Pitching, pitching and more pitching. That was the focus on Wednesday, for both good and bad reasons. Let's start with the good. Max Fried is on fire right now. In his latest start, he limited the Dodgers to just two runs while striking out nine over six innings of work. Over his past seven starts, Fried has a 1.76 ERA with 46 strikeouts to just five walks. The fastball is sitting 94, the breaking pitches are working, and the control is on point. This might be the best version of Fried we've seen yet. 

On the opposite end, Yu Darvish just looks off right now. He gave up six runs to the Diamondbacks on  Wednesday and now has a 5.88 ERA over his past 15 starts dating back to May 29. The velocity, control, and swinging strikes all look fine. The biggest issue for Darvish has been home runs. He's currently allowing a 45% fly ball rate, which has led to many of these issues. Darvish also recently came back from the IL with a back issue so there's a chance he's still dealing with that. I wouldn't drop him but would consider benching him next week in shallower leagues. 

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Remember when we were discussing whether or not Yankees ace SP Gerrit Cole would ever return to the dominant force he was amid the foreign substances scandal? It wasn't too long ago that we were talking spin rates and watching every pitch Cole threw. Now, as we turned the page to September, we put all that behind us as Cole delivered another dominant outing on Wednesday while in the process becoming the first Yankees pitcher to rack up five games in a single season with 12 strikeouts or more, according to Katie Sharp.

Cole's swing-and-miss stuff was on point against the Angels and he delivered seven innings of one run ball. Cole allowed four hits, no walks and he struck out 15 on 116 pitches. The craziest stat might just be that Cole racked up 32 swinging strikes on the evening. 32! He also only allowed two hard hit balls the entire outing. This was as dominant of a performance as it gets, and Cole will roll into the final month of the Fantasy Baseball season as the unquestioned No. 1 SP.

And at this point it's going to be hard to make a case for anyone other than Cole to go behind Jacob deGrom in Fantasy drafts next spring. The flip side of this is Yu Darvish, who has really almost fallen apart since the MLB has cracked down on foreign substances. 

In deep leagues...

Cleveland SP Logan Allen has now delivered back to back quality starts since returning to the roster. Against the Royals, Allen went 6 2/3 innings and allowed two earned runs on five hits and two walks. He also struck out three but with just six swinging strikes induced on 76 pitches. Allen is just 6% rostered but draws the Twins at home this week. A tasty matchup.

Jackson Kowar has really caught our attention. The Royals prospect went six innings deep against Cleveland and allowed just four hits and three walks. These were six shutout innings. He struck out six in six innings and induced a healthy 13 swinging strikes on 94 pitches. All 13 swinging strikes came on his fastball and changeup -- two pitches he played off of each other. He's one of three recent call-ups who has caught Scott White's attention. He had a 3.64 ERA and a 12.8 K/9 in the minors this year with an elite changeup that came through for him in his shutout. Kowar is just 8% rostered and draws a juicy matchup against the Orioles next week.

Logan Gilbert hasn't been quite what the peripherals showed he might be in the second half, but he looked dominant against the Astros on Wednesday and gave us all a glimpse of just how electric his stuff can be. Gilbert had a rough three start stretch before this, but this performance is a reminder of what he can do down the stretch. He shut out the Astros over five innings, allowing four hits, no walks and striking out four. He induced 18 swinging strikes on 94 pitches to a Houston team that has an 8.7% SwStr rate -- by far the lowest in baseball. If you're going to add any of these interesting Wednesday starters -- Scott confirms Gilbert should be top priority for sure. Gilbert is 62% rostered and at Houston next week (he'll face the Astros three times in four starts).

Twins SP prospect Joe Ryan made his debut and was solid against the Cubs. He went five innings strong allowing just three hits, three earned runs and one walk. The box score stats don't look great, but under the hood, Ryan showed a lot of promise for Minnesota. He induced 14 swinging strikes on 89 pitches and struck out five batters. Nine of those induced strikes came on his fastball. Here was his pitch mix: fastball 71%, changeup 11%, slider 11%, curveball 7%. He only averages 91 MPH on the fastball. Ryan is someone to have on your radar -- anyone who displays that kind of swing-and-miss stuff in their debut should be.

• Kenta Maeda underwent Tommy John surgery Wednesday that included an internal brace that could help him return in 9-12 months rather than the usual 12-16 month timeline.
• Tim Anderson landed on the IL with a left hamstring strain, retroactive to August 29. Prospect Romy Gonzalez was called up. In 87 games between Double-A and Triple-A, Gonzalez hit .275 with 23 home runs and 22 steals. With that power/speed profile, he's worth monitoring, but playing time could be hard to come by unless Anderson is out for a while.
• Trevor Rogers has been activated off the restricted list and will start Friday against the Phillies. Throw him back in daily lineups?
• Rough day for Rockies pitchers. One day after playing catch, Jon Gray goes on the IL with right forearm tightness. Then Kyle Freeland left his start with a hip impingement. 
• Lucas Giolito will not make his next start on September 7 against the A's as he's dealing with that strained left hamstring. 
• Reynaldo Lopez will make a start Saturday for the White Sox, presumably filling in for Lance Lynn.
• Shohei Ohtani will make his return to the mound this Friday and start against the Rangers.
• George Springer was back in the lineup as the DH after he left early Tuesday.
• Adalberto Mondesi made his return to the lineup as the DH with a sock and a shoe. Are you kidding? He's also expected to play at third base moving forward. Makes sense with Bobby Witt in line as their future shortstop.
• Aaron Civale made another rehab start at Double-A Wednesday. He allowed two runs with six strikeouts over five innings and built up to 71 pitches. 
• Drew Smyly has indeed been removed from the Braves' rotation. Touki Toussaint will start Thursday in Coors Field against the Rockies. 
• Gio Urshela was out of the lineup Wednesday with hand soreness and will undergo an MRI on Thursday.
• Enrique Hernandez could be back from the COVID IL this weekend
• Johnny Cueto was placed on the IL with a strained right elbow.
• Adbert Alzolay will not pitch out of the bullpen. In fact, he threw four shutout innings with five strikeouts for his first career save Wednesday.