Leading Off September 22nd, 2025 with Chris Towers (Ep. 1136)

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's going on? Everybody. Welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is
leading off live the Fantasy Baseball Podcast. I'm your host,
Joe Rico, joined by a special guest. Today we have
Chris Towers in the house, host of CBS is Fantasy
Baseball Today podcast, along with the great Frank Stample and
Scott White. Chris, it is great to have you on here.
I've was just thinking about it before. We haven't done

(00:25):
a pod together in a while. We got to hang
out a little bit in Arizona last year, but it's
great to see you, man. How you doing doing well.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
We got the last week of the season. We were
talking before the show. It'll be nice to relax a
little bit. Hope you're doing First Pitch Arizona this year
as well. I'll be out there, so looking forward to it.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Absolutely, I'm going to be there. I know I'm going
to be on the Sleeper and the Bust with Justin
and Paul and Jason. I do that show usually once
a week these days. And then I think we're still
talking about a Fantasy Pros podcast down there, still in
the works, but yes, absolutely we'll be down there. If
you guys haven't checked it out, already. BASEHQ does a
great fantasy baseball event every November down in Arizona, so

(01:04):
make sure you guys are checking that out. Fill up
the chat with your questions. I know it's the end
of the year and maybe your season's done, maybe your
head to head legues you are done. But if you're
in rodo or you just want to shoot the breeze,
throw your questions into the chat. WILL be happy to
answer them here on this lovely Monday. We only have
three more shows left for the season. Today with myself
and Chris. Wednesday will be myself and Casey Bubba, and
then Friday, Chris Welsh, Joe Rico, Joe piz Apia, all

(01:25):
three of the hosts on the final show of the year,
which should be a lot of fun. But I did
want to start off with probably the most controversial topic
in baseball these days. It's the American League MVP award.
I don't know that I really care so so much,
but I see people on both sides of the argument
saying that the other side is very stupid. It's obviously
Cal Rawley, it's obviously Aaron Judge. For me, it's not

(01:47):
really obviously either one of them at this point. I
wouldn't have a problem with it going really either way, Chris,
But we haven't talked in a while. I figured out
to see where you're at on this whole discussion.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Yeah, the only incorrect opinion you can have about American
League MVP is that it should be someone who isn't
col rally or Aaron Judge. Otherwise I have no strong take,
Like I Aaron Judge is at that level that Mike
Trout was at in the twenty tens, right where it
requires someone doing something absolutely historic for him to not

(02:19):
win the MVP. Well, there is a catcher who's pretty
good defensively, who has fifty eight homers with a week
left in the season, Like that is a pretty historic performance.
And so yeah, the idea that there is a wrong
choice between the two of them, I think is ridiculous.
We've got six games left for both that might be

(02:40):
what decides it. Actually like that, that is how narrow
the margins we're operating at here. And you might look
at like I know, Baseball Reference, there's like a two
war difference between them on Baseball Reference. In that specific instance,
they're not counting framing stats on their metrics and so
you're not gonna get the accurate take. And if you

(03:02):
think framing stats are overstating impact, I'm I'm open to
that idea. Although it's a lot of different people have
independently come to the conclusion that framing is super important
and matters a lot. So fangrafts war accounts for framing.
There is a point four war difference between the two
of them. For all intents and purposes, that's a tie.

(03:25):
This is one of those years. It's the same with
the really good Otani Judge year, where I just there's
no wrong answer. It's one of them has to win,
and one of them has to be second. It doesn't
mean the guy who finishes in second doesn't deserve it. Now, personally,
because I like trolling New York sports fans, I think

(03:46):
the funnier outcome is col Rally wins it. But that
is like, that is not an earnest opinion that I hold.
That is just me being a jerk. I like Aaron Judge.
I never thought we would see player at least this
quickly after Mike Trout, who was as good as Mike Trout,
and Aaron Judge is absolutely at that level. He is

(04:08):
operating at a level where Barry Bonds, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle,
like those are the kind that's the kind of company
he has to keep. But Mookie Bets won an MVP
ahead of Mike Trout and deserved it. Like that happened too,
So it's not just voter fatigue or anti whatever, Like

(04:29):
Cole Rally is just having an incredible season and absolutely
deserves to be in this discussion. It might end up
being Judge. I would have no problem with that. It
might end up being Rally. I would have no problem
with that.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
I'm in the same boat, like as a Blue Jay fan,
I have no problem ribbing Yankee fans or New Yorkers,
no problem at all. But I honestly, looking at it,
Judge's gonna have He's at forty nine, He's gonna have
fifty one, fifty two homers, a two hundred WRC plus,
He's essentially equivalent to two players. Offensively, he's not playing
a bad right field, But then Rawley doing what he's

(05:03):
doing behind the dish. I think you can make a
good argument this is the best season ever from a
catcher on the Mount rush More of catcher seasons, and
I have no problem with it, going to call Rawley now.
In the chat, Brandon said, curious if the Mariners making
not making the postseasons have an impact. The Mariners continue
hot for the last week and win the American League
West and the Yankees, you know, I end up in
the wild card spot. I feel like that could definitely factor.

(05:26):
And you know, like you talked about, Chris, they're so close,
the war is close, everything is close, So it could
be those soft factors that you commit to it. Where
the team ranks, it shouldn't really you know, one team
as ninety wins, one team as eighty nine wins, it
shouldn't really matter. But voters will look at those other
little factors as well. So it's an interesting conversation for sure.
I don't really have a strong field though if I

(05:46):
if it goes to either one of them, I'm not
going to be upset about it. It's kind of like,
you know, a couple of years ago, Vladimiguerreo Junior had
that forty eight home run season. As a Blue Jay fan,
I'm thinking he should be the MVP. But Otani that year,
like I didn't have any problem with it either. They
were both MVP worthy seas one would just slightly better,
and the voters will have to decide that again this year.
But I don't really have a strong opinion either way.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
At the end of the day, Yeah, somebody has to win,
right like that. The person winning does is not an
indictment on the person who lost. It's just like it
should be. I don't know. Are there sixty MVP voters
thirty MVP voters? I think it's thirty. It should be
sixteen fourteen one way.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Or the other. Yes, I think it will be. Yeah,
and it could even be fifteen to fifteen and come
down to who has more second place votes or something.
We've seen some crazy races, so it should be fun
to follow over the final week. If Roley hits that
sixty number. A lot of people have talked about that
magic sixty number. It shouldn't really do anything if it's
fifty nine versus sixty. But again, it's those little soft
factors around numbers that people really like to focus in on.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
We have ten fingers and that makes us love a
zero number, you know, Yeah, I.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Think that probably it probably is. All it comes down to.
What have you been making of the recent playoff races
that we've seen, Chris. It's been a kind of wild
week with the Reds and the Mets, the Guardians and
the Tigers, the Mariners and the Astros. There's been a
lot of movement that I didn't really expect to see
here over the final week. Are the Mets at this
point gonna miss the playoffs? You think so?

Speaker 2 (07:13):
I remember looking at this last week and I was
looking at the Fangrafts playoff odds, and the Mets had
like a ninety percent chance of making the playoffs, which
seemed odd to me because the Reds were two games
back at that point and had the tiebreaker. So I
was like, well, how does that make sense? The two

(07:33):
games is not nothing, but clearly they've made it up
already they have the tiebreaker. I think at this point
the Reds certainly have the better pitching than the Mets.
I actually don't think that one's particularly close at this point,
which is kind of shocking how the season started. The
Mets have been like a bottom five team in baseball

(07:54):
since like the end of June, so it's not you know,
even looking at their team coming into the season. I
know they had the you know what after tax four
hundred and fifty million dollars payroll or whatever, and they
signed Won Soto and that was a huge deal. But
you looked at the roster and it's like, this is not,
you know, one of the two best teams in baseball.
They still had some work to do, and so I'm

(08:16):
not terribly surprised. It's been a a shocking collapse just
in just in how good they were early on. But
they made some moves in the bullpen that have really
not paid off. You know, Ryan Helsley has been a
disaster for them. Edwin Diaz is kind of their only

(08:36):
good reliever right now. If it wasn't for they've become
one of the best pitching dev organizations in baseball, And
if it wasn't for that, they'd be truly lost. Because
how many of their non rookie pitchers do you trust
right now? I don't. I don't think it's any of them.
So it's it's a really tough spot for the Mets
to be in. And I would say at this point

(08:58):
the Reds are favored. Yeah, it's basically a coin flip
one way or the other. Obviously they're tied, but I
I don't know if I would bet on the Mets
to make the playoffs at this point, and it really
is amazing because I think three weeks ago it looked
like there was gonna be no drama down the stretch
like that. All the drama was going to be in

(09:19):
the seating. The Guardians were. Guardians were like eight games
back a month ago or something like, the Tigers have
completely collapsed. The Guardians can't stop winning. It's been much
more fun than I expected it to be. And hey,
I'm a Marlins fan. Technically the Marlins are playing for
something in the final week of the season. Who would

(09:40):
have seen that coming. They're four games back with like
five teams between them, but still we've got something to
play for.

Speaker 1 (09:48):
It's been a lot of fun, and I agree, like
a few weeks ago, I thought every race was essentially sealed.
Maybe you'd see one team sneak in, but I thought,
you know, two three weeks ago, every team that was
in a playoff spot at that point was like eighty
five plus percent to make it on fan grabs, and
it seemed like we were pretty much solidified in the
teams we were going to be seeing at that point.
With the Mets, things have been clicking at different times

(10:11):
this year. Earlier on in the season, Clay Holmes was
pitching well, David Peterson, Tyler McGill before he got hurt,
was pitching well, and then the pitching kind of went away.
The offense at certain points in the season was absolutely
on fire, but nothing was ever working at the same time.
So I don't know if things are going to click
in the final week of the season. The way that
baseball works. The Mets could still win the World Series
this year, absolutely, but it's really looking kind of grim

(10:33):
right now. Cincinnati. Cincinnati has been amazing, but Seattle has
been I think maybe I don't know if Seattle or
Cleveland the last week has been more impressive, honestly, because Cleveland,
you know, I look at like three week rolling stats
all the time for just offensive stats, for a lot
of things, I look at the three week sample size,
and every three weeks sample size pretty much the whole season,
Cleveland had the worst or the second worst offense in baseball,

(10:56):
and now they've won. I think it's nine of ten
or something like that. Something ridicul Are the Tigers in trouble.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Here, Yeah, absolutely, I don't. The Guardians are are one
where I don't quite get how they're doing this. I
guess like Logan Allen's had a couple of good starts
in a row, Tanner Bybee finally showing up the last
couple of weeks. Gavin Williams. This feels like the biggest

(11:22):
fraud in baseball to me. Gavin Williams success. He has
like something like a two seventy era since the start
of June, with like a four to twenty FIP. He's
got like the tenth or thirteenth worst K minus walk
ratio in baseball in that span, and somehow he just
keeps doing it five It's like exactly five innings and

(11:45):
one or zero runs every time out. I have zero
faith in it For twenty twenty six. I'm gonna be
completely out on Gavin Williams. If people are drafting him
as like a top thirty sp I don't know where
we're gonna get on that one. But I can't quite
make sense of Cleveland and this run that they're on.
But that is also one of the beautiful things about baseball,

(12:06):
that just these unexpected things can happen, where even if
you follow baseball closely, and even if you look at
the team and see what they're doing. You can't quite
make sense of how it's happening, except that their pitching
got hot at the right time. They've always had a
great bullpen, and they have just enough around Jose Arimeres.

(12:28):
I would say, actually, they do not have enough around
Jose Ramirez, but when the pitching is going like it
has been, I guess they have enough around Jose Ramirez
to get it done. But you know, the Mariners red hot,
sweeping the Astros seems like they've pretty much locked in
their playoff spot. That is that's a fascinating one, just

(12:48):
because the pitching hasn't quite been there in the way
we expected. Like Logan Gilbert's been fine, but I think
a little disappointing. George Kirby's obviously struggled coming back from
the showal injuring in a lot of ways, but he's
coming off one of his best starts of the season.
And then we've got this Brian wu injury, where I
hope it's not serious. Brian wu is maybe my favorite

(13:10):
pitcher in baseball at this point. I love watching him pitch.
I think I think it's you know, Sarah's has made
the comp to Zach Wheeler, and that's how I feel
watching Brian Wu pitch, where he's just he's got the
whole arsenal, but the fastballs are so good that he
kind of doesn't need it, which I think is such
a fun way to pitch in this era where everybody's

(13:31):
going away from their fastballs and he's throwing seventy five
percent fastballs. But he can get away with it because
those pitchers are so good. So I hope he's good
for the playoffs. Brian Wu should be the Mariners Game
one starter if they make the playoffs, and he's good.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
So yeah, yeah, that's a good problem for them to have.
You know, oh, well he's not well, we have to
throw Logan Gilbert in game one. Oh shoot, well, you know,
like they got a lot of good going on in
that rotation, even with some of the disappointments, like we've mentioned,
Gilbert's not doing as well as we thought. Louis Castillo,
I'm not really interested in him anymore. Bryce Miller has
been a disaster. But still in the playoffs, you've got

(14:08):
three working arms, you're pretty all right. Maybe you sneaking
a fourth there. Maybe you can trust Castillo in a
Game four situation.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
But that's where the Reds are kind of a team
that you do not want to face, and it kind
of happened overnight where this suddenly became you know, when
Hunter Green is healthy and pitching the way he's capable of,
that is I think one of the five best pitchers
in baseball right now. It's a question of whether he
can stay healthy. I have no idea what to do

(14:37):
about him for fantasy in twenty twenty six, because he
has I don't think made it through a whole season
healthy ever as a professional. Maybe one dime in the minors,
but just the level the Hunter Green is pitching at,
it seems like he's he's one upping himself every time
he goes out there. And then you've got Lodolo and
Abbot and Chase Burns is a multi inning arm out

(14:58):
of the bullpen. I think Chase Burns could be one
of the best pitchers in baseball as soon as next year.
So I'm the Reds are sneaky fun and it would
be nice if they actually did manage to make the playoffs,
because it's been a while since they've been that competitive.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
I think it'd be a lot of fun do a
solid for Jeff Ericson. He's been cheering on some rough
teams for a while out there in Cincinnati. He could
he could use a break. But guys, before we keep going,
I want to remind you that we are giving away
the signed Billy Wagner baseball courtesy of our friends over
at Pristine Auction dot com. All you have to do
to enter is subscribe to our YouTube channel, Fantasy Pros MLB.
You do it right now, drop a comment below on
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(15:40):
winner right here on the channel later this month. Will
make sure to turn on those notifications so you can
know when new videos are up and to claim your prize.
Look at that baseball sign, Billy Wagner now Hall of Famer,
Hall of Famer, Hall of Fame, Billy Wagner signed baseball.
So make sure you guys are dropping your comments and
getting access to that. Somebody in the jet saying, can
Billy Wagner pitch for the Mets tomorrow? I'm sure they

(16:01):
would like it. I am sure they would like it.
Let's take a couple of questions here. There was a
couple of interesting ones, and this kind of goes a
little bit to what we were just talking about a
minute ago. I know there's an obvious top three starting
pitchers for twenty twenty six Schooble, Schimes, Crochet. I completely
agree order them, however you like. I don't have a
big problem however you put it is Logan Gilbert the
obvious fourth. Paul Spoor and I got into a fight

(16:23):
about a week ago about this. I think there are
like five to seven names that could vibably be the
fourth pitcher off the board. Yoshanova, Yamamoto, Hunter Brown, Chris Sanchez,
I mean, maybe even Chris Sale, Logan, Gilbert is in
that conversation. If Strider finishes with another good start, people
are gonna be well maybe Strider. So there's a lot
of options for that number four. Sp Chris. Do you

(16:45):
have a hard line on this one right now or
is it just too early to tell for you?

Speaker 2 (16:49):
I am I'm leaning Chris Sale, okay, and I think
that will be somewhat controversial because he's missed a lot
of time. He's gonna be thirty seven at the start
next season, I believe. But the way I look at
it is this, if you line up all those guys,
Sanchez just doesn't really have the strikeouts, like, he's a

(17:11):
good strikeout pitcher, but it's a step back from you know,
Chris Sales certainly kind of the same thing with Hunter Brown,
where it's good strikeout rate but not elite. Those guys
have pretty good bills of health, though, I think the
biggest knock on Gilbert certainly missed time this year with
a forearm slash elbow injury. Chris Sale has missed a

(17:31):
lot of Timeamoto had the shoulder injury last year, and
just Yo Momoto, he doesn't have the innings. I think
he's like twenty fifth or something in innings this season.
They're gonna be in a six man rotation. It just
when you're operating at that level, I think those small
scale differences are enough to knock him off as good
as he is. And so I look at Chris Sale

(17:51):
and man, the the skill set is still one hundred
percent intact. Maybe not quite to the level it was
in like twenty nineteen when he was like the teen
point five k per nine, But I mean, you're talking
about one of the best strikeout pitchers in baseball two
thirty something era. Since the start of last season, elite whip,
he's missed a lot of time. But then you start

(18:13):
looking at what he's missed time with and it was
like the last few years. This year was the fractured
rib making a diving play in a five to nothing
game in the ninth inning. I don't really hold that
against him. I think he had a stress reaction in
his other rib. A couple of years ago, he fell
off a bike and broke his wrist. He got hit
by a comebacker and broke his pinky. It's mostly been

(18:35):
since he came back from Tommy John surgery. It's mostly
been pretty random, bad luck type injuries, the type injuries
that I just don't really think you should hold against him,
certainly not in the way that I hold Logan Gilbert
having an elbow injury against him. So I think if
you're just talking skill, Logan Gilbert's probably the answer. The

(18:56):
gains he's made as a strikeout pitcher over the past
couple of seasons are absurd. He has I think the
second or third highest whiff rate among starters this season.
His splitter is absolutely one of the best put away
pitches in baseball. It's a pitch that was not nearly
that good for him a couple of years ago. It's
just how much should I ding him for the elbow

(19:17):
injury this year. It's been a very good run of
health otherwise, I think he's in that discussion. I'm leaning
Chris Sale, though that's gonna be controversial, and I agree.
I think it's wide open four through twelve. I think
there should be three pitchers drafted, like the first fifteen picks.
There probably shouldn't be another one for like twenty five

(19:37):
or thirty picks. I think this should be the year
that we say that second tier is wide open. Let's
not push them up too far. Whether we actually do
that is a different question. But I think that that
second tier is completely wide open.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
I really do as well. I agree with just about
everything you said there. I think Sale, if he enters,
if he's going healthy into twenty twenty six, if we
turn the calendar and there's no question about his health,
he's looking good, he's looking strong, I think that he
is number four, or at least very close in that conversation.
For me, though, after three with Sale, Gilbert, you know, Joe, Ryan, Hunter, Brown, Yamamoto, Sanchez,

(20:17):
de Gram, Peralta, Green Wus just so many names. I
feel like I almost just want to wait, let somebody
else take them in the third or fourth, and whoever's
left for me there, maybe in like the fifth round
or something, I'll take them. I feel like that's kind
of where I'm headed right now. Pitching really depends on
what site you're playing, on the depth of the league,
the prices can vary a lot, especially once you get
auctions into the mix, Like there can be a wide

(20:39):
variety of pitching prices. But I feel like just waiting
until taking somebody at the end of that second tier
next year, maybe if you want to take like a
Schooble in the first round, wait, wait, wait, and then
Joe Ryan sp two in the fifth round or something
like that. I don't know that I want to be
taking the top of that second tier necessarily when I
feel like it's pretty flat between maybe four and fifteen,

(21:00):
four and fourteen something like that. On the list, Chris
Towers is wonderful. I agree, Gregory. I agree, Chris is fantastic.
Make sure you guys are following him. Not really on
the Twitter streets that much these days. Check him out
on blue Sky. I believe that at is at CP
Towers dot Besky dot Social also make sure you guys
check them out, and I'll link it into the description
of the episode as well, so you guys can can

(21:21):
click on that one and find it there. Daily Leak,
Shall I use Otani as a hitter or a pitcher
at Arizona on Tuesday?

Speaker 2 (21:30):
I mean, we know he's limited to five innings. We
knew that. Dave Roberts said that back in July. But
I think everybody was got a forceful reminder when he
was pulled in the middle of a no hitter last week.
But that that is that is the max. It doesn't
if he throws sixty innings in five innings, sixty pitches
in five innings, he's gone. I think in a daily

(21:53):
league you still go with the picture. Though in a
weekly league you're almost never using him as a pitcher,
so you might just take the take the opportunity to
use him here.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
Yeah, you know, in weekly leagues, there might be one
week in the season maybe if he has two starts
where you're like, and this was not the year for that.
Maybe next year you see Otani's got two starts, you
need to help, you need to catch up on the
pitching stats for one day. I don't mind going to
Otani there, like in that type of situation, he's such
a cheat code. You put him in the pitching slot
for one day, you put him in the hitting spots
the rest of the week. You're still probably getting like

(22:25):
a one hundred points or something close to it from
mister Otani. Here, pick keepers for next year. I don't
have to keep five. We can enter draft and get
a good player that isn't Kep Mookie at shortstop only
seeger Otani, Soto, jord On Tucker, and Snell. That is
a hall of names. I don't have to keep five,
So I mean you're keeping Otani and Soto, You're keeping Tucker.

(22:49):
I think that's where it gets a little bit complicated
for me.

Speaker 2 (22:52):
I'm really interested to see what jord On Alvarez's price
looks like in twenty twenty six, because before the ankle injury,
I was kind of willing to just completely give him
the mulligan for this because it was just a hand
injury that got misdiagnosed. And I know the Astros have
a tendency of misdiagnosing injuries lately, but typically that's not

(23:12):
something that you would expect to be a recurring injury
typically not something that you would expect to linger. Now
he's got this ankle injury. Obviously, lower body injuries have
been the problem for yard On Alvareze throughout his career.
Mostly it's been the knees. I still think this is
a guy who, you know, we talk about like guys

(23:34):
having historic seasons to challenge Aaron Judge for MVP. Yard
On is still one of those guys I can see
having a random year where he hits fifty homers and
hits three twenty five and is in that MVP discussion.
I think he's, you know, one of the ten best
hitters in baseball. Let's say, might be five, might be twelve,
whatever it is. The injuries are a big concern here.

(23:58):
I still I haven't done my rankings yet for twenty
twenty six. I would still think I'm gonna rank him
in the top four rounds. You know, maybe it's not
a second round pick you discount it, but a third
or fourth round that still seems viable to me. So
I would guess in this format, and especially in that
ESPN Points league where you lose a lot of points

(24:20):
for bad plate discipline, where jod On Avares has incredible
plate discipline. So I still think he's probably in this discussion.
I don't know about Mookie or Seeger and Snell. I
am more likely to draft Blake Snell this year than
last year because I thought last year he was a
top eight SP and ADP and I just thought that

(24:40):
was crazy. We know, we know the deal with Blake Snell.
You're gonna he's gonna look amazing for some stretch. He's
not gonna throw a lot innings. I could not make
sense of his price coming into this season. I'm more
likely to buy it now that I would guess it's
gonna dip to like SP twenty or something. But even then,
I don't really think he's in that first five round discussion.

(25:02):
Mookie has bounced back in a nice way in the
second half, but I still think fifth round is right
around where I would guess he ends up. And that's
not a screaming value. Same with Secret.

Speaker 1 (25:14):
It's just.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
I don't hold him having an appendectomy against him, right
like that could that could happen. That happened to me
when I was twelve. You know, I hope nobody holds
that against me. But it's just one of those situations.
Where it's always something. I think he is like thirty
two or thirty three, so he's older. I think he
should get pushed down. So I would go with Otani, Soto, Jordan,

(25:39):
and Tucker, and I'm not sure I would keep any
of the other ones in this format.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
I think I'm probably with you there in the chat
Fenway Cheap Seeds saying, gonna be harp me to trust
any astros given the way they have mishandled injuries. Is
that going to factor into your evaluations at all this year?

Speaker 2 (25:56):
Uh? What's the quote?

Speaker 1 (25:58):
It?

Speaker 2 (25:59):
If I had a nickel for every time the astros
mishandled a superstar injury, I would have two nickels, which
isn't that much. But it's weird. It's happened twice, Like
I don't know if it happening twice should be enough
to like just ding the whole team. Yeah, but it
is alarming that it happened to their best player two

(26:19):
summers in a row. And it was like the exact
same situation where like, it's fine, he's gonna miss a
couple of days, but it's totally fine, it's just a bruise,
and it's like, oh no, he fractured a bone. I'm
not gonna hold that against the team moving forward, but
I totally understand if someone else will.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, I'm still not one hundred percent sure what to
make of it. I think at the end of the day,
it's not anything I really want to carry forward, but
it'll be in the back of my head. It's there.
If I see yourd on Jeremy Pania, it's like, yeah,
I'm gonna click draft.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (26:55):
No, I'm not, No, I can't. Yeah, Okay, it's like it's.

Speaker 2 (26:59):
It seems like a reasonable tiebreaker. It's just I would
guess Jordon's going to get dinged enough that it won't
be a tiebreaker anymore.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
You know. Yeah, I feel like if he drops in drafts,
fine by me. I'll take a look. I'm not setting
the minimum pick on him. I'm not fitting up in
the auction for him. Somebody else can do that. If
he falls, then that's totally fine by me. Should I
start Horton and Yuri versus the Mets and Kirby versus
the Dodgers this week? I don't know about Kirby versus

(27:32):
the Dodgers. Horton is on a Jeremy Lynn run, right,
now that is just unbelievable. It's like four earned runs
and ten starts or something. I feel like I'm starting him.
Uri is a bit of a dicey one. I think
that's where there's a conversation. But I feel like Horton,
you gotta throw him in there.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
I always struggle with like the hot hand discussions because
I tend to just think you should bet on players
pitching to their talent level, right, and the last ten
starts might represent a shift in talent level. It's usually
just a good ten starts, right guys. Usually water usually
finds its level. But with Horton, we don't know what

(28:09):
the true talent level is. We can look at the
er estimators and they suggest he's been arguably the luckiest
pitcher in baseball this season. That'll happen when you have
a you know, a sub one ERA for a ten
start stretch. Obviously that's luck to a certain extent. I
think he's good. I think you do have to start him, Yuri.

(28:29):
I love for twenty twenty six. I'm taking Ury Perez
over Kate Horton. The last time he faced the Mets,
I don't think he got out of the first inning.
He's just been a little iffy enough. He's been searching
for the right combination of breaking balls. He's been featuring
the sweeper more lately. I think that's a good idea,
But I think he's okay to sit against the Mets
and then Kirby. He he has had good starts, including

(28:54):
his most recent one. He has had good stretches this season.
I still don't think he's been right, and the evidence
for that, for me, it's just his arm slot has dropped.
I think he was like thirty seven degrees last year.
Now it's down to like twenty nine, and that has
completely messed up his splitter. He's basically not throwing the
splitter anymore. I'm gonna guess this offseason that's going to

(29:15):
be the focus is finding that off speed pitch because
he basically just hasn't had the splitter or the changeup,
which he's worked in occasionally. Neither has been very good
when he's thrown them. I would guess it's either going
to be working get that arm slot back up so
he can get the angle on the splitter right, or
just finding the right pitch to work from his new
arm slot. The Mariners are very good at that I

(29:37):
have faith that they'll figure it out. But versus the
Dodgers this week, I think that's pretty iffy. I would
I would lean towards avoiding Kirby in this one.

Speaker 1 (29:47):
Yeah, I think if it's a head to head matchup,
the kind of cop out answer for me would be
see what's going on. By the time Friday rolls around,
you might be in a situation where your ERA is
seven forty two and your WHIP is one seventy eight.
You might as well at that point, but you also
might be hugging a one forty two ERA and a
point seven to two whip, and at that point you
may not want to take the chance on George Kirby.

(30:09):
Guys just want to remind you that today's show is
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Speaker 1 (31:16):
Guys, let's talk about I just wanted to highlight a
couple of potential pitching streamers. Today is nothing. There are
like three games today unless you want to stream Michael McGreevy.
Maybe you could get away with it in the deeper league,
but today is not really a day for streaming. Just
looking at Tuesday, there's a couple of interesting names. Chris Hurston, Waldrup,

(31:36):
Ryan Weathers, David Peterson, Johann Oviedo. Any of these guys
strike you as an appealing streamer for tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
I think Waldrop has earned the benefit of the doubt
to be a little more than a streamer, but especially
against a matchup like the Nationals. I know it's been
a little up and down lately, but that splitters awesome.
The expanded arsenal has really helped him throw strikes more consistently.
I like a lot of what we've seen from Waldrip,
and the matchup against the Nationals is very nice, so

(32:06):
you take advantage of that one. The rest of them,
I leaned towards. No Peterson I think has really run
out of steam, and that was one that as it
was happening, you know, he had about a full year
between like last June and July of this year, where
he had a sub three ear, the peripherals didn't really
back it up. The whip was still bad. I think

(32:28):
it's all caught up to him. It wouldn't surprise me
if David Peterson had a good start, but I would
probably avoid him. So I guess Weathers would be my
second favorite of this group, but I don't fully trust
that one either. You know, Philly not a terrible matchup,
but not a great one either. I don't think Weathers

(32:50):
is fully stretched out, so Waldrip is clearly the top option.
I will say Monday does have Justin Verlander, who, at
least on CBS is in the streaming range. I think
he's like sixty percent rostered there and he is a
two star pitcher. This week he gets the Cardinals, and
then I think think it's the Rockies in San Francisco
for the second one. So Justin Verlander, if he's available

(33:11):
in your league, is in line to pitch well this week.
I don't want to guarantee that he will because I
don't fully buy him, but uh, the matchups are certainly there.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
For I mentioned this on a show last week that
somebody like maybe a month ago, said to me, like,
justin Verlander, VI will pick up and I literally answered
with come on, It's like I was just at that
point things were looking so grim. The last five starts
for Verlander, He's throng thirty one innings, zero point eight
to seventy. Ra's allowed three earned runs over thirty one innings,
twenty eight strikeouts, twelve walks. Is maybe a shade high,

(33:45):
But who cares three earned runs and thirty one innings
with a couple of wins for Verlander? Is this kind
of like a bit of a dead cat bounced type
of deal where it's like a last little run for
Verlander of productivity before he's toasted. Or could he maybe
still be a viable pitcher even in the next because
he said he wants to pitch again next year, the
stuff still grades out well? Like are we are we
going to be investing in Verlander at age forty three

(34:06):
next year?

Speaker 2 (34:06):
I think returning to San Francisco would be a very
smart move for him, because I think that's certainly helped
because what he is now is basically an average strikeout
guy who does have to rely on balls and play.
But that is the one thing late in his career
that has stayed pretty intact for justin Verlanders. The ability
to limit damage on contact, and then playing in San Francisco,

(34:31):
one of the toughest pitch hitting parks in baseball, I
think certainly helps him in that regard as well. So
I would hope if he does come back, San Francisco
will be the spot, because I think that's the best
spot for him to remain viable. But looking ahead to
twenty twenty six, I think maybe a late round flyer,
but you probably can find someone a little more interesting.

(34:53):
But in a week when he gets the Cardinals, who
have been the worst offense in the second half, and
gets the Rockies on the road, who are just absolute disaster,
you'll take that streamer for sure.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
It's been fun to see. It reminds me of old Verlander,
not that he is necessarily old Verlander. Like you said,
he's pitching a lot differently than he used to. He's
a twenty percent strikeout rate. But it's been a lot
of fun over the last few weeks. My apology, So
the guy I told not to pick him up, I
was ted wrong there. I could not have seen this
one coming but Justin Verlander has been looking fantastic. Just
a couple of streamers on Wednesday I think are probably

(35:27):
worth it. Stephen Kolok versus the Angels, He's been fantastic
really for the last six weeks or so. Jonahtong against
the Cubs might be a little scary on the surface
with what the era looks like after that blow up
against Texas, but bounce back in his last start. He
gets the Cubs who have not been firing on all cylinders.
I feel like Jonah Tong is also a pretty sneaky
streamer if people are just looking at surface stats, I

(35:48):
feel like he's a decent option this week.

Speaker 2 (35:50):
Chris, Yeah, the Cubs have been weirdly not a very
good offense in the second half of the season. They're
twenty first in wOBA since the All Star break. I
think he's fine. I've been certainly disappointed by Jonah Toong's
performance in the majors. I think part of it is
probably that delivery is going to be I think a

(36:16):
high variance thing for him, where if he's not quite on,
it's gonna be really tough. The the fastball hasn't missed
as many bats as I would have expected given the
the arm angle and the funkiness of it. But I
still have a lot of faith in him long term,
so I don't think it's a bad idea to bet
on the talent there. He's certainly, you know, you're comparing
him to Stephen Collach, while I certainly think Jonah Tong

(36:39):
is a more talented pitcher.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Yes, so.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
You know, better matchup for Colic. The Angels have been
it seems like everybody's got nine strikeouts against the Angels
over the past couple of weeks, and it's been weird,
Like it's just everybody's just throwing their four seamer and
the Angels just can't hit it. They have the highest
whiff rate in Baseball on four seamers in the month
of September. It's like something like a thirty one percent mark,

(37:04):
which would be a crazy mark for that. That's like
Luis Castillo at his best used to run thirty percent
with rates on his four seamer and he was like
the only starter. And now everyone's doing that against the Angels.
So it's not a bad spot to be streaming against,
for sure.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
I just don't understand what's going on in the chat
here with all this talked about Blue Sky. It's another
social media platform. Guys. It's really not a big deal.
I promise you. I promise you, it's not a deal.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
It's just uh, it's just narcissists yelling at each other
on one website versus another. You know, that's all. That's
all it is.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
That's that's all it is. It's just different crowd. If
you don't like it, change the channel. Let's take a
couple of questions before I send you guys on your
way here. I don't want to keep Chris all day.
Although I could talk to him all day, I don't
want to make this a two hour podcast. So there's
any questions we don't get to, please reach out in
the DMS. I know this is crunch time. I'd be
more than happy to answer them. Well, you're saying as
you may or may not have JOYPMP. No, no, no, he's

(37:59):
a p will be here on Friday unless he changes
his mind or something. Piece of PA will be here.
I'll try and make sure of it myself. Is having
pictures that pitching? Since he almost as bad as Course Field, Yes,
it's just about equally as bad. Not in terms of
like the park factors vary a little bit, but they
are probably the two worst parks you can throw your
pictures out maybe with one way in there as Sacramento,

(38:20):
Zach Oh, Facramento I forgot about Sacramento.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
Sacramento is not far from Course Field. It's that that
park has been crazy. That's that's one that you know,
we don't have the you typically want to look at,
you know, three year rolling averages for park factors because
there's a lot of noise. But that really looks like it's,
you know, even more so than Cincinnati, one of the

(38:44):
one of the worst parks in baseball for pitchers. That's
one that you've got to be really really good for
me to trust you, especially in a day game when
it's hot. The ball is just caring like crazy there.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Yeah, if I turn off the rolling factors, where does
it come in the second? Is it second? Yeah? Okay,
my things taken a while to load. That is wild. Yeah,
I think honestly, and even Tampa Tampa as well, there's
another park where you got to be very careful. Now,
these won't be forever, Like I think Tampa's going back
to the trop next year. Sacramento Sacramento probably has at

(39:17):
least one more year.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
It's at least two. Yeah, they barely start a construction there.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Yeah, still not sure they're ever gonna move.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Yeah, I'm not surprised. I'm still sad they're not in
Oakland anymore. And I've refer to them on this show
and others this year as the Oakland Athletics I think
probably twelve or fifteen times at least. Interesting question here,
first of all, Mats has a pleasure to see Towers
in the daytime. Absolutely. Is Garret Cole worth a keeper
in Round twenty for next year? I haven't seen an
update on Garrett Cole in forever. I don't know, honestly.

(39:48):
I feel like, yeah, probably in the twentieth round, Like,
what the hell else are you finding in the twentieth round?
You know you're cutting a lot of those guys. Anyway,
the upside of Garrett Cole is probably worth it. But
I don't know if you've seen anything about his recovery.

Speaker 2 (39:58):
Chris, I have not seen. He had the surgery in March,
and so you assume I would guess we're gonna see
him on the mound in spring training, but probably not
cleared to return to the majors until I would guess
it'll be like, may you know, when you're talking about veterans,
I think you can shorten the timeline a little bit.

(40:20):
If it's some twenty two year old, I think you
look at fifteen months, But a veteran like Garrett Cole,
fourteen months should probably be the average, and you would
guess some guys come in under that average. So I
think we'll see him by June at the worst. As
we've seen with Sandy al Contra and Spencer Strider and
a couple other guys this season, you can't just expect

(40:40):
everyone who comes back from Tommy John surgery to look
like themselves immediately. There will be an adjustment period. But
he has started a throwing program. Looks like there was
an update in August that he's begun throwing, So I
think a twenty round, even acknowledging maybe he misses a month,

(41:04):
maybe he's not Garrett Cole right right away. I think
even then, twentieth round is probably still worth the flyer there,
just because you're probably dropping whoever you draft in the
twentieth round pretty quickly anyway, right, Like those are low
probability bets anyway.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
Yeah, you're taking flyers, right, You're taking flyers, and you know,
even if Cole looks seventy five percent of what he
used to look like in the twentieth round, you will
take that all day, no problem in the twentieth round.
Good question, though, Matt. I think that's interesting because Garret
Cole as somebody somebody that we haven't really talked about
a lot this year because there hasn't been any reason
to talk about Garrett Cole this year. Appreciate all the guests.

(41:42):
Thanks to a Rico, joeyp and the Welsh took him
the chip for the second year in a row. Congrats Patrick.
Fantasy baseball is the hardest fantasy sport there is. You know,
we're predominantly a fantasy football company here at Fantasy Pros,
but I'll be the baseball guy. I'll say it. Fantasy
baseball is a lot harder and it's a lot longer.
So congratulations everybody who was able to take home a
chip and everybody who will by the end of this week.
We're here to help you guys out. I think that

(42:04):
will wrap it up for us because I don't want
to keep Chris all day here, but really appreciate you
coming on, man, Just let the people know where they
can keep up with your work throughout the off season
heading into twenty twenty six as well.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
Yeah, all stuff at cbssports dot com. My primary stuff
now is the CBS Sports Fantasy Baseball Today newsletters cbsports
dot Com Slash newsletters subscribe. That is five days a
week during the season, but even in the off season
it's going to be at least once a week. I
get itchy, you know, I get antsy if I'm not working,
so it'll probably be twice a week most more often

(42:35):
than not, Fantasy Baseball Today podcast will be three times
a week. I think throughout the off season we're trying
to do a live one from First Pitch Arizona as well.
Frank Stample and I are going to be there, looking
forward to that. And yeah, just all things CBS Sports,
Fantasy Baseball.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
All things fantasy sports, all things fantasy baseball in particular.
That is right, that is the king of all fantasy sports.
I said it. That's right. Don't tell my bosses, don't
tell them posses. I said that, But guys, that will
do it for us for today, for Chris Towers. I
am Joel Rico. We'll talk to you next time right
here on the Fantasy Pros Baseball Podcast.

Speaker 4 (43:12):
Thank you everybody, thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros
Fantasy Baseball Podcast. If you love the show, the best
freeway to support us is by leaving a positive review
on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Follow us on x, Instagram,
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channel at YouTube dot com slash Fantasy Pros MLB

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Leading Off September 22nd, 2025 with Chris Towers (Ep. 1136)

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