It’s buy, sell, hold time for real baseball teams, so we’ll get in on the fun here. Here are some of the more notable names that changed uniforms this week. I’m not doing a full writeup on Tarik Skubal, but my spidey sense says that an otherworldly ace on baseball’s best team should work out OK. Though actually, if you want the galaxy brain take, maybe you sell him for a massive haul in head-to-head leagues with playoffs because the Dodgers might start messing with his innings at the end of the season to get ready for their playoff run. Or just be a normal person and hold your ace. On to the rest!BuyKevin Gausman, CHCI listed Gausman as a hold not too long ago on the theory that he’d strand a few more runners and get his ERA into the high-3s range going forward. Now he’s pitching in front of the best defense in the game, and he should have a better shot at wins. He’s had a rough stretch recently, but I think he’ll be 12-team relevant going forward.Dustin May, SP, MILMay has quietly had an excellent season, despite starting the year with a couple of blowups and suffering two more at the end of June and start of July. In his past 12 starts, despite the rough outings, he’s delivered ace peripherals: a 28% strikeout rate, a 7.9% walk rate, and 2.58 FIP. Now he heads to one of the sport’s best teams, which tends to get great results from its pitchers. I question whether he can keep up the strikeout rate without missing more bats, but that’s the sort of issue I worry about more year-to-year than in-season. He should get a regular spot in the Brewers’ rotation and could end up as their second starter in the playoffs.Freddy Peralta, SP, TBRI’m optimistic about Peralta, especially compared to what he’s done so far this year, but the Rays didn’t buy him to keep doing what he’s been doing, and neither will your leaguemates. Depending on your league, he might be on the wire or surprisingly expensive. He’s a buy here because the track record is excellent, and he hasn’t lost any velocity. The Rays have a reputation for getting great results out of good stuff. Presumably they see something to work with here. The weird part is that Peralta’s stuff has been down across the board this year, and it hasn’t been any better in his recent starts. The trade gives you something to dream on, but don’t pay full price for that dream.Kade Anderson, SP, SEAIt’s time, right? The trade of Luis Castillo opens a spot in the Mariners’ rotation, and out of a sense of decency for opposing hitters in Double A, the Mariners should bring up the sport’s top pitching prospect. With Emerson Hancock and Bryce Miller, they still have a good starting five, but the guess here is that one of them becomes a long-reliever and Anderson makes his debut soon. You never know how a player will fare in their first look at The Show, but Anderson has ace-level stuff.SellJosé Soriano, SP, TORI don’t like this one for the Blue Jays. Part of it is that they’re paying for two months in a season that isn’t especially meaningful for them (this is a next year and beyond trade for them), but the other part is that I’m not that into Soriano right now. His Stuff+ has tumbled in his past 10 starts to 93 (from 102 in the dozen starts before then), partly due to him losing a tick on his fastball. The results tell a similar story. He remains excellent at inducing grounders, and he still gets strikeouts, but he gives up too many walks, and the stuff downturn has coincided with worse results on batted balls. He still logs plenty of good starts, but I don’t trust him.
Following the MLB trade deadline, buy Dustin May, sell José Soriano in fantasy baseball
Owen Poindexter tells you how to handle players who have new homes or roles following the MLB trade deadline.














