Fantasy Baseball Advice | MLB Prospects to Know, Risers & Fallers, Injury Updates (Ep. 1114) - FantasyPros - Fantasy Baseball Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's up. Friends, are welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is
leading off. I'm Chris Welch. That is Joe Rico. We
are back. We are back for more baseball action and
we are live on the twitch. Yes and after the
fact we'll be over on the YouTube Twitch dot tv
Slash Fantasy Pros. If you guys want to watch us
live Monday Wednesday Friday, twelve pm Eastern, can come and

(00:27):
hang out, answer your questions, talk a little bit of
the bes ball and over on the YouTube. We got
the episodes. We're everywhere, We're in all the places with
all the things, and Joe Rico out of the host
seat over the weekend with Bubba back in action. Hope.
Everything was fantastic there my friend to watch a little
bit of it. Got to catch you in Bubba in action.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Joe, Yeah, it was fun. You know. I was shaking
off the cobwebs. The last time I hosted a show,
I was like the number one guy in the chair
was in the preseason when it was one of those
ADP battles. So it had been a while. I had
some cobwebs, but shook them off real quick. Riding a
bike right when you've posted a bunch of shows, but
hopefully next Friday. We're a little bit sharper, but it's
going to be back with you, my friend, speaking of Sharp,

(01:07):
You've been good today.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Glad to do it, Glad to be back. You're glad
to see everybody. Weird actually not doing we're not doing
shows on like a Thursday, but definitely Friday. Weird having
the show go off and not be here. But I
am glad to be back here with everybody else. Remember
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(01:30):
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(01:52):
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(02:17):
Let's jump into action. Shout out to all the peanuts
and cracker jacks that are hanging here. We'll probably be
answering some questions. I see you guys are loading it up,
so feel free to continue to do so. We've also
got a little prospecting with me and we've got some
bets coming up here. But let's start it off with
show Hey Otani. Shoey Otani hit his forty first homer
of the season. Also going to tag this in here.

(02:38):
Cal Rally hit his forty fifth home run of the season.
We've got a couple things to sit on here. Joe.
I got asked this question this weekend, who is going
to lead major League Baseball in homers? Cal Raley Going
into yesterday, when I'd answered the question, I believe you know,
I had forty four. He was hitting one seventy seven

(02:58):
since July first, so he's still hitting sub two hundred.
But you know he had the homer last night. Otani
had been hitting around two sixty. I think this my
number was from July first, Otani had eleven homers. I
believe it's now at twelve, hitting around the two sixty
marker Cal's there. Judge is a little bit further behind,
just because he's miss time. And my pick was Kyle Schwarber.

(03:21):
Kyle Schwarber, who has been hitting mid two sixties, has
the most home well, at least going into last night,
had the most homers of anybody since July. That actually
still is correct, but he was tied for the most
homers of anybody since June, so he had been going nuts.
But Otani and cal Rawley add to the number. Who
do you think is going to be our home run

(03:42):
leader at the end of the year.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
I have a hard time going against Cal. I know,
a couple weeks ago we did the Betting Pro Show
and I said that there was like a plus sixteen
hundred plus seventeen hundred line on Aaron Judge to lead
majors in home runs. He hasn't hit one since he's returned,
and cal Rawley hit one in every game of the
Tampa series over the weekend. I think it's gonna be
him at this point, he's got forty five. You know,
any of these guys are capable of going super hot

(04:07):
for a couple of weeks. It's in all of their
m Schwarber can hit seven over a weekend. And the
same thing with Judge. If we're looking at this a
week from now and Judge has forty four homers and
he's right there, it wouldn't surprise me. But I think
I think you gotta go with Raleigh at this point.
He's got a four lead right now. If you're looking
at like the American League home run lead, He's almost
essentially got it wrapped up. Unless you think Judge's gonna

(04:28):
come back. But I would bet on Raleigh as of today.
It'll lead the majors and homers I think.

Speaker 1 (04:32):
I mean, Judge definitely can't. Like you said, my only
problem with Raley is just he's hitting sub two hundred
for over a month, like he's still I mean, he's
still just cranking homer's out, you know, big dumper is
still dumping, but you know, like it could simmer back
down a little bit. I think Schwarber is as hot
as can be right now, but Otani is right there.
He just hit that. I just thought it was an
interesting question, like that's something I fully really thought about. Yeah,

(04:56):
another funny thing happened. I don't get this. So you
tell me you went viral this weekend, and you went
viral for an absolutely nothing burger to me and no
offense to you, Like, no, I don't get it when
you told me about it, but you essentially what you
were like, shoho Tani is gonna be MVP, And apparently
that got like twenty plus thousand people just liking it

(05:19):
and going out. So tell us about the viral thing
and what was the chaos surrounded around simply saying Otani
is gonna be MVP in n L. What a hot take.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's so stupid, man Like, I used to spend hours
every evening writing detailed notes and none of those ever
go viral. And it's just one stupid tweet I sent
off the other night. I just said, twelve players and
MLB history have won three MVP Awards. There's only one
who has at least four, and that's Barry Bonds. That
is until Shoho Tani Waltz is his way to his
fourth this season, and he'll I've done it over a

(05:47):
span of just five years. He's gonna win four MVPs
in five years. No player in Major League history has
four other than Barry Bonds. But this tweet went crazy.
FanDuel Sportsbook retweeted it this morning. I don't understand it.
It's always the little stupid ones to take five second.
But people love show hey, people love show hey content.
That's why some people will get mad. Why is MLB
only posting show hey, o Toni. That's the stuff that

(06:08):
does tend to fly around the internet.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
It's the stuff that sells, so yeah, Tani sells. I
think it's like all of it. The MVP races are
kind of interesting. The nail's really not like they tried
to do this little like, you know, hey, Kyle Shwarper's
kind of involved, and it's like he's not like it's
it's a tiny TONI is also pitching, you know, going
five innings and hitting homers and say like, oh, you
struggled on the mound and then you hit a homer.
Like there's nothing we can do about that. Plus Dodgers

(06:34):
are kind of getting hot again a little bit, like
you know, I'm I have not giving them the credit.
Another thing of dealing with this weekend and some shows
was like, first off, you have the Milwaukee Brewers, who are,
on paper the best team in baseball is ask that question.
I think, on paper, yes they are. I personally think
the Phillies are like the best combination of everything, but

(06:55):
the Dodgers are right there. The Dodgers are the scariest.
Like whether it's on paper or best combination, they're just
still the scariest. Because of show, heyo Tani, so like
things are gettings getting kind of weird and things are
getting tricky. The al there's a conversation you can have that,
you know. The I think Judge is like last I saw,
which was last week was like minus two twenty. But
Judge isn't done much. This might be much closer between

(07:17):
him and Kyle Raley. So shohyo Tani cal Raley. People
scream at one then the one guy go oh, Tony
can't win it. Cal Rawley's gonna win it, And you're like, yeah,
different league.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
The commenters were not kind to him, and neither was
I really, but you know that's what happens when you
come into my comments and you say you say hilariously
stupid things like that, It is pretty dumb.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Jo Justin Verlander notched his thirty fifth hundred career strikeout,
putting him in I think here he was the tenth pitcher. Yeah,
so that would put him in tenth place to reach
thirty five hundred strikeouts, and he's like eleven in away
from I believe, passing Walter Johnson, so you know, top
ten strikeouts of all time. Wasn't great, wasn't great on

(08:01):
on his performance, and he's talking after the game too, like, eh,
my stuff is still out there. Any thoughts on Justin Evan?
He's a first ballot Hall of Famer. I don't think
we need to see him in baseball anymore. I think
I think he can set sail off him and Kate
Upton can go live a happy life because I mean,
he's got a four and a half THERA could be

(08:21):
supposed a lot worse. You know, Dylan Sees had a
worse era and he was still pitching, so I think
things could be worse, but Verlander not so great, but
incredible career. Thirty five hundred career strikeouts, ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
It almost feels like Tom Brady at the end when
you're just pushing for one more season, one more season.
But at least Brady was really successful those last couple
of years. What Justin has done the last couple of seasons, eh,
five forty eight ERA last year, four fifty three. This season.
The strikeouts aren't what they used to be. The command
isn't what it used to be. You know, it's funny
you mentioned the stuff. It's still above average, one zero
six stuff rating overall, yeah, is very good. But the

(08:54):
location plus at ninety three, pitching plus at ninety nine.
He's not the same guy. He's never gonna be again.
I think this is the last year where ever going
to see Justin Verlander. I'm not sure about the contract stuff. No,
he's a free agent after this year too, so it
works out with the contract. Just set off on the
yacht with Kate Upton somewhere, man, like there's no point anymore.
There's no point.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
There's kind of a world and it's and it's weird,
but like we've been blessed with just the new blood.
But there's a world where like next season you might lose,
Like you know, for us, you know, the less ten
fifteen years of baseball we've grown up around Max Scher's
or Clayton Kershawn Verlander. There's a world where they're all
three are gone, you know, like they're just all gone
next season, and they're like those are all Hall of fame.

(09:37):
He sure's your Hall of Famer, like Kershaw's no doubt,
Verlander sure's Theuries, right, yeah, three cy youngs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I did my brain. I had to like think about
that for a second. I always think about the guy
that came in and struck out eight in his debut
for the Diamondbacks. But like you've got these like you know,
Cy Young pitchers that we've all grown up on the
epitome of it, and then they're gone. But we're blessed

(09:59):
with the Hall schemes and the trig Schooble, so we
don't have to think about any of them.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
You want to hear something funny though, Welsh that I
just remembered. So when Max Schers was first drafted by
the Diamondbacks back in two thousand and two thousand and
four or something, tw thousand and five. We had a
mutual friend who was working in minor league baseball at
the time, and this mutual friend picked up Max uers
Or from the airport right after he was drafted. And
that person was Dan Bespers.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Really Dan picked up yeah because he but didn't he
work for like the Dodgers.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
He bounced around a little bit. But I remember Dan
telling me that story that he picked up Max sures
Or from the airport. Nobody who was listening knows who
Dan is, most likely unless you're in a fantasy basketball
But yeah, our good friend Dan Besperus used to be
in minor league baseball calling games. He was like assistant
general manager. Just a little fun fact for any fantasy
basketball fans out there.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
Faby cent, are you serious? Yeah, I'm looking back. What
a ridiculously stupid thing to be like it. I just
had to think about it for half a second, like
my brain shut down. But yeah, I mean two World Series, three,
Cy Young's eight All Star Games. He's like, what is
this number? Forty four shy of thirty five hundred, So
ridiculously stupid of me, So apologies for my stupidity here

(11:07):
in it, But yeah, I mean it's it's an incredible
career that is span close to twenty years and it
is three Hall of famers that you know, we just
be without next year. And also like bigger question is
are we going to see a lot more pitchers like
Justin Verlander and Max Schers or are we going to
see those guys? With how baseball is changing, you know,

(11:28):
I don't know in.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Terms of like two hundred wins, three thousand strikeouts, those
types of things, I don't think so like what does
the Grom have ninety something wins? I know he missed time,
but it's just impossible at this point even you know,
three hundred wins used to be the benchmark right for
the Hall of Fame, and then they had to lower
it the two hundred. Remember Royallliday was just over two hundred.

(11:49):
And now it's like guys are going to be in
the one, one, twenty one, thirty one forty range and
that's going to be the new Oh wow, one hundred
and fifty wins. He's a Hall of you know, that's
where we're going to start getting to. I think eventually
can be a couple.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Guys are going to push it, you know, I mean
Skiing's probably gonna have ninety eight career wins if he
stays with the Padres too much longer. But you know,
like Trike Skouble, Garrett Crochet, I think those are guys
that can push it. But the problem is I don't
think you can look at the grom You've got to
look at the new breed of pictures and you got
to say, like, what is that guy? The long Joviy
By the way, every why is it one freaking out
over the hat? The hat? This is this one and

(12:22):
the only reason that that it's the Gorhams. Actually it's
like the whole great story around the Gorhams, and it's
like alternative to one of the New York minor leaguers
and everything like that. But what's more important than anything else.
This is the hat that is famously depicted in our
one piece art of Me and Joe. If everybody remembers

(12:42):
that may or may not become a T shirt by
the end of the year for when Joe comes back
where Joe really loves the picture of himself. You know
which one I'm talking about. You know which one we're
talking about where he gets really excited, No Joe piece
of Joe Piece of we did a one piece bit
earlier in the year, so this is the hat. We're
backwards doing it today. We're you know, we're chilling. We're
chilling today. A couple of bouncebacks this week and James

(13:06):
Wood two for five, had a pair of doubles, and
Mackenzie Gore nice performance, three hits, six innings, ten strikeouts,
kind of back with it. Are you back in the
good graces of Mackenzie Gore after getting blown up? And
are you in the good graces of maybe trusting James
Wood after picking it up just a tiny bit.

Speaker 2 (13:27):
James Wood I am more bought into for him. You know,
we saw such an amazing start to his career going
back to last season, but you are going to see
some ups and downs for a young guy. I think
he's still twenty two years old, so you know, he
was cold as can be for a month or so there,
maybe even a little bit longer. But I'm not really
worried about him. Mackenzie Gore is interesting because he was

(13:47):
facing the Giants and Bubba posted this on Twitter. The
Giants are one of the worst teams against lefties, so
and they're not a great offense to begin with. So
I don't know how much I want to read into
it after that start, I did, you know, pick him
up in my home league, which is a ten team
head to head league after he got dropped. But I
don't know if the average person needs to be running
to the waiver wire after this start, because if you

(14:09):
look at the way that Mackenzie Gore's career has gone,
he does tend to fall apart in the summer months.
So it's a good start. I'm kind of interested a
little bit if you have a free space on your roster. Sure,
I wouldn't drop anybody of note for him.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
Though COR's got a three eight eight expected ERA, it's
a little bit lower than where he's at. I think
that performance definitely helped. The big blow up is a
thing that takes him out, but he had two back
to back. He gave up fourteen runs in his previous
two starts against the Astros and A's and just kind
of refound himself. James would I'd say he's also hitting
two still only hitting two hundred and augusts only that's it.

(14:43):
He's had two games where he's picked.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
It back up.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
But his talent is so absolutely ridiculous that it's hard
for us to ignore a couple others. I just threw
out here, so I thought they were interesting. Joe Jormeiro
picked up his third save of the season, so that
has continued to be a nice little pickup in the
save market. And isa Collins three for five, two run scored,
had a homer against the Mets in like two ninety
He's just been such a good pickup. Have you still
floating out there? A great way to kind of balance

(15:07):
out your roster, don't you think?

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Yeah, it's a shame for Isaac Collins. I mean maybe
at this point he's gonna make it more of a conversation.
But we could be looking at the National League Rookie
of the Year at this point if he keeps things up.
If you're looking at wins abub replacement, he's up there.
He's number one, actually above Drake Baldon at this point.
He could make that.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Wow, that's actually impressive if he's already jumped to avolve.
When Van Rodd asked a Junghu or Collins, I would
say Collins.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
I said Collins. From now Lee has turned things around
as well, but I think Collins is who you got
to go with. In that lineup right now. I mean,
the Brewers are the best team in baseball over the
last two months.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Let's answer a couple more questions from our friends here,
Faby Ramon Roman Anthony or Ramon Loriano. I mix those
two and he's asking about just for today in that question.
Oh just today. Yeah, I didn't even see that that
was just today.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
So it's Christian Javier or Logan Webb as the opposing pitcher.
I am taking Christian Haavier there, so I'm going Roman Anthony.

Speaker 1 (15:57):
Yes, sir, that I would have done it probably, Yeah, Doyle,
Collins or Marcy. Fourteen team head to head categories. Ops.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
I think I'm going Isaac Collins. But I think all
three are worthy in a fourteen team league. I think
they should all be rostered. But Breton Doyle, his turnaround
in the second half has also been really really good.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
Jacob Marcy, my friends, Jacob Marcy doing the business. Shout
out to my boys, Shout out to my AFL. Take
two years ago. Start Ryan Nelson today.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
Ryan Nelson today is against.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
The Rangers, against Ranger and Evaldi. It's a tough I
actually think it's still surfaceable. I'm not sure. I can't
promise you're gonna get your quality start. I think he'll
keep them in it. But you know, if you're hunting
wins and you've got a better option, maybe I don't.
I'm not foreseeing blow up territory.

Speaker 2 (16:46):
Yeah, you know what, the more I look at it,
the range good. Last three weeks, the Rangers are the
twenty first ranked offense in the league. Nelson has been consistent,
I'm fine with it. You may not get a win,
it might be a toss up there, but five innings
of good ratios, four or five strikeouts, I think you're
probably gonna get that out of them.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Question for you gents, if you have Christian Xavier on
the I L and Nestor Cortez is the West pitcher
in your stable? Worst best maybe worst worst, worst best.
There's so many different ways that's not the best.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
There's no way he's the.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Best West coast, the best coast. Oh yeah, he said worst,
thank you? So who you keeping Cortez here? What a
what a wild ride that was of a question. So
if Cortez is the worst, I would rather I would
dump Cortez for Javier. Who's going today.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Yeah, I'm fine with it. I don't know like Xavier had,
did he have the brace procedure or did he have
Tommy He had Tommy John, right, I think it was
Tommy John. So you never know what the first couple
starts are going to look like. I'm honestly, I'm not
really that interested in either of them. But I guess
it's Javier. But I think there's probably better options on
a ten team waiver wire.

Speaker 1 (17:49):
Yeah. By the way, shout out to uh the peanuts
and Crackerjacks, you guys that are hanging out. We can
see we have like cool little animations and stuff. When
you guys sub in, I know we had a little
hype trained JDH Solar Flare resubscribed on the Prime. We
got some streaks going on, We got some new followers.
Do all the stuff, man, do all the stuff in
the things. Go out there, give us a follow on here.
That costs you nothing. If you get the subs, whether

(18:11):
it's on Prime, which is free, you get rid of
the ads or you can gift them, or you can
do the stuff like Van Rod just resubscribed on Prime.
So Van Rod's not dealing with anything. Do all the
stuff in the things. We'll shut you out. We love
you very much, and we've got a killer schedule. I
guess we can just do that real quick here. Now. Baseball,
you know, tapering down in the season, but we've got
a big football schedule here as well. We got daily

(18:33):
live streams, so we got best ball stream coming up
later today ericson and Tom strack In. We've got Seth
Wilcock and Debro Tuesdays and Wednesday's at two pm Eastern.
Thursday's five pm e I'm actually on here with Bogman.
I believe this Thursday, so come and check that out.
And then Friday is also five pm Eastern. We got
the schedules. I think it's on twitch as well. We
have daily stuff, lots of other fun things, so make

(18:56):
sure you guys are checking us out, subscribed and hanging out,
especially especially if you're in the football stuff. All right,
a couple more questions and then let's get back to
it because we got some prospect and some bets to go.
Is Waldrop worth the pickup? Maybe might be Waldrip I
believe it was started throwing more of a sinker, kind
of redefined that pitch, which is just settling him out.

(19:18):
It's got this good split finger and stuff. I think
a deeper leagues Waldrip is I'm not sure that I'm
running to the wire to try to stream. I might
want to like pick up and watch first, but deeper
leagues I'll say probably, But would be a great question
to be like, would you rather Waldrip and or I'm
just not one hundred percent sold on any Braver, any

(19:39):
of those Waldrips fixing all that stuff. Keeper question Bragman
around six or Matt Shaw around fifteen.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
It's a good question. I think I'm probably taking the
discount on Shaw, but I wouldn't fault you for going Bragman.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
If it's short keepers, I think I'm going to take
Breggy's because I think Bregman is better competitive push. If
that was like four keepers, if it's twelve, I don't know,
you know, twelve like having that discount and knowing so
many players are taken off the board and getting that
high pick would be worth so much more, if that
makes sense. Yeah, so shorter keepers, probably Bregman for winning
now though drop Simpson from marsh never No, unless you

(20:20):
don't care about.

Speaker 2 (20:20):
Stolen basis, I couldn't do it.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Okay, they're perfect d D. Someone asked about lu keishel
and we're going to talk about him in a second.
Some rookie lookie action. Coulson Montgomery is ridiculous to run score,
to walk a solo home run against the Guardians. Are
you how in are you on Coulson Montgomery, because like
I know, you said, like you're not the biggest, you know,
prospect guy, and yeah, I was kind of beating the

(20:44):
table a bit for Coulson Montgomery though there wasn't a
lot of There wasn't a lot of stuff that pushes
for him, you know, like the minor league metrics and
stuff look kind of stinky and they're not like the
most incredible thing here. But he's just been so clutch.
But so far two thirty eight but has nine homers
in just over one hundred of bats, which is sick.
He's got an XBA that's higher fifty percent barrel. I

(21:06):
love strakeouts are maintaining and he looks clutch as hell
is Coulston Montgomery and absolute must pick up for you.

Speaker 2 (21:12):
Yes and no, I don't really buy the power. I
just when you look at what he's done in the
minor leagues. Twenty twenty two, it was eleven home runs
twenty twenty three, it was eight home runs twenty twenty four, eighteen.
I don't see him as a guy who is just
all of a sudden like this massive, massive power hitter.
I think that we're gonna see the barrel rate, We're
gonna see the home run rate come down. I'm like,
what's the home run to fly ball? Right right now?

(21:34):
It's got to be massive for this guy. So I'm
just I'm not totally sold playing for the White Sox.
A lot of swing and missing this game, not a
lot of contact. I think this is just a hot
streak that I don't think you really need to worry
about it in like a ten or twelve team league.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I don't think it's in team league. I do think
this is a hot streak. But I also fully believe
that Colson Montgomery is a twenty plus summer on hitter.
I don't think he's a thirty or forty. I don't
know where you are. Oh absolutely, I've watched him for
four years. Like his he is a big ass dude.
I mean six three, two thirty. He's playing shortstop. He's
got a six swing when he's on. His problem has

(22:09):
always been swinging miss and he looks like he's fixed
some of those problems, so deep, deep, keepers, I'm into him.
I think he's been good. And the question was going
to be how about Luke Keishall three for five had
to walk off a two run homer in the eleventh,
and I was going to say, who would you rather?
Keishall or Coulson Montgomery because we had somebody ask like,
is Luke for real? Luke?

Speaker 2 (22:28):
I feel like I'm probably going with Montgomery there, just
because I don't really trust the surrounding environment in Minnesota,
although it has been a lot too bad since the
break or since the trade deadline, excuse me, They've actually
been not too bad. But Chicago over the last three
or four weeks is like a top five or seven
offense in baseball, So I'd probably go that road.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I love this, like two look at these two random
back to back the things. Luke is a must pick
up he's infielder, and then it was Montgomery's like Matt
McClain when he came up. I just love like the
randomness of both different people answering. Yeah, there's a little
bit in both of those, you know. I think if
you're chasing power, you want Montgomery. It's both probably the
two grossest lineups out there, White Sox and Twins. But yeah,

(23:08):
I mean, I think if you're chasing a little bit
more speed, Keishel's there. If you want more power, I
think Montgomery's. They're both great options and there's probably some
dead weight on rosters you could look at. Also, Mickabel
allowed one run. Speaking of the Twins, one run, four
hits and four and one third innings a triple A
on Sunday. I think we could see him in the
near future, because what the hell of the Twins doing
so if you're looking in the streaming world and making

(23:30):
his first major league start. Luis Morales was lifted after
walking five in two and two thirds, but it was hitless.
Hitless out there had a really big strike issue. Good
stuff in the miners may get some you know, make
it some spot starts out there. We'll be on the
lookout for that. But the rookie, lookie, my friends takes
us two. Prospecting with me, prospecting with the Welsh, Well,

(23:53):
we're going to take a look at some of the
game's biggest prospects that could be coming up soon. The
August This mid August edition is really tricky, and I
want to give a little preface because I believe to
start here, there are a couple prospects that we've talked
about in the previous video or two. We can come
back to us. A couple prospects we've talked about that

(24:13):
are August fifteenth or sixteen likely to come up, So
I just want to mention them before we talk about
the names today because I don't want to rehash the thing.
Bryce Eldridge would be one of the top guys that
I would pick up today. August fifteenth is the designation
where a guy cannot lose or if they come up
after August fifteenth, they cannot lose their designation of rookie

(24:35):
eligibility for next year. That's key because teams can control
them and then they can have them for a PPI
pick or whatever the hell it's called for next season.
So August sixteenth is a critical date. So with that,
Bryce Eldridge I think is like at the tippy top
of one of those guys. I think Carson Williams is

(24:56):
another one of those players. Owen Casey, Bubba Chandler, Andrew Painter.
Those are all guys that we're paying really close attention
to because I think they are way, way more likely
than any other prospect to come up on the sixteenth.
So you ask, what are we talking about? Then, well,

(25:16):
I got three prospects that I think are hovering in
that line. I don't think they're guaranteed August sixteenth guys
that are gonna come up, but I think they're in
the conversation. And then I got a couple other lists
for you, some players that move up. So let's talk
about the first guy we're going to talk about, Samuel Bissio,
Samuel Besio with the Baltimore Orioles. We've had so much

(25:37):
conversation about him, Joey Like, it has been ridiculous. Everyone
where is he? When are we going to get him up?
Just this past weekend on Sunday, as a matter of fact,
when two for five had four RBIs. He continues to hit,
he doesn't continue to make people feel super comfortable. Defensively,
he's got twenty three homers in the miners. He's hitting

(25:57):
two seventy seven three eighty four OBP the underlying stuff
ninety four, average x velosity around ninety four and a
half with a fifty six percent hard hit rate, he's
getting the ball in there. I think we are getting
to a space now where offensively he's doing all the things,
he's checking all the boxes. He doesn't have a thirty
percent strikeout rate. Defensively is a question, but that bat

(26:22):
having some progression after August sixteenth makes a lot of sense.
With the Orioles catcher, I think he could play a
little bit of DH, he could play a little bit
of first if they want to move him around. I
think there's big questions defensively what they're going to do
with him long term, but the time to figure it
out is in about six days when you still have
him as a rookie next year. So I think there's

(26:43):
a high likelihood we could see him. Joe, do you
have any thoughts on Samy of the style? Very big
popular name, probably someone you're a little bit more familiar
with in that Baltimore offense. I think he's a good
speculative marker if you missed out on guys like Eldridge.
But what do you think.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
I think in the two catcher world, if you're in
a league where you have to start two catchers, then
it does make sense. If we're talking one catcher leagues,
which does make up the majority of fantasy baseball leagues.
It's a lot harder for me to get behind it.
I just I don't know exactly. First of all, the
Oriols with their prospects, so they've handled everybody has been
infuriating with it. When they call them up, they'll play

(27:18):
a few games, send them back down. So I don't
even know exactly what the usage would be. But he's
not taking games away from Adlie, or not not significant
games away from Adley. I don't think they got Kobe
Mayo playing first. Maybe they switch them in and out
of the catcher d H spots and kind of go
off with Adlie. That could be what they do. I
think part of me just doesn't trust Baltimore after the
last couple of years of seeing how they've kind of

(27:39):
mishandled prospects. But I do think in two catcher formats
he's worth it. It just hard for me if somebody's
in a twelve team, one catcher league, because who are
you dropping. You're not dropping guys like you know, Kirk
or the Contrerez or Ramirez, Perez, Baldwin, Yiner Diaz has
picked it up. It's a lot harder for me in
those one catcher leagues, but two catcher formats, fill your boots,
go ahead, no problem.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
And I think the thing to look for is I
don't expect him to come up and play catcher. So
I'm expecting a guy that they're bringing him up, they're
going to be up to play every day. So you
can put him at your YouTube, you can put him
at catcher, and if the bat gets hot in that lineup,
that's where things get really exciting. That's my excitement around it.
I don't strictly look at this as as a catcher thing,

(28:20):
but if you also we're in the time of year
where it's not worth holding onto catchers that continuously struggle
and don't give you any offensive stats, I think you
can have a higher turn style. So if be on
the lookout for Samuel Bissio after some of those big names,
couple pitchers to take a look at. How about Quinn Matthews.
Quinn Matthews weird ridiculous year. We thought this guy could

(28:42):
have really been up at the beginning of the season,
had kind of a nasty fall off. Numbers were so
much worse. They have really stabilized and he has refound himself.
He's got a three three six ERA over seventeen starts,
almost eleven k per nine so far this year. The
gross are the walks. It's around six per nine, which

(29:03):
has been pretty freaking nasty. And that's something obviously the
Cardinals are gonna want to have fixed. But I think
we're at a point where the team would benefit from
getting him some major league time, and in the majors
we've seen some couple good starts out of him. He
just pulled a nice one over this weekend. Stuff is
still good fastball at ninety three slider. He's down ticked

(29:25):
the usage on the slider to throw a little bit
more of a curveball, and I think that pitch mix
is going to work in the majors, and I think
we're going to see him here soon. So pinning the
matchup like if the Cardinals are going over to the
Dodgers hard pass, but if they're not, I think Quinn
Matthews could definitely be someone we look at streaming. And
then finally, and then I'm gonna give you a couple
side names here. Let's talk about Nolan McClain with the

(29:47):
New York Mets. The New York Mets have a few
starting pitchers. As a matter of fact, they just sent
some players up to tripa A. Brandon Sprott has kind
of refound himself a little bit, which I think has
been absolutely critical for his matchuration, and he would have
been a guy I would have said much early on.
But we're going to talk about Nolan McClain because he
has been almost unhittable. This is a former two way

(30:08):
player not too long ago. McClain a two four six
ERA through twenty games pitch so far this year, He's
got just under a ten k per nine walks are
pretty manageable, does not give up Homers. Has one of
the nastiest sliders. They want to call it a sweeper
in the miners right now. He uses that pitch a lot.

(30:28):
Around twenty eight percent of the time he gets strikeouts
on it. He throws ninety five. It could be a
bullpen thing. But I think if they're going to go
to any spot starts, which this team is a sinking ship,
the New York Mets worst team in baseball through the
last ten games one to nine, that they might need
to jolt this and I think to do that is

(30:49):
to bring up some live pitching, and I think Nolan
McClain is that guy. I think he would have big strikeouts.
You know what it would actually be. I think it
could be reminiscent to a Max schers or debut, four
or five innings, eight nine strikeouts, unhittable with the power fastball.
I really like Nolan McLain. He's been pitching at Triple
A the majority of the season. You know, he's been
up there for a long time, so I think after

(31:11):
his fifteen games pitched in Triple A, we could see
him here soon. These are not the most likely likely
of the August sixteenth they're called up, but those three
players in Quinn Matthews, Nolan McClain, and Samuel Bessiah, I
do think we could see. And then the final thing
I just want to leave you with is we had
a handful of players that just moved up to Triple A.

(31:32):
And what that does is it doesn't guarantee anything, but
it definitely puts players on the radar that in a
snap they could be called up to the majors. And
I thought there were some interesting ones, number one being
Travis Bizana. Joe Travis Bozana miss time played out here
for a little bit. I think the maturation of what
they would want out of him has slowed, but they're

(31:53):
moving him up. The rest of the class has all
gotten to the majors. He's in Triple A now. He
has an incredible OVP. I don't think it's out of
pocket that we see him. I'm not guaranteeing it. I
think it's more likely for the AFL, but he's up
at Triple A. We could see him in a couple
of weeks if they really wanted to. If Bizana got
called up, would you make a waiver claim on Travis Pozana?

Speaker 2 (32:16):
I probably would in a I'm a deeper league player.
I'm playing a lot of fifteen team mixed rod leagues.
I'm picking him up in those spots, or at least
speculating on him. Cleveland's been better as an offense over
the last month or so. They have a one oh
eight WRC plus. As much as they've been bad for
the season as a whole, they have kind of turned
things around recently, So I feel like if he does

(32:36):
get called up, that would be something I am kind
of interested in. Where do you think he would play?
Do you think he would take over for Rokio or
how do you think that would that would shake out
playing time wise?

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, I mean I think they would want him to
go over and play second. I think that's the I
think that's where he would slide into and I think
they Again, these are not likely. It's just they're moving
up to Triple A. So I think you have to
pay attention to other gona throw at you. Carson Binge
has been incredible. It's another met you know, they made
their moves. I'm not sure that they do it. But
if there's any injury Binge going up to Triple A.

(33:08):
He's been one of the best in the minor leagues.
I love him. Some are talking about him as a
top not just fifty, but maybe top twenty five prospect
in baseball. And then Peyton Tolly. Now I put Peyton
totally on here. He did get hit up a little bit,
I believe in his first Triple A debut, But again,
you're looking for a jolt into your pitching staff if
you have any more injuries. Totally is somebody that could

(33:30):
instantly help the Red Sox now up at Triple A.
I do think there's a possibility. All of these possibilities
after August fifteenth, so all of them will still have
prospect eligibility next year. So then they would uy for
an extra pick and control. You know, that's how it goes.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
So they go.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
That is prospecting with me the Welsh to end this
bad boy out. I got a couple more of these
this season until we get into September.

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Prospecting with the Welsh.

Speaker 1 (33:55):
I know everybody likes Joe's version. Let's hear Joe, Let's
hear your version of prospecting.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
Prospecting with the Wells. I can't do there.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
You guys did I No, he didn't. No, he did
a great job.

Speaker 2 (34:09):
You would have great guys in Toronto don't tend to
have good Southern accents. What can I say?

Speaker 1 (34:13):
You did really good?

Speaker 2 (34:14):
All right?

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Three up and three down up, Sunny Gray. That might
be a reason. Quinn Matthews is an up seven innings,
one run, ball, striking out seven picked up the dub
against the Cubs. Spencer Steer three for five with a
homer and four RBIs and Common Zardo two for four
two homers, had seven homers over the past month. He
just like vanishes and then it's just like poof, Just
here's five homers in like a week, and then he

(34:36):
just goes away again. He's like the Groundhog's day. You're
just like, oh, okay, you know, seven more weeks of
summer or whatever it is common Zarta is weird, dude.
I would love consistency out of him next year.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
He was so great in April I or he was
one of those hot first base pickups that everybody was
jumping all over. It hasn't worked out, like he has
thirty four runs this season despite having twenty homers, but
we've definitely seen splashes. Isn't that ridiculous? Like?

Speaker 1 (35:01):
Is that's what dumb it? That's super dumb. Like if
he I wanted to see like six hundred bats, I
want him to have like thirty two homers and have
like thirty five runs. That's I love that stuff.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
He's up and down man, like April one thirty WRC
plus May seventy four and then one oh six, one
fifty seven, two oh six overall. I think he's going
to be a really good ballplayer once he gets the
consistency stuff figured out.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
My dude. On the down, jack Sonowitch lasted only three innings,
allowed six earned runs on nine hits against the Tigers.
Want Quinn Priester roughed up six earned runs ten hits
against the Mets, and Slay Chaconi gave up five earned runs.
Just real quick on on Quinn Priester. I've been calling
him a unicorn because nothing makes sense with him, Like
the level of good that he's been has not made

(35:45):
any sense to me. Now I want to look and
see what that game changed, because you know, he's not
like a high strikeout guy. He has some walk issues
as well. He's there did boost up. It's all still
respectable three four nine ERA three seven five expected, but
barrel percentage creeping up a little bit, hard hits creeping up.
You know, he's got like a eleven K minus walk percentage,

(36:09):
which just isn't really good like Fastball's okay, Like, are
you a buyer or do you think this is like
I loosely say buyer, Like do you believe in Quinn
Priester still he'll continue his unicorn status? Or is this
the death of the unicorn? Shout out to that movie
that I just watched, and that like he's going to
come back down to earth with some of those bad metrics, some.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Of the stuff under the surface doesn't really excite me.
I think that he has been kind of like his
teammate Jse, like Quintana. Both of them have pretty mediocre numbers,
and they've both been very good this year, and there's
no real reason for it. I'd be more inclined to
think that he is somebody that you can stream in
and out of your lineup. I'm not looking at the
schedule right now, but he's somebody where I wouldn't feel

(36:46):
bad sitting him in bad matchups. The next one comes
at Cincinnati, So I guess, coming off of this one,
would you start him at Cincinnati? I might. I don't know.
It's tricky. It's a tricky one.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I mean, yeah, Brewers paper best team in baseball. I'm
a little dicey about it, just like in if I'm
hugging ratios. Actually might I might sit that one and
just see if he re establishes himself. It just depends.
Everyone's leagues are so different, Like, you know, one start
can ruin everything, and it's like, if I'm in that place,
I might be like really really picky about some of
the starts, And I think I'm a little worried we

(37:16):
might be in for a little bit of a bumpy
road for Quinn Priester, but we'll see he might just
bounce back from it. Let's go to some injuries. Bobby
Witt did not play on Sunday due to back stiffness.
No bueno. Let's watch that. Ronald'cune has progressed to doing
sprints and outfield drills. Close closing in on a return,
but I imagine there's going to be some type of
a rehab stint that's in there, so just you know,
keep an eye on that one. Byra Buckston is likely

(37:38):
to return off the IL at some point during the
twins upcoming series against the Yankees. So that's a big
plus if that's you know, he's only one. Aaron Nola's
going to make one more rehab start on Tuesday and
as a candidate to be activated as soon as this
weekend against the Nationals. It's going to ask you like, oh,
would you be you know, weary of starting Nola on
his first start off the IL, not against the Nationals.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
Not against the Nationals. They've been awful over the last
three weeks eighty nine WRC plus, but they are a
bad offense. You can target. Nola has Nola was not
good before, but I'm still willing to start him here.

Speaker 1 (38:09):
No problem, Yeah, Samesi's where we bryce. Miller making his
third rehab starting Dacoma. Jamison Taian built up to seventy
eight pitches in a rehab start, striking out six, allowing
one to run. Kyle Bradish is expected to make at
least one more before getting to the majors, which I
imagine he'll be kind of slow rolled. Javier. We mentioned
Christian Javier. He's going to be having his first start
today against the Red Sox. If you can, you probably

(38:31):
want to avoid Matt Vierling placed on the ten day
with an oblique Hunter Green is going to be starting
on Wednesday, and Rokie Sazaki is going to begin a
rehab assignment on Thursday. So there you go in the
injury world. Now let's make some bets. It's time for
the best bets of the day here for Monday, for
mister Joe Rico and myself. And let's take a look

(38:52):
at our card. There it is my card. I'm gonna
just throw at you here. I decided to throw it
together a little bit of a strikeout part. I am
pairing down two of the big strikeout guys today, Garrett
Crochet and Yamamoto down to seven, and I'm parlaying them
together to get one and a half. So I get
plus one fifty one when I go Crochet at seven
and Yamamoto at seven, so it's a seven and seven

(39:14):
equals one and a half strikeout parlay. I'm also going
to be going with the Dodgers minus one and a
half on the run line minus one oh nine, and
then I am team Schwarbs. I mentioned at the top
of the show. I think you know Schwarbs is he's
on a great run. At two sixty five or right
in the two sixty range. He's hit since July first,

(39:34):
he's most homers since June, most homers since July. Both
of those numbers. He just continues to go. And I
think he's in a good spot today. And you're getting
a little bit of plus money plus one oh five
on two total basis for the Schwarbies going up against
a Raidy. So that's my car, Joe Rico, what do
you got for today?

Speaker 2 (39:51):
So I am really interested in Kate Cavali after seeing
his first start in a couple of years the other day.
He's got a nice two start week coming up. For
anybody Fantasy World looking to pick him up, I would
be doing so. But the strikeouts are interesting to me.
He had six and four and a third the other day.
You can get now, this is an alt line because
the actual line was like minus three and a half
and it was minus one eighty or something minus one

(40:12):
seventy five. So I played it up to plus to
five plus strikeouts and you're getting that at plus one
thirty six. He's facing a Royals team that does not
strike out a lot, so that's something you have to
be wary of. But I think five is a relatively
low number that you shouldn't worry too much about him hitting.
Based on what we saw in that first start, stuff
looked really good. I'm excited Philadelphia and Cincinnati over nine
and a half runs. We got Taiwan Walker and Andrew

(40:35):
Abbott in this one. Abbott has been very good as
a whole this year, but we started to see him
come back down to earth a little bit. Taiwan Walker
is actually in the midst of a pretty decent run,
but he is still Taiwan Walker and this game is
a great American ballpark. So over nine and a half runs,
and that one is something I'm really interested in. And
then another alt strikeout total here Yoshinobu Yamamoto, similarly to Welsh,
we're both taking the over. I've got it at eight

(40:57):
plus again, this is an alt line because at minus
or excuse me, at over six and a half it
was kind of juiced. So he's facing the Angels today
and this is a team that has struck out more
than any team in baseball over the last month. So
I'm playing that one up to eight plus at plus
one sixteen today.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
How's a slick. I like those bets and you can
track all of your bets if you use the Betting
Pros app. Going download the Betting Pros app today get access.
We've even got the Fantasy Pros code if you guys
want a little free trial to access to all the
tools that's in there. And here's a cool thing if
you want to check out those tools by using that
code and play around this the MLB prop cheat sheet.

(41:36):
We've had some new markets that are added, so you
can go in when you're checking out Bettingpros dot com
slash mlbprops. But if you have the app and you've
got access to everything, go to the cheat sheet. You
can go and see like Homer's and hits and you
can see what all the projections are. The screen even
shows you right there. Ah, shout out to our boy
justin Seal. But we've added a couple new markets. We've
got hit run RBI, which you guys know that is

(41:58):
a market that I play and pitcher out. So we've
got some brand new projections and full analysis where it's
giving you the star rating information on a EV. You
can go and do some of that and you can
have access to that when you get the premium side
of betting pros and you can get that free trial
with Code Fantasy Pro. So go and do that today,
and go and check out our new market seven days free.

(42:19):
Check out the new markets that they just had. I
think it's actually like the coolest thing ever that in
late July and August we added new stuff. You know
when it becomes very football centric. So it's a very
good sign. So go and check it out today. All right,
let's go over to the home Run leaderboard to finish
off the show. Here, we've got positive Grouch has hit
the fifty marker Ladies and gentlemen boom fifty Whips is

(42:42):
at forty eight, George is at forty six. We got
bees in the Fisher King at forty four. We now
have looks like ten people with forty plus. Grouch is
looking to pull away. Wonkey is on there at thirty eight.
I'm nowhere to be seen, absolutely nowhere to be seen.
I don't even know where I'm if I'm even close whatsoever.
Because I got some perpetuity pick. So that is the board.

(43:05):
Someone's gonna win that amazing Semi Sosa autograph. Jersey who
has all the homers. Not gonna be me, not gonna
be a Rico. But it doesn't mean we can't try
here for a little bit. Joey, what do you got
for your home run today?

Speaker 2 (43:15):
So I'm taking somebody I don't think I've ever taken
in the home run contest, Ellie Dela Cruz. This one
at Great American Ballpark against Taiwan Walker, whose home run
per nine is one five nine with a fifteen percent
homer to fly ball right this year, and Ellie Dela
Cruz is not homeward in August, so he's due. Let's
get this one on the board.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
I have been team Schwarbs today, so we are going
to jump right back into it. Give me schwarbs for
my homer today. It'll also go into Tuesday, and then
Wednesday we'll be back with it. A little bit of
Schwarberfest in August is what I need. Hey, shut out
to her boy Scotti, you said, thank you gentlemen for
helping me win my twelve ten roto league this year. Yes,
I'm claiming victory in August because the season went that well.
I mean, God willing now, but that is very very

(43:55):
nice of you, so love that, love all of you.
Thank you guys for hanging out out with us here
for this episode of Leading Off. We'll be back on Wednesday.
It'll be me and Arico. Bring your questions in. We'll
have a little bit more time because we don't have
the prospect segment, so we want to answer even more questions.
So make sure you join live at twelve pm Eastern
on our Twitch Twitch dot tv slash in this league.
If you can't make it, we'll be up on YouTube

(44:17):
pretty much win it an hour or so, so make
sure you're locked in there and then Friday you will
get Bubba Ena Rico back with it. Thank you to
sal for holding down the ones and twos here. That's
going to do it for us. You guys have a
fantastic one. Enjoy this week. Happy birthday to my kid,
by the way, turned a teenager last night. I want
to give my shout out to Happy birthday to Parker

(44:37):
that we spent a great day yesterday. That is it. Goodbye,
We love you, peace out.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
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, and TikTok at
Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube
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Fantasy Baseball Advice | MLB Prospects to Know, Risers & Fallers, Injury Updates (Ep. 1114)

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Fantasy Baseball Advice | MLB Prospects to Know, Risers & Fallers, Injury Updates (Ep. 1114)