Latest / Cards & Categories / Ep. 53 : Deadline Preparations
Transcript
- 0:15Hello, and welcome everybody to episode fifty three of Cards and Categories. I
- 0:19am Mike Coolard from ras Ball talking to my very good friend, as always,
- 0:24Jeremy Berr, also from Asball. How are you doing tonight, buddy.
- 0:28I'm hanging in there. I'm a little banged up. I didn't pull
- 0:31a bleak and pulled a hamstring, and so don't worry. I'm going to
- 0:35be out of commission for a little bit. But I can still pod.
- 0:38I can still pod. It's just it's going to be a six to eight
- 0:42week process. So you have to bear with me if I stumble upon some
- 0:45words here, because I'm expecting the hamstring is going to take down my ability
- 0:49to speak at the same time. So but otherwise I'm ready, raring to
- 0:52go. I'm ready. Baseball is back. I don't know about you.
- 0:57I was missing it for a little while here. So we're back the swing
- 1:00of things, and we are right at the trade deadline, which is not
- 1:03a better time as a baseball fan. One of my favorite days of the
- 1:06year sitting on the couch Washington MLB Network just to see everybody announcing trades after
- 1:12the actual deadline because the POTO cannot actually do anything on time, so I
- 1:19mean part of it. Two, it's really mean that he went to Seattle,
- 1:22like in terms of like positioning on time zones in this country. Having
- 1:26him in Preller, I'm sure just like irritates Brian Cashman to no end that
- 1:32he's getting texts. I mean, I guess maybe Cashman gets up early to
- 1:34be able to catch the text from the West Coast. But yeah, that's
- 1:38got to be like the worst like set of coworkers that you could imagine,
- 1:42waking up to all those messages from Preller into Poto and whatever they're doing late
- 1:47night, although they also strike me as night outl so maybe they're actually like,
- 1:51you know, it's like three am out there, you know, and
- 1:53it's let me think how time zones work. I think it would be yeaes
- 1:59six am the East Coast and then yeah, then then it lines up.
- 2:02Yeah, so Cashman starts his day earlier pro or in the Poto and never
- 2:05go to sleep. Yeah, it's just let's just keep rolling, all right.
- 2:09Well, yeah, I'm in the same boat. It was really great
- 2:13to get back after the All Star break. I had a great time discussing
- 2:15it last week, but it was a lonely couple of days and they're waiting
- 2:20be in between. I've said this before, but I don't know why they
- 2:23don't have the Futures game during that time. One day, when Rob Manfred
- 2:28gets on his uh gets off of his work out in Denmark, he'll be
- 2:32emailing us. We'll be exactly. Yes, we have a backlog, don't
- 2:37worry. Yeah, we could go forever. Let's get into some news and
- 2:43notes here, because we have news and notes this week that isn't just the
- 2:46All Star break, but I'm also going to set up the tee for the
- 2:51conversation after those news and notes, and you were trying to lead me into
- 2:54it a little bit with that deadline talk, is that we are going to
- 2:57talk about what moves we should maybe be doing this weekend in anticipation of the
- 3:04deadline that is a week from today as we're speaking on July twenty third,
- 3:07here recording on a Tuesday night because I wanted to record during a thunderstorm,
- 3:12so hopefully we can get through this entire thing without my power going out.
- 3:15But yes, now is the time I think to take advantage of trying to
- 3:20soothe, save some moves and find like get your crystal ball out and try
- 3:24to predict where people are going to go, because if you try to make
- 3:28these moves after the deadline, which we'll also discuss next week in terms of
- 3:31like the fallout from the deadline, it just becomes much more difficult, much
- 3:36more expensive with those bad budgets. So yeah, let's get into some of
- 3:38those news and notes that are impacting our considerations this week, and the big
- 3:45one. We've actually got two big ones coming out of Atlanta as the injury
- 3:50bug strikes them again. This time is Ozzy Albi's, the second basement for
- 3:53the Braves, going down with a fractured wrist. He's looking to be out
- 3:58probably about two months, so I think he's probably out through the regular season
- 4:02and tries to make a return for the playoff run down in Atlanta, although
- 4:06at this point it's gonna be tougher and tougher for them to put a team
- 4:11together. They're down Albi's, they're down Acunya, and we'll get into this
- 4:15after we discussed the Albi's injury a little bit, But they also lost Max
- 4:18Reed this week to what looks like a pretty significance elbow injury. Is that's
- 4:23caught up to him. They've already lost Spencer Strider, Matt Olsen's not playing
- 4:27well, Sean Murphy's not playing well. It is a disaster down in Atlanta.
- 4:31But I think if there's one shining hope, our boy Nacho Alvarez Junior
- 4:36has been called up to replace Ozzy Albi's on that Atlanta roster, So Nacho
- 4:42should be getting full run at some sort of mix of like second, short,
- 4:46third. He's playing third right now as Austin Riley's on the praternity list,
- 4:50but was playing shortstop down in Double A and Triple A, was playing
- 4:56some second base, And we talked about him in the offseason as a a
- 5:00prospect kind of pick to click just because the bat. The grades on the
- 5:03bat here have been messianic as he's been coming through that Brave system. He
- 5:09hit across Double A and Triple A before he was promoted here, got seven
- 5:14bombs, twenty one stone bases, uh, and was able to just like
- 5:19control the zone. This is the type of prospect that I love for that
- 5:23aspect is that he has a double digit rock walk rate, a reasonable k
- 5:29rate. You can tell that he knows how to just hit. And so
- 5:34I'm wondering from you, are you what sort of depth of league are you
- 5:39moving to move and add Nacho Alvarez to your roster right now? Twelve teamer
- 5:45given to me in all the twelve teamers, I am. I'm fully in
- 5:48on on on Nacho. You're putting them in a good lineup. You are
- 5:53looking at the guy that can hit for average, who's gonna get on base,
- 5:57who's gonna seal some bases, has some sneaky power like I don't.
- 6:00He's one of those guys that I really like because he has I'm gonna say,
- 6:03a low uh maybe a lower ceiling, but also a really high floor.
- 6:09And so he's he's gonna be one of those guys I'm not as concerned
- 6:12with investing because he's gonna get on base, he's gonna run like he's gonna
- 6:16do something, and he's gonna produce. He just isn't gonna go probably crazy,
- 6:21which that's fine. Like taking the guy with the waiver wire and stick
- 6:25him into your lineup, I'm all for it. So I'm I'm investing in
- 6:28in Nacho partially because of the team names I can now create. Secondarily because
- 6:33I think he's a really good player. He you know, don't. I
- 6:36don't know. Maybe peak Nacho has the potential to be maybe a fifteen thirty
- 6:43guy, and maybe he's twenty thirty if I stretch it hitting two eighty,
- 6:46like I, I like, you can easily see like an Azzi Albi's type
- 6:50of profile here and exactly who I was gonna say. I think he's an
- 6:55Azzi Albi's clone. Yeah, so there's nothing wrong with that. And you
- 6:59know, I think he's he was he needed to get a chance, and
- 7:03I'm I was glad that Ozzie Alby's got hurt, but I'm glad that they're
- 7:06giving him a chance. And I think we had talked about this, that
- 7:10the Braves like to be a little more aggressive with their prospects. Like he's
- 7:13showing he's ready, let's do it. So I'm I'm buying him in twelve
- 7:16teamers. I'm not, you know, overly investing, but hey, I'm
- 7:20just going to brag I one of our leagues. I outbid you on fab
- 7:24last night. I don't know what your bid was, but I won.
- 7:28I can tell you that. So how about you? What size league are
- 7:32you at and how how head over heels are you? Because you clearly sold
- 7:36me earlier this season was as we've talked about him, Yeah, I think
- 7:41I'm in the same spot as you that I had a token bid in on
- 7:44him. I'm pretty solid up the middle infield in that league, so I
- 7:48didn't necessarily have a great spot for him, And like I'm got like Nolan
- 7:51Gorman on the bench in that league, So that's kind of a indicator of
- 7:55like where that level was. But certainly, like, yeah, if you're
- 7:58looking for somebody to put into that middle infield spot, especially as we're gonna
- 8:03get into a couple of middle endfield injuries here in this podcast between Boba Schett
- 8:07and JP Crawford going down that there might be some spots and obviously Albi's can't
- 8:15skip over that one. So yeah, I think it's worth taking the chance
- 8:18on him here. And like I said, there's not a lot here in
- 8:22the profile that really gives me pause or concern because it is just a pretty
- 8:28solid second base, shortstot, middle infield bat where you want a guy who
- 8:31plays every day the braves appear to leave in the defense, and just the
- 8:35ability for him to get the bat to the ball, And even if you're
- 8:39looking at like I mean, I know in Double A. At with two
- 8:43hundred and two plate appearances, he only put up a one to fifteen WRC
- 8:46plus, but that increased to a one sixty over one hundred and thirty two
- 8:50played appearance at Triple A. He hit seven homers at Triple A versus zero
- 8:54at Double A. But we were diving into it a little bit that that
- 8:58Double A Stadium or Atlanta down Mississippi, is a picture's park to the max.
- 9:03It's got like a seventy to eighty ish home run factor on it.
- 9:07So that is something I'm certainly tucking away in the back of my head as
- 9:11we move forward evaluating all Atlanta prospects, because I think that is interesting.
- 9:16I was initially not always in on Acuna when he was rising through the ranks
- 9:20because the home run totals weren't there, But now I think I know why,
- 9:24and I think the same as it is at Triple A for the Braves
- 9:28too, that that is a hitters or a pitcher's park as well. So
- 9:31you're looking at it's just a tough environment for him to come through, and
- 9:35he's really shined. I think a lot of the projections are missing here except
- 9:41for the bat. The bat and bad X are picking up something I think
- 9:45from that lower league level, especially, I know bad X is us using
- 9:50a lot more stat Cast data that they have the highest batting average at two
- 9:54sixty three. For Nacho Alvarez, I think that's probably a good spot for
- 9:58him to to be as a floor. But like you said, I think
- 10:03this is a guy who, once he settles in, you're looking at essentially
- 10:05what would be like an Ozzy Albi's at second base two to eighty, something
- 10:09like fifteen twenty five in terms of homer's and storm bases with corresponding runs in
- 10:16RBI in the Atlanta Braves offense. Yeah, I mean, where are you
- 10:20thinking about Ozzi Albi's Like from a purely from this year's perspective, he's off,
- 10:26You're dropping them. If you're in redraft leagues, you're done. What
- 10:33about a keeper scenario? What do you what do you think Albi's value is
- 10:35going into next year in that Braves offense? Yeah? I mean I think
- 10:41this is a tough injury for him too, because like, wrist and hand
- 10:45injuries are not great for batters. I really despise them. And it's really
- 10:50one of the first times that Albi's has been dealing with it in like a
- 10:54significant way. What really sucks for Albi's career is that it keeps coming on
- 10:58like hit by pitches and freak injuries. It's not like he's out there in
- 11:03being alloy a Meenez on the base pass where the hammy gives out like you
- 11:07every time that you know it's he's getting hit, he's getting beamed. He's
- 11:13like running into people, and that's what's causing a lot of these injuries.
- 11:16And so you just kind of wonder if Albi's can handle the wear and tear
- 11:20of a season. Obviously he's no Marcus Simeon, but where is that true
- 11:26talent level? And so I think if I'm in a keeper situation and the
- 11:31price is starting to drop, I would be interested, just because I do
- 11:35think that Albi's can pretty consistently be like a twenty twenty bat with a two
- 11:39to eighty, just like I said, just like Nacho. I also don't
- 11:43have any concerns with Nacho taking Albi's this place at second base for next year,
- 11:48because I think the Braves are already setting this up where they can bring
- 11:52Nacho in at shortstop to replace Orlando Arcia and be able to keep both of
- 11:58them on the infield. I think that's why they dealt Von Grison at the
- 12:01beginning of the season as well. So yeah, I would be interested,
- 12:05but I'm not necessarily like out there acquiring in droves are like trying to spur
- 12:11on that those trade talks for Albi's because of that risk injury giving me that
- 12:16pause. What about you, What are you thinking for Ozzy Albi's going into
- 12:20this offseason? Yeah, I think for for Abbie's, you're right on.
- 12:26There's like, I don't think I'm drowngrading him that much. I just I
- 12:28need to see a little report in the offseason and see where he is.
- 12:31I don't want a Tommy Edmund situation here where you think he's gonna be back
- 12:35in spring training and now we're in late July and we haven't seen the guy.
- 12:39So I think that's my concern. But Albi's has always been a solid
- 12:43hitter. You know, he's strowed a little bit this year. He's not
- 12:46hit it as hard and he's also not as much home run luck, and
- 12:48so some of his numbers still are a little bit down. But he was
- 12:52still pacing for you know, it's called a fifteen fifteen eighty eighty type season,
- 13:01hitting two sixty, which is like a pretty down year for him.
- 13:03And so I'll take that down year and then say if he gets if he's
- 13:07healthy, because he's definitely been banged up this year, and then he's got
- 13:11a little bit of luck on his side. You know, he's this is
- 13:15the guy that's hit thirty home runs twice, he's hit twenty four home runs
- 13:18two other times, and he's consistently been a fifteen to twenty steel guy.
- 13:22Like that is the talent he is. It's just as he's going to be
- 13:26on the field to do it. And I know he's been a little off
- 13:28this year, but he's still just a twenty seven year old playing for the
- 13:33Atlanta Braves who just produced gray ballplayers. So I'm liking Ozzie. I wouldn't
- 13:41really downgrade his long term value too much. And to your point, if
- 13:43somebody's looking to sell sell him, I'm buying all day. Yeah. I
- 13:50think we're on the same page there. So, like I alluded to the
- 13:54other injury, here is starting pitcher Max Free being placed on the al with
- 13:58what is left forearmed writis which is ultimately a nerve injury there in his left
- 14:05arm. So he has dealt with a left fore arm strain and other elbow
- 14:09issues over the past couple of years, and this is all just very ominous
- 14:13that you feel like something more significant is coming here in terms of either a
- 14:18Tommy John to dig into that ucl and replace it or some sort of like
- 14:22nerve replacement, you know, surgery or nerve Like by replacement, I mean
- 14:28like literally like moving the placement of the nerve in the elbow. I know
- 14:31some players have had that over the years, and you just have to wonder,
- 14:35like at this point, what the Braves can like juice out of Max
- 14:41Freed for the rest of the year without like it knocking him out for another
- 14:45year or two. And I think this also opens it up where the Braves
- 14:48will be a pretty big subject of those trade talks next week and going into
- 14:54some of the players that we're going to talk about in the second half of
- 14:56our show. But what are you doing with Max three? Like in terms
- 15:01of rest of season, it seems pretty like I'm not sure. It's very
- 15:07vague in terms of what the Braves think his schedule is gonna be. And
- 15:11because of that, it's gonna make it tougher and tougher to roster him the
- 15:15rest of the season. So are you maybe considering moving on for Freed in
- 15:18some in some areas where you've got a full injured list, And again,
- 15:22like Albi's, what do you think this does for any long term keeper value
- 15:28for Max Freed? Yeah, you know, I'll probably given Freed. You
- 15:31know, I'll call it two three weeks at most here, just to kind
- 15:33of see what the news is. But you know, one of the things
- 15:37I think at times we tend to forget for pitchers in our fantasy baseball game
- 15:43that if you're starting to talk about the last two months of the season,
- 15:46especially in the last month and a half, you might be talking about like
- 15:50seven or eight starts, and so you know, an ace pitcher at that
- 15:56point in time's value actually starts to diminish pretty quickly because you're pitching stats are
- 16:00pretty well stabilized and ACE could be great, but they're only gonna move him
- 16:04so much on the endver somebody else that's not great. Like you're kind of
- 16:07where you're standing from a roto league had to have a whole different hole,
- 16:15different ballgame, right, So I want to hear a little bit more what's
- 16:18gonna happen with Free here, But to your point, it is ominous.
- 16:21I'm more concerned with Free long term because it feels like this year his elbows
- 16:26made of glass a little bit more than it has in the past. And
- 16:29I love Max Freed. I absolutely love him, fantastic pitcher. I'm like,
- 16:33I'm resisting the urge to go buy him right now in a league or
- 16:37two because I feel like this is the first chance I'll get to buy him.
- 16:41But I'm just holding off knowing that some guy's gonna probably cut him when
- 16:47we were two weeks out here and he gets announced that he's getting the UCL
- 16:49repaired, so I do. I'm definitely discounting the long term. And I
- 16:56think the part of that is this isn't a injury. It seems like it's
- 17:00one of those that something's going on and it just keeps manifesting himself in different
- 17:04ways, and he must just be putting more stress on that arm the way
- 17:10he froze like Ricky Tiedeman over on the farm for for Toronto, that his
- 17:15arm is just struggling to hold up. And I'm a little concerned how much
- 17:21longer you can go because he's unlike some of these other guys. Next,
- 17:25Free is a little bit older than you think. He is thirty, and
- 17:30I still think of him like a twenty six twenty seven year old. But
- 17:34he's I mean, he's been around for a good eight nine seasons now,
- 17:40and he's got a decent wear and tear on that arm. Quiz for you,
- 17:45how many pitches are you thrown in his career? Woh, that's that.
- 17:52I'm gonna guess. I have no idea because like I'm not even sure
- 17:56like what people throw in here. I'm I really should which is really terrible
- 18:00of me. I'm going to guess, like like fourteen thousand, I'm going
- 18:11to give you a passing grade on that. We're talking twelve nine hundred.
- 18:15You're within shouting range, and I'm just going to give you the bullpens and
- 18:18call you right uh more on pitches and those types of things. That's a
- 18:22lot, yeahring training obviously. Yeah, sorry, I didn't have the filters
- 18:29right in my data, but yeah, I think there's just there's a lot
- 18:33here. So I'm concerned with Freed. I buy them if there's you know,
- 18:38if we're talking you know, the shop of the five and dime here
- 18:41we're talking to ninety percent discountunt Otherwise I'm I'm staying pretty far away from X
- 18:45Freed. Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think all your takes
- 18:48are actually exactly the same takes I have that I ended up. This was
- 18:52actually the first year I've ended up with Max Breed shares, just because in
- 18:56some of our leagues, especially like our our Parts league, everybody else that
- 19:00writes for ras ball also has been scared of Max Fried's elbow. So when
- 19:04he felt to me in like the fourth or fifth round, I just like
- 19:07had to at that point like he would he had gone and dropped too far
- 19:11where I just needed that level of a starting pitcher. And if that starts
- 19:17happening, then sure, yeah, I'll take that gamble. But certainly what
- 19:21it usually costs at the draft table to get Max Freed, it hasn't been
- 19:23worth it. And this is exactly why. Okay, well, the knixt
- 19:29injury we have is to Bo Bashet, shortstop from the Toronto Blue Jays,
- 19:33who that calf stream has really come back to haunt him, as this is
- 19:37just another nebulous injury where the Blue Jays are not giving a great timeline.
- 19:44It doesn't help that the Blue Jays are gonna be one of the biggest sellers.
- 19:47I think at this deadline, you know, they're fifteen back in the
- 19:48Al East, they're nine games under five hundred. It's not really going to
- 19:53materialize for them. So I wouldn't be surprised if they just kind of mothball
- 19:59Bobashet the rest of the year at this point that they say, hey,
- 20:02it was a lost year for you, buddy, get healthy, come back
- 20:06next year, and we'll try to rEFInd it. But I think that's been
- 20:08the problem with Bobachet now the past couple of years is I don't know if
- 20:12he's ever going to rEFInd it in terms of being that first and second round
- 20:18level talent that we've seen in the past couple of years. You know,
- 20:21you look at that twenty twenty one season that just sticks out like a sore
- 20:26thumb along with honestly that's flats too. A lot of that as Bradenton juiced.
- 20:30So there is that, and I mean he did come back in twenty
- 20:33two and still put up a one thirty WRC plus with twenty four storm bases
- 20:37and thirteen or twenty four homers and thirteen stone bases. But this is I
- 20:44think the problem that I've always had with long with Bobachette long term and keeper
- 20:48leaks two is that just because like the power was always a little bit middling
- 20:53in terms of it's not like he was a thirty forty homer bat and so
- 21:00the speed started to go, especially last year and even into twenty two when
- 21:03it fell to thirteen bags. It turns into a pretty blah profile once the
- 21:08storm bases go away. You look at the bat ball profile for Boba sheet
- 21:12it's never been super strong, so you couldn't ever count on anything more than
- 21:17I think like to eighty ish average would all the metrics kind of call for
- 21:22in terms of the projections going forward, And so I was never I was
- 21:27always kind of waiting for the botmom to fall out here, and it looks
- 21:30like it really has in terms of how quickly and rapidly things have deteriorated for
- 21:34bobaschet So I think again in single season leagues were probably like this is somebody
- 21:41you might cut again because like, I don't know how much you're going to
- 21:45get the rest of the year. It's been rough coming into this point.
- 21:49But again I'm gonna revisit and ask you what are you doing with him in
- 21:53keeper leagues, because I think that's going to be a really significant question for
- 21:56Bobachett owners out here as they get into the off season. Yeah, I
- 22:03my clear move in a keeper league here is given to the off season when
- 22:07he's healthy and move him like there. I have a zero desire to have
- 22:11him on my roster at any point going forward. And so you're looking for
- 22:15the optimal time for Bashett to have the most possible value and I don't know
- 22:19when that is going to be, but it's not right now. And I
- 22:22don't want to get in the spring training next year with n only team,
- 22:25And so you're waiting probably somewhere in the beginning of whatever your trade off season
- 22:29trade window is, and hoping he's some report out there that he's healthy and
- 22:33he's working out or something like that, and you are moving him. I
- 22:37think you hit the nail on the head. Like I've been out on Bobaschett
- 22:41for like three years now, it's you know, the speed was like a
- 22:44once and done type thing just didn't come back. The power's not really there,
- 22:48and that when those things start to fall off and the blue Jays aren't
- 22:52hitting well, like the counting stats are, like it's just all falling apart
- 22:56around him, and it's just it's so disappointing. We had such a I
- 23:00think a beautiful story about the sons of the All Stars playing with Cavan Bgo,
- 23:06Boba Schet, Vlad Guerrero and like they are just dropping like flies and
- 23:11proving that Daddy was right. Daddy knew what he was doing, and unfortunately
- 23:17somebody else didn't watch enough film or something. So yeah, Boba Shechet,
- 23:22I'm moving on from him. You know, he he's fallen out of my
- 23:26top one hundred hitters. He was already on the way house well before.
- 23:32Had to do a lot of scrolling to find him to kick him out.
- 23:33But he's he's well off, and I think I think you're right. I
- 23:37would like if you're going bold predictions here, I would be comfortable saying I
- 23:41don't know if Boba Schet plays another game this season for the Blue Jays.
- 23:45Yeah, I think that's very fair, and don't besmirch Jeff co nine and
- 23:51his son Griffin good name like that. He was drafted by the Blue Jays
- 23:55in the second round of twenty eighteen. He was in that group of all
- 23:59the former All Star sons and he gets no love. He fair, fair,
- 24:03he gets no love. He's also still has some debut. He's in
- 24:07Triple A right now for the Marlins. He might make He might make it
- 24:11this year once the mist watch it. Just watch the story like Bigio couldn't
- 24:17do it, Guerrero couldn't do it? Well, is he coming from here?
- 24:22You go for Griffin Conine? Okay, uh yeah. The next injury
- 24:27we've got is Carlos Carrea from the Minnesota Twins and his teammate Chris Paddock were
- 24:33placed on the IL this past week. I'll set Paddick aside because we've covered
- 24:38him a little bit previously on the podcast, and again it doesn't look like
- 24:42he's fully recovered from kind of his significant injury history, and another player who
- 24:48might not see the field again the rest of this year in terms of just
- 24:52the Twins, you know, wanting to manage his injuries overall. So I
- 24:59think the Twins will be in on lots of pitching at the deadline next week.
- 25:02But Carlos Korea, I think the more concerning thing here is that he's
- 25:07going down with plantar fasciitis. Again for the second straight year, And this
- 25:11is one I can actually relate on, just like your straine hamstring. I
- 25:14got plantar fasciitis during the pandemic when we were all stuck at home, and
- 25:21it just was like, did a little bit of movement and got plantar fasciaitis,
- 25:25so that it's it's a pain, and I can't believe that he even
- 25:27like has played through it at all, because it's just it feels like you're
- 25:33just shredding the middle of your foot every time you take a step. And
- 25:37so I think it's been a why the you know, speed has fully dried
- 25:44up for Carls Crea since you know, twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen, as
- 25:48he's dealt with all the leg injuries. That's where he's got the plate in
- 25:52that caused the significant discounts and bouncing around during his free agent period. And
- 26:00this was always kind of like the concern coming into the year owning Carlos Korea
- 26:03because now you're scrambling out on that wire to try to outbid somebody for Nato
- 26:07Alvarez as a replacement while also trying to make up the stolen bases. And
- 26:12so yeah, I think I hate to sound like a broken record. But
- 26:17again, what sort of like long term outlook are you looking for with Carlos
- 26:21Korea? Because I think in some keeper leagues this year he probably actually was
- 26:26pretty cheap and was trending for people to keep him. But is this enough
- 26:30of like a warning sign, enough of a flag to say, you know
- 26:33what, the one fifty two WRC plus he put up was nice, but
- 26:37he's turning thirty next year, he's dealing with plantifrescitis. Again, what are
- 26:44you doing with him in that situation? Yeah? I got you have this
- 26:47conversation one of the commenters on article probably two weeks ago, and they were,
- 26:51well, they call me out. I don't know what it was,
- 26:52but we were just talking about Carlo's Korea and why, you know what,
- 26:56what what's the why isn't he higher on lists and things like that? And
- 27:00I really put it down to him, like enjoy the ride right now,
- 27:03Like this is not what you expect from Carlos Korea. Like we know the
- 27:07talent level is there, right, but it's like and you can look at
- 27:11the metrics and it looks like, you know, his stat cast is like
- 27:15purely all red, like there's nothing the numbers to say that he can't sustain
- 27:18this. It's just Carlos Korea and physically sustain this. And that's kind of
- 27:23what I told him, Like, enjoy the ride, but I would be
- 27:26selling him immediately for anybody that's looking to buy and is like believing in this
- 27:30resurgence of Carlos Korea because he is that talented. You can't rely on him.
- 27:36And I've made the same employ about Aaron Judge and been wrong mulple of
- 27:40times, so you know, take it for what it's worth. But you're
- 27:42right from a long term perspective. Hopefully this is kind of a short term
- 27:47thing. He's not gonna wait for it to fully heal. This is one
- 27:48of those injuries that really does stick with you for a long time. I
- 27:52being the resident, always hurt of some sort. I had this back in
- 27:56high school and I played baseball, and you're right, it's just like taking
- 28:00a knife to the bomb of your foot. And only thing I guess it
- 28:03makes it better is don't get on your foot. Like it's not that complicated.
- 28:07I'm no expert, but to play baseball you have to stay it on
- 28:11your feet and that would hurt. So I think he's gonna come back.
- 28:15He's gonna try to make a run of it. And I hope, hope
- 28:18he finished the season healthy that you can turn into something the off season,
- 28:21be like, man, look how good he was. Yeah, he missed
- 28:22a little at the time, but you know in his you know, hundred
- 28:26games or whatever he was, you know, like I said, one hundred
- 28:30and fifty wrsc plus kind of guy. Sure, let's take it. So
- 28:36love it. Glad he's doing pitting well. I think we're getting what we
- 28:40expect with Carlos Gray at this point. Yeah, And I mean I was
- 28:45just also like squirming because thinking about like walking around with pantire fascy iis in
- 28:48baseball cleats, that just sounds like torture. It sounds like the worst.
- 28:53I mean, there's a lot of padding in those things, right, it's
- 28:56just just not like standing on like tax sometimes but you like step on some
- 29:00concrete, like you know when you were expecting step on dirt or something like
- 29:04oooh, I'll show you to the bones. Okay. The next I would
- 29:10say, we've got a collection of transactions and just a blob of misery to
- 29:18unwind, as the Seattle Mariners are just totally fallen apart part. They had
- 29:22a double digit lead in the division back on June eighteenth. That dried up
- 29:27on Monday of this week Sunday, actually, so Monday Sunday, the Astros
- 29:33caught them and they are playing a Oh they my bad. I thought they
- 29:37were playing a series, but I had that wrong. So they have fallen
- 29:42apart and allowed the Astros to catch them the worst or like quickest that anybody
- 29:48has blown a double digit lead in a division I think ever in the wild
- 29:52card era. So kudos to the Seattle Manners for that. And ty France
- 29:57is the man who is taking the heat for that, as he was placed
- 30:00on outright waivers by the Mariners and was just absolutely dreadful after he returned from
- 30:07that cracked heel. I imagine someone's gonna pick him up, but he did
- 30:11fully clear waivers like nobody even put in a claim or anything for him.
- 30:15So certainly I'm sure there are twelve teamers and plenty of fifteen teamers out there
- 30:22that had ty France still around. As you know, the metrics were looking
- 30:26pretty good in terms of the bad of ball, but the defense was costing
- 30:30him and it was time to go in Seattle on top of it, Like
- 30:34I alluded to, JP Crawford is broke his pinky finger and will be out
- 30:40for a few weeks. Hlio Rodriguez avoided a serious injury on Sunday. It
- 30:44looked like he had really like fractured his ankle or something, but it ended
- 30:48up being just a slight tweak. And let me check, I think he's
- 30:52in the lineup to night. They put him on the ten Dady Il before
- 31:02we start speaking, So never mind, he is not playing tonight, and
- 31:04so hopefully that is just a quick trip to the IL for him and he
- 31:11bounces back soon. So with all that going on, this was really turned
- 31:15into just like quite the masterclass of how to turn into a rolling just like
- 31:25s show. In terms of like, I wondered how you were to phrase
- 31:27that, because I, like I had the same thought process, I had
- 31:30the same analogy in my head at a little as it was, but as
- 31:33things have really fallen apart, But like, this is also part of why,
- 31:37like I didn't take any Julio shares early in drafts where I had the
- 31:42chance, because I wasn't bought into just the Mariners in general, in terms
- 31:48of like that Park is brutal in terms of like the way that double a
- 31:52Mississippi is for the Braves, that it is clearly suppressing his overall stats,
- 31:57and then I think it may him press even more on the road. That
- 32:01it's like a similar to a Cours effect, but it's like you are hitting
- 32:07so poorly at home that you're pressing on the road. And just it has
- 32:10been a really brutal season for Julio Rodriguez. Do you think that I'm off
- 32:15and thinking that at all? Are you considering like maybe trying to I don't
- 32:21think that Julio Rodriguez is like a significantly bad player, but I'm just not
- 32:27sure he's like a top fifteen bat honestly, Like, I think his floor
- 32:34is going to prevent him from ever being drafted by me, because I think
- 32:37he's going to consistently be going in that first round. Yeah, I don't
- 32:43think you're too far off there, because you know, Julio, he for
- 32:46all his talent, he can go on these streaks, but he is very
- 32:51luck dependent. And he's also one that he he doesn't get on base without
- 33:00you know, without making hit, like without getting a hit. He doesn't
- 33:02walk that much. Yeah, and so it's a little harder for him to
- 33:06do so when he has the kind of luck factors going for him, it's
- 33:09great. I think he's better than what he has been this year. I
- 33:14don't think there's any question about that. So I'm I'm fine looking at him
- 33:16as a top fifteen type hitter. I think you're absolutely right there. It's
- 33:20just a struggle. You look at this Mariners off sense and come into the
- 33:23year like maybe they just sold something that wasn't there, And I mean I
- 33:28kind of looked at it and go, hey, man, they've they've got
- 33:30all these guys that they're pulling this piece together. They got Mitch Haniger back
- 33:35where he needs to be. They got Mitch Garber, who's just amazing last
- 33:37year. They've got hy France who's coming off a down year, but he's
- 33:40really kind of was figuring things out. Like you could just go down the
- 33:44list of all these guys that looked like they were going to deliver, and
- 33:49now I'm looking at the leaders for war for the Mariners. You got Kyle
- 33:53Rally two point six, who the Rodriguez at one point nine, and then
- 33:58you've got a list of like all these guys who could what could have been
- 34:02with Josh Rojas, JP Crawford, Dylan Moore, Victor Roeblist, Luke Rayley,
- 34:07Like that is not the way to build a lineup, Like you literally
- 34:12have one star and then a big thumper and nothing, nothing at all around
- 34:17those guys. And I know there's some young guys like Tyler Lockleer that's come
- 34:22up and things like that, and maybe they'll they'll make make an impact,
- 34:25but it's it just hasn't been there. And I think that team's a lot
- 34:30thinner, uh than people people realize, and that's gonna make it hard for
- 34:34the guys like Julio to get enough at bats to get a chance to get
- 34:37there. I'm frankly surprised there where they are in the division, with the
- 34:42kind of the teams they have put together here. So it'll be interesting to
- 34:45see you kind of what they continue to do the rest of the season.
- 34:51But Jerry, Jerry's got some work cut out for him for sure. Yeah,
- 34:54and that pitching staff is certainly carrying them, because it is a pretty
- 34:58crazy pitching staff went through. And Yeah, as I was seeing you talk
- 35:04about Julio two and just kind of looking at his profile, this is actually
- 35:07a little bit of like an odd player at this tier of the fantasy player
- 35:12pool, where he's actually a much better real life player than he is I
- 35:15think fantasy player because the batting average is just it's really in question because of
- 35:23his strikeout rate. His defense is superlative, so like he plays a solid
- 35:29center field, so the war Tolds are always there. That Like, it's
- 35:31a little bit of like a strange player where I think I would rather own
- 35:38his cards than have him in a fantasy realm because I think that like the
- 35:43value in terms of what he will mean to the sport and like have chances
- 35:47at all Star games. And I mean he's only twenty three, but even
- 35:52like thinking super into the future of like you know, Hall of Fame considerations
- 35:55and so on, so forth, is going to be stronger than I think
- 36:00it will ever be, like in a fantasy situation obviously, like last year
- 36:04was superlative with thirty two homers and thirty seven stone bases, but it took
- 36:09a crazy hot stretch at the end for him to get there. And I
- 36:12don't know if he's ever going to kind of touch those peak numbers again,
- 36:16but I think it's gonna be kind of an interesting dynamic in Julio Rodriguez's career
- 36:22going forward, because I think he is one of the main superstars in baseball
- 36:28and will be. You know, he's a pretty constant five to seven war
- 36:31player with the ability to push it past eight. But in terms of fantasy,
- 36:37it's not always going to translate because the defense is really booing him a
- 36:40lot. It is, And I think he's also one of those players that
- 36:44is going to be better as good as the cast is around him, because
- 36:47he if he's not getting protection, then he's not going to get the balls
- 36:51to hit and he's going to press. He's going to struggle. And I
- 36:53don't know if you've looked if you looked at the team leaderboards for stats already.
- 36:58If not, I'm quizzing, yes, so have you have you looked?
- 37:00No? I thought, I mean Victor Roadplace is hitting in the two
- 37:05spot for this team. Victor road Place, who was cut by the Washington
- 37:07Nationals. Like I don't like ill, we can get into the quiz too,
- 37:12but like, wow, exactly, it's just like finals. Finally give
- 37:17your ears the number two hitter for a playoff team. But I want you
- 37:22to tell me where you think the Mariners are in run production of all of
- 37:29baseball. I'll give you a clue here, it's between one and thirty what
- 37:36what what spots do you see the marriage and for run production? And this
- 37:40is part of the Julio conversation. Why we see it's a struggle. I
- 37:45would, honestly, I bet it's like twenty eighth. I would guess twenty
- 37:49eighth, bingo eight. You can you can name the two teams below it
- 37:52I white socks. White socks are one man? Can I you can do
- 38:00it? I mean, well, it's Tigers, is it? Tigers?
- 38:07No? Marlins? Day? I was I'm going to say, as I
- 38:12was, like, they keep scoring like fifteen runs a game, but A's
- 38:14are twentieth. Like as she talks about where the Ti Tigers are sixteen,
- 38:20you're you were out on such a role there. You just you fell off
- 38:22the deep end their head. Yeah, but Seattle has only the White Sox,
- 38:30who are vastly behind everybody, and then the Marlins, who are actually
- 38:34doing their damness to get to catch the White Sox. And then the Mariners
- 38:37are the third worst run scoring team in Major League Baseball and they're a playoff
- 38:46team right now because of the pitching. That's absolutely hurting Julio Rodriguez. All
- 38:52right, Well, with that dour note, let's move on to some cart
- 38:55discussion, as we have had some news that's kind out from the Tops Chrome
- 39:00since we covered it last week. If you want to go back to episode
- 39:04fifty two, and I mean one here all the cool stats that I pulled
- 39:07out for our anniversary, but to get an overview of twenty twenty four Tops
- 39:10Chrome and the big news I think is, I don't know if I've ever
- 39:15seen such significant cards hold in like the first week of a product like this.
- 39:21I'll link to it in the show details and anything else that we've been
- 39:24discussing. You can certainly go back to the show details and check out.
- 39:29But this is more important, I think than the others because you can see
- 39:31the pictures and just see the magnitude of the polls because I'm only naming like
- 39:37the tippy top ones here in terms of we've already had the Ella de la
- 39:40Cruz super Fractor bass and Auto have been pulled. We've had the Jackson Holliday
- 39:47super Fractor Auto polled, We've had the Show toa Imaniga super Fractor Basse polled,
- 39:54and so especially those two LI cards coming out, of the product this
- 39:58early. I'm wondering where the rest of this tops Chrome goes because the other
- 40:05piece of news that we discovered since we talked last week, and maybe this
- 40:09was floating out there in just the general kind of public or maybe some discussion
- 40:15boards or something, but I had really put two and two together that some
- 40:21of those significant autographs from legends, and we covered it last week in terms
- 40:25of the Sandy Kofax, but also Eachi ro King, Griffy Junior. There's
- 40:30some big time autos that are on the checklist. They're only included in the
- 40:35breakers the light boxes, which are if you're not familiar with it, it's
- 40:39a very compacted hobby box where essentially they stripped out all of the base cards.
- 40:45This also makes sense why some of that base card run was so much
- 40:49lower than I was expecting, because what they do is they just essentially take
- 40:52a bunch of refractors autos what are generally considered pretty large hits, put it
- 40:59into a breaker boxes what it's called, charge a whole back bunch of a
- 41:04lot of money, but mostly exclusively like try to work to get it into
- 41:08the hands of their fanatics related breakers so that they can have good content and
- 41:15be able to flip these cards. But that combo between the both, you've
- 41:19got to think it's gonna be shrinking the market on these forty dollars retail boxes
- 41:23and any of the other hobby boxes where you were just looking at a pretty
- 41:28brutal checklist in terms of the other autographs. Yeah, it's You're absolutely right.
- 41:32It's it's interesting because the price point for like a value box is what
- 41:37forty bucks for chrome. And I've already seen a number of stories of folks
- 41:43pulling like fully uncolated boxes by like three boxes they're exactly the same, and
- 41:49things like that. And now you're taking some of the biggest hits of those
- 41:52legends and also some of the other big cards. I know you'll talk about
- 41:55it than the hit, and you're basically saying, like you still want to
- 41:59buy this product, trust me, you can't hit the best card or the
- 42:01second best or the third best card like it's not there. And I also
- 42:06think it's playing into and I have no basis for this, but I think
- 42:09we're playing the narrative that tops and fanatics are are placing these cards to a
- 42:15degree with the breakers, and if you watch the videos, things like that.
- 42:19It is like almost stage is always pulled in the card shop are always
- 42:22pulled in the breaker like gone o the days, or you and I box
- 42:27home when you're ripping at the kitchen table and you're hitting a big card like
- 42:30that's that doesn't seem to happen with the major cards. Sure, like a
- 42:34nice Ellie Basse auto or numbered auto, but you know the big major hits,
- 42:40they all just suspiciously seem to be on camera at this point in time.
- 42:47Yeah, I've also noticed like a really just it's a really concerning feedback
- 42:52loop in terms of like Reddit will post cards that they're hitting, and then
- 42:58like tops social media accounts will just like take that information raw off without vetting
- 43:06it in terms of like where the person got it from the same thing with
- 43:10social media channels too, in terms of like somebody will post on Instagram and
- 43:14say, hey, I just pulled this out of a blaster box, but
- 43:15then it Tops fanatics will just take that information run that on their Instagram and
- 43:22Twitter accounts without any sort of like sort of vetting in between, and like
- 43:27it does feel really dangerous in terms of like the space we're playing in with
- 43:31just the overall monopoly that runs this space. But then when you're also cutting
- 43:36out like the ability for any sort of like kind of I don't know,
- 43:42like it feels like there needs to be some sort of level of journalism digging
- 43:45into this, where Beckett used to feel like they added some semblance of this
- 43:51as well as card Board Connection and a couple of other outlets where there seemed
- 43:55to be some sort of filter of like journalistic like integrity or something that would
- 44:00help kind of easies concerns. But I've noticed, especially over the past year
- 44:05since we've started this podcast, that like a lot of that has been filtered
- 44:08out and it just goes straight from whatever based social media feed up to tops
- 44:14and then kind of self perpetuates this advertising machine, which is just not good
- 44:20and very concerning, especially when you're talking about like a situation in America too,
- 44:28where you have like legalized gambling everywhere. I think you have lots of
- 44:31people with gambling problems and addictions, and this is certainly a space that can
- 44:37prey on those people pretty easily with I think a lot fewer protections. Yeah,
- 44:44and just to give a live example, you know, we're two of
- 44:47the biggest cards have been pulled in the last few weeks share or the Eli
- 44:52Dela Cruz one of one's super fractor and the Eli Delic Crews one one auto
- 44:57superfractor. And it assuming you watched the video of the Elle Della Cruz auto
- 45:04being pulled, which was posted by tops, and like the caption and I
- 45:08read it, it's like a collector who bought a single box at this hobby
- 45:13shop just pulled the one on one super fractor. Who's gonna pull Ellie's number
- 45:16one helix and like, apparently if there's a million one to one auto superfractors
- 45:22of Ellie's. But like the the video very suspiciously starts somehow zoomed in on
- 45:29the guy's hands opening a single pack that is already open, Yeah, and
- 45:35like oddly taking the bottom card off and not even looking at it and kind
- 45:38of posting his side like and then miraculously just revealing Ellie's one of one super
- 45:44fractor auto and everybody like no, like there's like if you pulled that card,
- 45:50you literally just pulled Like, I don't know what you want to say,
- 45:52twenty thirty grand out of a pack? I would say, no,
- 45:55I don't know, it's some crazy number. And the guy in the shop
- 46:00are like barely reacting. It's just like, oh, heaven forbid, this
- 46:05pulled this card, like and the guy's kind of like walking away, like,
- 46:07oh my goodness, so what did I do? Like like somebody pulled
- 46:12that elsewhere and then they staged the entire video. Yes, no doubt in
- 46:15my mind, I totally agree. And it's just like it's really strange like
- 46:20watching it because uh yeah, it's not even like very well executed, because
- 46:23I'll have to watch again. But it does also feel like the cards and
- 46:27the pack aren't even like collated correctly, where like it's not even backwards like
- 46:30those cards are backwards. Actually, it's like it doesn't take much sleuth thing
- 46:37to figure out this kind of stuff. And like, like I said,
- 46:39because it's just like it's just a machine, so like it can get re
- 46:45shared and re liked and kind of refed into everything that there's no there's no
- 46:51kind of like nothing stopping tops and fanatics from just creating an entire ridiculous bubble
- 46:58and just juicing all the money out of it that they can. Yeah,
- 47:00and that's why we've we've worn I think a lot of folks is we've talked
- 47:02about it. Be careful everything that's posted out there. It's the hits people
- 47:07don't post when they get robbed of three hundred bucks because they bought a hobby
- 47:12box and I had, you know, a Louis Varlin auto it right,
- 47:16they don't poste sorry Louis, but they don't. They don't post those and
- 47:22uh and when they do, it's the true collectors, right. It's the
- 47:23guys that out there that are just doing it for the fun of it,
- 47:27and they're just like, hey, not everything is all rosy, and yeah,
- 47:30it's it's it's unfortunate. And that's why I strongly advise being careful going
- 47:37out there. If you're buying a hobby bo box, buying a jumbo box,
- 47:40if you spent four hundred dollars on that, enjoy the rip like that
- 47:45the four hundred. Don't expect to get the value. Don't don't be playing
- 47:47on It is a gamble. It is four hundred dollars that you've paid for
- 47:51the experience of opening a box and maybe you get lucky with something. But
- 47:54if if you have that addictive personality like like my time, don't to get
- 48:02yourself in ripping. Go to card shows. Go go to card shops by
- 48:06singles, You're gonna enjoy the hobby a heck a lot more. Yeah,
- 48:09And I think even with that, like if you go back to our first
- 48:13episode when we talked about our favorite sets, I think that's a big thing
- 48:16to define as you're working your way through this hobby and getting into baseball cards
- 48:21is saying, hey, what do I want to collect? What do I
- 48:23like? Where am I comfortable, you know, losing money on investments and
- 48:30still enjoying the cards and you know, what are these things that I enjoy
- 48:35before I go into it and get caught up in the whirlwind of it because
- 48:37it can unravel really fast. Absolutely. But with that, let's go into
- 48:43a few of the new releases coming out on the calendar so you can get
- 48:45into that worldbind. I think the biggest edition that we've got from last week
- 48:51is July thirty first, So just next week we have twenty twenty four Tops
- 48:55Museum Collection coming out. So this is an annual that is on the upper
- 49:01end in terms of gorgeous patches. The base set design is grody this year.
- 49:08I will link to the checklist overview in the show notes, but it
- 49:14is an ugly base set design all the autos and cut autos and relics and
- 49:20stuff are beautiful because it is museum collection, but it does look like just
- 49:23last week they asked an intern to put together the base design set. Well,
- 49:28it's dreadful. I hadn't looked at you. That is just dreadful.
- 49:31So God. Then, the only other one that we had added to the
- 49:37schedule since last week is on August thirtieth, we have those tops complete sets
- 49:42coming out, so those will roll out into hobby shops with just different variations
- 49:47on some of the big rookie cards and able to hit like different autos and
- 49:53relics and things like that. So that is an annual tradition as well.
- 49:59But yeah, with that, we will wrap up kind of our news and
- 50:01notes section here and we will be back with our categories talk as we analyze
- 50:07players that might be going up or down in value because of trade trade deadline
- 50:13considerations. So stick around, all right, Welcome back everybody, as we
- 50:35get into our categories discussion, and we are going to talk about fantasy values
- 50:40that are either going up or going down in anticipation of next week's July thirtieth
- 50:45trade deadline. So especially this is your last weekend if you're playing in weekly
- 50:52fab leagues and weekly waiver wire leagues to be able to make moves and anticipation
- 50:58of this deadline. So this is especially where you can find probably the biggest
- 51:05arbitrage opportunities I think within season, because like, if you can read some
- 51:09of these situations correctly for your fantasy leagues, they can be game winners at
- 51:14this point because you are looking at two months of production and if you stumble
- 51:17your way into a new starting pitcher somebody with a significant role, or like
- 51:23a new closer, it's a pretty easy way to find a path to winning
- 51:30your league here down the stretch. On the flip side, like if you
- 51:32aren't paying attention and maybe are holding on too long to some of these players
- 51:37who, uh, we've got kind of like a nebulous blurb list of like
- 51:44players and playing situations and teams and everything. We just called it up arrow
- 51:49and down arrow and our our rundown. I'll maybe I'll just keep referring to
- 51:52it as that that like it's very rudimentary and feels very like caveman make fire.
- 51:58But up arrow, down arrow, these down arrows are they could be
- 52:01team killers that if you're not moving out from underneath these guys and trying to
- 52:06you know, move them right now on this weekend and finding a replacement.
- 52:10You could be stuck with them as they just kind of languish in bad situations
- 52:15on their either really bad team or get traded to a new situation where they
- 52:20don't have as significant of a role. So anything that you're trying to maximize
- 52:25around this time of the year brew as you're looking at pickups from free agents
- 52:30and waiver wires. Yeah, I think there's a few themes that you're you're
- 52:34always looking for. First of all, the easy one, closers is always
- 52:37the easy one to say, who who might be moving to a situation where
- 52:42they become a closer or they maintain the closure role or they lose their closure
- 52:45role, or when who's moving out and the next guy up becomes a closer.
- 52:49Sometimes that one's actually a little harder because sometimes the next guy cut up
- 52:52also moving moving in the in the trades, you know, So I think
- 52:57that that's that's a key one. Also looking at pictures, starting pictures to
- 53:00see who might be moving from a rough situation to a better situation. Just
- 53:04from a pure wins perspective, and then I think the kind of the last
- 53:08one is who's on a good team that's kind of at the back back end
- 53:15of that team that might be losing their role or diminished roles. Is that
- 53:19teams looking to kind of replenish. Like you're looking at all those those different
- 53:22factors, and usually the big names like their their value is not changing there.
- 53:28Yeah, they might be going to a different situation, but their values
- 53:30already kind of establishes what is playing time is not going to change. They're
- 53:32going to continue to produce. It's those guys on the kind of fringes and
- 53:37or pitching that really seem to change value. So I think that's the that's
- 53:42where we're looking, that's where we're focusing. Like I said, closers are
- 53:45the easy one because that's just a fun, fun market to play in.
- 53:47But overall, there's still a lot to like here and a lot of opportunity,
- 53:52and you're not going to be right on many of these, but that's
- 53:54the fun of it. Take to take a few dart throws, try to
- 53:58convince your league mate that they might be to be right, and maybe they
- 54:01are, maybe they're not. We'll see. Yeah, And I guess I
- 54:05was approaching this from a free agent waiver wire perspective, but like obviously some
- 54:08of these are trade candidates too, so trying to execute these trades over the
- 54:13next week. I mean, I think some of your league mates will see
- 54:15a coming a little bit, but maybe you can find some sort of like
- 54:20because the gap can be a little bit different, maybe you can find a
- 54:22little bit more opportunity than might what might traditionally be there. Absolutely, especially
- 54:29if you're on maybe the fringes, like going for a guy that like that
- 54:32the volatility of the situation is really questionable. Like that's the kind of guy
- 54:37you go for if you're on the fringes, you're trying to get a discount
- 54:38on somebody and you're trying to hit a home run. Like that's that's that's
- 54:42where's where it's all about. Yeah, Okay, well let's get into it.
- 54:45Because, like I said, we've got these up arrows, we've got
- 54:47down arrows, and we've got like five to six talking points I think underneath
- 54:52each because some are individual players, some are more situational. So this first
- 54:57one we have is actually two play together in a situation here in the South
- 55:01side of Chicago, and that is I think these probably have the most significant
- 55:06up arrows in terms of value going forward is Eric Vetti and Garrett Crochet from
- 55:12the White Sox both look to be out the door from Chicago. Fetti is
- 55:17absolutely being shipped out that I think he's actually probably gonna end up in Saint
- 55:22Louis personally, but we'll see when the desk subtles. But Fetti has been
- 55:27really like a godsend to the White Sox this year in terms of they signed
- 55:31him out of Korea at the beginning of the season and he's only making seven
- 55:37and a half million dollars. He does have a second year, but at
- 55:39this point, given that he's pitched to a two ninety eight ERA over one
- 55:44hundred and seventeen innings with a three sixty eight FIP and done all that in
- 55:49front of the White Sox defense, somebody's gonna gladly pay for seven and a
- 55:53half million dollars of Eric Vetti next year. And then with Garrett Crochet,
- 55:58he has been one of this magnificant breakouts obviously in our player pool this entire
- 56:02year. Even though I think whatever team he gets straighted to is going to
- 56:07start tapering his innings more and more the White Socks have done this. You
- 56:10know, his last start before the All Star break was only two innings.
- 56:16Obviously they don't want to damage their goods before the All Star break, but
- 56:20I think even after the trade deadline, the actual like Gara Crochet's innings will
- 56:29be reduced going forward because he's already at a career high with one hundred and
- 56:32seven point one, but he's thrown to a three h two area. And
- 56:37honestly, it's kind of been the conversation for the AlSi Young with threek' Scooble
- 56:42right now, so mostly right here. I mean, I don't even know
- 56:45if there's too much tough analysis, like you're gonna win more games than you're
- 56:49not on the White Sox, and these are two prime pitchers for that.
- 56:52Right this one's about as sybyl as it gets, like get out of the
- 56:57south side. And honestly, you said Eric Fetti, I was sitting here
- 57:00going the Washington Nationals aren't on the south side. Sorry, I was stuck
- 57:06in twenty twenty two with Fetti there. But you're right, like both of
- 57:08them, like the White Sox don't play with good defense, they don't play
- 57:12fundamentals like these guys are just getting it done on the back of our team
- 57:15Moldonado catching and being released, and you know there's only upside because you're going
- 57:22You're gonna be going to a playoff team, most likely a good playoff team
- 57:27that play solid defense is gonna get you some wins and you I got a
- 57:34guy like Fetti who's seven and three despite your point, the a incredible two
- 57:42and just doing all the little things right for for White Sox, and Crochet
- 57:45just even better. I think he's Crochet is actually the one I would actually
- 57:51be not as excited about because of the Indians taper here and the price you're
- 57:55gonna have to pay, right because whoever owns him like they've discovered him.
- 57:59It's different with Fedy, We're all like, yeah, but he can't sustain
- 58:01this right Still, it's Eric Fetty or Crochet like he seems like maybe he's
- 58:06coming into his own so I think he's gonna be a little harder to acquire,
- 58:09maybe make a trade. But Fetty absolutely, he's probably not on the
- 58:14waiver wire anywhere. But I wouldn't be surprised if there's a team, especially
- 58:17in a keeper league of some sort, that's willing to move him and if
- 58:22you need some wins, absolutely pick him up to your point. Cardinals,
- 58:27it does feel like a Cardinals move all over where Crochet feels like a Dodgers
- 58:31Dodgers Yankees Braves type move. So both of them would be great, and
- 58:40I just feel like croucheted the Braves, Like if you can't have a team
- 58:45that has the guys like Crochet and Strider and Freed and all like Schwellenbach,
- 58:51like they just look all those guys like steal the same guys, say they
- 58:54are all the same picture, long lanky guys that just sling it. It's
- 58:59not there. Yeah, I mean that's the White Sox guy. They keep
- 59:01drafting them too. But I do think like on Crochet, maybe there is
- 59:07like a little bit of an opportunity if the person who holds them is like
- 59:10really down on the innings and like really just trying to hedge their bets.
- 59:16But I mean, I think it's possible that Crochet still throws like four to
- 59:21five innings every week and when you paste that out with his ratios, like
- 59:27it's still pretty solid even if he's maybe not in line for wins. Just
- 59:30the strikeout volume alone, especially when you start condensing him into short or bursts,
- 59:36I think turns him into Andrew Miller. You know, you could see
- 59:39him almost in safe situations or something as especially whoever acquires him maybe moving Crochet
- 59:46into the bullpen for the playoffs anyway, so they're going to try to transassume
- 59:51him over the next couple months. On Fetti, I think there's also more
- 59:55kind of in that arsenal too, because he's throw a really really dirty slider
- 1:00:01that, like, when you're watching it all in concert together, I can
- 1:00:06see why he's not throwing the slider more because the current pitch mix kind of
- 1:00:09all works like he's got a sinker, he's got the change, he's got
- 1:00:15the cutter, he's got the slider, and they're all kind of breaking slightly
- 1:00:17differently when they come out the hand. But his slider is much much better
- 1:00:22than the rest of his pitch arsenal buy stuff. Plus that it's the only
- 1:00:27one that's over one hundred, and you could see maybe a more analytic team
- 1:00:31going to Eric Fetti and saying, hey, like throw that sucker more and
- 1:00:36getting more strikeouts out of that arm down the stretch. So I think those
- 1:00:39are both like even what if you're going out to acquire both of these players.
- 1:00:44I think there's even kind of upside to what they might be right now.
- 1:00:50Yeah, if the Rays acquire Fetti, I'm mean, yes, Okay.
- 1:00:54So the next one we've got is it's actually linked a little bit to
- 1:00:59that Boba Shet news that we had at the beginning of the show, and
- 1:01:02that is the up arrow that I'm slapping next to Spencer Horwitz from the Toronto
- 1:01:07Blue Jays. He's been playing second base there for the last month or so
- 1:01:14and is really firmly cemented himself into the two hole. As I mean,
- 1:01:20I still can't believe that it's ticking this long for Horwitz to get a shot,
- 1:01:23because, I mean, last year I had him in my Waiver Wire
- 1:01:25column. This year I did for a bit and he just kind of like
- 1:01:30hung out in triple A because the Blue Jays didn't have a great spot for
- 1:01:34him because he was a first baseman and was blocked by Vlad Junior. But
- 1:01:37we're like, hey, we'll try you at second base, and it's worked
- 1:01:39really well. He's put up a one to fifty one WRC plus and honestly,
- 1:01:45it looks great across the board. The bad ball profile looks fantastic.
- 1:01:49He's got a little bit of that Nacho Alvarez profile we were talking about earlier
- 1:01:53that I love in terms of when your walk rate and k rate are converging,
- 1:01:58converging in the team together like that is a fantastic hitter. And really
- 1:02:02my up arrow here for Spencer Horwitz is the Blue Jays are clean in house.
- 1:02:07I think at this deadline, as we talked about with the Bobaschett News
- 1:02:10that if there was any worries that you had about Spencer Horwitz holding down a
- 1:02:16job post deadline, I don't think you have to worry about that. That
- 1:02:21this guy is planted into the Blue Jays lineup for the rest of the year.
- 1:02:25My question to you is actually, what about keeper and dynasty leagues?
- 1:02:30Are you maybe moving in on sports Spencer Horwitz because I think he's the second
- 1:02:34baseman to start the year in twenty twenty five in Toronto as well. Yeah,
- 1:02:38I am slightly moving in. I've got like Alan Craig vibes of Spencer
- 1:02:43Horwitz here, like older guy coming up the he he was actually a high
- 1:02:49second round draft pick like he he was, but he just it took him
- 1:02:52quite some time to make it through the miners and get that chance. But
- 1:02:55he's got that vibe of just a release above average, got Lane Thomas type
- 1:03:02of style across the board, right, And I really like that because he's
- 1:03:07never going to demand the biggest return or cost to get him. So I
- 1:03:14am like middle infield type scenario and dynasty. I'm really excited about him because
- 1:03:19I think he could play a very high quality middle infield. You could argue,
- 1:03:23maybe see it on the back end, depending on how he finishes kind
- 1:03:27of developing here over the next year or two, that he could sneak into
- 1:03:30like the top twelve second basemen things like that. So I like him,
- 1:03:36and the more I've looked at him, I'm like, I just don't see
- 1:03:38a big issue. I don't see a problem with that profile. Like it's
- 1:03:44just really really strong. So yeah, I'm giving a shot And the only
- 1:03:47problem is if they tear it down in Toronto, there's nobody to hit around
- 1:03:52him. Yeah. The other guy kind of reminds me of two is like
- 1:03:54a left handed Justin Turner as well, where it's just like, is going
- 1:04:00to be your problem with Spencer Horowitz when you're playing him in a second base
- 1:04:02m my situation, but especially if you are not in a or if you're
- 1:04:09in a spot where you know you've got a little extra speed at other positions
- 1:04:14and can sacrifice it for I mean, I think Horwitz would be something like
- 1:04:17a two eighty twenty to twenty five Homers with like eighty runs, eighty to
- 1:04:25ninety runs, eighty ninety RBI like sort of bat. Like that's a really
- 1:04:29really solid bat. Yeah. I think Turner is a really good comp there.
- 1:04:32You consider it. Well, not the turn of Thiss in Toronto right
- 1:04:34now, I wouldn't use I'd use the Boston version. Okay. Yeah,
- 1:04:39so just like last year, Yeah, maybe you give me a little bit
- 1:04:42of Dodger's version was good last year. It was good last year. That's
- 1:04:45good last year. Okay. Next guy that we have as an up arrow,
- 1:04:48And I'm excited for this one because I get to hear you talk about
- 1:04:53one of your favorite players in our fantasy player pool. That is Jazz Chisholm
- 1:04:57from the Miami Marlins. He looks like he's should be on the move.
- 1:05:00Atlanta's in the talks with him, and I think, I mean, there's
- 1:05:04lots of teams Honestly, the Dodgers could find a spot for him. That
- 1:05:09this is a little bit like the Fetti Crochet situation, where I think it's
- 1:05:14pretty straightforward that if Jazz Chisholm moves out of Miami, not only are you
- 1:05:17automatically pretty much getting an upgrade on the park because lone depot park for a
- 1:05:23home park is just a really tough place to hit, but the lineup around
- 1:05:29Jazz Chislm has also just been absolutely awful, as you alluded to earlier with
- 1:05:33their bottom three offense, and you can just see it in terms of like
- 1:05:39what he's pacing to like despite pacing towards something like a low twenties homers and
- 1:05:46like thirty stolen bases, he's only going to put up like six mid sixties
- 1:05:50runs and you know, maybe seventy and same thing on the RBI side.
- 1:05:56That it's been tough for Jazz Chislm to get any of those counting stats going
- 1:06:00for you, despite some pretty good production from him over all. But yeah,
- 1:06:03I just want to hear from you that you are enjoying Jazz Chisholm maybe
- 1:06:09going up in value and seeing a buying opportunity on him, because I know
- 1:06:12he's been somebody you've been down on. You're not going to get me off
- 1:06:15the shine on this one. Not getting me off the schnine on this one.
- 1:06:20And there's nothing about Jess Schislm's talent, Like this guy's talented, he
- 1:06:25absolutely is, but he's made of Lewis Robert Glass. Like that's the problem
- 1:06:31here, you know, he he I think he's in conversation. Go to
- 1:06:34to New York to play in the Bronx, and you know, if you
- 1:06:38look at his production there in that short porch he's going after, you know,
- 1:06:44go to stack Cast, they do the water for projections with overlabor every
- 1:06:45park. You know, he's got nineteen homers on the season already liked man
- 1:06:50exactly, like there's there. You can easily see that. You see it
- 1:06:54in the great lineups. The production goes up things like that. I think
- 1:06:58that you know, you're gonna have to pay for that expectation at full health.
- 1:07:02And that's my problem with Jazz is that wherever he moves, everybody's gonna
- 1:07:06assume he's one hundred percent healthy. They're gonna just take it straight line up
- 1:07:12and call him a top thirty hitter, and he's not. He's not because
- 1:07:15he can't stay healthy. From a talent perspective, he is like you look
- 1:07:19at him, it's like his Julio. He gets Julio type numbers, except
- 1:07:26that I just don't know if that he can stay healthy. And this is
- 1:07:30just blasting coming from a guy that can't. For the life of not draft
- 1:07:32a guy that's gonna be hurt. And that's uh, that's the challenge I
- 1:07:39have with with Jazz. So people are if he get moves, he's gonna
- 1:07:43be a big name that moves. People are gonna be hyping on him.
- 1:07:45They're gonna be trying to buy him. I'm gonna let him at grant.
- 1:07:48I don't have any shares, So who am I to talk? Yeah,
- 1:07:51but I mean because of that, like now might be the time to do
- 1:07:54it before he does move, especially you know, if you're you know,
- 1:07:57your lead competition, maybe if you are in a home league where they aren't
- 1:08:00quite as in tune to all of like the comings and goings, like maybe
- 1:08:04this is the time to swoop in on Jazz Chisholm. Yeah, I don't
- 1:08:09disagree. It's just not gonna be me doing it. Okay, Well,
- 1:08:13with the next player in situation, we're gonna stick down to Miami because oddly
- 1:08:16I might be endorsing buying aj Puck because he has really put it back together
- 1:08:24since moving to the bullpen of late. So he's moved himself into the setup
- 1:08:30role down there in Miami, and especially since let me see, especially when
- 1:08:34this run kind of started. You can see it right when he got back
- 1:08:40from like an injury or something around like mid June. You can see like
- 1:08:45since June fourteenth, he's thrown. He's thrown seventeen a third innings with a
- 1:08:53point five two ERA and a twelve point four twelve and a half K nine
- 1:09:00one and a half walks per nine. The prime reliever AJ Puck is back
- 1:09:05after the experiment when the starting rotation went very poorly to begin the season.
- 1:09:12And so this is more of just kind of like a signal flare, like,
- 1:09:15hey, it looks like Darren Scott's getting moved down in Miami. AJ
- 1:09:19Puck has been solid already for a month and a half, Like he's been
- 1:09:24producing as a one of those elite relievers that we would consider using even without
- 1:09:29a closure job. And if he's adding saves on top of it, wow,
- 1:09:33lookout and maybe even another situation like Spencer Horwitz. We've talked about this
- 1:09:39over the past couple pods. Are you going out there and in dynasty keeper
- 1:09:43situations? Also maybe trying to add Ajpuck this weekend before the trade deadline,
- 1:09:48because if this keeps up, he should be the closer in Miami in twenty
- 1:09:53twenty five. Yeah, of all the guys we're talking about, he's probably
- 1:09:57number two on my list of intriguing scenario is that I'd be going after We'll
- 1:10:00talk about the other one in the second here, because he's so dreadful at
- 1:10:06the beginning of the season in a different role that his value is low from
- 1:10:11a trademarket perspective, that nobody wants to fully invest in Puck over like fifteen
- 1:10:16to twenty innings being back in the reliever role, but because we all think
- 1:10:20it's true, but we're not quite sure, so you don't want to pay
- 1:10:23that. And he's still got some some some time before he becomes a free
- 1:10:28agent, I believe so Tanner Scott's very very likely gone. Another discussion as
- 1:10:33far as where the arrow might be going down with Tanner Scott, But I
- 1:10:38like Puck here. He has a game, give up a run, in
- 1:10:40the last month, he's got a six six to zero point three K to
- 1:10:45walk ratio. He's been just lights out for the last thirty days. So
- 1:10:50I like Puck, and to your point, he in my strategy here with
- 1:10:54a guy like Puck, especially in the keeper scenario, I'm going to that
- 1:10:57team that has Puck and I'm making a trade for a better player, and
- 1:11:01I'm overpaying for that better play and or tossing Puck on as the as the
- 1:11:05kicker. I'm trying trying to smoke shield by way through into getting a really
- 1:11:12interesting closure for the next next year. Yeah, I mean, and honestly,
- 1:11:15I think that would make him with if he keeps these ratios up.
- 1:11:19Like obviously the element of pressure on Puck is gonna we'll see how he reacts
- 1:11:24to that. But he closed last year at times and looked okay, And
- 1:11:28I think he would immediately enter as like a top ten closer given that,
- 1:11:32like he can keep generating twelve plus knine and only walking one and a half,
- 1:11:39I mean, that's pretty elite. Yeah, I'll take it. It's
- 1:11:43basically Tan or Scott, Yeah, exactly. Yeah, Okay. Well,
- 1:11:47the other up arrow that we have is I want to get your feel here
- 1:11:51on the Washington Nationals bullpen, because it is I think just a matter of
- 1:11:56time before Kyle Finnegan is sent out of town and they cash in that chip.
- 1:12:00As the Nationals have already traded Hunter Harvey and have already told other teams
- 1:12:05that hey, we're gonna soft sell some of these pieces around the deadline,
- 1:12:10as they have other outfielders and other pieces that can move because they look primed
- 1:12:15for twenty twenty five. And if they can rebuild with some minor leaguers that
- 1:12:19are close to the majors here over the next week, the Nationals could be
- 1:12:24kind of dangerous next year. But with Finnigan possibly moving out of that role
- 1:12:30in Washington, who is your number one target after he possibly leaves? Well,
- 1:12:35I think that's the challenge with the Nationals. I don't know, like
- 1:12:41this is the new up arrowing out of any of them, I guess I
- 1:12:44at this point, I don't think I really have much of an up arrow
- 1:12:46out there in Washington. I think there's maybe some what i'd call interesting names,
- 1:12:51but there's not a clear guy, and I don't think there's a clear
- 1:12:57set of skills that really right is the top says yes, this is the
- 1:13:01guy that that it should be. You know, you look at that bullpen
- 1:13:06and like I want to say, like, well, Tanner Rainey's been before,
- 1:13:11Robert Garcia's actually looked pretty good. Dylan Floro's tried it before. So
- 1:13:17if if I have to go, maybe I'm going Garcia here as far as
- 1:13:21a guy that I would maybe give a dart throw too, But I just
- 1:13:30we're talking about a guy a second year in the league. He's twenty eight.
- 1:13:32I don't know how, you know, total of like seventy eights in
- 1:13:35his career. Do I do? I trust it? I'm not sure,
- 1:13:41but I guess putting the hand the fire, Robert Garcia is the guy that
- 1:13:44I'd be parking out there in in DC and hoping, hoping for the best.
- 1:13:50I don't know. Did I get the right guy? I'm just not
- 1:13:54sure. In the in this bullpen, I think so. I think that's
- 1:13:58probably the number one target there in terms of I mean, those sixty six
- 1:14:02and two thirds innings over the past two years have been really good. It's
- 1:14:06a two ninety nine FIP, so the four or five era makes it look
- 1:14:11worse than it actually is. Double digit K nine. Maybe my one concern
- 1:14:16is he is left handed, so even with the good stuff profile, like
- 1:14:20maybe they want to keep him as a lefty specialist. I think my other
- 1:14:26kind of like dark horse here is actually Derek law in terms of I've always
- 1:14:31liked him for I can't wow. Yeah, he was drafted in twenty eleven,
- 1:14:36and it's crazy that he's kind of been like on my radar that long,
- 1:14:42as he's worked his way through the San Francisco system and then bounced around
- 1:14:45since then. But this is a little bit reminds me more of trying to
- 1:14:51think of like who the equivalent of this would be. It's almost like more
- 1:14:55of like a Luis Garcia situation, know where like you just get a long
- 1:15:00time reliever and finally he gets a shot at being a closer and just kind
- 1:15:04of relishes in the situation. It does appear that, you know, he's
- 1:15:09got the thing, the tools to be a pretty solid reliever. You know,
- 1:15:13has run a mid three cra for the past few years. And let
- 1:15:17me check his stuff numbers. I don't think they're overwhelming, but they will
- 1:15:21probably get the job done. And yeah, he's got an above average stuff
- 1:15:27plus slider and above average cutter that he can work with. And so I
- 1:15:31think if you're looking for like a one A one B, and especially in
- 1:15:35some pretty sharp leagues like in one of ours in our autnew league, like
- 1:15:40Robert Garcia already got snatched up. As people are kind of playing the game
- 1:15:45that we are right here on the podcast, Derek Lock could be a pretty
- 1:15:49good dart throw in terms of if you're just trying to chase a couple saves
- 1:15:54down the stretch. The Nationals team should still be pretty solid around him that
- 1:15:59I think he gonna give a chance for you know, there's probably ten or
- 1:16:04twelve saves still left in the Nationals and it's just a matter of like where
- 1:16:08they go between Long Garcia, you know, ten or twelve saves left in
- 1:16:14the Nationals. That might be the bold prediction for the for the second half.
- 1:16:16So it's not too absurd, all right, Well, that would be
- 1:16:25crazy if that ends up being like the boldest prediction we get. The last
- 1:16:30up era we have is mostly we've been talking about this all summer and it's
- 1:16:34finally come to fruition. If you've been stashing any of those Baltimore prospects,
- 1:16:41not only like kursed Ed and Norby, who will likely be trade fodder for
- 1:16:45next week. But also you're looking at Kobe Mayo, this is a great
- 1:16:49time for him to come up because if they can move some players off the
- 1:16:54forty man roster down in Baltimore, you open up that pathway for Mayo to
- 1:16:58be able to be promoted and just anybody else who's struggling to find like just
- 1:17:03full path to playing time because it's so crowded down in Baltimore. Just look
- 1:17:09at their Triple A squad and you can probably run through it and maybe identify
- 1:17:13a few I think, especially the deeper the league you go, if you're
- 1:17:15in an ale only league, like it is worth going through their Triple A
- 1:17:19squad and just seeing, you know, hey, like you could maybe get
- 1:17:25in on Kyle Stowers. Like Kyle Stowers I think is certainly a good chance
- 1:17:30to go. Garrett Cooper's hanging out down there, who could like play corner
- 1:17:34for quite a few major league clubs, and so like there's talent Nick Maton's
- 1:17:39down there too. Wow, Okay, it is a very loaded system,
- 1:17:43and that's not even like Double A. I think if you want to get
- 1:17:46a really really bold prediction, there's some pathway that they open up for Basillo.
- 1:17:50You know, yeah, I thought you were or or Dylan Beaver's I
- 1:17:57want I want Dylan Beavers in the Lea as soon as we can. But
- 1:18:00any of these guys really striking your fancy that like if you had, let's
- 1:18:04say, you had to really put your feet to the fire and pick one
- 1:18:11for rest of season between like mostly Kurse Dad Norby Mayo. I mean,
- 1:18:16I guess if you want to go Stours, I'll throw Stours in there,
- 1:18:18but that'd be a very situation dependent which of those are you targeting? If
- 1:18:26you've only got one spot, I give you like one dollar to spend on
- 1:18:29fab this weekend. Yeah, I think it's a great call. And the
- 1:18:32other thing that we didn't mention is that the Orioles have kind of put out
- 1:18:35there that they're willing to move Ryan Mountcutt Castle and Cedric Bullins like, which
- 1:18:41I think is like almost like addition by subtraction type of thing here with what
- 1:18:45you're being replaced. But if I got my one dollar, I'm going with
- 1:18:48Heston kerstad I think, and the reason not he's not the best talent of
- 1:18:54that group. It's probably Mayo, but I think karstad By being on the
- 1:18:59roster. He's already getting that experience, and that signals that the Orioles don't
- 1:19:03think he has anything less to do in the minors, and so he's they're
- 1:19:08trying to get him that playing time and it's just a matter of time where
- 1:19:11they open that up and give it to him. And so I think he's
- 1:19:14one a the guy that's gonna benefit from anybody moving because he's got enough versatility
- 1:19:21and they've got enough guys that can kind of move around that I think he's
- 1:19:25the one that gets the biggest benefit if they move one or two of these
- 1:19:29guys. I do think, you know, Norby might get a call up.
- 1:19:34I think it was maybe a little further off with with some of those
- 1:19:38calls, but yeah, I got if I got one. I'm taking a
- 1:19:41crestat here because I think he really after the deadline here, I think he's
- 1:19:45a full time guy the rest of the season, and he's been really,
- 1:19:49really good. I think he you know, he had a rough start to
- 1:19:53his career for sure, but ever since he's really come back, been fully
- 1:19:59healthy last two years, He's hit everywhere he's been. So I'm a hesting
- 1:20:03carestad truther for through and through and he's we're on a spin of my dollar.
- 1:20:09Okay, disagree, or you got a different guy you're chasing. No,
- 1:20:12I think that's probably the right choice, because either he's leaving town or
- 1:20:17he's taken Ryan Mountcastle or Cedric Mullens a spot in a lineup, so he's
- 1:20:21playing regardless. Yeah, I mean, I think the bigger thing is I'm
- 1:20:26gonna throw it back lot of back to you. You think that he is
- 1:20:29getting that opportunity in Baltimore or do you think it's coming somewhere else. I
- 1:20:31think it's happened in Baltimore. I think if they really wanted him him as
- 1:20:36trade podder, he would be in Triple A right now. He they would
- 1:20:40be getting full time playing time and putting up numbers. And so that's why
- 1:20:44I think if you're I think they're really going to try to move Mullins in
- 1:20:47Mountcastle because I think Bollens has kind of time is a little bit done there.
- 1:20:51But I think the one that actually probably gets moved is probably it's probably
- 1:20:56Stours or Norby. I think Norby is probably the guy to me that it's
- 1:21:00moved. I don't. I just don't think they see him as big of
- 1:21:02a long term part of their their team as Asano or Mayo or anything like
- 1:21:08that. So, uh, my bold prediction here is that we have Connor
- 1:21:13Orby on a new team, uh, Cedric Mullins on a new team and
- 1:21:17has some Kurestad's full time playing for the Baltimore Orioles. Yeah, I think
- 1:21:23you're You're probably correct there. I mean, I think maybe the one thing
- 1:21:27that could like get them to move Kurstad is if the White Sox like made
- 1:21:32it a deal breaker on Crochet or he's gone there. He's absolutely gone if
- 1:21:39that's the case, but like something to that level where like, you know,
- 1:21:43the the Orioles try to hand over Norby and Stours and the other team
- 1:21:47is like, no, it's got to be Kurestad. I mean, the
- 1:21:49biggest problem with this is the usually we may we make both predictions for the
- 1:21:53whole season or two months away, we've already forgotten about him. We're gonna
- 1:21:56come back next week and talk about what we just talked about and how vastly
- 1:22:00wrong we were. But that's the beauty of it, So lock it in.
- 1:22:04That's my prediction. I'm mostly yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
- 1:22:06So with that, let's move on to our few down arrows, So I
- 1:22:12think a lot of these are a little bit more self explanatory, like the
- 1:22:16White Sox and Marlin situations we were just discussing, but mostly also to kind
- 1:22:21of like send a signal flare out here for people to say, Hey,
- 1:22:26if you've got any of these guys in your roster, like you've got to
- 1:22:29be making a contingency plan right now to start figuring out like what you're going
- 1:22:33to do with them, because I think all of them could be winding up
- 1:22:38in some tougher situations than you had anticipated. So our first one hurts because
- 1:22:43it is one of the princes of this podcast and especially of my writing this
- 1:22:53week, your year writing this year on Rasball, and that is Tommy fam
- 1:22:57outfielder for the White Sox, big down earrow, mostly because he's been hitting
- 1:23:01at the top of the White Sox lineup, in the one through three spot,
- 1:23:04because it's the White Sox. Wherever he goes. I was trying to
- 1:23:10look at a situation where maybe he could still hit in the middle of the
- 1:23:13order, but I think if he goes to any contender, he's either in
- 1:23:16a fourth outfield or batting at the bomb of the order. So that's really
- 1:23:20the consideration here unless any situations you can maybe think of where like Fam could
- 1:23:27still maintain his value if he was traded there. Yeah, I think I'm
- 1:23:31gonna make I'm just full of old predictions. Yeah, you're ready to go.
- 1:23:35After I went to Basio, You're just like, Wow, you're going
- 1:23:40there. I'm pushing it. The only one that I could see would may
- 1:23:44potentially the twins. The twins have have gone records saying that they're not adding
- 1:23:49payroll, and so FAM, you know, more or less, is not
- 1:23:55adding payroll, and they're they're also if they're gonna be making some moves,
- 1:24:00they're gonna be subtracting some guys, like a couple or something like that.
- 1:24:03And so I could see Fam kind of back in the playing time they're there
- 1:24:08with the with the twins, But I that's I just don't know that that's
- 1:24:12gonna happen, especially within the division. So I think you're right. He
- 1:24:15he is the prime guy to be on a Yankee squad, a Dodger squad,
- 1:24:24Houston like going to the Bronx. We're sorry. Skill set, Yeah,
- 1:24:30you're right, Tommy Fam Like he's got a whole other personality with every
- 1:24:33where's the go Uh he does he not strike you as being on the Dodgers,
- 1:24:38Like, I don't know about it. It just feels like he's gonna
- 1:24:41be a bench guy on the Dodgers and he's just gonna be hanging out there
- 1:24:44on the bench with Jason Hayward trying to get healthy and like all these random
- 1:24:46guys that just have like little warts about him, but they can catch light
- 1:24:51in the model. So I can't stop joking with my wife that, like,
- 1:24:55I can't wait for Jack Flarerty and Tommy Fan to be back on the
- 1:24:58Cardinals this time next week. Oh, that'd be so fun. They would
- 1:25:04hate it so much, they would hate us so much. And I feel
- 1:25:08like the Cardinals fans would be just calling for John Mosaic's resignation. Like,
- 1:25:13No, I would love it. I would love it because they're the right
- 1:25:15guys to kind of bring in. But'll be like, yeah, you like
- 1:25:18you gave up on these guys, you trade them away. They became amazing,
- 1:25:21Like everybody who trade away and now you bring them back, get out
- 1:25:26of here. Yeah. The other one is Milwaukee, Like Tommy Fan being
- 1:25:30a Milwaukee Brewer almost feels predestined. Yeah, yeah, I could. I
- 1:25:32can see that Berni Brewer they would appreciate. Tommy fans, Yes, I
- 1:25:38absolutely love him. I think the other outfielder that we have with a down
- 1:25:43arrow next to them that's in that same sort of vein as Lane Thomas from
- 1:25:45the Washington Nationals. I think the same sort of situation where he is a
- 1:25:49key cog for the Nationals, gets tons of playing time, doesn't have to
- 1:25:55worry about anybody coming for his job. But I think when he finds himself
- 1:25:59on a contender, could be pushed to a fringe spot in the lineup and
- 1:26:03maybe even be battling for like a fourth outfielder sort of situation. It's not
- 1:26:09like he's got a world beating you approach at the plate in terms of his
- 1:26:15I guess I haven't checked in on him a little bit, so I should
- 1:26:16say. I mean, yeah, he's exactly averages a w RC plus of
- 1:26:20one hundred. He's been a negative in the field, so I think it
- 1:26:25is really a good time for the Nationals to cash in that chip. But
- 1:26:29along with that, because he's been such a good source of stolen bases at
- 1:26:32the twenty five bags this year, Lane Thomas in Washington, they've also just
- 1:26:38kind of let anybody and everybody run because it's kind of like who the hell
- 1:26:42cares, so a situation like out in Anaheim with the Angels in Ron Washington.
- 1:26:47That honestly, like, if you see Lane Thomas end up in a
- 1:26:53situation where he's moving down towards the bomb of the order and he's on just
- 1:26:58a less aggressive team, might just be fully droppable considering he's only hitting two
- 1:27:02forty six. Uh anything you think I'm often in terms of Lane Thomas's profile
- 1:27:08there, No, Yeah, We've like we've talked about Laane Thomas a lot
- 1:27:13on this spot in the past, like he is that kind of uh fringe
- 1:27:15guy that has just always really been good, but nothing behind it supports that
- 1:27:20he should be that good. And I think you're absolutely right. The speed
- 1:27:24that we see with Laane Thomas this here is not Lay Thomas is fast and
- 1:27:27he can run. It's but it's it's because nobody cares. Nobody cares,
- 1:27:31and there's and there's nobody like you're not trying to protect the next bat or
- 1:27:34something like that. You know, Steve Jaybers has already run around the bases
- 1:27:38once before him, so what does it matter? And I do think I
- 1:27:42don't see him being a fourth outfielder somewhere because he's He's got enough pettigrew over
- 1:27:46the last few years that I think somebody's investing in him to bring him in
- 1:27:49to be a guy that's gonna fit. And I think it's gonna be a
- 1:27:55trade off. I think Thomas what he's gonna lose in speed will pick up
- 1:27:58in counting stats and maybe even a little power because he's gonna get some protectional
- 1:28:01lineup, which would be really nice from him. But ultimately, I do
- 1:28:06think that Lane Thomas is not going to get a positive outcome here. He's
- 1:28:11no longer the guy or one of the top guys. He's he's kind of
- 1:28:15plugging a hole for a team that doesn't need to rely on Lane Thomas.
- 1:28:19Yep, I totally agree. Okay, the next guy that we have,
- 1:28:24the next bat is here we go. This might actually be the boldest prediction
- 1:28:29the entire pod. I actually think that the Rockies are gonna sell finally,
- 1:28:33Like I think they're gonna move some players here, and I think like they've
- 1:28:38seen enough of these deadlines go by where they don't do anything and I have
- 1:28:43not gotten any better that it's time to finally move on from some of these
- 1:28:46pieces. With that, I think Elias Diaz is probably the number one piece
- 1:28:51that can go from the Colorado Rockies. He is a free agent after this
- 1:28:57year. He is a solid catcher. You know, he can spell it.
- 1:29:02It reminds me a lot of like when Christian Vasquez moved a couple of
- 1:29:04years ago, where it's like he's a fringe number one catcher, super solid
- 1:29:09number two catcher, experienced backup can like I mean, he's never really been
- 1:29:14in a playoff race, maybe like Pittsburgh in his early years, but like
- 1:29:18just experience with working with lots of pitchers and just has that presence in the
- 1:29:25clubhouse to be able to be thirty three years old and try to provide some
- 1:29:29semblance of just level headedness that he's going And I think immediately when you do
- 1:29:36that, all of his value was tied to being the catcher for the Rockies.
- 1:29:41And so this is kind of a warning that if you are rostering him,
- 1:29:45relying on him anywhere, certainly the catcher pool has dried up across the
- 1:29:50league. But now is your time to maybe make a move for maybe Kyle
- 1:29:55Goshijoka is still hanging out there for you or somebody else who's kind of come
- 1:30:00up and up over the past month to be able to move on from the
- 1:30:02last yas because I wish you would be Drew Romo that walks into that spot,
- 1:30:06and we were trying to predict that the other week. But I'm not
- 1:30:09sure the Rockies are going to go that Bowld. I'm not going to go
- 1:30:12that bold prediction where I think Drew Romo walks into the full time playing spot.
- 1:30:16But are you going to You're going to beat that Drew Romo stan here,
- 1:30:20No, I'm I just the Rockies still. They just can't do They
- 1:30:24can't promote anybody with anything. So but I think I think you're right.
- 1:30:29Diez fits that like great backup catcher scenario here that you want in the playoffs,
- 1:30:36you want on your team. He hits for average, he's you know,
- 1:30:41very just, he's solid all all around the play You know, there's
- 1:30:47not a big problem here with Diz. But he's also probably not a starter
- 1:30:51on twenty eight twenty seven other teams in the in the majors, So I
- 1:30:59think he's most likely gone. If you were roster room in Frobbly the two
- 1:31:01catcher leaguees, probably because he does hit for a decent average, not the
- 1:31:04power or anything that he's been doing. But yeah, I'm with you.
- 1:31:09I think he's on a different team come this time next week. Okay.
- 1:31:13Then the next kind of category grouping we have is and this happens every year.
- 1:31:17This is kind of the classic, like you've been holding this closer on
- 1:31:19a bad team all year and this is where the rubber finally hits the road
- 1:31:24in terms of having to find different uses for these players are just fully moving
- 1:31:30on. So we've got three players in this bucket between Hector Naris, Tanner
- 1:31:34Scott, Mason Miller of the Cubs, Marlins, and Athletics, respectively.
- 1:31:41All of them have been in trade rumors and have all been pretty steady closers
- 1:31:47here this year in terms of fantasy that Tanner, Scott and Narie both kind
- 1:31:54of started off on steady but have really righted the ship of late and have
- 1:31:59turned into fantastic closers over the past month or so. Mason Miller's been lights
- 1:32:03out all year. We saw it in the All Star Game just the other
- 1:32:06week. I think of the three, he's probably the least likely to move.
- 1:32:12But honestly, that doesn't make sense to me. Like this dude throws
- 1:32:15one O four and had a sprain UCL last year that Oakland needs to cash
- 1:32:20in this trade chip while they can, But any of them, let's say,
- 1:32:26I'm also maybe I will also set Miller to the side, because I
- 1:32:29do think that, like whatever situation he ends up in, he's been so
- 1:32:32superlative that he either becomes the closer or is good enough with the ratios in
- 1:32:40a Garrett Crochet situation that he's still rosterable. Do you think I'm off base
- 1:32:45there? No, And going back to your primary point, I just don't
- 1:32:47think they're gonna move them. I think, you know, I saw a
- 1:32:51suggestion from an esteem rider somewhere that the a should move Mason Miller for a
- 1:32:59rotation piece for rotation prospects, and I'm sitting here going the A's think Mason
- 1:33:03Miller is a rotation prospect, and so I don't think that they're going to
- 1:33:09move him. I also think that he is their all star. He is
- 1:33:11actually a draw for that team that's really struggling. I think that they're going
- 1:33:15to keep him around. There's no need to move him. This year,
- 1:33:18you know. Besides, what you're saying is that he may fall apart tomorrow.
- 1:33:24So I wouldn't be surprising he moved. I just don't think he's going
- 1:33:26to. But to your point, even if he does, he still has
- 1:33:29value. Hector Arris, I don't think has any value once he's moved.
- 1:33:34I do not think he's closing anywhere that he would get traded to Tanner Scott
- 1:33:40though, I do think he has an outside shot at closing depending on where
- 1:33:45he goes. And I'm thinking like Baltimore. You know, he goes there
- 1:33:49and you've got the Kimberl Show that you know, I would be shocked that
- 1:33:56they're like, let's move the Kimberl Show to the to fire him duty here.
- 1:34:00So I think you know that he has a shot to depend where he
- 1:34:04goes to kind of write the ship in me Philadelphia as well. So he's
- 1:34:12the one that I'm I'm not gonna say buying. But if somebody is trying
- 1:34:15to dump him, saying, oh, he's you know, trying to trick
- 1:34:19everybody that he's knocked, you know, he's a closer and really been trying
- 1:34:24to pull one over on you because they think he's going to lose the job.
- 1:34:27I might be willing to take that gambled, depending on the cost.
- 1:34:30I might be willing to take that if if it's a keeper league and I'm
- 1:34:32giving up a you know, middling prospect or something like that, Yeah,
- 1:34:36I'll take a gamble on Tanner Scott. Yeah. I was about to slam
- 1:34:41you because you were smirching Craig Kimberl's great name. And then I looked at
- 1:34:45his last two games since I guess one was before the astar break in the
- 1:34:49fourteen Not good, Bob, Like the walks are back and that's not he
- 1:34:58was crazy good for were like two months there that Like, honestly, I
- 1:35:02didn't even look. It's just kay, Craig Kimberl a profile at this point,
- 1:35:05the roller coaster and you just don't know when you're gonna get on or
- 1:35:09off. And I don't think Baltimore wants to be on that roller coaster.
- 1:35:14In the playoffs. Yeah, okay, there was a stretch there where he
- 1:35:17threw twenty one innings like from May tenth to July seventh, allowed one run
- 1:35:25with thirty one strikeouts to five walks. He was crazy. And then yeah,
- 1:35:28the past two, the walks are starting to come back. He's had
- 1:35:31three walks in his past two innings, and that's not what you want to
- 1:35:35see if you're a Craig Kimberl owner. And as the kind of pressure ratchets
- 1:35:40up, and don't forget, how good was Craig kimber in the playoffs last
- 1:35:44year for Philadelphia. Yeah not yes, not good. So I think the
- 1:35:48Orioles are looking ahead here. So apparently my all eyebold predictions are basically the
- 1:35:54Oriels are going to turn the roster at the trade deadline, so the first
- 1:35:58place just float all up. I am here, though, to push back
- 1:36:02a little bit on Hector Naries, just because honestly, I don't know if
- 1:36:06I would have necessarily noticed this too much, except for I was covering him
- 1:36:11last night in my game write ups for rote A Wire, and he has
- 1:36:17been really good recently, Like he had a bad stretch in the middle of
- 1:36:21June, but then he righted the ship. Because he's got a little bit
- 1:36:25like that Craig Kimberle issue too, where when it's going, it looks absolutely
- 1:36:30unhittable, but when it's not going, he's walking the world and just giving
- 1:36:32up Taters since June twenty second, so just you know, over the past
- 1:36:39month he hasn't allowed to run. He's got four saves. It's only eight
- 1:36:44innings of work, but it's been a good hector Naris that like, if
- 1:36:47we'd had this conversation a couple of weeks ago, I don't think I would
- 1:36:50have even had him in here, because I don't think anybody would be interested.
- 1:36:55But relievers are so fickle that like it only takes a small run to
- 1:37:00kind of get back into people's good graces. And even though there's a down
- 1:37:03arrow like this is, I think the one year where I'm waiting maybe a
- 1:37:09little bit on Tanner, Scott and Neri's to cut bait on them until the
- 1:37:14actual trade deadline. Like I'm certainly if somebody comes to me with a trade
- 1:37:17for them, I would be moving them. But like I don't know where
- 1:37:23you would exactly. I guess maybe if you're in a situation where like you
- 1:37:26want to move on to Puck, I could maybe see making that move,
- 1:37:29but Puck might also be already gone in those situations. But there's a lot
- 1:37:34of unsetty closing jobs and contenders right now. You look at Evan Phillips on
- 1:37:40the Dodgers looks awful right now. The Royals have struggled all year with James
- 1:37:45MacArthur of late Paul Seawall has been up and down. In Arizona, You're
- 1:37:49looking at Cincinnati with the Reds. Alexis Diez has just not been it there
- 1:37:57and I think they would be willing to find a studying four. So there
- 1:38:00are situations, I think more so than the past couple of years, where
- 1:38:04there's a potential for closers to walk in. But I would also say that
- 1:38:10those situations I mentioned in terms of Kansas City, La, Cincinnati, Arizona,
- 1:38:15even Baltimore a little bit like you've got to start paying a little bit
- 1:38:17more attention if you hold those closers to also be like, hey, like
- 1:38:21these guys have been running here, but like there's a few pretty good arms
- 1:38:26on the market that could be coming in and buying for these staves as well.
- 1:38:30Yeah, absolutely, I think you make a good point. I still
- 1:38:33I'm not buying theirs. I just it's Craig Kimberle esque. Agree you you
- 1:38:39called that out, and that's just not the kind of guy that I'm buying
- 1:38:42for the outside shot. He has it if maybe it's on the waiver wire,
- 1:38:45and if you're just picking him up for giggles, sure go for it.
- 1:38:50But I have a feeling that he might be more headache than he's worth
- 1:38:57come a month from now. Very true. I think that's very fair.
- 1:39:00I think it's also like interesting that we didn't cover kind of the backup version
- 1:39:04of with aj Puck but with in Chicago, because I tried to before this
- 1:39:10that like there isn't one. I don't know if I want one in that
- 1:39:14in that Cub's bullpen, White Sox bullpen too. I guess both Chicago bullpens.
- 1:39:17I didn't even need to clarify, but like both those bullpens, I
- 1:39:21think those closers on the back end will probably be moving at the deadline.
- 1:39:26I'm not sure if I want any cracks at what's going to be coming in
- 1:39:29behind them. Come on, I know you're John brebia Fan. I know
- 1:39:31you are. I am, but like saw how that worked out last night?
- 1:39:39Oh yeah, all right, Well, I think that was a good
- 1:39:43discussion here for pre deadline, so we can certainly return next week and unravel
- 1:39:48all these takes. See how poor they all were as we do the fallout
- 1:39:54from the deadline analysis on the back end. But let's wrap it up here
- 1:39:58for this week. So brew let everybody know where they can find you on
- 1:40:01socials and read your pieces. Yep, you can buy me over on Twitter
- 1:40:05slash exit Jay Brewer one seven, buy me on the weekends on Sundays over
- 1:40:11at Rasball doing your hitter profiles. Top one hundred hitters for the rest of
- 1:40:14the season, just released a few days ago, Top one hundred hitters for
- 1:40:17the second half. Lots of debate, lots of great, great guys that
- 1:40:23we dig through, except for Bulbushet he's no longer there, but otherwise come
- 1:40:28out check it out. How about you? Where can ever rEFInd you?
- 1:40:30Yeah, you can check me out on that waiver wire piece this weekend at
- 1:40:34ras Ball, and I'll be helping you out, honestly, outlining some of
- 1:40:39these guys that we've talked about getting into the actual fad bids. I'm going
- 1:40:43to be putting on them as well as I'm sure by the time we get
- 1:40:46to Saturday, there'll be plenty of injuries to unwind in new situations, So
- 1:40:51certainly check that out if you need help for pickups down the stretch, and
- 1:40:57then if you want to find me on Twitter or Blue Sky, you can
- 1:41:00do so at in Cool seven. You can find the podcast on Twitter at
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- 1:41:25while, so we should think about maybe doing that here pretty soon, especially
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