker 1: my favorite rules change forever, So I'm glad that I
Speaker 1: didn't have to make the case too strong for you.
Speaker 1: Let us know for the listeners in the comments, so
Speaker 1: you know, go ahead and reply to us on Twitter
Speaker 1: or in the reviews. Let us know if you have
Speaker 1: any rules changes of your own. We might do this
Speaker 1: again later in the season if we, you know, want
Speaker 1: to throw out someway.
Speaker 2: I got one more quick one before we wrap up.
Speaker 2: We don't have to discuss it, but like, for the
Speaker 2: love of God, can we just get like universal baseballs,
Speaker 2: Like the baseball is always the same, it's pre tagged.
Speaker 2: It's just like we're not changing it. They're not bouncy balls,
Speaker 2: just like one baseball, and that's what we use.
Speaker 1: That's what I want, you know what I'll say very
Speaker 1: quickly for my kind of one follow up is I
Speaker 1: love and when I play adult softball, they have like
Speaker 1: the orange bag to the side of first because so
Speaker 1: you're not staying on the same bag. And every time
Speaker 1: I fave play first base on a bag that doesn't
Speaker 1: have that, like in the back of my head, I'm
Speaker 1: like nervous about my foot getting like in the way
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like just have the X second base. There's
Speaker 1: no reason for first base to not have the extra
Speaker 1: bag right there. I just think it would be super
Speaker 1: easy and not chee the game in Yeah, okay, let's
Speaker 1: move quickly because I do have another show to go
Speaker 1: do shortly, so we'll go very quickly here through our
Speaker 1: Bilo Sell High picks and also Waiver Central, and then
Speaker 1: wrap up the show here. So kick us off with
Speaker 1: your favorite buy it low.
Speaker 2: It's my favorite by Low. I actually stole it from Kelly,
Speaker 2: who wrote it up for this week's article on the site,
Speaker 2: which is six Fantasy Baseball Players to Trade Now, and
Speaker 2: it's it's our weekly one of our two weekly by
Speaker 2: Low Sell High articles, this one is our featured pros one.
Speaker 2: I did not contribute to this one, but I will
Speaker 2: probably be back next week. But I stole this one
Speaker 2: from Kelly because I really liked it. I'm a big
Speaker 2: fan of Marcus Sime and I think I've traditionally kind
Speaker 2: of had him as like a cell high in the past,
Speaker 2: just because I always think he was a little bit overvalued.
Speaker 2: But he just had a really bad June, and I
Speaker 2: think just with this season long numbers, you can probably
Speaker 2: get him for a deal right now, just because I think,
Speaker 2: I mean, it's it might be hard depending on like
Speaker 2: the position versatility, but and like what you're you know,
Speaker 2: the other manager as to kind of like replace him.
Speaker 2: But like I just I see like his numbers should
Speaker 2: be a lot better than they are, and he just
Speaker 2: like had a really rough patch. I think, you know,
Speaker 2: the Marcus Sime manager is gonna be frustrated right now,
Speaker 2: and I think you could. I think you can get
Speaker 2: a deal for him.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good call. I also drew mine
Speaker 1: from the Bilo cel High article which everybody should go
Speaker 1: check out, and I highlight Dylan Cease which Rex rut
Speaker 1: Chick I believe is how to pronounce his name and
Speaker 1: one of our contributing writers, and I thought he made
Speaker 1: a great case where Cese like has had a kind
Speaker 1: of a rough stretch here in June, but his expected
Speaker 1: era is basically a full run lower than his current era.
Speaker 1: He obviously is still giving you you know, his whiff
Speaker 1: and strike out rates are both ninety fifth percentile, as
Speaker 1: was highlighted in the article. I think that you know,
Speaker 1: regression is coming for him like towards that era, getting
Speaker 1: you know, a run ish lower. You're getting great strikeouts.
Speaker 1: And if somebody is looking at his last six starts
Speaker 1: four nine four era in that stretch, somebody says like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, he hasn't been very good and I'm wanted
Speaker 1: to get out from the Dylan Ce's business. He's somebody
Speaker 1: that I would be willing to pay to buy low for.
Speaker 1: But you don't need to buy like at you know,
Speaker 1: horrible like terrible prices. You can like, I would pay
Speaker 1: market price to get him when market price is buying low,
Speaker 1: if that makes sense, Like, I don't think you need
Speaker 1: to like low ball the guy for him. I would
Speaker 1: give up something of value to get him because I
Speaker 1: think he's going to be even more valuable going forward.
Speaker 1: So I think that's a great call by Rex. Who
Speaker 1: is your favorite cell high?
Speaker 2: So I like the Dylan Cees bilow. I almost picked him,
Speaker 2: but I've I feel like I've talked about Dylan Sees
Speaker 2: a bunch on the show, so I didn't want to
Speaker 2: go right back to that. Well, as everyone alredly knows
Speaker 2: that I'm a Dylan Ceese fan, my favorite sell high
Speaker 2: is Mason Win and I'm just so over Mason Win.
Speaker 2: I'm so ready for this guy to just stop like
Speaker 2: looking better than he is. And I think the breaking
Speaker 2: point for me was recently, for some reason, I get
Speaker 2: a lot of Cardinals twitter on my timeline. I don't
Speaker 2: really know how that happens, but I get a lot
Speaker 2: of Cardinals tweets, and I saw an account put out
Speaker 2: like a poll and in like complete seriousness, they were saying, like,
Speaker 2: if you were the Cardinals, would you trade Mason Wayne
Speaker 2: for Jackson Holliday like in real life? And they were
Speaker 2: like it was like the pole results were like I
Speaker 2: would do it, and I think the team would do it,
Speaker 2: or like I would do it, but I don't think
Speaker 2: the team would do it, and like it was like
Speaker 2: overwhelmingly like the Cardinals would do it, but the the
Speaker 2: Orioles would not. But there were enough votes the other
Speaker 2: way where I was like, what are we talking about
Speaker 2: right now?
Speaker 1: Everything overvalues their own players. I mean it's just like
Speaker 1: jack Like if you look at the list of guys
Speaker 1: who have been like the consensus number one prospect in baseball,
Speaker 1: it's like all superstars and Waterfranco, Like it's all just
Speaker 1: like the best players in baseball. So I like, yeah,
Speaker 1: so like you just not like teams have no fans
Speaker 1: of teams just seemingly have no concept of what that's worth. It.
Speaker 2: It was wild to man. I was just like what
Speaker 2: are we doing. I actually voted on it just to
Speaker 2: see what the results were, and it was just it
Speaker 2: was wild. Like the results were what they should have,
Speaker 2: but in terms of like result like the majority, but
Speaker 2: like the how much it was winning by, it was
Speaker 2: like was it needs to be one hundred percent? Like
Speaker 2: and it was just driving me nuts. And I was
Speaker 2: like this, like he's he's like a great story. He's
Speaker 2: a good baseball player, but like his value in fantasy
Speaker 2: is really overvalued. Like he's hitting for a high average.
Speaker 2: I don't know that that's gonna, like, you know, really
Speaker 2: be sticky. I think he's like fine, and like he
Speaker 2: steals a few bases and he doesn't really have much power.
Speaker 2: And it's just like everyone just thinks this guy's great,
Speaker 2: and I think he's like fine. But if you want
Speaker 2: to tell me give me anything for Mason win, you
Speaker 2: can have it, no problem.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good call. Micel High is Stephen Kwan.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a couple weeks ago with Bogman
Speaker 1: on the show. His batting average is already trying to
Speaker 1: come down a bit because it was at like four hundred,
Speaker 1: so it's still at three sixty seven. He's not really
Speaker 1: running this year. He only has four stolen bases. He
Speaker 1: does have a bit more pop. He's got eight home runs,
Speaker 1: which is he had five last year sixty year before,
Speaker 1: so obviously a bit more power, a bit less speed,
Speaker 1: which is something that you kind of rely on Kuan
Speaker 1: for the average, which I think will still remain high,
Speaker 1: but again we're calling this to sell high. If you
Speaker 1: can get somebody really good for Kuan, I think that
Speaker 1: the batting average will continue to come down over the
Speaker 1: course of the season, still will be very good, but
Speaker 1: I think you can get a really good player, maybe
Speaker 1: even a really good pitcher for Kuwan, depending on the
Speaker 1: league and what other needs are going on in there.
Speaker 1: So somebody's willing to buy him as a superstar, then
Speaker 1: I'm willing to sell him as that.
Speaker 2: Have you looked at his stat cast page recently, because
Speaker 2: it's wild.
Speaker 1: I looked at it yesterday. I don't have it up
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: It's just like like sweet Spot Chase with k percentage,
Speaker 2: they're all like ninety nine hundred percentile, and like expect
Speaker 2: the batting average ninety nine percentile, and like then when
Speaker 2: you look at like the actual contact, Oh yeah, I
Speaker 2: average exa BLASTI tenth barrel percentage, two hard eight percentage too.
Speaker 2: It's just like it's either like one hundred or zero.
Speaker 2: It's great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty wild. All right, let's quickly hit on waivers.
Speaker 1: I'll go first. I'll just give you both at the
Speaker 1: same time because I gotta get moving here. Luis Garcia
Speaker 1: is my favorite hitter. He's basically a pacing for something
Speaker 1: like a twenty twenty season with a batting average about
Speaker 1: two sixty, and he's only rostered in sixteen percent of
Speaker 1: Yahoo leagues. I just think that number is too low.
Speaker 1: And I think with James Wood up, like the lineup
Speaker 1: in the second half of the season might not be
Speaker 1: super terrible, so there might be some more opportunities for
Speaker 1: runs in RBI. He's still really young. Whenly twenty four,
Speaker 1: he's had hot streaks this season. Two he's expecting bad
Speaker 1: average is like twenty points higher than it is right
Speaker 1: now anyway, So I like Luis Garcia. I think he's
Speaker 1: under rostered. And then Dean Kramer for the pitcher. Part
Speaker 1: of this is he looked really good, and I was
Speaker 1: against the Mariners, so everybody looks good against the Mariners.
Speaker 1: He looks really good in his first start back from
Speaker 1: injury earlier this week. I forget. I actually don't have
Speaker 1: it up. I think it was something like five innings,
Speaker 1: eight strikeouts, you know, one hit, something like that. He
Speaker 1: looked really good. He's obviously on a team that needs
Speaker 1: starting pitching, like the spot in the rotation is his
Speaker 1: unless he really falls off a cliff. It's not like
Speaker 1: he's you know, there's a threat of you know, all
Speaker 1: these other pitchers to take his his away from him.
Speaker 1: And as of right now, he's scheduled to be a
Speaker 1: two start pitcher this week. I think they might change that.
Speaker 1: I think they might use the off date to bump
Speaker 1: corburn Burns up to get that last start of the
Speaker 1: first half against the Yankees, just because it is against
Speaker 1: the Yankees. So he might not be a two start pitcher,
Speaker 1: but right now he is, so he might get two
Speaker 1: starts out of him next week. He's also somebody very
Speaker 1: available twenty six percent rostered on Yahoo. So those are
Speaker 1: my two. Luis Garcia is the hitter and Dean Kramer
Speaker 1: is a pitcher. Who are your two?
Speaker 2: Sure, I'll give you both of mine as well real quick.
Speaker 2: I like the Dean Kramer pick. And I also you
Speaker 2: didn't mention it. But one thing I like about him
Speaker 2: is he's throwing a splitter now, and so I like
Speaker 2: whenever there's like a new pitch that you can kind
Speaker 2: of point to for some of that success. And so
Speaker 2: and like, you know, splitter is like the big trendy
Speaker 2: pitch this year, you know, after like sweepers. Yeah, and
Speaker 2: so a lot of people are having a lot of
Speaker 2: success throwing splitter. So I like that. My favorite hitter
Speaker 2: is Jose Miranda. He's been red hot lately and he's
Speaker 2: moving up in the Twins lineup. He's been batting like
Speaker 2: clean up. He moved up to second a few days ago.
Speaker 2: And with the hitting environment right now, he's only rosters
Speaker 2: in thirty six percent on Yahoo, which is kind of
Speaker 2: crazy with how good he's been recently, especially with that.
Speaker 2: You know, in a lot of leagues he's first base
Speaker 2: third base eligible, and pretty much he should be in
Speaker 2: every league.
Speaker 1: I think.
Speaker 2: I think he mostly plays third. I think in a
Speaker 2: lot of leagues, Like if you're on Yahoo, he'll be
Speaker 2: first base eligible as well too. But you know, two
Speaker 2: pretty shallop positions, and you know, you got to take
Speaker 2: hitting where you can get it. Right now with how
Speaker 2: weird the landscape is, even though as I mentioned earlier,
Speaker 2: it's you know, things are starting to heat up. So
Speaker 2: he's available in a lot of leagues. I would go
Speaker 2: get him. And my favorite pitcher is Andrew Abbott. He's
Speaker 2: available in about half of Yahoo leagues, right around fifty percent,
Speaker 2: and I like him because he's been pitching fairly well,
Speaker 2: but also more importantly two starts at home against the
Speaker 2: Rockies and at home against the Marlins, and I'm going
Speaker 2: to pick my two start pitcher for a very similar reason.
Speaker 2: I'm going to pick his teammate coming up in a
Speaker 2: few minutes. But I'm always looking at two star pitchers
Speaker 2: streaming all my leagues, and when you get two, those
Speaker 2: are two the best matchups you can get, especially if
Speaker 2: you can get the Rockies away from Coursefield. So Andrew
Speaker 2: Abbott the pitcher, and Jose Miranda on the hitting sign.
Speaker 1: Let's go to weekend excitement. I am most excited for
Speaker 1: a couple different things. Aaron Nola versus Max Freed on
Speaker 1: Friday Night tonight is a really fun one that I'm
Speaker 1: excited to watch. Paul Skan's just anytime he's pitching on
Speaker 1: the weekend. I'm gonna pick Paul Skans in weekend excitement.
Speaker 1: He's going up against the Mets, and then Garrett Crochet
Speaker 1: against the Marlins for a couple of reasons. One is
Speaker 1: because he is all these rumors about being traded and
Speaker 1: I'm just kind of curious to see how he continues
Speaker 1: to hold up with the inning stuff. But two, like
Speaker 1: Krochet going against the Marlins could be an all time start.
Speaker 1: So that's what I'm excited for. What are you excited for?
Speaker 2: So I'm actually excited because I'm not getting a great
Speaker 2: pitching matchup, unfortunately, but maybe I'll see some good offense.
Speaker 2: But I'm actually going I live about thirty minutes from
Speaker 2: the Braves Ballpark and I've I've yet to go there,
Speaker 2: and so I'm going to go there for the first
Speaker 2: time on Sunday and when they see Phillies Braves. A
Speaker 2: friend of mine from Jersey is going to be in town,
Speaker 2: and so I'm going to meet him at the game.
Speaker 2: And it looks like I'm getting Michael and Mercatto versus
Speaker 2: re Now the Lopez that was my pitching matchup that day, Yeah,
Speaker 2: right now, might get some offense on that day, but yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm excited for that. I'm not really excited to you know,
Speaker 2: it's really, really really hot down here, so I don't
Speaker 2: know how I'm gonna if I'm really gonna love like
Speaker 2: sitting in the Braves Ballpark at ninety five degree heat.
Speaker 2: But you know, anytime I can see him a baseball
Speaker 2: game live in a while, sometime you get to go
Speaker 2: to the ballpark is a good day.
Speaker 1: All right. Let's go to our two start pitcher competition.
Speaker 1: A quick recap from the last month, since we, you know,
Speaker 1: have not been on together. So Kelly picked for me
Speaker 1: in the first week. I was actually picked Logan Gilbert,
Speaker 1: who beat Dylan Ceese, was your pick, so that was
Speaker 1: a win for me. Then Tuma picked Pablo Lopez. You
Speaker 1: picked John Gray that second week, easy win for me
Speaker 1: as well. Those are both pretty faster pick. Yeah, we're
Speaker 1: not gonna there's gonna be no debating that one from you.
Speaker 1: So those are two wins for me. And then the
Speaker 1: first week you were out. Bogman made a mistake. He
Speaker 1: I told him that he couldn't repeat anybody, but I
Speaker 1: forgot to remind him the list of who the has
Speaker 1: already been picked, and he didn't check the outline. It
Speaker 1: was mostly my fault. I take the blame. He picked
Speaker 1: Aaron Nola, who you had already used, so I said, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll have a one exception. We each can use one
Speaker 1: picture repeated once, so I have that so in my
Speaker 1: back pocket. Nola did beat Ranger Suarez. We went with
Speaker 1: a couple of Phillies because two Phillies pictures had two
Speaker 1: starts each, and Nola was better. So you were finally
Speaker 1: back on the board for the first time in a while.
Speaker 1: And then last week Welsh picked for you. He picked
Speaker 1: Scooble and I picked Hunter Brown. That one is still
Speaker 1: waiting to be determined here. Currently the record through twelve
Speaker 1: completed weeks is I have seven and you have five.
Speaker 1: So who are you picking to try and get even
Speaker 1: closer to evening this thing up?
Speaker 2: Well, real quick, as we go seven to five as
Speaker 2: the official Italian in your favor. There were two nail
Speaker 2: bitters that we had someone else pick, like who won
Speaker 2: that week, and Tuma picked one and Kelli picked one,
Speaker 2: and they both picked you, And so I will say
Speaker 2: it's seven to five, it could easily be six six
Speaker 2: or seven five the other act because we had two
Speaker 2: real nail biers, even when I tried to, you know,
Speaker 2: tell them that they had to pick me because I
Speaker 2: think matchup a few weeks agother was George Kirby versus
Speaker 2: Matt Waldron. They literally they had like really close lines,
Speaker 2: but uh, Kirby allowed like one more run, but I
Speaker 2: had more strikeouts, and I think Tuma gave you the
Speaker 2: win for that one, much to my chagrin.
Speaker 1: Kelly gave me the win on Kirby, which I remember
Speaker 1: her picking because she got the strikeouts. And then Tuma
Speaker 1: gave me the win on Logan Gilbert versus Dylan Cees.
Speaker 2: There you go, there you go. So you got that one.
Speaker 2: Good for you, Good for you. So for I already
Speaker 2: alluded to my pick, but I'm going to so for
Speaker 2: my waiver pick, I picked Andrew Abbott because he's got
Speaker 2: two great matchups and for my two star pitchering one
Speaker 2: with Nicolodolo for the two same matchups, home against the
Speaker 2: Rockies and home against the Marlins.
Speaker 1: Go me. Actually, I think I figured I wrong. I
Speaker 1: think I think Tuma did pick me as the winner
Speaker 1: with the Kirby one. I think I misspoke there, But
Speaker 1: either way, I think you did too. By the way
Speaker 1: an unbiased third party picked me, so.
Speaker 2: That I would have given Kelly a really hard time
Speaker 2: if she picked as a.
Speaker 1: Winner, because I forgot that we have to wait two
Speaker 1: weeks to make the pick, not one. Yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 1: it was definitely too much. Anyways, my pick, I'm going
Speaker 1: with Ronelle Blanco, who you have used this year I
Speaker 1: have not. He also gets to start against some rounds.
Speaker 1: I find it really difficult to pick this week, partly
Speaker 1: because the guys that were good I've already used, so
Speaker 1: in trying to keep with that, you know, not repeating anybody,
Speaker 1: it was very difficult for me to find somebody that
Speaker 1: I liked their matchups and the pitcher and I hadn't
Speaker 1: already used. So I figured I go with Blanco. He
Speaker 1: hasn't been as good as he was at the start
Speaker 1: of the year, but he still has it in him
Speaker 1: for good starts, and obviously this Marlin start, I'm hoping
Speaker 1: we'll go a long way for me, so that'll be
Speaker 1: my pick. I do have to get out of here.
Speaker 1: Good to have you back, buddy, Glad to be talking
Speaker 1: baseball with you again. We will be back together at
Speaker 1: least through the rest of July here and then we
Speaker 1: might have some scheduling bookkeeping too, let everybody know about
Speaker 1: as we get into August and closer to football season,
Speaker 1: when our lives become a lot busier, But at least
Speaker 1: stick with us through July and then the show will
Speaker 1: still be around beyond that, but we'll let everybody know
Speaker 1: what's coming once we get there. So for Mayor and
Speaker 1: for all the guest who filed in the last month,
Speaker 1: I really appreciate it. I'm Ryan warmly thank you everybody
Speaker 1: for tuning in. We'll see you again next week. Thanks
Speaker 1: for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast. Follow
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