Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Spring Risers, Week 1 Help

Episode Date: March 28, 2018

As Spring Training concludes, which players have jumped up in our rankings (2:30)? Scott, Heath and Chris talk about their biggest risers, mostly players you can add as free agents including Daniel Vogelbach (4:26), Ryan McMahon (6:53) and Lewis Brinson (14:30) .... Humidor news (16:32), bullpen updates (20:00), important MLB notes (28:40) and thoughts on H2H Categories leagues (34:10) ... More Spring Training risers (41:30) like Yasmani Grandal and Sean Newcomb and a look ahead to Week 1 (50:50). And we do some Start or Sit for Thursday's games (55:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, real quick, Scott's bombed about the humidor. And take your milk for breakfast cereal. Mount Rushmore. They'll be there for a chain. Baseball Eve, what's up, everybody? The season starts tomorrow. Holy cow. Welcome to the show.

It is March 28th, and we are very excited. We're going to give you some week one help. You can get all the week one help you need on the website on CBS. com slash fantasy slash baseball. I'm Adam Azer. Hello, Heath Cummings. Hi, Adam, Aser. I have a piece of content for Week 1 on the website.

It's WaiverWire before opening day. You should go check it out. Hello, Scott White. Hey, nobody's going to get a chance to use the Waiver Wire in the podcast for the People League since we're drafting at the very last minute. Make sure you can fill out a lineup. If you draft Justin Turner as your third baseman, you need a backup because there's no waiver wire.

That's a good point. That's a good point. Heath's going to do something about that as the commissioner. Hello, Chris Towers. I'm not doing anything about that. Wait, whoa. Really? Really?

You have to do something about it. I will not. I don't think you can do anything about it, because I don't think you can set waivers to start the next day. So then just let people do free-add drops until lineups lock on Thursday. I'm pretty sure that league has free-add drops because it's one of the things that drives Scott crazy about it. Okay, good. It should have free-ed drops.

Like, I think you can just pick players up in the middle of their games. Sometimes he's just looking at the needleman and he misses the mark. No, you cannot pick up play. Oh, maybe you can't pick up players. Anyway, hey Chris Dowers. Hi. When you said Baseball Eve, I started thinking about which baseball player is most likely to have the little bear paw print tattoos on their chest, like the musician Eve. And I think it's Bryce Harper.

I have no idea what you're talking about, but I am baseball Adam and this is baseball Eve. You guys don't remember the musician Eve? No. No. She did the song with Gwen Stefani. Okay, great. Let me blow your mind. Is that how she sang it?

Because it doesn't sound like a very good song. Let Me Blow Your Mind, I believe, is the official title. All right, let me blow your mind with some spring training risers, yeah. So, look, this is not necessarily about drafts anymore. This is about players. Okay, some of them are owned in 100% of leagues. But a lot of the players we're going to talk about are players you could pick up on your waiver wire, like Ryan McMahon, and some closer news as well. We have that for you.

We have week one help, as I mentioned. We have, I want to talk a little bit about head-to-head categories. But here we go. Two of your favorite spring risers, Scott White. Luke Weaver. Yeah. I believe you can get me through the night. Finish it.

We just did. I just did. Yeah, come on. All right, go ahead, Scott. Yeah, Luke Weaver. Felt like in his debut, as impressive as it was, it had kind of a bumpy finish there last year. He felt like he got a little too fastball change up heavy. so he worked on his breaking ball in the offseason.

It's kind of a slurve ball, he calls it. But coming at hitters in the weird angle he already does, it gets movement hitters aren't used to seeing. And this spring he put together a 0.65 ERA, 0.67 whip, 19 strikeouts, and 16 in the third innings. I was already excited about Luke Weaver, but I think there's a chance he's, even with Carlos Martinez there, I think there's a chance he's the Cardinals' best pitcher this year.

And in the latest version of the tiers, I moved him up a whole tier. Luke Weaver had a 380-ERA last year, but he had a 205 ERA before allowing 14 earned runs in his final two starts in seven and two-thirds. He ended up pitching 60 and a third in the majors last year with 17 walks and 72 strikeouts. Very excited for Luke Weaver. Right now, if you were drafting, Luke Weaver or Luis Castillo?

They're like right next to each other. I'll still go Castillo. Castillo, yeah. But I like, you know, if they're my third and fourth options, I'm feeling really good about my pitching staff. All right, one more big riser, Scott. A big riser apart from him. I will go with, let's go with Daniel Vogelbach because he's been,

I feel like the talk of spring over the last week, and I'm not sure we've mentioned him once on the podcast. I think he has eight home runs now this spring, and I think that leads everybody. Last I saw he was first in batting average among qualifiers as well. All of that is with more walks than strikeouts, and he was always a guy who walked a lot in the minors. It seems like he's ready to break through,

and he was a surprise addition to the Mariners' opening day roster. They were counting on him last year to be their first baseman, and he just didn't do this that spring and really never got off the ground all season. So they went out and acquired Ryan Healy. But now, got to wonder if they're having some buyers' remorse there with Healy because they've got to find a spot for this guy to play. He's coming off a hand injury.

They think he's going to be, I think he's back to playing a game. So he's going to be ready for opening day. But I don't think he's good at his Vogelbach can be. I think Vogelbach has like Carlos Santana potential. I've floated the idea out there, obviously, as somebody who has no authority within the Mariners organization. You look at their projected lineup, Ichiro Suzuki's in left field because Ben Gamble's on the DL. That sounds like a bad situation, and I don't even think Ben Gamble's that good. I'm not even sure Yichiro is going to be on the opening day roster.

I feel like Nelson Cruz could get more time in the outfield to accommodate Vogelbach at DH, and also Healy plays less than expected at first base to get Vogelbach in the lineup. It's a deep sleeper, somebody who doesn't need to be owned in every league, but don't be surprised if Vogelbach's relevant this year. We are going to snipe Scott White for Dan Vogelbach in the 16th. He is a big, beefy baseball boy, and I would like him on my roster. I'm looking at right now Vogelbach's lefty-righty splits in the minors. Last year, not very good against lefties, but previous years respectable against lefties, I'd say.

So it's possible he could be a platoon player. But we need players. We need to hear more about guys like Daniel Vogelbach. If you're in a deeper league and you're in some trouble, you might want to pick up Daniel Vogelbach. But you're not going to – I'm going to guess, Heath, we go to your risers here. We're not going to pick him up over Ryan McMahon. Very similar situation in that we did not expect Ryan McMahon, especially after the Carlos Gonzalez acquisition, to really have a spot. on the Rockies opening day roster.

We were still excited about Ryan McMahon. He's still got a bright future. He's a brighter future, in my opinion, than Vogelbach does, just solely because he's in Colorado. And he was a monster last year in the minor leagues. He was awesome this year in spring training, not as good as Vogelbach, but a 9-12 OPS. And they said that one of their biggest issues was

they didn't want him to not get played appearances. They wanted him to keep getting regular at bats. And so I think that's why we all expected him to go down. He's not going down. sent Rime Altapia down. It's going to be some type of weird platoon between him and Ian Desmond and Herodos and maybe even Carlos Gonzalez. But I'm not so sure he's not already a better hitter than all those guys.

And they are much more okay with giving Herodopara days off and giving Ian Desmond days off, in my opinion, and they will be sitting Ryan McMahon for two or three days in a row. All right. So people want to know about Ryan McMahon. He's definitely a riser. He's also a lefty who could platoon. but here's an email from Chris Smith. Should I drop Yonder Alonzo for Ryan McMahon in a head-to-head points league, D.H.

spot? Yeah, I think you should. I would, I think this is one of those weird situations where, like, if you're running all the probabilities, Yonder Alonzo probably scores more points than Ryan McMahon most of the time. But the ceiling is, like, for that sort of a spot, I want McMahon. See, I'm kind of excited about Yonder Alonzo's ceiling, and maybe it's reading too much into spring stats. But he's been so good against left-handed pitchers this year.

but the Indians punted their potential platoon option in Mike Napoli. He's beginning the year in the minors, so they're confident. And I like particularly for the points format with Yonder Alonza's plate discipline, which, you know, it's not to say I'm not excited about Ryan McMahon. It's just you name two players I'm excited about. I just want to mention this one other thing about McMahon. He's not like a natural first baseman. It's not like he's stuck at first base.

He came up as a third baseman. He played some second base in the minors last year. if it's one of those situations where, and obviously Aeronado and LeMayhe wouldn't sit as much as those other two, but they'll need days off. And if between that and some late inning stuff, McMahon gets second base eligibility, that's going to be pretty interesting. But as a first baseman, is McMahon a must draft? In a rotel league, yes. Yeah, I mean, in those larger-sized leagues, the 21-year. man roster 12 team head-to-head points league, it might be tough.

It's going to be dependent on how sharp the rest of your league is for me. Like, he is a guy that's amongst a group of players that I'm considering in the last couple of rounds, but there's a chance that there are too many other upside players that don't get drafted that I want to take ahead of them. All right, here's an email from Jonathan. Would you rather have Ryan McMahon or Jose Martinez? McMahon. McMahon.

And I'm high on Martinez, so there you go. All righty. So let's get Heath's second. spring riser. This is one that I've just come to in the last couple of days, and I'm really getting excited about your second basement, Adam, Neil Walker. We had a lot of people asking who's this year's Travis Shaw. Neil Walker may be old Travis Shaw this year. Yeah, you know, I would like him a lot more if he had had more of a spring training.

But Neil Walker signing late with the Yankees, he's got legitimate home run power. When the signing first happened a couple of weeks ago, I asked you guys, you thought Neil Walker could hit 30 home runs. I don't know if he went quite that far, but it's not crazy to think he could hit 30 home runs. No, I don't think it's crazy at all. I was looking just at some of his batted ball data. The last two years, he's had a 41 and a 43% fly ball rate.

He's pulled the ball at a 41 and 43% rate, and he's maintained a hard contact rate over 32% for the last three years. D.D. Gourius hits 20 and 25 home runs over the last two years, like a 24% hard contact rate. If he just maintains those three numbers, 40% flyball, 40% pull rate, 33% hard contact rate, and plays, gets 500 played appearances, he's going to hit a bunch of home runs. Yeah, it's questionable if he's going to be their second baseman the entire year because of Torres, but I don't think that matters if you're taking Neil Walker. Get what you can get now. He might just be their first baseman, though.

Right. Till bird's out, yeah, he could definitely put. Well, he's like, no bird's back, I mean. Yeah, bird might be back. Byrd will be back. Don't say this about my guy. I don't know. Look, who cares?

This is chronic issues now for three straight years. Foot issues two years in a row. It's not like the guy's proven himself. And it's 10, 6 to 8 weeks, so it doesn't really matter. Get what you can get from Neil Walker now. And if he plays the whole season, he plays the whole season. Wonderful. And he is available on like 64% of leagues right now.

Yes, I did have to pick him up in our Roto League because I don't know if Commissioner Scott White is going to a allow us to put players on the DL before the season starts. Yep. Come on, I can't feel the roster. I can't feel the roster. I can't either. If he gets to be a jerk, I get two, too.

I am so mad about our AL in only leagues, and I've not complained about it. But the fact that we drafted those teams in February, and with all those free agents and all the injuries that have happened, and I can't put anybody on the table. And just to answer. Almost quit. I'm going to answer, like, we've gotten questions on Twitter and angry tweets and stuff. Like, why can't I put player X on the DL? It's because players aren't on the DL yet.

But your commissioner can. Your commissioner can. If you have a better commissioner than Scott White. They are currently, like the transactions have not occurred. Justin Turner has not been placed on the disabled list. He will likely be placed there today, I guess. I don't know, like, what the official timing is. I think the problem is it could be late today or even first thing tomorrow.

I think late today is the most likely. So that's the answer to that question. And how do you do it if you are a commissioner on a CBS Sports? League, you go to your commissioner tools, and you hit edit service time, select a player, and then you can change that player's status to I for injured, and he will then be a DL player for you, and that is how you do it. Now, here's... The commissioner can just do it on the team page as well.

Yep. You go to whatever team's roster, and you just, you got to click the edit button at the top, and you just move them into the... Commissioner gets special tables. Either way. Now, here's the thing. I'm just going to throw this out there. We don't even need a response, but I just want everybody to know this offers on the table.

Scott White, make me a co-commissioner in our Roto League, and I will do this DL thing for every owner. You don't have to do anything except for make me a co-commissioner. And he's still not going to do it, folks. That's the weird thing. He's still not going to do it. I like it. Stick to your guns, Scott. Don't let these guys bully you into doing it.

You believe in something. You go down with that belief. The idea of sharing power just makes Scott nauseous. Our email address is fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. We have a Jonah Carey interview tomorrow. I'm going to air it tomorrow. But first, we also have some other podcasts you need to listen to. If you want to play some DFS, we'll talk a little DFS on this show.

But the Sportsline DFS podcast, we're going to start covering MLB. So get excited for that. Also NBA until the season ends, some PGA. Sportsline DFS podcast, listen to the Jonah Carey podcast, listen to the Ion College Basketball podcast, until the season's over and then into the off season. Listen to In This Corner, which is wrestling and boxing and MMA. It's awesome with Brian Campbell and Adam. We got a whole bunch of them.

So go to CBSports.com slash podcast. And now let's hear Chris's big spring risers. Okay. I was interested. I got you, buddy. I got you. And where this was going. Go ahead.

Big spring risers. I will, you want a deep one first? Whatever you want. He's pretty deep. Louis Brinson had a very good spring. He struck out about 27% of the time, which is what you expect from Lewis Brinson. But it's not, it's not to the point where it's a concern. And that's the big thing.

When you have a young guy like that, especially someone who looked overmatched in the majors last year, you want to see them at least not look overmatch. He was certainly not overmatched in spring training. He had an OPS over 900, a batting average over 300. That's Babbap inflated. But he looked good. He hit some long home runs. The skill set is very impressive.

This is a what, top 12 prospect, Scott? And there's top 12 in your fantasy rankings. Yeah. And legitimate 2020 potential as a rookie. And sounds like he's probably going to bat lead off for the more. Unless he's definitely made the opening day roster. He's probably going to play every day. And yeah, I would expect him to bat lead off at least occasionally.

And so there's a big opportunity here for Louis Brinson who at least showed that he's ready. All right. One more, Chris? We'll go significantly less deep, but Joey Gallo. I've just, I'm all in on Joey Gallo at this point. I think he's going to have a monster season. I think we're going to be talking about him as like a fourth or fifth round pick next year. Wow.

What kind of batting average are you projecting? It's going to be bad, like 2.30, but I really think like 50 home runs is like a not unlikely scenario for him. Okay. So Ryan McMahon, Luke Weaver, Daniel Vogelbach, Neil Walker, Lewis, Brinson, Joey Gallo. some of our biggest risers, we'll have more for you later. Here's an interesting email. It comes from Kevin. Again, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com.

The Diamondbacks use Humidor balls for the first time at Chase Field on Monday night. Both Jake Lamb and Paul Goldschman homered, fears of the humidor have been greatly exaggerated. Also, I bought my first tickets through Seekek and used the promo code Fantasy and got 20 bucks off my smashing pumpkins tickets. All right, Kevin, way to go. Way to use Seekek. Now, this was an interesting email. I Googled it. about the chase field thing, and I read something in the athletic,

and it was talking about how they used the humidor balls and said, it was tempting to see the humidors effect left and right. Several balls were hit off starter Zach Granky that seemed to die in the outfield earlier than usual. Jake Lamb hit a homer to right that left the bat at a scorching 108 miles per hour, but it, and then I was asked to subscribe to the Atlantic, which I have not done. You should do it. That's how my Atlantic. You should do it.

You get a shirt that. A shirt that says the athletic on it, which if you are like me creates some nice humor. That's nice, funny. So, yeah, no, I've got my athletic subscriptions. What the hell is it saying about the humidor? Because it does seem like... You didn't send me the link. Well, just Google it.

I feel like from the context, I can deduce it was saying it didn't leave the yard by much based on how hard you hit it. I can't... Yeah, it was like a third. It was like a 385 foot home run, I think. And it's, you know, everybody's focusing on the first game. A second game got played at Chasefield last night, and it was no offense. So, like, neither one on its own means anything. Like, these are tendencies that are going to play out over the course of weeks.

And only then can we fairly assess what impact it's having. I'm still very concerned. There's no stat cast data for the game last night. There is Stackast Data for the game on Monday's Wednesday, Monday night. It's one game. We can't really take it. There were a handful of balls that were hit 100 miles per hour,

I think nine, which is a fairly normal amount, but it's one game, who knows. Like, Paul Goldschmidt hit 109 miles an hour. Jake Lamb's 108 mile an hour ball, traveled 396 feet. I don't know if that's normal. What does it mean, Chris? The more interesting things from that game were that both Zach Grinke and Carlos Carasco's velocity were down?

Because of the humidor. Because the humidor. Very heavier baseball. Carlos Carasco's velocity was actually down two miles an hour on average with this fastball. Grinke was averaging 89, which is also down two miles per hour from last year. Yeah, I try not to stress too much about velocity this time of year, but it ain't nothing. Luckily, Zach Ranky clearly, based on the last few days, is in the best pitchers park in baseball.

Adam, would you like me to finish your sentence? From the Humidor thing? Jake Lamb hit a homer to right that left the bat at a scorching 108 miles per hour, but it traveled only 395 feet. That's 10 feet shorter than any ball hit at a similar velocity and launch angle at Chase Field last year. Wow. On the other hand, Paul Goulchman launched a home run that seemed to travel just as far as it should have.

It's far too early to draw any conclusions, especially since the Chasefield roof and panels were open, which won't be the case most of the season. There you go. You paid for it's too early to draw conclusions. And the panels thing, that's interesting. Okay, we got a lot of bullpen news. Here we go. Let's go through because we got a lot of stuff to get to today, guys. Brad Boxberger is the Diamondbacks closer.

Where will you be ranking Brad Boxberger? I just updated that this morning, and I have him ranked Rampenberg. right behind Hector Nerris, which is just inside of my top 20 closers. I actually have him 18th. The head of Blake Trinnan, ahead of Dominic Leone, ahead of Mark Melanson, behind Hectorneras and Calvin Herrera. So you don't think he'll be bad Broxberger? I don't think he. I mean, I'm not sure.

That's in the range of I'm not sure. He walks a lot of guys, you know, I'm not sure. So, okay, we got Boxburger. The New Yorker's the Arizona closer. Mark Balancid is still having arm issues, and Sam Dyson could close for the Giants. Texas does not have a set closer yet. They mentioned Keone Kele.

They mentioned Kevin Jepson, Alex Claudio, Jake Deekman. And Jaber's familiar just had a really... I don't know if it was a bad spring because he gave up all of his runs in one outing, but he only struck out one in seven innings. So I'm, like, just not enthused about maybe almost half the closer pool right now.

I have a feeling you guys feel the same way. Maybe not quite, at least a third. You know, there are not 30 closers. There are not 20 closers that I'm, like, really excited about. Is that abnormal, though? No, it's not. 21. 21?

That's 20. That includes Broxburger's. So you're okay? You're cool with him? I'm cool with him being one of my relievers. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I am, too. I'm just a little worried about the walks.

He's never, he's had one season where he's had a good whip. But the thing is, like, if Brad, if bad Broxburger is your, one of your relievers. then obviously you got him very late in the draft. You spent your resources somewhere else. It depends on if you're taking the Heath Cummings approach where you get an elite number one and an elite number two. Stop saying that. I don't know why you're telling me to stop saying that.

Like maybe high at number two, but you cannot use the word of elite. We had the same discussion in the office before the podcast, and it was the exact same person making the exact opposite point. I just want to point out. Heath is an inconsistent pedant. The worst kind of pet. All pedants are inconsistent The worst kind.

Boxberger is not an elite number two. He's more of an average to borderline number two. Okay. You've got to be a little concerned about him keeping the job with Bradley there. We'll see what Herono can do.

Are you not? I mean, a lot of injuries the last couple of years hasn't pitched a full season in, what, three years? hasn't really been that good the last couple of years. So, yeah, I don't think that's a stretch. I think, like, I'd much rather have Hector Narris. Let me ask you this.

They had Fernando Rodney as their closer last year, and we're pretty happy with that all year. I think Boxberger's better than Rodney. Yeah. I mean, he could lose his job. Any closer could lose his job, except, you know, maybe they get three guys at the top. But when it takes you an entire month and a half to gain a job,

that probably means your hold on the job isn't as strong as someone who had no competition. All right, so Boxburger, ahead of Melanson at this point? Yes, he's throwing. Yeah, I don't want anything to do with Melanson. But Dyson is someone to add in a deeper league? Yeah, they said Tomas down.

Yeah, low, low upside with Sam Dyson, but it could be a good team, it's a good place to pitch, but he just doesn't give you strikeouts. He's a saves guy only. And I know, Scott, you've been hoping for Keone Keller to win the job in Texas. I mean, it's kind of interesting. He really, he walks a ton of guys. But last year he gave up about four hits per nine.

He had a crazy, I think he had a blow-bab. He must have. Anyway, yeah, is Keller the guy, if you were going to own one ranger's reliever, would it be him? I guess so. I don't. Like, they apparently are concerned about his durability, which was always why,

um, I'm trying to think of a famous sedimentary. man who we always thought had like Sean Kelly for the nationals last year I feel like Joaquin binwa got some of that in his career like oh this guy looks like he could close based on the numbers but nope we don't want him we don't trust him to pitch three days in a row um so you know knowing that I'm less optimistic it's going to happen for him I do think he's their best reliever Jake deekman's kind of interesting because he throws a hundred and has big strikeout potential he has control issues of his own but I I'm hoping eventually

the Rangers give in and sign Greg Holland. I just, like, with that starting rotation, why are you worried about your closer pitching three days in a row? Well, yeah, I mean, you could have a great closer that never pitches three days in a row. A great fantasy closer. It's not going to happen that often in the season. But, all right, so it's kind of a mess there.

Is that what we're saying with Texas? Yes. It is the biggest of mess. Kella, Claudio, Jepson, Deekman, were mentioned as possible save sources. What do you guys make of the Mets bullpen in Familia? Who hasn't pitched in more than 10 days? I think Juris Familia is going to be fine. He had the injury concerns last season,

but last season was just a weird year for him between the suspension, the blood clot. I want to say, Adam, you've brought up that like a crazy amount of his runs came in a handful of outings. It was the last one before going on the deal and the first one back. And like we've seen this. guy be a Craig Kimbril level closer. Not that long ago.

So, what happened? What did I do? Keith, what the hell is going on? I was examining my zipper. Apparently, I was a little too demonstrative about it. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

Wow. I was actually reading an article about Jerry's Familia. I'm a little more concerned about him than Chris is. He had the shoulder thing in the spring. He's had the shoulder thing. He's been bad in the spring. They added Swarzak. They've got A.J. Ramos.

They have plenty of other options. And so I actually rank him below Hector Naris, Kelvin Herrera, below Boxburger, below Dominic Leone. So my thing with that is that we've seen a higher upside from him than any of those guys. And I don't think any of those guys are particularly. likely to keep their jobs either. So I don't think his risk is any higher, and I think the upside's high. I just think I would feel more comfortable putting Boxburger in my lineup for week one than I would familiar.

I agree with that. That might be the only point I agree with me. If there's another Mets reliever to own, because people just need to speculate on saves, deeper leagues. Is it Ramos? I would say it's Ramos. Yeah, probably. Yeah, I mean, he has closing experience. I don't think he's very good.

I think Swarzek is the Mets best relief. Yeah. Yes, that's the point I would make, is if you're speculating on saves, it's Ramos, but if I'm doing a reliever heavy strategy and I just want a middle reliever, it's definitely a four sec. Okay. So we have a lot more to get to, and we have to tell you about the draft app. Have you signed up for draft yet? All right, starting tomorrow.

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More news and notes. Jose Ramirez will be ready for opening day. Oakland's starting pitcher prospect. A.J. Puck is going to have Tommy John surgery. Ian Kinsler has groin tightness. Nelson Cruz may not be ready for opening day. He has a sore quad. J.T. Ray Almuto is on the D.L. with a back injury, but he could be back in a week, two weeks.

Michael Waka, 72% owned. He has a four-pitch arsenal. He is feeling confident. Chris talked about him yesterday. Chris is excited about Michael Waka. Chris only day, he was the top 25 starting pitcher. Did he? He was 25th in FIP last season, and this is probably one of those things where we really like FIP

until it tells us something that we don't like, and then Michael Waka just stinks. I get that he's not real results until it's been injured concerns. He hasn't thrown 180 innings, I don't think, ever in his career. He had the 10th highest fastball velocity among starters last year. I think it jumped up two miles per hour. These are all things that we typically get excited about. And you guys have Michael Walker in the 80s in starting pitcher, both of you? Like, I object to this.

These things we usually get excited about. Like, there isn't another pitcher where every single variable is identical. identical to Michael Waka. Like, you can't paint every pitcher with the same brush just because certain details match up. Okay, so above average strikeout rate, above average control,

above average ground ball rate. He's never had an above average strikeout rate before last year. And he had a two mile per hour jump in in fastball velocity. It's like a Charlie Morton. Which is the same, which is the same, we have Charlie Morton like 40 spots high. And when you say above average,

you're talking like by the most minute of degrees. It's average. Basically, the strikeout rate and the control. and he doesn't pitch innings. So, like, no, I think there's a good chance he loses his job this year because they have three great young up-and-coming pitchers. You have a 384 career ERA. Why are we acting like this guy's just a scrub?

I am more open to the fact that I am too low on Michael Walker than Scott is. I will also say that he, like, I am lower on Charlie Morton and those types of guys than Scott is as well. I think Scott is being more inconsistent here than I am. He does, like, over the last two years, he's got a four, five, six ERA. So it's been three years since he's really been good. He's been worse every year, basically. Except last year he got a little bit better.

But I have open to the possibility that I'm too low on Michael Waka. Okay. Michael Waka, again, he is 72% owned in CBSSports.com. I would take a shot on him if he were available. I'll give you that, Chris. I mean, I'm... I think he should be owned. I just...

Yeah, that's fine. I just think that how would you feel about changing fantasy baseball so that we have two categories? We have war and FIP. And that is it. I get what you're doing, and it's very cute, Adam. Thank you. But my point is that these are things we think matter. We cite them all the time.

Right. But they don't matter with Michael Waka? No one said they don't matter. Sure. That's exactly what we're saying. Well, what also matters for Michael Waka is the bad health history, the Cardinals' hesitation last year to keep him in the rotation. And the fact that his last two years have not been. been very good ERA-wise.

They've been bad ERA-wise. Yeah. Those also matter. Charlie Martin's had one good half season. We're wrap it up here. We're going to wrap it up. Shohei Otani will start Sunday at Oakland. Start or sit. Show Hey, Otani.

Start him. No chance. Start him. No chance. Sit him. Okay. Like, we've already seen him against minor leaguers and it wasn't very good. The thing is, if you sit him and he's great, it's still good news.

Because you're going to get a good pitcher the rest of the way. Start him. Yeah, sitting him is a win-win. You sit him and he's great and you're like, yes, I've got Joey Otani's and he's good. If you sit him and he's bad, you're like, yes, I'm smart. Start. Start him.

All right, with two sits, one start for Otani on Sunday. I have some potentially league-only-relevant news, AL-only and L-only. Jake Mariznick expected to start in center field for Houston. Is that just a short-term thing while Gueriel is suspended for five games and then back shortly after? Oh, I can't imagine it's an everyday thing. They're trying to get Derek Fisher at bats.

They're trying to obviously get Marwin Gonzalez at bats. So Derek Fisher is going to make the team and be on the bench? Or Jake Moriznick is starting, are they facing a lefty on opening day? Maybe I should confirm Derek Fisher made the team. I think he is. I thought that was a foregone conclusion. Let me check here. I think we're spending too much time on this.

I will move on here. Anthony Santander is expected to be Baltimore's DH. Yeah, Rule 5 pick. Real person. I looked it up to make sure. That's pretty good spring. It was good at High A two years ago. Barely played last year because of injury.

I think it was a Rule 5 pick last year. Yeah. And they were able to keep him on their roster because he was hurt. All right. Anthony Santander, D.H. for Baltimore. By the way, yes, Jake Mariznick is facing a leaptie tomorrow. Cole Hamils against Justin Verlander. Joe Panic will lead off against righties.

Austin Jackson will lead off against lefties for San Francisco. Marcus Simeon, we were hoping maybe that he'd be the everyday leadoff hitter. He will lead off, it looks like, against lefties. Matt Joyce could lead off against righties. Anything that we tell you with batting orders now is subject to change as soon as day two. Things change quickly. And Amir Garrett is going to the bullpen. All right, I've got, I did a Yahoo draft last night.

Seven by seven head-to-head categories. I have some takeaways for you. Here is an idea I have for Daily Leagues. Daily, you've got to be able to have daily transactions here. Draft Trevor's story and another shortstop. And only start Trevor's story when he's at home. I kind of like that as long as the other shortstop is somebody like Paraza or DeYoung or... For me, it's Eduardo Nunez.

Nunez is great, but he needs to be eligible somewhere else because your second shortstop is probably a bad hitter. and I don't want to carry very many hitters in that format anyway, so it needs to be somewhere that can fill in in multiple places. Okay. And Nunez on Yahoo is ranked pretty low. I got him in the 17th round, and it's a three-keeper league. So, you know, there were players being, 30 players being kept,

and I got him in the 17th round. He's eligible at Nunez at second, third, short, and outfield on Yahoo. So I have him in story that I can start Nunez every day, but I can always sit story if he's on the road and just not hitting very well. Okay, here's a thought about. head head categories. It might be going from my favorite format to my least favorite format. Wrong.

And I'll tell you why. I would love it if it had designated this is how many starting pitchers you need and this is how many relief pitchers you need. That would make it worse. I don't. And listen, I'm not criticizing anybody for liking this type of form. I'm not waging war on this craze here. but just trying to win categories by rostering players that you're not really playing fantasy sports anymore.

You're not trying to get the best players. You're just trying to get standouts in different categories. And I think it's gone too far. I just don't like it that much. Like, Billy, if we were trying to get the best players, then Billy Hamilton wouldn't be a fourth or fifth round pick. I mean, it feels less like baseball when you're investing that little in starting pitching. Right? It's money ball for fantasy baseball.

baseball. Well, it's, yeah, I mean, it's not my favorite either. It's the extra 2%. Wasn't that the raise one? That's what they're doing now. I don't know what that is in reference to. Wasn't that a book about the raise? Probably.

Yeah. Nobody reads books here, but you know Chris. They gave out free copies at one of their games, but only five people got one. By the way, do you guys have, you just have the one draft tonight? Jonah Carey wrote the book, the extra 2% about the Tampa Bay raise. And you'll hear him tomorrow So you guys We have the draft tonight for the People League

Is that the only draft you guys have left? Yeah, I have two That's the last one I have left I have two at the same time tonight Yeah, you just won't participate in the Four the People League That's fine, untrue He'll probably be trying to play Fortnite While both of them are going on

Yeah, millennials. And tweeting like 30 tweets per minute The way Heath and I play Fortnite It's very easy to multitask Okay, you guys are like huge nerds. So I don't even know what Fortnite is.

And also head-to-head categories leagues. Very, very different in daily versus weekly lineups. Oh, yeah. Right? I mean, very different. You need to take something back. What? The whole Fortnite and huge nerds thing, if you run a Twitter poll right now, over 50% of

your followers are playing Fortnite. What is it? Most of our followers are... Wow. Lay it down, Scott White. Shots fired by being not nerds, Scott White. I don't think they'd consider that, like, being a nerd isn't the stigma used to be. It's kind of, it's kind of socially.

The nerds have won. Oh, yeah. Big Bang Theory, right? Absolutely. The largest intellectual property in the world is a comic book franchise. F-O-R-T-N-I-T-E, so you don't spell it wrong and look silly. You will get owned if you spell it wrong. Do you play Fortnite?

Yes. N-I-E. I don't. I only learned the name of it two days ago. But I'm a total nerd, so... Well, maybe... Do you play Fortnite? Yes, I am a nerd.

No, I am cool. No, I won't right about that. Just yes and no. All right. So, very different in daily versus weekly lineups. Weekly lineups, like, you don't need to... If you just want to go all RPs, I guess, or mostly RPs... I think you draft more starting pitchers in a daily lineup, right?

I draft generally, mostly a benchful in both formats. but it's more imperative in daily. Okay. Whatever. It's not really draft season anymore. We won't get into it. But some observations, if you are drafting in Yahoo, just real quick. Routemeter, very, very low.

Yasmani Grandal, who auto-corrects to Tasmania Grandma, best auto-correct ever, very, very low in their rankings. Greenar. Yeah, Anarizer, exactly. Oh, we haven't talked about that one yet, but yes. Dominic Leone is very low. I had to search for him. He's only 55% owned in Yahoo Leagues.

Spring riser. It sounds like they need to account for these spring risers. And Eduardo Nunez, like I said, is pretty low. Some trade advice that we talk about a lot. I will say this probably be the first time we say it of many. You have to understand your league depth, and in shallower leagues, we love trading two good players for one great player. Clear up a roster spot.

There's a lot of guys on waivers that you want, and you just don't know how to make room for them. Make a two for one or a three for two or a three for one trade or something like that. get some roster spots available and upgrade, get as many elite players as you can. Right? Yeah, you always want to trade two 50 cent pieces for a dollar. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, even 275 cent pieces for a dollar in that, in a scenario where the waiver wire is abounding. I mean, 90% of the time I'm going to favor the side of the deal that gets the best player. They don't make 75 cent pieces. Thank you. So far, we have a very cool population of Twitter. followers, at least my Twitter followers,

only one third as to now plays Fortnite. Retweet it, Chris. Chris can fix that. A tweet of the day comes from Andres Jones. He's got a little nursery rhyme for us. Kingery dingery donger

picked up in a draft for a songer. We know he's got speed, but a position he'll need to remain on my team for much longer. I like that. Wow. Outstanding. Yeah. And then a tweet from a guy named Heath who says Q, as in your draft cue, Q-U-E-U-E, a five-letter word with four silent letters.

Why? How many syllables is Q, Scott? You know, some people do pronounce it Q-E. They do? That isn't accepted pronunciation, I think. It looks like it's Q-U, so I would say it's two. It's one. Que.

And I don't know why people, I did another Twitter poll. People don't like my team name in the podcast league. Stanton Deliver. Only 26% said it was good. 41 said it was bad. 33% said they don't get it. Like the movie Stand and Deliver. I was in a high school production of Stand and Deliver.

Oh. Just fun fact. That is a fun fact. I don't really like it. Rob from Massachusetts gives us team name Tuesday on a Wednesday. Non-zero-chance Adams. Very good. Or non-zero-chance Cisco.

Chance, let's just keep it with the Yankees. Let's do more risers. All right. We have a whole bunch of risers. We've already talked about Joey Gallo. Who else? Joey Gallo, Neil Walker. I don't think it's an accepted pronunciation.

Ryan McGrath. Ryan Vogelbach. Seriously? You just look that up? Yeah. All right, guys. I'm going to bring it back here. We've talked about Gallo, Walker, Vogelbach, Alonzo, Weaver, and, oh, look.

was brinson that was the other one okay more risers you guys gave me a whole bunch of names so i just want you to go through them give me like a quick explanation of why they're rising and leave it at that uh chris towers you can start zander bogarts is hitting a bunch of balls in the air has like a 65 percent fly ball rate in spring so just uh you know keep that in mind we've complained about his bad at bow ball profile in the past Matt Harvey is healthy. Hanley Ramirez is healthy. Both of them have been good in the past and are cheap. What is Hanley Ramirez is playing?

Yes, and Harvey is not as cheap as I'd like, but draft season is pretty much over, but I feel like people are kind of reaching early for him in my draft setting. What is Hanley's playing time status situation? I would guess he's going to play. He's number three hit. I haven't seen anything since Alex Cora said he's the number three hitter. No, there was another piece.

Okay. about how he's still probably the number three hitter. That's very good. I would guess he doesn't play every single day, but he had shoulder surgery in the off season that appears to have fixed the issue that he had last year that was keeping him off the field. He's playing first base regularly in the spring.

He didn't have a great spring. But the fact that he's healthy and happy makes me want to invest in Hanley. All right. So he is beaten out Mitch Morland. Yes. I don't think there was much competition. Bogart's Harvey Hanley and who else?

Gregory Palanke. is hitting the cover off the ball. Josh Bell is as well. Actually, I should have included Josh Bell. He is another fly ball revolution guy. Has, I think, like almost a 45% fly ball rate in the spring. And that is a very good sign because he hits the ball hard, hits the ball on the ground too much. And Gregory Polanco, he just wasn't healthy last year.

He changed his off-season training regimen to try to get healthy. And he's looked really good in the spring. Every time I've caught the Pirates, I leave MLB TV on. all day. Every time I've caught him, he's doing something great. All right. Palanco, Bell, you skipped over Kyle Schwerber, but we're high on him. He's had a best shape of his life. Yeah.

Four stolen bases. You've got, oh, that's really weird. You've got four more guys here. I mean, he was always kind of fast for a big guy. And now he's a not quite so big, but still very big guy. We should subscribe to the athletic and get him the T-shirt.

He is the athletic. All right, give me more Rizers, go ahead. Run it down. Jimmy Nelson is ahead of schedule, as far as I've seen, and last year he was one of the best pitchers in baseball. If he returns by June, I think he has tons of value. Michael Conforto, and then I won't steal Heath. Thank you for not stealing mine. Let's go right into Heath. Let me recap Chris's.

Gallo, Bogart, Harvey, Hanley, Schwarber, Polanco, Lewis Brinson, not mentioned Derek Dietrich, Jimmy Nelson, Michael Conforto, and Heath Cummings. Sean Newcomb has walked five batters over 15 and a third spring innings, which is a tiny sample size, but his only problem last year was that he walked five batters per nine and somehow still had a 4.3 ERA. If he just makes a slight improvement to those walk numbers, he has big upside because of the K potential.

I would compare him to where Blake Snell was last year. Jack Flaherty gets a shot in the rotation because of Adam Wainwright's injury, and Adam Wainwright's not any good anymore, and we all know that Michael Wock is not actually. good. So the chance of Jack that was a shot at Chris and I didn't really mean it.

Michael Walker's fine. There's a chance though that Jack Flaherty sticks and he does have quite a bit of upside. Ian Hap, I thought he was the Cubs third best hitter

coming into spring training. Now it seems like Joe Madden thinks he's the Cubs third best hitter had a very cool OPS this spring of 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 home runs with a 407 on base percentage.

He's going to be their leadoff hitter and he is going to be a monster. one of my bold predictions is he's a top three second baseman this year Dominic Leone we've talked about him plenty he's the closure now and he may just keep it same for Brad Foxburger Ryan McMahon I already talked about Scott Kingery he's a spring riser he's risen too far in my opinion he's being drafted too soon but he's definitely gone up and he has an opportunity yep in the in the podcast league though none of these people put their money where their mouth was he went like

220 to Scott a guy I think I'd rather have than Scott Kingery could tell Marte who's going like pick 355, he's free in drafts. He has speed, even though he hasn't really used it in the major leagues. He has pop. He has fly balls now. Marte is going to be second and shortstop eligible. What changed for him this spring to make him a riser? We learned about those.

He didn't have a very good speed. He didn't run. We didn't know at the beginning of the spring that he was guaranteed starter. Okay, fair enough. And then Lucas Gialito has looked very impressive and has big upside. and Chris is making a... He had 11.02 OPS in the spring. Could tell Marte?

Yes. He had a very good spring. Okay. Did he run? Because I don't expect him to have an 11.02 OPS during the regular season. Every time he got on the bases. Ran to first. First, a third.

Well, I mean... He only had one stolen base, which is infinitely more than he had last year. I only single down Marte because I co-signed to all of Heath's, except for Marte. He texted at him first. So, obviously... Actually, I went with different names. All right, let me read, Heats.

Neil Walker, Jack Flaherty, Sean Newcomb, Ian Hap, Dominic Leone, Brad Brock's Boxburger. Come on, Adam. Ryan McMahon, Scott Kingery,

Catele-Marté, Lucas Gialito. Ketel Marte had more walks than strikeouts in the spring also, which is awesome. Scott White. So we've talked about Vogelbach,

we've talked about Alonzo, Delano DeShields. We've talked about a lot on the podcast, but for those who haven't heard yet, leadoff hitter, starting left-fielder.

Jeff Bannister said he thinks he could steal 50 bases. And that's... Even if he goes in like the round 14 range of a roto league, you're not going to find another guy with that kind of base stealing expectations. Ronald Acuna was the talk of spring before he got sent down. Certainly performed well enough that

you're going to want to draft him early, even though you're going to have to stash him a couple weeks. Dominic Leone looks like the Cardinals closer to begin the year. I think he's good to be. enough to keep the job potentially. Stephen Mads, after an awful start, turned on a dime, his last three or four starts,

low-hit totals, high strikeouts. Still wonder about that slider that was so effective for him as a rookie, but definitely worth a shot at the place point where he's going. Kevin Gosman came to camp throwing all of his pitches for the first time ever, a novel idea by him, instead of introducing his best pitch mid-season, as happened, last year. From the time he started featuring his split finger 25% or so last year, 19 start stretch, he had numbers, much like Mike Clevenger had last year or Trevor Bauer, like really

good strikeout rate. Looks like a potential number two. Luke Weaver, we talked about. Blake Swihart is going to be like a super duper utility player for the Red Sox. I should probably confirm he made the roster, but that was the plan. Yeah. Catcher among several other positions and I think considering the bat threshold is so low a catcher, that's probably a recipe for him to get enough at bets to matter in a two-catcher league. Jorge Saler lost a lot of weight, showed a lot of power this spring, seems more athletic overall. Could be a breakout season for him.

Matt Carpenter's returning from the back issue has hit really well and talked about changing his approach in a way that will hopefully make him a good source of batting average again. Looks like he'll gain triple eligibility at some point. Yasmani Grandal is a flyball revolution guy we haven't talked about yet. Changed his swing path this off season. It hit five home runs this spring. Well, meanwhile, his big competition, Austin Barnes was barely doing anything and struggling to make it back from an elbow injury.

Can I just say one thing about one of Scott's risers? Because you talked about a Yahoo League earlier. If you're in a Yahoo League, I'm sure you've already drafted. There's one team in every Yahoo League that doesn't have enough steals. Delano DeShield probably didn't get drafted in your Yahoo League. He didn't get drafted in mine, and I love him. I just couldn't find a spot for him. His ADP is outside of the top 200.

I hope you're not talking about me because Delano DeShields got drafted by me in my Yahoo League last night. But I thought I got great value for him. So yes, to your point, I'm all about DeLeyer DeLyields. Scott's Riser's Vogelbach, Alonzo, DeShields, Acuna, Leone, Mats, Gausman, Weaver, Swihart, Solair, Carpenter, and Granddall. All right, week one is tomorrow. Yay. All 30. What do we have?

30 teams? 30. 30. Yes. MLB teams. All 32. I wrote in one of my articles this year. That must have been what it threw me off.

Playing tomorrow. Scott, who are some sleeper hitters? Don't give away everything that's in the column, but some sleeper hitters people can pick up if they need someone because they don't have the commissioner who will put players on the deal. But some sleeper hitters, people can pick up for week one. And when you do this, is this four game week or 11 game week? Yeah. the default setting is making week one of four game week. I think 80% of our users are doing that, something like that.

So that's what I base the column on. And if you're going 11 days, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to just remember you're a week behind the rest of the season because I'm going to keep labeling them week number, whatever. So yeah, a big consideration this week, four games versus three obviously makes a big difference. 12 teams are playing four games. The rest are playing three. I really like the Dodgers matchups this week.

The Cubs and the Dodgers, but the Dodgers, I feel like, have more sleeper hitters, including the guy I just talked about, Yasmani Grandal, who's only, he's less than 70% owned in CBS Sports Leagues. He's got to be one of the top 10 catchers in fantasy. That needs to change, I think, permanently beyond just this week. Jamer Candelario, who's kind of a weird fit in this environment

because he doesn't have big, time power, but he has decent power and just really good on base potential. I like the Tigers matchups this week. He's a good start. Hey, let me just say Matt Kemp's name. He's 56% owned. Mm-hmm. Going to be the starting left fielder for the Dodgers?

They've talked about him batting in the middle of the lineup. I think he was mentioned as a possible number three hitter against lefties. I know Yassiel Pueg didn't hit lefties. Well, Yassiel Pueg's expected to hit third most of the time, but Matt Kemp's going to be a part of things. Yeah, and I guess Jack Peterson is going to be an extra out. Well, yeah, Jack Peterson's still there. Enrique Hernandez is still there. Yeah, I mean, sure, Kim's a sleeper.

I just, I don't feel super confident in how regularly he's going to play, I guess, compared to some of these other. And, you know, the cutoff for a sleeper is less than 80% owned in CBS Sports League. So obviously, there's a big pull to choose from. Sure. Cole Cahoon, they have four games. I like his spot in the Angels batting order. We haven't spoken about this in, like, two months, but,

They lowered the – or a little less of that, but they lowered the outfield wall and right field, and a lot of people think Colcahoun will be able to benefit from that. They're in Oakland this week, but – Oh, yeah. Sorry, season-long thing, but yes. Lucas Duda has a couple of Rites he can tee off on this week. James Shields, and I think even Rinaldozo Lopez, after a good showing this spring, he's kind of a deep sleeper.

Not Lopez. Duda is. Duda. Yeah. Yeah, sorry. All right. Are we going to have, obviously, no two-star pitchers for the four-game week. Are we going to have three-star pitchers, the 11-game week? Again, I wrote it for the four-day week, so I don't know off the top of my head. I did see that the Rangers are playing 11 straight days to open the season.

So somebody suggested maybe Cole Hamels would be a three-star pitcher. But I know they're also going to make an effort to space out my season. Mike Miner starts a little more. So if they're going 11 straight days, I feel like they're probably going to have to insert a spot starter

in there somewhere. I'm not confident Cole Hamels is going to make three starts. But it is possible. There are always rainouts early in the year, too.

Chris Archer could probably, I don't know how many games they play in the first 11 days, but yeah, because they're, he's notoriously going

four-man as much as off days allow. And he's supposed to be the one guy, maybe him and Blake Snow, who are going to pitch every fifth day, you know, even regardless of off days and stuff. I'll look up the race schedule real quick.

If they have two off days in there... Yeah, then he probably won't. Yeah. Let's do starter sit for tomorrow's games with just pitchers. John Lester, Jose Urana. Start Lester. Yeah. Yeah, it's start Lester.

Yvonne Nova, Jordan Zimmerman. No. Maybe Nova. Nova. Nova's not a bad streamer. If you want to stream on opening day. The race do have two off days over the 11-day period. We're going to start Carlos Martinez and Noah Cinderguard.

Jake Odarezi at Dylan Bundy. I'd be okay starting Bundy. Yeah. And Odarezi isn't bad. I like him more than Nova. Let's put it that way. I don't know this, but as bad as Odorese has been on the road, I'm guessing his history at Camden Yards is pretty terrible.

Right. He's probably, yeah. Yeah, right. It kind of would be nice to wait and see. We're going to start Verlander. What about Cole Hamels facing the... I want to see it. Astros.

Yeah, it's at home. Yeah. Not against the Astros. Yeah. Severino, yes. J. Hap against the Yankees? Probably not. No.

I don't want to. Yeah, if I don't... I don't have to. I assume this is like a daily league discussion. Yeah, yeah, daily league. So the fact that these guys are probably making two starts this week, they are definitely making two starts this week. if it's an 11-day scoring period.

But we're not considering that here. If we're just saying for the one day, I'd say no to have. Garrett Richards and Kendall Graveman. Yes to Richards. Yep. I think yes. I'd lean against Graveman. Yeah, I mean, it's at home, so it's not a bad place to pitch, but yeah.

Yeah, it might be helpful if Ian Kinsler doesn't play. Chase Anderson at Clayton Richard. Definitely start Anderson. Yeah, that's it. Definitely not Richard. All right, yes, Max Scherzer. No Homer Bailey. Yes, Chris Sayle.

Chris Archer, we're starting to match against the Red Sox, right? Yes. Aaron Nola at Julio Tehran. Can you start both of them? Taran was terrible at home last year. Great opening day track record, Adam. Really good opening day pitcher. Is that true?

That's actually, yeah, he's been phenomenal. I don't think it means anything, but yes, it's true. He did have a really good spring, and he made some arsenal changes. So the Braves' SunTrans. The Park, the park effects show it wasn't some, like, ridiculous hitters park. Yeah. It's pretty middle of the road. So I don't think there's much to his struggles at home.

And it's not, we're not that far removed from him being very good. 2016. James Shields, no. Danny Duffy, yes? Yeah. Yep. Ty Blach, no, Clayton Kershaw. Yes.

John Gray at Patrick Corbyn. Oh, John Gray in a pitcher's park. With a humidor. You're definitely starting great. The first regular season taste of the humidor. I am definitely starting both. Yeah. I'm definitely watching that.

game. And Corey Kluber at Felix Hernandez. Glover, yes. What about Felix? Nope. I have a lot of Felix Hernandez shares. So I'm going to have to make this decision. I will probably prefer not to start him.

But, yeah, I'm hoping for a bounce back. All right, let's get to some emails to end the show. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. David and Eagle Rock says, hey, Frankie, Bob, Tommy, and Nick. No idea. Head, Head, Head Categories League. A lot of common names. Yeah.

Headhead Categories League. Who should I drop? Carlos Gonzalez, Corey Dickerson, Michael Conforto, Angelton Simmons, or Michael Taylor? Simmons?

Yeah. I don't know. I would drop... I would drop... I actually think I'd hold on to Simmons and Conforto, and I'm torn on the other three. Yeah, you drop Taylor

because the other outfielders are all better. You don't need four outfielders on your bench. That is Frankie Valley and his seasons. That is true. No name here. Dear Bradley, Manning, and Moore.

Those are Archies? Archies. My arch rival has Boxburger. I have Archie Bradley. I need saves. Would you rather hold on the Bradley or stash A.J. Minter, Anthony Swarzak, or Ryan Madsen? I would rather stash A.J. Minter.

Because I think he will be the Braves closer sooner than later. And I don't think that Diamondbacks really want Bradley's closing. If things go bad for Boxburger, they could go to the other guy. Horano. That's his name. Yeah. Hooray for Horano.

Greg and Massachusetts. Hey, Don, Mike, Rex, and Jared. Oh, gosh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that was political. I did not realize, my bad. Would you recommend I stick with Candelario or trade some pitching death to get someone like Michael Franco? No. Or Kyle Seeger.

Yeah. I might want to upgrade the Seeger. the names of political figures, Adam. I guess it's a very toxic environment, but yes. Okay. This is not a great question to ask, because it depends on what the pitching depth is. If it's Michael Waka, sure. Trade him for Kyle Seeger.

But that's, you're probably okay with Jammer Candelari. I don't think he's going to hurt you. Yeah, like he should hit for a good average. The county stats won't be great, but it's not that long. Just pick up Scott Kingery. He'll be third base eligible in two games. Boom. This is from Henry.

Dear Bud, Corona, and PBR. Corse Field, Miller Park. Corsefield, Miller Park, the only stadiums named after beer are awesome for dongs. What's up with that? I like it. It's an interesting observation.

I think, yeah, it makes, yeah, it makes perfect sense. But what about where the Cardinals play? That is also named after beer, technically. That is... It's named after a family, I guess. Yeah. And Miller's probably named after her family, too.

Coors might be also. All right, last one. Last one here. Dear Alex, Marwin, George, and Josh. I haven't heard to talk much about these guys. Jake Faria, Vince Velasquez, Jake Junis. Who do you want? This is from Kyle, by the way.

I almost had Jake Junice among my spring risers. I thought it was just a little too low end. But if he's a guy who goes out and strikes out eight and six innings, his first start, he's probably going to be a high waiver priority for me because he added a second breaking ball this spring already had good called strike tendencies and had a crazy high strikeout rate. I also like the way Faria has really turned thing.

He's kind of had that Stephen Matt's path where awful at the start of spring and then oh look, he's great again. And he was pretty good in the majors last year. Absolutely. I'm Faria King out. I'm assuming Faria is highest on this list. And by the way, Alex, Marvin, George, and Josh are the potential four-man outfield that A.J. Hins said he might when the Astros use an extreme shift.

Would that make Bregman outfield eligible? It just might. I assume you're going to play him in shortstop anyway. Thank you for listening, everybody. Just so you know, my Twitter followers are cool. 71% do not play Fortnite out of 900 respondents thus far. It's a pretty high number. I mean, if 20% of America is watching the same show, it's considered a phenomenal number.

30%. Yeah, so this is even higher than that. I think that's a pretty good number. All right. Considering there are many, like, it's not just TV shows we're talking about. It's all forms of entertainment. Also, Alex Bergman is not going to get outfield eligibility. There is not a fourth official outfield spot on the lineup card.

There you do. Okay, I have no idea what Fortnite is. See you later.