The first week of July brings a weekend of organized chaos in MarmoVille! 

After this morning’s back-to-back baseball practices for the Marmo-lets, we’re headed off to Buffalo to catch a night of fireworks and Cosmic Baseball at Sahlen Field tonight. Then, we’re back at it tomorrow with a Weird Al show on Sunday in Niagara Falls!

It’s a busy weekend for sure, but when Truss flashes that RazzMan signal-beam out into the night sky and asks if someone can cover for Dan Pants in the Saturday roundup, your favorite Roto-Dad is obliged to answer the call! 

I know people hate the AI stuff, but I promise this is all I’ll use today because it looks pretty good. And, for the record, as much as the face looks exactly like mine, I’d like to think the rest of what’s jammed into this suit isn’t as “hefty” in real life.

I mean, this is actual footage of me answering our editor’s distress call. And, no, I didn’t add the different color scheme as a request for the logo. I guess we just got extra lucky there.

If the RazzMan doesn’t make the cut for your favorite Roto-Dad squad, maybe I’ll make your short list? Your Top 10? Top 100? (It’s OK. You can stop shaking your head now.)

ALSO, before I forget to mention it, a big “Happy 4th” to all who celebrate! We had our own version of that sort of thing up in these parts last Wednesday, but ours wasn’t as big a milestone as the one y’all are celebrating. 

Grilling glizzies and blowing off digits for 250 years is a pretty stellar party agenda that’s tough to top.

But at least yesterday’s participants in the Cardinals/Cubs debacle gave it the old college try.

It was two touchdowns and a field goal for the St. Louis squad, compared to a solitary rouge for the North-Siders. (I swear I don’t know Canadian football either and had to look that up to make sure it was accurate).

Was a 17-1 beat down of the Cubbies and that subsequent early fireworks show at Wrigley the only pre-4th festivities from a full slate of baseball on a Friday evening in early July?

Here’s what else I saw in Fantasy Baseball last night…

Andre Pallante – 5.2 IP, 0 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 10th win. Um…where did that come from? I’ve been writing him up in my Top 100 Starting Pitchers list as a Stumper for a while now, but I didn’t realize he was this close to double-digit dubs already. Someone gets a promotion on Monday!

Masyn Winn – 2-for-4, 2 R, 4 RBI, and his 4th HR. Batting .246. To the Winn, though. To the wall?

Nathan Church – 2-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, and his 8th HR. Batting .257. Pretty fitting, seeing as everyone who saw the 17-1 fireworks box score likely muttered, “Jesus”, under their breath. 

David Peterson – 3.2 IP, 10 ER, 9 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks, and his 7th loss. ERA at 6.75. WHIP at 1.67. Yep. That Mets jinx sure is a tough one to shake off. Ugh.

Bryse Wilson – 3.1 IP, 7 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks. Because why give all the smoke to just David Peterson, hey?

Nick Martinez – 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 2.61. WHIP at 1.13. Kevin Kelly relieved Nick-Mart and scored the win (his 5th) in 1.2 innings of work, but Martinez, AKA The King of the Marshmallow Tossers, deserves to be rostered everywhere; 5.51 K/9 be damned!

Bryan Baker – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 23rd save. Just like we drew it up in the preseason, right, bullpen folks?!

Junior Caminero – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his millionth home run (actually it was his 25th). Batting .288. I know we kid about, uh, this kid, but he’s homered in 8 of his last 10 games. 25 home runs before the All-Star Break is pretty insane. And it’s even wilder when you consider that Tampa has another week full of games before the actual break starts.

Spencer Arrighetti – 6 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.81. WHIP at 1.23. Sure, he hasn’t won a game since May 28th, but this one was a big step out of the muck for the Astros SP. June was a month to forget for Arrighetti – 25 IP, 25 ER, 29 H, 11 BB – so a quality start like this one is a welcome sight!

Yordan Alvarez – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 27th home run. Batting .319. Grey has said it before, but I need to commiserate here too. I rostered Captain Woo Cubano in a keeper league for years and finally set him free this offseason because his keeper tag was too pricey. I don’t want to sound like a whiner, but if you’re in the same situation as we are, just know you have good company.

Logan Webb – 3 IP, 7 ER, 11 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, 2 HR allowed, and one WTF!? Yes, the smart move is to sit any and all arms when they travel to COL, but the spinner of Webb-gems had the exact opposite kind of June that Spencer Arrighetti had. When I figured he would be able to withstand the curse of Coors Field…I figured wrong.

Rafael Devers – 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 16th home run. Batting .246. Ah, the cheerleader average. I’m assuming the rest of that 2,4,6, “8” would still be less than the number of people who DIDN’T appreciate it when he complained about having to DH, too?

Jake McCarthy – 4-for-5, 2 R, 6 RBI, 2 HR (7 and 8), 1 SB, and HAVE YOURSELF A DAY, JAKE! He’s batting .308 and holy smokes. Congrats if you’re as patient (read: stubborn) as I am and held on when it was tempting to cut him loose.

Cole Carrigg – 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI. Both hits were triples (just in case your league counts that kind of thing). Batting .282. I went back in the RazzBall Time Machine and found this bit about Carrigg from Grey’s June 9th post. “This year, Carrigg went 6/30/.338 in Triple-A with a 10.5 BB% and 15.2 K% in 225 ABs, and that looks like him every step of the way, outside the contact, potentially. Montgomery is a better bat/prospect, but Coors can fix a lot of wrongs. It could be either of them that is better this year.” And that’s me quoting Grey!

Christian Scott – 4 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 4 BB, 7 Ks, and his first loss. I wanted to add Scott back to the Top 100 list, but the innings total has to go up, and the walks need to come down before that happens.

Juan Soto – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 18th home run. Batting .297. Ok, but how many Little League home runs did he give up? (Yes, that’s a George Springer reference from last week’s Blue Jays series).

Grant Holmes – 5 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 5th win. Somebody is miffed about being removed from the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list last week. You’re gonna need to add another half dozen strikeouts before we clear a new spot for you, though, Holmes.

Raisel Iglesias – 1 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 17th save. It was a shaky one, but, as the old saying goes, they don’t ask how…they ask how many.

Matt Olson – 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 20th AND 21st home runs. Batting .273. Sure, this isn’t your big brother’s Young-Son from Oakland, but this 32-year-old OLD-son is doing just fine. 

Michael Harris – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 15th home run. Batting .296. I can’t remember which pod it was, as I’m trying to catch up on a bunch I missed while school was wrapping up, but Grey mentioned that he doesn’t particularly dislike Harris; he doesn’t trust the output or consistency (paraphrasing). I’m in the same boat there. Figuratively speaking, of course.

Jake Bennett – 7.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 3rd win. That’s three straight quality starts for the 25-year-old lefty, and it’s past time for you to make sure he’s not hiding on your free agent list.

Aroldis Chapman – 1 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 17th save. Chapman hit a big milestone in this one, too. He recorded his 1364th career strikeout, which moved him past Hoyt Wilhelm for the most reliever Ks in MLB history. Word is, his mother was proud of him (just don’t ask for the photo…or video).

Caleb Durbin – 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 8th home run. He’s been hot lately, and Grey nearly had him as his lede in Friday’s BUY column. You can read what he has to say about Caleb(s) there. 

Reid Detmers – 5 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 3 BB, 5 Ks, and his 6th loss. The 1.11 WHIP is still pretty great. The 4.13 ERA? Not-so-great. I don’t know if you started him last night, but I know I would have (because he was at home).

Jose Siri – 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 5th home run. Batting .267. “Hey Siri, can you recommend a 6th outfielder to roster in my AL-Only league?”

Trevor Rogers – 5 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 5 BB, 4 Ks, and his 6th win. He hasn’t allowed more than 3 ER since the end of May (6 starts including last night), and I was a heck of a lot more excited to see this line until I saw the BBs. I guess the positive here is they didn’t score.

Also, let’s borrow a graphic from Grey’s Thursday notes to illustrate just how good Trevor Rogers could be when everything is firing on all cylinders.

Samuel Basallo – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 13th home run. Batting .257. There’s my Perts league catcher! 

Brady Singer – 5 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 5 BB, 6 Ks, and a tough-luck loss (his 8th). His only mistake, really, was on the Basallo HR. Well, that and the five walks.

Anthony Kay – 4 IP, 1 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 4.39. WHIP at 1.39. So if you start a game, throw fewer than 5 innings, and then watch 6 different relievers finish things off for you, does it really qualify as a start or should it be considered a “bullpen game”? Asking for a friend.

Miguel Vargas – 2-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 20th home run. Batting .248. Gettin’ Miggy wit’ it.

Gavin Williams – 4.2 IP,  3 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision, ERA at 3.89. WHIP at 1.19. It was a bit worrisome to see that the Guardians pulled him after just 79 pitches, but it turns out it had more to do with a 2-hour rain delay than any injury concerns, so breathe a sigh of relief if you roster him.

Kody Clemens – 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 15th home run, Batting .244. He added a double in this one, too.

Gerrit Cole – 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 3rd win. ERA at 4.01. WHIP at 1.20. I saw a couple of people asking about dropping Cole in their leagues and immediately thought, “Come on. Take a deep breath and slow down a bit.” (That’s also what I tell my kid when he’s pitching, so I guess it checks out).

David Bednar – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 3 Ks, and a perfect inning for his 17th save.

Trent Grisham – 2-for-3, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 9th home run. I don’t know about Grishing him, but start him for sure.

Ben Rice – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 24th home run. Batting .270. True story alert: I drafted one of my RCLs this year late in the game, and after most of my other drafts were done, so I decided to zag a bit from my draft prep. That meant grabbing some names that I didn’t have in many other places. I took Drake Baldwin as my catcher, then I got a bit worried when I didn’t have a 1B, so I took Ben Rice instead of a traditional first baseman. And…that makes RCL #2 the only one that I’m not embarrassed to mention here.

Michael King – 6 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.43. WHIP at 1.16. It’s not a win on the scoresheet, but it’s his second-best start since May 18th, so let’s call it an unofficial dub.

Jackson Merrill – 2-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 10th home run. Batting .215. Hey, that’s two more hits than Tatis had last night!

Shohei Ohtani – 6 IP, 3 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 1.79. WHIP at 0.95. I ripped on Dalton Rushing in last week’s Top 100 Starting Pitcher article because he dared to doubt Ohtani’s ABS challenge. Don’t question this guy. Just watch and marvel at the excellence. Shohei did exit this game with a sore bicep and will sit today, but is hopefully back in action on Sunday.

Teoscar Hernandez – 1-for-4, 1 R, 4 RBI, his 8th home run (a grand slam), and one Blue Jays fan who is still sour about a terrible return in a trade from 4 years ago. Batting .269. 

Kyle Stowers – 4-for-5, 3 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR (8th and 9th). Batting .243. It was a homerfest for the Marlins in this one, led by the Tower of Stowers Power.

Heriberto Hernandez – 2-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 9th home run. Cool story. His RBI total here is less than the number of times I had to double-check how to spell his name properly. (And if you think that’s bad, you should see how much fun it is to try to figure out European names on the hockey side during the winter months!)

Owen Caissie – 1-for-5, 1 R, 2 RBI, HR (11th). Batting .238. I was going to write up Jacob Marsee instead, until I realized his slam and legs included a CS instead of an SB. Have Marsee, indeed.

Jack Perkins – 3.2 IP, 7 ER, 7 H, 4 BB, 8 Ks, 2 HR allowed, and his 4th loss. I was surprised that the A’s only hit one home run when I saw they were at Bing Bong Stadium and wondered if the ball just wasn’t carrying last night. Then I saw that the Marlins hit five. Ouch. 

Nick Kurtz – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 20th home run. Batting .282. There’s that one home run!

Mitch Keller – 6 IP, 5 ER, 8 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 6th loss. He had 7 quality starts in his first 11 GS this year. Now, after 18 starts, that QS total is at 9. Woof.

Bryan Reynolds – 2-for-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 12th home run. Batting .282. I don’t know if anyone has done an in-depth post-doctorate study on this, but when did we normalize spelling that first name with a “Y” instead of with an “I”? 

Foster Griffin – 5 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 9th win. ERA at 2.87. WHIP at 1.04. Shhh…the eagle-lion adoption center is on the short list of second-half breakout arms!

Luis Garcia – 2-for-4, 2 R, 3 RBI, and 2 HR (16, 17). Batting .283. And what the heck has gotten into this dude?! Talk about a steal of a middle infield pick way back in draft season (his NFBC ADP was 236).

Daylen Lile – 3-for-4, 2 R, 4 RBI, 2 HR (8, 9). Batting .256. This Nats offense is something else. 

Dylan Cease – 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and his 5th win. I tuned into this one late (4th inning) because the kids didn’t fall asleep until 15 minutes into the movie we were watching. Cease said in his post-game presser that it was “just a slight mechanical tweak” that helped him last night, and whatever “tweak” that was, he can keep on doing it. Last night’s start was his 10th consecutive one with 7 or more strikeouts.

Louis Varland – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 1 K, and his 17th save. ERA at 0.96. WHIP at 0.94. Can we take a moment to say thank you to Jeff Hoffman for not blowing the hold in the 8th inning too? (That’s a thing, right?)

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – 1-for-3, 1 RBI. Batting .268, and I’m thinking you can guess if he added to that home run total or not. (He didn’t).

Luis Castillo – 6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 7th loss. ERA at 4.79. WHIP at 1.33. It’s not a win, but it’s a quality start. And, hey, he didn’t have to follow an opener or piggyback anyone, so that’s really a personal win, no? Hashtag sarcasm.

Kyle Harrison – 2.2 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, on 72 pitches, and I have no idea if this is part of an innings management plan, but at least the 2.82 ERA and 1.08 WHIP didn’t take much of a hit in this one. 

Garrett Mitchell – 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 8th home run. Batting .265. And that’s your July 4th Mitchell Report!

Ketel Marte – 2-for-5, 1 R, 1 SB (4th). Batting .269. Or at least he was through the top of the 11th inning. This one was still going into the wee hours of the morning, and I had to pull the pin. Maybe it’ll still be going when I wake up and have to go run a couple of ball practices!

That’s all for this week’s roundup! Come back and see me on Monday when I launch an updated Top 100 Starting Pitchers list with new Jumpers, Dumpers, and all of the regular goodies with some Weird Al references to boot.

Follow me @marmosdad on Twitter/X and Bluesky @marmosdad.bsky.social