What's up, friends that welcome into Leading Off. It's the Welsh and the Joe Alrico. We're in the house today. We're living in a post trade world. We've got the guys that are out there. We're actually seeing all these weird Dylan Carlson in a raised uniform looks super weird. Jack Flare guys are weird in their new uniforms. But we're going to talk about them. We got a whole
bunch of it. We got some bets, and we got a guy who's not a new uniform, but we're going to talk about at the top that has been rocking it. But Leading Off is brought to you by our friends over at Bet three six y five, where you can bet five dollars and get one fifty in bonus bets. Use the promo code leading Off. Just like the show Leading Off. Download the app today. Bet three sixty five, get your bet on bet five dollars, get one fifty. Gambling problem. You can call one eight hundred bets off
or one eight hundred gambler. Terms and conditions apply, but they don't when I'm here hanging with the Joe Rico. Joe, what's that buddy?
Always great to be on with you. Man.
This is our little Thursday routine which is gonna get broken up again soon. But it's been nice talking to you over these last couple of weeks. It's always great when we get to do a show together.
Yeah, well, we're gonna get to be doing more, everybody. It's August. You know what that means. It's August time. Well, we're gonna get We're gonna be trading in a Joe for a Joe. We've got a little bit above action. But let's kick it right in and one of Joe's favorite things. If he was here, you know exactly what he would be hitting. Yes, right there, talking about Jackson Holiday, Jackson Holiday yesterday, a Rico, we're talking about it, we're breaking Hey gets called up. Piece of pa is asking
you know, what do you think? Do you think he's gonna be a dude? And I do feel good. I'm gonna hold to my laurels. I'm gonna, as I said, like, I think he's a contact hitter. I think he's gonna kind of find his rhythm back up there, and sure enough hits a grand slam, hits his first career homer, Grand slam style almost hits another homer by the way over on the pull side having a ridiculous debut. So
this is attached to another very important situation. Jordan Westburg fractured his hand, huge blow, having a really great season two seventy eighteen homers fifty eight RBIs this does one of two things solidifies Jackson Holiday for the rest of the year, like mah and or brings up Kobe Mayo. It could be Kobe Mayo time. If they're gonna lose Jordan Westburg, they got some stuff that they're gonna kind of finagle with. But let's start with the Jackson Holiday side.
Jackson Holiday comes out big off of that horrific, horrific pro debut. Are you trusting Jackson Holiday rest of season after seeing it's only one game? But are you gonna trust Jackson Holiday as like a must own and must start player.
It's amazing how one game can really change everything. I got like thirty Jackson Holiday questions yesterday. If you went over four, nobody would have cared. And we shouldn't really get too swayed one way or the other. But I've become a pretty strong believer that guys need to struggle a bit when they first come up. Maybe not initially, but they will have to go through some bumps and bruises.
He did that with that fifty percent strikeout. Right now, I think, you know, the wheels are up and he's going to be a really solid asset rest of season. Kind of in the same way that Wyatt Langford struggled, and he's picked things up over the last couple of months. I know he hasn't been like setting the world on fire recently, but he's picked things up. Holiday's kind of the same way I would trust him. If you're seeing him out there on any waiver wires, I'd be picking
him up. He's sixty four percent rostered on Yahoo. There's still room for you guys to still get him on your roster's dual eligibility.
There's a lot to like here.
I uh, when I'm looking at the depth chart here, like they still have west Bergen. They're gonna have to make the move for it. And what may end up happening is you've got ramon Urius. You know, they've got a couple pieces that are floating out there that they may throw in there. Jackson Holiday currently slated as their second baseman. They could move him over to third, but it really does feel like this is a Kobe Mayo situation, and Kobe Mayo comes up, he is an absolute must
pick up. So let me ask you this. Let's just say he does come up, and let's say Jackson Holiday does hold down this second base job. They're both out there, who do you prioritize Jackson Holiday or Kobe Mayo.
I'd go Holiday because, like I said, he's already had that initial struggle, and I also don't really trust the way the Oriols are going to use their prospects the way that they've showed us over the last year plus. Holiday is I think a little bit of a different story, being like the number one overall prospect. But Kowser Westburg, here'stad. They come up, they sit on the bench half the time, So I kind of need to see how they're going
to use him before I'd really want to take that stab. Specifically, in shallow leagues, like in fifteen teamers, you kind of need to just take the chance on them and hope for the best. But in shallow leagues, they just haven't really given us a lot of reason to trust these young guys coming up playing twice a week. They haven't really been that valuable, so I'm a little more pessimistic for the initial call up.
Yeah, and I've said a lot like the path is not linear, you know, with a lot of these prospects, like there is time. I'm not sure. I'm like, I welcome big struggles, but I also don't think struggles are the be all end all with with prospects, because it's like you want to see how they bounce back and learn from it, especially guys like really really good contact based players. That's why I have a really good trust in Jackson Holiday. Yes, the same thing may happen with Mayo.
There's some strikeout stuff out there. Big power probably wouldn't hit at the top of the lineup no matter what. I kind of do think this might be a Jackson Holiday play for the rest of the season. But if Mayo comes up, you should pick him up. I want to point something out to Eddie. Eddie, are you new here? Eddie's picking on my hair because it's flowing high. Of course it's flowing high. If I get to flow it high, she's banging.
Now.
I will tell you I have been attempting a little bit more to bring it down and swoop it over. But today was a big old poof day. So Eddie, you're new here with your lols laughing at it. You're not going to affect me there, buddy, because this hair with all the bald heads. No, we're going to take the big flow. Don't you shame me, Eddie. So Jordan Westburg out, Jackson Holiday going Logan more news stuff. Logan Web was dominant, complete game, shutout, six strikeouts and a
one zero victory over the Age. Yesterday he allowed just one walk. On the inverse of it, Framber Valdez was okay. I thought, I really thought this was going to be like one of the starts of the day. Surrendered six hits, four and runs in six innings. And Wednesday as the Pirates as the Astros beat the Pirates, but barely, just barely in the right at the end of the game. I had Astros on a money line bet that I thought was just done. But Framber gave up a couple,
just bad meat balls. He's just been so inconsistent rest of season. Framber Valdez, your Logan Web easily Logan Web for me.
Valdez, like, like you said, the inconsistency is the lack of strikeouts. Like, I know he's not been a massive, massive strikeo guy, but he's down at just league average twenty two percent this year. I think it's pretty easily Logan Web for me.
Yeah, I think it is Logan Web as well. I'm pretty down on Framberveldez, like I just haven't just the inconsistencies. It just I'm not about that. I mean, Logan Web's has his stuff as well. Clayton Kershaw, speaking of inconsistencies, gave up six hits, seven runs, three earned over three and two thirds on Wednesday, losing to the Padres. Padres are going to be a problem. Any lack of trust in Clayton Kershaw moving forward after that start.
I do want to give him a little bit of time coming off his shoulder surgery. At the same time, two whiffs is not really what I want to see at all. But I saw people yesterday like Dodgers fan saying up, it's over. He's nothing, but you know, just a relic of the past and he's here to sell tickets or something. I think he's still quite a bit better than that. He was very good in his first
start back. It's Clayton Kershaw, and I think we have to use different measuring points for these generational type of players. Even though the velocity's down, he's not the same guy. He hasn't really been that same guy for the last couple of seasons, and he's still been great. So I think he's earned the benefit of the doubt here. If people are cutting him today, I'd pretty happily go pick him up.
Yeah, I mean, like in like a ten team league, I don't know. I think he's he's a best a streamer. In a twelve team league, you're probably holding on. I'm probably giving him a little bit more leeway than some other guys. So like maybe I'm paying attention to who he's starting, and I might put him on the bench if it's you know, a team like the Padres or something like that. But the team context is important. I
don't think. I don't think this is the must drop kind of like you're alluding to what some people are saying, like it just it's dependent. It's dependent what's available out there. You know, if you're dealing with just kind of garbage streamers, I'm not super interested in it. You're gonna have these kind of ebbs and flows but you know what we do have to pay attention to as well, is as
these Dodger pitchers get healthy quote air quotes here. If they actually get healthy and then that rotation becomes something where there's actually depth, then there could be stuff that end up happening with Kershaw. But it's a it's a bad blip. We'll pay attention to it. Matt Shaw, I want to ur Matt Olsen saw Matt Shaw, prospect person Cubs. I'm thinking about Matt Olsen pair of solo homers yesterday on Wednesday as the Braves beat the Brewers. I want
to talk about Olsen here for a second. He's up to seventeen homers to twenty six average. It's been relatively abysmal season, as everybody knows, especially anybody that made those like early on bets. I'm curious where you are on shot. Everything is down kind of across the board. His expected batting average is a little bit better than it currently is, but it's not that much better. Hard hit numbers are down,
strikeouts or way up. But he seems to be kind of getting back into that groove from a home run perspective. I think that's four homers in the last like five or six games. Are you a buye that Matt Olsen is going to have a complete comeback on the back half of these two months?
He's bad in a buck seventy two in July. I don't think I'm really a strong buyer unless you're really getting a huge discount, and there's a chance that you are. At this point seventeen homers, two twenty six batting average, I think people were expecting probably double the amount of home runs with like a two to seventy average at
this point. So maybe you can get him for essentially nothing, But if somebody wants eighty ninety cents on the dollar, I don't think he's earned it, especially because the team is just not good around him either. It's not like Olsen has just been the guy struggling. There's obviously Noah Kunya,
there's been no Albis now. You know, it's kind of just been the Marcelo Zuna show offensively there and it's not enough to sustain everybody in that lineup, and Olsen has struggled, like last year, one hundred and twenty seven runs, one hundred and thirty nine Ribbies. He's not going to crack a hundred of either probably looking at fewer than thirty home runs. I don't see a lot here to really buy in. I think we kind of maybe we're a little bit mistaken in buying in off of the
career year last year. I think I think it was a mistake obviously hindsight's twenty twenty. But I'm pretty down on Olsen at this point.
Yeah, I think he might actually be a decent buy if no one is really bought in, But I'm not buying him at like, hey, Olsen is going to return to last year's run and the homers are completely changing. I think there's still like some weird lineup protection stuff. He's still just struggling in Jenner twenty percent, strikeout rates really bad, his barrels are really really bad so far
this year, and he's not hitting fastballs. He hit three sixteen against fastballs last year thirty right now, So I think this is like a this is like a eighty cents on the dollar type of thing. And I'm talking probably about like not original cost of Olsen and eighty percent down, but like take it a couple notches down and then by eighty cents on that. If someone's trying to get stolen bases. If they're chasing some stolen bases or whatnot, I would look in that territory. We had
some new debuts Jack Flaherty. He's gonna make his first start with the team on Saturday and wearing zero, number zero. Grown. I'm older, things don't bother me as much, while some things bother me still more than ever, Joe, There's always been something about numbers with me. I've gotten over I actually back in the day when Taywan Walker got traded to the Diamondbacks and he wore number ninety nine, I was tweeting at him, and he was tweeting back with
me about like, why are you wearing ninety nine? I kind of got over that. I'm not over zero. I don't like zero. And the word was, flerty is going to wear number zero, which that also is not a number? Is that an Is that? I mean, it doesn't. I don't know. It's just not a baseball number. And on top of anything, but also number zero is kind of redundant a little bit in my brain. But does anything like that bother you? Or is that just me? Does
the number thing bother you? See guy wear like sixty four a baseball player, and you're like, don't do that.
I saw the zero thing and I thought it was a little bit strange. I just don't feel like there's a great connotation with the number zero. Like I think of Russell Westbrook in his later years. I think of like, I mean, Gilbert Arenas, all right, good, good early career, But like, I don't have great memories with the numbers zero, And I just think it's like, why are you why do you want to be zero?
I don't know.
Whatever they want to do. Sure it doesn't bother me so so much. I'm not gonna be buying the jersey. I'll tell you that for free. But I don't think it's.
A big deal.
What I really don't like is that my Alcy Young future on Flarty is now dead.
That's what I really don't like.
Oh yeah, bye bye bye bye. Definitely that yeah, and no all, I mean, are you kidding me? Okay? You know what? This is so funny if con case, if you think I think that, I was on Sleeper on the bus yesterday with Paul Sport and Justin Mason and I went off on the same thing. I went off on that exact subject. Also really stupid. So like maybe I have some like boomery type of like ooh whatever, the number thing, but like the facial hair thing is
the dumbest thing of all time. I mean, I think it's hilarious seeing Jazz succeed like he is right now too, And like Yankees fans are lark should he be wearing a color belt or whatever? Like, no, it's a stupid Yankees. The Yanks are so stupid with that thing. And I just get worked up about number zero. So I'm back. I'm actually gonna go back to disliking Jack Flaherty and not believing anything now that he's number zero. So that's how I treat fantasy sometimes. Also, Martine Perez is making
his padre's debut on Saturday against the Rockies. You say Kokuchi is gonna make his first start with the Astros on Friday against the Rays, So are you gonna buy in? There's there's a lot of negative stuff about Kokuchi. Are you a Kakuchi and Houston guy or nay?
I have been really a big fan of Kakuchi. I know that the numbers on the surface are really bad. I think he's been a little bit unlucky from a few different perspectives, Like he's still got a twenty percent strikeout minus walk right, there's like fifteen guys in all of baseball who meet that threshold. He's got like a low three Sierra exit. Those numbers are really good. I do worry about the home run problem with that short Crawford box and left field, that could be something that
is a bit of a problem. But he's got a much better offense behind him now. I think that it's generally a positive move for Kakuchi. Still, the Blue Jays were awful. Kacuchi had like four wins or something this season. That should be something you can project to get better, and I think overall we're going to see him start to regress a little bit more. One other thing is the turf in Toronto, the high babbabs for a lot of Toronto pitchers. You're not going to see that same
exact numbers like three forty three fifty in Toronto. You've seen it with Gosman the last couple of years. That turf leads to some kind of unpredictable things. I don't think we'll see it to the same degree in Houston.
Yeah, I mean, he's he's it in general is like a positive. That was actually the kind of crazy thing about the trades too. The you just want to check
that out. It was Bogman myself. It'spor and Justin Mason breaking down all the trades and trying not to be like a prisoner of the moment, but like it felt like every trade, every other trade, or like eight out of ten trades, like there were net positives in this trade deadline of players moving on, and it's like, oh, this destination is good, like even where you know, like like maybe Elane Thomas like a lane, the right handed ballpark factors in Cleveland they're not like the left. It's
almost opposite. It's like it's like really bad for right handers, really good for left handers. Right now the ballpark factor's gone. So you could maybe even like theory look and like oh that's maybe a negative, and maybe Cleveland has him run a little bit less. But then he's hitting two. You know, he's gonna hit two on that team, and it's like Fetti goes to the Cardinals, Kokuchi goes to the Astros. Every single player there were just net positives
almost across the board. There was a couple players that weren't really great, but they're just really good positives on them moving and what that's going to do with the negative with really some of the like main negatives being like like estock parades with his games specifically being with the Cubs and the poll side that wasn't good, or theoretical platoons like Tommy Tommy fam might just nix all of that and it might not matter at all, but he's probably going in there to be probably more of
that right side platoon, but he might get some more at bats. A lot of those, like veterany outfielders that get traded, end up getting put kind of in a platoon situation. But just so many net positives, Joe, there are so many good ones. Did you have a favorite? Did you have a favorite positive trade like that you thought impacted the value the most.
Flairty's definitely up there, Jazz is definitely up there as well. Like going to such a better hitting environment. The Marlins offense has just been disgustingly bad. Now he gets to hit probably I think they've had him batting fifth but right around Judge and Soto, much better RBI opportun tunity. He's also going to get third base. Eligibility, and on some platforms he might have Jazz next year second third outfield potentially, Like maybe second will be a little bit tricky.
I think it depends on where you're playing.
But that is just a huge boost for his current day and future value. But Jack Flaherty is another guy who's been so brilliant this year.
Like I've been a huge fan of his. Wins have been hard.
To come by in Detroit, you know, in Los Angeles they've been a little bit hard to come by as well. If you look at Tyler Glass now, just the other night, seven strong innings, the bullpen blew the.
Leaf for him in the back end of the Dodgers pen.
Might make that a little bit trickier now to secure wins, But big positive for Flarity, big positive for Jazz. Those are probably the two biggest ones for me.
So interesting too that the two teams in that division that weren't the Dodgers prioritize themselves off of getting relief pitching, while the Dodgers that wasn't really their game plan. Obviously getting the guy like Flarity and utility offensive and defensive players, but nothing on the bullpen side where the Diamondbacks go and get Puck and Floro and then obviously the Padres Trade an entire organization to get two relief pitchers, so
pretty crazy. Hey, we'll do something a little bit different. We haven't done a little bit. Let's answer some questions from the Peanuts and Crackerjacks. Sometimes we try to get to you guys, but I've been marking down some of your questions. So we'll do a little bit of rapid fire seeing what you guys have got for us today. Are m I'm guess Garcia drop Glaber Torres for Jackson Holliday. Yeah, your name, I.
Would do that. Yeah, Glaber's been brutal. I know he's been a bit better recently, but I don't trust him. I don't trust the way that the Yankees I don't know. I don't trust his messaging either, like he's been very negative publicly. I don't I think the Yankees are getting to the point where they're kind of done with him, whether he starts losing playing time, and on top of that, he's just been pretty bad as well. So I'll take holiday. I'll take the upside there pretty much every day.
Yeah, same seas. I'm kind of done with Glaber, right now, I don't think the story of Glaber is done. I don't think that, like you know Joe's catchphrase here, I don't think we're done with Glaber long term. I just don't think he's gonna be a Yankee this sear. I think like next year he's going to get traded off. And we've seen brilliance from him before. We just got to get back to that CASEY said, just got offered
Gilbert from my Yamamoto in a dynasty league. Except I will tell you I think Joe would instantly accept this. I'm a little bit indifferent. I lean Yamamoto in dynasty, so I would rather him. But I will say, if you are in a heavy, heavy competitive side to this and you need those innings, you need those starts right now, they're close enough that maybe you could justify it. But I would say I would rather Yamamoto, like in a vacuum.
What say you?
I think it's really close, so you're definitely more of the dynasty guy between us. I think it's probably really close. Gilbert has great skills, the great ballpark. I think it's probably a coin flip, which I know doesn't really help much. I would probably lean towards Yamamoto, but I think it's essentially even.
Okay, Lisa, this was at the beginning of the chat when people are getting in, So can we have an a dull conversation, how Mark Binto should be a top
ten third baseman going into next season? We could sixteen homers to eighty six batting average, a beautiful, beautiful red levant page of expected from wOBA to slugging to batting average, forty five percent hard hit rate, an elite seventeen percent barrel rate, which he has maintained and grown through the year, which I think is so key, especially if you're a good hard hit guy, and then you can barrel the ball those are That is just the beginning mixture of
something amazing, and then you can start sprinkling in the other pieces of hitter, the hitter soup that's going to be made. And for him, it's just a lot of the great stuff. It's like a double digit degree launch angle, which is really solid, great max EV numbers as well, and wildly, this is one of the weirdest things is right now. I guess it's just flipped. He's been This is still weird. He is seeing way more breaking balls
we don't usually see rookies. Our young players have a mix where they're seeing more breaking balls than fastballs early on. It's usually like a if you're using the savant designations of like breaking fastball off speed, you'll see like a fifty six fifty four to fifty six percent fastball, then breaking and then off speed. He is seeing more breaking, So there's a book out on him, and he's hitting sub two hundred against, but he's absolutely murdering everything else.
So I think there's a great recipe in there for a huge dynasty buy and he might be. I'd have to look at my ranks. I was just playing around with him, but they're arrested this season. I actually think he does. He's gonna vie for the top twelve starting third basement. If he finishes out this year, how he has it probably will be unanimous top ten third baseman. What do you think?
Yeah, I don't really buy that he's going to be a two eighty six hitter. I think he's probably more in like the two fifty two to sixty range, but he's probably got thirty home run bat in that lineup, assuming you know, we still have Pete Alonzo next year.
And I mean there's no massive changes.
He could be a close to one hundred RBI guy and he's still like, forget about next year.
This season, he's only on sixty percent of rosters.
People haven't really bought in so much first base, third base, eligibia, unware, espa who.
Which I mean.
I know it's not perfect, but I still see, like, if I look every day, part of my own podcast is looking at like the top ads and drops. Jackson Holiday was added eleven thou times today, so it's not like people are just not playing anymore. Yeah, I don't understand why a guy like Viento's doing what he's doing. Dual eligibility on a hot team is still out there in almost half of league's I.
Got a great question, I'm so excited. People can see it on my face if he say, like, whenever I get like a really good question I'm excited about, I'm gonna start smiling, And all I want to do is ask the question rest of season, Mark Viento's or Matt Olsen.
Can you imagine asking that in March and getting left out of the room.
Can you imagine this like the vitriol that you would get across the board, Mark Vientos or Matt Olsen. Also, I want to see the chat. I want to see you guys talk about Matt Olsen or Mark Vento's rest of season.
I think i'd still have to go Olsen, but man, it's really close. I'd have to think. I have to really think about it. Like I could see the argument for Viento's if you're in need a third base. Third base has been pretty bad and Viento's has been better. So it's not like it would be crazy to take him. We've only got seven eight weeks left. There's not a lot of time for Olsen to turn it around, so I don't think it would be crazy to say Viento's. But I would still have to default to Olsen here.
He had fifty four, he was the number two overall player last season.
That's not in the outcomes for Viento's.
Olsen could go as the number one player next month, and while it would be surprising he's done it before, Vento's still hasn't reached those heights just yet.
Yeah, and everybody like JP Olsen, there's all the Olsen's in there, but I feel like it's close. I mean, I would also take Olsen by the way, but like I think that's the level and that's the plane that Venta's is getting into. So that's fun. Yeah, and then we'll do quick burns on these last two d What to do with Sean Sean Murphy twelve team head to head points.
One hold or if it's a two catcher league, then I'd hold on. If it's a one catcher league, then you can you can churn and burn there. There's probably a better option, or at least the serviceable option there that you can stream in week to week. It's been a bad year for him, but two catcher leagues, you don't really have a choice but to hold on.
LEAs me is see while the out of the job. I'll tell you this, Tory Lavello has been such a staunch pain in the ass about this the entire year. Every time someone asks him, he dismisses it. Everybody in the locker room wants Seawald, Everyone wants this and that, and it's like do they does everybody still want him one hundred percent? When he's blowing games left and right. I don't think he will be out, So you're safe if you still hold him. But I do think that
they may explore some other options inside. They had Ryan Ryan Thompson come in for one of those. I think Ginkle is one of those guys. I feel like this question is directed at AJ Puck. No, I do not think AJ Puck is going to get saves early on. I think they will go with Ginkle or Ryan Thompson, and I do think there's a chance that they move between those guys. I think now it's the time where maybe he stops holding on. But he is so pro
Paul Paul Seawald. Would you wouldn't believe it? It's really incredible and he stinks right now, three up and three down. We got da da da da da da da. Oh No, I missed the just for fun of rookie lookies. I don't want to just get past this good stuff. Brenton Doyle in the Just for Fun one for four solo Homer And by the way, remember when he got pulled on the trade deadline and everyone was like, oh my god, is it going to get traded. He's been ridiculous so far.
Eleven Homers with a three thirty three slash in July, one of the most unheralded seasons so far. And like Eric said, this is interesting Robert or Doyle long term, I am going to say Robert, but it is a way close. Like I think I have been the most disrespectful to Brenton Doyle this year of any single player. I just have not given him his due, like I think we all have that. Sometimes we have a guy I don't know, Jeff, you can think of the guy that you just didn't give him his proper due all
season long. I pretty confident mind was Brenton Doyle.
Rono Blanco. For me, I've just been calling on his downfall the whole year.
Now he's kind of struggling a little bit, but like every week I was writing him as a cell, cell cell, and every week it was seven innings, two hits, six strikeouts, and I was like Jesus every time out, Now to crumble a little bit. But yeah, I got the mansions were flooded whenever I'd mentioned Renal Blanco because I missed badly on that one. No no problem admitting I missed badly.
Yeah, and that happens. We all have those in the rookie Lookie Jackson Scherio two for five with a runs scored on Wednesday as a Brewers loss, but he has been good. Drew Thorpe, he got throttled six runs over five innings and losing to the Royals. I just didn't see him getting wax like that. And Max Meyer is going to be starting today against the Braves. So Max
Meyer back in business. Be good to see him. Maybe not the best matchup though on the three up and three down the actual three up and three down now. Pablo Lopez on the three up, two runs, seven strikeouts over six innings as they beat the Mets. Been a good bye in the second half, not like solely, but
he's been pretty good. Freddie Perulta bounced back, struck out seven, allowed two runs over six in the no decision against the Braves, and Zach Gallon allowed one run and six strikeouts over six innings as the Diamondbacks continue their winning ways and beat the Nationals. On the down, Chris Sanchez lit up six runs over five and two thirds and a lost to the Yankees. Nicolodolo dude eight runs, eleven hits.
The Nickolodolo thing has not worked out? Is that like as fun as it's been this year, Nicolodolo is a bit of a problem and is I think he's at best streamable right now, where he seemed like a lock to keep going. I'm just I'm I mean, this is a tough matchup and everything like that, but I don't think I'm trustworthy on Nickolodola rest a season.
Are you.
I think the talent's a lot better than what we've seen recently, but it's just so hard to trust Cincinnati pitchers in shallow for mats that ballpark, and no, to his credit, the home run problem is not really such a home run problem. But I think i'd agree if you're in a really shallow league, he's probably more streamable. But he's the type of guy I know as soon as I drop him, we're gonna fire off three gems in a row because the skills are still there.
But it's been it's been pretty rough.
Yeah, I love I mean, I love his sweeper and like someone just said, like get him in a new place, love to see him get moved. I just don't think the Reds want to, By the way, at least that almost needed a puppet. I think I clicked on something and my computer was like wanh wa wah, So Joe, just letting you know. In the future, you may need to get like a Welsh ready, you know, and just have like poofy hair and just be like, hey, frindoze like however, you just make fun of me, Like, just
get ready to make fun of me. On the injury front, Garrett Cole reported no issues throwing on Wednesday. Likely to start against the Blue Jays this weekend, getting a little spell there. Mookie Bett's been clear to start some batting practice. We'd like to get him in games immediately. Walker Buehler make another rehab assignment in TRIPAA on Thursday, so that could line up to him starting early next week, which
would just really be good for everybody. Luis and Grifo was removed from Wednesday nights game against the Rockies in the eighth inning due to a wrist injury, and I think it already might be like il stent. Joe Musgrove is scheduled to make his first rehab Minor League start on Sunday, so maybe mid ish August, late ish August will end up seeing him. That would be great for the Padres. Starling Marte is going to be starting up
a rehab assignment next week. X rays on Brandon Neimo's foot came back negative and Justin Verlander faced live hitters at Mini Made Park on Tuesday, hopefully getting him back here in the very near future as well. Friends, that is going to take us. Joe, do you want to do this with me? You want to do this part with me?
Of course?
All right, so you're gonna play the me role. So friends, it's all of your favorite.
Yes, it is the Thursday Best Bets of the Day, that's right, brought to you by bet three six five with joey Oh, Joe Arico and the Welsh best Bets brought to you by Bet three six y five. Use that promo code of course, leading off five bucks for one.
Fifty do it today. If I can speak, the betty market horrible yesterday I actually went and I'm gonna be placing a little bit one of my top bets here is a betting pros prop cheat sheet play that I really like. So I'm going to lean on that a little bit right now. But Joe, what do you got for the day for the best bets of the day.
I've got three bets, of course, and we're going to target Trevor Rodgers in his debut. I don't think Rodgers is very good. I don't think I'm in the minority on that opinion. He's been pretty awful, and you're getting over two and a half runs at plus money. I don't see Trevor Rodgers coming out of this one allowing fewer than to earned runs against a very good offense in Cleveland. So is this one was a pretty easy one.
I'm kind of surprised there was plus money, Like the books respecting Rogers in any way, was a little bit of surprise. So that one for me is the first one cater Montero for the Tigers. I'm taking under three and a half strikeouts. He's facing a Kansas City team that doesn't strike out eighteen percent. Strikeout rate is the second best in all of baseball. He's been really struggling
as of late. I don't know that we're gonna see him even get the five innings, but the strikeout rate, even if he does, it's gonna be pretty tricky for him to get the four k's against Kansas City. So you're also getting that one at plus one fifteen. And then we're targeting a total over a Los Angeles and Colorado. You know Feldner and Fulmer here, I just don't see them keeping this game under nine runs total. We're talking about really, especially Ryan Fell, especially both of them. Really
they're both pretty bad. I know Fulmer on the surface as a three seventy seven era, but it's really bad if you start to dig and you look at the underlying numbers for him. So between these two guys, I don't see them and the respective pens keeping this total under nine, all of them at plus money that one's plus one hundred and all of them at bet three six five.
Interesting one about Cainder Montero that is actually one of the top cheat sheet over prop K numbers for the day, so to be very interesting to see. This is a you versus the prop projection cheat sheet for the strikeouts and how the Montero one works out. I couldn't go either side of it. I like where you're going with it, and I think it makes sense to me. This feels like a two strikeout or a six strikeout game. It's
going to go one way or the other. I am like I said, I went over to the prop cheat sheet, which you can do. Go over to bettingpros dot com, download the app and you can check out and they've got all their top plays. It is great because you can filter it and organize it in different ways by top probability, top EV and you can just go to different markets because usually it'll throw out, you know, maybe like here's a run prop and blah blah blah. I like to go in sort by total base and strikeouts.
Those are really the two markets that I kind of hyper focus on. So the total base one Anthony Santander that is a plus money play. He has hit eight of fifteen games, so essentially a fifty over fifty percent marker where he has gone over the total bases. So I am taking Anthony Santante total bases over one and a half today. That is plus money. And I'm going to jump in on a couple nerfees and we're gonna ride them. One of them is a higher a higher
juice number Chicago and Saint Louis. That is Sunny Gray, Ima Naga. It is definitely more juiced up. But we're going to play at the two good starting pitchers. And then you've got Atlanta and Miami on the no run first inning. Max Meyer in there, I think kind of helps this situation. On top of Charlie Morton, that one minus one thirty so two nerfe's and a total base prop. You guys want to check out more, you can go to bettingpros dot com. You can check out all the
other plays that they've got for you and friendos. Those are the best bets of the day for Thursday. Look at that bad transition there, all right, home runs, Let's check out the home run board because I do have a new updated home run board. Ladies and gentlemen, you have a chance to do the funniest thing of all time.
You have a chance because Joe will be here tomorrow, Joe piece of Pia to knock Joe off the board his last day on the show for the season, which single handedly will be the funniest thing that can happen. He is just hanging on the tippy bottom of the board. We need some people to jump up. It's a small slate today, though Walkee does have twenty nine still on the board at seventeen. Elscal's got the lead at thirty seven, a two home run lead over Beatrotz and Silent Dragon
at thirty five. Larry Larry's at four with thirty four. People doing great. Everybody but me is doing really great, So Joe Rico, Whe're you gonna go with your home run call today?
I'm going with Jorge Celaire and his home debut quote unquote debut at Truest Park against Max Meyer, who has struggled with allow on some home runs throughout his career. Really, I mean it's like a one two homer per nine, which isn't crazy, but Solaire really has been better as of late. That power is undeniable, and I think that
he's the guy that I'm gonna go with. I wouldn't mind going with any member of the Braves really the top of that order Ozuna as well, but I'm gonna go with Hojorge Soilaire here making a splash in his return to Atlanta.
Yeah, and I like the leading off thing too. I like him him not you know, no pun intended. Like I said, the name like the leading off of for the Atlanta Braves. I'm gonna go with Anthony Santander. I'm gonna tag with my total base prop. I'm gonna tag him for a homer, maybe get a couple and get back up on the board. Hey, I did want to mention something. Eddie Buzz asks a really good question. Well,
Shore you prospecting today. We've moved off of a lot of our like scheduled, like we did with the trades and the waivers and stuff like that. I will tell you I do want to have a little bit of regimen coming into August. We're getting into the playoffs as far as maybe like pick ups and stream or something we are gonna hit. Not doing prospecting today, but I do think I will tackle it tomorrow. I don't know
if we'll do it every Thursday. Hey, if the people speak, you know, we got to listen, of course, but I want to let things settle a tiny bit. Next Thursday we will come back. I will do a prospecting with
the Welsh. Well it might be a different day. We'll talk about that tomorrow, but we will do another prospecting segment once we've got a little bit of idea of like, all right, you know, we've movet where we're into August, we know what's happening with these teams and not doing a funky thing for a day or two, Cameronaro, stuff like that. So we'll get back and we'll do some prospecting next week, my friends, so we can get you locked in. Joe Rico you're always amazing. You can find
him on Twitter at Joe Urrico ninety nine. Go and check out all his great work. You can find me at is It the Welsh and friends. You can catch me and Piez a Pea on his season ender tomorrow. Not done forever, just the season and we might even get him back a little bit, so make sure you guys are tuned in for that. For Joe Rico, I'm Welsh. Thank you guys as always, have a great day and we will talk to you to end out the week
aust right here on leading off peace. Friends, thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Baseball podcast.
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