Mets And McLean Fare Like Hamilton In Duel With Aaron

So, uh, I’m not trying to go out here in the 2026 fantasy baseball season like a 100% hater of the Mets, even though my last three ledes were guys going vs. them. It’s the way the ball’s bouncing and the ball’s bouncing against them right now. Last night, Aaron Nola went 7 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 4 Ks, ERA at 4.49, as he does what I did not think possible: Was good. Not just “was good” for the start. He “was good” for the 2nd half. He “was great” for the last ten starts with a 2.10 ERA that dates back to July 28th and that’s 60 innings for all y’all who like to keep count in multiple of ways. How’s he done it? That’s a good question. I think voodoo, but might be witchcraft. Yes, those both sound like beers. He’s good because of beer. There ya go! Okay, there’s more. He’s working well off a 78 MPH knuckle curve, an arm angle change and fewer garbage fastballs. He’s down from a high of 37.9% of his weak-sister 92 MPH fastballs that suck to 24% this year. He’s a curve machine now and it’s poppin’, as the kids say. The kids who are standing by a movie theater popcorn machine, specifically. Will I be in on Aaron Nola in 2027? That seems incredibly nuts, but if he’s going late enough, I, well, let’s leave it at tee bee dee, which is a lot more than I ever would’ve said ten starts ago. Anyway, here’s what else I saw yesterday in fantasy baseball:

Jared Young – Carted off the field after getting hit in the melon. Mets have stopped playing baseball and started recreating Gallagher bits.

Nolan McLean – 6 IP, 1 ER, 10 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 3.18. McLean, hand pressed against a window, rain coming down, and a raindrop is running down the window, appearing to be a tear on Nolan’s cheek. It’s him looking at the MLB standings, and realizing he’ll be with the Mets until 2032, barring a trade.

Kyle Harrison – 1 2/3 IP, 4 ER, ERA at 4.25. Alluded to this the last time I talked about Harrison at length, but his ERA is of little indication of what his season was for fantasy. If you had any sense, you likely dropped him when he had a 3.01 ERA, and, at worst, a 3.45 ERA. That’s something that gets lost in the preseason of the following season. People are like, “You’re drafting a guy with a 4.25 ERA? Sounds like you have a case of the dumbs.” Whether you draft him or not, should be based on if he’s healthy. Because when he was healthy, he was barely a 3.00 ERA pitcher.

Bo Naylor – 1-for-3, 2 RBIs and his 3rd homer. Wonder if Josh is ever at Thanksgiving like, “You should steal 30 bags. If you do, they’ll have a hoot on Razzball.”

Henry Davis – 1-for-2, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 10th homer. Hammerin’ Hank Davis hitting a cool .167 in 246 ABs. Cool stuff. Wonder what that translates to if he were playing in the KBO.

Jeremy Pena – 2-for-5, 2 RBIs and his 20th homer, and 3rd homer in three games. Pena was voted Most Likely To Hit 20 Homers.

Yordan Alvarez – 2-for-4 and his 40th homer, 2nd homer in three games, hitting .311. Let Captain Woo Cubano get his flowers! More on him in Chandler Simpson’s blurb.

Daulton Varsho – 1-for-4 and his 12th homer. Gonna go out on a pretty sturdy limb and say Varsho had a bit of a down season. It’s such a distant memory now that Varsho’s last year hinted at a breakout on the horizon. Well, there was an event horizon to his fantasy value.

Seth Lugo – 5 IP, 4 ER, 9 baserunners, 5 Ks, ERA at 5.06. What have they done with my once-reliably mediocre Lugo?

Jeffrey Springs – 3 1/3 IP, 6 ER, ERA at 6.18. Wish I took a Jeffrey Rum-Springs-a from streaming him.

Lawrence Butler – 2-for-4 and his 17th homer, 4th homer in a week. He won’t be in this afternoon’s Buy column — the last of the season. Crying face emoji. — because I think Butler’s rostered in too many leagues for the Buy column, but if he’s available, by all means.

Chandler Simpson – 2-for-5, 2 runs, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and two steals (43, 44), hitting .311. He officially tied Yordan for the AL lead in average (he trails others in RBIs and HRs, so it might not matter for the Triple Crown, but Yordan is close — one homer and three RBIs away). If Simpson wins the batting title and steals 50, he might still be one of the hardest player to start regularly. In fact (Grey’s got more!), I haven’t started Simpson in one league for a few weeks because I have a 30-steal lead.

Drew Rasmussen – 5 IP, 0 ER, 6 baserunners, 3 Ks, ERA at 2.72. Ya know how I say Jeremy Pena will hit 20 homers if he plays in 162 or ten games? I’m pretty sure Rasmussen throws five innings every game with 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, or 50 pitches.

Walker Jenkins – 3-for-4, 2 runs, 2 RBIs and his 2nd homer. This home run off Ben Joyce (1 IP, 2 ER, ERA at 4.40) was off a 101 MPH fastball, the 2nd fastest pitch a Twin had ever hit. The fastest is [I have no idea]. Of course!

Taj Bradley – 7 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 9 Ks, ERA at 3.81 vs. Walbert Urena – 7 IP, 0 ER, 4 hits, zero walks, 9 Ks, ERA at 2.74. This matchup was billed as, “The Taj Walbert is the megastore down the street from the Taj Mahal where they sell off-brand items like Riffles Potato Chips, Mountain View soda, and Cleanext Tissues.” Streamonator for both of these guys, and good luck!

Xander Bogaerts – 3-for-5, 2 RBIs and his 12th homer. Bad news is he fell a single short of the cycle. The good news is if Bogaerts hit for a cycle, they would’ve retired the cycle from being something anyone makes note of.

Luis Castillo – White Sox are moving him to the pen. Mariners a’la Nelson Muntz, “HA HA!”

Munetaka Murakami – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 32nd homer, hitting .205. Coming for you, Okamoto!

Framber Valdez – 5 IP, 3 ER, 7 baserunners, 8 Ks, ERA at 4.06. Call him the Anti-Maxwell House because he’s not good to the last drop.

Josh Jung – 1-for-4 and his 10th homer. He passed Vlad Jr. in home runs in roughly 150 less at-bats.

Trevor Story – 2-for-4, 3 RBIs and his 4th homer. I promise you, no one will be coming today to say how great Roman Anthony is. Trevor Story is above Anthony on the 30-day Player Rater, but, ya know, who cares.

Sonny Gray – 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 6 baserunners, 6 Ks, ERA at 2.82. Should be illegal to do stinkers during people’s H2H playoffs if you’re a good pitcher. If you’re a bad pitcher, then it’s a roll of the die. We know that. We can’t abide good pitcher stinkers in the H2H playoffs. No can do.

Sal Stewart – 2-for-4, 2 runs and his 32nd homer, hitting .271. Excited to get screwed by the out-of-nowhere collapse of Stewart next year. Oh, won’t happen? Hold on, I have Matt McLain and Jonathan India on line one wanting to chat.

Brady Singer – 3 1/3 IP, 7 ER, ERA at 5.67. Say you had a billion dollars and you were a fan of the Reds, then you offer Brady Singer a million dollars more than his current contract to not play for the team, and instead tell him to wash your car. Oh, you want to keep playing Ke’Bryan? Sorry, he’s getting an extra million to babysit the kids. You like TJ Friedl in left? I don’t. Here’s an extra million over your contract, now go pick up my takeout.

Edwin Diaz – Dodgers are going to activate Edwin today and Dave Roberts said, “Hopefully we don’t need him to pitch.”

Miguel Rojas – 2-for-5, 2 runs and his 4th homer. Dodgers clinched yesterday and that reminds me, Rojas might be the only player in history to remain with a team simply because of a postseason home run. He got 211 at-bats this year because of one at-bat last year. There’s zero other reasons.

Kyle Tucker – 4-for-5, 2 runs, 3 RBIs and his 4th homer in the last eight games. Tucker’s rising from the dead like Dracula and ironically stopped sucking. I didn’t have the good fortune of having Tucker in any leagues this year, but I’m sure if I did, I would’ve nicknamed him Kyle *ucker about five months ago. Ya know, as someone who watches their share of Dodgers games, I’ve seen the Kyle Tucker move before. It’s a move most recently being played out by Kris Bryant. “Played out” might not be the best phrase in these circumstances. Is there any chance you’re in on Tucker next year? And if so, do you have CTE? Not meant as insult, I’m just wondering if you played professionally in the NFL, NHL or UFC. When you nod your head, do you hear marbles rattling? If so, then I’m gonna need you to sit this one out.