Fantasy Baseball Today: Matt Brash to make MLB debut; Jameson Taillon’s return; final week waiver adds
Written by Lucky Wilson | KGTO Writer on September 28, 2021
The Cardinals are the best story in baseball right now with 16 wins in a row, but they were off on Monday, so we turned our attention to one of the better comeback stories of the year — Joey Votto. With a double dong despite battling through injury, Votto reminded us of how special his bounce-back season has been. This is Dan Schneier here today subbing in for Frank and we’ll discuss what’s to come in Fantasy Baseball for this final week starting with a top prospect pitcher set to make his MLB debut tonight, a talented starter returning from the IL and more.
Of course, as always, you can follow to make sure you get the latest episodes of Fantasy Baseball Today right when they drop on Apple and Spotify.
Brash to make his MLB debut
According to MLB.com’s Daniel Kremer, “all signs point” to Mariners SP prospect Matt Brash being called up to make his MLB debut tonight against the Athletics. Brash will take the rotation spot of Yusei Kikuchi. Brash is currently ranked (per MLB.com) as Seattle’s 10th-best prospect and he has posted some gaudy numbers between High-A and Double-A in 2021. The 23-year-old has ripped 142 strikeouts over 97 1/3 innings with a 2.31 ERA. On the flip side, he has also walked 48 batters over those 97 1/3 innings.
Skipping Triple-A and making the jump to the majors isn’t impossible, but we wouldn’t suggest scooping him for this start if your league is still playing in its playoff or for any Roto leagues you’re competing in..
Taillon makes his return from IL
Yankees SP Jameson Taillon has been activated from the IL and is set to make his return to the mound against Toronto tonight. We don’t advise getting him back into your lineups and it’s not because Taillon has missed about three weeks with the partially torn tendon in his ankle. The bigger issue is that he went just three innings and threw just 45 pitches in his rehab start (allowing two runs). It’s not wise to project a normal workload for Taillon in his first start back, so the best course of action is to leave him on your bench.
Votto powers through the pain
Reds 1B Joey Votto slammed another two homers on Monday in a dominant Reds victory over the Pirates. Despite playing through a sore knee, Votto hit home runs number 34 and 35 — and he didn’t do much running at all — thankfully he didn’t have to. If Votto hits two more homers this season he’ll tie his career high from his MVP 2010 season. And if he hits three more homers, Votto will tie the number of home runs he combined for in the three seasons prior to 2021!
Votto is THE waiver wire scoop of the year!
Waiver-wire adds
Scott White broke down eight players to pick up who can take your team over the top for the final stretch run this week. Here are some of our favorite players featured:
Dodgers P Tony Gonsolin: I’d like to be able to give Tony Gonsolin a more emphatic recommendation for this week, but it’s unclear what kind of workload the Dodgers are permitting him. He managed to make it through five innings in each of his two starts back from a shoulder injury (with a multi-inning relief appearance in between) but didn’t reach 70 pitches in either one. If he was less efficient, would the Dodgers have let him throw more to get through five innings still? I like his matchup against the already eliminated Padres and think his secondary stuff has looked better since returning, but I’m on the fence about using him this week.
Rays P Shane Baz: As if Shane Baz’s debut against the Blue Jays last week wasn’t impressive enough, he showed us what he could do against a Triple-A lineup (or the major-league equivalent, anyway) over the weekend. Frankly, his stuff looks like it would overpower anyone, and what may have been most impressive about Sunday’s start is that he barely used the slider that carved up the Blue Jays lineup, instead emphasizing the curveball. Only once in the minors this year did he exceed five innings, so the playoff-bound Rays seem motivated to extend him. I like his chances even at the Yankees this week.
Nationals C Keibert Ruiz: I didn’t include Keibert Ruiz among my 10 sleeper hitters for this week, but since I omitted catchers entirely, I’ll highlight him for those who have a need at that position. Daulton Varsho and Elias Diaz wouldn’t be bad pickups either, but Ruiz, who broke through as a power hitter in the minors this year, finally hit his first two home runs with the Nationals over the weekend. He’s been piling up multi-hit games recently, batting .471 (16 for 34) with just one strikeout over his past eight. Particularly with the Nationals traveling to Coors Field for three games this week, he’s a reasonable bet to keep it going.
Cardinals OF Harrison Bader: He had been showing signs of putting it together at the plate, and with his explosion this weekend, he’s now batting .609 (14 for 23) with three homers, four doubles and two stolen bases over his past six games. He has maintained a much lower strikeout this year after addressing a vision problem in the offseason, and while his quality of contact has been lacking overall, it clearly isn’t an issue right now. The Cardinals will miss Corbin Burnes and Freddy Peralta in their series against the Brewers this week, so overall, their matchups are pretty favorable.
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