Rotowire Fantasy Baseball Podcast

Fred Zinkie and Jeff Erickson discuss the NL MVP race, closer pockets from 2026 drafts and one month outliers after the All-Star Break. --- 00:00 MLB Pod 8-18-26 00:15 News: 00:30 PCA is the first (and possibly only) 30-30 player this season, as he homered twice (and so did NL MVP challenger Shohei Ohtani)….. 08:00 Cutting Kyle Tucker 16:15 Jacob Wilson was scratched due to a sore shoulder 19:00 Max Fried is back on the IL, which makes him a drop 20:00 Monday was a big day for player returns: Oneil Cruz, Maikel Garcia, Shane McClanahan, Jordan Lawlar, Vinnie Pasquantino, Justin Martinez, Carlos Rodon, AJ Smith-Shawver 21:45 Ketel Marte is away from the team due to a personal matter, then flew back to AZ for knee 25:00 Bobby Witt Jr. had a big game in an otherwise unremarkable (for him) season 28:45 Circa 29:50 Bridge topic: Closer review from 2026 drafts. 31:00 Edwin Diaz to the IL 33:30 Spend Up on Closers Nevertheless 36:00 Second Tier Disasters 39:45 Next Tier Questionable 49:50 BlueWire 49:55 Main Topic:

Jeff Erickson and Scott Jenstad talk about the huge Joshua Báez debut on the field and in FAAB, discuss the playoff races, debate where Paul Skenes and Jesus Luzardo get drafted next year and break down all the non-Joshua Báez adds in FAAB as well, including active bidding on Zac Veen and Kodai Senga.   Circa  Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erik Halterman and Jeremy Schneider share their top fantasy baseball pickups of the week. --- 1:34 Joshua Baez 5:06 Zack Gelof 7:38 Zac Veen 10:19 Chase Meidroth 12:48 Abimelec Ortiz 15:30 Alejandro Kirk 18:39 Edward Cabrera 22:49 Brandon Pfaadt 26:18 Andrew Painter 30:17 Tyler Mahle 34:11 Kodai Senga 38:20 Circa 39:28 Cal Quantrill 42:11 Blade Tidwell 44:08 Chris Bassitt 46:48 Drew Anderson 49:26 George Klassen 53:06 Jackson Kent 54:26 Osleivis Basabe 56:34 Javier Baez 59:30 Charles McAdoo/Brett Bateman 1:02:30 Tyler O’Neill 1:05:59 Nick Sogard/Masataka Yoshida 1:08:44 Outro --- Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and us

Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Intro/Tigers suddenly in the final wild-card spot in AL Steak League FAAB: Zac Veen $7 Abimelic Ortiz $5 Tyler Mahle $4 Ben Joyce $4 Kodai Senga $3 Andrew Alvarez $3 Jonny DeLuca $3 Hunter Dobbins $1 Justin Martinez $1 Joe Musgrove George Klassen Blade Tidwell Two-start pitchers (week of Aug. 17, 2026) Mitch Bratt 1 Mason Barnett 0 Jack Perkins 0 Martin Perez 3 (Todd 2) Tyler Mahle 3 (Todd 4) Brandon Young 2 Shane Baz 3 Ranger Suarez 3 Shota Imanaga 4 Rhett Lowder 0 (Todd 1) Andrew Abbott 3 Foster Griffin 3 Tomoyuki Sugano 0 Luis Castillo 3 Erik Fedde 0 Framber Valdez 3 Cristian Javier 1 Michael Wacha 2 Daniel Lynch 0 George Klassen 2 Jason Junk 1 Nolan McLean 3 Will Warren 3 Cristopher Sanchez 5 Carmen Mlodzinski 1 Walker Buehler 2 Bryce Miller 2

Erik Halterman is joined by Dave McDonald to discuss which of this year's biggest busts came into the season with clear red flags and which ones fell flat out of nowhere. --- 00:00 Headlines 12:30 Busts Overview 15:30 Aaron Judge 20:40 Ronald Acuna 22:30 Paul Skenes 29:10 Garrett Crochet 34:00 Gunnar Henderson 38:35 Kyle Tucker 40:55 Vladimir Guerrero Jr. 44:50 Cal Raleigh 49:05 Edwin Diaz 50:35 Francisco Lindor 54:25 Bryan Woo 57:10 Wyatt Langford 1:01:10 Hunter Brown 1:03:55 Devin Williams 1:06:35 Cole Ragans 1:08:45 Brent Rooker 1:11:05 Freddy Peralta 1:14:00 Daniel Palencia 1:15:50 Manny Machado 1:18:35 Maikel Garcia --- Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information abou

James Anderson and Dominic Rello preview the 5th annual Too Early Meatball Draft (the first high-stakes draft of 2027), which will take place next week!   02:45 2026 check in 10:20 Predicting the first round 18:40 1B is DEEP 25:25 3B is shallow again 30:15 Where does Cal Raleigh rank at C? 34:00 Buy low on Kyle Tucker? 38:55 Big names who might not get drafted 48:45 Players who lost eligibility 53:00 Multi-eligible players 01:07:20 Rookies for 2027   Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Where did we find our best and worst pitching values in 2026? Was the Garrett Crochet disaster enough to dissuade us from taking an early ace? Fred Zinkie and Jeff Erickson discuss.  --- 00:00 Fred Pod 8-11 00:20 Jays 4-Outs Play 04:00 Fred’s Blue Jays Fan Reaction to the Deadline 07:45 News 08:00 Cam Smith Improving 11:40 Zac Veen Getting the Call 15:00 Trey Yesavage Meniscus Surgery 17:40 Devin Williams to the IL. Drop him? Kodai Senga closer? 22:00 Nathan Eovaldi to the IL. Drop him? 23:00 Jacob Lopez is becoming a thing again 26:30 Monday Starts - Andrew Painter 29:30 Adley Rutschman will make his Red Sox debut today. 32:00 Kyle Stowers to the IL 33:00 Circa 33:59 BlueWire 34:05 Pitching Pockets 35:45 Defined Tiers - Main Event ADP 37:00 Were the Aces Worth It? 39:30 Next 10 44:30 SP 21-30 - Second Most Profitable Tier 48:30 SP 31-40 - So Many Nice Values 50:50 SP 41-50 - By Far the Worst Value 55:00 General SP Strategy --- Circa  Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30

Jeff Erickson and Scott Jenstad cover the entire weekend in fantasy baseball, including the struggles of Mookie Betts, Jazz Chisholm and Gunnar Henderson, the success of Dylan Cease and Brandon Lowe and all the details of an extremely busy FAAB period highlighted by active bidding on George Lombard, Jr, Kaelen Culpepper and Jackson Jobe.  Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erik Halterman and Marty Tallman share their top fantasy baseball pickups of the week. --- 00:00 Headlines 09:00 Dylan Crews 11:25 George Lombard Jr. 15:00 Bryce Eldridge 16:55 Kaelen Culpepper 20:15 Tyler Stephenson 26:20 Clay Holmes 28:10 Martin Perez 30:10 Jackson Jobe 35:00 Bailey Ober 40:10 Luke Weaver 44:30 Deep-league pitchers 58:40 Deep-league hitters --- Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Intro/Kalen Culpepper called up to Minnesota Steak League FAAB: George Lombard $12 Carmen Mlodzinski $10 Spencer Jones $7 Angel Genao $6 Jacob Lopez $5 Mitch Bratt $5 Cristian Javier $4 Sammy Natera $3 Hector Rodriguez $3 Andrew Painter $2 Yennier Cano $1 Other names to consider: Kaelen Culpepper, Moises Ballesteros, George Klassen Two-start pitchers (week of Aug. 10, 2026) Jacob Lopez 2 Bryce Elder 3 (Todd 2) Trevor Rogers 3 Sonny Gray 5 Ranger Suarez 3 Nick Lodolo 3 (Todd 2) Tanner Bibee 3 Gabriel Hughes 1 (Todd 2) Sean Burke 4 Drew Anderson 1 Hayden Wesneski 2 (Todd 3) Noah Cameron 2 (Todd 3) Reid Detmers 3 Tarik Skubal 5 Eury Perez 5 Logan Henderson 3 Dean Kremer 1 Christian Scott 3 Ryan Weathers 4 (Todd 5) Andrew Painter 2 (Todd 1) Paul Skenes 5 Casey Mize 3

Erik Halterman is joined by Jason Collette to discuss the biggest winners of the trade deadline and figure out where to spend your money in AL- and NL-only leagues. --- 00:00 Headlines 12:45 Only-league Trade Deadline FAAB Strategy  16:45 NL to AL trades 38:50 AL to NL trades 47:00 Intra-league trades --- Circa   Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details.  Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

James Anderson and Spencer Michaelis discuss the Brewers' trade deadline before breaking down all the remaining high-end hitting prospects in the system!   01:05 Dustin May trade 03:05 Alexander Frias 05:50 Josiah Ragsdale 09:20 Juan Martinez 11:40 Grading the Brewers’ deadline 20:40 Cooper Pratt 24:25 Jesus Made 29:05 Luis Pena/Brady Ebel 34:50 Jett Williams 36:55 Andrew Fischer 40:50 Blake Burke/Luke Adams 47:00 Josh Adamczewski 49:45 Braylon Payne 53:00 Brailyn Antunez/Handelfry Encarnacion 55:00 Dominican Summer League Brewers 01:00:00 Marco Dinges 01:01:50 Bishop Letson   Circa   Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details.  Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for

Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Approximate time stamp when each team was discussed :10 ARI :12 ATH :15 ATL :19 BAL :22 BOS :26 CHC :30 CHW :34 CIN :37 COL :39 DET :43 HOU :44 KCR :46 LAA :51 LAD :54 MIA :58 MIL 1:01 MIN 1:03 NYM 1:05 NYY 1:07 Sponsor Ads 1:10 PHI 1:13 PIT 1:17 SDP 1:20 SEA 1:23 SFG 1:26 STL 1:30 TBR 1:33 TEX 1:35 TOR 1:38 WSN   Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Scott Jenstad and special guest, Paul Sporer of Fangraphs, break down the weekend in baseball, including the fantasy impact for a number of big trades that went down prior to Monday's deadline, the down seasons for Vlad Guerrero and William Contreras, the Gavin Williams breakout and all the moves in a busy week of FAAB, focusing on heavy bidding for Tigers rookie Max Clark and a few new closer options, plus much more!! Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Erik Halterman and Jeremy Schneider share their top fantasy baseball pickups of the week. --- 2:49 Max Clark 6:58 Matt McLain 9:37 Tommy Edman 12:00 Heriberto Hernandez 16:00 Dominic Canzone 19:07 Quinn Mathews 25:02 Kyle Leahy 27:45 Mason Montgomery 30:54 Clayton Beeter 34:00 Steven Cruz 41:00 Circa 42:13 Hayden Wesneski 45:15 AJ Smith-Shawver 50:11 Carson Whisenhunt 53:56 Tomoyuki Sugano 57:00 Brandyn Garcia 1:00:35 Tyler Tolbert 1:03:25 Dane Myers 1:05:21 Pedro Ramirez 1:08:22 Hao-Yu Lee 1:10:40 Andruw Monasterio   --- Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Intro/Casey Mize, Freddy Peralta scratched tonight, calm before the trade storm Steak League FAAB: Quinn Mathews $6 Mason Montgomery $4 Steven Cruz $4 Hayden Wesneski $3 Javier Baez $3 Brandyn Garcia $2 Luis Rengifo $2 Tyler Tolbert $2 Dane Myers $2 Pedro Ramirez $1 Rhett Lowder $1 JT Realmuto $1 Carson Whisenhunt $1 Other names to consider: Erik Miller, Max Clark, George Lombard Two-start pitchers (week of Aug. 3, 2026) Brandon Pfaadt 3 Eduardo Rodriguez 3 J.T. Ginn 3 (Todd 2) Chris Sale 5 Dean Kremer 1 (Todd 2) Patrick Sandoval 2 (Todd 3) Matthew Boyd 4 Javier Assad 1 Brady Singer 2 Slade Cecconi 2 Michael Lorenzen 0 Davis Martin 2 Casey Mize* 3 Peter Lambert 3 Randy Dobnak 1 Reid Detmers* 4 Ryan Gusto 1 Brandon Sproat 2 Logan Henderson 4 Joe Ryan 5 Christia

Erik Halterman is joined by Britton Allan to discuss some hitters who have gotten much better in the last two months and some hitters who have gotten much worse. --- 00:00 Headlines 13:10 Rising Hitters, Good to Great 32:15 Rising Hitters, Bad to Good 48:55 Falling Hitters, Great to Good 1:00:30 Falling Hitters, Good to Bad --- Circa Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

James Anderson, Taylor Corso and Kyle Sonntag predict who the top 10 prospects for dynasty baseball leagues will be heading into the 2028 season!   02:40 Eli Willits 06:05 Grady Emerson 08:15 Seth Hernandez 11:15 Eduardo Quintero 14:15 Juneiker Caceres 19:50 Dax Kilby 21:15 Eric Hartman 20:20 Angeibel Gomez 26:50 Luis Hernandez 29:35 Kendry Chourio 31:00 Luis Pena 33:00 Kevin Alvarez 35:00 Edward Florentino 38:15 JoJo Parker 39:20 Josuar Gonzalez 42:20 Alexander Frias 46:00 Honorable Mentions   Circa  Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Who is the only 20-20 player in baseball right now? Which undrafted pitcher is in the top-10 in wins, ERA and WHIP? Plus, is Cody Bellinger a drop now that he's out 4-to-6 weeks with a hamstring injury. Fred Zinkie and Jeff Erickson discuss all that and more! --- 00:00 Diamond Detective Podcast 00:15 News: 00:30 Cody Bellinger to miss 4-6 weeks. Drop?…… 07:55 Max Meyer 10:30 NL vs AL Wild Card Race 12:00 Kerry Carpenter and Spencer Steer are both on the IL and look like drops 12:30 Ronald Acuna Jr. returned 13:30 Addison Barger avoided TJ surgery and will be ready for spring training 14:15 Joc Pederson homered twice and has 17 homers since May 1 15:50 Casey Schmitt is likely going on the IL with a knee injury 18:00 Esmerlyn Valdez left after being hit by a pitch 19:00 Curtis Mead left his Boston debut with a bruised wrist, Ceddanne Rafaela hit a grand slam and the Red Sox continued to roll 20:40 Francisco Lindor had his best game of 2026 22:30 Zac Thornton with another quality start 24:00 Zack Wheeler and Max

Jeff Erickson and Scott Jenstad discuss the exceptional Nationals offense led by 2 MVP candidates, possible trade deadline moves that might affect fantasy teams and the week in FAAB, highlighted by active bidding on Ronel Blanco and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and much, much more! They also preview the upcoming week with could feature a lot of offense and talk about a ton of players, including Wyatt Langford, McKenzie Gore and Cade Smith. Circa (All episodes) Cash in this football season in Las Vegas with 3 Circa Sports Contests! $30 Million in guaranteed prizes! Visit CircaSports for details. Get the latest fantasy sports insights, expert analysis, and premium tools at RotoWire.com—enter promo code PODCAST at checkout to receive 15% off any product.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.