Fantasy Baseball Advice | MLB Prospects to Know, Risers & Fallers, Injury Updates (Ep. 1115) - FantasyPros - Fantasy Baseball Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
What's up? Friends are welcome in too, Fantasy pros. This
is Leading Off. We are back. It's a Rico and Welsh.
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(00:26):
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Speaker 2 (00:28):
Lately, speculating on a couple of properties, you know we'll
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Speaker 1 (00:35):
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(00:55):
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(01:37):
live o Ki Dook. We're gonna jump into the stuff
and things here. What a day for show hey Atani
yesterday real estate investment lawsuit, triple play and a Homer
the trifecta. It really is incredible. So let's start with
the lowest of hanging fruit, real quick show. Hayotani's in

(01:57):
some stuff again. We found out after well obviously we
didn't have the show yesterday, but I had done something
and found out that there's a two hundred and forty
million dollar lawsuit that's being put out there. I'm going
to just quickly give the thing because like I think
the surface level, everyone's like, here we go again Shoeeyotani,
you know them bad business and stuff like that. What

(02:19):
I've come to the determination is he has the worst
people around him. Joejyotani might be incredible on the field,
but off the field, his decision making is the worst whatsoever.
This all comes down to, essentially his lawyer, Otani's lawyer

(02:40):
in him being involved to be a promotional aspect of
an investment deal in Hawaii. The guy there was a
guy that kind of conceptualized this whole thing. He was
kicked out or two guys were kicked out of the deal,
and they're blaming Otani and his agent for forcing the
company to kick him out. So that's a crux of it.

(03:00):
They're like they use their power to kick it out.
But like we all know that this is the lawyer.
This is not a tony Famous people have to get
the worst type of people to work for them to
do the tough thing. So I guess I'm a defender here.
I just Sinkatani makes really bad decisions out the field
and has just scumming people allegedly doing stuff for him.

(03:20):
And this seems like it's a guy that got bounced
from a deal who's pissed because he's losing some money,
but because there's so much nastiness with the epay stuff
that like every outlet wants to run and be like,
show you Tony picture lawsuit two hundred and forty million.
I don't want to call this a nothing burger, but
like in the grand scheme of like every outlet needed
to cover, it's kind of a it's kind of a

(03:41):
nothing burger. So I wanted to bring it up because
I think people I don't know, it feels like it's
getting lost in translation a little bit of rico. You
got any other different thoughts than what I laid out
on the lawsuit stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I just don't really think this is that big of
a deal. I'll preface my comments by saying, like I'm
a Toronto Blue Jays fan. I'm still piss thet show
hey for what happened a couple off seasons ago. So
I'm not gonna be out here like defending.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
Him that he was on that flight, that he was
on that flight then he didn't, Like, I have.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
No reason to stick my neck out and defend him
if I don't think that there's really nothing going on here,
Like do we really think Showhy is the one on
these zoom meetings negotiating real estate transactions.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
No, he's awesome.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
He's not doing that. Like as much as it's nice
to like have a heel or have a villain or
whatever it is, people love to, you know, root against
the best player in baseball. I get it, but this
doesn't really feel like anything. This isn't the conviction. This
is an accusation, and it seems based on what I've read,
that it's more against his agent than it is against him.

(04:39):
He's obviously the big name, so he's going to be
the one that they talk about. But this feels like
a big nothing burger. At the end of the day, man.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
It is. And we'll see and you know, like people
kind of throwing out like what is that going to
play on the field, it'd be interesting. He's pitching tonight,
so we see how he goes. He also hit into
a triple play last night right which was crazy. It
was just like right up the middle, bing bang boo,
one of the quickest and it was just like we're like, okay,
we're out of that. That was wild. And then hit
an absolute just rocket out with the homer, scored a

(05:09):
couple runs, had a couple walks, you know, still doing
like the crazy Otani stuff, So I thought we would
just you know, throw some of that stuff in there.
How about the Brewers. The Brewers continue to win? Was
it eleven straight? Freddy Peralta shut down the Pirates six innings,
striking out seven in a win? Eleven straight? You had

(05:29):
Andrew Vaughn three run homer. You had a freelick leadoff
homer against Schemes. We'll talk about him in a minute.
Christian Yelich is in there. I've been asked this question
over and over and this isn't quite fantasy. So let's
just do it real quick and then if there's any
fantasy nuggets in there. Do you think the Brewers are
I know, on paper, they're physically the best team in baseball.
Do you think they're the best team in baseball right now.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
At the moment? Yes. Are they the best team in
the league going forward? Probably not. I don't know that
I think that they're that good going forward.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Freddy praulta top three most underrated starting pitcher, think of
just underrated for this season.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, Freddy Pearlt is right up there, He's right up there.
I'm always on the Joe Ryan train. I don't think
he gets enough love. But Freddy Pralt is like what
a mid two's Era low one whip strake o its
wins everything. He's doing everything for you, And he was
like what a one thirty EIGHTDP this year, Like he
was really cheap.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
He was really cheap and kind of waiting the whole
season for like the next the shooter drop, you know
what I mean, just like the next thing to happen,
and it just never end up having vial soulf relock
too self really just kind of sneaky and just got
to Skeens in there. Skeins gave up four runs, four innings,
took a loss. Era is now over to cy young

(06:45):
stuff adjusted a tiny bit. Anything in that Skien start
that you saw, I mean, he gave up that leadoff
freelick thing, wasn't able to go deep, which is kind
of the you know, the big nastiness for Skins here,
you know, over to where Era is fine. I think
it's just makes the him and Wheeler case a little
bit closer. But anything in that Skien start for you.

Speaker 2 (07:05):
Nothing really, I mean, it is kind of noteworthy that
he's allowed four and runs and two of his last
three starts, because he's never really done that before in
his career. Every now and again you see a bad
start from Skiens, but a couple in quick succession does
make you take note a little bit. But at the
end of the day, he's facing the hottest team in
baseball arguably not even really arguably right now, the hottest

(07:26):
team in baseball. So I'm giving him a pass. There's
nothing of concern here for me. Really. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
I was asked about this on CBS over the weekend.
They're like, do you think the Skien start is going
to break the streak? And I was, honestly no. I'm like,
Skiins isn't getting wins. The Pirates aren't big, you know,
crazy support team. Like, I think it is one hundred
percent going to come out of this road series, but
I think it's going to be the Reds. I think
the Reds are going to be the ones that are
going to end it. But the brewis just kind of

(07:51):
keep going. There's a lot of fantasy value, you know.
The other guy we briefly did, I think on the
last episode, but Isaac Collins just keeps going. I think
he was hitting two in this lineup profile is really interesting.
He's hitting two ninety, he's got some split stuff, but
it just looks like he's just going to keep even
when Cherio would come back. I think this is a
guy that they're just going to continue finding time for.

(08:11):
So he's fantasy relevant. And that's the thing. There's a
lot of fantasy relevance across this lineup where it's like,
you know, Freelick has got that fantasy side, Isaac Collins
has got that. There's just a lot of like fantasy
upside and while this team is really going too and
sometimes the best thing about those type of players is
you can have quick trigger fingers. I said the same

(08:31):
thing on it Teal yesterday about like Jacob Marcy. The
reason I like Jacob Marcy so much right now too
is he's so hot. And I got to asked this question,
Profar or Marcy. Profar just hit a homer. Average has
been down a tiny bit, But you know, Profar, and
I said Marcy, because I think where Marcy's at right now,
the upside is so in your face. But if he

(08:52):
comes down to Earth, he's so much easier to cut,
bait on and move through. And so he's currently better
than Profar. I don't think profar is long term sustainability
is awesome, and I I, you know, if Marcia goes
through a three game skin and I want to just
move on, I'm really comfortable with it. So that's my dad.
What do you think, Marci or a Profar?

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I've never been a Profar guy going back. It feels
like a decade now, but even especially this year, like
coming off of the PD suspension, the big blow up
season at age thirty two, the bad team around him.
I was never really into Profar. I know he's been
pretty decent over the last couple of weeks or so,
but overall the numbers are kind of mediocre. And when

(09:31):
you look at the lineup around him, I know that,
you know, you think of Miami's lineup, it's like, well,
they're not anything really that special. They're at least as
good as the Braves lineup right now, which I know
is crazy to say, but I think they are. It
might not be that way going forward forever. But the
Marlin's been pretty.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
Doesn't look like it on paper but yet.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
No, but Marcy's been good, Ramirez has been good, Like
this is a decent offense. It's serviceable, and I think
Marci should be the pick for everybody at this point.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
By the way, our chat's incredible Faby asked, because I
used the phrase the nothing burger, and he's like, what
is the origin of it? Then, Solar just nothing burger
originated in the nineteen fifties, primarily used in Hollywood gossip
columns to describe something that was hyped up but ultimately
in consequential. Very very good job, guys, Very good job

(10:18):
on jumping in here. It is amazing, all right, So
we talked about those guys. I asked you about Paul Schemes.
Was there anything there? Nothing really to take from it.
Maybe there is something there with Spencer Strider. Spencer Strider.
It's funny you do our three up and three down
and you didn't have Strider in there because I assumed
you knew we needed to talk about it in the headlines,
and yeah, we're we're on target here. Spinzer Strider gave

(10:41):
up eight runs in four innings in a loss to
the Mets. Strider has not been himself this year. I
saw a friend of mine and you know, huge fantasy personality,
Scott White, who's a Braves fan. You know, he gets
hit up a lot talking about just you know, in
brave stuffs, but he got hit up talking about Strider.

(11:02):
And he was tweeting last night about how the fastball
has just not been there and it just it really hasn't,
especially its effectiveness, because this is one of those weird
situations where his fastball's villa was up year over year.
But check this out. Twenty three swings on the fastball
one with one whiff on that. That's a four percent rate.

(11:23):
That's atrocious, and he only got seven called strikes on it.
So he left that sucker in the zone seventy three
percent zone percentage, got seven called strikes and like no
whiffs on it because he's just leaving that thing up.
So there's something being lost in you know, there's like
a deeper look you need to do because you see

(11:43):
the spin numbers or on par or up the vello
is up, but it's just not there in the same capacity.
CSW percentage was twenty percent. Slider CSW was under thirty percent,
which is also not great. I just laid out some
of the stuff with Spencer Strider. He got lit up.
What in your mind is wrong and can it get

(12:04):
fixed to a positive degree for the rest of this season.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
It's tough to say really, Like it did look like
for a while that he was back. There was a
good stretch between you know, June fourteenth and mid July
where he was really good. But the velocities down. The
stuff is dramatically down. Like the big thing with Spencer
Stryder was always like he's a stuff. God, he's lighting
up the stuff numbers one, twenty one, seventeen, one oh seven,

(12:31):
big numbers. The fastball stuff is down to eighty eight
and he's down to ninety four overall. That is a
huge concern for somebody who relies on the fastball as
much as Stryder does. So I am pretty worried at
this point. I don't know like that there's really any
move you can make though, because you're not dropping Spencer Stryder.
Trade deadlines are gone at this point. Maybe you put

(12:52):
him on the bench for a couple of starts and
see if see what happens on the bench, like his
next start. It'd be tough to do it, though, Like
it's at Cleveland, you're going to want to start him there.
I feel like you kind of just have to keep
rolling with him at this point came.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Over said he had dropstrider and a tend team to
activate Michael King. That's the way it's going. I want
to look real quick at look at the shape stuff
real quick on baseball savant. So if we're looking at
vertical on the fastball, it has definitely lost vertical movement.

(13:27):
So it's trying to do this. This is going to
be weird so versus compared, so no, maybe it's added.
So it's three point seven on the vertical or thirteen
point seven versus two point three versus last year. And
the horizontal break on the arm is significantly different. So
that's where there's a big difference. Eleven point four on

(13:48):
the horizontal movement last year, this is eight point seven.
That is, there's some dramatic changes more than I'm looking
at this actually, like his changeup has dramatically different arm
side or horizontal movement here and then induce sorry I'm
working through this. On the that's total movement on the
induced movement. There is also a decrease in vertical induced

(14:12):
movement on the fastball, and then the same thing on
the horizontal. So again shape, I'm doing all that to
say the shape of the fastball isn't as sharp as
it was in the past, and he has an arm
angle loss that is the most year over year than
he's ever had. So if you're looking at the pitch

(14:34):
arm angle, in twenty twenty one, he had a forty
nine degree, then it dropped to forty six the next
year up to forty eight forty six, so so there's
some drops down to forty two this year. So it's
you have an arm angle, which sometimes you can drop
the arm angle to protect a little bit on injury,
and you've got probably due to the arm dropping, you've
got a bad shaped fastball. So nerds all of that

(14:55):
stuff here. What that says is like, I don't think
this is a This is something that is going to
haunt him for his career. And this can't be fixable.
This is something you probably fix in the off season.
But his approach right now in every aspect of showing
you arm angle stinks. Shape is not bad. Stuff is

(15:16):
not good. What's gonna change? I don't think that much.
So you know what, in a ten team, if you
had to, I think he can drop him. And that
stinks because I'm a spencer strider guy and I'm not
really advocating for it, but live a nerd talk on it,
you know, like that's not good. Like he's also like
a primary two pitch guy, Like you've got to have
the fastball, you got to have that thing.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Yeah, I guess it would depend on the options. Like
I wouldn't just drop him as like a rage drop.
It would have to be for a nice player sitting
on the wire. I could maybe get behind it. But man,
like the more I dig in, Like you can kind
of ignore twenty twenty four if you're looking at stat lines,
because there's just two starts for him. But if you
compare it to his first couple of seasons, they're making
much better contact in the zone eighty five percent zone

(15:58):
contact versus seventy eight tventy six. The swinging strike rate
is down two or three points. The first pitch strike
percentage is another thing down, like eight percent swing percentages down.
Everything is kind of looking bad. I just wouldn't be
able to actually pull the trigger on a drop. I
don't think.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Yeah, oh, I thought you were like laying it out,
Well you could, I mean, you laid out all this stuff.
You're like, oh this sucks, this sucks. But yeah, I
couldn't do a drop like what just.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
Because it's Spencer Strider. And maybe it's the name value.
Maybe it's the fact that even if you do look
at his most recent game logs, there's still games that
are just you know, within the last month eleven strikeouts,
eight strikeouts, thirteen strikeouts. So I think the name, brand
value and the ceiling we know that is there would
probably stop me from dropping him unless there is you know,
a fantastic option on the wire.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. I'm not saying you
go droping for Brady Singer, but like, if you are
stuck with this situation what he's now, I think you
have to pay attention a tiny bit more to maybe
the starts that are out there. I still think the
strikeouts are still good, and he's probably gonna find these
things wafer, you know, like this, the stats and the
numbers we looked at of the season, You're gonna have
a game where he's a little bit back more on

(17:03):
it and the stuff is playing a little bit better.
Like he's a great pitcher. I'm not looking to just
drop him for anything or just create a streaming spot.
But the point is is, like has he entered the
territory where you can have the conversation in ten. I
think you can have the conversation in ten, but it's
got to be a tighter conversation you have with yourself
here because yeah, he's like a ten strikeout dude. You
can absolutely have that.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Yeah. And the last thing, like I mentioned, Cleveland is
the next start, and he's lined up for at Miami.
After the fact, I know Miami has been better, but
I feel like I want those. If somebody drops him
and I have the option to pick him up and
start him for those, I'm probably gonna do it. I might.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Yeah, I mean again, I know some feel like absolutely confident.
We need that old from the Nerds. We need the Nuds.
It's like whenever we do anything like that, we Kali
put put a marker in that, or Seth put a
marker in that. For the future, we need the Nerds Club. Which,
by the way, I had a friend that was in Nerds.
It was a guy that like I went, I worked
with and he was older than me, and he was

(17:56):
in the movie Nerds. And now he's act. Actually he's
like a really popular character like doofy character actor and
he's in music videos and stuff in Helle.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Really it's super weird nudes, all right.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Aaron Judge hit his thirty eighth homer walked a couple
of times stolen base. You'd love to see that, whether
you call it a combo meal or a hat and
a shoe or whatever. Pete crow Armstrong oh for four
with a strikeout on Tuesday. I maybe it's my timeline.
I have seen so much narrative of people done with
Pete crow Armstrong comparing to a insanity movement of he

(18:28):
has just fallen off three for thirty seven this month.
Are you a believer or a non believer in the PCA.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
I'm a believer to some extent, but the extremes are
so funny. A couple months ago, it's like, we're gonna
see him go it first overall next year, and then
it's like, oh, he sucks, you can cut him.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
It's like, are you seeing the same thing? I am? Like,
I feel like every other day I just see people
just is so excited to share the awfulness of Pete
crow Armstrong and that he's done. He's got twenty seven
homers and thirty stolen bases, so no matter what he does,
it's an incredible season, but the average it's dipped down
to two point fifty seven. He's hitting only two fifteen

(19:05):
in the second half, but he's mixing his uh, you know,
his months up. He just like, what was it? He
just hit three oh eight in July, but he's hitting
under one hundred right now this month. Like, where do
you stand on PCA?

Speaker 2 (19:20):
I don't think that either end of the extreme is correct.
He's not a first round player. He's not a bad
player at all. He's just going through some ups and downs.
And I think that's part of the profile of PCA.
Going back to last year. He's like, there's a reason
why a lot of people were not interested in him
coming into the season because there are flaws in his profile.
Now he has worked through those. The pulled fly balls

(19:41):
have been amazing, the power has come out of nowhere.
But it doesn't mean that he is all of a
sudden going to be a forty forty guy. These ups
and downs are still going to be there, and I
think he's still absolutely fine. Like if anybody's cutting him,
not that I think that they are, but even if
in your ten team league somebody's cutting PCA, I think
that that's a huge mistake. He's going to be fine.
It's been an awful month, no question about it. But

(20:02):
James Wood just had an awful month too, And the
last week James Wood has been great again. So these
things happen. That's been the natural course of baseball ups
and downs.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
Yeah, and that's the tough conversations we have to have.
I feel like we have with you guys where it's
like a guy struggles and you're like, should I cut them?
And it's like the end of the day, Strider, Even
on the Strider stuff, James would We're not like looking
to cut these great players because like the best, the
elite players, like when they're on, you know, it can click.
But it's like there's volatility players. Pete Crow, James Wood

(20:34):
might be a volatile I actually kind of would have
put him in the camp of not because he could
hit righties and lefties and whatnot, but like I think
Pete Crow and maybe Strider right now, that there's these
these players that have this like volatility marker that should
be attached to them, and that's what you've got to overcome.
But it's like do they justify it? I couldn't do
it with Pete Crow just because like it's not just

(20:55):
like previous record. It's like this season he's practically a
thirty thirty guy and if he starts clicking, you know,
like I agree with you. The ability to get the
ball in the air is the biggest key. But the
league is adjusting to him and he has to just
readjust and you know, he might be more of a
consistent player next year. But he's pulling the ever living
crap out of the ball and he's seeing absolutely incredible results.
He's got an over twenty degree launch agle and it's

(21:17):
like those things. His ability to barrel the ball more,
he's hitting it harder and get it in the air
is creating all these incredible opportunities. He's just in a
really rough patch right now. So there's a Pete Crow Armstrong.
What do you guys got? We got to answer some
questions here today. Let's get to the peanuts and cracker
jacks and see where everybody is at our boy, Michael.
Rest of season Westburg or Blaze?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Alexander Blaze has been really, really hot the last week.
It's probably Westburg. But I don't mind going Blaze either. Honestly,
I don't really feel that strongly.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
I would go Westburg. So another note, yesterday actually had
like a crazy like day off. So what did I
do spending a day off around here? I went down
to Scottsdale and went to Salt River Fields. I don't
know if you saw I broke some news. Ethan Holliday
got sent up. I was the first to find that.
It literally a player told me, and I was like,
that's cool. So I broke that. But in the same

(22:10):
token because I went to watch him in case On Cunningham. Uh,
Gabby Moreno comes carting out, which, by the way, Tory
Leavello told everybody he'd be in Reno and Jordan Lawler
then came out. Jordan Lawler in that game, he has
just been living here absolutely murder Balld crushed a Homer,
looks healthy. He was running and playing in the field.
I have a picture out on my Instagram of Casson

(22:31):
and Jordan Lawler playing third. That think, like, I think,
what when the Diamondbacks are? Are they at the road
right now? I'm completely drawing a blank right because like
or what is their next series? Because I think he's
going to go straight from Salt River possibly up to
the Majors. That's my assumption here with what they're doing.
And I think Gabby and him could go together because

(22:51):
I saw Lalla a week ago and Lawler was not running.
He was hitting, but he wasn't running. Now he's in
the field running, crushing homers. It's like complexy type of stuff.
But him and Gabby playing together. My point of this
is is like, if the Diamondbacks are home in the
next four or five days, I think he's gonna come up,

(23:11):
and I think they're gonna move Blaze around. I think
they want to get Lalla that opportunity. So that's what
I'm there. So the Back, Yeah, they're on the road
of Texas, that's what I thought. Then they're at Colorado,
so maybe the Colorado game or right after that series,
I think Laala will be up. So my point is
is I'm not one hundred percent sure that Blaze has
everything locked down. He'll get opportunities. I just like Westburg
a little bit more.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
That's fair.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
That's my Okay, Well, yeah, okay. Next one game is
August eighteenth, thank you, Seth against Cleveland, So there you go.
I think Jordan Lawler will be up. Needed to make
a roster move with sp drop she In at Rocky's next,
dropped Raghetty, added Javier Darvish and zeb twelve teen, Roto
wins and Kate per nine. How did I do.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
So?

Speaker 1 (23:52):
You added Javier, Darvish and zebby you drop Sheahan and Arragetty.
I think it's a yah.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
The only thing that I might not have done is
dropping Shean for Darvish. I think I might prefer she
And depending on if he's gonna stick in the rotation,
and I think he is for now.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
Rokie's coming back real quick, though.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
I know, what do you think they're going to put
him in the rotation?

Speaker 1 (24:18):
I think they might mess around with it. Yeah, I
don't think they're gonna play him Bullpen.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
I think it's a good idea, But yeah, I think
that's what they'll do.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah. I think I think Joe did well there. I
Darvish had a really good start his last start, so
I don't mind going for that. I just like she
And a lot, and I don't think. I don't know
that he's gonna lose this spot. Honestly, the Dodgers are
always so hurt in the rotation. I don't really know
what's going to happen there, but she and is probably
somebody that should still be rostered in my opinion, for.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
They're one more real estate deal away from having an
open rotation spots. What you're saying, So I have to
pick one for a start this week. Gosman versus the Cubs,
Lauer versus Texas also have Hunter Green coming back. Need
to drop one of Viento's or Blaze out Alexander for him.
So let's start with the pictures, Gosman or Lower.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
I am probably starting Gosman. Texas as a as a
whole has been a little bit better, you know. I
think I still trust Gosman more than Lower, even though
Lawer has been very good. I think Gosman's the play.

Speaker 1 (25:20):
Okay, and then I agree with you. But about Vento's
or Blaze Alexander, would you drop for making room for
Hunter Green? I'd probably drop either, But.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
Yeah, I think maybe at Bientos at this point, I
think people are kind of through with Viento's.

Speaker 1 (25:33):
I think so poor Joe. Joe's out there punching the
air somewhere about the Vento's stuff. We can feel it.
Oh yeah, here's one. I wonder how joeyp is feeling
about Strider these days. I think five straight outings not
making five innings. I know you gotta have five straight
outings of being amazing to be relevant. So no, I

(25:53):
guess that's only a NEPO baby thing, which, by the way,
I think Lighter was pretty good last night. Does anybody go, look,
what does Lighter's game log look like? Does he have
five straight games of not giving up? He has to go.
I guess in Joe's mind he has to go at
least five and give up. He might give us four
earned it. You know, if you give up four and runs,
you're almost not a great pitcher, but maybe you can

(26:13):
be someone. Give me the last five and see if
we have elevated his stad Do you have his status
for me?

Speaker 2 (26:19):
The walks walks have been a little up there, but
the earned runs a problem. Earned runs in the last
five games two one, two, one one.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Now, okay, what are the innings pitch because if he
only pitches four, Joe says, that's a horrible outing.

Speaker 2 (26:30):
Well, two of them were six innings, and then there
was a four four and a third three and the
third and then five.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
So I don't think that that's not going to pass
the Joey p scorecard for incredible. He's still a piece
of garbage in piece of PA's mind. So there you
have it, everybody, Jack Lighter Welsh is wrong. Joe is
still right until he has five straight of five no
hit innings. That's what he needs. Five straight games no hits,
thirty five strikeouts per game. Then he can be good

(26:58):
and not just a NEPO baby. Oh yeah, actually, let's
do it. What do you think about O'Neil Cruz in
a ten team redraft? I think we're fine.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
We're gonna talk like him on the injury report, but yeah,
I mean I'm not dropping him or anything. Maybe you
bench him for a little while, depending on maybe the
news that we get over the next day or two.
But there's no cut to be made.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Uh A, Rico, I need your Clement thoughts. Canada man
him or nouelbe Marte.

Speaker 2 (27:24):
I'm going with Clement there. Now, this power we've seen
over the last week, it's really funny because Buba on
Friday we were talking about Ernie and it's like, ah,
the power is not really there, and then Bubba just
reverse jinks him into three straight homers, which I will
absolutely take. But that's not going to be the norm.
He's not going to hit a lot of home he
might not hit another home run this season and it
wouldn't surprise.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Yeah, I agree with that. But he's also like a.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Three hundred hitter who rotates between the number two spot
and the number seven spot in a really good lineup.
So I'm keeping him. I'm keeping Clement over Marte.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
I think, would you want Clement or self Freelick? Philly's
still in the same thing, like he'll hit like go
in the lineup and then it'll like lead off.

Speaker 2 (28:02):
And really similar overall profile. I might go with Freelick
just because US Toronto gets healthier, we're going to get
Springer back in, Santander back, Jimenez is back now, maybe
that eats into a day or two a week of
Ernie's playing time, So maybe I'll go free lick with
that one.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Okay, I need too, Let's do one more and then
we'll we'll try to rally back here. Twelve team head
ahead points. I need to keep one out of Carpenter, uh,
caglion Er, Vaughn. I'm assuming that's like keep is in
like just for the rest of this season, not like
as a keeper, because the keeper is Caglione, without question,
But if you mean the rest of this season, this

(28:36):
is kind of a Carpenter of Vaughn question.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
Really, I think it'll be hard to go against Vaughan,
considering what we've seen over the last month or so.
I think, as much as I love carry Carpenter, I
think I have to go with Vonn There.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
I'm a I love Carrie Vond's I do too, but
you have von is too hot right now. You can't
go against Vaughn. Yeah, you got to get out of
the whole like, but the rest of the season, it's
just like, it's what are you doing for me? Now?
That's the placement we have, and Andrew Vaughan is doing
all of that. We had two questions that are really
relevant to the prospecting. We had a great prospecting segment

(29:12):
earlier this week because one of the guys I told
you guys about was Nolan MacLean with the New York Mets. Well,
he is getting called up. I said, this is a possibility,
there's no guarantees. Annie Martinez reports that the Mets are
calling up Nolan McLain to start on Saturday against the Mariners.
That's huge. The twenty four year old has a two
point four to five ERA, one point one to three whip,

(29:33):
one hundred and twenty seven strikeouts over the year, and
one hundred and thirteen innings between Double A and Triple A.
I love McLain. He's got the nastiest sweeper and they
move Frankie Montas to the bullpen for it. So we
had a really good prediction market in there. And Lee
had said in the questions, would you drop Corbyn or
Mize for Nolan McClain rest of season. I'm assuming that's

(29:53):
Patrick Corbyn, and I kind of would. I don't think
Patrick Corbin. I'm not really sure either one of these
guys hold too much weight to me. If McClain gets
them things lit, then we might have a problem, you know,
long term, like they might go to a Brandon spot
simply because of innings, Like how many innings do they
want McClain to go, But like, I think you're gonna

(30:13):
get some great spots starts out of it. So if
you're comfortable dropping those guys in a spot start range,
McClain is going to give them fits with his slider
this weekend.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
Yeah, Casey Mize started off really really well and then
he kind of fell apart. He seemed to pick things
up a little bit over the last couple of starts,
but Patrick Corbin has been pretty consistent all year long.
As crazy as that sounds, it's like five innings, three
or in runs, five or six strikeouts. You know what
you're gonna get out of him, as as insane as
that is to say out of Corbin. So I feel

(30:44):
like MYS might be the drop for me, but I
don't feel strongly about that one.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Also, we did hear I talked about I think I
talked about Quinn Matthews. That looks like JJ or Quinn
Matthews will not get the call up this year. I'd
like to stash JJ in a keeper league. Probably safe
to drop. Yeah, yeah, especially if they told us that
that's not going to happen, especially for Quinn. Also, just
want to throw this out in a little bit of
the rookie Lookie quals to Montgomery. He yes, keeps going.

(31:10):
Remember when you said you didn't know if he had
the power, Joe, and then he just hit his tenth homer.
These rocket ships that he hits out of there, his
average is still going to be the long term question.
But he is up to ten homers so far this year, mister.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Rico hard to deny it. I'm still gonna say what
I said the other day that this is a very
very hot streak. But he's starting to make me buy
in a little bit more. Just when you look at
the minor league home run totals compared to what he's
done in the major so far, it makes you think
that this is not terribly sustainable. But you've watched him
a lot more than I have, so listen to.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
It's made so many changes. There was a there was
two different injuries that were going on over the last
two years. He's made swing and approach changes year over
year AFL stuff. He is just completely altered. He's just
one of the guys that I don't think the whole story.
The problem is the story of like inconsistent batting average.
I think kind of just does hold. But like if

(32:08):
you're trying to look at specific skill set stuff, I'm
not sure if the strikeout numbers are going to tell
you everything. The power is not going to tell you
everything because there's been so many changes. Right now we're
seeing the power on display. But like you know, similar
to like Pete Crow, Like, what's gonna happen when the
league starts adjusting and there's just there's more information that
they want to attack. He's done a really good job, though,
and he's a player that you got to roll out there.

(32:30):
Three up and three down. Francisco Alvarez three for four, double,
two homers and four RBIs for your catchers. Roman Anthony
one for two, homer, stolen base, four walks, four runs.
He's ridiculous. By the way, are you a combo meal guy?
Or I've asked him a million times, I don't remember why.

(32:51):
Frank is very adamant about his version of the sok
and a shoe and it makes more sense and he
really likes that. But like, I got combo meal before anything.
So I'm a combo meal even though I'm a frank
standfl guy, I'm a combo meal guy. Which version are
you combo or sock in a shoe, which, by the way,
is a homer and a stolen base in a game?

Speaker 2 (33:10):
If you didn't know, Yeah, I mean, I love me
some Frankie stamps, good friend, but I am definitely combo meal.
Definitely on the combo meal side. It's just been around
for longer socking the shoe. I've always tried to figure out,
like you socked all yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:25):
And the shoe for the stolen base, like he created
a very logical explanation behind it and everything like that. Yeah,
but it's always funny to me because like that he is,
that is his explanation for it. But like everybody else
uses combo meal, I also like the emoji combo meal
versus putting a sock and a shoe on there Aert
big Sandals guy too, So I wouldn't like sock some shoes.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Well, in Arizona, you would definitely not. There's certain phrases
over the years that have caught on, like two step
for two star pitchers. I'm pretty sure jeff Erickson just
invented that like a decade ago, and now everybody says it.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
I've ever even heard that step.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
He's got a two step next week? No, no, no, okay,
maybe just me.

Speaker 1 (34:04):
I love jeff Erickson. Don't love that. Don't love the
two step. That's a dance two starts. See that be
the problem too. When there's as simple as a full
describer versus the analogy two step or two start, I
don't need to I don't need to be cute with
the name like the whole like homer and stolen base
like that. One makes sense to me to start for me.

(34:26):
But two steps fine, yeah, two steps totally fine, all right, Sorry,
put us off on a tangent. Dean Kramer. Also in
the ups, he took an l but he tassed eight
innings of one run, ball six strikeouts against the Mariners.
Very nice on the downs. Ranger Swarez six earned runs,
ten hits, five and one third. Clay Holmes lasted just
three and two thirds of an ending, allowed five and

(34:48):
run six hits, had five walks, and Jack Flaherty five
and runs, eight hits while striking out six. It's going
on with Flarity. Clarity has just been.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Blah awful, blah blah blah. I actually benched him in
a fifth the teamer this week, even with the matchup,
because I just that's where my confidence level is at
with him. He's not somebody I don't think that you
can drop because a lot of the numbers are still
pretty solid below the surface. Like he's a twenty percent
strike up minus walk, right, that's a really predictive number.

(35:16):
It's a good number to have. But this has been
pretty rough at this point. Like, if you're benching Flaherty,
I don't have any problem with it. His next start
comes versus Houston. I don't think I could do it.

Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yeah, I think I agree with you on that. Tons
of injuries, so I'm going to try to plow through them.
Josh Hater going to the io with a strained left shoulder?
Are you going with SUSA? Susan Bennett? Bennett SUSA for
the for the extra closers, extra closing market. I believe
he got the four pitch save if you're looking for

(35:48):
a replacement.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
So I didn't actually see that. I would have thought
that Brian abray You would be the guy.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
That's I'm asking yea Brian Abrey you or Susan gotta save.
It was like a four pitch outing in there. I
think he's set up as like, yeah, a set up guy.
A bray you I think has more closer stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:05):
I think it's a bray you. Yeah. I think if
you're looking for a speculative guy there. Based on what
we heard the manager say this morning too, the Hater
might not be back this year. It doesn't look.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
Good, not good. Jacob Mizerowski is going to make or
could make a rehab start on Friday before rejoining the
Brewers rotation. I believe he had a simulated game he
threw a couple of days ago, so things are looking good.
He should be back in the rotation. Best team in
baseball continues to be awesome. Logan Henderson is targeting a
return in late September or early October as he recovers
from a flexer strain in his elbow. Sure not going

(36:37):
to really be an option for the Brewers. Unfortunately, there's
a possibility that Dylan Cruz is activated before the nationals
upcoming home stand against the Phillies, which is on Thursday, which,
by the way, Carmen San Diego is Dylan Cruz. Where
in the hell has Dylan Cruise? But I just you
just like forgot about him, that he existed, just been
a back to nothing Burgers nothing burger totally wrong this

(36:58):
season about Dylan Cruse. Could have been more wrong. Landa
Roup is expected to be activated on Friday to start
against the Race. Orioles announced that Zach Eflin and Felix
Batista will not return this season due to shoulder and
back injuries. So Keegan Akin, that's where we're gonna go
with the saves. I guess for you know, three save
opportunities for the Orioles the rest of the way.

Speaker 2 (37:19):
I guess yeah. I mean, I thought you near Cano
might have a chance at that role because he's had
some saves before, but he's been bad this year. I
guess it's Achin, but I don't even know if it's
something that's worth chasing.

Speaker 1 (37:30):
It's not. I mean, unless you're just in desperation or
you're doing the streamy stuff. You look, you know, if
one of those where it's like I got three closers,
I need to get another one, you could you can
throw that out there. Speculating. Shaye McClanahan underwent season ending
surgery to try and repair a nerve problem and is
pitching elbow. Hopefully it's going to be back for spring training.
I'll probably fallow right back into that trap. Jack agleone

(37:50):
started to rehab assignment on Tuesday, so he should be
back in the near future. This is off that strained hamstring.
A's got good news, Luisa a Reno's oblique strain is
going to be a short stint and he'll be back.
It looks like when he's first eligible on the twenty first.
Wilson Coutrez had to be removed a Tuesday's game after
being hit on the hit by a pitch in the foot,

(38:10):
So that's day to day. Oil Cruz left Tuesday's game
after suffering a head injury during a collision with Jack Swinsky.
So that's what you were referring to. I haven't heard
any other news though about it.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I haven't seen an update on it. I was thinking
that we might wake up to a il concussion kind
of situation, but I didn't see. I may have missed it,
but I didn't see anything like that so far. So
I think he's just day to day.

Speaker 1 (38:30):
I haven't either. Yeah, I haven't either. Tony Gonsolin underwent
an internal brace surgery. He's expected to take eight to
ten months for a full recovery. My god. He practically
lived at Campbelback Ranch, which is their spring training facility here.
He's going to be back. He's crazy too, He like,
poor dude. He's just injury after injury. It's nothing, nothing
that this guy can get over. And then Astro Skipper

(38:52):
said that Tuesday, your nowvee is tentatively scheduled to take
live batting practice over the weekend. Sure, I don't believe you.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Sure, whatever you say.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
We'll hold our breath and see when Alvarez actually comes
out there. All right, those are some injuries, lots of
good updates. Let's talk about some best bets. Let's do
some betting here for Wednesday with our best bets of
the day. We got a bunch of fun stuff. Joe,
Let's kick it off with you. Let's start with you.
You are player prop and the crap out of it today,
So give us what you got.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Yeah, we are doing some plus money today, coming off
of a bit of a rough Monday, so I want
to bounce back. Vladimir Guero Junior has been on fire
for more than a month now. I think his ops
is like twelve hundred over the last thirty days. I'm
taking him three plus total bases just because the one
and a half over numbers like they're so juiced at

(39:42):
this point. It's like minus one thirty for two bags,
So three plus total bases. A couple of hits or
a home run will get that done for him. Tonight
at plus one seventy five against Kate Horton, We're finally
doing it. I'm taking a show Heyo Tani pitching over
on the strikeouts. He just had eight in his last
start and looked really good. And we're still playing the
Angels now. I targeted Yoshinobu Yammoto earlier in the week

(40:04):
for the over. It did not work out, but the
Angels over the last month strikeout more than any team
in baseball, and Otani I feel like the books are
still adjusting back here as he ramps up, so five
and a half at plus money, yes please. And then
Christopher Sanchez, who has arguably become my favorite pitcher in
baseball this year. The number was very juice for him.
It was like five and a half minus one forty six.

(40:25):
So I'm playing this one up to seven plus strikeouts.
As he takes on the Reds in Cincinnati.

Speaker 1 (40:31):
I am taking a little bit of a piece of
that where I'm taking Philly first five money line. So
that's my piece Phillies. Chris Sanchez is just an absolute
demon out there, so you know there's a tiny bit
of juice on it, but this is the money line.
Is the play when you can get it on those
first fives, because if they're tied, you get your money back.
If Chris Sanchez holds them down in the offense, which

(40:51):
the offense does get going well works, then you're going
to be cashing your first five money ticket. Now you're
going to see two other player props here. And this
is a shout out to our newest markets over on
Betting Pros. We've got some brand news. So if you've
ever checked out the prop cheat sheet, if you go,
you can see where there's gonna be a bunch of breakdowns.
You'll see homers, hits, total basis, singles, strikeouts, you know,

(41:14):
all the big popular ones. We've got our own tools.
We've got our best bets on them, ratings, ev there's data.
When you have an account where you can do the breakdowns,
you can see what have they done over the last
ten you can get your analysis, and you can check
all the books so you can shop your lines. But
we've added a couple new ones, and you guys know
I love hit runs RBIs and we've done picture outs.

(41:35):
So I'm playing two plus money plays that are on
that sheet that you guys can go and check out.
First up, you got John Carlos Stanton hit run RBI
one point five. It's plus money plus moneys on that
which I like and I believe it is the I
think it's one of the top plays, especially in the
plus money market. One of the cool things you can

(41:56):
do is you can sort by rating, So if you
click on rating on screen, which I just did, it
is going to give you the highest probability ones out there,
and that's what I ended up doing. And John Carlos
Stanton is up there hit run in an RBI, so
I just need two it's plus money. And then on
the pitching side, the other one we've added is pitcher
outs so it works like you know, if you see

(42:17):
seventeen point five, that means that is projected to go
under six innings. So that's what I'm betting here. And
Meryl Kelly is the play. Meryl Kelly. This is hit
quite a bit here, and he's going up against his
old team. There's on a dimondbacks that know him. It's
seventeen point five outs under and it's plus one twenty.

(42:38):
So those are what I'm putting together today. Thanks to
the prop cheat sheet, and if you guys want, you
guys can go download the app today Betting Pros and
when you do so, you can check out MLB Props
right there on the cheat sheet. But you can also
get a little free trial using leading off right now.
So go and check that out today, and I want
you guys to rock it, get hooked up. Lead Off

(43:00):
is the code seven day free trial and you guys
can have access to all the fun stuff. And while
you're doing so, you guys can go and check out fandele.
We got our deal over at FanDuel. If you're making
those best bets, bet five dollars, win two fifty your
first best first bet hits. If I can speak bennispros
dot com, slash leading off, that's how you get that
offer a lot of stuff when I get you extra money,

(43:21):
get you free access to all the tools on betting pros,
and we got new ways to have fun with betting
with hit runs, RBI and pitcher outs. All right, that
takes us to the home run board. Let's go and
check out what it looks like. We are still in
the fifty mark or positive grouch with fifty one. We've
got whips at I'm going blind. Is that for forty
nine or forty eight? I think it's forty nine, George,

(43:43):
at forty seven, we have got ten people plus forty
Wonky is actually at the tippy top at thirty nine,
nowhere to be seen for me. But I did get
a Kyle Schwarber homer the other day, so I don't
know where the hell I'm at in this whole thing.
Where are you going, Arico? Where are you going with
your home run call?

Speaker 2 (43:58):
Today? I'm playing at Spice. See man, I took Otani
strikeout overs. We're taking him on the home run call.
He's facing Kyle Hendricks today, who is a bit of
a human pitching machine. One point four to seven homer
for nine this year, nineteen home runs allowed. I think
it'll be twenty tonight against Showhy.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
All right, I'm at twenty nine. I'm not even in
the thirty marker yet, so Schwarber got me a little
bit of action. I'm actually also going with a guy
I think that Otani hit homer last night? Your pick
taking him, I'm gonna go with the guy that hit
homer last night, and I'm gonna go with Pee Alnzo. So
give me p d Alonso for the next two days.
And that's kind of my imperpetuity because I am not
here on Friday. No, it will be Joe Rico and

(44:36):
the great and Powerful Casey, Bubba A. Rico will be
in the host seat. These guys will be breaking everything
down for you, so make sure you guys are locked
in to hang out with them. Marico's had three I
mean Alrico had a chance to be a part of
this the whole year. We're gonna kill it. Next year,
you're gonna be in on it. We're gonna ride.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
I had surgery in April, all right, so that's my excuse.
I'm sticking to it.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Yeah, honored for the in May and June and July. Yeah,
that totally gotcha. But it'll be Bubba and Rico on Friday,
So make sure you guys are tuned in. Thank you
so much for hanging out with us. Remember on the
YouTube side, get you hooked up. Make sure you're commenting
on the videos. And that is all that we have.
Go and joys in baseball. Shout out to CALLI, shout
out to Seth for Rico. I'm Welsh. We'll talk to

(45:19):
you next time or right here on Fantasy Pros Peace.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
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. 1115)

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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. 1115)