Speaker 1: What's up friends, Happy Mondays everybody. It is leading off
Speaker 1: right here on Fantasy Pros. I'm Chris Welsh. That is
Speaker 1: the Joe Alrico, and it is presumably playoff time, Fantasy
Speaker 1: Baseball playoff time for many people. Again, and sometimes I
Speaker 1: think a semi negative to the Fantasy baseball structure is
Speaker 1: it's like last week, this week, next week. There's a
Speaker 1: little too many different weeks of playoffs. But either way,
Speaker 1: it's a home stretch time. So we're going to talk
Speaker 1: to you about all the latest and greatest. We will
Speaker 1: and can answer some of your questions. So for all
Speaker 1: of our peanuts and Crackerjacks that are out there, you
Speaker 1: can drop some questions in the chat, whether it's like
Speaker 1: a streamer or a pickup or anything like that. We
Speaker 1: will try to answer that. We got some best bets
Speaker 1: and we got a whole lot more. Mister Joe Rico,
Speaker 1: how are you, my friend? Welcome back into an almost September.
Speaker 2: Good Lord, We're getting there, man, We're getting there. I'm good.
Speaker 3: Like I said before we started going, had a relaxing weekend.
Speaker 3: I was playing some golf, almost saw a blue jay,
Speaker 3: no hitter, So pretty good weekend for me pretty relaxing stuff.
Speaker 2: You as well, I.
Speaker 1: Think, yeah, one hundred percent. So, like I said, put
Speaker 1: some questions in the chat if you got him, and
Speaker 1: we'll rock with it. So funny story, let's talk about that,
Speaker 1: that potential no hitter. I'm kind of going about my
Speaker 1: business and I get a text from CBS, and CBS
Speaker 1: is like, hey, cause, and I was doing stuff during
Speaker 1: the day and I wasn't even tuned into any of
Speaker 1: the games at that moment, and I get a text, Hey,
Speaker 1: if Boden Francis gets this no hitter, are you available?
Speaker 1: And I'm like what, So I get up, I get
Speaker 1: up on my app and I'm like, holy crap, we
Speaker 1: got a no hitter going on. We got all these strikeouts, Joe,
Speaker 1: no kidding, they're they're you know, in the bottom of
Speaker 1: the inning. Blah blah blah. Get to the next inning,
Speaker 1: first at batter Taylor Ward and he hits the homer
Speaker 1: my first batter seeing Boden Francis in the no hitter
Speaker 1: because they were going to have me come on TV
Speaker 1: and foly, that's part of it. So it's my fault.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to tell you all. It is my fault.
Speaker 1: But Boden France has struck out a career high twelve
Speaker 1: as he dominated these dudes. He had that going into
Speaker 1: the ninth inning, and then it was Taylor Ward just
Speaker 1: crushing that homer. He ended up walking three. He hit
Speaker 1: a batter, which was Taylor Ward career high pitches. I
Speaker 1: was monitoring those pitches as it was going one hundred
Speaker 1: and seventeen eighty four for strikes. Ridiculous unless you're Taylor Ward,
Speaker 1: who threw a bunch of shade and was just like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe other people were getting tough stuff,
Speaker 1: but he looked pretty hittable to me, and to be fair,
Speaker 1: he did crush him. What are your thoughts, I was,
Speaker 1: I've been kind of like indifferent on Boden Francis, but
Speaker 1: he's one of those guys that he is ending immensely
Speaker 1: strong talk to me about this performance.
Speaker 3: I had been mostly indifferent myself being a Blue Jay
Speaker 3: fan in Toronto. In case anybody in the chat doesn't realize,
Speaker 3: I am Toronto born and raised.
Speaker 2: I've been a Blue Jay fan a long time.
Speaker 3: Didn't think there was much with about in France's really
Speaker 3: over the first three year four months of the season,
Speaker 3: but these last four starts have just been incredible, and
Speaker 3: the season long stats are actually looking pretty solid.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: It's not just even if you look at the last
Speaker 3: four starts, like he has a three seventy eight expected ERA,
Speaker 3: nearly an eighteen percent strikeout minus walker like three seventy
Speaker 3: four Sierra. These are good numbers for the whole season.
Speaker 3: The barrel rate's a little bit too high still, it's
Speaker 3: still in the double digits, and that's somewhat of a concern.
Speaker 2: But he has been really impressive.
Speaker 3: I think that he's somebody that's worth adding pretty much
Speaker 3: everywhere now. I think it's Philadelphia and Boston this week
Speaker 3: for him. So that's a little bit iffy for sure.
Speaker 3: I think I'd probably lean towards sitting him in the
Speaker 3: more shallow leagues, but he's definitely worth picking up all
Speaker 3: over the place right now.
Speaker 1: There's something that I'm a little bit worried about, especially
Speaker 1: young pitchers like this coming off of a no hitter
Speaker 1: or theoretical no hitter like that one hundred and seventeen career.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, I'm not sure if there's like
Speaker 1: any actual analysis of like guys regress forty percent to
Speaker 1: their means after you know, having career highd pitches or
Speaker 1: anything like that, there might be some data would be
Speaker 1: worthwhile for somebody, But not only do I not like that.
Speaker 1: I hate that matchup. By the way, for Francis one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventeen pitches, he had ten whiffs off the fastball.
Speaker 1: Always very interesting too, because like I think that is
Speaker 1: speaking to the splitter. It was something I said in
Speaker 1: the off season which has been completely counter to Logan Gilbert.
Speaker 1: I think I said. I think I said it with
Speaker 1: Eno where we were talking about, you know, guys that
Speaker 1: you know have these really good splitters are implementing high
Speaker 1: usage of splitters, and it's like we got to have
Speaker 1: like a really good fastball like that. That's something that
Speaker 1: plays up and if they work, they coincide together so well.
Speaker 1: And I at that time kind of thought Logan maybe didn't.
Speaker 1: And that is something that at least Francis is putting up.
Speaker 1: Though it's not a dominant fastball, it's sitting around ninety two.
Speaker 1: But he had ten whiffs and forty one swings on
Speaker 1: the fastball. That fastball set sixty eight percent in the zone.
Speaker 1: That's like a wild in zone percentage, and he only
Speaker 1: had five other whiffs off of the splitter and the
Speaker 1: slider combined. It's okay. So I mean he had a
Speaker 1: twelve strike I just want to point this out, a
Speaker 1: twelve strikeout performance with one hundred and seventeen pitches and
Speaker 1: he only had a twenty three percent whiff rate, Like
Speaker 1: that's not necessarily ideal. That was like he dominated this situation.
Speaker 1: But from an overall perspective, I still don't know if
Speaker 1: he has like absolutely ridiculously dominant you know, stuff like
Speaker 1: swing and miss stuff. So maybe I'm just gonna like
Speaker 1: keep kind of fading until the end of the season.
Speaker 1: But I absolutely hate those matchups.
Speaker 2: So the matchups are brutal.
Speaker 3: I think it depends on your league size, It depends
Speaker 3: on your situation if your pitchers are stacked or whatever,
Speaker 3: versus if you're in a fifteen team league and you
Speaker 3: just lost Hunter Green and you need to pick up
Speaker 3: a replacement you're just kind of desperate. There are gonna
Speaker 3: be different situational aspects to it, but I think by
Speaker 3: and large, you gotta you kind of have to pick
Speaker 3: him up unless you are just in such a perfect
Speaker 3: position pitching, because you might not start him this week
Speaker 3: but next week. I haven't really looked forward to the
Speaker 3: matchup so much, but I feel like he's somebody where
Speaker 3: you may get a few more quality starts out of
Speaker 3: him going forward. It's a bit dicey, it's a bit dicey,
Speaker 3: but I think you got to give it a chance.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean again, like the thing that works really
Speaker 1: well for him is you if you consistently show these
Speaker 1: guys that you're throwing a fastball in the zone, which
Speaker 1: he did almost seventy percent of the time, and then
Speaker 1: you can just kill that splitter off, which was forty
Speaker 1: five percent zone percentage, and it just you know, boom
Speaker 1: goes up that you would actually think the splitter would
Speaker 1: have a lot more of a whiff rate on it.
Speaker 1: But I think it's guys trying to like keep up
Speaker 1: and chase and stuff like that, so you know, it's
Speaker 1: solid and they keep working, and yeah, it's probably something
Speaker 1: to look at. By the way, this is so interesting.
Speaker 1: So Angelo says we start playoffs next week. All seven
Speaker 1: of his teams made it pretty easy. That's in there.
Speaker 1: Somebody in the chat said they don't start for oh yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah right here. Michael says, I have two more weeks
Speaker 1: of regular season before playoffs, and then we have other
Speaker 1: people that are like I'm in the playoffs right now.
Speaker 1: I just still think that's like we got to fix that.
Speaker 1: We got to fix that. In fantasy baseball where we
Speaker 1: have I mean, it's just so large and big, like
Speaker 1: maybe you really can't. But it's like in fantasy football,
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, maybe you go to week eighteen, you're
Speaker 1: probably in week seventeen, and that's pretty standard. There's just
Speaker 1: not a standard here. There's like a month deviation between it.
Speaker 1: But well, you know, we'll never actually get there. Let's
Speaker 1: talk about Aaron Judge two for four, walk, two homers.
Speaker 1: He is now up to fifty one homers, one hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty two RBI, he's hitting three thirty three. But
Speaker 1: here was the thing I wanted to mention. He is
Speaker 1: on pace to break his single season al home run
Speaker 1: record sixty three paced homers. And I had asked that,
Speaker 1: Did I ask you this earlier? What was going to happen?
Speaker 1: Sixty homers by Judge or eighty stolen bases by Ellie?
Speaker 1: Did I ask you that question? Or was that Bubba
Speaker 1: or Bogman or in my head.
Speaker 3: Might be might have been me A couple of weeks ago,
Speaker 3: it might have been me. I can't remember what I said,
Speaker 3: but at this point it might be Judge. I think
Speaker 3: Judge is more likely, like the guy's every day hitting
Speaker 3: a home run or two. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 3: seen anything like this. Like I was a little bit
Speaker 3: young to really appreciate Barry Bonds in his prime. This
Speaker 3: is the best power hitter I've ever seen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not too young for that.
Speaker 1: And Barry Bonds is the best hitter I have watched.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Griffy obviously had his moments, but
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't span and see, like now,
Speaker 1: if Joe were on here, old man Joe, piece of Pia,
Speaker 1: you know, he would have the perspective of like, you know,
Speaker 1: seventy eighties guys, I really don't Barry Bonds was the
Speaker 1: single greatest hitter that you ever watch. I mean every singe. Now,
Speaker 1: Judge does have that thing where when you know he's
Speaker 1: up to it bat you're like, oh, something's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: You know, Like there's not a lot of hitters that
Speaker 1: have that. Otani has that, and Judge has that where
Speaker 1: every time up you're like, oh, some wreckage is gonna happen,
Speaker 1: Like you don't expect a negative outcome, and that that's
Speaker 1: what Bonds was. Every time he was up, it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, they're either going to just try to walk
Speaker 1: him because they're terrified of him, or he's gonna to
Speaker 1: have absolute damage. So and Walkee said, Bonds is the
Speaker 1: best hitter. And I don't understand why anyone argues it
Speaker 1: aside from killing time. Well we you know why they
Speaker 1: argue it, Yeah, because of steroids. But like at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, the problem that you kind of
Speaker 1: have is like the steroids didn't like change the eye
Speaker 1: and the type of hittory he was. It just maybe
Speaker 1: changed the impact of it. But Barry Bonds was the
Speaker 1: greatest hitter I've ever seen, and Judge exemplifies some of
Speaker 1: that stuff. It's not the same, it's not the same,
Speaker 1: but he's the most dangerous hitter in baseball right now.
Speaker 1: Oh I think yeah.
Speaker 3: Like, I mean we were talking a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 3: I think it was on this show about like could
Speaker 3: it still be Bobby Wood Junior or whatever? But like
Speaker 3: he has just separated himself so much, even from Otani,
Speaker 3: Like I still think Otani when he's pitching, is probably
Speaker 3: the best player in baseball. But just on a pure
Speaker 3: hitting standpoint, like Judges WRC plus is two twenty six.
Speaker 3: There's been like five seasons of that level in history.
Speaker 3: Like I grew up idolizing Albert Pooholes, Miguel Cabrera, but
Speaker 3: I don't think they were ever at this level. Like
Speaker 3: I think that over a prolonged period of time, pooh
Speaker 3: Holes his career, Cabrera's career at this point are still
Speaker 3: more impressed, so was specifically pooh Holes, But on like
Speaker 3: a per at bad basis. I don't think they were
Speaker 3: ever as scary as Judges right now.
Speaker 1: No, you know, and a funny thing. I just want
Speaker 1: to point out, not to keep harping this. Where did
Speaker 1: it go? This was one of my favorite videos. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you've seen it online. There's this video.
Speaker 1: What is it from? Someone tell me what it's from.
Speaker 1: It's Bonds and Maddox breaking down and at bat and
Speaker 1: it's like it goes to what Bonds thinks is gonna happen,
Speaker 1: and then Maddix says, here's what I'm gonna do, and Bonds,
Speaker 1: by the way, perfectly calls He's like, you know, he
Speaker 1: thinks I'm going I'm looking for this, but I'm now
Speaker 1: going to look for this. And it keeps going back
Speaker 1: and back and back on the at bats of what
Speaker 1: they're going to do Maddix versus him, and then it
Speaker 1: ends with Barry Bonds absolutely just murdering the ball into
Speaker 1: right field. It's a really cool video. You could probably
Speaker 1: just look it up. It's from the MLB Network Mattic Special. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: thank you, Fred. That definitely go check out that video.
Speaker 1: At least it's an awesome one. But judges on another
Speaker 1: historic pace on the home run side. And this is
Speaker 1: another year of me being on this show realizing had
Speaker 1: you just pick Aaron Judge every single day, you would
Speaker 1: be winning the home run contest. That's just how it is.
Speaker 1: Right now, we'll do the home run board here in
Speaker 1: a little bit. We got this is like a version
Speaker 1: of rookie. Lookie, we got a bunch of rookie stuff
Speaker 1: going out here. This happened after the show on Friday,
Speaker 1: but it was announced that Dylan Cruz, top prospect with
Speaker 1: the Nationals. Dylan Cruz was being called up for today,
Speaker 1: so he is going to be in the lineup today.
Speaker 1: He was one of my favorites, brother of my favorite
Speaker 1: from that draft class we had a year and a
Speaker 1: half ago, two seventy two average. So far this year,
Speaker 1: twenty one doubles, thirteen homers, twenty five stolen bases between
Speaker 1: Double A and Triple A. It's been a pretty good season.
Speaker 1: It has not been historic, unfortunately. It's been very similar
Speaker 1: to a lot of these prospects that are out there
Speaker 1: right now. It's actually been this ongoing discussion I've been
Speaker 1: having in the prospect world of when you lose Kim
Speaker 1: and Arrow, you lose Domingez, you lose all these dudes,
Speaker 1: you know, Jackson Holiday, that like, what does the top
Speaker 1: look like anymore? And it kind of defaults to all
Speaker 1: these guys that are good but not great. These two
Speaker 1: seventy hitters, the Roman Anthony's of the world, the Walker Jenkins,
Speaker 1: who's really far away, the Dylan cruise is. There's nobody
Speaker 1: it feels that special. I have always personally loved Dylan Cruz.
Speaker 1: His chase rate has been a little bit of a
Speaker 1: worry as far as what the strikeouts are, but he's
Speaker 1: got all fields power, put up really great all fields
Speaker 1: exit velocities, I think he's a super smart hitter. He's
Speaker 1: stealing more bases than we've seen, and we're gonna get
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee for him to start next year.
Speaker 1: So I think this is great for next year. I
Speaker 1: would in a five outfielder league, he's a must pick
Speaker 1: up if he is out there right now. I think
Speaker 1: he's gonna get significant playing time, and I don't know
Speaker 1: what the production's going to be like, but I think
Speaker 1: this is a great sign for next year. Is there
Speaker 1: any hesitation with the lack of success from the rookies
Speaker 1: on picking up Cruise at all?
Speaker 3: Yeah, A little bit like if you're in those really
Speaker 3: shallow like an ESPN league where there's just like no
Speaker 3: breathing room on your roster, I don't think you can
Speaker 3: really take a chance here. Like as solid of a
Speaker 3: prospect as he's been, he has a one oh five
Speaker 3: WRC plus and triple A, you know, batting two sixty five,
Speaker 3: he's not light in the world on fire like i'd
Speaker 3: kind of want to see before calling a newly recalled
Speaker 3: prospect like a must roster type of player everywhere. I
Speaker 3: think he's fine in like those deeper twelves like you
Speaker 3: mentioned fifteen team leagues, but yeah, prospects as a whole
Speaker 3: just have kind of sucked, and it's kind of taken
Speaker 3: the fun out of their recalls this season to some extent.
Speaker 3: So yeah, deeper leagues, I would take a chance shallow formats.
Speaker 3: Not really. We're at the point though now I think, well,
Speaker 3: she'd much more prospects inclined than I am. Guys can
Speaker 3: just play every day at this point and not exceed
Speaker 3: the threshold, right are we.
Speaker 1: Well that's that's yeah, one hundred percent. That's why they
Speaker 1: did this with Cruise, So you know, they announced it
Speaker 1: like three days before. Not that even if they had
Speaker 1: called him up before, I think it would have had
Speaker 1: an effect. But they're just like, hey, listen, we're not
Speaker 1: gonna go up against any They probably did the math
Speaker 1: on whatever bats could happen, but yeah, at this point,
Speaker 1: you're not going to cross the forty five day marker,
Speaker 1: which hand up, I was wrong. We said this. I
Speaker 1: don't even know if I like corrected it from a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks back that the Collective Bargaining Agreement added
Speaker 1: that September now does count for service time. So whatever
Speaker 1: I said some weeks back was incorrect about the camon
Speaker 1: Aro thing, which are still I still don't understand. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like we're not gonna bring him up all season.
Speaker 1: We're gonna bring them up just in time so he
Speaker 1: can lose his eligibility and us really not get anything
Speaker 1: outside of you know, him getting some games in. But
Speaker 1: you know, he'll None of these guys will lose any
Speaker 1: service time. They'll be eligible. And Dylan Cruz is like
Speaker 1: the first of the guys that you should put on
Speaker 1: the list for, like, oh, he's going to break camp
Speaker 1: next year and he will be a Rookie of the
Speaker 1: Year candidate, and that should be the piece that you
Speaker 1: go in, Like I think Jason Dominguez will have that
Speaker 1: next year, and presumably depending what that roster looks like,
Speaker 1: but you would think he would and Dylan Cruz would
Speaker 1: be the guy as well. Speaking of just want to
Speaker 1: throw this out because Anthony's in here. Anthony was famous
Speaker 1: for the Camonaro questions. Where is he? Where is he?
Speaker 1: Where is he? I don't know, I don't know. Now
Speaker 1: he's finally here. Camonaro is having a really good run
Speaker 1: so far. Two homers, two stolen bases, hitting over three hundred,
Speaker 1: the hard hit rates over fifty percent. He's barreling great.
Speaker 1: He does have a negative launch angle, and I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know this, he had a negative laun
Speaker 1: angle last year as well, classic like rookie thing from readjusting.
Speaker 1: But Camonaro has been doing really well and I think
Speaker 1: in a short sample size that's why I would be
Speaker 1: comfortable picking up Cruise. And you know, at the end
Speaker 1: of the day for next season, I actually think the
Speaker 1: lack of success from a lot of rookies is not
Speaker 1: the worst thing in the world. It's going to depreciate
Speaker 1: a lot of the value as far as like or
Speaker 1: the equity of what you have to pay for them
Speaker 1: next year, and that's good. A guy like Dylan Cruz,
Speaker 1: I think, I'll just say it right now. I think
Speaker 1: it's a sneaky guy to invest in next year, especially
Speaker 1: if we see some of that strikeout rate come down
Speaker 1: a little bit or is manageable in this early part
Speaker 1: of the season. But now they won't cost you know,
Speaker 1: top fifty, top forty or anything like that. Except Cavin Arrow.
Speaker 1: He's really hot. He'll be an interesting one to talk
Speaker 1: about through the back half of the year. I don't
Speaker 1: know where that'll go.
Speaker 3: He could for sure like look at Wood and Jackson Cheerio.
Speaker 3: I know, like you and Bubba talked about it last week.
Speaker 3: I think there was that early draft for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3: And though Cheerio and Wood were both third round picks.
Speaker 3: If if Cavi and Narrow hits another five or seven
Speaker 3: home run, steals another five or six bases, like he's
Speaker 3: going in the top seventy picks probably at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's not. And like the guys from this
Speaker 1: year to last year, they're the ones that are going
Speaker 1: to be the expense. So that's like, that's going to
Speaker 1: be the irony as it was like before it was
Speaker 1: the you know, the the Corbyn Carrols and even in
Speaker 1: the Bobby Witch to those degrees, those players were really
Speaker 1: pushed up his rookies. Now it's going to be the
Speaker 1: you know, the rookie performers are going to probably come
Speaker 1: in a historically high cost. As you mentioned, Cherry is
Speaker 1: going to be massively expensive, Jackson Merrill massively expensive. Kevin
Speaker 1: Arrow in a short sample size with success, will be expensive.
Speaker 1: The rookies. Everyone will be very timid about, understandably so
Speaker 1: because we're really understanding, like how dramatic the changes in
Speaker 1: the adjustment from Triple A TOUBA unless you're a pitcher.
Speaker 1: Unless you're Paul Skens, who went in the first round
Speaker 1: above his draft, which we talked about last year our
Speaker 1: last episode. So while a couple other rookies that are
Speaker 1: coming up here, Craig Mish reported that the Marlins are
Speaker 1: bringing up Griffin Conine from Triple A, Jeff Conine's kid,
Speaker 1: twenty seven years old. Not really a rookie, but he'll
Speaker 1: be coming up. I don't have high expectations. A little
Speaker 1: bit of power and the Royals Tyler Gentry is starting
Speaker 1: in right field and batting ninth for Game one today,
Speaker 1: which I think is coming up here in just a
Speaker 1: couple of minutes. Gentry's kind of I've seen him a
Speaker 1: ton between AFL and the backfields. He's been with the
Speaker 1: Royals for some time. Pretty you know, solid power guy.
Speaker 1: I don't know if the contact then the hitability is
Speaker 1: going to be there, but like he seems like he
Speaker 1: could be above average, like fourth outfielder in baseball. Maybe
Speaker 1: someone to look out for. And ty Madden with the
Speaker 1: Tigers is going to be starting really rough, go over
Speaker 1: six plus ERA in the minors. I'm not it's a
Speaker 1: really bad matchup, so he might stack up some strikeouts
Speaker 1: because he had some big minor league strike up performances.
Speaker 1: But no, thanks, no thank you, That's what I say.
Speaker 1: Let's keep going here. Jackson Merrill. Speaking of Jackson Merrill,
Speaker 1: had a walk off homer against Edwin Diaz. He keeps
Speaker 1: holding down this Rookie of the Year. He is the
Speaker 1: unanimous Rookie of the Year favorite right now, even after
Speaker 1: Paul Skein's dominant performance. We're only tracking that because I
Speaker 1: have my debt and I'm very selfish about that. Joe,
Speaker 1: and you said it like before we even started off air.
Speaker 1: You're like, hey, do you see Jackson Merrill. I still
Speaker 1: think it's one of the wildest things. But I don't
Speaker 1: recall and this is why I think Jackson Merrill is
Speaker 1: going to be so special going into next year. I
Speaker 1: don't recall a rookie that has been this consistent throughout
Speaker 1: the year. Like He's had points where he's been not
Speaker 1: like special, but he hasn't had the Jackson cheerio. I
Speaker 1: hit a buck ninety one month. He is just he
Speaker 1: has gotten better.
Speaker 2: He's eight.
Speaker 1: He's like a fine wine. Jackson Merril is he's just
Speaker 1: aging perfectly, and he's getting better and better and better.
Speaker 1: And that's why I think the debate between Meryl and
Speaker 1: Cheerio is going to be really fascinating to next year. Though.
Speaker 1: I think Cheerio for Upside is going to win that,
Speaker 1: and I think Merrill is the safer bet, the safer
Speaker 1: roto bet.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think Churio there is definitely more potential there.
Speaker 3: I've heard it said before, and you can kind of
Speaker 3: if you look at Merrill's profile, it feels like he
Speaker 3: might be maxing out to some extent. Like I don't
Speaker 3: know if there's another step with Merrill where he's going
Speaker 3: to go twenty five twenty next year. Maybe he will,
Speaker 3: Maybe he will, but it doesn't seem like the power
Speaker 3: is super super legit. I don't really trust the speed
Speaker 3: so much. Like, I don't know, there's something that doesn't
Speaker 3: feel as legit about Meryll as I feel about Wood
Speaker 3: and Churio. I don't think that he is gonna. I
Speaker 3: might just be a hater. I could very well just
Speaker 3: be a hater. I just don't view him in as
Speaker 3: positive a light as I do would and Churio I
Speaker 3: would take those guys. Maybe it is just the upside
Speaker 3: chase in the upside, but I think they're going to
Speaker 3: be more attractive assets next season.
Speaker 2: Am I just pooping on Maryl for no reason?
Speaker 1: I think you're yeah, you're kind of pooping on Maryl
Speaker 1: for no reason. But like Woods is a more dynamic,
Speaker 1: like you can see the upside of like, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty thirty. I don't know if Trio is that much different.
Speaker 1: You know the thing that I think to think about
Speaker 1: with Marylyn and I'm gonna do some off season looking.
Speaker 1: So I feel like there was a similar conversation around
Speaker 1: a Wit after his rookie year. We were like, whoa
Speaker 1: cool dude, you hit for good average twenty thirty. This
Speaker 1: seems about it. And then he got better and then
Speaker 1: he gets better, And I feel like I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that Jackson Merril will become Bobby Witt junior, but I
Speaker 1: think there's a similar path in that, Like every looked
Speaker 1: at him and you were like, oh, he's capped, And
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that he is, because comparing those three
Speaker 1: players you just did, Meryl's the more consistent and the
Speaker 1: better contact hitter. I don't know, and he is stealing
Speaker 1: and he's showing off power while playing in San Diego.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think he's going to be underrated.
Speaker 1: And this might be one of those things where it's like,
Speaker 1: if you stack those three up to me and you say, oh, well,
Speaker 1: Cheerio is going to cost a third, would cost a third,
Speaker 1: a Meryl cost a fourth Meryl all day, Give me
Speaker 1: the discount. Give me the discount on those three guys.
Speaker 1: It's like an RB type of situation in fantasy football.
Speaker 1: It's like it's a tier or an sp like we
Speaker 1: talked about starting pitchers. Just give me the lowest of
Speaker 1: the tier of those players. Last on the big news notes,
Speaker 1: this is just that wild one. I wanted to mention
Speaker 1: that Danny Jansen is starting behind the plate today against
Speaker 1: the Blue Jays, And as noted everywhere, the craziness behind
Speaker 1: this is because this was a suspended game between the
Speaker 1: Red Sox and Blue Jays, and Danny Jansen was a
Speaker 1: Blue Jay is now a Red Sox. So now he
Speaker 1: will become the first player in MLB history to appear
Speaker 1: for two teams in the same game. And this note
Speaker 1: on here it says, in fact, Jansen is actually set
Speaker 1: to hit for the Blue Jays when the game resumes,
Speaker 1: which means for a moment, Jansen will be both hitting
Speaker 1: and catching at the same time on the scoreboard. We
Speaker 1: I mean, I guess they'll alter that, like that's going
Speaker 1: to be changing the play by play. But he will
Speaker 1: be the first player ever to play for two teams
Speaker 1: in the same game. And I, for some reason, I
Speaker 1: kind of thought that might have happened, like in the
Speaker 1: twenties or something. Someone got sold for a pack of
Speaker 1: cigarettes and a and a half, you know, a half
Speaker 1: eaten a chicken leg, and then the player would have
Speaker 1: been traded over, like I don't know, like in the twenties,
Speaker 1: I felt like players could be sold for seven dollars
Speaker 1: and they could have moved over. But I guess I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: So he's going to throw the Jays jersey back on
Speaker 3: and taken it bad as a blue Jay? Is Is
Speaker 3: that what I'm understanding here?
Speaker 1: No, No, he is going to be a Red Sox.
Speaker 3: But you said he's like he's at the dish, so
Speaker 3: they'll just have to pinch hit for him. I guess,
Speaker 3: is that what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: No, he'll be able to It's the note about the
Speaker 1: last thing was just a all it is was like a
Speaker 1: clerical thing, like he was behind the dish, and then
Speaker 1: he will now come up to bat. They're gonna have
Speaker 1: a different catcher up there, right, They're gonna have like
Speaker 1: a different catcher that's gonna, you know, defensively change over
Speaker 1: so that one's not really the actual thing. The actual
Speaker 1: thing is in the book. It will show that he
Speaker 1: was a catcher for the Blue Jays and then he
Speaker 1: was a catcher for the Red Sox, and I guess
Speaker 1: perceivably he's gonna hit. So I don't know, that's wild.
Speaker 2: It's it's bizarre. I I don't know.
Speaker 3: I consider myself to be a fairly smart person most days.
Speaker 3: I still don't really understand the whole ins and outs
Speaker 3: of this whole thing. I don't understand delaying a game
Speaker 3: for two months, Like, can they not just figure out
Speaker 3: a way to get a couple of innings in before
Speaker 3: the team hits the road again?
Speaker 2: Does this make sense to anybody?
Speaker 1: I don't know, Just play the games? Just how about
Speaker 1: just put them all indoors? But that would probably be unpopular,
Speaker 1: by the way, Angel pin Winsky, I'm shocked that there
Speaker 1: isn't like some you know, Willy McGee Willy McGee was
Speaker 1: traded for you know, seven seven baseballs, one seem out
Speaker 1: and a pint of whiskey. Like that seems one hundred
Speaker 1: percent like something that would have happened. Has there ever
Speaker 1: been a player that's been traded for something that wasn't
Speaker 1: a player or money? I feel like that happened ted for.
Speaker 2: A play, right, it was traded for a play. I
Speaker 2: guess it was money for a play.
Speaker 1: It was money that paid for a play. You're right
Speaker 1: about that. But has there ever been another object like food,
Speaker 1: because wasn't there like a player that was traded for
Speaker 1: like a a pitching machine or something like that. Chat
Speaker 1: helped me out. I feel like there's a player that
Speaker 1: was traded for not money or a player, or you know,
Speaker 1: a player to be named later that ended up being
Speaker 1: nothing or something like that. Speaking of Babe Ruth, by
Speaker 1: the way, in the kind of just for fun category,
Speaker 1: I don't know what and I'm forgetting what auction was.
Speaker 1: Might have been Golden auctions. But over the weekend, Babe
Speaker 1: Ruth's shot jersey, you know, pointing out calling my shot jersey,
Speaker 1: sold for a record twenty four million dollars. That singular
Speaker 1: jersey sold for twenty four million dollars. So the question is, Joe,
Speaker 1: would you if you had that type of money, you
Speaker 1: had that elon type of money where you could just
Speaker 1: be like, I'm getting it for whatever, would you put
Speaker 1: it on after paying that?
Speaker 2: Oh? Would I put it on? Nah?
Speaker 3: If I was like that kind of rich, like richest
Speaker 3: person in the world, maybe, but I feel like i'd
Speaker 3: I feel like I'd want to have more respect for
Speaker 3: something like that than to just throw it on and
Speaker 3: wear it out to softball or for beer league or
Speaker 3: something like. I feel like you got to put that
Speaker 3: on the wall. You're spending twenty four million dollars. You
Speaker 3: want to preserve it. Imagine you just wear it and
Speaker 3: then you're just drinking a coke or something and you
Speaker 3: just spill coke down the front of it, or just.
Speaker 1: Why don't they get if you were to like wear it,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't be like, Hey, let's have a pepsi and
Speaker 1: some wings. I think you would, like you would just
Speaker 1: have this moment where you're like sitting there and you're
Speaker 1: like slowly putting it on, and you're just like but
Speaker 1: you know, like, I don't know you'd have that type
Speaker 1: of moment. I mean, I wouldn't, but I'm just I
Speaker 1: don't know, like people are weird about memorabilia. But that
Speaker 1: is I believe the most twenty four MILLI I mean,
Speaker 1: this is record, twenty four million dollars called shot Jersey
Speaker 1: is absolutely wild. The chat. By the way, Wonky says
Speaker 1: back in twenty thirteen, Mike Cisco was traded for nothing,
Speaker 1: not rent, not catfish, not a twenty five pound turkey,
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing. Conk said that there's a manager that was
Speaker 1: traded for like a bucket of balls. Yeah, maybe I do,
Speaker 1: like the Dallas Kaico was traded for a dollar. That's
Speaker 1: but I'm telling you there is somebody out there that
Speaker 1: was traded for like a thing. I feel it in
Speaker 1: my bones that there was a player that was traded
Speaker 1: for a thing. So if you know what that thing is,
Speaker 1: or you're really good at Google, which most likely the
Speaker 1: answer will come from, even if it's not live, put
Speaker 1: it in the chat later or put it into the
Speaker 1: comments section, because I want to. I feel like there
Speaker 1: was someone that was traded for like, you know, six
Speaker 1: horses or something like that, like in the nineteen tens, so.
Speaker 3: There was wat there was a double a player named
Speaker 3: Tim Fortugno, who became known as the guy traded for
Speaker 3: a bag of balls, went from a ball to double
Speaker 3: A and all the way to triple A with the Brewers.
Speaker 3: I'm not going to read it off thing on air, Bud.
Speaker 3: Tim Fortugno apparently was traded for a bucket of balls.
Speaker 1: Tim Fortugo's jersey just sold the Golden Auctions for three dollars.
Speaker 1: Three dollars for the guy that was a bucket of balls. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but see there's lots of these, like Angela, said Lefty Grove.
Speaker 1: He was sold to the Orioles for thirty five hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: which was the price to replace the fence, an outfield fence.
Speaker 1: But that's like the same thing that was with baby.
Speaker 1: You know. It was like to cover that play. He
Speaker 1: was traded for the price of like I want, I
Speaker 1: want like you say this Dave Winfield was for dinner.
Speaker 1: I want to see the two parties. I want a
Speaker 1: plate of mashed potato given to the other party and
Speaker 1: Dave Winfield walking over. I want proof, not money that
Speaker 1: was like perceivably pushed over. But that's me all right.
Speaker 1: Three up and three down, Gino sworez Eohineo four for
Speaker 1: four with a homer and three RBIs has absolutely been
Speaker 1: the most ridiculous player over the last like forty days
Speaker 1: least month. He has been on an absolute fricking tear.
Speaker 1: Three RBI is a homer, four for four. I didn't
Speaker 1: write the player's name, but I do know this was
Speaker 1: Kevin Gossman. Seven innings, ten strikeouts and earn run. I
Speaker 1: think he was very motivated after the Bowden Francis start.
Speaker 1: All those guys were, all those pitchers I think were
Speaker 1: really locked in. And DJ Hurs continues to be a
Speaker 1: streamable option guys, especially for strikeouts. Five innings, eight k's
Speaker 1: this weekend. So if he's got a half decent matchup
Speaker 1: out there, you got to put him out because the
Speaker 1: strikeouts are going to be going on the down. Tanner
Speaker 1: Hawk has completely fallen apart. This is someone I was
Speaker 1: ready to just raise the roof for as far as
Speaker 1: ranks go, but that ain't gonna happen now. Six innings,
Speaker 1: six earned runs, four walks. Hopefully he can find it
Speaker 1: into next year. Dylan Dingler oh for five with four strikeouts,
Speaker 1: not the Mark Wahlberg version. And Merril Kelly Merle has
Speaker 1: not been good. Six innings, four earned runs, three walks.
Speaker 1: He has not been good. No bueno, Let's see Michael
Speaker 1: info Joe. Joe has traded for a hand puppet and
Speaker 1: you put a Z on his name. I like that?
Speaker 1: Was there any others? I thought there was another? Oh,
Speaker 1: Walkee said Dodgers catcher Cliff Dapper was traded for Ernie Hallwell,
Speaker 1: the broadcaster. Okay, so well it's still a human. Those
Speaker 1: are still humans. But I do think that's that's a
Speaker 1: little bit more fun. They traded for a broadcaster.
Speaker 2: There was the one.
Speaker 3: John Ferrell was the Blue Jays manager in twenty twelve
Speaker 3: or twenty thirteen. I think we traded him to the
Speaker 3: Red Sox. I think we traded John Ferrell to be
Speaker 3: their manager in exchange for something, just as we're thinking
Speaker 3: about this in brainstorming. It's not like for a ham
Speaker 3: sandwich or something. But it was just a weird one
Speaker 3: where a manager gets traded. And I think you see
Speaker 3: in football sometimes too.
Speaker 1: Where like yeah, yeah, John Gruden was traded for like
Speaker 1: a pick, and that does how those are always kind
Speaker 1: of interesting in there. So I don't know, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: more fascinated than I need to be on the injury front,
Speaker 1: it was reported the Astros are optimistic that Kyle Tucker
Speaker 1: will still return during the first week at September, except
Speaker 1: Chandler Rome from The Athletic reported he's still not sprinting
Speaker 1: at full speed, nor has he even tested himselves on
Speaker 1: the base path himself on the bass path, not plural.
Speaker 1: So I don't know how he returns in the first
Speaker 1: week in September, but they're still saying he is though
Speaker 1: he's still not even running. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts announced
Speaker 1: that precautionary X rays on the forum of Sho Heo
Speaker 1: Tani came back negative of any fractures. So that's why
Speaker 1: we didn't lead it at the tippy top because there's
Speaker 1: nothing really too crazy there. Robbie Ray was removed from
Speaker 1: Sunday starting against the Mariners in the fourth inning due
Speaker 1: to left hamstring tightness. Michael Harris is considered day to
Speaker 1: day after X rays on his left hand came back negative,
Speaker 1: and Yoshinobu Yamamoto is going to make a rehab start
Speaker 1: from trip on Thursday. By the way, Also on the
Speaker 1: injury report, Welsh yesterday mid run leg just went out
Speaker 1: and I think it's either it's a calf or an
Speaker 1: achilles thing. So we woke up feeling better. We're currently
Speaker 1: day to day. We have not gone for X rays,
Speaker 1: but we're hoping to get back out there on the
Speaker 1: run soon. But Welsh day to day with the achilles injury.
Speaker 1: So got a stretch good thoughts. I you know what,
Speaker 1: it was my most stretched day. I have not been
Speaker 1: doing a very good job of stretching. I stretched more
Speaker 1: than I had ever done and then my last mile
Speaker 1: boom leg and I had to walk it out. So
Speaker 1: I don't know. I think stretching did me bad. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: let's get some bets in here. Joe's been pretty good
Speaker 1: on those prop bets, so you know we got more.
Speaker 1: It's time for Monday's best bets of the day. We
Speaker 1: go with not Joey P, Joe Arico, Joey O and
Speaker 1: the Welsh Joe. What do we got here for your
Speaker 1: best bets of the day. I know we're going to
Speaker 1: get some player props in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's usually my specialties, the player props. We're starting
Speaker 3: off Bailey over over five and a half strikeouts against
Speaker 3: the Braves today. The Braves just aren't scary anymore. If
Speaker 3: you look at their strikeout rate as a team, it's
Speaker 3: nearly twenty five percent in the top bottom ten. I
Speaker 3: should say in all of baseball, Bailey over hits this
Speaker 3: number fairly consistently. Over five and a half. He's been
Speaker 3: nails really most of the season. I think that's a
Speaker 3: pretty easy one to hit. And then I'm going Mitchell
Speaker 3: Parker over two and a half earned runs. I've been
Speaker 3: liking the over earned run bets. Those have been very kind.
Speaker 3: And with Mitchell Parker he does very well generally against
Speaker 3: the poor opponents. When he's facing a good team like
Speaker 3: the Yankees, like he is today, things generally don't go
Speaker 3: too well. Philadelphia destroyed him a few weeks ago San
Speaker 3: Diego Milwaukee the match. Whenever he faces even a competent offense,
Speaker 3: he doesn't do terribly well. So over two and a
Speaker 3: half earned runs, Judge and Sodo can get that taken
Speaker 3: care of in the first inning with the way things
Speaker 3: have been going recently. And then I'm going with a
Speaker 3: little bit of a different one than what I usually do.
Speaker 3: I'm going for a hitter strikeout prop Hal Rawley over
Speaker 3: one and a half strikeouts A plus one fifty in Seattle,
Speaker 3: where everybody strikes out at an historic rate. Hal Rawley
Speaker 3: has a thirty per cent strikeout rate to begin with,
Speaker 3: and then you get Ryan Papio coming in, who's looked
Speaker 3: very good, very strong strikeout pitcher. I think we'll see
Speaker 3: him strike out Kyl Rawley a couple times. Say that
Speaker 3: one's the fun one at plus one fifty, the others
Speaker 3: at minus one forty minus one forty five, and of
Speaker 3: course all at BET three six five.
Speaker 1: All right, well, my best bets of the day brought
Speaker 1: to you by BED three six five. I'm going with
Speaker 1: the nurfy Chicago Pittsburgh no run first inning, going back
Speaker 1: to ty On. He screwed me last time, but Keller
Speaker 1: and Tyan's actually got a lower number, especially on the
Speaker 1: underlying projected side, so minus one fifteen is telling you
Speaker 1: that they want you to take that. But both of
Speaker 1: these teams are in the bottom fifteen, the bottom half
Speaker 1: of the league and run score through the first inning,
Speaker 1: and Pittsburgh is one of the worst. They're actually, I
Speaker 1: believe third worst on this so I really like that
Speaker 1: one's the only nerfy that I like. Going with Seattle
Speaker 1: Mariners on the money line through the first five innings,
Speaker 1: so first five money line. It is minus one thirty five,
Speaker 1: but Bryce Miller has been on DOOD alert throughout the
Speaker 1: beginning of the this back half of the year, so
Speaker 1: gim me Bryce Miller backing him essentially through the first five.
Speaker 1: And then I kind of went with a wacky one
Speaker 1: as well. I took two hit run in RBI totals
Speaker 1: and I'm playing under, So I'm parlaying two guys to
Speaker 1: go under their hit run RBI total number one. I'm
Speaker 1: taking Jesus Sanchez, who is propped up because Colorado. To
Speaker 1: be fair, he has I think he has hit this
Speaker 1: two and a half number like twice in his last
Speaker 1: four games, and he is up against Colorado, but I'm
Speaker 1: going to play against it. So I'm going under two
Speaker 1: and a half hit run RBI for Hazu Sanchez, and
Speaker 1: I'm pairing that with Dominic Fletcher with the White Sox
Speaker 1: under one and a half hit run RBI. Both of
Speaker 1: those combined plus one fifty five, So I'm going to
Speaker 1: give that a shot. That should be fun playing the
Speaker 1: under on the hit run RBI totals. So I got
Speaker 1: the Nurfey in Chicago Seattle first five money line, and
Speaker 1: then that under hit run RBI, Dominic Fletcher and Jesu Sanchez.
Speaker 1: Rico's got Bailey over over strikeouts, Mitchell Parker over earned
Speaker 1: runs and cal Raley over strikeouts. There you go, friends
Speaker 1: on the best bets of the day, brought to you
Speaker 1: by Bet three sixty five, where you can use promo
Speaker 1: code leading off bet five dollars get one hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty in bonus bets. Do it today promo code leading
Speaker 1: off in the gambling problem called one eight hundred bets
Speaker 1: off or one eight hundred gambler. We do have a
Speaker 1: betting board here. Did I post it up here?
Speaker 2: Oh?
Speaker 1: Yes, I do home run board. Friends bought it up.
Speaker 1: We have not me on the board. I just want
Speaker 1: to point out I think I'm at thirty three and
Speaker 1: keV Man is at the bottom here tied with I
Speaker 1: think one other person at thirty four. Fred Dinger can
Speaker 1: maybe confirm. I think I'm one away from the board.
Speaker 1: Still Wonkee's in fifteenth place with thirty seven in a
Speaker 1: row Homers. Joey p has moved up to thirteenth with
Speaker 1: thirty nine. He's about to cross the forty marker. South
Speaker 1: African g has a commanding lead for this game fifty one,
Speaker 1: the only one with fifty homers. B Trott's at forty eight,
Speaker 1: Larry's at forty five. There is a race at the
Speaker 1: top in South African Ge has got that covered right now. Hole, Baby,
Speaker 1: it's getting nutty, fred Dinger, did you Yep? I'm Larry
Speaker 1: birding it. I'm at thirty three, so I'm one off.
Speaker 1: If I can get a two homer day, let's go,
Speaker 1: Let's go, let's go. By the way, Lee, Yes, I
Speaker 1: should have mentioned that Nurphy's and unders. This is the
Speaker 1: hate hate hate day. I'm being a hater today as
Speaker 1: far as what I'm doing. But Joe, what do you
Speaker 1: got for your home run call.
Speaker 2: With Michael Toggley?
Speaker 3: You know, I've been kind of going pretty chalky recently
Speaker 3: with the Bobby Witz and the Aaron Judges.
Speaker 2: But Michael Toggley is gonna face Edward.
Speaker 3: Cabrera, who eh, you never really know on a given
Speaker 3: day in course field, specifically, I will take Michael Toggley
Speaker 3: here to hit one out, all.
Speaker 1: Right, I'm gonna go with Alec Bohm. Give me Alec
Speaker 1: Bohm going up against Ronel Blanco. Boom's actually hit run
Speaker 1: RBI total is more is more juice than Bryce Harper's
Speaker 1: at this point. So I'm gonna go with Alec Bohm
Speaker 1: to get me on the board today. Maybe even give
Speaker 1: me a two fan and get me on that home
Speaker 1: run board. Friends. That is it. Thank you guys so
Speaker 1: much for hanging with us. You guys got more, you
Speaker 1: can put it into the comments section. We will be
Speaker 1: back again on Wednesday. Casey Bubba's here as we rock
Speaker 1: you through all of your playoff stuff and all the
Speaker 1: latest around the baseball world. For Joe Rico, I'm Chris Welsher.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you next time right here on leading off.
Speaker 1: Peace out, friends, Bye bye. Thanks for listening to the
Speaker 1: Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball Podcast.
Speaker 3: If you love the show, the best freeway to support
Speaker 3: us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts
Speaker 3: or Spotify.
Speaker 1: Follow us on x, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy pros at.
Speaker 1: Subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com slash
Speaker 1: Fantasy Pros MLB