Cam Records 12 Strikeouts In Come To Jesus Luzardo Meeting

New York Yankees starting pitcher slash Ace slash heartthrob Cam Schlittler faced off against the Phillies led by Ace Jesus Luzardo Friday night and put together what was likely his most dominant outing of the year, going seven and a third innings, allowing just three hits and striking out twelve Phillies for his tenth win of the year. In a battle of Aces, Schlittler brought the gas and showed who’s the real number two, pitching the first three innings without allowing a single baserunner! It was an absolute Schlitt show, folks.  Philadelphia, one of the strongest offenses in the league, was unable to get anything going against Cam. The twelve strikeouts were one off from his career high of 13 earlier this year against the Reds, and Cam now leads the AL with 157 strikeouts.  Cam now has a 2.07 ERA, 0.93 WHIP, but it’s the 30.5 K% that makes me go, “Ohh that Schlitt happened!” On the other side of the field, Jesus Luzardo made his best sacrifice to save his teammates lasting seven innings, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine Yankees, but it wasn’t enough to escape his fifth loss of the year. Luzardo did his best Schlitt-y impression and matched him for most of the game, but a home run to Paul Goldschmidt was the difference-maker in this one. Au Shizz, indeed! Or ah Schlitt! Pick your poison. Cam will continue his march towards the Cy Young on the road next week, where he has a league-best 1.08 road ERA with eight wins and a 99/16 K/BB. I hope Cam is recording all this because he’s putting together one of the more dominant seasons in recent history. I Schlitt you not!

Here’s what else I saw in fantasy baseball Friday night:

Christian Yelich – 1-for-5, HR (7). How to make a Christian Yelich? Maybe start with that headline? I feel like we’re not hard enough on Yeli? He’s been mostly boring, borderline waiver wire fodder. Some advanced stats say the positive regression is on the way, but he’s just been a brutal own, even leading off, he seems like a black hole in the lineup.

Brice Turang – 3-for-4, HR (15). Brice Turango’d this one to the seats. We knew he had the speed, but the power is happily unexpected. I love me a 25-25 guy. Is he the best second baseman in the league? What are the chances Brewers sign him to a long-term deal? What’s less than zero? Can I bet on this? Who am I asking all these questions to?

Jordan Romano – 1.0 IP, 2 hits, K, SV (8). Jordan Romano, of the Locatelli Grated Pecorino Romanos, is generally shredded but not Friday night. He got the save with only a minimal heart event. Just making sure the ticket still works. It’s hilarious to me the most volatile closer in baseball now closes games for Colorado. You really can’t find anyone better than this?

Shane Drohan – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 4th L, ERA at 3.51. You don’t mess with the Drohan! I’ve been waiting months to make that joke so if it feels forced, that’s because it is. The Rockies got a little Scrappy Coco in them and got to the Drohan for 5 ER. What? Are we more comfortable quoting Happy Gilmore? Love me a obscure Sandler film. The Drohan gets the Giants next week, and I could see considering the prospect of maybe thinking about mulling over the possibility of contemplating whether or not I should review the option of potentially picking him up. I still don’t know for sure, though!

Tomoyuki Sugano – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, BB, 5 K, 10th win. Ten wins! I spelled it out for you. Tomoyuki arigato, Mr. Sugano! Someone wants to get traded real bad! But not before your KC start next week! It’s at Coors, if I was desperate, I could see myself being that desperate. I wouldn’t, but I would.

Jared Jones – 6.0 IP, 2 hits, ER, BB, 5 K. Well, aren’t you glad you held him for a month while they ramped him up? That was, of course, after holding him two months while he was injured. Well, the dividends are finally coming in, the checks are arriving in the mail, the ERA is below 4, and he notched his second quality start this month while posting a 1.29 ERA. JJ is back like he never left.

Matthew Boyd – 7.0 IP, 7 hits, ER, 3 BB, 4 K. Yeaaah Boyd! That’s my impression of Flava Flav at Wrigley. Boyd is another one you are reaping the benefits of stashing for as long as you did. Matthew notched his 1100th strikeout in this one, which I guess is cool. Really 1100? (ELEVEN-hundred) Are we going to do this for every 100 Ks? Why not 50? Boyd is rocking a 2.31 ERA through six starts since returning from the IL in late June. He gets the Cardinals next and I’m feeling another Cubs run coming on. What comes before the wagon? Are the Cubs a horse, y’all?

Pete Crow-Armstrong – 2-for-4, HR (22). I mean if anyone’s a horse, it’s PCA. Watch him whip and watch him nay nay! Hopefully this gets him out of his funk, he’s slashing just .200/.375/.480 with the one homer coming out of the break. It’s Pete’s streakiness like this that made me scared to draft him anywhere, but I was clearly a big idiot now I’m a big idiot without any shares of PCA. He’s well on his way to a 30-30 season.

Gavin Hollowell – 1.0 IP, K, SV (1). Jacob Webb came into the eighth in a tie game and still seems to be the top closing option in the pen, but Caleb Thielbar pitched a clean ninth and held down the job early this year. Let’s throw Trent Thornton and Hollowell into the mix of suitors all vying for save chances and Penelope’s heart.

Tarik Skubal – 7.1 IP, 4 hits, ER, 2 BB, 12 K, 7th win. Would you believe he had an elbow injury earlier this year? He had 12 strikeouts with a 45% whiff rate. Not a typo. I know this Royals team is pathetic without BWJ but this is just filthiness.

Kenley Jansen – 1.0 IP, K, SV (12). Finnegan got the save Thursday, but that was mostly because Kenley had pitched three of the past four days. Twelve saves seems hella low. Yeah, I broke out the hella? That’s not very good. Jordan Romano almost has that many. ERA near 4 is also bad. Don’t you want to get traded Kenley? You’re like a Tiktok shop closer right now. Temu special. At least we know who takes over if Tigers do decide to fire sale, but I don’t know who’s buying.

Noah Cameron – 7.0 IP, 2 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 8 K. The line looks real good, sure, and he threw 97 pitches, wow, good job, but he came in after an opener so he gets no flowers from me. You’re not a starting pitcher. Do you think Sandy Koufax had an opener get the first three outs for him? How is this even allowed? Using openers for decent starters to give them a nice boost to begin the game is like the most Gen Z thing ever. I hate it. Be a man. In a respectful, progressive way that doesn’t offend anyone, of course. He does get the Twins next week, and to be fair, if there’s an opener, I’m even more interested.

Eduardo Rodriguez – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 9th win. Ed-Rod has been shockingly consistent. Like, I want to drop you so bad but you give me no choice but the hold. This was his eighth quality start since the start of June, and he’s tied for third in the league in QSs. Anyone in a quality start league? Wow, sounds really dumb. Hope you have Ed-Rod. Only Sandy Alcantara, Cristopher Sanchez, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto have more. That’s some pretty impressive company! Even more impressive is who’s tied with Ed-Rod for 13 quality starts: Michael McGreevy!

Juan Morillo – 1.0 IP, K, 12th hold. Sewald got his 24th save, but it was Juan BUY Morillo who notched the hold in impressive fashion.

Dylan Crews – 2-for-4, HR (8), 2 RBI. Wrecking Crews! He sure can slap ’em, huh? He’s still slashing .204/.358/.389, but is the post-hype sleeperness of Dylan happening under all our noses? He’s hitting .313 with two homers in the past week, and for someone with his power/speed upside in that lineup, he is so, so, so available. He’s always had the bat speed and EV, his launch angle is improving. I’m not saying it’s happening, but he’s the type of player that could win your league if it all clicks and he catches fire.

Tyler Rogers – 7.0 IP, 6 hits, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 K. Rog, can I call you Rog? How about TyRo? Rog is good. He’s rocking a sub-2 ERA since the start of June! Roger, Rogers! What’s your vector, Victor Caratini? Seems like Tyler could have gone another inning here, but I’m not Mr. Manager, instead, I lose my win. I mean, Tyler loses his win.

Andrew Kittredge – 0.2 IP, 2 hits, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 K, 2nd L. Well, at least they were unearned runs. Tyler Wells seems to be the preferred closing option and entered the ninth in a tie game after Rico Garcia blew the lead, and Tyler seems to be the guy to own in this pen for saves. Tyler would never do that to another Tyler.

Grant Holmes –  5.0 IP, 6 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. He’s spectacularly mid. He’s got three quality outings across 15 starts, and those quality starts also mid. If you need a house Grant Holmes is your guy, if you need a streamer, you could do better. He does get the Mets next week though, and they are terrible.

Matt Olson – 2-for-5, HR (27), 3 RBI. Allahson! This came in the 10th inning, so maybe that’s extra points? He probably won’t get to 50, but he does lead all first basemen in bombs, runs scored, and OPS. He’s slashing .269/.344/.876 with 27 HR and 63 RBI, that’s a 40/100 pace! That’s a first round pick for me! Outside of Kurtzy, who holds a very special place in my big ol’ heart, is there a first baseman you’d take over Matty O? Alonso? Rice? Stewart? Vargas? Vlad? (Lol) Mune? Harper? That’s what I thought!

Drake Baldwin – 1-for-5, HR (20). Nice for what! Game tying blast! Shebangs is right. He was slow to regain his form after returning from his injury but we all knew eventually he was going to play me in head to head again here we are: slashing .438/.526/.906 since the break with five homers, 10 RBI, and a 1.432 OPS. Sweet sassy molassy!

Gunnar Henderson – 0-for-4. He was actually pretty decent this week, hit safely in four straight. Even stole a bag. I just shame him out of habit now.

Christian Encarnacion-Strand – 2-for-4, HR (3), 4 RBI. Speaking of the year of the post-hype breakouts, if you’re not on board with my Dylan Crews and you missed out on Jordan Walker and Miguel Vargas  pick may I interest you in some CES? He was a BUY, and Grey said, “He hit 19 HRs in the minors this year in 274 ABs and already has a couple homers in the majors. There’s not many guys who are currently in the majors with his power, who are available in literally every fantasy league, who just needs at-bats. Think it’s worth a speculative grab that he’s a post-post-post.” And that’s me quoting Grey! He cut off the Strand, so is he just CE now? Regardless, in five games with his new club CES is batting .400 with three home runs and 8 RBI along with a 1.329 OPS. He’s the first Oriole in history to have eight RBI in his first five games with the team. The Orioles will surely ruin this right? Maybe call up Heston Kjerstad to steal his ABs?

Shane McClanahan – 5.0 IP, 2 hits, ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 9th win. He’s been mostly meh, but the wins are there. That’s a pretty good description of the Rays organization, to be honest.

Joey Cantillo – 3.2 IP, 8 hits, 5 ER, BB, 4 K. The curveball is still nasty, but that’s about the only thing that was working for Joey Joe Jo here. It was dicing up some of the weaker teams he was facing before the break, but a team like the Rays, who are going to stack righties against him, don’t play like that. He gets a tough matchup in Cincinnati next week and I’m not sure he’s worth holding.

Roki Sasaki – 7.0 IP, 3 hits, ER, 2 BB, 9 K, 4th win. Roki dokie returns! We sort of knew this was coming. This was like that Angels start where you stashed him for two weeks because you knew how much he would dominate a weak hitting club like this. In fact, it was his first seven inning outing outside of that Angels start. The velocity, which was sitting up over 100 in his last start, was down in this one but still sitting 99. Also, it doesn’t matter when his splitter, which he utilized 47% of the time, is splitting like it was. Career high 19 whiffs, 12 on the splitter, for a 60% whiff rate, and he struck out the side in the sixth. In short, our dude was dominant in what was probably the best start of his young career. Sure, it was the Mets, and they lost Soto, but he’s now got a 0.71 ERA and 14/3 K/BB in two starts coming out of the break, and we all know if there’s anything the Dodgers need more of, it’s Aces. If the Dodgers finally unlocked Roki, we should all be very afraid.

Tanner Scott – 1.0 IP, K, SV (16). Who says Edwin Diaz gets his job back when he returns? With Tanner pitching as well as he has been, a Diaz/Scott tandem is also scary. Everything just coming up for the Dodgers, how great.

Sean Manaea – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, ER, 2 BB, 3 K. If you started him against the Dodgers you have pants grapes the size of Odysseus, or even more accurately, the size of Polyphemus, who is, of course, a man-eating giant, son of Poseidon, and visually challenged cyclops. Those are big grapes, you guys! As for Manaea, that was a perfectly timed start to trick other teams into trading for you, hopefully before next week’s matchup with the Braves.

Juan Soto – Left the game with calf soreness and is scheduled for an MRI, but an IL stint is looking very likely. How can we blame Emma Stone for this?

Luis Robert Jr. – 1-for-3, HR (4). Don’t worry Mets fans you still have LouBob, he’s got two homers in four games back, including this shotski! Wait, why are you crying harder? What did Emma say to you!?

Kyle Tucker – 2-for-3, HR (8), 2 RBI. I actually love Emma Stone, she is an absolute gem, and I think this would make just the perfect prop for her new movie. If you could grab his ankles, we could hang him by his wrists from the top of the foul pole and–wait, Kyle Tucker moved! He’s alive!

Francisco Alvarez – 1-for-3, HR (12). Third homer out of the break and if the Mets and Citi Field are involved in any way I assume Emma must be filming a horror movie. Maybe it’s an Obsession style thriller where the protagonist is cursed into blind Mets fandom. Spooky!

Ty France – 2-for-4. I see London, I see a BUY! I know it’s hard to buy into this guy, who most of us view as perpetual waiver wire fodder, but he’s slashing .353/.389/.912 with five homers and 10 RBI coming out of the break (8 games), with a 1.301 OPS! Sacre bleu! Buy into that!

Luis Rengifo – 1-for-1, HR (2), 2 RBI. Speaking of lifetime waiver wire fodder, Rengifo plays pinch hit hero! He’s got a six game hitting streak coming out of the break batting a blistering .476 with two bombs and 7 RBI. Hot schmotato alert!

Heriberto Hernandez – 2-for-4, HR (14). We have reached the hot little potato section of the blog, and Heriberto is no exception, hitting .345/.367/.552 since the break with this home run and two steals. Double H has got a very colorful baseball savant page too, and he’s surprisingly available in most leagues despite being among the tops in the league in Hard Hit % and Barrel Rate. He’s slashing .333/.391/.746  with six homers in July and a 1.137 OPS and he’s finally batting in the heart of the Fish lineup. The guy is absolutely on fire, why aren’t we talking about him more? What am I missing? Double H is the game. Is he not this damn good?

Zebby Matthews – 6.0 IP, 3 hits, 2 ER, 3 BB, K. This is about as easy as the matchup is gonna get for Zebby, and if this is his ceiling, I’m already bored.

Dustin May – 6.0 IP, 7 hits, ER, 8 K. The stuff is there for May. He’s not as good as the pitcher he was at the start of June, and he’s not as bad as the pitcher he’s been over the past month-ish (9.92 ERA and a 2.20 WHIP since his complete game shutout). He’s somewhere in between, if I May. Don’t love his next start versus the Cubs, do love the home park though.

Elly De La Cruz – 1-for-4, run, 2 SB (18). Elly of the Cross brings value with his feet even when he’s not bringing the power with his bat. Kind of like certain OF models.

Eugenio Suarez – 2-for-4, HR (14), 2 RBI. His third homer since the break is a 430-foot tank! 110 EV off the bat. If anyone can hit 20 homers in the second half, it’s this guy. He’s got a .741 SLUG% over his past seven games. Carry me, Eugenio!

Davis Martin – 5.0 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 0 BB, 3 K. Let me be Frank, Davis Martin, and the whole Rat Pack. The White Sox starters outside of Burke seem to be hitting a wall after playing over their heads for months. Mr. General Manager needs to go get them a certified starter, or all this excitement was for naught. This team deserves some help, go get them some!

Spencer Arrighetti – 1.0 IP, 2 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB. Left with nerve irritation in his foot, which certain communities will pay extra for on OF…uh, I’ve heard!

Cam Smith – 1-for-5, HR (13), 3 RBI. One more time around on the post-hype breakouts, we might be a year away on Cam, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start mocking drafts for 2027! I am a sick man.

Braden Montgomery – 3-for-5, run, RBI. Here’s a post-hype BUY with WAY less posts. The less posts the quicker you have to jump on it. He’s slashing .321/.367/.464 since the break, and once he starts hitting, your odds of grabbing him decrease exponentially. Braden could be the first wave of -aden names we start seeing as Gen-Z starts populating the league more and more. In five years, lineups will be chock full of Aiden, Brayden, Jaydens, Caidens and Haydens.

MacKenzie Gore – 5.0 IP, 7 hits, 3 ER, 2 BB, 5 K. I personally like Raydon, it’s one of my favorite gasses. Speaking of gas, Gore was looking borderline Ace-like for a stretch there. Must have been the matchups. This is the return of the Mac!

Bryce Miller – 5.1 IP, 6 hits, 5 ER, BB, 0 K. Woof. Maybe the Rangers are that good, but you have to be better than this Bryce. This must be how Odysseus felt when Calypso told him what’d she’d done. Hopeless like I wasted a pick, I mean years.

Jake Burger – 2-for-4, HR (18), 3 RBI. Jake Smash Burger!

Wyatt Langford – 1-for-4, HR (12). His 9th home run and 20th RBI in his last 20 games played. Forget that he missed two weeks in between. He’s slashing .295/.340/.591 in July with 4 homers. I wish he would stop being so good so I could have a chance to draft him next year, but who am I kidding? He’s going to be a top 20 player if not higher. If he doesn’t get hurt again, which is a Cyclops-ian sized if, he could win a lot of people a lot of fantasy leagues.

Logan Webb – 6.0 IP, 6 hits, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K. Can you tell I saw The Odyssey this week? One question: why no spiders? These epics are usually filled with them! I guess I’ll have to wait for  Brand New Day next week. Oh, hey Logan Webb, are you excited for Sadie Sink?

Rafael Devers – 2-for-4, HR (21), 3 RBI. If he’s available at the deadline is there a better bat to add at the deadline? Just don’t ask him to play first base.

Casey Schmitt – 1-for-4, HR (21), 3 RBI. Watch him auramax this homer. That’s some serious rizz, cuh. Clavicle could never. I don’t blame him. If I had as many home runs as Rafael Devers, I’d be insufferable as well.

Vaughn Grissom –  2-for-5, HR (6), 2 RBI. He’s hit safely in six of his last seven games, and while Grissom may be over his head a bit batting in the heart of this order, but in all seriousness, he looks like he’d make an awesome utility player on a real team like the Dodgers.

Kazuma Okamoto – 2-for-5, HR (23), 3 RBI. Okamoto bomb! Kazuma sharpened his samurai sword for this one. It’s the most homers for a Japanese-born rookie, which means Ohtani doesn’t have everything anymore, which I’m on board with. Imagine being a Japanese player in Ohtani’s shadow. Munetaka Murakami hasn’t really gotten going since returning from the IL, or else we’d be in for kind of a treat the two going back and forth for the record.

Aroldis Chapman – 1.0 IP, SV (24), ERA at 1.87. His 391st career save moves him into 9th place all-time. All-time! There are only eight better closers in history than Aroldis Chapman according to this stat. He needs 30 more to catch Billy Wagner. It’s going to need to be a busy August!

Trey Yesavage – 4.0 IP, 5 hits, 3 ER, BB, 9 K versus Patrick Sandoval – 4.2 IP, 5 hits, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K. Take away the strikeouts, and they look like basically the same pitcher. We could do a blind Player A/Player B Guess Who? I don’t know if this says more about Sandoval or Yesavage.

Anthony Seigler – 4-for-5, 2 runs, HR (3), 2 RBI. Tony Seagulls crapping all over the opposing pitcher! Damn Seig-ulls stole my lobster roll! That was $25! I’ve been telling you to notice Antman for weeks, and how the Red Sox are 14-2 with him leading off. I almost gave him the lede, but I owed it to Cam and my journalistic integrity not to be such an obnoxious Stan right now. I know what it’s like to be a loser, and honestly, I don’t blame you for ignoring me and my homer-ism. Big Anthony’s hitting just .220/.288/.390 with two home runs in July, but the guy’s got more passion and grit than Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer and every Seaport bar combined. So he’s sort of mid for fantasy, respectfully, but he’s likely going to stay leading off until Boston starts losing some ball games, and there’s value there! But I’ve also been waiting long enough to be an insufferable fanboy, the Red Sox have won 16 of their last 17 games, and just came off their longest winning streak since Ted Williams was in left field. Yeah, I’m gonna do it. Dare I say that I think possibly, maybe, feasibly, potentially, conceivably, perchance, the Red Sox could be a wagon, y’all!? Finally.

Thanks for reading! Questions? Problems? Complaints to management? Advice, small gifts or large bribes? Please leave it in the comments below. Join us next Saturday for another Friday recap as fantasy baseball continues next week, all week long!