Hello, everybody, Welcome into the cycle. I am Ryan Warmley, joined today by Mike Mayor. It is the day before fourth of July, kind of an unofficial ish midway point of the season, and I think if you look at the games played, we're technically a little bit pass it at this point, Mayor, but we wanted to use this holiday and this like pseudo midway point to look ahead to the second half. So on today's episode of Rounding the Bases, which is part one of the cycle, we're
kind of taking a different approach. Instead of our usual run through of different trending topics than maybe a specific debate, we wanted to have some news notes and injuries. We're running through some key questions for the second half of the show. These kind of burning questions type shows is one of our favorite formats to do here at Fantasy Pros. We did one for the whole year prior to opening day. So now we're going to kind of do one of
key questions for the second half here. We've got three each that we're gonna go back and forth and kind of talk through. Here, we are going to jump into some quick news updates at the very top. One in particular, that just happened this morning that we felt it was worth hitting on. But that's what will look like and
just everybody knows. Instead of our usual three parts on the episode this week, because of the holiday and you know, editors and everything, we want to be able to kind of enjoy this friday off for fourth of July, we're just going to do two parts this week instead of three. So instead of that part two, we're going to loop the waiver pickups into part three. We'll have our pitching streamers episode to help everybody get ready for next week.
Throw some waivers, you know, additions at you in that segment, but we're not going to do that part two that we usually do. Does that all sound good, mayor.
That sounds good? It sounds like a lot. While you were talking, I thought to myself, I wish we would have gone back and looked at the preseason burning questions because it would have been fun to kind of look back at those right now at the midway point and see how all those questions looked. But we didn't think about that, and it's.
Too late now, yeah, definitely too late. Absolutely no chance we could just quickly pull up the old outlines and see how this did. I'm going to try and pull it up just to see. I don't know if I'll actually be able to fine or not, but before we do that, if we do end up doing that, the big news update that we did want to hit on
Louis Ortiz being investigated for gambling. Now, this news literally dropped minutes before we started taping this show, so we don't really have any kind of follow up to this news story. But obviously this is something that has been going on in the NBA, like this is you know, there's a history of gambling and baseball. Obviously we talked about Pete Rose earlier when he passed away, but this
is something that has become more prevalent. It feels like since gambling has become more legalized, where you kind of have these issues of athletes, you know, participating. We don't know if this is we're assuming he's being investigated for gambling on baseball. Again, this story is brand new, so
we don't have information yet. And not like you, uh, those Lions players, I think it was last year, maybe two years ago, we're gambling, not on football, but they were gambling in the Alliance facility and then they got suspended. I don't know if this is that type of situation or a baseball situation, but when you saw this news story, mayor what was the first thing that came to your mind.
So the first thing that came to my mind was as someone who was a proponent of sports betting, I was like, Oh, no, this is another kind of knock against sports betting. It's another piece of ammo that you know, opponents of sports betting are going to use to say, this is why we can have legalized sports betting, this
is why we can't have it in the country. I have a pretty different take on this in that I think this kind of thing has been happening for decades and I actually think this is a good reason for, like a good argument for legalized sports gambling, because I think this is how people get caught and there's just
a ton of regulation around this stuff. Now that these sports books have a lot of really advanced like geo targeting and like they track not only like performance pretendencies, and we saw it with the NBA, like you know, there was a lot of weird activity on Terry Rosier's props in a game or two, and all that stuff gets flagged and that's kind of that's how the Lions players got flagged too, Like they were gambling into team facility, which is a no gambling area, and they got they
got caught for it. So I think a lot of this stuff has been happening for a really long time, and that legalizing sports betting is actually leading to more people getting caught, which is you know, an argument for it, because it's you know, you're gonna help keep it out of the game.
I assume you would have no problem with like a lifetime ban on anybody who was gambling on the sport they're playing.
Yeah, I think so, especially you know in these days, it's it's very clear this is like a no go zone, and so if you get caught, I'm you know, you got to go. I was in favor of letting Pete Rose back in after all that.
Time though, prior to his to his passing.
Yeah well yeah, yeah, well, I.
Just mean I think the timing would have been nice if it had happened before he had one hundred comes. Yeah, we talked about that already, we sure did. Yeah. I don't really disagree with anything you said. I think it is like I think anybody who use points to this as a reason that gambling is that legalizing gambling is bad, is missing the big picture. And I think it's a good thing to find stuff like this because I.
Will also say that he is innocent until proven guilty or found guilty. You know, there was an investigation, and we saw that there are a lot of triggers that can cause an investigation for this or call for an investigation like this, and we saw it, you know, just referencing the Terry Rozier situation from a couple of years ago.
They just Sham's just reported the other day that he's at least for now been cleared and that like, you know, there were other people involved in that situation, but at least in terms of his standing, there's nothing pending right now, and so it could just be that, like, he's not involved and it's just you know, there was some suspicious
activity and they want to look into it. So it's also possible that's the case, which is again even more reason to have these legalized books with all the increased regulations that come with them.
Different scenario, but I mean, just think about the reactions when all the first stuff came out with shohe and his interpreter and some of the jokes and some of the not conclusions that were being jumped to, but some of the like possible outcomes that could have played out from that. So it's it's important to let the investigation play out, and like you said, innocent until proven guilty. I did mayor pull up our key questions from before
the season. Do you do you want me to run through them quickly?
Sure? I wasn't sure if you're gonna be able to do it, just because I know on my end, I don't have the episodes labeled other than by the.
Date I see I do label them. So I was able to pull that up relatively easily because I am organized. Question number one, We'll go through these really quickly. Question number one, how does sho Heo Tani follow up his historic twenty twenty four season, especially now that he's pitching again. He's still really so far he's not really pitching, but yeah, he's not really pitching, but he's still really good.
He's still really good. Just I think we thought he'd be pitching sooner than he's like just starting to start pitching right now.
Speaking of historic twenty to twenty four seasons, Paul Skeens has the highest ADP of any pitcher as he enters a year two. Will he justify a first round pick this season so far?
Maybe?
Kind of not. I don't feel like he's I mean, he's been good, but I don't feel like he's been a first round player. Yeah, in terms of I'm not looking to actual VBR right now.
That's P three. In terms of, you know, if you were going to take a picture, he's one of the three you would have had to take it school.
Yeah, but I think I think to be a first round pick, you need to be like better than that. Like just being the third best starting pitcher to me doesn't mean you're a first round pick in the way I approach first rounds at least.
Yeah.
Question three, Any chance we get more two hundred plus innings pitchers this year? Just four of them in twenty twenty four, Logan Gilbert's two hundred and eight and two thirds innings were the smallest number to lead the league in the years. Do we feel like we're on pace for that this year or I mean, obviously we don't have any two hundred any pictures yet, but yet.
We have a couple that could do it. Just looking at the the top pitchers with a ton of Dings. Schooble has one hundred and nine. Skiings himself has one hundred and eleven. I don't know that they're gonna let him get to two hundred, though, depending on what September looks like. Max Freed is one hundred and fourteen. He's a candidate. Garat Crochet is one hundred and fifteen. Maybe more unlikely depending on how things go in Boston. Logan
Web one thirteen. So there's a couple that are within shouting distance who are kind of on pace.
Twenty twenty four was a bit of a down year for top hitting prospects making their debuts. Get in the twenty twenty five rookie class buck that trend.
No, No, they cannot.
Yeah, that's an easy one. Here's the fun one. Question number five, Will we get one last ride from a hopefully healthy Mic Trout? Ooh, that feels like I do no. Question six. Stolen bases are up across the league after recent rules changes, but even still, Ronald Acunya is the only player to hit seventy stolen bases in a season in the last fifteen years. With lots of candidates, this year, Will any player top that mark?
Uh? No, it doesn't look like the league leaders has a Cabierra with thirty O'Neil cruz as twenty eight, peak arm turns twenty six. If they gave Chandler Simpson a full year, I can.
Say if they didn't send Chandler Simpson down, maybe he would have had a shot.
He's got twenty three in like Nalys, a third of the time of everyone else.
Speaking of Akunya, how will the Brave Stars look coming off injury? Will Spencer, Stryder and Acunya reca't reclaim their perchase atop their respective positions or will it take some time to work back from their injuries?
I think mixed? So far Acunya hit the ground running, he home runs his first pitch back. Stryder has been mixed. But we you know you can see it still, you know you can see the potential there.
Just how good will Garrett Crochet be in Boston with the presumed full workload?
Really good, very good unless you ask wells.
Yeah, are any White Sox worth rostering besides the Louise.
Robert not even Louise Robert.
Yeah? Do you want to make the case for uh, I don't know, like Sean Burke or somebody.
I Chase Mydrath it is like fine, he's not like a must roster guy, but he's you know, he's fine. Let me see if there's anyone else that in VBR. Luise Robert is one thirty three and he is the top ranked either, although maybe I don't know. Chase Mydrath is one ninety eight, so I would have to be let me check pictures. Uh no, I mean Chane Smith flashed. There was like a little bit of like a Shane Smith era that we had the.
Picked Shane Smith for me in the two Star pitcher competition one week.
So yeah, well, I mean he was hot. He was hot and then then he was not. That how it goes.
Last last question here from before the season, pick one player in the first round this year who will be outside the top twenty five and twenty twenty six, and pick one player outside the top twenty five who will be a first rounder in twenty twenty six.
Was one of the James would do we predict?
James Wood, I was gonna say, I forget who you picked. I do remember my two picks for this, and I was very correct. About the player outside the top twenty five who will be a first round of next year, because I did pick James Wood, I was very incorrect about the player in the top twenty five who will in the first round, who will be outside in twenty twenty six, because I believe I said, I don't want to pick any of them, but if you had to make me pick, I would pick Aaron Judge.
Yeah, that's a mess. I feel like I might have picked Jared Durant as a potential first round pick, but that's not looking he's having a down year. I don't know who I would have picked to be out of it.
I remember us saying like there we feel really good about these first rounders and also like feel like they're gonna be good next year. So like, I don't think either of us was like, oh, this is the clear first rounder who we don't like. Like I wasn't saying I'm definitely predicting that. For Judge, it was just if I had to pick one, I was trying to paint a case for it, which obviously didn't pan out, but that James would call looks great, and.
So I can't remember, like, not a non Yankee stadium.
Would, I think is a really good U test case for sometimes, Like I think a lot of the conversation not a lot, but some of the conversation around Wood during March was well, you're drafting him at his ceiling, right, like you're projecting this step forward, but he's already going
like just inside the top fifty. I think it's it's proven that if a player is talented enough and you really like them and believe in them, like you don't really know what their ceiling is all the time, Like he clearly his ceiling is a first round player, not just a guy who's inside the top fifty. So not not to say like maybe he's the exception not the rule, but I was not scared off by the high draft capital on James Wood this draft season, and I have really,
you know, reaped those rewards because of it. And I think that's a good lesson that not every young, totally unproven player who there's a lot of helium around is at their ceiling. There is always a chance for a step forward if the players talented enough.
Yeah, for sure, I just pulled up, But not that we have to spend the whole episode looking back, But I just pulled up another random episode of was our preseason superlatives, and the very first one is pretty funny, most likely to succeed Shane McClanahan for you and Brian Reynolds for me.
That definitely was before the injury. I think I think one of those superlatives or like maybe it was our bold prediction. I one of the ones I remember is Chandler Simpson leading the league in song bases, and then I know I remember another one was Devin Williams will get Cy Young votes.
Yeah, that did not happen.
Those were supposed to be bold though, right, Like, there's there was always a good chance they were't going to pan out. All right, let's doeb you into our key questions for the second half, because we are already fourteen minutes into this episode. We just came up with three each, and uh yeah, well just go for I'll go first year, which surprise fantasy MVP will have the better second half?
Pete Crow Armstrong or Cal Raleigh. When you read this question, I'm curious who you kind of settled on after thinking about it, But what was your gut reaction like two seconds in if you had to answer when you first read it, who was the first name that jumped ahead for you.
My honest gut reaction was like, ooh, that's a good question, and I don't know who I'm going to pick. And then my second gut reaction, I don't know how many gut reactions I can have, how many guts I cand half. But my second reaction was maybe I lean Pca just
because of the stolen base floor that he offers. But then my third gut my third reaction was like, well, cal Raleigh is he has a little bit better of a hitter profile, and he also has been stealing some bases oddly enough, and so I lean and he also, if I'm not mistaken, he walks a lot more, and so I lean cal Ray. But I think it's it's really good. Even if you look at their stats year season to date in terms of VBR, like you know, the fantasy value so far Aaron Judge one, Choio Tani two,
Peak a Roamstrong three, cal Rally four. So they're three and four already, even with cal Rawley has thirty three home runs to peak. Roamstrong's twenty one batting average is almost identical cal Raley's on base percent on base percentage is a little bit higher. So it could be a situation where if we're talking points leagues, it's probably cal Rally, but if you're just talking straight Rodo, it's it's a coin flip.
I you might remember that in late April in one of my leagues, which is a roto league, these two guys were traded for each other, and it's a keeper league too, and it was this whole big thing where like at the time people thought it was really lopsided one way, and then they started to think it was lapside of the other way, and now it just looks like, really even it is a two catcher league, so cal Rale even more valuable. It's also a five outfielder league, so PCA.
I remember talking about that. At the time, it wasn't immediately clear. You're like this, this was proposed as a veto, and I was like, I don't even I'm not entirely sure which side is Vito.
Yeah, exactly. My gut reaction was that it's really close, and I didn't know how to pick. My second gut reaction was cal Raley just given the kind of the fact that he's a catcher, it's going to be such an advantage over other players at that position, especially with a lot of the other elite catchers having down years. It just feels like that gap is even wider than we would have guessed for the top catcher. And I've also been kind of expecting a dip from PCA for
most of the year, not a dip into unplayable. I think he's a very good player like this. This is a strong enough first half to be a believer, There's no doubt about that. But I've been expecting regression more from him than I have been from cal and so I gave this slight lean to Roley, but I think it's really really close.
I could see this situation, like I think we talked about this last week week before. It is this kind of phenomenon where even though the All Star break is not that long of a break, you see players who are like running hot, then they take the break and then they're completely different player out of the gate. Like I could see that, like peak Romstrung getting out of the gate slowly just because of his profile. But yeah, I also agree, I've kind of been predicting regression for
a while now. It's you know, he's kind of outliving progression, and so I think he's really good. And again, I think if it was just like twenty one, you know, twenty something home runs and he had like eight or nine stolen bases, I would be more concerned the fact that he already has twenty what is it, twenty six stolen bases? That makes me a little bit more excited, you know, with like the floor that he offers there.
Yeah, let us know in the comments who you think is going to have a better second half Pee Korarmstrong or calra Maybe we can put a poll up on YouTube or something and see what the listeners think, because I think it'd be pretty close. Would be my guess peakro Armstrong or cal Raleigh. So that was my first key question. What was your first one?
My first key question was who's the player most likely to be moved at the trade deadline? Who could see a bump in value in the second half.
When you came up with this question, did somebody kind of jump to the front of your mind.
It's the same name, and it's kind of had like a really bizarre season, and so I don't know if he's necessarily the best answer, but it's the answer that kind of everyone had coming into the season at Sandy l Contra that everyone was just like, all right, last year's contract, coming off a big injury, the Marlins just want to get him healthy, get him up and running, and then trade him at the deadline. And then he
looked awful to start the season. It's kind of in rocky, but he's shown flashes and he has been a lot better of late, and so I do still think he's going to be traded. The other obvious one was Louise Robert, who has also not been very good. And you know, there was even a rumor like earlier in the season that the Dodgers were interested in bring in Louise Robert. I'm not sure what they still are unless you know,
they get him for pennies on the dollar. So those are the two most obvious ones, and then I was just kind of trying to think who else could be moved. You know, there's obviously some relievers that are going to be moved. Jaron Durant hadn't mentioned in trade in trade talks, but I don't really think like he's already like valuable, even though he's kind of having like a down year. I don't think like a trade is kind of have a huge impact on Daron Durant, So I don't think
we would see that. I think it would have to be someone going, you know, like a San Diel Contra, like on a you know, a bad Marlins team although they've been playing better of late, going to like a big contender where he's gonna get run support, or someone in a bad lineup it's going to a better lineup.
I think for me, I mean that there weren't a ton of obvious like this superstar is likely to be on the block types of players. It was a lot more of like these are some pretty good players that in the right situation, you know, could be more valuable. Like I think the Orioles I hope are likely to sell and they have good players like Ryan o'hearan is an all star. Cedric Mullins. I think he's been kind of banked up lately, but when health he had a
really good start to the year. Maybe they moved Felix Felix Bautista and he gets way more save opportunities on a better team. But again, those are all like good players. I don't know if they're like stars who are gonna
like reshape your Fantasy league or anything like that. It doesn't it doesn't feel like there's a lot of those options this year, so it's kind of hard to come up with like a really like high impact what I mean, sticking with the Orioles, Like R Hearn, I mean, O Hearn's really good, but I don't think he's I mean again, he's not gonna be like oh, in a new lineup. I don't think he's gonna all of a sudden take another step forward. I think he's gonna be what he is.
I would have maybe felt differently if they were still not playing him against lefties, which they were doing under Brandon Hyde, but now that Mantlino is playing him against lefties too, more like, I think wherever he goes would
just be pretty similar. If anything, it might hurt if they go back to a team where they do use him in a platoon, you know, sticking with the Orioles, I was gonna say, e Flyn before the last couple of starts where he's been really bad, has largely been very good in Baltimore, and if he goes to you know, a good ballpark and a team that's gonna win more games than the Orioles have this year. He's another guy that I would have been interested in prior to recently.
But yeah, it's I didn't think there's a lot of great choices.
To your point, I just pulled up a list of like trade candidates while you're talking, and like the position players are exactly what we said, like Josh bell Adolice Garcia, Austin Hayes, Danny jans and Brandon Law, Ryan McMahon, Ean Mancatta, Ryan mountain Castle, Cedric Mullins, Ryan O'Hearn, Luis Robert juhannioscaraz Daln Barso, Taylor Ward. Like there's no like league winner going to in new situation.
It's not like when Manny Machado went from the Orioles to La or you know, these these real studs that we've seen in previous years. It doesn't it doesn't feel Maybe we'll get surprised and that'll be fun if we do, but it doesn't feel like this time.
The list of pictures, I won't read them all, but it's a similar level list, Like like Zach Gallen, but Zack Allen isn't pitching.
Well, yeah, we're now giving away a Wan Gonzalez signed Rangers Jersey courtesy of our friends at Christianeauction dot com. And all you have to do to enter is to subscribe to the Fantasy Pros MLB YouTube channel right now, drop a comment below on any video, and that is it. We will be announcing one lucky winner right here on the channel, so make sure to turn on those notifications so you can know when new videos are up and to claim your prize. All right, next key question here,
This one's for me. Which rookie, either already up or still in the minors, is going to become an impact fantasy option in the second half now, mayor you might remember just last week we did kind of a second half look ahead on the rookie class. There were tons of names. I think we read out eighteen different rookie names and that doesn't even hit on everybody. We just had to cap it eventually. So there's a lot of
options here. You could go with some of the bigger names who are already up, like a Roman Anthony, Jack Caglione. You could go with I know, when we were talking about the show beforehand, you threw out the name of Andrew Painter as sort of a stash who's not up in the big leagues. Get when you read a question like this, where does your mind first go? Who is a type of player that you think could become an impact fantasy option in the second half.
Well, the timing of this answer isn't good because he just got lit up by the Red Sox in his last start. But I do think that, like when Chase Burns first came up, my initial thought was like, this guy could be a league winner, you know, if he gets enough innings. He's that good. You saw in a lot of leagues, especially like NFBC leagues, where he kind of came up at the very beginning of the week.
He wasn't available in those leagues, and then you had to wait the full week, and then you know, you saw the Yankee start, and then everyone had to bid their fab on it. He was going for thirty or forty percent of fab and it's because people see that ceiling. Now.
Of course, the timing of this doesn't look great because he had one like pretty good start against the Yankees where he struck out the first five batters that he saw and ended up allowing three runs, and then he just got boat raced against the against the Red Sox, but it does seem like he was probably tipping his chip, tipping his pitches in that start. You know it, it's MLB teams have a little bit of tape on him.
There was even a clip on the broadcast where it looked like Jaron Durant came around and was talking to players, you know, in the dugout and in the on deck circle, like something that he may have seen. So if that's the case, I assume it's going to get corrected and he's going to be that good going forward. For that reason, I think he's won a buy low. And two, I think he might be the answer to this question, even though it's it's odd timing coming off of how he just looked.
Yeah, it's tough to say him given the most recent thing we've seen of him, but I totally get it right. He's been so good for his entire professional career that like, why wouldn't you be willing to look past one really really really really really bad start. I was trying to look at some of the hitters. I mean, I think you can make a case for any of these, like
high level guys. I wonder somebody like Dylan Cruz when he gets back from injury, like has had enough time to adjust where he starts to look more like the elite prospect he was. I mean again, somebody like somebody like Nick Kurtz has already had stretches where it looks like he's kind of figured it out, so he maybe doesn't even really fit the question. I'm like trying. I'm
like looking through a list. You know, Jacobzerowski, if they let him pitch enough, I think he'll be really good in the innings he is pitching.
But Logan Henderson, you can just say the same thing for Logan Henderson is the same team.
Yeah, the pitchers are always tricky for that reason. I think Matt Shaw as somebody who could get you a lot of steels and look better in the second half that he did in the first half. So he's somebody that I would like to, uh, you know consider for this.
How about this one. He's a player we mentioned either last week or week before. I brought him up because he was someone I was very high on coming into the season, and he got to a very slow start to the point where he looked like he was gonna
get sent down, but he didn't. The Astros kept him up and it's Cam Smith, who is someone quiety batting two eighty five now despite in April batting two thirteen, and he he has his average up because in May he batt at three oh seven and in June he had a three oh three and he didn't hit any horme runs in May, but he did come back and hit four in June, And so he might be someone who, especially at a really thin position like third base, He's someone that in a couple of leagues I've I've learned
with dropping him all season and I haven't, and he's someone who could just be really solid at a really thin position in the second half and make a big difference.
I think that's a great call, speaking of players who looked at they were going to get sent down and then did get sent down. When he comes back up, I think Christian Campbell is the guy that it wouldn't surprise me if he does a lot better kind of the second time up up. The other dame I was going to throw out, not as a serious pick, but that I wish I could pick him is Chase Dolander because I went to the Rockies game two nights ago Rocky's astros and as we were walking in. I point
out to my friend. I was like, oh, look, there's two kind of elderly people wearing Chase Dolander jerseys in front of us. I was like, are those his parents? Like? What are the two? You know, kind of older fans both having a Chase Dolander jersey of all things. And as we got up closer to them, we were right behind them in the security line, and the older gentleman was wearing a Master's hat. And my friend that I was with has gone to the Masters before, so he
made a comment. He was like, oh, have you been to the Masters? And the guy goes no, but my grandson went he's actually pitching tonight, and we were like, oh, we do it. So Chased Dolader's grandparents, very very nice couple. It was a shame for them. Dolander I didn't get out of the third ending in that game, so that was a tough start for their boy. But nice was gonna say.
I was wondering where that story was going because I remember that being a not good start.
No, it was not a good start. I did see Cam Smith get a base hit, though, so that's what they think of it. All right, let's go to question number four, What do you got here before?
Which starting pitcher currently flying under the radar will be a top twenty five starting pitcher rest of season?
And your pick?
So when you were going to pick, so, I had a couple of interesting ones. One I've mentioned a few times on the show, and you always roll your eyes. But what if it's Max Scherzer and I'll throw another one?
I metaphorically roll my eyes again.
Another one, Maybe you're more open to Uri Peretz, who is working his way back and has the talent to be a top twenty five starting pitcher in the second half.
Yeah, I'm more open to that one for sure. I wonder how you define under the radar. Are you defining this as just anybody outside the top twenty five or are you saying you want somebody that's pretty low that you think could rut because like somebody like Casey Mice, for example, I'm looking out our rest of season rankings right now to see where these guys are. He's SP
fifty five. I think he'll be better than that rest of season, but he's not really under the radar because everybody knows he's had like kind of this breakout like first really good year of his career, so I don't know that he would like totally qualify.
So it's kind of those things like how do you define a sleeper, Like everyone has their own definition definition of what a sleeper is, and I think you have to be pretty clearly outside of the top twenty five. And then maybe someone who hasn't been talked about, like maybe it's Shane McClanahan because he's coming back and like we've just forgot it.
I was just I was literally just about to say, what about coming back from injury? How about Shane mclan and he just threw a bullpen session on Tuesday. I was just about to use him as an example, So that's funny. Yeah. Yeah, I'm like kind of scrolling through the rest of season rankings right now just to see if there's anybody that I'm forgetting, you know, somebody. One of the rookies that I did really like earlier was Mick Abel, but he's been so bad lately that he
can't pick him. Charlie Morton I talked about as a waiver pickup recently, he's actually been like sneaky, really good the last month and a half.
Shock though it feels like a taking time bomb. But yeah, it's like what happened here, It's like he rediscovered his curveball.
Right, That's exactly what it is. His curveball was not working the first month and a half. He kind of had a reset in the bullpen, and it's been working since he came back. I mean, he said from the beginning that he he felt like he said the stuff, he just it just was not clicking totally. Like he was like, if I felt like I didn't have the stuff, I would retire, because a lot of fans were calling for him to do that because he was so bad to start, but he was like, no, I have this stuff.
It's just not clicking now, and now it is. So I don't know, if you look a little higher, like somebody like Andrew Abbott we've talked about to see legit or not, he's, you know, well outside the top twenty five in rankings. Matthew Liberatore is SB fifty eight in the rest of the seasons rankings. I think he's very good and could get there. So some interesting names there. All right, we have one more key question each mine
kind of sticking on the mound. Are there any non closing relievers with a chance to take over ninth inning duties in the second half and become new elite closers. And there was I mean, there's there's always gonna be a few names for this, like whether be you know, if somebody gets hurt, or you just kind of earned the job because the guy in front of you isn't pitching very well, or because there's a trade at the deadline and all of a sudden a new role opens up.
So there's kind of a lot of different ways that this can go. When you saw this, I can go first of you want, but I wanted to hear what you have as your guy that you think could elevate into that role.
So I wrote down a few notes and what was kind of hanging me up was the the inclusion of the word elite because I wasn't sure, like who can be and a new elite closer? I think a likely trade candidate is a worldest chapman, but he's already a valuable closer and he's already in the closer closer role. And then you start looking at teams like that, like who has a closer that is most likely to trade their closer? And then who's going to step up behind them?
And is you know, is there a potential elite option there? But then again, if that player, if that team is trading their closer, they're probably not that good, and so is that new clos are going to be elite. So you can see how I got. I went down a rabbit hole and got hung up on the word elite. The I kind of struggle with this one.
I mean, I have a pick, if you want me to give it.
Yeah, I have some notes, but none of them like perfectly answer your questions. So why don't you go first?
Okay, So my favorite pick here is Randy Rodriguez in San Francisco because he has been completely filthy this season. Thirty seven to two thirds innings pitch, He's only allowed three earned runs. That's an ERA of zero point seven to two. His whip is zero point seven to seven. He only has eight walks in those thirty seven innings, and he has fifty three strikeouts. He has been very, very good in his second season here, and it's not like there's some elite option already. Like Doval has thirteen
saves this year. His ERA is over three, right, his whip's one point one to three. He has a strikeout and inning. He's also been a little worse lately dove all in some of the like he just blew a save yesterday, so I think there's an opportunity if he blows a couple more saves. And I think Randy Rodriguez has the kind of stuff that makes for an elite fantasy culib if he gets the opportunity. So yeah, Rodriguez, twenty five years old, like I said, just absolutely ridiculous
numbers here early on in the season. So he's my pick.
I'll tell you who. I talked about him really early in the season when Emmanuel Class was having his struggles because the Guardians have two pretty good setup men and it looks like they're going to be sellers. So I think if they decide to move either Aboth both of these players, which I don't know that they necessarily will because they're not very expensive yet, but Hunter Gddis and
Kate Smith are both really good. And Hunter Gaddis is from I think right around where I live, because I met someone a couple months ago who was friends with Hunter Dadis and so that's why he's always top of mind mine for me, now is my neighbor Hunter Gaddis, but he's someone that, you know, if they decided to flip him to a contender, they could probably get a lot of value for. And now that Class A is back to being Class A, it's not clear that Gaddis or Smith are going to have a clear path to
being a closer anytime soon. And so it's just a matter of do the Guardians want to hold on to these affordable arms or do they want to see if
they can really cash in with prospects. And I think if either one of them moved to the Tigers, you know, if they moved to that like any if either one of them get moved to Detroit, they're instantly the best reliever that the Tigers have on a surprisingly good Tigers team, and so they could instantly become like one of the best closing closer values in fantasy.
Randy Rodriguez has given up one earned run since April. Just look at his game log right now. He's so good.
Kate Smith has a two three six ERA and a one point three to one FIP.
Okay, let's go to the last key question here. What do you got for us to wrap things up?
The last key question is which player who had a disappointing first half is most likely to bounce back in the second half.
I feel like this one there is actually a lot of options.
Do you.
Did you feel the same like trying to answer this question that you actually had a bunch of answers or did you struggle with this one?
I didn't struggle with it. I struggled to decide who I want to do include because you know who was the first name I thought of. It's Mike trap I'm sure one of the first names you thought of was Adlie, Adley Richmond, assuming he is coming back healthy.
Adley was one of the first names I thought of, and Gunner Henderson was one of the first names I thought of because while he hasn't been atrocious, he has not been a first round player, but a lot of the underlying stats look still excellent for him. Same with Adli. And although Adley's not as good as Gunners, I don't want to put them in the same bucket. Gunners really does look like he's hitting the ball hard. He's just
not elevating it to get those home runs. But he still is like just hitting the crap out of the ball, and his stack cast data looks great Adley's it's more like his statcast data looks better than his real performance, but it doesn't look as mega elite as gunners.
I think you could also look at this question similar to our second question with likely to move to the deadline, because it could be a player like a Luis Robert who gets traded to a contender and all of a sudden, it's just like re energized and has better lineup protection.
Yeah, I'd be pretty interested in really like any stud that there's not like there's not a reason to think that, oh, because of some injury they're dealing with or something, they're gonna be bad the rest of the year, Even like a Mookie Bets who had some stuff early in the year, like when he was sick and some of the toast stuff like nine home runs, six solen bases, batting average is two forty six. It's just hard to imagine Mooki Bets isn't better than that in the second half, right.
I feel like there's a lot of names on the list in that same vein.
Yeah, Unfortunately, you're naming a bunch of players who are on my team, and when the leagues weren't together, which is like why I'm like near the bottom of the standings. It's like I was actually looking at my rossa this morning because I was talking with Dan about potential trades, and I was like, why am I so bad? It was it was Gunner Henderson. It was Bryce Harper, who's another you know, he's been banged up, but he's another potential answer to this. It was Mookie Bets, and then
my pitching has just imploded. Like you know, even if they weren't like top of the line starters, I thought I was going to get like solid, reliable innings out of these guys. But like Dylan Ceese has not been great, Zach Allen has been awful. And so it's like you can pick any of those names. I hope, I hope they have better second half unless I trade them, then you know, curses to them.
It's hard for me to feel too bad for you in that league. Considering all my injuries. I think I'm sitting on like, well, you.
Were riding high and now you're all fall all the way back to where I am.
Yeah, but not through picking bad players just because they keep getting hurt. So I have I have a good excuse for that.
Well, also in that league, there's which I think more leagues should do. There's a second half penalty for the bottom two teams, you know, because it's like a keeper with salary ramifications. And so I am in second to last, but I've been much better over the last few weeks. And so even though it's a keeper league and you want to you know, trade assets to get better future assets, you also have to think about, hey, I need to feeld a competitive team here and stay out of the
bottom two. And so one of the players that I'm getting interested is Chandler Simpson because it's road a league and you can, you can like jump four or five spots in the stolen based standings just by having Chandler Simpson on your team. And so for me, it's like, do I want to use Chandler Simpson to stay out of the bottom too, or should I see what I can get for him on the trademark?
I think, well, I think you should always see what you can get right on the trade market, but you don't have to accept the offer. But a guy like him in a league like that is really valuable. Any other kind of thoughts just about the second half, anything you're looking forward to and just kind of excited to see you know, maybe we didn't already hit on so far already. I mean, we're going to do a more of a bullet predictions episode for the second half next week,
kind of heading into the All Star break. That'll be of our fun episode for that, So it doesn't have to neces to be a prediction, but it's kind anything you're thinking as we had into the second half.
One thing that I'm really interested to see, just not even just from a fantasy perspective, but also as like a baseball fan is we talked recently about just like how many young players have been called up this season. It feels like more than any ever any other year. And we've also talked about how many of the hitters have struggled, but then you know, all not all, but like a lot of the best hitters, you know, they kind of hit that wall and then they get on
the other side of it. How many of those hitters are we in to see in the second half take that step, like we're going to see a new version of Jack Aglee and Christian Campbell Roman Anthony, you know, like Nick Kurtz is getting hot camp Smith, you know, there are so many young hitters, Like, what if we just get like really good second halfs from like even half of them, it could be a wild and really exciting second half of baseball with a bunch of young stars.
I think that's a great thing to keep an eye out for. We'll go ahead and wrap things up there for rounding the bases are kind of key question episode here at the midway point of the season for mayor. I'm Ryan Warman. Thanks for tuning in to be sure to keep an eye out for part two of this week's cycle, where we'll be talking about some waiver pickups and of course our typical pitching streamers and all that fun stuff. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the
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