Before we get into today's newsletter, a quick programming note: We won't have our typical Monday morning newsletter recapping this weekend's action. I'm taking a few days off to enjoy the holiday weekend, so we'll be back Tuesday AM with a look ahead at some of the players with the most to gain or lose from the final month of the season, because we are now, truly, in the end game now. We'll be back to our normal schedule Wednesday, but I just wanted to give you a heads-up. 

And now: Let's talk about Bowden Francis, who might be turning into one of the ultimate examples of "There's no such thing as a pitching prospect' in recent years. Typically, that saying is used to explain the folly of betting on young pitchers – there's just so much that can go wrong along the way for a young pitcher that you're typically better off betting against any given pitching prospect actually hitting.

But it works both ways. 

And the best example I can think of in the 13 years I've been writing about Fantasy baseball – and please note, I'm about to make a comparison that is not to be taken literally – is probably Jacob deGrom. He came up as a 26-year-old who was never ranked as a preseason top-100 prospect, and when he made his debut back in 2014, it came alongside a much more heralded pitching prospect, Rafael Montero. Montero eventually had to settle for a bullpen role, while deGrom, rather famously, became one of the best pitchers of his generation.

Francis, to be clear yet again (I hate to be misunderstood), is not Jacob deGrom. But he's on a heck of a run right now. After shutting the Red Sox down over seven innings of work with just one hit allowed, he has now allowed just six hits with two earned runs over his past four outings, with 32 strikeouts in 29 innings. To put some context on that, Francis is just the fifth pitcher over the past 35 years to have four consecutive starts with a Game Score of at least 78, joining Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez, Johan Santana, and Clayton Kershaw. 

Any stretch like this is, to some extent, a fluke. Francis isn't going to end up alongside Johnson and Martinez (and eventually, Kershaw) in the Hall of Fame, and he's probably not going to match Santana's two Cy Youngs. But Francis is also seemingly a much-improved pitcher thanks to the addition of a splitter to his arsenal this season, a pitch he has thrown at least 26% of the time in three straight starts now. It isn't a great swing-and-miss pitch, but it has generated a ton of mostly harmless contact, which is a big deal for a guy who usually ran pretty solid strikeout and walk rates in the minors but tended to get killed by the long ball. 

Armed with a splitter sporting an average launch angle of -2 degrees, maybe Francis has found a way to fix his biggest flaw, and in doing so, has gone from looking like organizational filler to maybe something more. It's just four starts, but the way Francis is rolling right now, I do think we have to view him as a must-add player in Fantasy leagues where he's still available – about 28% of them in CBS leagues at this point.

He's not Jacob deGrom, but the Blue Jays may have found a diamond in the rough of their own. 

Lawrence Butler, OF, Diamondbacks (61%) – It's funny, the other day on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast, I made an innocuous, at-the-time, true point about Butler: Outside of his ridiculous July, he had just three homers on the season. And just like that, that number has climbed to nine, as he has homered six times in his past six games, including three times Thursday. There has clearly always been talent here, even going back to his minor-league days, and Butler's underlying quality-of-contact skills really back that up now that he's in the majors: He has a 72nd percentile barrel rate and is in the 84th percentile in both average exit velocity and expected slugging percentage. Consistency has been an issue for Butler, as has his struggles against lefties, but there's no denying, that when he gets hot, he tends to get scorching hot. And he's scorching hot right now. 

J.J. Bleday, OF, Athletics (54%) – And Butler's teammate didn't want to get left out of the action. How's this for a fun stat: The A's became the first team in MLB history Thursday to have a player go off for three homers and a player have five hits in the same game and still lose. Bleday's 5-for-5 showing came with two doubles and a homer of his own, and now pushes him to a .295/.380/.557 mark for the month of August. He has had his own platoon concerns, but Bleday has actually been awesome against lefties this season, sporting an .836 OPS with six of his 19 homers against them, so playing time shouldn't be any kind of issue moving forward. I don't believe either Bleday or Butler are superstars, but both look like solid starting options these days. 

Ryne Nelson, SP, Diamondbacks (60%) – If the Diamondbacks had their way, Nelson would be in the bullpen. But Jordan Montgomery wouldn't cooperate, and Nelson gets to continue his second-half breakout. This was his fourth quality start in a row, fifth in his past six starts, and seventh in his past 10; the latter stretch coincides with when Nelson began throwing his four-seamer around 60% of the time and focused on keeping it up in the zone, a change that has led to more strikeouts (63 in 63.1 innings) and significantly better overall results, including a 2.84 ERA, backed up by a 2.70 FIP. This kind of approach has tended to have diminishing returns for a lot of pitchers, and I'm not sure Nelson's fastball is actually good enough to make him one of the exceptions in the long run. But for now, he looks plenty useful for Fantasy purposes. 

Connor Norby, 2B, Marlins (37%) – It's hard for Norby's first run with the Marlins to have gone much better than it has so far. He's already forced his way into the leadoff spot for Miami and is now hitting .350/.422/.650 with two homers and two steals in 10 games with the Marlins after he went 2 for 4 with three runs Thursday. Sure, it helps that he got to play four of his first 10 games at Coors Field, but Norby has hit safely in all 10 games since joining Miami, and both of his homers came away from Coors, so I don't know if that explains it. He wasn't a huge prospect, but Norby consistently produced in the minors, and now he's doing it in Miami. You've got a spot for him as a MI or CI, and even in H2H points leagues, he might be worth using the rest of the way. 

Caden Dana, SP, Angels (1%) – The Angels are calling up Dana, arguably their top pitching prospect, and I'm going to be honest … I don't really get it. Yes, Dana is having a breakout season, sporting a 2.52 ERA as a 20-year-old in Double-A, and looks like he might have made the leap to becoming the kind of pitcher we might need to get excited about. But right now? Dana has already thrown 135.2 innings this season, 67.1 more than he threw last season (he threw just 8.1 the prior season). Are they really going to have their suddenly prized, 20-year-old top pitching prospect pitch deep into September when he's never done it before? I'm pretty skeptical, and could see this being just a "Atta boy" kind of move after Dana's great season. But, if they do give him a chance, there certainly seems to be enough upside here to make Dana worth a look in deeper leagues. Dana will make his debut Sunday against the Mariners, a pretty soft landing. 

Tyler Glasnow will play catch Friday. Dave Roberts still hopes Glasnow will return before the end of the season, but you'd like a stronger word than "hope" here. 

Freddie Freeman is expected back Friday after missing three games with that hairline fracture in his finger.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto made a rehab start at Triple-A Wednesday, allowing one run over two innings. He seems to have a very good chance to return before the end of the season, but he'll probably still need at least a few more rehab outings before that happens. 

Vinnie Pasquantino left after a collision at first base. He underwent X-rays on his hand but we don't have anything on results yet.

Alec Bohm exited Thursday after hurting his hand on a swing. X-rays came back negative.

Grayson Rodriguez threw from flat ground Thursday and will progress to mound work soon. If he returns to the majors before the end of the season, it seems likely to be with very little time to help Fantasy players. 

Jordan Westburg continued to take one-handed swings and fielding grounders. His broken hand remains in a cast but Westburg is expected to return before the end of the regular season.

Zach Eflin, who's on the IL with right shoulder inflammation, could return Sunday at the Rockies. Coors Field is tough, so I'd try to avoid starting him there, but if it goes well, get him back in your lineups for next week. 

David Hamilton was placed on the IL with a left index finger fracture.

Shane Baz is expected to start Saturday against the Padres. He was scratched from his last start due to the flu. 

Taijuan Walker has been moved to the Phillies bullpen. Tyler Phillips is likely to be recalled to start Tuesday at the Blue Jays.

Tommy Pham was placed on waivers.

Jason Heyward officially signed with the Houston Astros.

The Rangers optioned Jack Leiter back to Triple-A, meaning he and Kumar Rocker are finally reunited. Both could factor into the Rangers rotation plans for next season, but Rocker looks like the guy to get excited about here at this point – he has a 1.71 ERA, 0.79 WHIP, and 47 strikeouts over 31.2 innings across Rookie ball, Double-A and Triple-A while working his way back from Tommy John surgery.

Phillies top pitching prospect Andrew Painter has progressed to throwing off a mound. He won't return to game action until 2025 but it sounds like he could be ready for Opening Day and was on the verge of making his MLB debut before he got hurt before the 2022 season. He's been away for a while, but will still be just 21 on Opening Day next season. 

The Angels are calling up Samuel Aldegheri in addition to Dana. Aldegheri will start Friday, and while he isn't as highly touted as Dana, he does have a 3.59 ERA across two levels this season, with 134 strikeouts in 95.1 innings of work. Maybe the Angels can catch lightning in a bottle here. 

Michael King, Padres @STL: 4.1 IP, 6 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 3 K – I'm not too worried about it, but I figure I should mention it: King's control has been regressing lately. He walked 12 in 26.1 innings in the month of August, his highest total for any month of the season, and a return to his early-season rates. That being said, he still ended up with a 2.05 ERA and 33 strikeouts in the month, so like I said, I'm not too worried about it. But there is at least a chance King is starting to run out of steam a bit as he hits innings totals he hasn't even approached in a long time. 

Sonny Gray, Cardinals vs. SD: 6 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K – This was Gray's first quality start in four tries, and it came in a start with his fewest strikeouts in any start this season. Baseball is funny like that. Gray has been struggling mightily over the past couple of months, with a 5.83 ERA since July 1 entering this start, and with a 4.58 FIP that suggests it isn't just bad luck. But we also know Gray goes through these stretches occasionally and usually pulls out of them, and I expect him to at some point. Whether that means you should trust him in his next start is a tough question, but I lean yes. 

Christopher Sanchez, Phillies vs. ATL: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K – Sanchez's inconsistency continues. This is now consecutive starts with eight strikeouts and pretty good results, but it mostly just feels like he's been mediocre for a while now – and he has, with a 4.02 ERA in August after he put up a 6.59 mark in July. I still mostly believe in Sanchez as long as he's generating groundballs and limiting free passes, but that approach hasn't been working quite as well in the second half of the season. That being said, I'm probably starting him against the Blue Jays and Rays in his next two. 

Hunter Brown, Astros vs. KC: 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K – Brown didn't seem to have his best stuff in this one, generating just seven whiffs on 97 pitches, but he limited the walks, generated a bunch of weak contact, and put together an excellent start against a tough matchup anyway. Brown now has a 2.39 ERA with 131 strikeouts in 124 innings since May 1, and might just need to be ranked as a top-36 pitcher in 2025, even if he's pitching a bit over his head (3.33 FIP) in this stretch. 

Nathan Eovaldi, Rangers @CHW: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K – Eovaldi's usual second-half slide hasn't been quite as dramatic as usual this time around. There have been some ugly stretches, to be sure, but he also has five quality starts in eight tries since the All-Star break, with two double-digit strikeout efforts along the way. He took advantage of a good matchup in this one, and while I could see things going wrong for him in his next outing against the Yankees if he stays on schedule, he should have a two-start week with the Angels coming after that next week, and I'm throwing him out there for that. 

Kutter Crawford, Red Sox vs. TOR: 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K – It feels like Crawford is dancing on a knife's edge even when things are going well lately. That's now five straight starts with four or fewer strikeouts, and he hasn't had an outing with more strikeouts than innings pitched since July 27 – when he had five strikeouts in 4.2 innings while giving up five runs. He finished August with a 6.32 ERA even with this start, and at this point feels like just a matchups play. His next matchup is against the Mets, followed by one against the Orioles and another against the Yankees, so I'm not sure I have much faith in starting him for the next couple of weeks. 

Bobby Miller, Dodgers vs. BAL: 5 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 3 K – It was one step forward in his last start, and after this one, it feels like Miller is right back to what he started. And this season, that hasn't been a good thing. He generated just eight whiffs on 86 pitches, and he's still getting basically nothing from anything but his changeup and curveball. He showed last time out there is still upside here, and if you want to stream him against the Angels next week, I think that's probably defensible. But I just can't get excited about Miller at this point.