Welcome back to the Fantasy Baseball Weekly Mailbag. The mailbag is an opportunity to ask a FantasyPros analyst anything about the ongoing season to make the best and most informed decisions possible. Questions from fantasy managers this week can be seen below.
If you have questions about your team, feel free to join the FantasyPros Discord.
- Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Advice
- Fantasy Baseball Trade Advice
- Fantasy Baseball Start/Sit Lineup Advice
- MLB Prop Bet Cheat Sheet
Fantasy Baseball Mailbag
Drop Matt Waldron or Sean Manaea for Spencer Arrighetti or Brayan Bello?
Sean Manaea has a 3.46 ERA, 1,21 WHIP and 129 strikeouts in 130 innings this year. Advanced stats such as a 4.13 xERA indicate Manaea has been lucky. He is having a great season and I would keep him around regardless.
Matt Waldron is someone I would drop for one of these guys. Spencer Arrighetti is the player you want to pick up for upside. He has a 3.38 ERA this month and 14.46 K/9. Is he getting lucky? Probably — especially with those strikeouts. But Arrighetti looks completely different from his vile form from earlier in the season.
Brayan Bello is the lower-ceiling, higher-floor option. He has been decent all year. Decent. Still, decent is an upgrade over Waldron’s 5.90 ERA across July and August.
Mitch Keller is available. Would you drop any of these pitchers for him: Robbie Ray, Jeffrey Springs, Merrill Kelly, Ryan Pepiot?
I would drop any of these pitchers for Mitch Keller in a vacuum. Keller has been a top-30 pitcher all season before his recent two-game disappointing stretch where he allowed 15 runs. Since you only have to drop one, let’s find the worst pitcher.
Dropping Ryan Pepiot hurts. Try to hold on to him.
Merrill Kelly has been better than Keller in recent years. Kelly has big question marks surrounding his performance after a lengthy injury. He’s worth keeping around, though.
Jeffrey Springs looks great now that he is healthy. Most importantly, he looks better than Robbie Ray.
Drop Ray for Keller.
Drop Nick Lodolo, Devin Williams, Nick Pivetta, Nestor Cortes, Ryan Pepiot or Clayton Kershaw to activate Merrill Kelly?
Nestor Cortes. He is the worst pitcher here by a landslide. Sure, he pitched a beautiful seven-inning shutout last week, but it was against the White Sox. Cortes is not having a good year and replacing him with Kelly is quite the upgrade.
Are Randy Arozarena and Isaac Paredes droppable for Luis Arraez? (12-team categories league)
Absolutely.
Randy Arozarena is slashing .214 /.329/.386. He was traded to the Mariners, a team with one of the most unfriendly stadiums for right-handed batters in the league. He is batting .196 in August after a resurgence across June and July. I don’t know why fantasy managers are still holding on to Arozarena. It isn’t his year.
Isaac Paredes is having a better season than Arozarena. The slugger remains fantasy viable despite struggling since being traded to the Cubs. Luis Arraez is better than Paredes, but Paredes is better than Arozarena.
You should feel extremely comfortable dropping Arozarena for Arraez. Although Arraez will not contribute in many categories, he is a lock for average.
Drop one: Heliot Ramos, Zach Neto, Brendan Rodgers, Spencer Torkelson, Luis Garcia Jr.
Spencer Torkelson.
He launched 31 homers in 2023 and is yet to rediscover the magic of 2023. Torkelson’s early season was so bad he got demoted to the minor leagues. He finally returned to the majors a few days ago, but his performance for the rest of the season is a huge question mark.
Zach Neto is the player I would drop if you want to keep Torkelson. He is slashing .261/.325/.459 in a pitiful Angels lineup. Neto will go 20/20 this year (unless he is attacked by unexpected injuries). I like Neto, just not as much as the other drop candidates.
Brendan Rodgers is slashing .277/.324/.417. He is having a good season and is batting .362 this month. Keeping around a hot bat is a good idea this late into the season.
Heliot Ramos has slowed down a lot since his debut. However, he still is an excellent source of power and RBI. I wouldn’t drop him.
Keep Luis Garcia. He hits for a high average with a little bit of speed and power. He is a contributor all around.
Subscribe: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | iHeart | Castbox | Amazon Music | Podcast Addict | SoundCloud | TuneIn