Matt and Joe spend the opening hour of the show talking the biggest injuries, some staggering splits among top players, and other intriguing stats around the MLB.
#NFL #NBA #SportsBetting
#SportsGrid is #live 24 hours per day with #sportsbetting content
It’s Smarter to be on SportsGrid
Download our App here: https://bit.ly/46Fmptb
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/sportsgridTV3
Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/sportsgridradio
Where to watch SportsGrid: https://www.sportsgrid.com/where-to-watch
Subscribe to Email Newsletter: https://www.sportsgrid.com/newsletter
The Falcons are actually relieved that he’s kind of not there to create more of a distraction. Look, I mean, I said it the day it happened. It was one of the stupider decisions I’ve ever seen by a professional NFL franchise to sign a quarterback to $180 million contract and then draft his replacement exactly five weeks later. This was a terrible organizational decision by the Falcons. Now they’re going to spin this. And this is what’s annoying about the Falcons and their PR staff. They’re going to spin this as if this is the plan we had all along. This is the plan that when you know Kirk Cousins either got hurt or didn’t play well or got too old, we were going to have Penix come in. And guess what the new plan is. Now we’re going to keep Kirk Cousins as a backup. So if Michael Penix gets hurt we told you so. We were right for keeping him on the roster. We were smart for keeping him here. No this whole thing has been an abject disaster. The early line only on sports grid. The game is on. The stakes are high, but the action isn’t just on the field. Rearranging that ring. Get it inside. Sports grids in game live. Your ultimate second screen experience. 18.5 point lifeline. Every prop, every play, every day. Anything can happen. It’s complete chaos. Ha ha. It’s smarter to be on sports grid. Ripped the Steelers interest in Aaron Rodgers as a joke. Your boy went off about the entire situation and why it’s taken so long to forget him. Terry Bradshaw getting involved. Yeah. Insane. Basically. What, are you bringing him in for one year? All of this drama for one year at this guy, where he is now in his career as he’s washed Farrell coast to coast, only on sports grid. Hey, what’s up everybody. And welcome in. This is FST. It’s fantasy sports today. My name is Matt Striker. His name is Joe Pisapia. And this is the place for those that want to dominate. Whether it be season long DFS straight up wagering, whatever it is we’ve got you covered. And a quick reminder at Sports Grid and at Sports Grid TV. Those are our social media handles. Do yourself a favor. Make sure you’re following along Joey P come on in. So much to discuss. Right now it feels that baseball is in full swing. Runs are up, weather’s getting really hot across much of the country. How we’re going to take advantage of it. We’ll dive into that. I’ve missed you, my man. How you been? I know, happy belated Father’s Day to you, my friend. We missed you last weekend. Hopefully you had the kiddos make you some pancakes when you got up last weekend on Sunday and you had a nice day with all of them. But we are back to baseball. And it’s funny because last week George, Kurt and I were sitting here on the program talking about, man, the Giants could just go out there and get a big time ba, you know, a real like difference maker kind of middle of the order guy. They really make a run here at this thing. And it was a couple hours later the Rafael Devers trade went down and we didn’t get a chance to talk about it. None of us here. So we’re going to start here about the fantasy implications of that. And all of a sudden a smiling Rafael Devers, which is not something I’ve seen so far this year. I didn’t know it existed. In fact, I didn’t know he had teeth. It was sort of uncomfortable at the press conference. He was so happy. I’ll go play anywhere, coach. I’m just a team guy. That’s what I am. I’m Raffy Devers. I’m a good time, Sally. All I want to do is help the team win. I don’t know where that guy was in Boston, but apparently things I guess just went to sour to recover from. So Boston moves on. I think it’s a win for both teams, to be honest, because I think clearly there was a divide in that locker room, clearly the divide with the ownership of the player and maybe the manager with the player too. A lot of questions there, maybe not a lot of answers, but $300 million off the books. Somebody’s taking all that money. And then on top of that, you are freed up that money to go out there and go after a Kyle Tucker or Pete Alonso this summer, excuse me this this winter. And all of a sudden you have a lot. So let’s talk about the breakdown of this deal too, because I know it’s been talked about, but from a fantasy perspective it hasn’t because, well, we weren’t around Rafael Devers will DH most of the time. He will probably be the DH of the Giants long term in dynasty leagues because they’ve got prospects coming through their first base. They’re going to stick there and then you have the other direction Jordan Hicks Kyle Harrison A couple other prospects. Now Kyle Harrison is the main part of this deal. A left handed starting pitcher that you know I like a lot. The Red Sox organization triple A right now are working on him adding a cutter to his arsenal and using his sinker a little bit more. They think that’s the secret sauce to push him over the top, but he’s been terrific at Triple-A this year. He’s been really good with some spot starts for the Giants. So Matt, what’s your take on this Devers deal from a fantasy perspective? I like Harrison again as an acquisition. People say they didn’t get enough. I say well they got all the money off the books. I think that was the main thing that they were looking to do here. Absolutely. And that that’s that’s real world discussion. But let’s keep it in the how can we benefit from it? Because that’s what I love about doing this show. Right? So for me, I like talking about this a week after it’s happened, so to speak, because it allows all the dust to settle. And now it allows us to say, well, how can I take advantage of this? Well, chances are you’re not going to be able to acquire Raffy Devers or anything like that. Yeah, you can add some props, but remember that is not a hitter’s ballpark. So keep in mind Devers strengths. I do believe he’ll still be able to do what he does. And that’s over one and a half total bases. He’s the doubles king when he’s on, especially when he was hitting in Fenway. But Mike Yastrzemski, Helio Ramos, those are people that are actually attainable and are in the sphere of influence of what Devers brings to this team. So you can take advantage if you can try to find a way to acquire or stream or somehow wager upon these players. Now, when it comes to the pitching, Boston’s right here, guys. And if Harrison’s going to work on something new and be able to master it and come up and make it effective, all of a sudden the Red Sox pitching staff is incredibly exciting, and you can really look to start to tinker with a lot of first fives. Once you see who the Red Sox are with these new faces. Joe, two tough lefties, potentially two with Crochet and Harrison. You know, going forward in that rotation. That’s how you beat teams like the Yankees in their own ballpark, right in that short right field porch like that. That’s that’s important. I like the thought process here that’s going on with the Red Sox. Now, the thought process, we turn to the attention of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who threw Shohei Ohtani out on the mound for an inning. And it was the first time, I think, in Dodgers history that the ballpark was full. In the first inning, everybody was there to see. Shohei Ohtani threw his first pitch as a Dodger, and I had mixed emotions about this for a few reasons. Number one, it was a reminder of, wow, this is so crazy, right? You’re watching him hit 98, 99, even 100 on the radar gun going, this guy is not human. Nobody should be able to be this good of a hitter and this good of a pitcher and this kind of arm and do all these things. And then the longer the start went on, I kind of just sat backd I said, is this really worth it? I understand the Dodgers are in a spot this year where the pitching has fallen apart, and they probably need Ohtani more than ever to give them some innings. But they’ve also had the most starting pitchers of any team this year. Take the mound for them. That’s troubling for a team that has designs on the World Series, in my opinion. You’re hoping that glass nails now and some of these other guys can get healthy at some point and get back o the good graces of this rotation. But at the same time, Ohtani as he’s building up steam, Matt. And he is A12 inning pitcher for the next starter to hear another star coming up this week. My question is you’re already taxing a bullpen that’s already taxed and you have designs on October. So this to me has a lot of weird implications where I understand, like he is such a great player that you if he has another arm injury and you take him out of this lineup for that arm injury, you’re crushing your hopes and dreams of this team going forward and winning anything this year. I understand that’s a risk. I understand that’s the investment. I understand that’s the talent of the player. But you’re also, again, that come back to the bullpen, the tax, the taxing of the bullpen right here and the taxing of it, I think is really important and something that’s not being talked about as we’re on uncharted waters here, where he’s trying to ramp up at the big league level instead of making rehab starts because you can’t send your best bat down to Triple-A for two weeks. Well, we don’t get scared. That’s one thing we often talk about here. But the second thing is, if he’s going to knock wood, if he’s going to have some type of setback, whether it be up here or down there, I think the Dodgers thought is they’d rather be against premier bats. And I also think that Ohtani needs to right the ship and the identity of this team so that when they do go into that short series or they do go into the postseason, they’re going to know who they’re throwing. Now, some might say it’s better off that they don’t know who they’re throwing. I disagree with that. So they want to see Ohtani see resume. But I think he’s going to start to surprise people. He’ll be up to five innings before you even realize it. And then that’s going to be it. But I hear your point. But I don’t like to think of it that way because it makes me apprehee in the Dodgers are a big pool. I bet on them quite a bit throughout the week on different, different ways to win. So yeah, the Atlanta Braves certainly are winning again too. They are seven and three. In their last ten games. They had a big sweep of the Mets. They gained three games on them. Now they’re still ten games out of first. But the Braves with Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider looking like the way they used to look. It’s been pretty impressive. The downside is the Chris Sale injury. He’s going to go on the shelf with that rib injury now for a few wes at least. Awful timing considering you know they’ve really started to get hot here. So we’ll have to keep a close eye on that. We’re going to talk more about the Braves later in the show. I want to move on quickly though too, because the young kids, they’re all right. All of a sudden, Nick Kurtz is hitting home runs at a crazy pace. Since he’s returned. He’s got a bunch of them. Jack Gaglione, our boy finally starting to get hot. Two homers in one game on Thursday afternoon, and Nick Kurtz four home runs in his last five games heading into the weekend. So all of a sudden, patience is being rewarded. And Matt, I had this discussion on leading off on Fantasy Bros. MLB this week too, which is reminding everybody that even redraft leagues, these rookies are always building blocks necessary or excuse me, are not building blocks necessarily. These guys are bonuses to your roster. You want to have them as assets because they can become league winners, but they can also drag you down if you make them the building blocks of your roster. And I think the Christian Campbell situation, where he was so bad in May that he got sent down here at the end of June, is a stark reminder of that. And I think there’s many times where people in fantasy baseball or even fantasy just in general, they put too much stock in the young players sometimes as the building blocks, and inevitably it fails. Yeah, no, I agree, especially if you have them in certain positions, places where they’re still learning the game. So 100% right. They are bonuses cherries on top. And we’ll have more of that when we come back, won’t we? We certainly will, my friend. We’re going to talk more about these guys and a whole lot of the injuries when we come back also. But again, remember, you want these guys on your roster as assets because when they get hot like they are right now, you plug them, you play them. And who knows, maybe they stay hot the rest of the season. We come back a look at a returning ace for the Blue Jays. We’ll see thumbs up or thumbs down when we return. Here we go at Oakmont. Let’s start with the course. What do we know about this course? How long is the rough and does course history come into effect for you this week? The US open has always been billed as the most difficult test of golf there is on the planet. And I tell you what, it’s often labeled as the most difficult golf course in the world is Oakmont. Game time decisions only on sports grid. We don’t want you playing here. Can you move positions, do something else? He starts the season like, oh, for 150, it felt like. And finally finds himself in a groove at the plate, hitting 272 what, 15 home runs on the season. Now he’s shipped to San Francisco. What is management going to do? Nobody. Who’s paying you $313.5 million is going to hear anything from you. They’ll figure out a way to get rid of you. And that’s exactly what they did. The early line only on sports grid. Every five days. It’s really exciting when Skenes pitches and it’s terrible watching him pitch, because every time he pitches, they don’t score. Having him hit the lineup probably would actually help. When he pitches. There’s no way to do it because you can’t. But yeah, it’s beyond frustrating. And the numbers would tell you, you know, the books have adjusted. Farrell coast to coast onlyn sports grid. Dialing it back to his old days with Saint Louis and Arizona. Buy or sell Goldie will finish top seven in fantasy first baseman. Now I’m going to say no. I think he’ll fall off. Older player here. He’ll fall. He’ll be top ten but not top seven here. Top ten I would say I buy a top seven. I’m going to say no here. I think he’ll put up decent numbers here. Not as good as he was. He’s I think he’s in the back. Three 4350 all year long. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. Welcome back into FST. It’s fantasy sports today. I’ll keep it together, I promise. We’re having a good time. We hope you are as well. Matt Striker and Joe Pisapia with you here. Of course. Sam y, the sports guy. And Jake behind the glass on the ones and twos. It is truly a motley crew. Joe, let’s get into the injury report, because I think each and every week the season goes on, especially as we go into these hot, hot days knowing who’s hurt and knowing who can replace those people or who are on their way. That’s a good way to get a leg up. All right, let’s talk here. You teased before the break that there’s an ace possibly coming back, and all of a sudden our social media lit up at Sports Grid. At Sports Grid TV, by the way. So please tell us who’s on their way. It’s a man almost as old as Matt Striker himself. It’s Max Scherzer. Boys and girls remember him? He signed with the Blue Jays this offseason. But you haven’t seen him. You know why? Because he’s got a thumb issue. He’s always got some kind of issue. Why? Because he’s old like me and Matt. And you don’t see us pitching in the major leagues anymore because something inevitably hurts every day when we wake up fo reason at all. And here we are with Max Scherzer, who’s been dealing with this thumb issue. Now, he did make a really good start earlier this week. Numbers were really good from it. Strikeouts were up everything you wanted to see, right. And then he says thumb was still sore afterwards. So that doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy. I’m not going to lie. But this is a huge potential addition. Apparently he’s going to be evaluated today, and if all goes well, he will be back in that rotation. But eight strikeouts in four and a third innings on Wednesday. That’s that’s important for Blue Jays rotation that at times has struggled. They are playing 500 baseball over the last ten games, but they are still six games over 500 for the season. They are just three games out of the wild card race. Excuse me, three games out of the eastern race. They are two games out of the wild card. Pardon me. So the Blue Jays are very much in this thing. And I don’t think they’re a team that’s really positioned with prospects to add a whole lot at the break. So adding a piece like Max Scherzer to this rotation, considering where they’ve gotten themselves to at this juncture, is huge. Potentially. The question is how many starts is Max Scherzer good for at this point? Now we’ve already missed a third of the season. So Matt Striker I’ll put that question to you. If you’re a fantasy manager right now, and I set the bar at eight and a half starts, you’re going over or under Max Scherzer rest of season. Well, I’d like to come into the conversation with the previous knowledge of a conversation. Exact same topic. But Jacob deGrom was the question at the time. And so far, so good. Eight is the number here for Scherzer. I think there’s something to this with these pros taking off half a season. I don’t want to put it like that. But yeah, I think he’s fine. I think he’s going to be fine. And Spencer Turnbull ain’t it. And the Jays have an opportunity here. So yeah sure I’ll be optimistic and say there’s an over Joe. All right. Next up the Mets rotation has been too good to be true. And then injuries have struck it hard. Kodai Senga two weeks ago now Tyler the Terrible Tyler McGill goes on the IL with an elbow strain. It’s not good, but the Mets do have depth. Sean Manaea is set to return pretty soon, so that’s a positive. The Mets have been waiting for him for quite some time after signing an extension this offseason, and then apparently they’re going to let Frankie Montas throw a pitch in the major leagues, which I think is about the worst idea I’ve ever heard because he is getting absoly lit up in every single one of his minor league starts. So I don’t know if this is a contractual thing where they got to call him up and give him a start before they can DFA him, but you cannot afford if you’re the Mets right now, to have any more bad pitching performances. I think we all thought at some point maybe this would hit a wall, regress a little bit, and to be, you know, just kind of clear. Peterson’s still been brilliant. Senga has been fantastic. It’s just an injury. McGill started to struggle, but now I guess we understand maybe that injury was the problem for the struggles. Clay Holmes got beat around a little bit, was walking everybody earlier this week against the Braves. But look, the Braves lineup is back and on track. So the Mets are, you know, just three wins in their last ten games. We knew it was going to slow down. The good news is the Mets bats heated up yesterday because they set a record for solo home runs in a game. Juan Soto hit a ball that still hasn’t landed yet. I mean, the guy’s just red hot right now. So the good news is hopefully that offense is turning things around. But Matt, I do not feel good about Montas. I feel really good about Minaya. Minaya is on the waiver wire. I pick him up immediately. He had a terrific season last year. Montas I am staying all the way away from. How about you Joe? And for people that watch the show, I rarely if ever take a lap, but I’m going to take a lap. It’s a victory lap because if only someone said to you, Joe, that the pitching on this met team frightens me and listeners, you are the maven. You’re the author of the fantasy Black Book. It isn’t a challenging thing, but occasionally when I feel something, especially about baseball, it’s usually correct. It’s usually correct. So now the pitching makes you start to bite your nails. Here’s the thing from a wagering standpoint, I’m done with my lap, right? I’m a former smoker, if you know what I mean. All right, here’s the thing. From a wagering standpoint, the Mets are still a good team, and eight times out of ten, you can take them against whomever their opponent is going to be. But if we’re still having this conversation come the beginning of August, it’s going to be a much different talk, because now we start to change the way we wager. We start to look ahead to the postseason. A lot of guys check out a lot of teams check out. But for the Mets, there is still hope. I wouldn’t worry, but I told you that pitching is not what it needed to be to support this team to if Atlanta hadn’t faltered the way they did in April. Much different conversation. What’s next? Tell me if this is a good season. 200 innings 15 and five record a 2.74 ERA, 172 strikeouts in those 200 innings, would you consider that a great pitching season? Yes. Any year. That’s. Yes. It’s the last. It’s the last 34 games of David Peterson. I just don’t think people are paying attention to there’s a left handed ace in this rotation that does not get enough credit. No. And it’s a good thing that the Mets have all these prospects that they can’t play because guess what? They can turn it into a Sandy Alcantara if they want to, or turn it into another pitcher if they want to or feel that they need to at some point. I know there’s been rumblings of Jacob deGrom reuniting with them too. I just don’t know if the Texas Rangers are going to fall right onto the I.L. You know, immediately after. Oh stop it. All right. Speaking of the IL, back to it, because the Houston Astros have some reinforcements on the way, but not for the at least the maybe a month or so, but two huge pieces of this rotation Luis Garcia, Cristian Javier, both working their way back from Tommy. John Javier is a little ahead right now of Garcia, but both of these guys, you could see early August potentially, and that would be huge for this rotation with Eric coming back as well, Hunter Brown and Valdez at the top. All of a sudden the Astros have a ton of pitching. Problem is Yordan Alvarez still without a timetable for his return. And of course, with Scherzer’s return, something had to go bad for the Blue Jays. So Brandon Francis with a right shoulder impingement, he hit the IL. He has been terrible this season, unfortunately, so Scherzer will take his spot assuming this week. Now when we come back, we’re going to take a look at the market because some things have shifted here in the space with two juggernaut big time teams. The question is, is it too little, too late for them to make the playoffs? We’ll tell you right after this. Here we go at Oakmont. Let’s start with the course. What do we know about this course? How long is the rough and does course history come into effect for you this week? The US open has always been billed as the most difficult test of golf there is on the planet. And I’ll tell you what it’s often labeled as the most difficult golf course in the world is Oakmont. Game time decisions only on sports grid. We don’t want you playing here. Can you move positions, do something else? He starts the season like, oh, for 150, it felt like. And finally finds himself in a groove at the plate, hitting 272 what, 15 home runs on the season. Now he’s shipped to San Francisco. What is management going to do. Nobody. Who’s paying you $313.5 million is going to hear anything from you. They’ll figure out a way to get rid of you. And that’s exactly what they did. The early line only on sports grid. Every five days. It’s really exciting when Skenes pitches and it’s terrible watching him pitch, because every time he pitches, they don’t score. Having him hit the lineup probably would actually help. When he pitches. There’s no way to do it because you can’t. But yeah, it’s beyond frustrating. And the numbers would tell you, you know, the books have adjusted. Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. Dialing it back to his old days with Saint Louis and Arizona. Buy or sell Goldie will finish top seven in fantasy first baseman. No, I’m going to say no. I think he’ll fall off. Older player here. He’ll fall. He’ll be top ten, but not top seven here. Top ten I would say I buy a top seven. I’m going to say no here. I think he’ll put up decent numbers here, but not as good as he was. He’s I think he’s at about 340, 350 all year long. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. Hey what’s up everybody. Welcome back into FST Fantasy Sports today. My name is Matt Striker. His name is Joe Pisapia. We are here to make things easy. All right. There’s enough things that are tough. So let’s make things easy. It’s time to take a look at the market watch and see what we can do. Because look Joe I don’t know about you, but pretty much everyone that I know has some type of revolving account, right? Whether it be a streaming service or something. So why not think of wagering as a way to supplement that, to ease that, to wipe that off of your balance sheet. We do that with these market watch segments each and every week. All right. This time it’s we’re looking at two different teams here to make the playoffs. And we find plus money for the yes obviously and big minus money for the no. Let’s start with the Atlanta Braves here to make it. Yes. Plus 194 to not make it -245. So that seems to be I just think they’re too far out. And given the issue with Chris Sale now there’s just too many teams to hurdle, too many good teams, too much ground to make up. But, Joe, is there anything in you that believes that near 2 to 1 is worth it? Well, there are six games out of the wild card. In fact, that move that number has moved to plus 260 since the Chris Sale injury news this weekend. So we had this all set to discuss and say, hey, we got sale, we got Strider, we’ve got Schwellenbach, we’ve got quite a rotation acuna’s jut lacing balls all over the place. So maybe, maybe the Braves do have enough time to kind of race in that. The bullpen has been a huge issue for them too. And plus 260 now it’s even more intriguing to me. It all depends on how long Chris Sale is going to be out. And I have to imagine it’s a while. But you do have the All-Star break, which is a cushion. The good news, bad news scenario is they will play the Mets again starting this week, right? So if they take two of three again for the Mets, they’re going to gain more ground yet again. Then after that, the schedule for the Atlanta Braves is extremely intriguing because they play the Phillies right after. And once again, if you can continue to handle your business right, all of a sudden you are kind of just chipping away at that lead in the East a little bit. You’re also simultaneously chipping away at the wild card lead. The schedule changes dramatically then for them, once they hit the end of June, beginning of July, they play the angels, which I do not think is a good baseball team. The Orioles, which I think we can agree is not a good baseball team. The Athletics were a cellar dweller right now, and then the Cardinals, who are very competitive going up to the break. So the schedule starts to work out in their favor. I’m not saying it’s a lock. The Chris sale being healthy bit makes me want to go bet this 2 to 1. But once he went on the IL, I think I’m a little shaky. I think now I might stay away from it, but I would not be shocked if we were sitting here at the All Star break and all of a sudden Atlanta chopped that wild card deficit from 6 to 3. And if they do, this number is going to get chopped yet again from 260 probably to, I don’t know, plus 125 to make the playoffs. So you have to keep that in mind as well that it’s hard to count out a team that has such a culture of winning built in its DNA every single season. I agree wholeheartedly with that. That statement. Good way to turn it over there. And I will throw out a name though I, Grant Holmes has been really good in certain matchups. So if you’re a sales guy and you’re looking for that spot. All right, now let’s have the same conversation to make the playoffs. Yay or nay. And it’s time. It’s the Boston Red Sox. So the yes is plus 172 I mean let’s have the conversation right there. The no. -215 with the addition of the pitching. And I think how competitive that division is. But when you look at it overall and Joe you’ll you’ll add more to this. Boston is currently in the wild card statistically. So let’s have the conversation from there. What do they have 40 wins I do believe. So yeah this is another one too, where it’s like a team that just can’t seem to get out of their own way, but they’re willing to seem to make the hard decisions. Now, trading Rafael Devers I think was a hard decision. Whatever you think about how it was or right or wrong or whatever at this point, sending Christian Campbell down after giving him an extension and having been so good in April, that’s a tough decision. But they’re trying, I think, to show you that they care, that they want to win. Now they are right there, neck and neck for the wild card. They’re five games out of the East. That’s not insurmountable. They do have the pieces to . If they want to bring in something else here. And they just might. It depends. I think these next few weeks how things go for the Red Sox, especially health wise. But I like the yes on this one for the Red Sox. And the reason being the central is falling apart. The twins rotation has fallen apart. And you look at Pablo Lopez being out, you look at how bad Bailey Ober has been lately. They’re just they just don’t look very good. Royce Lewis on the IL again. He’s never going to be healthy. The Royals have had their struggles right. All these struggles that these teams have had in the central. The Guardians are just a one man show. Still, I think that leaves the door open for them in the wild card. And to make the playoffs, I actually think the Red Sox can do it. And I think there’s something about clearing out the space a little bit and saying, hey, look, this negativity is out right now of this locker room. Now go win. One other note to keep in mind, too, Didier Fuentes made his debut at 20 year old kid here for the Braves. And if he pitches well over his next couple of weeks for them and gives them some quality starts, at least he could be that bridge there with sale on the IL, so you might want to pick him up in your fantasy leagues again. He’s been rushed to the big leagues a little bit, but it’s not the first time a brave has done that and been successful for FST right after this. Here we go at Oakmont. Let’s start with the course. What do we know about this course? How long is the rough and does course history come into effect for you this week? The US open is always been billed as the most difficult test of golf there is on the planet. And I’ll tell you what, it’s often labeled as the most difficult golf course in the world is Oakmont. Game time decisions only on sports grid. We don’t want you playing here. Can you move positions, do something else. He starts the season , oh, for 150, it felt like. And finally finds himself in a groove at the plate, hitting 272 what, 15 home runs on the season. Now he’s shipped to San Francisco. What is management going to do? Nobody. Who’s paying you $313.5 million is going to hear anything from you. They’ll figure out a way to get rid of you. And that’s exactly what they did. The early line only on sports grid. Every five days. It’s really exciting when Skenes pitches and it’s terrible watching him pitch, because every time he pitches, they don’t score. Having him hit the lineup probably would actually help. When he pitches. There’s no way to do it because you can’t. But yeah, it’s beyond frustrating. And the numbers would tell you, you know, the books have adjusted. Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. Dialing it back to his old days with Saint Louis and Arizona. Buy or sell Goldie will finish top seven in fantasy first baseman. No, I’m going to say no. I think he’ll fall off. Older player here. He’ll fall. He’ll be top ten, but not top seven here. Top ten I would say I buy a top seven. I’m going to say no here. I think he’ll put up decent numbers here, but not as good as he was. He’s I think he’s in the back. Three 4350 all year long fantasy sports today only on sports grid. Welcome back to Fantasy Sports Today. Last week we took a look at some of the splits in Major League Baseball. When it came to pitchers and how things were going or maybe not going. Incredible numbers there for Ben Brown, who just can’t seem to pitch in the daylight. He might be a vampire, but he was brilliant. In the evening he did his best work there, and now we have a big enough sample size where some of these splits really make a difference. So whether it comes to setting your fantasy lineup or whether it’s about making some smart wagers, we’re going to do that with some of these splits. And we’re going to start here with Paul Goldschmidt of the New York Yankees. Now, Goldschmidt had a relatively good season here for the New York Yankees, certainly something that you can be happy with in that offseason acquisition. They didn’t get Juan Soto, so they spread the money around to Max freed, Paul Goldschmidt to Cody Bellinger, and so far, so good for the New York Yankees. But one thing has not been good for Paul Goldschmidt so far this year, and it’s been hitting against right handed pitching. So let’s take a look here at the splits for Paul Goldschmidt against lefties this year. You want to bet on Paul Goldschmidt. He’s in for 25 this season a 425 batting average against lefties a 1252 Ops. Now that is fantastic. You love what he’s doing against lefties. The problem is right handed pitchers. Just 258 batting average. What? That is astounding. Drop off there a 647 Ops. You see that Ops nearly cut in half. Now that is problematic here. And why is it more problematic potentially. Well because now with Giancarlo Stanton back you’re kind of squeezing Ben Rice at bats a little bit. So now you’ve got to look at Ben Rice Paul Goldschmidt Bellinger some of these other guys in this lineup. Right. And how things are going to work out here the rest of the season. And the fact that Bellinger so far has just been so dreadful against left handed pitching that you kind of just excuse me against right handed pitching, that the predominant side that that’s really, I think problematic here for Goldschmidt going down the stretch here for the Yankees. So Matt, I think that the Yankees are, again, very happy with their acquisition of Paul Goldschmidt. But when you see these splits and you see how stark they are to me, this is oh, wait, there’s a lefty on the mound, where’s Paul Goldschmidt? Total bases. Where’s his home run prop? What am I looking for? I’m going to drive in a run. Let me bet that RBI at plus money. But when you see right handed pitching and Paul Goldschmidt right now out there, I think you’re looking for unders when it comes to his price. What do you think about these splits when it comes to Goldschmidt so far this year? Oh, we don’t have Matt right now. Okay, let’s go back to our next split here for a second, because I think we’re still trying to get Matt back up and running here. Now this one’s going to be really surprising. Pete Crow-armstrong going into the season was a guy I think we all had pretty lofty expectations for, but they were measured when it came to ADP. We all know there was a downside to Pete Crow-armstrong, and that was the fact that a lot of strikeouts, trouble getting on base, didn’t hit lefties very well. But Paul Goldschmidt was first guy to 2020 this year. And let me tell you that’s pretty impressive. So drafting Paul Goldschmidt in 2025 at his ADP. Guess what? You’ve already won. You have already won in season long roto leagues. He’s given you 2020. He’s given you everything you could possibly imagine. Everything from now on. Counting stat wise, is absolute gravy. Head to head leagues, points, leagues. There’s something I want to dig a little deeper to in, and it’s kind of astounding that Paul Goldschmidt excuse me, that Pete Armstrong has been as good as he has been this year, despite the fact of these splits. Now let’s take a look at the splits for Pee Crow-armstrong this season so far against righties. Absolutely crushing life, hitting 304 against right handed hitters this year, a 958 Ops, right. Incredible year for him against right handed pitching, which is what you’re going to see the most of. But lefties a 1.85 batting average. Don’t adjust your set a 185 batting average, a 6.34 Ops. Which begs the question, is this pace sustainable for Pete Crow-armstrong? Will you see more lefty specialists go in there against him in these big spots? Now, I’ve already told you, if you drafted him trying to trade him right now, I mean, maybe you can get somebody to overpay. I’ve been talking about this for a while now, and he keeps hitting and everyone says, why do you want to trade away Pete Crow-armstrong? And my answer is this, this split, it’s very concerning and I think unsustainable. Eventually the numbers against right hand pitching will, I think, marginalize just a little bit. And when they do, all of a sudden those left handed numbers I don’t see improving anytime soon. So wow. Against left handed pitching Pete Carroll Armstrong is a guy that you can even attack. And I guarantee you some of those unders are going to hit. And you got to be very careful in daily transaction leagues with a tough lefty on the mound. I know you don’t want to take Pete Armstrong out of your lineups and daily transaction leagues, but at the same time, you might want to think about it. If you have a viable depth piece in the outfield that you can plug in there like a Steven Kwan or somebody like that and say, you know what, let’s take some, let’s take four at bats in a better situation than what PCA is going to give you against a lefty. Now, his teammates got interesting splits too. Not righty lefty splits, but home and away. We always think of Wrigley Field as a really hitter friendly environment. But clearly that doesn’t go for Seiya Suzuki at home this year. Seiya Suzuki 214 batting average with a 709 Ops. Now that’s problematic. And I keep talking about how eventually the Cubs offense will slow down, and when they have to rely on what’s left of this pitching staff, I have massive concerns that that can get done. His road numbers have been terrific, though. 298 batting average, a 968 Ops. But it’s the splits of both of these Cubs that I think are kind of the poster children, if you will, for I understand that the Cubs are fun. They’re a public team. People love to root for the Cubs. It’s great that the Cubs are good. It’s great for baseball when the Cubs are winning games, and they still might be the favorites to win this division and all. However, I keep looking at the pitching of the Milwaukee Brewers, and I feel like I get on here every single Sunday. And I talk about this and I say, well, you know, Milwaukee Brewers, man, they’re going to get Woodruff back eventually. You look at the Milwaukee Brewers and what Jacob Mieszkowski has been able to do so far in his brief tenure here with the big club. You saw Logan Henderson, Freddy Peralta show that he is the only guy that the Cubs have. Don’t give me Collin Raye. Don’t give me Ben Brown with his awful splits. Don’t give me any of that noise. Jameson on Jameson Taillon pitching in a big spot here in a must win game in September. I don’t have any faith in that, but if you do look at the Milwaukee Brewers right, you’re getting plus 650 plus 650 for the Brewers, another team that has a winning culture in its DNA that we just talked about with the Atlanta Braves. Every year you look up and the Milwaukee Brewers somehow find a way. Now they’re only four and a half games out. Four and a half games. They are right there in the wild card. They’re going to be a playoff team. And I think they’re going to be potentially a problem if they should actually get in there with all that pitching. And what if they make a move for a Eugenio Suarez to play third base? I think it’s only a matter of time before the Arizona Diamondbacks make that kind of move. And when they do, another piece is added there for Milwaukee offensively. Or maybe a Big-Time outfield bat or, hey, maybe even both. I think the Cubs could be in some real problems here. PCA splits the inconsistencies of Seiya Suzuki home and road. What that pitching staff really is when you start to dig into the numbers, which is not great. Not to mention the bullpen is not great either. Look, what do we say all the time, right? It’s not how you start the season, it’s how you finish. Keep a close eye on the Milwaukee Brewers and how they finish this season. Some other splits to talk about, too. Jonathan Hernandez had a great year for the Tampa Bay rays. There’s no doubt about that. But so much of that damage has come at home. If you see the rays at home, you better be looking for props. When it comes to Jonathan Aranda. Why he’s hitting 380 in that little tiny ballpark with a 989 Ops, whereas on the road he is far more pedestrian, just a 798 Ops. So that Ops drops almost 200 points there for him. The batting average drops considerably as well, over 130 points to just 255. So Aranda, another one of these players that the splits are stark. We have a big enough sample size to know who these guys are, who they aren’t and how to approach them. So Aranda is another one of these players. When you also consider the rays have played a ton of their games at home already, and because of the heat and the issues with the weather, they’re going to be road warriors throughout the summer. Now, Jonathan Aranda, because of that, could be a really intriguing sell high candidate. One more split to talk about here when it comes to the Toronto Blue Jays here, and a team that has been pretty good at scoring runs. But again, the splits at home, this team collectively hitting 269 with a 7.99 Ops, 189 runs scored. The Blue Jays at home are hitting baseballs, driving in runs, scoring runs on the road. However, a 241 batting average, a 652 Ops and 122 runs scored that is not the same team. So Blue Jays on the road. I’m looking to go against him. Blue Jays at home. Give me all the Blue Jays I can possibly handle. So those are some splits to inform your fantasy trades your fantasy lineups. Also your wagering as well. Not just props but even team stuff as well. When we come back, we’re going to dig deeper into some numbers here. When we return on FST, we’ll be right back after this. Here we go at Oakmont. Let’s start with the course. What do we know about this course? How long is the rough and does course history come into effect for you this week? The US open has always been billed as the most difficult test of golf there is on the planet. And I tell you what, it’s often labeled as the most difficult golf course in the world is Oakmont. Game time decisions only on sports grid. We don’t want you playing here. Can you move positions, do something else? He starts the season like, oh, for 150, it felt like. And finally finds himself in a groove at the plate, hitting 272 what, 15 home runs on the season. Now he’s shipped to San Francisco. What is management going to do? Nobody. Who’s paying you $313.5 million is going to hear anything from you. They’ll figure out a way to get rid of you. And that’s exactly what they did. The early line only on sports grid. Every five days. It’s really exciting when Skenes pitches and it’s terrible watching him pitch, because every time he pitches, they don’t score. Having him hit the lineup probably would actually help. When he pitches. There’s no way to do it because you can’t. But yeah, it’s beyond frustrating. And the numbers would tell you, you know, the books have adjusted Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. Dialing it back to his old days with Saint Louis and Arizona. Buy or sell Goldie will finish top seven in fantasy first baseman. No, I’m going to say no. I think he’ll fall off all the player here. He’ll fall. He’ll be top ten, but not top seven here. Top ten I would say I buy a top seven. I’m going to say no here. I think he’ll put up decent numbers here, but not as good as he was. He’s I think he’s about 340, 350 all year long. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. All right everybody welcome back to FST Fantasy Sports today here on Sports Grid. Don’t forget to follow us on social media as well. Sports grid TV on the X machine. And of course you can follow us all over on social on Instagram as well. We are here talking about some of the stats that matter the most when it comes to some of these upcoming players that we are going to be starting this week in our fantasy baseball leagues, and I thought one that was really intriguing. Here was something when it pertains to Garrett Crochet coach joins Pedro Martinez in 1999 and 2000 as the only Red Sox pitchers with at least 125 strikeouts and 30 runs or fewer allowed in their first 16 starts of a season. Now, that is pretty incredible company there. When you’re talking about Pedro Martinez back in that realm. Pedro Martinez, for those of you who might not be old enough to remember or even appreciate it, 1999 Pedro Martinez. Let me throw some stats at you because because it’s fun. If you ask me what pitcher I want, if I have one start to make, I want 1999 Pedro Martinez. That’s who I want. He was 23 and four over 31 games with a 2.07 ERA. And get this 313 strikeouts to just 37 walks. Let me say that again. 313 strikeouts with 37 walks. Pedro Martinez had a career nine of 13.2 and a walk per nine of 1.6. That year, he led the league in strikeouts. He led the league in wins. He led the league in ERA. He led the league in pretty much everything ERA, plus the Whip was 1.39, so his ERA was 207. But he should have been even better than that. And that was 1999 and 2000. Well, he was pretty damn good too, because guess what? That fit came around. He had a 1.74 ERA the next year, and 284 strikeouts in 29 starts. So he did miss a couple starts there. So. Oh well, a little imperfection there from Pedro Martinez. But it does go back to how good Garrett Crochet has been here for the Red Sox. And I think this is probably one of the most important offseason moves that any team made. And I was stunned that the White Sox gave up so little to get Garrett Crochet, a young, left handed starting pitcher with the capability of striking out 200 plus guys in a season. Those guys don’t grow on trees, but somehow the Red Sox were able to manage to pull him away. Now, Kyle Teel is a nice young prospect. Chase McGrath is probably going to be an everyday player, you know, kind of a punch and Judy Luis Arraez kind of guy, get on base, maybe steal some bases for you, hit for a decent average. But I wouldn’t call them stars. It’s not like they dealt Christian Campbell or Roman Anthony or even Marcelo Mayer necessarily get Garrett Crochet, but this was a huge win. If this trade happened in your dynasty league, you’d look at it and go, what? What happens in Major League Baseball? We all just kind of accept it. It was kind of strange there, because I thought for sure that the White Sox held all the cards here with crochet, and I thought for sure they would bring back Moore to remake this organization. And they failed because Garrett Crochet has been terrific. Now the question is, can crochet get some help in this rotation from somebody else? Because it’s been struggle bus most of the year until recently with Giolito. He’s been good the last two starts. Can we buy into it? I don’t know, I still don’t feel really good about putting Lucas Giolito in my lineup. I can tell you that much. Ryan has been up and down. We can talk more about Walker Buehler and his disastrous last couple starts as we continue on with the show, but instead, I want to pivot to more good news, more good news when it comes to the catcher position, because Cal Raleigh has been all world right now. Now, the all time single season catcher record for home runs is Salvy Perez a couple years ago with 48. But I want you to take a look at this stat here, because we even had to correct it because this guy just doesn’t stop hitting home runs. Cal Raleigh most homers by a catcher again is their primary position before the all star break. Johnny Bench in 1970 28 while Cal Raleigh as a 27 going into this weekend. Now he’s at 30 so he’s already gone past Johnny Bench, so he’s on the highest pace. The question is, does he have 18 more home runs in him rest of season? I love to hear from you. Drop your comments on social media. Can Cal Raleigh get there? Can he get to the 48? Can he get to 50? If so, why don’t we talk more about Cal Raleigh, who’s also catching as an MVP candidate? I hate that Aaron Judge is just -1,000,000,000 for MVP in the American League. I know he struggled a little bit. I know he’s been brilliant all year Aaron Judge hitting 400 most of the year I get it. He’s awesome. But he’s also not catching. Cal Raleigh is catching and hitting 30 home runs so far before the all Star break. I think that’s mighty impressive when you have to manage a pitching staff on top of being the go to guy in that offense, because guess what, boys and girls, the go to guy is not Julio Rodriguez in that office. It’s not Randy Arozarena. The guy you fear the most is Cal Raleigh. Put some respect on his name. Give me more Cal Raleigh MVP votes. That’s what I want to see. Also, you’re going to get a lot of Cy Young votes for Tarik Skubal. The next guy we’re going to talk about. I feel like every week we find another stat. That kind of blows your mind of how good Tarik Skubal has been. School has recorded 100 plus strikeouts with a 2.50 ERA or lower and fewer than 20 walks allowed through 15 games in each of the last two seasons. Just for context, no other pitcher in Major League Baseball history has recorded back to back campaigns with those kind of starts. That, my friends, is truly stunning. I said it going into the year, there’s only one pitcher I had a first round grade on and his name was Tarik Skubal, and going into next year, I’m probably going to have one starting pitcher with a first round grade and it’s going to be Tarik Skubal. The guy has been absolutely brilliant. He is the stir that straw, the straw that stirs the drink or even the drink that stirs itself at this point. Because I don’t know how the Tigers are keeping this up. Thank God they play in that terrible division that is the American League Central, because that’s what it is right now. Those guys can’t get out of their own way. But school has been absolutely brilliant. You know who else has been red hot? Juan Soto, let’s talk t him. Why? Because he leads the Major League Baseball world with walks in this month. That is the 17th different time he has done that in his Major League Baseball career. The next most months, a player has led the Major League Baseball’s in walks before turning age 27. That’s the key here before 27, because that’s how old Juan Soto is. Babe Ruth did it nine times, Mickey Mantle did it nine times. And I know what you’re saying, but what about Barry Bonds? The key here, age 27. That’s what we’re talking about. Juan Soto starting to heat up. Talk to everybody off the ledge. A couple weeks ago when Juan Soto was struggle bus. What are you worried about? He’s one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball. Top five top three hitters in Major League Baseball. Everything is going to be fine. He was pressing pressure of New York, pressure of that contract. It was bound to happen. And now when the Mets kind of need him the most, he is getting red hot. Now he’s got to get back on track too. Because if you don’t get on base again, it’s really difficult at this point in time to drive in runs. So Juan needs Lindor, and Lindor needs Juan as well. And Pete Alonso has been very steady for this tm too. The offense going to have to carry the Mets as he’s pitching injuries and regression have hit them pretty hard over the last ten days, so we shall see if they can do that today against the Philadelphia Phillies. We come back. Guess what from Shohei Ohtani stuff. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back. Here we go at Oakmont. Let’s start with the course. What do we know about this course? How long is the rough and does course history come into effect for you this week? The US open is always been billed as the most difficult test of golf there is on the planet. And I tell you what, it’s often labeled as the most difficult golf course in the world is Oakmont. Game time decisions only on sports grid. We don’t want you playing here. Can you move positions, do something else? He starts the season like zero for 150. It felt . And finally finds himself in a groove at the plate, hitting 272 what, 15 home runs on the season. Now he’s shipped to San Francisco. What is management going to do? Nobody. Who’s paying you $313.5 million is going to hear anything from you. They’ll figure out a way to get rid of you. And that’s exactly what they did. The early line only on sports grid. Every five days. It’s really exciting when Skenes pitches and it’s terrible watching him pitch, because every time he pitches, they don’t score. Having him hit the lineup probably would actually help. When he pitches. There’s no way to do it because you can’t. But yeah, it’s beyond frustrating. And the numbers would tell you, you know, the books have adjusted. Farrell coast to coast only on sports grid. Dialing it back to his old days with Saint Louis and Arizona. Buy or sell Goldie will finish top seven in fantasy first baseman. No, I’m going to say no. I think he’ll fall off. Older player here. He’ll fall. He’ll be top ten, but not top seven here. Top ten I would say I buy a top seven. I’m going to say no here. I think he’ll put up decent numbers here, but not as good as he was. He’s I think he’s in the back. Three 4350 all year long. Fantasy sports today only on sports grid. All right welcome back everybody. We got one more deep dive for you when it comes to the numbers in fantasy baseball. Guess what it’s about Shohei Ohtani. So Ohtani returned to the mound this week. We’ll see what he can contribute to that rotation. And God knows the Dodgers rotation needs the help. But here’s a fun fact for you when it comes to Shohei Ohtani. And it seems like every single day we get another fun fact about Ohtani. So players with 25 plus home runs, ten plus deals, five plus triples before July in a season in Major League Baseball history. Well, it’s happened twice and both times it was the same guy. And both time. Guess what? It was Shohei Ohtani in 2023 and 2025. I mean, just stunning to think about how good this player is and also how dangerous it is when it comes to the Dodgers, who at this point are going to tax that bullpen a ton just to get Shohei Ohtani up and running. I do think it’s going to take a couple of weeks for him to ramp up to become a 5 or 6 inning pitcher. Now, the good news is this is a guy that can have working behind him. That’s a good piece of news, because Perez has been really good as kind of that long man out of the bullpen. Emmett Sheehan, he came back, made some, made one start for this team, then got sent down. I do think Sheehan will be back up, though at some point for the Dodgers. So that’s a guy you want to stash right now in your leagues. How many starts he makes? None of us know. Clayton Kershaw is 110 years old. Can he sustain this pace of pitching a season? I think so at this stage it feels like he is kind of locked in right now, doing his best version of late stage Clayton Kershaw, which again is a Hall of Fame pitcher. Gonsolin on the io still Snell still Glasnow working their way back. When will it be? That’s the big question when it comes to the Dodger rotation. And if they don’t return to that rotation if they have a setback what does that mean long term? What kind of stress is that going to put on Ohtani. Look it’s great to have a superstar Ohtani is that and then some. But at a certain point how much can you put on one guy to carry a team? I mean, you couldn’t do it with the angels. I know the Dodgers have a lot more talent, but at the same time, Shohei Ohtani right now, it’s going to be a fascinating thing to watch. And just the last thing I want is for him to have any kind of elbow issue or arm issue, because what happens then there’s a pop or a setback. And we’ve seen some of these guys sometimes struggle with some of these returns. Next thing you know, you don’t have Shohei Ohtani the pitcher or the hitter. And that might be a little too big of a risk for me going forward. I get it this year. They’re in a bad spot. I understand you’re paying them to do both. Maybe you’re wasting the talent, but at the same time, you’re the Dodgers. This is your window to win another World Series. The next year or two. You got to take advantage of that. And if you don’t have Shohei Ohtani to do it, then what happens? So I know it’s a double edged sword. You want him to do everything because it’s amazing, because he’s great at everything. But if he does everything and he gets hurt again, what does that mean for the Dodgers? A lot of questions there. Now one more question I want to come back to too, because at the break, I was trying to make the case a little bit for Cal Raleigh for MVP Aaron Judge -3500 Cal Raleigh at plus 750. I want to know why this number is so drastic still at this point. Now I understand that catcher sometimes will fade over time right as the season goes on. It’s hard because you know the wear and tear of catching the mileage it puts on the player. But Cal Raleigh right now has 30 home runs. Aaron Judge has 27, Cal Raleigh right now has 64 RBI, Aaron Judge has 61 Cal Raleigh has nine stolen bases. Aaron Judge has six. I bet you didn’t know Cal Raleigh had nine stolen bases. I don’t think I knew, I’ll be honest with you. I don’t have any shares of Cal Raleigh this year, and I wish I did because he was just kind of in a clump of good catchers at the top, and nobody really stood out to me. But my God, has he been great. He’s hitting 272 with a 377 OBP and a 646 slugging. The Ops for Cal Raleigh 1026 for Aaron Judge. Judge is better at 1198. But is it so remarkably better? Is it so much different? I get it, and Cal Raleigh is going to miss some games here and there because he’s a catcher. He’s going to need some days off, but I just don’t see why we’re in a spot right now where it’s plus 750 for one guy and -3500 for another, and the stats are quite so close. And one of them is calling every pitch of every game and having to work with the pitching staff, on top of being the guy in the middle of the order. I don’t know, I guess this is the definition of public money, isn’t it? This is what it looks like when you’re the Yankees and the media organization and the media that just continues to pound the narrative of Aaron Judge. And I love Aaron Judge. He’s great. It’s great for baseball. But Cal Raleigh is equally valuable. Now Vegas is telling you he’s not, but I think he isd if Aaron Judge has a, you know, a couple less games against the Orioles, God knows he kills the Orioles. Well, we’ve seen it a million times. I don’t know, I wonder if by the time we get to the all star break, this number tightens up just a little bit more. I’m just saying, if Aaron Judge misses any time on the IL two. Boy, oh, boy, does Cal Raleigh contest a lot closer. We return our two, we look at the waiver wire. We’re going to make some trades. We’re going to do everything to help you win your fantasy baseball league. Don’t go anywhere. We’ll be right back for hour two of.
