Be Vewy Vewy Quiet, We’re Hunt(er)ing Woo-bits!

Wait, you mean, you want me to cover another Friday night roundup, and it just so happens to be another Friday night where the Mariners are giving the ball to Bryan Woo?

I don’t know if Dan Pants has been stricken with the same illness that a lot of the AL West hitters have suffered from this season – a bad case of Woo-itis or Woo-phobia – but I think this might be my third roundup that has coincided with Bryan Woo starting our weekend off with a bang!

I do know that I’ll gladly take ANY chance to write up the MarmoMancrush that I highlighted in the Top 100 Starting Pitchers article way back on August 25th.

But let’s not digress too far.

It was a clash of aces last night in Houston as Hunter Brown (6 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 9 Ks. ERA at 2.30) faced off against Bryan Woo (5 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 7 Ks. ERA at 2.94) in a battle for AL West supremacy.

I watched this one last night, and both Woo and Brown looked every bit the aces that they’ve proven to be this year. Woo cruised through 5 innings and was at just 67 pitches when he came out to start the 6th, soft-tossed three warmup pitches, and immediately left with the trainer. Breathe, fellow Woo-bots, breathe. Maybe it was just a cramp. EDIT: Dan Wilson said after the game that Woo had some “minor pectoral tightness” that the team was aware of, and that the warmup pitches were just to test things out. Seattle’s ace is scheduled to have an MRI today.

No matter what happens the rest of the way, these two starters should end up in the Top 5 for AL Cy Young votes. Brown didn’t have much of a chance last night, though, as his offense could muster just 3 hits all night. 

I do know one thing: I wouldn’t want my favorite team to have to face either one of these guys in a winner-take-all one-game wild-card elimination game.

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

Shota Imanaga – 5 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.37. WHIP at 0.96. Spencer Steer (19), Miguel Andujar (10), and Matt McLain (15) took Shota deep in this one and chased him after 5 innings. Porter Hodge gave up Steer’s second dinger and ultimately took the L (his 2nd).

Dansby Swanson – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 23rd HR. Batting .249. At the age of 31, he’s nowhere near his swan song, but he feels more like a decent middle infielder add than a solid top fantasy shortstop.

Matt Shaw – 2-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 12th HR. Batting .223. The triple eligibility is nice, but it would be nice if he weren’t the NL equivalent of Luis Rengifo.

Nick Lodolo – 4.2 IP, 4 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks on 94 pitches. ERA at 3.44. The Cubs made him work last night, and the outcome wasn’t great. The strikeouts are nice, but I felt better about dropping him for a streaming hitter spot a few days ago in the Perts league after I saw this.

Elly De La Cruz – 1-for-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 20th HR. Batting .262. The good news is he finally got the green light to steal. The bad news is that he was caught stealing by Carson Kelly. Woof.

Emilio Pagan – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, and his 28th save. ERA at 3.11. It was his second save in his last four outings, and he’s allowed just 1 ER since September 1st (7 IP).

Bryce Elder – 7 IP, 1 ER, 5 H, 0 BB, 6 Ks, and his 8th win. ERA at 5.36. I’ve resisted adding Elder back in the Top 100 Starting Pitchers, but, like I said last week, now’s the time to ride the hot hand, and an outing like this against DET means someone has some toasty fingers.

Ronald Acuna Jr. – 1-for-4, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 18th HR. Batting .284. The 7 SBs are tough to swallow, but an 18/7 split in just 369 PAs isn’t a bad season; it’s just not what you hoped from the Braves’ superstar when you used up an early round pick on him. Mr Pro-Rater will tell you that’s a 27-homer, 12 SB season in 550 ABs…or what we got from Tyler Soderstrom. Ouch.

Drake Baldwin – 2-for-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 17th HR. Batting .271. I was lucky enough to add Baldwin early in my TGFBI league and ran with him and Hunter Goodman for most of the season. A pretty sick catcher tandem…if I didn’t need Goodman in the OF for 3 months because Yordan Alvarez is about as reliable as a bathing suit made out of sugar cubes.

Charlie Morton – 1.1 IP, 6 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks, and his 5th straight start without a win. He’s also thrown 5 innings just once in that span. The “Elder/Morton” joke writes itself here, and Grandpa Charlie needs to make way for a younger rotation arm sooner rather than later.

Spencer Torkelson – 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 30th HR. And if you’d bet me $20 last night that he had more than 25 homers, I’d have lost $20.

Mitch Keller – 5 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 15th loss. ERA at 4.22. Mr. Quality Start from the first half has turned into Mr. Crappy Start in the second half. He’s thrown just 2 QS in his last 10 games and has two wins since July 28th.

Spencer Horwitz– 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI. The second coolest Horwitz, (behind AdRock) is batting .261.

Luis Severino – 5 IP, 1 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 3 Ks, and his 7th win. ERA at 4.72. This was a nice bounce-back for his first win since a ‘short IL stint’ turned into one that cost him almost all of August.

Nick Kurtz – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 33rd HR. Batting .293. This guy is on the short list, along with Bryan Woo and Jo Adell, for the MarmosDad Mancrush of the Year award. He tied Jose Canseco’s rookie home run total last night and trails just Mark McGwire for the A’s rookie record of 49. He’s the runaway AL Rookie of the Year winner, and the only question left to answer is, “Can you imagine what kind of numbers he’d have if they brought him with the big club out of Spring Training?” I’m guessing he would’ve at least given Big Mac a run for his money.

Lawrence Butler – 1-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 21st HR. Batting .239. We were outside in the backyard building a bonfire while I had this game on the phone. I called the kids over to watch the Kurtz homer, and my eldest asked if this guy was any good. I said, “Ya. He went 20/20 this year, but I think he’ll be even better next season.” Hopefully I’m right.

Will Warren – 5.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 4 Ks, and his 8th loss. ERA at 4.35. The only real mistake he made was on the solo homer to Ryan Mountcastle. You can’t blame him for the loss, especially since he faced one of the top SPs from the second half.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. – Guess who joined the 30/30 club last night! And guess how many Yankees have done it before him! Jazz Hands was the first Jankee to do so since Alfonso Soriano did it back-to-back in 2003-2004. The only other one? Some guy named B. Bonds. (Don’t get too excited. It was Bobby. In 1975.)

Trevor Rogers – 6 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 2 BB, 7 Ks, and his 9th win. ERA at 1.35. WHIP at 0.87. Remember when I said this guy is one of the best SPs in the second half? It’s true. And it’s not even close. He’s given up 10 ER in 65.1 IP (since July 20th), with 61 Ks, 14 BBs, and just 2 HR allowed. The 2.32 FIP over that span is just filthy. It would be tough to name anyone else the second-half SP MVP.

Gunnar Henderson – 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI. Batting .276. I started writing him up, thinking he hit a home run in this one, but, like we have for most of his season, I left disappointed to see that he hadn’t.

Keegan Akin – 1 IP, 0 ER, 0 H, 0 BB, 2 Ks, and his 8th save. ERA at 3.10. This wasn’t a bad gamble if you added him to make up some ground in the saves. He has 4 in his last 5 appearances since September 11th.

CJ Abrams – 2-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, and his 18th HR. Batting .264. I don’t know what’s more shocking, the career-best batting average or the fact that this guy is closing in on his second consecutive 20/30 season. It won’t be a 47-steal year like he had in 2022, but I guess that’s just picking nits.

Brandon Sproat – 4 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.94. The 1.19 WHIP is fine, and the ERA isn’t overly disgusting. I’d be wary about starting him at CHC next week, though.

Francisco Lindor – 3-for-4, 4 R, 1 RBI, and his 34th 2B. Batting .268. Frankie doesn’t need to go to Hollywood to drive the Mets’ offense. He can do it at Citi Field, too.

Juan Soto – 2-for-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, his 42nd HR, and his 34th SB. Batting .265. Remember when people were ripping on the Mets for giving Soto that huge deal and calling him a bust? Ya. I’m guessing a lot of them are the same ones complaining that Cal Raleigh shouldn’t be the AL MVP over a certain other New York OF, too.  

Garrett Crochet – 6 IP, 3 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 9 Ks, and his 17th win. ERA at 2.69. Two homers tarnished the line a bit, but this guy is one of just two SPs who can have a sliver of a chance to steal a tally or two away from Tarik Skubal in the Cy Young voting.

Jarren Duran – 2-for-6, 2 R, 2 RBI, and his 16th HR. Batting .261. Oh yeah?! Well, he didn’t steal a base! Yes. That’s the only thing we can criticize here.

Cedanne Rafaela – 4-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI. Batting .243. I said it with Lawrence Butler above, but the same can be said about Rafaela for 2026. A good season this year. And I won’t be the only one to predict a great season next year.

Drew Rasmussen – 3 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks. ERA at 2.80. He went 5+ innings in his last 10 GS. And NOW they’re going to manage his innings? He was pulled after getting 9 outs on 76 pitches.

Everson Pereira – 1-for-5, 1 R, 4 RBI, and his 2nd HR. Carson Williams also hit his 5th HR in this one. And if you add Pereira’s .148 AVG to Williams’ .189, you’d have one heck of a contact hitter.

Yandy Diaz – 3-for-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 25th HR. Batting .300. Speaking of contact hitters! Yandy is nice enough to be a solid source of AVG, who chips in 25 homers, too!

Max Scherzer – 0.2 IP, 7 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 3rd loss. Oh, Max. What a Min start. This was just the beginning of the Royal Crap-kicking that the Jays took on Friday night in a 20-1 debacle. As for Scherzer, he gave up the same number of homers as the number of outs he recorded. Ouch. At least he didn’t get hurt.

George Springer – 2-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 30th HR. Batting .304. I said to an old friend early yesterday morning that the Jays’ 2025 MVP has to be Springer. For all the positives they’ve had, a Springer bounce back was not on my Bingo card. And his experience is going to be a huge factor if they’re going to make some noise in a long playoff run.

Tyler Heineman – 1.1 IP, 10 ER, 13 H, 0 BB, 0 Ks, 1 HR allowed. ERA at 32.40. What? You actually like seeing hitters pitch? Barf emoji. As a side note, IKF threw 0.2 hitless innings to finish this one off.

Dylan Cease – 6 IP, 4 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 6 Ks, and his 12th loss. ERA at 4.64. WHIP at 1.31. This guy never Ceases to amaze me with how many times he can disappoint fantasy managers in one season. He’s 8-12, and we can’t even start him in what looks like it should’ve been a cookie matchup. I know CWS isn’t as bad as they were last year, but come on. You’re supposed to be a top-tier starter, and this is what you do in a homecoming game?

Davis Martin – 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 7th win. ERA at 4.03. Can you guess if his WHIP is better than Cease’s, too? Spoiler Alert: It is. It’s 1.27.

Miguel Vargas – 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 15th HR. Batting .228. 228? That sounds like a Marla Gibbs sequel.

Janson Junk – 7 IP, 1 ER, 3 H, 0 BB, 5 Ks. ERA at 4.27. Whatcha gonna do with Janson Junk? I’m gonna get get get you…a no-decision and a wasted quality start? Ya. I’m pretty sure that’s not how the song goes.

Tyler Mahle – 4.2 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 6 Ks. ERA at 2.20. Mahle threw 68 pitches in his first game in 3 months (shoulder strain). I’m sure Texas planned on using the bullpen last night, but I’m not so sure they expected to be headed into the bottom of the 12th inning with their 9th pitcher of the night. Oof.

Rowdy Tellez – 1-for-1, 1 R, 2 RBI, and his 16th HR. This one was a pinch-hit jobber in the bottom of the 10th that spoiled the Marlins’ comeback victory and pushed the game into the 11th inning.

Parker Messick – 5.1 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 9 Ks, and the no-decision. I’ve hemmed and hawed about moving Messick up the Top 100 Starting Pitchers list for a couple of weeks now, but this is prime “What have you done for me lately!” time, and last night he came two outs away from posting his 5th quality start (in 6 GS). It’s time to ride the hot hand.

Steven Kwan – 2-for-5, 2 R, 1 RBI. Batting .273. Some guys surprise me when I see they’re hitting .300. This one surprised me when I saw that he wasn’t.

Jose Ramirez – 1-for-3, 2 R, and his 40th (!) SB. Batting .282. JoRam is just casually creeping towards another 30/40 season at age 33. Just like we all expected? Uh, ya. Just like we all expected.

Bo Naylor – 2-for-4, 0 R, 4 RBI. Batting .191. Two hits pushed his average up to .191? Oh no, Bo. Say it ain’t so. Even funnier, I originally typed .194 and thought that was bad before I double checked my numbers. Yikes.

Pablo Lopez – 4 IP, 2 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 2 Ks on 61 pitches before being removed with forearm tightness. Apparently, it was more about him landing on the arm after diving for a ball, so at least it wasn’t from throwing, but I’d monitor him here before starting him next week at TEX.

Royce Lewis – 2-for-4, 0 R, 1 RBI. Batting .240. That’s all the news that was worth reporting from the Twins in this one, unless you count Byron Buxton not getting injured as big news.

Mitch Farris – 4.1 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, and his 2nd loss. ERA at 6.52. Farris should’ve taken the day off.

Christian Moore – 1-for-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, his 7th HR, and third in five games. I could use a few Moore hits and SBs in my AL-Only league next week, too, Christian.

Denzer Guzman – 1-for-3, 2 R, 1 RBI, and his 2nd HR. Special thanks to his mother for naming him something close enough to a Colorado city that my autocorrect almost made me throw my phone out the window after repeated “corrections”.

Bradley Blalock – 5 IP, 6 ER, 8 H, 1 BB, 4 Ks, and his 2nd win? Bradley is doing his best to crack into the household Blalock conversation behind Mookie, Hank, and Pearl Jam. It’ll take a lot more than posting a line like that, though.

Julio Rodriguez – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 31st HR. Julio wasn’t the only Mariner to provide a solo home run as Josh Naylor (20), Eugenio Suarez (47), and Victor Robles (7) also poked a one-run dong over the fences. Forgive me for the lack of excitement, though. I’m still waiting to hear good news about Bryan Woo.

Jacob Misiorowski – 3.2 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 Ks. ERA at 4.38. I assumed this was another early hook due to “management”, but The Miz threw 77 pitches, so it wasn’t exactly an easy cruise through the Cards’ lineup.

Sal Frelick – 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 12th HR. Batting .295. He’s been sitting on 19 SBs for 10 games now. (His last was September 5th.)

Sonny Gray – 6 IP, 1 ER, 9 H, 0 BB, 7 Ks, and his 14th win. ERA at 4.33. If you’re brave enough to ride the Sonny Gray roller coaster, you’d better have double seatbelts and a reinforced helmet before he hits a wall again. (He’s at SF next week.)

Nolan Arenado – 1-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI. Batting .233. This one looked like a home run line. It…was not.

Taijuan Walker – 4 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks before giving way to another starting pitcher who piggybacked Taijuan in this start. And speaking of Walkers, unlike Ferris in that Athletics game, this team’s Buehler managed to pick up the win (his 9th).

Harrison Bader – 3-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 17th HR. Batting .287. Let’s say the Harrison Bader trade was a success, shall we?

Nick Castellanos – 2-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBIs as he pinch hit for Max Kepler in the —- as there’s a drive into deep left field by Castellanos. It will be a home run (his 17th).

Alec Bohm – 2-for-5, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his first game back after a 10-day IL stint (shoulder cyst). I’ve got no homers to report from the Bohm Squad, but it was a successful return, nonetheless.

Brandon Marsh – 2-for-4, 3 R, and his 6th SB. Batting .283. There was a time when I rostered both this guy and Jo Adell every year and stayed up late to watch the LAA games. I feel like a proud Papa bird watching the babies finally flap their wings this season.

Ryne Nelson – 5 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 1 K. ERA at 3.35. We had a lot of starters who didn’t go a full 6 innings last night, and Nelson was no exception. If he’d gotten 6 more outs, that line would be a lot more palatable.

Ketel Marte – 3-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 26th HR. Batting .279. I don’t know why I always expect steals when I look this guy up. His career high in SBs was way back in 2016 when he had 11 with Seattle. Regardless of that, he’s the 7th-ranked 2B on the Player Rater (between Brandon Lowe and Jorge Polanco).

Robbie Ray – 4.2 IP, 5 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 5 Ks, 3 HR allowed, and his 11th loss. That’s 10 ER in his last two starts (total) over 8.2 innings against the LA Dodgers, aka The Avengers. The good news is Ray won’t have to worry about starting against that superhero squad again this year. The bad news is that it’s because the Giants are likely missing the playoffs.

Heliot Ramos – 1-for-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 18th HR. Batting .257. I can’t be the only one who hears E.T.‘s voice in his head when we read this guy’s first name, right?

Clayton Kershaw – 4.1 IP, 2 ER, 4 H, 4 BB, 6 Ks, and the no-decision. ERA at 3.56. The four walks kind of mucked up the magic of Kershaw’s final regular-season home start of his career, but I’m sure fans aren’t too worried. They’ll get to see him in what’s likely to be one more lengthy playoff run.

Tanner Scott – 1 IP, 0 ER, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 Ks, and his 20th save. ERA at 4.64. Ok. Here’s the go-to guy, I guess. FWIW, Kirby Yates pitched a clean 8th inning in front of him.

Shohei Ohtani – 1-for-3, 1 R, 3 RBI, and his 52nd HR. Batting .283. “52 home runs? That’s it? And he only hits from one side of the plate and doesn’t play defense? Pffft.” That’s a quote that may or may not have been from Cal Raleigh.

Mookie Betts – 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, and his 20th HR. Batting .260. Yep. We’ve reached the point where we’re disappointed with Mookie’s output despite the 20 HR, 79 RBI, 93 R season, while giving us multiple position eligibility (2B/SS/OF). What a time to be alive!

 

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

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