Full Transcript for Leading Off: Adley’s Big Return to Camden (Ep. 1383)

blown away because of one oopsie. That was the first start Jacob Mizorowski allowed more than three runs the entire season, three earned runs. So to have that happen to you is not great at all. 00:05:22 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not fun. What I'm going to do, I'm going to try and get this on the schedule for next season, is we're going to do some kind of debate. We'll do like a 2v2, me and you versus Kelly and Welsh or something like that. And we'll break down the pros and cons before people are setting up their leagues for next year. Head-to-head, points, category, roto. And maybe we'll try and do that in the offseason at some point and break it all down for everybody. And, of course, if I get to argue against head-to-head, I'll be there for it. Let's talk Hunter Brown because he's a guy, honestly, Bubba, that– I've been pretty down on this season. The early portion of the year was not kind at all for him, and he has really turned his year around in the second half. Another good start on Thursday against the White Sox. It was six innings of two-run ball. He struck out seven, allowed six hits, and walked a couple batters. And if you're looking at the graphic we have here on YouTube, Hunter Brown's last eight starts, a. 268 ERA, a. 117 whip, 18 walks, which is still maybe a little bit high for 47 innings, but 50 strikeouts. Is he all the way back? I had a bit of a debate yesterday with Mason and Spohr about this. I'm not a huge Hunter Brown fan just based on the lack of the swinging strikes and the whip has been a little bit higher than I'd like it for an ace to be, but he's been damn good recently and he's starting to get me back into being a fan of his, but I'm still not really sure where I come out on Hunter Brown as a whole. What do you make of him at this point? 00:06:40 Speaker 2: It's a very annoying profile is what I'll say because we see a pitcher that has the potential and has flashed ace-like stuff. Like part of this eight games you're talking about was seven shutout with no walks, two hits, and seven strikeouts. I guess at that time, still a pretty good White Sox offense that has fizzled down. Heck, two starts to go against the Mets, six and two-thirds, one run, one walk, 10 Ks. To your point, this is where it's frustrating. The problem with Hunter Brown for me, and I still think he's very good, I know you guys were talking meatball draft, where he went there, much more appealing as an SP2 or 3 situation. Recently, you've had to draft him as an ace. And with him, it's a whip thing for me. That's what's going to crush you because even over this success you've mentioned, as the graphic will show us, it's still 18 walks over the 47, which is not bad. The 117 whip is great. But you put the whole season together, and it's brutal. 46 walks to 93 strikeouts over 87 innings pitch. That is not what you want from your ace. Heavy ground ball guy, so things will fluctuate with getting guys on base. He keeps the ball in the ballpark. There's a lot of good skills with Hunter Brown. And he had the injury this year that took him some time to get back from, so maybe he's back to the original question. But there's still a trepidation, and Nick Pollock has always been washy on him. Eno Saris has been on Team Hunter Brown with me. My other co-host, Ben Tidd, he compares Hunter Brown to Mitch Keller, and we fight about it every offseason. So, because... It's the old adage, if you take the names away and just look at the stats and everything, they're insanely similar at times, which is terrifying. So, yes, I think Brown's very good. And if he's drafted like an SP2 or 3, totally fine. He's not an ace. 00:08:17 Speaker 1: So in the draft, in the early draft, he went in the middle of the seventh round, dead smack in the middle as the SP1 to that team. It sounds like that would make you a little bit too nervous waiting on SPs and then going with Hunter Brown as the SP1. 00:08:29 Speaker 2: Definitely. And could he find a season with the Golden Horseshoe? Absolutely. Like I said, he's shown the skills, but to do it for a full season right now, it's been tricky. So I wouldn't be able to have him as an SP1. 00:08:41 Speaker 1: I think I'm there with you. If you are going to do that, I'd back him up with a couple of arms immediately. And even then, I don't know if I really feel great about it. Now, I think he'll probably be more expensive than the seventh round going into next season if he finishes off this way, which also doesn't really give me that warm and fuzzy feeling based on the concerns we've laid out with Hunter Brown. Let's talk about Jose Soriano. I can't help myself talking about a blue jay. 00:09:03 Speaker 2: It was not a. 00:09:03 Speaker 1: Great start for him, and it's kind of been not a great tenure as a whole as a Blue Jay. I get that it would still just been a few starts, but overall, I haven't been super impressed with Jose Soriano. Yesterday, four and two thirds, six hits, three earned runs, two strikeouts, and three walks. He does tend to walk too many batters, and I wonder at this point, Bubba, when the trade first happened, a lot of people were saying Toronto's going to unlock something with Soriano, and maybe they will in the long run. He's never a guy that I've really loved so much, and if you look at what he's done in his six starts as a Blue Jay, 16% strikeout rate, 9% walk rate. It's a 145 whip, a 436 ERA. I don't really know if he's that much better than those numbers suggest. I know he had a great start to the season, but I'm really not a big Soriano guy, and I'm wondering... Are we being fooled by the big stuff numbers? Is he really all that good at all? Because I don't i don't think he is personally. 00:09:55 Speaker 2: Um jose soriano is a uh conundrum is the way i would discuss jose soriano um when we're looking at soriano we saw him do great things with the angels earlier this year it's been kind of wishy-washy with the um with the jays but this is kind of who he is if

that makes sense the things with soriano it's been so frustrating is you've seen really good skills but It's a heavy ground ball pitcher, but it's like to walk or not to walk. That is the question. That is what happens with Jose Soriano. That's why when we compare Walbert Urena to him, it's Jose's mini-me. It might be better. Maybe he's figuring it out sooner. But when Soriano was successful this year, the walks were down. His strikeouts were up. He was pounding the zone. He's messed with pitch mix changes. The whole looking forward thing, he's going to be a J for a while. We've seen the Js do things to their pitchers and make it work. So I'm not going to give up on Jose Soriano. But it's extremely frustrating, and for the remainder of your season, that's where you can kind of be like, yeah, I'm probably out on Jose Soriano because we're looking at starts. He's at Sacramento next week. No thank you. And then a two-step Detroit versus Texas. Now that's intriguing if you need counting stats. So it's a case-by-case basis right now with Soriano. 00:11:11 Speaker 1: Yeah, that doesn't make me feel all that great. In Sacramento, Detroit, Texas. After that, it'll be versus Cincinnati at home if the schedule sticks. I feel like a lot of people got duped by the early season, and I was kind of one of them for a while there. The first seven starts, he won five of them. He had a 0.84 ERA. He had a 0.94 whip, a 30% strikeout rate. Since the 1st of May, it's 21 starts of a 453 ERA, a 143 whip. He has a single-digit strikeout to walk rate. I hope that Pete Walker can do something here because we have seen him have success with these type of kind of wild guys before. Robbie Ray won a Cy Young under him. Dylan Cease might win a Cy Young this year under him. So it's a similar style of pitcher with big stuff, big velocity, command issues. So we'll see. Right now, the jury's out, but for me, it's not looking super, super great for Mr. Soriano. I would say that he's probably a streamer, if not just somebody you don't really need to worry about rest of season. I want to talk Munataka Murakami, and usually the headlines, I reserve them for people who had a great game yesterday. He has not been having any great games recently. It was 0-4 yesterday. He has 14 for his last 105 games. That's a 133 batting average. He does have five homers during the stretch, but this is kind of what we were worried about coming into the season, that Murakami, when he makes contact, oh yeah, he'll kill the ball all right, but he's hitting 213. He struck out 35% of the time this season, and I wonder what's the real version of Murakami going forward. Is he really just another Joey Gallo who's going to hit 40 homers and hit 200 for you? Is there a potential for him to be better than Gallo? Is he worse? It feels like a reasonable comp to make at this point, but what's the ceiling for him? Is he somebody that we should still be drafting next year thinking, oh yeah, he can live up to those heights we saw earlier in the year and maintain that all season long? I'm kind of skeptical at this point. 00:13:04 Speaker 2: I'm still a fan. I understand this is what you sign up for when you sign up for a player, A, new to the world of Major League Baseball, and B, with the swing and miss that you're getting there. And a couple things I will throw out there is a lot of this correlation, and I saw Ryan and I talked about this on last night's Bubba and the Bloom as we're previewing next week, and Murakami, a lot of this lines up from when he came back from the IL. Because pre-IL, 20 home runs, hit 240, still struck out 33% of the time, things you don't want. Post-IL, it's the 182, it's the 36% K rate. It's all expanded. It's nine home runs. So it's still bad since he came off the I.L. It's been a very, very rough go for Murakami. So there's questions of, did he come back too early? Because he didn't really do a lot of rehabbing, rehab starts, when that took place. So there's a lot of questions to be had in that regard. But it's a big swing on his profile. We see it with prospects that come up from AAA. He's obviously came from overseas, so it's different. But they come up, they hit first. The league adjusts to them. Now you have to adjust back. He hasn't adjusted back at all. And we'll have to see where that takes place. And I think he'll still be good. I think the power is undeniable. But there is going to be a time, like, I think you're hoping for, like, Adam Dunn. Can he hit me 230 and hit me 40-plus home runs? And we could sign up for that. 00:14:26 Speaker 1: If he becomes Adam Dunn, I would totally sign up for that. Adam Dunn was a really underrated hitter, I think, honestly. Like, every year he'd give you 40, 45 homers. It wouldn't come with a great batting average. If that's what Murakami ends up being... I will totally sign up for that. A couple more headlines here. We got both ends of the Cubs and Brewers game to talk about. Great pitching duel here. Two of my favorites, Kevin Gossman going up against Logan Henderson. Gossman's been a little bit shaky as a Cub, but a really good outing here. Seven innings, five hits, one earned run, nine strikeouts, and one walk for him. Logan Henderson on the other side, just been doing Logan Henderson things all year long. Seven innings, three hits, two earned runs, seven strikeouts, and no walks. 00:15:08 Speaker 2: He has a. 00:15:08 Speaker 1: 248 ERA, and Bubba, his whip is at. 79. How remarkable would it be if the Brewers have two pitchers in Mizorowski and Henderson who both finish with a whip below. 8? Like, even just seeing two pitchers with a whip below one is ridiculous. But. 8? It's in the cards, I think, for that to happen. Henderson won't be a qualified pitcher, but he's been just as good as Mizorowski, it feels like, this year almost. 00:15:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, he has been liked out. 00:15:33 Speaker 1: Amazing. 00:15:34 Speaker 2: I drafted him in a big league this year and stashed him

and it's been absolutely glorious every time he takes the mound. Watching him pitch is fun because he's just kind of this stocky dude that it's not like a lot of these new pitchers, there's all these elbows and stuff flying everywhere. He's just like straight to the point. We're just going to go out there and throw. It's kind of old school style. He's awesome. Like you said, to have The Miz and Anderson 1-2 lined up and You go down the line with the Brewers, maybe Gasser figures it out, maybe Drohan figures it out. They have other options. It's really interesting to see how they're building things there. That's what these quote-unquote cheap franchises, that's another podcast for another day, do things. But it's what the Brewers do, and we can't deny it. They put it together, and it's really interesting because last time I was on with you, I know it felt like an eternity ago, we were talking Rookie of the Year and just give it to Sal Stewart, and I agree. That's fine. Logan Henderson has not really been in the conversation. And last I checked, I even just Googled it, and AI can be wrong, but Logan Henderson is still a rookie this year. 00:16:36 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:16:36 Speaker 2: And the fact he's not in the– because I had to double-check before we talked. It says he's maintained his rookie status through the 2026 season. Again, we'll see. I don't know. But if he is, I don't know how he's not– it should be a race between Stewart and Henderson more to me than the other people we have mentioned. Yeah, I'm not even seeing him listed in odds. I haven't seen him on any odds. That's why this could be wrong, and we could– Cut this whole thing. 00:17:00 Speaker 1: Sorry, Seth. 00:17:01 Speaker 2: But I've been thinking about it for a few days. How is Logan Henderson not in these conversations when he's technically a rookie? 00:17:09 Speaker 1: Well, he had 25 innings in the majors last year. It feels like he had more than that, but it was only 25 innings. I believe he would have maintained it, but the fact that he's not listed on the odds is puzzling. And I wonder if anybody in the chat who's maybe a little more into the betting streets than we are could... I'm on an MLB article that came out at the end of August, and they're even talking about it's been a two-horse race between Weatherholt and Sal Stewart, but that you've got to consider guys like Logan Henderson and others. So the betting odds not having an out there is interesting, but he should be firmly in the conversation is what surprises me. He should be, yeah. I wonder if we're maybe missing something, because I think it goes beyond just the innings pitched. I think days spent on the active roster might come into play there, so I'm a little confused by that myself, because he's given you 83 innings of a 2-4-8 ERA. You'd figure. 00:18:05 Speaker 1: Even if he's not going to win, he should at least be listed. He should be up there with McClain and with Stewart and Weatherholt and these guys. Like

T.J. Rumfield, you see listed at like 15,000 to one. You should see Henderson there. 00:18:17 Speaker 2: So he's probably not eligible, and I just butchered the entire show. No, he could be, though. He's a rookie, so I'm confused. 00:18:24 Speaker 1: It looks like he should be eligible, but it's, I've butchered. I don't even know how many shows here, but that's. 00:18:30 Speaker 2: It's been, it's been going through this weird brain of mine for like the last like four or five days wondering why he's getting no love. So yes, if anybody, whether you're watching live or watching after the fact, if you have any more insight on this, please let us know. Cause I'm a, I'm a little bit puzzled by this one myself. Um, the other side of that start kind of covered it up, but Kevin Gosman, I mean, We both have seen this firsthand in San Francisco and Toronto. When Kevin Gosman is working, Kevin Gosman can be one of the best pitchers in baseball. Seven innings, five hits, one run, one walk, and nine strikeouts. He has gone seven innings in three of his first six starts as a Cub. It's something he did just once as a Blue Jay this year. Is he back into the circle of trust? He's done this kind of every other start thing recently, but let's assume you have playoff matchups over the next week or so. Kevin Gosman is scheduled to face the Brewers in Milwaukee, Atlanta at home, and then at Cincinnati. Not the easiest schedule. Are you starting him, Bubba? Weirdly enough, the Cincinnati start's probably the best start out of the bunch. 00:19:28 Speaker 1: Might be. At Great American, though. 00:19:29 Speaker 2: It's still fine. They're so bad. I did a show with Ryan recently. Their offense is just dreadful at the moment. True. It's weird because, Joe, real quick for the listeners, what's the one thing we say about split finger fastballs? 00:19:41 Speaker 1: They're very volatile, very inconsistent. 00:19:44 Speaker 2: So we're seeing it right now with Kevin Gossman because he's he's proven it and you witnessed it for years you have the jersey the double colored jersey that um gossman when he's on he is still one of the best pitchers in all of baseball but when he's off oh my goodness uh things go awry very very quickly so i think to your initial point we're still using kevin gossman going forward But man, if you feel like you're safe already in certain categories and you don't want to risk it, I'm totally cool if you want to sit him because it is a coin flip right now. 00:20:17 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like you said, like Nick Pollock has drilled into my head for years, the splitter giveth and the splitter taketh away on any given night. And you don't really know going in if it's going to be a good splitter or a bad splitter night. And a guy like Gosman really does live and die by it. I mean, the fastball, I think over the years has kind of fluctuated it as well. So Well, we'll see. Those matchups don't give me the warm and fuzzies necessarily. At Milwaukee, the next

one. I think I'm probably doing it, but the repeat outings against the same team can be a little terrifying. Yeah, I still do. 00:20:48 Speaker 2: I pretty much do all three of them because I'm just looking to accumulate stats and hope he finds it. But it's one of those, don't be shocked if it blows up. 00:20:58 Speaker 1: One thing with Kevin Gosman, he changed his bio on Twitter to say Chicago Cubs pitcher, but he still got his profile picture. as a Blue Jay. So we love him here in Toronto. Wishing nothing but the best for Mr. Gosman. One more pitcher here in the headlines, and it's a guy who we haven't really given flowers to, and damn, does he ever deserve it. Michael Waka, another really good outing, another great season for him. It was six innings, six hits, three earned runs, and seven strikeouts. He has a. 336 ERA and a. 110 whip, and Bubba, if I go back over the last five seasons... 332, 322, 335, 386, and 336 are the ERAs. The whips are 112, 116, 119, 122, and 110. He might be the most underrated pitcher in baseball over the last five years. He's been giving you 80th percentile outcomes for five straight years. Doesn't seem like anybody really cares. Next year, people will probably have some, oh, he's 35 now, he's old, whatever. I feel like he's just a guy who's going to do it forever. Of course, he won't, but Every year, Michael Wacca is one of the most consistent waiver wire pickups, and it feels like nobody really ever gives him his due. 00:22:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, when you open Webster's Dictionary and you see consistent, there's a picture of Michael Wacca sitting right there. It's absolutely amazing because the old gripe was, oh, he's great with ratios because he doesn't strike guys out. Well, now he's at least striking out enough. He's been doing that for a couple of years where you can live with it, especially where, to your point, every year someone's got like, oh, he's not that good. There's always something with him. So he's always basically free. in your drafts. And he's going to be again next year. Cause that'll be the first argument here. He's going to be 36. Like it's going to happen. That's going to be the argument, but I've said it for a few years now with Walker. It's always entertaining to me. And I, that's why I've been interested in rostering him, especially in deep leagues is Adam Wainwright leaves and his mini me has taken over the Adam Wainwright. They're almost the same picture now. And Walker started with the Cardinals behind Adam Wainwright. So it's like a mini me situation there. And I'm going to keep playing Michael Walker until the wheels fall off. And who knows what year it is, but man, if Scherzer can keep getting the ball and Verlander keeps getting $ 20 million, like keep getting Michael Walker out there. 00:23:03 Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, you look back over the last five seasons and he is 19th in pitching war. He has more pitching war than Joe Ryan, then Garrett Cole, then Otani, then Pablo Lopez, Verlander. I mean, there's some of these guys are injuries mixed in as well, but His 135 starts over the last five years have been equal in value to what you've gotten from Blake Snell, from Alcantara. He's just been so good and he doesn't really ever get his flowers. And let's hope he doesn't again next year so that he can be on all of my teams. I'll take it if people want to disrespect him. Now he's going to be 35. Eventually the other shoe will drop. But five consecutive great years for Michael Walker. He deserves a bit of a hat tip. Guys, I want to remind you about My Playbook. If you haven't signed up already and synced your leagues, you should be doing it today. You can manage all your lineups, dominate your leagues with My Playbook. It's a suite of powerful tools to help you make better decisions, manage your lineups, and win all of your leagues. You can import your team to get custom fantasy baseball news, rankings, and analysis, and sync your league today at fantasypros.com slash MLB My Playbook, or keep it simple and download the Fantasy Pros app. A couple of deep dives slash fun facts. They could kind of go either way here. Ronald Acuna Jr., Bubba, Feels like we haven't talked about him a lot because it's kind of been a little bit of a washout season from him. But he became the fastest player in MLB history to reach 200 career homers and stolen bases. Just Baseball put up a graphic the other day. Players with 200 homers and 200 steals before their age 29 season. It's a hell of a list. Barry Bonds, A-Rod, Mike Trout, and Ronald Acuna Jr. I. 00:24:38 Speaker 1: I'm getting to the point where it's becoming a huge kind of what if. And if Ronald Acuna stays healthy throughout his 30s, then maybe it won't be a what if. Maybe he'll end up being a Hall of Famer like the talent suggests he could be. But with all the time missed, the last three seasons, 87 games this year, 95 last year, 49 the year prior. He only played 82 games in 2021. He missed a quarter of the season in 2022. Just so much time missed, and yet he's a 33-win player with a 140 WRC +, and then 200 homers and 200 steals. He's in rarefied air here. It is a wild stat, as Van Rod says. What do we make of Acuna at this point? Is he a first-round player still going forward? Is he more of a second-rounder? I think he went early third in the early draft that you guys did. What does the evaluation tell you going forward? Because at this point, I kind of don't even know what to make of him. He could be the number one player in fantasy next year, or he could miss the whole season, and neither one would surprise me. 00:25:31 Speaker 2: Neither one would surprise me. What is surprising, there's no current Hall of Famers on that list you mentioned. Wow, that's a good point. And that's a whole other game, another podcast for another day. There should be at least two on that list, and there will be a third. But yes, it's awesome. We know how good Ronald Lacuna is. That's the frustrating part.

And your point about he could be the best player in fantasy next year or like miss the entire season. None of that would surprise me either. And that's just what we've seen time and time again, because he's got that, you know, he's going to play his butt off mentality. And that's why even when they tell him, Hey, you just had knee surgery. If we take it easy, he doesn't. And like, and you want that in him. You want that, as they say, you want that dog in him, but that's just who he is. And I think he is one of the best players. I think he will be a second round pick because people are at least cautious now because what we've seen in recent years, But if he ends up in the first round, I can't argue it. It's just one of those like someone in your draft is going to probably love him more than I'm going to. And that's just the reality of it. But if he were to slip to me, like I was looking at him as he kept slipping in that draft, like, man, if he somehow comes back to me in the third round, like, my goodness, like, let's go. 00:26:36 Speaker 1: He didn't. 00:26:36 Speaker 2: But it's just where I was at in early round two. It was tough for me at this point in time. 00:26:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, Steve Weimer, he was part of what I coined the all-redemption team from Steve Weimer. He picked up every bargain. He picked up Acuna in the third, Vlade in the fifth, Agram in the sixth, Marte in the seventh, Raleigh in the eighth, George Kirby in the twelfth. This is a team that you don't even need to hit on all of them. Even if three of those guys bust out, you could have four or five first-rounders, and Acuna, like I said, could easily be the number one player. But something along with the injury concerns is that the performance this year it has been the worst season of his career when he's been on the field. He's only hitting 243. That's the lowest of his career. 345 on base rate, which for a lot of players would still be very good, is the lowest of his career, as is the slugging. Actually, technically, he was three points lower in 2022. But essentially, the lowest triple slash of his career, the 112 WRC plus is the lowest of his career. Barrel, hard hit rates, average exit velocity, bat speed, they've all trended in the wrong direction. So... A really tricky eval. I think for me, if he's there, like let's say I have the 12th pick in a draft and I can pair him with somebody on the turn, it'll be tempting. But at the same time, if I don't draft him, I'm not going to shed any tears over it just because of what we've mentioned. There is just so much risk with Acuna that if somebody else takes on that risk, I'm not going to be that mad. The stealing is interesting, too, because he's not stealing bases efficiently. He's stolen 20 of them. He's been caught eight times. We've kind of seen that in the past with him. 2022, he was caught 11 times. 2023, he was caught 14 times. He did steal 73 bags to make up for it. But it's an interesting profile. It's a tricky one, especially with the Braves not being the offensive juggernaut necessarily that I thought they would be over the last few years. Albies is disappointed a little bit, although a better year this year. Austin Riley, disappearing act. So the jury's out. We'll see over the course of the offseason where I end up on him. I think right now for me, probably a second-round pick. The guy that we're going to talk about next is going to be a first-round pick, and I think he fully deserves it, and that's Jackson Shurio. Top five fantasy player over the last month, hitting. 325 with 20 runs, eight homers, 16 ribbies, and five steals in that time. Over the course of his 106 games, Bubba, 21 homers. He's equaled his career high in homers in 100 fewer plate appearances than it took him to do it in 24 and 25. He's closing in on his career high in runs. He's got 15 steals. He's hitting. 285. I think this is the best version of Jackson Churio that we've seen, and I believe you and I mentioned him recently. Man, am I ever excited to draft him next year. Most seasons with 20 homers, 15 steals before the age of 23, Churio, Trout, and A-Rod have all done it three times. Again, great company for him to be in. Is he a locked-in first-rounder for you next year? 00:29:18 Speaker 2: He is for me. I've always been Team Churio. I understand the second-round arguments because he hasn't put the full season together because 21-22, 21-21, right now 21-15. But he hits for average. I think he is really, really good. Just injuries have kind of derailed the breakout season every year. But like you said, he's 22 years old. He's still super young. There's this guy named Julio Rodriguez. who just went 2020 for the fifth straight year, the only player to ever do that in his first five seasons. I think Churio is going to challenge him for that for the rest of his career. He's going to be right up on the rear end following J-Rod around on that one until J-Rod falls off. So love Churio. I think he's awesome and he's on quite the heater right now. 00:29:56 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's in that same vein of Julio, and he's probably like this. I mean, they're in the same generation, but this version of Acuna, the guy who could give you the 40-40 type of explosive MVP season, the guy who debuted at 20 years old, incredibly raw, but incredibly talented. If Churio wins an NL MVP over the next several years, I would not at all be surprised by it. But some interesting graphics today, Mike Trout and A-Rod all over the place. Yep. we'll, we'll see if these guys live up. Cause those are some big expectations, but I don't know if he's going to be a rod necessarily, but cheerio could be trout. He could, he could end up being trout. Let's talk about some three up and three down Brandon young, a guy who, again, I don't think we've talked about enough on the show this year, but he's had a really solid season, six and two thirds against the red Sox allowed three or two runs on four hits with two walks and seven

strikeouts. Brett Bateman, who the Jays acquired for Kevin Gossman is, Stuck him right in the leadoff spot, and I was a little bit skeptical, but he's been really good. He had three hits and a run scored for the Jays yesterday, and then Heriberto Hernandez, another home run. This one did come on the first pitch of the game from Michael Waka. He did, of course, settle down afterwards, but any thoughts on Young, Bateman, or Heriberto here, Bubba? 00:31:05 Speaker 2: Yeah, Young's the boring, his beautiful, deeper league type play. I love Heriberto Hernandez. I've been rolling him for a while. Tons of power. The Marlins love him, too, because he started out as a platoon bat. That's weak side platoon, and He's been locked into that lineup now. And then Bateman has been one of my top fantasy waiver wire people to mention in 15-team leagues because he's leading off first righties and lefties. Like he said, he's hitting over 300. He's stealing bags. He's scoring runs. He's just not going to get any power. But I think if you need someone down the stretch to– like in points leagues, he racks up points every single day. And I think that's something you can look at. 00:31:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean– I thought the Jays were honestly outside of their heads acquiring this guy who'd never played in the majors. And then you put him in the leadoff spot and it's like, what are you guys doing? I, at that point, it really seemed like a white flag of surrender seasons over. And if you go back to the middle of August here, the Jays have the fifth best WRC plus in the league. They're hitting two 73 for the one 14 WRC plus. And part of that is because of Bateman at the top of the order, getting on as much as he is a three 80 on base rate. He's hitting three 30, 14 runs scored in 22 games. He's chipped in some speed. If you are looking for a little bit of speed with some runs mixed in, I think that Brett Bateman, you could do a lot worse. It's almost like a Stephen Kwan type of profile here. He might not hit a home run, but... You're going to get some speed, and you are going to get some batting average. On the downs, Luis Castillo, six earned runs over four innings of work against the Astros. Tanner Bybee, five earned runs and walked five batters over four innings against the Jays. It was his 15th loss of the season. That does lead any pitcher in baseball. And then Rafi Devers, who we were pumping him up on Wednesday. Same thing happened with Pete Alonzo last week. We pumped him up, and then he goes 0 for 4 in the next show. Same thing with Rafi Devers. 0-4 with three strikeouts. Bubba, any thoughts on these guys, specifically Castillo and Bybee? I mean, are we at the point with Castillo where he's going to get drafted at pick 274 and nobody cares about him anymore? Is that where we're at? 00:33:00 Speaker 2: That's where I was at last year. So I think people should jump on that train. The ship has sailed on that one. Maybe he'll throw a few good starts here and there,

but it's pretty much gone. Bybee's frustrating beyond belief because the quote-unquote under-the-hood metrics don't look that bad for Tanner Bybee. He's just putting zero consistency together, and it's very, very tilting. So, yeah, both of them you can probably move on from down the stretch. 00:33:23 Speaker 1: We got a bunch of questions here. Let's get to a couple of them before we keep going. Joe G. 00:33:29 Speaker 2: for this weekend, Stevenson in Cobb. 00:33:32 Speaker 1: I'm not sure what that means. Or Leo Bernhall in Coors. I'm not sure what Cobb means. 00:33:40 Speaker 2: I'm guessing Cincinnati. Cincinnati. 00:33:42 Speaker 1: Probably means great american or something like that i i think it's probably stevenson for me bubba what are you what are you going here. 00:33:48 Speaker 2: I think stevenson's to play but bernal is very intriguing and we'll be talking more about him later in the show. 00:33:54 Speaker 1: Oh okay interesting i didn't read far enough ahead in the show sheets to know that we're gonna be talking about him in the show but i'm looking forward to that um big dance this is an interesting one is judging j-rod enough to get pca in a keeper league i think that's way too much for pca personally. 00:34:08 Speaker 2: That is a lot to get pca like Last year, J-Rod would have been too much for PCA. So I think it's J-Rod and somebody else because, yes, Judge has his injury concerns, but Judge versus PCA could be straight up if you really wanted to. 00:34:23 Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not even sure if I would take PCA straight up over Judge. In the Keeper League, I probably would. In the Keeper League, I would just because of the age gap. Judge is what people think. He's getting up there, boys and girls. Is he 35 now? 00:34:33 Speaker 2: 34, 35? 34, 35, something like that. Yeah, he's getting up there and getting hurt more often. So if you can jump off, I get it, but I wouldn't give both of those players for him. 00:34:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, I think throwing J-Rod in there is probably a little bit overkill. You should be able to do it for Judge. And if it takes a second piece, try lower than J-Rod for the second piece. Is Kate Anderson droppable in redraft? I prefer to not drop him in redraft. I'm still a strong believer in the skills. Next start is against Texas at home. After that, at the Angels. After that, it's at Coors. So a little dicey. And then home to the Angels again. Not a bad schedule, Bubba. I'm probably holding them. 00:35:07 Speaker 2: Yeah, just don't start. Texas is actually doing really well versus lefties of late, so I'd kind of avoid that one. You want the Angel start. Coors is a coin flip because Colorado stinks. So Cade's got good matchups here, but the consistency, he's going to have to iron some things out. And I appreciate the bad starts because it'll hopefully drop his price for next year. 00:35:28 Speaker 1: I hope so. Game over. CES, Brooks Lee, Yohandy, or Sanoja? I mean, I think it's Brooks Lee. Brooks Lee has been really consistent, eligible at a couple bad positions recently. CES has been great, but I don't know if I want to start him a lot against righties. Brooksley, you can kind of just start him at any point, and I'm pretty happy with it. But where are you going here? 00:35:45 Speaker 2: I like Brooksley a lot. I'm going to give a shout to Javier Sanoja, though. That's been a guy I've been rolling with for over a month now. He's also eligible all over the diamond. I get second, third, and outfield. He plays all over the place. And since August 1st, Sanoja's hitting. 346 with four home runs and three steals and 18 RBIs. So Javier Sanoja is definitely a guy you can roll with like I actually, it's between Lee and Sanoa, so I'm good either way with that. 00:36:10 Speaker 1: Your guy versus my guy, Cox versus Bateman here. Who are you going with? It's a tricky one. I don't think there's a massive gap here, but Cox does give you a couple homers where Bateman won't. 00:36:19 Speaker 2: If you want power, it's Jonah Cox for those wondering who Cox is. But yes, I'd probably go Jonah Cox. The caveat with the Giants broke this down last night is you have Drew Gilbert, you have Jonah Cox, and you have Turner Hill. And you guys are probably asking, who? I get it. 00:36:36 Speaker 1: Who the hell are these guys? 00:36:38 Speaker 2: Yeah, I get it. But most, like, Gilbert's playing, they're all playing well. And they kind of all split time and play about 75% of the time. Cox is the one I prefer out of the three of them. But just be prepared, he's not going to play every single day, unfortunately. 00:36:52 Speaker 1: Okay, good piece of insight. Yeah, we're at the time of year where it's like reliever or congressman type of game that Mason loves to play. You're getting to that. With the Giants lineup, there was one that he shared a while back. 00:37:03 Speaker 2: It's bad. 00:37:04 Speaker 1: Really I knew I knew three people in the lineup this is like a week ago it's it's getting interesting but it's that time of year and as a Jays fan I can't really you can't throw stones when you live in a glass house as the old saying goes do we like any of these streamers for tonight Drohan at Cincy Debbie Matthews at the White Sox or Eric Fetty versus Minnesota Shane Boz versus Boston none are sparking joy in a 10 team league Zebby's been pretty solid against the White Sox I think that's probably where I would go I like Shane Drohan but Hasn't been great. Betty, no. Boz, eh. Boston's been pretty good. I think it's Zebby. I think it's Zebby here. 00:37:38 Speaker 2: Zebby's the top one on the list. He's been outstanding his last, I think it's four starts now. Been very, very good. Limiting the damage, striking guys out. I will say, Drohan's been better the last, like three of his last four starts have been decent. And Cincinnati versus lefties is one of the worst in baseball. So, that'd be the close second. 00:37:55 Speaker 1: I went through a period where I was writing

a waiver wire article every week and I would highlight Drohan. It looked like he had a great matchup every week and he was getting blown up. So I was like, all right, I'm done writing him up. And as soon as I stopped writing him up, he has some good performances. Thank you for your service. The life of a baseball writer. Look, nobody performed a greater service to the community this year than Torres with Alex Bregman. I will stand by that. One of the greatest services we've ever seen because Bregman has been a god. Torres, this is all in good fun. I love Torres. He benched Bregman for one scoring period. And then Bregman goes nuclear. And sometimes it's those kind of things, right? You go from the third base spot. You demote him to the corner infield spot. Demote him to the utility spot. And then put him on your bench. And then he gets hot. And then it's baseball. I'm a little bit insane if you guys haven't figured that out already. But sometimes those things do kind of work in fantasy baseball. You bench your star. He gets a homer. And things are back rolling there. Anyway, tangent over. Let's go to the big dance. James Wood is back. Which Jake should I drop? 00:38:50 Speaker 2: Oh, man. 00:38:51 Speaker 1: Jake Bowers or Jake McCarthy, they've both been phenomenal. 00:38:54 Speaker 2: Don't do this to me. 00:38:56 Speaker 1: No, I mean, I don't have a great answer for you. 00:39:00 Speaker 2: I would drop McCarthy. And the reason I will say drop McCarthy, and it's tricky. Like, hey, maybe you drop Bowers because here's what you got to look at. Next week, no Coors. The week after, though, it's seven games in Coors. The final week's three more games in Coors. So if you want to ride the McCarthy Coors, you got that going for you. Drake Bowers has been so freaking good. It's tough. They're both like, is there no one else you can drop on your team? I know. 00:39:27 Speaker 1: Just looking at the schedule too. um those course games will come mostly against right-handed pitching as well for mccarthy so i think you're probably holding on to him uh looking at milwaukee's schedule for bowers they're in cincinnati right now and then home to chicago home to cincinnati at pittsburgh at baltimore i I think I'd hold McCarthy there. Dropping Bowers would really hurt. And if there's another possible option there, then I'd love to hear it. But, man, I think he's the cut if there's not a better option in a 10-team league. I hate to say it. I know. 10-team leagues. In a way, they're in a way harder than deeper leagues because you have to make those decisions where in a 15-team league, there's a warm body who's playing. He's likely going in your lineup. And the 10-teamers... Sometimes you got to make those really tough cuts. I got $ 11 in fab left in a 10-team roto. Currently in first. How do I manage my money the last few weeks? Very good question. It really comes down to how your team is constructed. I mean, if you have a lot of bench pitchers and you don't need

to worry about streaming pitchers, then you can probably allocate that money to just small upgrades if there is... you know, a Kobe Mayo sitting on the waiver wire or a Heriberto Hernandez or somebody that you think can upgrade a current spot. I'd probably use it for that. If you are in need of pitching, if your bench is all comprised of hitters, I'd probably use it to stream pitchers. It really is a bit situational dependent, but Bubba $ 11 in fab for the next three weeks. How would you go about managing that? 00:40:55 Speaker 2: I'm assuming it's a weekly fab situation. Um, so It's basically $ 3 to $ 4 a week. That's plenty right now in a 10-team league. There's so many dollar guys you're going to have available in those leagues. I would focus on what stat categories you can gain in and just pepper the dollar plays in that one. Oh, it's daily fab. 00:41:11 Speaker 1: Okay. 00:41:13 Speaker 2: That gets interesting now. So I guess it comes down to where can you gain points in your league and then start targeting matchups either offensively or hitting-wise. And with like three weeks left, basically it's a buck every other day or you can go for the gusto, do it per series. There's a ton of ways to do that in a 10 team league. I'm sorry. I'm probably not giving you the answer you want, but that's, I would look at what categories can you legit gain points in, or at least hold off. You're in first, but can you extend your lead and focus on that? 00:41:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, it is a tricky question, but it's a good question. And I think one of the things I'm going to try and do more next year on the show is, is dive a little bit more into fab. We talk a lot of waivers, but fab has become a lot more popular over the years. And I think it's probably the better way to do free agency. So, We'll try and mix in a lot more of that over the offseason into next year, but very good question. This one is also, Michael Walker, Clay Holmes need of some whip help rest of season. I trust Walker. I think I trust Walker. 00:42:09 Speaker 2: Walker, baby. Walker, Walker, Walker. 00:42:11 Speaker 1: Now, to Holmes' credit, he's been very good, but I just don't trust it as much. I'm just looking forward. If Holmes gave up eight earned runs in the next start, I wouldn't be surprised. If Walker did, I would be pretty surprised by that. One more for now. Cox or Lawrence Butler, who's also kind of turned it around recently. Probably Butler for me. But where are you at here, Bubba? 00:42:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the law dog because he's actually playing pretty much every day. And two of the final three weeks of the season is in Sacramento. So give me the law dog. 00:42:38 Speaker 1: Guys, appreciate the questions. We're going to keep it going. If there are any more, we'll probably get to one or two at the end of the show. But let's talk about some injuries. And, man, this one hurts. Ben Brown, we already pretty much knew was coming, but he was officially shut down for the season

by the Cubs. He was rehabbing last week, experienced renewed symptoms in his neck. He's finishing up the year with a 185 ERA, a. 94 whip over his 68 innings. Zidane Raffaella left early on Wednesday with a quad injury, was held out of the lineup on Thursday. Haven't seen anything this morning. Maybe he'll be back today. Make sure before you set your weekend lineup so you have some clarity on that. Connor Griffin could be activated from the IL as soon as today. So another situation to be aware of before lineups lock later today. Anthony Santander could get into rehab games next week. Still unclear if he'll be able to return this season. So another thing to monitor. And then Joe Musgrove not recovering as quickly as the Padres would like. between his minor league starts, looking like he probably will not return this season. Bubba, any thoughts on any of those injuries? I know I'm kind of throwing it all at you here, but any of these names worth discussing in a little bit more depth for you? 00:43:39 Speaker 2: No, not really. It's a shame to see some of them down. Keep an eye on Zidane Raffaella. He's been really, really good, but that also opens the door for even more Mickey Gasper playing time if Wilson Contreras returns and there's an injury longer term for Raffaella. And then I'm really excited to see what Connor Griffin can do. He's been a big talking point on many shows for many good reasons. of late and i think i've been saying it and i'm going to plant the flag if he stays healthy to me he's the guy that i compare to ellie de la cruz and i will take connor griffin over ellie de la cruz right now so uh if he can stay healthy because i think they both have the speed and i think connor's got 25 to 30 home run power he's still young and tapping into it so that's where i i plant my flag on that one. 00:44:17 Speaker 1: You'd go one to one next year um connor griffin over ellie if. 00:44:23 Speaker 2: Connor is healthy yes i will go connor griffin over ellie de la cruz yes. 00:44:28 Speaker 1: Oh, man. OK, we're at the end of the show here. 00:44:31 Speaker 2: I've said it many times and I'll say it again in the offseason. That's that's my my weird hill to stand on so far. 00:44:38 Speaker 1: You could end up totally being right. I mean, it's a it's a hot take. But at the same time, Connor Griffin is one of the most hyped prospects that I can remember seeing. You're talking about a guy who's I think he's just turned 20. Like he's still there. There is still so much potential for him. The Pirates have been on the up and come over the last couple of years. I wouldn't be surprised by it. I'm not sure if ADP will reflect it, but that just might mean that Bubba gets more Connor Griffin shares than most. He went at the one-two turn of that early draft. 00:45:06 Speaker 2: I was waiting for him to come to me. I took Sal Stewart because Connor Griffin did it. I'm totally fine with that. But, yeah, it worked out. But, like, I was on a show yesterday that

comes out on Monday, and they were comparing Connor Griffin to Bobby Witt Jr. 00:45:18 Speaker 1: So.... 00:45:20 Speaker 2: Do with that what you wish. 00:45:22 Speaker 1: Oh, man. 00:45:24 Speaker 2: They're comparing Bobby Witt's first tenure in the bigs to Conor Griffin's and the prospect hype, so on and so forth. Like, could this be something? 00:45:32 Speaker 1: I can see it. I mean, Bobby Witt in his first year, I think that we've kind of forgotten about it at this point. But Bobby Witt was not seen as a huge batting average asset in his first season. He hit 254. And that was one of the things I remember as a talking point. Like, is he going to be a huge batting average asset? And then a couple of years later, he hits 332, 295 last year, 283. It's an interesting comp. I wonder if he can reach those same heights. And I think he probably can. It's just before a guy's done it before, it's harder to envision it because we've seen Bobby Witt doing this for five years now. But man, we're going to have some spicy discussions in the offseason about Connor Griffin and Bobby Witt and shortstop rankings will be pretty interesting to dive into for next season. Let's take a look at the home run board and see if we have any movement. I think that the lead has been closed a little bit for High Cubby, up by six, I think at the most. It was eight or nine at a certain point of the year. Uh, Jays fan legal B trot, all six behind at 49. It's not over. I thought this competition was over a couple of weeks ago. You get a two, three home run game for one of those guys who was in second place. And, uh, we are, we are right back in the thick of things. Baba, where are you looking today for your home run call? 00:46:41 Speaker 2: Well, we talked about this young individual earlier in the show, 22 year old. Well, some might say, but Jackson Cheerio is on fire. As you mentioned over since, uh, the middle of August,. 357, four homers, four steals, 15 runs. It was outstanding. Goes into Great American Small Park, takes on Rhett Lowder, who has allowed at least one home run over his last six starts. And I guess since he's my guy for the weekend, I'll take a full weekend of Jackson Shurio in Cincinnati against all of the pitching they have to offer there. 00:47:08 Speaker 1: All of the pitching, yeah. I'm going to go with Alec Burleson going into Coors Field for the weekend. He'll face three right-handed pitchers. One of the best deals in draft season, Alec Burleson, already over 100 RBI. He's got over 20 homers. I think we're going to get at least one of him, one from him, I should say, over the weekend in Coors Field. And if you guys are looking to play some home run bets of your own, You can check out our home run model that we have here, bettingpros.com slash homers. It gives you great odds based on probabilities, data-driven matchup to matchup, stadiums, weather conditions. It uses all of the available data to give you the best home run picks on a given day. Esmeralda Valdez is the top option today. My boy, Heriberto Hernandez and Kyle Stowers, both going up against Shota Imanaga, who has been a human pitching machine as of late. So if you guys are looking to make some home run calls, bettingpros.com slash homers. homers and that will lead us into our best bets of the day and for me here i'm taking a look at the cubs in the miami game uh ryan gusto will take on uh oh sorry i actually have the this is tomorrow's cubs game uh we're doing it live so i can't i can't redo that but shodi minaga and jansen junk here are the pitchers on the mound seven and a half was the total that i saw here Seems very low for a guy named Imanaga who has struggled quite a bit as of late, giving up a lot of homers. And Jansen Junk, who I tend to like, but also is a little bit inconsistent. Very low number at 7.5. Yeah, it's a little bit juiced to minus 115, but if you saw 10 bucks lying on the ground, you'd probably pick it up. And that's what it looks like here with the Cubs and Marlins game. Bubba, we talked about this guy a little bit earlier on in the show. Tell us about Leonardo Bernal. 00:48:44 Speaker 2: Yeah, Leo, as we say for short, if you're in the circle of trust here. He's a catcher. Start with that right out the gate. But he also has played first base and DH. He's started at three different positions three different days since getting called up. He has at least one hit in all three games. He even has a home run. He has scored two runs and has four RBIs. We're looking at over three hits, runs, and RBIs against Ryan Feltner in Coors Field. So I love what we're seeing with Leo Bernal. He's hitting in the middle of the order, fifth, which is also a plus if you're looking for those counting stats. He comes in at a whopping plus 125. I'm not going to say go higher, take a four, but you seem to get three and a half. somewhere. But I just wanted to point him out. He is a 278 average, 16 homers, nine steals, a triple A. If you're looking for a catcher two down the stretch, Leo Bernal is one of my favorite targets this weekend in fab. So I wanted to bring that up going forward. I have a prospect friend of Martin Sikulski, who you know as well, Joe. who mentioned to me that Leo Bernal is essentially the Yvonne Herrera offensive skill set with the Jimmy Crooks defense. This is the future catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. 00:49:47 Speaker 1: They have so many catchers. It's like half of their lineup is comprised of catchers at this point. It's kind of funny. But yeah, you guys think Bernal... I mean, I guess Herrera probably isn't long for behind the dish, right? Is that the way that you guys are seeing it too? Like by next year, he's probably... Heading into 2028, he's probably DH only or maybe first base. Is that the way you see it? 00:50:07 Speaker 2: I still think he'll catch enough because I think it'll be kind of how it was already with Pahez and company where they caught like two-thirds of the time, which will give Herrera enough time. I think Herrera, he'll keep it for a while. Eventually, that will disappear, but I'd be shocked if it's already next year. 00:50:26 Speaker 1: Guys, that will do it. That will do it for us here on leading off for the week. Thank you so much for joining us live. If you aren't able to watch us live, then watch back on the YouTube, listen on the podcast feed. We really do appreciate all the support, especially this time of year when a lot of people have gone on to different sports. We will not name those other sports, but you guys still being here in the chat, watching baseball, talking baseball. It warms my heart. So thank you guys very much. If you guys have not done so already, subscribe to the podcast feed. Subscribe to the YouTube page. Like, comment, subscribe. Do all that great stuff. Again, reminder, we will not be here on Monday. It is Labor Day. I hope you guys have a phenomenal weekend. Spend some time with your families. Spend some time on the patio. But we will not be here on Monday. We'll be here next Wednesday, again, for leading off. But as I mentioned, we've got a show coming out tomorrow. with my dear friend Justin Mason going over some of our bold predictions, the good, the bad, and the ugly. But that will do it for us for KC Bubba. I'm Joe Arrico. We will talk to you next time right here on the Fantasy Pros Baseball Podcast. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. 00:51:21 Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball Podcast. 00:51:25 Speaker 1: If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. 00:51:31 Speaker 2: Follow us on X, Instagram, and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash fantasyprosmlb.