Fantasy Baseball Today - 03/30 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: CHW Sluggers & More from Opening Day

Episode Date: March 30, 2018

Of course we're talking about Matt Davidson and Tim Anderson (2:20) and whether or not they are worth adding. We'll also discuss Josh Donaldson's arm (12:45), new bullpen developments (15:31) and everything you need to know from Thursday's games ... Dylan Bundy (23:52) was outstanding! So was Jake Odorizzi (25:00)! And Felix Hernandez impressed (27:00), but are we worried about some of the SPs who struggled yesterday (33:20) including Jon Lester and Danny Duffy? ... Most Added players (38:40), batting order notes (44:08), encouraging and discouraging starts (48:26) and Week 2 help (53:40) with two-start pitcher options ... 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

Domingo. The season, taken out of the ballpark by Ian Hap, which confirms for sure we will have a lot of home runs hit this year. Welcome to Fantasy Baseball today reacting to the first day of the season. Matt Davidson hit three home runs. Tim Anderson hit two home runs. We'll talk about two-start pitchers for Fantasy Week 2 if you're not playing in an 11-day week here in week one. We will talk about Dylan Bundy's awesome slider. Jake O'Dorese, 63% own outstanding.

John Lester was crap. Carlos Martinez walked everybody, and here are Scott, Heath, and Chris. Good morning, guys. Hey, Adam. That was a fun day yesterday, wasn't it? It was pretty fun. It was tons of fun. Yeah.

I had a draft last night. Would you believe that? I had a draft that we were counting the Thursday stats. So you can imagine Matt Davidson was drafted. He might be dropped, but it was fun. Did anybody else stay up for the Rockies Diamondbacks? I did. Got a little humor to reaction?

You're feeling good? Well, the home runs were not exactly, like, clobbered. I don't know. I don't really have any major takeaways. Like, the home run was probably... I was asking how you're feeling after staying up until two in the morning to watch a not entertaining baseball game. I was drafted. The draft took five hours, so that's what I was really doing.

I thought I flipped over to Edwin Diaz, tightroping a save. That was entertaining. Well, at least he got it. Closers were bad yesterday. It was a very Edwin-Dia's safe. Dave, three strikeouts, two hit batters, two stolen bases allowed. Yes. And I thought Patrick Corbyn was encouraging, had that slider really working for him.

So, you know, fun stuff. I didn't really get to see Felix, but we'll talk about it. Guys, let's get into it. We'll start with double and triple dongs from yesterday. Also, we will talk about Greg Hollins. We will talk about the Giants' Bullpen, etc. Matt Davidson, 44% owned. Three for four with three home runs.

Five RBIs and a walk at. Kansas City. His teammate, Tim Anderson, 43% own. Two for four with two home runs, three RBIs, a walk, and a strikeout at Kansas City. The most incredible thing about Davidson and Anderson is not the combined five home runs. It's the combined two walks to one strikeout. Wow. Wow. I mean, if that, if you project that out, they're completely different players than we thought they were. Exactly. You know, 44% ownership for Davidson. I would guess that quadrupled since yesterday. and like the thing is we knew Davidson could hit home runs he hit 26 and basically two-thirds of a season last year he also walked 19 times and struck out 165 times in two-thirds of the season and one game where he didn't strike out at all like that's not enough for me to think that uh i don't know nothing about this game tells me he's a different player than i thought he was he just happened to have the best case scenario that player is capable of having.

I feel like the upside for Davidson with those plate discipline issues is kind of like what Ruegnet O'Dore was last year, which is, of course, not a very good fantasy player. Well, I mean, upside's 40 home runs. Does anyone... Does anyone want to... I'm not really feeling like working today.

So we could actually make this podcast really, really short and easy and just say we learned absolutely nothing new about anyone yesterday Because that's the truth. Yeah. All right, we'll see you guys later. Well, the closers, though. I mean, like, the Holland thing is obviously huge. Yes.

That, you know. I was joking, Adam. We've learned all kinds of new things. But you're not that wrong. Just trying to pick fights. Chris is definitely in a mood. This should be very entertaining. But to sum it up, the two White Sox guys, Davidson and Anderson,

are you interested in adding them? Even if you don't think they're going to be that good. How interested are you in adding them? I get a little more excited about Anderson because for the reason I drafted him late in some Roto Leagues. I feel like there's a steals potential there, had like nine of his stolen bases in September last year, ran a ton in the minors. And, you know, we knew he had some power too. Like a two-homer game from Tim Anderson, other than the fact that it came on opening day isn't especially notable. He has terrible plate discipline.

He's probably not a points league pickup. But in Roto Leagues, if he was unowned and you need steals, I think, yeah, now's a good time to pick that up. Yeah, I would think in both Davidson and Anderson in a Categories league could be worth an ad, depending who the last man on your bench is. Like, I don't think Matt Davidson's going to be a really good player. But I also think that he could be very, like, there's a lot of guys that hit a bunch of home runs and strike out a lot. and just the variables that come along with baseball, he could be one of the good ones. But he just never walks.

That's part of the equation. It's not like he could be Joey Gallo, you know? Well, yeah, like how excited are we about Todd Frazier? Because isn't that probably his ceiling? Like the last couple of seasons of Todd Frazier? Right. That's a good point. So like 220 with a lot of home runs.

Except Todd Frazier will walk a bunch. Yeah, that's even Todd Frasier walks. And he's in a better lineup. The White Sox might not get to face Danny Duffy every day. But hey, we've been wrong before. He did Homer off three pitchers, to be fair. We've been wrong before. He walked quite a bit in the minors.

So, like, there's no. I'm not ready to rule out the possibility of him ever walking. Don't drop David Dahl for him, right? No. No. Don't drop Scott Kingery for him. Heath, we got a tweet about that. Don't drop Scott King.

I don't know. I mean, he's going to play every. He's going to play every day. I don't know if anybody in the Phillies, we got to tweet. going to play more than four times a week. Let it sort itself out. Let it sort itself out. The Phillies thing is actually a thing that happened yesterday.

It's worth talking about. All right. We'll get into that. Managerial. Malpractice. Managerial decisions, I think, are the most notable things we picked up on from opening day. Yes. Gabe Kapler, Gabe Kapler had a worse opening day than Joe Kelly. I mean, it may have been the worst managerial debut of all time.

It was pretty bad. Let's not always. Overreact. I don't know another way. He has a nine-man bullpen. Aronola went four innings in his last start. Let's not act. Let's not bury the guy.

Okay, let's get into why it was. It was the worst one I can, I know of. And first of all, like, it doesn't mean he's going to be a bad manager, but I don't think you could argue he didn't have a bad game. Like, he didn't start Odu Bell Herrera, first of all, when everybody thought he wasn't going to be part of this outfield rotation. He was just a fixture in center field. It seemed to upset Odubel. Herrera based on some of the quotes out there, so he's got that to deal with. He removed his ace, Aaron Nola, after 68 pitches when he had a gym going in the sixth inning, and relying on

a bullpen that isn't especially deep to preserve the lead for, you know, about four innings. The bullpen did not preserve that lead. Spoiler alert. In the meantime, he removed Reese Hoskins, his best hitter for defensive purposes, and obviously the Braves came back to tide. It would have been nice to have that hitter in the lineup. And finally, he used his closer on an unorthodox situation, road team ninth inning of a tie game, and the closer, he also said after the game that he doesn't have a defined closer. He's not going to do that. And I would say, like, the fact of, did he lose that game yesterday for the Phillies?

Maybe. That's not that huge of a deal. But he may have gone a long way towards losing the club halibuster. by sitting someone like Odubel Herrera and pulling Aaron Nola after 16 inches. That assumes that he's not the one that built this weird roster with 10 everyday players for eight spots, you know? Well, I don't, like we don't really know for sure

that Nick Williams is an everyday player. Well, the reason why he said he sat Oduo Herrera was that Aaron Noah was a ground ball pitcher, so he didn't feel like he needed the outfield or whatever. It was dumb. There was a lot of reasons. There were a lot of defensible mood. Like, you could defend a lot of these moves you made.

Aaron Nola, for instance, hit third time through the lineup, significantly worse last year than first two times. Basically, every hitter was Eric Hosmer against him the third time through last year. That sounds so bad. But at the same time, like, it doesn't have a very deep people.

And the more links you put on that chain, the more you're asking nobody to, be a wink link. The Nola one, I can't really blame me. And obviously we don't want to see that happen for Nola in our position as fantasy analyst, because if he's not going to be allowed to throw six plus six seven innings consistently, he's not going to be a very good fantasy option. Yeah, I mean, like Severino got lifted at five and two-thirds,

but Severino would throw 90 pitches. He threw, Noah threw 68 pitches. So that was very surprising. And we hope that they don't get so analytical that we're never going to get any quality starts from Aaronnola, but I think it would be an overreaction to assume that's just going to keep happening. In fact, this might be a good thing that the bullpen blew it so badly for their ace that maybe he'd be more inclined now to leave Nola in a little bit longer. I really just think Aaron Nola wasn't fully stretched out. I think that's all that was.

68 pitches, though. He had only thrown four innings in his last spring start. All right. Well, you know what? Again, we're not going to overreact, but it was not a good day for Kapler. All right, here's that before we get back into yesterday's stuff, fun new segment. Favorite two-star pitcher owned in less than 50% of leagues, all I want is a name. Who to pick up for next week for week two, which.

is Monday to Sunday. So if you're only playing a four-game week one or four-day week one, week two, the best two-star pitcher owned in less than 50% of leagues is who? Whom? Jake Junice. Jake Junice. Now, we're kind of assuming the royal slot him fourth rather than fifth. If they slot him fifth for some reason, then he won't be making two starts.

Okay, Jake Junis. But I am right now assuming because he's obviously... More deserving of the fourth slot than Eric Skaglin, that it's going to be Jake Junis, who had like 20 strikeouts in 14 innings this spring, and I'm very anxious to see what he can do against in regular season play. Okay, I'll take Chun Ryu, 33% at Arizona at San Francisco. Granted, I am working on a list that is incomplete.

Scott will have a much better list than I will, but I'm looking at a league page. And that'll be updated. Any other names? Marco Gonzalez. Very good sports. prospect pedigree, and he has great matchups at San Francisco at Minnesota to good places to pitch Marco Gonzalez.

I was going to go with Jake Junis. I'm sorry. I would dispute calling Minnesota a great matchup. It's not a, I didn't, I didn't say great matchup. Oh, you sure did. You said he has three great matchups. I said he is pitching in great situations where his chances of success. are higher than they otherwise would be.

Play it back and you'll hear those exact words, thank you very much. All right, sorry, Heath, go ahead. I was going to say Jake Junis. I don't know that I have another one. You could still say Jake Junice. I thought the point of this was just to say names, but then I had to fill the silence,

and I let us down a bad path. Yeah, okay, we're done then. Two Jake Junice's, Junjunius, Jungin Ryu, Marco Gonzalez. You can consider those guys, and of course we'll have some written advice for you on the website, cbsports. com slash fantasy.

It's already up. Oh, all right, great. All your week two stuff is already up. You can already set your lineup. You can put it on the board. Yes. One last quick, you know, yellow light on that is there are a lot of rainouts in April. So going with a marginal two-start pitcher, just be aware if he's pitching on a Sunday, you know,

if he's scheduled to pitch on a Sunday, there's a chance he doesn't make that start. So, you know, keep it in mind. All right, Josh Donaldson dealing with a sore arm. So we get into the big news here. This was weird. Yeah, it was dead arm. Because they mentioned that he had a sore shoulder in early March, and I don't think we ever talked about it on the podcast

because nobody ever made it sound like a big deal in spring train. I went back yesterday during that game once I saw, and I was trying to find any sign that the shoulder should have been something we were worried about. And there really wasn't any. It was the calf, like 10 days ago. but he could not make throws to first base. They were calling it dead arm. Yeah.

Now, yeah. And dead arm basically is an unprepared arm, and it's worth noting that between the shoulder injury and the calf injury, he didn't play much this spring, he didn't play the field very much. So it's just possible his arm is not game ready yet. And Ryan Zimmerman is a guy a couple years ago, who was a third baseman, had a shoulder injury,

where he basically couldn't throw the ball, well anymore. But it never stopped him from hitting, really. Like, he's had the injury concerns, but, you know, he was still able to hit. It's just he couldn't throw. It could become a bad, bad news situation for Kendris Morales, if that's the case.

Yeah, they actually are saying they may have to play him at DH a little more for the time, being Donaldson specifically. So, yeah, that would hurt Morales' playing time. But for the most part, John Gibbons totally downplayed this. He said it looked worse because he had to make a couple of off-balance throws.

They're not worried at all. Yeah, I mean, they have spent this spring sounding just a little bit metzish on injuries. That's how I feel about this Donald's thing. I mean, this might be nothing, and he might DH. By the way, it would hurt Morales. It would put Salarte in the lineup? I would assume so. Yeah.

Yeah, so not a bad option for deeper leagues. But, yeah, it's scary. I'm not sure that I'd be trying to trade Josh Donaldson, but if I got a trade offer that had Josh Donaldson coming to my side, I would reject it. I don't want to touch him unless, you know, I mean, I'd probably give up like Devers for him. I am worried. You would give up? I think I would.

You would give up Devers for him. Yeah, that makes sense. Like, that's the thing. Like, yeah, it's a little concerning. But what can you actually do because of it? Like, it's not a good time to try trading him because the guy who doesn't have Donaldson is going to be, is not going to pay what Donaldson is worth. And more likely than not, it's going to be okay. So you just kind of have to cross your fingers, I feel like.

I am very worried about him in my six by six with a sis. That's about it. Yeah, he's going to crush you now. All right then. St. Louis signed Greg Holland, who is 75% owned to a one-year $14 million deal. Greg Holland will be a top blank closer or RP going forward. Greg Holland will be a top 10 closer. I feel pretty confident in saying that.

He was a stud for every month but August last year, playing half his games at Colorado. He got a cut on his finger in August, lost the feel for his slider. His sliders is everything and had like an ERA over 10 that month. But the other four months, his ERA was like 170. And now he's not in Colorado, and he's pitching for a playoff contender. And, yeah, I think he's really good. Did you miss the part yesterday where Adam told us the Cardinals are going to be awful?

And then they got beat 9 to 4 by the Mets? I don't remember Adam saying, did you say the. Cardinals would be awful? No, I said I could see them being bad or something like that. I think awful was the word you know. They have. I don't. I don't.

Mike Bethini is my, is my hot seat manager. I think he could be the first year. Well, until Gabe Kepler came along. No, he's the first year guy. Mike Bethany is the, uh, what's is the old Red Sox? Who got fire from the Red Sox last year? Sorry. John Fox.

Farrell. John Farrell. John Fox coached the Bears, but John, he's the new John Farrell. I will say, I don't think. Go ahead. I'm not necessarily sure Greg Holland is an elite closer anymore. I mean, he's dealt with the injuries the last couple of years. Walk problems have been a very big issue for him the last couple of years. And, well, 2015 before the injury and then 2017 when he came back, maybe it was just a little bit of rust last year. Maybe it was pitching in Colorado. But, you know, 2016, he was injured. Yeah, I know. I said that.

Okay. Before Tommy John, and for five of the six months last year, he was Jansen Kimbril level. Yeah. Would you rather have Holland or Ryssel Ecclesias? Rysel. Rysel. Holland. And when do we think he's going to start closing for them?

Yeah, I didn't see a good estimate of that. But I would imagine, since he's a guy who works an inning at a time, a week or two. Okay. Okay, so Dominic Leone owners. Sorry. So, yeah, Philadelphia manager, Gabe Kapler, said he will not have a to find closer. Hunter Strickland got a save for the Giants. Malanson's on the DL. Strickland's 20% owned.

Anybody else? Are you looking to pick anybody else up in the Phillies bullpen? Or how about, you know what? We got to go right into bullpen stuff here. How about Brad Brock? And him blowing a save now is a little unfortunate. Chris Davis made a bad play behind him. Then the blooper tied the game.

He was almost out of the inning. The two walks were his fault. But otherwise, yeah, Darren O'Day and Michael Givens were both good. They were. Scott and I were in the Scam League, in the 16-team categories league. We were deciding who to pick between Givens and O'Day. And we went with O'Day because they used Givens a lot last year for more than one inning. So obviously, Brock had already been taken.

This was our last pick. So we saw, yeah, we'll speculate. Who would you speculate on if it were? and Brock, and let's not act like he just lost the job, but it wasn't a good start for him. Yeah, O'Day pitched the eighth inning, so I would still speculate with him, but my guess is it's still going to be Brock next time. The only reason after this kind of performance, there's any reason to doubt it'll be Brock is because Buck Showalter was less than fully on board with Brock as spring training was coming to the end. Well, yeah, he basically said that they were going to have a closer by committee. So I would not be surprised if it's not Brock next time, but I think Brock will get another chance.

Then what about Strickland? Strickland or Addison Reed after Fernando Rodney went all Rodney on us? I mean, Rodney just allowed a solo home run. I definitely Strickland. And it's worth noting that Bruce Bochy isn't necessarily counting out Malanson. and he feels like he could be back in a couple weeks, but he also clarified that with, I don't really know.

It depends when he starts throwing. And, like, if he wasn't healthy after an offseason of rest, like Strickland could be the Giants closed the rest of the season. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's 20% own. Good guy to take a shot on Hunter Strickland. All right, some other new, do I have any other bullpen news? Familia was good yesterday.

Camber Joe's. Yeah, Familia, his velocity was exceptional. yesterday. Average like 97.4 miles per hour with his fastball. So if there are physical concerns there, they did not show up yesterday. Keone Keller, what do you have to say about the Rangers? He is the Rangers closer. He didn't get the pitch yesterday. Okay.

But he has been declared the Rangers closer. Okay, great. And then Ken Giles struggled, but whatever. Camber-Jorosian pitched the 6th, which is good news for Blake Parker. And I'm just waiting for Addison Reed. I mean, Reed pitched two scoreless innings. Fernando Rodney's so bad. He's better than Fernando Rodney, but Fernando Rodney is the cockroach of closers.

Well, look, yeah, you don't add Fernando Rodney after his entire career, which spans about three decades at this point, where he's been the same exact guy. You don't add that guy to your team and then watch him give up a home run in his first appearance and be like, whoa. No, no. No, this is not the Fernando Rodney I signed up for it. Excuse me, take him out of the closers roll. What are you doing May 1st? What do you mean? Podcasting with you May 1st.

Yeah. Well, you pick whatever you want me to do on the podcast. I will wrap. I will do something crazy. Shave your head. If Fernando Rodney is still the closer by May 1st. Shave your head. Yeah, you know what?

June 1st. Do a friar John. June 1st. Shave your head. June 1st. With a, with like the monk's. No, I'm not doing that. Yeah, you are.

He will not be the closer by June 1st. Shave your chest with a straight-edge razor. Ah. No. We wouldn't get evidence of that. No, we can record it's pretty hairy. Yeah, he's hairy, yeah. Yeah, he is.

It's true. Okay, other news. Are you interested in adding Joey Lucchese? Oh, I hope that's how you pronounce it. I forgot to look that up. Is Chessie? L-U-C-C-H-E-S-I. He will make his MLB debut today for the Padres.

Are you interested in adding him? I'm interested in him. I don't know that I'm interested in adding him because there are a lot of other pictures. I think I'd like Jake Juno's, for instance, that I think I'd be looking to add before Lou Chessie. How did you say Luke Jesse? I'd been saying Lou Chessie, but I did not verify that anyway. Joey Luke's.

Like, he kind of has, he's kind of like an Alex Wood sort of prospect where it's not like he has these favorable scouting reports, shows up in high in all the rankings, but his minor league numbers are very, very impressive. and he has that deceptive lefty thing going on where if there's anything that's going to beat a scouting report, it's that. So definitely interested in seeing how this goes. Michael Conforto could be ready by April 5th. That's outstanding. He's 89% owned Michael Conforto. Mike Zanino was scratched with side soreness and Tyler Flowers left with oblique discomfort, and Kurt Suzuki replaced him.

So it's been a rough start for catchers with Perez on the DL, and hopefully this is nothing more than day-to-day for Zanino and Flowers. Is there anything we know or we'll just wait and see? Nope. Okay. I think Flowers is going on the deal with an oblique. I think I saw that on the Twitter feed this morning. Great.

Okay. Yeah, that's frustrating because obliques, we all know. But he's also Tyler Flowers and who cares, right? No, he was good. No, he was good. I, look, when he got hurt, I told you I think he's one of the most underrated players of baseball. But he's not a great fantasy option because he splits a bat. It's almost 50-50 with Kurt Suzuki.

It might actually be a good thing because now there's no 50-50 split there. And Suzuki, while not as good as flowers, can be useful. Okay. Let's talk about Thursday standouts. We'll look at the most added list as well. We'll get you ready for week two. Heath, why don't you lead off? Who is your Thursday standout?

I'll eat a little bit of crow on Dylan Bundy. He was outstanding against the twins. I think it'll be interesting to see with the twins. You said I don't know that they're a great matchup. We don't know for sure if they're a great matchup. they could still be a really good swinging strike matchup because of Miguel Sino, because of Byron Bucson. They've still got guys within that lineup. So that is my question, but this definitely piques my interest.

Bundy with seven shutout and eight, seven strikeouts. The slider was nasty. Fifteen swinging strikes, 12 of them with the slider. It was the best swinging strike rate he's ever had with the slider. He did have more swinging strikes last year on opening day with the slider, however. When he throws the slider, he's good. Yeah. Like, that's, that's every.

So, you know, it's encouraging to see him throw it between a third and a fourth of the time yesterday. It's got to keep it up. And this is Dylan Bundy who were talking about who went seven scoreless with seven strikeouts against the twins. And he apparently used his two seamer, which he did not use last year. So that is something. And that was, there was an off-season story about how he, you know, learned it from Andrew Cashner, which hopefully his is better than Andrew Cashner. And on the other side of that, like Jake Oteresey went six innings and struck out seven.

Yeah, he's got to be in this discussion, too, of standouts, and he's available. Oderesey's 63% owned. Now, I was wondering if he was going to ditch the high fastball that the Reyes organization preaches. But according to what I read on 1,500 ESPN.com from Derek Wetmore, who was writing about the game, he did not. He used it rather effectively. It was a good weapon for him for Jake Oteresey. But Oterreasy's 63% owned, not a big strike. This was a great star at Baltimore.

I was not expecting this. What do you guys think? Yeah. I mean, he's had good starts before, right? Baltimore will whiff. Sure. Like, I don't, it's not, like, the reason I'm distinguishing Dylan Bundy's start from Oderesee is because we've seen Dylan Bundy, based on the use of that one pitch, just be flat out dominant. Well, Oteresee, I mean, he's always going to be, I feel like this mid-range pitcher who will occasionally have starts like that.

but we'll, you know, end up with an ERA near four, less than a strikeout per in. Sounds a lot like Dylan Bundy. Well, no, I feel like Dylan Bundy, yeah, I feel like there's another threshold he can cross into if he just makes maximum use of his arsenal. And there were some weird things going on in that game. Dylan Bundy might have had two home runs robbed,

at least one for sure. And it was a day game. The shadows were kind of weird. I noticed that at a couple of the day games yesterday. with the Marlins and with Baltimore, where the shadow's just kind of crossing just ahead of home plate. So, you know, it's worth keeping in mind that. Sure.

It's also worth keeping in mind that according to my notes, and I feel like I want to look this up, but Dylan Bundy in August went 4-0 with a 2ERA, six walks, 45 strikeouts, and 16% swinging strike rate in 36 innings. So he finished the season on a tear. Use the slider a lot late in the season. Okay, good. So this is something to keep an eye on here with Dylan Bundy.

What did you guys think of Felix Hernandez? Heath, he's 82% owned if Felix were available in your leagues. Now, he had a short and start because he really was not stretched out, 83 pitches, but no runs on two hits, four strikeouts, in five and a third against the Indians. Would you rush to pick him up if he were available, Felix Hernandez? You know, I just checked, and he is available in one of my points leagues. I don't know that I would say I'm rushing to pick him up, but I am probably going to pick him up. I think this is encouraging enough that you take a shot out of this.

The four strikeouts in five and a third is not great, but this is a baby step. The velocity was down a little bit. And I'm okay with, like, I expect Felix and even Cole Hamels. They're not getting their velocity back, I don't think. But we have a history of really good pitchers that age and eventually turn into a different type of still good, if not as good pitcher. I think those are both possibilities for both Hamils and Hernandez, and I was pretty encouraged by both yesterday. Hernandez or Orrides? Hernandez.

I'll take Felix. Yeah, I mean, I don't know that there's much to gain from speculating on Oterese. There may be from Hernandez, but I'm not as hopeful as these other two, I don't think. Scott, who was a standout for you yesterday? Who we haven't already mentioned? Probably, hang on. Let me consult my notes real quick here. I mean, I'll give you some candidates, John Lester.

Well, he obviously didn't stand out in a good way. No, it's... Oh, we haven't. mention Jose Martinez yet. We have not. That was huge. Not only was he in the lineup for opening day against a righty against Noah Cinderguard with Carpenter playing third base, but he made Noah Cindergarde look like, you know, look like Rubble. Yeah. Three hits, a home run. Um, Barney? Barney. Barney. Yeah. Certainly, no, he's the, Martinez is the one who look like Barney Rubble. Um, um, I think gave himself, is it Barty Rubble like?

No, no, that's Bam Bam. Bam, Bam's the strong. Barney was a little short, dude. He was kind of funny. I mean, I liked him, but he didn't look anything like Jose Martinez. Yeah, a little dim. But anyway. Loyal friend.

Jose Martinez, I think. If he's doing that against Noah's Indigard, how they're going to keep him out of the line? That's my point. That was a good start for him. He's available. Yonder Alonzo, Jose Martinez. Who would you rather have right now?

Jose. Sure. Yeah. I kind of want them both. I don't know. I don't know that I'm dropping. I don't know that I'm dropping Yonder for Jose Martinez. Jose Martinez is outfield eligible.

Yonder is not. That's the key. That is true. That is helpful. All right, Chris, I stand out for you, good or bad. Let's get into John Lester. He looked bad against what's going to be a pretty bad Marlins lineup. But.

Some of it wasn't his fault. There was some very bad outfield play. A player that will remain unnamed. I mean, he had a good game. But, yeah, like, John Lester didn't look good. The velocity was down again. So it's certainly something to keep an eye on with him because we had those concerns coming in. But it's one start. The two misplayed balls by Kyle Schwabber. One of them should have been a double, turned into a triple.

one of them should have been a ball that went right back into the infield and he played it into a triple and I think two runs. So that wasn't entirely his fault. The problem is John Lester is going to pitch with Kyle Schwerber behind him, a decent amount. Kyle Schrober's not going to misplay two balls every game. That wasn't especially, but we've seen Kyle Schwerver play the outfield before. He doesn't do that. I think the bigger problem is they may not have. especially if college where we're playing left field, they may not have a great defense in that regard.

And if John Lester is striking out two batters, he's going to need a great defense. Sure, but he struck out almost a batterer perning last year. So let's not overreact. Yeah, but he, okay, so Lester had only 25 strikeouts in his last 34 regular season innings, only seven strikeouts in 14 and a third postseason inning. So that's what, 48 and a third innings to end the season. with 32 strikeouts. So it's something to keep an eye on.

Lester struck out two batters in three and a third while giving up seven hits with three walk. It was a terrible start. If you believe in John Lester, then this is actually someone that I think you could possibly buy low on after one game. I could see somebody jumping ship. Sure. If you do.

If you do. I don't. I do. I mean, I would pay... I don't see anybody selling low enough that I'd be willing to take a shot at it. But, you know, there's a point, obviously, where that would happen. Would you be willing to give up Kevin Gosman right now for John Lester? Sure.

Yeah. Yeah, I would. Yeah, that's interesting. Okay. What about Dylan Bundy? I would be willing to give up Dylan Bundy for John Lester. Yeah, I would. Yeah.

Okay. I got to tell you all about Seat Geek. Get on that Seat Geek. Oh, actually, true story about Seat Geek. This happened last night. He's talking with one of our listeners, David, who, a loyal listener. He and I have been in touch, and he lives in New York. And we're going to go to a Yankees game.

And he went on Seek, actually, and he purchased us two tickets to the Yankees game on Friday night against the Orioles. Right behind home plate for only $23. Of course, you know, it's 400 levels, but it is right behind home plate. But now, we got a good deal. And we use Seekek, and you should use it too. So download the Seekek app. And if you want to get $20 off your first Seekkeek purchase, you enter the promo code

fantasy. That promo code is fantasy on the Seek app. Here's what Seekkeek does. Goes out and searches multiple ticket sites. pulls in the results, gives them all a grade based on value. You can see where you're getting the most bang for your buck. Where are the bargains? You can use Seekeks for games, for concerts, for comedy, for theater, and every purchase is fully guaranteed.

So get yourself the Seekek app or you can go to the website, Seekek.com, and enter the promo code, fantasy to save $20. on your first ticket purchase. Again, download the Seek app and use the promo code. Fantasy. All right, next section here, worried yet? And John Lester was the headliner for this. But let's go to Carlos Martinez. Worried yet?

Five, six walks, four and runs, and four and a third at the Mets. Nope. All right. John Gray, worried yet? Nope. Man, he couldn't even succeed with the humidor. I'm not worried. Nope.

No. No. The next one, we may get a little worried. Nope. Oddly enough, with John Gray, it's been better at home than on the road, just ERA-wise, the last two years. Next one is, what, Danny Duffy?

Danny Duffy, worried yet? Nope. A little. Danny Duffy had some elbow issues at the end of spring. He lost control in his last spring start and could not throw a strike. They pulled him out. He said he was fine. He started off this game, looking great,

and then just hit a wall again. And I have a little bit of concern, yes. Yeah. His velocity was like 90, 91, 92. The average 91.1 with the fastball. Which is bad. He doesn't have great enough stuff to be good. Yeah, I mean, that was two miles per hour down from where he was last season.

So that's certainly concerning, but it's still one star. And it's the first start. Corey Clover's velocity was down two miles an hour. Corey Klover didn't leave his start before with elbow pain. Yeah, that's the issue. And on the Sportsline DFS podcast, by the way, Heath Cummings and Mike McClure gave DFS lineups yesterday. Actually got in on the 10 p.m. two game slate, which was fun. Finish second place in a 50-50.

Good for me. Well, well. Yeah. Use the little BVP data for some David Peralta. I don't know, whatever. Anyway, Heath said he didn't trust Danny Duffy. It was a good matchup, but you don't want to trust the guy. who had the arm issue in his last start.

And I thought that was a good point. So he struggled. He gave up three homers. And finally, Chris Archer. You worried yet? Not even a little bit. Actually, this was good stuff from Archer. That's stupid.

That's stupid. Yes, that's stupid inside the park home run. Wait, DeNard Span hit a three-run homer yesterday, right? No. Cool. That has nothing to do with Chris Archer's game. I'm just saying, like, we were just saying,

Kyle Schwerber had a big game. He had two misplaced. I said that was Kyle Schorber's fault, too. Yeah. So basically, Dernard Span hasn't figured out yet that he's playing next to the best center fielder in baseball and Kevin Kiermeier and did not seed to him on a gapper. That Kiermeier could have easily caught, but instead there was a near collision and the ball rolled to the wall. Yeah, so Archer gave up four runs in six innings. And Boston, and Boston destroyed him last year, or again, home against Boston.

Boston destroyed him last year. ZRA was like 580 against the Red Sox. But anyway, fine start from Chris Archer. If you saw the home run from Eduardo Nunez and the box score, it was a pretty weak inside the park home run. I don't understand. I mean, like, let's get with the times.

That's clearly an error. Just start scoring it a stupid error. Not a hit. He didn't touch the ball, of course, it's an error. Why does it have to be? You know what? If you didn't touch the ball,

that's an even bigger error. Like, you're pathetic. You couldn't even touch the ball. It's not an error if you don't touch the ball. This is why ERA is a great stat. It should be an error. Good home run, Eduardo. All right.

Can I mention one player I am. a little bit worried about, at least for the remainder of his upcoming series. The shift that the Astros were employing on Joey Gallo, if he doesn't bunt, that's like a home run or nothing.

Defensive alignment, right? Why doesn't he bunt? They asked him after the game. He said he's never really done it. He's not comfortable with it. He's not going to do it every time, but he's open to the idea. I think that's all it.

Start practicing. I don't think it'd be hard to do. It's not like a guarantee. bunting is more difficult. And they mentioned that it might have just been because of Justin Verlander, who they say is a tough but pitcher to bunt. Like, bunting is something that looks really easy because you're just standing there and pointing your bat. It's probably more difficult to do against a 95-mile-an-hour fastball than we think.

Have we ever seen a left-handed slugger bunt? No, actually, I was doing research on it yesterday. Carlos Pena in the twilight of his career, actually had 17 bunt hits over the course of three seasons. He was 17 for 24 on bunt attempts. And, anyone else? That's, that's it. There are so many left-handed power hits that get shifted. It won't happen.

Even with the shift becoming more prevalent. Didn't we see Brian McCand do it last year? I can't remember who it was. I think I've seen Mastakus to it. Fancred, SB Nation's analytics blog did a study on this. And the rate of bunt attempts against the shift has basically stayed level. it's like 1% every year. It should be, but I don't think every team is going to be willing to try it.

The way the Astros do, the Astros are a team that it's fair to say has a pretty wide margin for error. If Joey Gallo does drop a bunt, I don't think they're worried. But this is a thing that players are going to have to get used to. Joey Gallo is not going to hit a double against four outfielder unless he hits it down the line. That's the only chance he has. So it's, I'm not. not worried about Joey Gallo. He's going to hit his home runs, but try to butt fam. Yeah. That's all. Okay. Let's take a look at the most added list here. Brad Boxberger is number one. Scott

Kingery is 83% own. He's number two. Did not play yesterday. That was pretty number two-ish. We expected that, though. I mean, he's a bench player. I didn't necessarily expect that. I thought they'd find a spot for him on opening day with the buzz that he generated. Now, I'm not dropping him. If he's not in the lineup today, though, or I don't even know if they're playing today. But in their second game, then that will be concerned. Wow, why do you hate Scott Kingery, Scott? No, but wait, but hold on, hold on.

Let's talk about it. We've talked about there are avenues for Scott Kingery to start playing. You know, even if it's not right now. This is a guy, you should not have picked up Scott Kingery to put him in your lineup immediately. You should have picked him up to stash him and realize there's an opportunity for him. Like, they're not going to put, like, I still have a hard time believing, okay we're going to make this long-term commitment to our best prospect, commit these dollars to him over this number of years,

and we're just going to let him, we're going to let his talent stagnate on the bench. They paid him like a bench player. Like that's the thing is that the thing about that contract for the Phillies is if he's just a bench player, if he's just a guy that starts every three days for the next six years, it's a great contract. Oh, God, no. Yes, you don't.

You don't give a guy that contract straight. Of course. When you have him for three, basically, for three years, and you can wait and see what he becomes. You don't give him that contract if you don't think he's going to be a fixture for your team. I mean, in year one, he doesn't have to be a fixture. Just be patient, okay? You lose development if you just sit. They've got 10 guys for eight spots.

All right, let's not get bogged down on this here. Just Kingery. You hate talking about Scott Kingery. You hate talking about Scott Kingery as much as these two hate the guy. I love talking about, what I don't want to talk about, though, is like the merits of putting him on The bench and per dollar. It's not just a kingery. Odubel Herrera, Aaron Altair, Nick Williams.

These are all guys who are going to have trouble finding everyday. Mike L. Franco, J.P. Crawford, Cesar Hernandez. Not Cesar Hernandez. He dung yesterday. I think the only one who's – well, you know what? Reese Hoskins just ships a first. Nobody is safe. Nobody's safe in the Phillies lineup. You know who didn't start a catcher yesterday?

Jorge Alfaro. Nobody's safe. That's true. Carlos Santana better be pretty safe. All right. Other most added players, Jasmine Grandeau, 85% own. Matt Davidson, 45%. Hanley Ramirez, 71. Jack Flaherty, 52%. Stephen Mattes is 81%.

Kendall Graveman? Come on, folks. 40%. No, right? No. He wasn't good yesterday, but I'm interested in Kendall Graveman. He showed signs of being interesting last season. The fastball velocity was up. He's got a great sinker.

I'm not disinterested in him. Okay, well, I know you're going to be disinterested in Ty Blach, who's now 60% owned after yesterday. Yeah, I wrote about him in the waiver wire call on the day. Don't at him. Don't add him. Three walks, three strikeouts over five innings. Blach's a great start. Yeah, he's Blach.

Do you have to say his name that way? He defeated Clayton Kershaw. Zero ERA, 1 and 0 on the season. Never lost head to head against Clayton Kershaw? He probably got more fantasy points than Clayton Kershaw yesterday, didn't he? Blockhead. Did he get more fantasy points than Clayton? Kershaw yesterday.

I'm sure he did. He was bad. He won. So, yeah. Probably. So stupid. Kershaw did give up eight hits. It wasn't like vintage Kershaw. Not that he was bad or anything.

All right. Fun non-baseball news. The Freeze is officially the best non-baseball thing in baseball. This is the super, super fast guy who just destroys everybody he races on the warning track. It's incredible. It's just, it's so good. Yeah, look it up if you don't know it. The Phillies need a left-handed batting practice pitcher,

and they are allowing. fans to audition. So what I'm going to tell you is, if you listen to this podcast, you live in Philadelphia, and you're left-handed and you want to throw BP, go audition, win the job, and tell them you heard about it through the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. That would be a terrific endorsement. And did you see this controversy about whether or not the bird on the Baltimore Orioles logo has an open or closed mouth?

This is, I'm having a hard time not, like, I don't know what the hell the people who think his mouth is open or talking about. 100% right it's not even like it's closed it's not even there's no reason to think that it's open why would the top of his bill be orange and the bottom be black have these people ever seen a bird in their lives yeah i agree i i i can see it but it is close oh yeah it's close it's not yeah when you you know when you look at it long enough it's like one of the it's like the the old lady young lady thing where like once you see it from the other angle.

This is a young lady. It's a blue dress. Chris has a hard time just seeing the other side of things. He's just not open-minded enough to look at it that way. And I'm looking. It looks like all Orioles have black beaks. I disagree. None of them have orange beaks.

So the beak is definitely black. Okay. Let's go through some baseball stuff. Rapid fire here so we can do some week two planning and some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI. Tell me how significant this is if you're willing to pick someone up because of it. Chris Davis led off for the Orioles yesterday, and Chris Davis is 62% owned. I mean, they said that it's not necessarily a full-time thing. Okay.

Enrique Hernandez batted cleanup for the Dodgers. Cody Bellinger batted fifth. And that was against what pitcher block who's left-handed? So, yeah, not... Enrique Hernandez was much better against Wrighties this spring and worked on that this off-season. but if he doesn't play every day, he's obviously not going to matter. He should play every day. He should.

I don't think he will. Put him in Wilmer Flores in the same boat. I'd love to see them get a chance. They won't. Ryan Braun was at first bit. This wasn't surprising. Eric Thames sat against a lefty. So Braun played first, and Santana was in right field against a lefty.

Okay, so let's see what happens against a righty. Zach Cozart let off. Kinsler was out, but Cozart let off, played second base, went three for six with a home run, a double and two strikeouts, the Angels. I wonder where he will hit when Kinsler's in, but top of the order, that was nice. Yeah, I don't think they're planning for top of the order. I think it's like sixth.

Okay. But still, I mean, it's one game, but I feel like he was underrated all of draft prep seasons. I wanted us to get him in the For the People League, and we didn't. Cozart. Well, don't worry, Scott. I drafted him last night in the league that we don't share, so. Yeah, that doesn't help me.

Sohei Otani batted 8th, NdH, at Oakland. He went one for five with a strikeout. Colorado against a lefty started Desmond at first, Herrardo Parra, Charlie Blackman, Carlos Gonzalez in the outfield. And for you daily players, Chris Ioneta had a 967 OPS against lefties last year. So when he's catching, it's a guy you want to consider against lefties. But, you know, all right, so they did have Blackman, Parra, and Cargo, obviously Blackman, but three lefties in the outfield against the lefties.

left-handed pitcher. And that, I won't really feel any confidence in the Colorado situation until we get a non-opening day game. I didn't. I figured they're not Gabe Kapler. They're going to start their veterans. Matt Carpenter played third. Jose Martinez played first.

We saw that. Martinez did make a throwing error, so keep that of mind. Justin Bore started against a lefty and Cameron Mabin sat for Garrett Cooper. And we talked about the Phillies. Cesar Hernandez, 60% owned. He led off. He went two for five with a homer. He had a 906 OPS in eight.

April last year. He had a great April. Ended up hitting, I think, just nine home runs. He's a great player. He's good. Cesar Hernandez. Devin Travis is 20% own. He led off for the Blue Jays. Anyone care? Yes. Sure. Yeah. I mean, this was a guy over the course of his first two seasons was on a 20-hom-home or 300 average pace.

All right? That's Devin Travis. John Jay led off for the Royals. I don't care about that, right? A little bit of stolen base potential, but not much. And Yoan Moncada let off, went one for six with a double, two strikeouts at Kansas City, but he did lead off. He can't hit lefties. It's actually kind of an underrated thing about his skill set. He was not very good against lefties and the minors either.

So something to keep in mind. Can we call that the Zoolander syndrome? Zoolander can't turn left. Yeah. Can't hit lefties? Yeah. I wondered where you're going with that. Great start by James Shields.

Yeah, it was. Big start. So you're saying Yon Maikata needs to go to the Derek Zoolander school for kids who can't hit and need to learn to do other things well? Good. On the topic of things that we thought would be a big deal that we are not including among the things that are a big deal, Otani started at DH on opening day. And hit three balls at 95 miles per hour. Oh, you did?

He brought that at. You did mention that, Adam? brief mention. Pretty good for a high school pitcher. Yeah. Which is what one scout called him in a Yahoo article. Wow. What a jerk.

All right. Well, a high school pitcher probably couldn't hit the major league pitching. High school hitter. Yeah, I mean, his hit wasn't very impressive. It was just a ground ball. Yeah, a little dribbler. Yep. But he was in the lineup.

Major League hit Wormburner. Are you, we'll see if he's in the lineup again today? Encouraged, discouraged, or neither, or neither by Cole Hamels. Encouraged I'm looking at his Because the story this spring is he wanted more strikeouts He was working in a slider He got more strikeouts

Did he throw a slider? Not according to baseball savon Now there is this FC Which is what Chris? Cutter Basketball cutter Yeah I cutter in a slider

Do get mistaken for each other That was his best swing and miss pitch yesterday He had 12 swinging strike six on that pitch so. Maybe that's what he was referring to. Yeah, it's weird. I think Hamill's a good. I'm just going to speed it up.

He did walk for, though. That is a big thing with Hamilton. It's the Astro. So you know how, like when you have a curveball and a slider and they're kind of, like some pictures say I've got a slurve because it's a mix between the two. If his slider is kind of a mixture of a slider and a cutter, what would you call that? It's not. It's a, it's a cutter.

Like it's 87 miles per hour. His fastball's 90. I think I know it. I get it. A sider? It's obviously a cliter. Oh, I thought it's not? A cider?

No. Are you encouraged or discouraged by J-Hap? Neither. He did J-Hapian things yesterday. Yeah. We lived happily ever after. Are you encouraged or discouraged by Julio Tehran? Bullpen did let him down a little bit.

Neither. No, he's whatever. If he's on your roster, fine. If he's on the waiver wire, fine. Are you encouraged or discouraged by Patrick Corbyn? Encouraged, very Yeah, nice start One walk eight strikeouts

Did give up two home runs That can be a little bit of an issue for him But good start Yeah, the humidor didn't save him Didn't save him yesterday How about Garrett Richards Encourage, discouraged or neither? I'm discouraged

I mean I hoped for more It's ultimately one start That's a game I paid a lot of attention to Because he was one of our favorite starts in DFS And he was kind of chalky too So he was everyone's favorite start in DFS He was battling this entire game just to get out of innings

and then really looked like he ran out of gas pretty early which is something we're concerned with with Garrett Richards The fastball was 96.6.6 miles per hour So that's good. That's good. Physically he was fine. Are you interested in adding Mitch Hanager who went three for three with a double

and or David Peralta who went three for five with two runs? Mitch Hanigur. Hanager. Yeah, more so Hanigar. I don't know that I'm rushing to do either but, you know, they keep this up for two or three more games, maybe. In deep leagues, do you want any of these guys? They're 16% owned or less.

Gerard Dyson, Lucas Duda, Lonnie Chisunhall, Dinard Span. Gerard Dyson, Lucas Duda, Lonnie Chisandhall, Denard Span. I think Dyson's a nice one-month fill-in category to get you some steals, and I can go play quite a bit, so Dyson and... If Cameron Mabin doesn't play today, I would drop Cameron Mabin for him. I might consider if Cameron Mabin doesn't play again, and Garrett Cooper in deeper leagues. Yeah, and we were not surprised if you listened to the Sportsline DFS podcast

that Lucas Duda, nobody was surprised that he homered off James Shields. He was a popular play yesterday. It was a doo-dong. News and notes, Uli Girlie L is serving a five-game suspension. He might be able to return after that. Zach Godley won't be a one-star pitcher. He will pitch on Tuesday. Bryce Harper has hit a home run on three straight opening days.

Keep an eye on that. Nate Carnes could be back soon for Kansas City. Does he factor into the rotation? He was supposed to. He looked good when he pitched this spring, and this is why I hold out confidence for Matt Harvey, because, you know, Nathan Carnes is coming back from thoracic outlet surgery, and, like, nobody's...

I'm currently on the deal. I know, but he looked good this spring, and he's coming back soon, and nobody's freaking out. Oh, he's finished. He's toast. It's Nate Carnes. But at the same time, it's Nate Carnes, and yet the Royals still think he's good enough to beat.

I'm just saying. Like, the Royal's rotation. We're inconsistent in how we approach. I'm doing a Chris thing. Name the guys he's going to beat out for the Royal Station. We do this thing where we think it's one thing, but it's actually another thing when we apply it to this other player. I'm sorry that we have not expressed enough concern about Nate Carnes for you, Scott. I will go on the record as believing Nate Carnes.

Not necessarily us, but like Royals beat writers. You know, you think they would make a big deal about it. coming back from this awful thing. In the interest of consistency, I will go on the record and say, I think Nate Carnes will not be good. Okay. Jake Lamb had a bad strikeout against a lefty. He had a good game yesterday, and I had a bloop single that scored two runs,

but Lamb had four RBIs yesterday, I think. He had a bad strikeout against a lefty, and when he was up, Steve Berthum and whoever's doing the game with for the Diamondbacks, they mentioned that this is something that's to keep an eye on this year, Jake Lamb against lefties. He's been terrible against lefties, and Scott mentioned him as a bust in the preseason, but even before the humidor, because we think Lamb could end up sitting against lefties, which hadn't been the case until late last year. I think I'm summing that up properly.

So he looked terrible against a lefty last night, but that was a reliever. All right, so Scott, tell me some sleeper hitters for next week. So a big thing next week is four lefties and six games for the White Sox, and they have a couple of available hitters who mashed lefties last year, Navissell Garcia and Tim Anderson, whom were twice yesterday. Matt Davidson. Did he match lefties last year?

He didn't stand out to me, but maybe he did. I think also, I like the Rangers matchups, and Delino DeShields is still available in a lot of leagues with that 50 steel potential. Athletics actually have the best matchups, and there are a lot of everyday athletics

who are available, as Stephen Piscotti, Marcus Simeon, who had a three-hit opener. Jed Lowry is available in like 85% of leagues, and actually had a good year last year. So they're all up there. J. Mark Candelario, the Tigers, have good matchups again for the second straight week. I'd like him. A lot of righties for the Astros, so Josh Reddick looks like a good play.

I don't want to give them all the way. No, that's fine. But they're top 10 sleeper hitters for week two. It's already on the site. And I'm going to say this. I used the sleeper hitters column. You know, look, he does a lot of sleeper hitters. It might just be one per week that you use, but it's really helpful.

So on Sunday night, something, you're getting a jump on it, Saturday night or whatever, it's something to really consider if you can stream sort of like the last hitter on your roster could really help you out. Also great for the matchup analysis. Yeah. The five best and worst matchups if you're looking for a tiebreaker. Right. And you'll learn some stuff about who's good against righties and lefties, and that'll help you if you play DFS.

All right. So two-star pitchers next week, you might have a better list than I have. So who are some of the guys that we can pick up for two-starts? So Jake Junis is my favorite two-star sleeper. One we didn't mention when we went around the room was Miles Michaelis, who had a very strong finished spring training, obviously a good three-year run in Japan. He's making two starts.

Yeah, do you want to see it first? That's why I didn't say him instead of a game. Well, yes. in theory, like here's the thing about both of these columns, is like, you don't want to have to turn to the waiver wire for a sleeper in any given week. You want to just have good players on your roster that you can slot in. And I think at the start of the season especially, 90% of the people listening are in that situation.

You can basically just ignore them. I want you to get the clicks, but you can ignore the information because you're better off going with your starting players. So, yeah, I would rather not have to start Michaelis. But if, like in a points league where I've already rostered him, I'm probably not sitting him because, you know, the possibility of a disaster in the points league, the damage isn't as bad usually because it's not wrecking the R&WIP. I completely forgot to mention Chase Anderson.

He's a two-star pitcher next week. We'll see what he does, but he had a great start yesterday. You can't start Julio Tehran home against Washington and at Colorado. Chance. Would you start Cole Hamels at Oakland and home against Toronto? Yeah. Yes. Especially in points. Yeah, it's much easier in points. It's be the first of many times we say it. But in points, just accumulating points. So two-star pitchers are helpful. In Roto, you know, or categories, you have to worry about your ratios.

Would you start Matt Harvey against Philadelphia and at Washington? I mean, it's going to – probably not, because that's going to be his first two starts of the season. So it would, you know, I'd be more likely to do it in a points league than Roto, but probably not. Chris Towers, you own Jordan Montgomery in the Memorial Magazine League. A lot of leagues. Tampa Bay and Baltimore at home. Start or sit, Jordan Montgomery. The Baltimore matchup is the one that you would be concerned about, but they still strike out a lot.

They're a low-on-base percentage team, so yeah, I'd start him. Me too. Okay. Sean Newcomb. Oh, yeah, no. and at Colorado. Absolutely not. Andrew Triggs.

Is anybody else feeling Jun Ryu? I feel like he's kind of underrated. He, I mean, I have him behind Julio Tehran, who you said absolutely not to, but I do have him ahead of Sean Nukum in my two-star pitcher rankings here. So it's kind of a borderline area where it just kind of depends how adverse you are to risk. again, if 90% of people listening wouldn't want to force Miles Michaelis into their lineup, then probably 96% of people listening wouldn't want to force Riu into their lineup.

So, Scott, do you want to make a gentleman's bet, Riu versus Turan? Okay. What are the terms of this bet? Nothing. That gentleman's bet is just... Gentleman's bet. Yeah. Yeah.

It's going to be better. What's the measurement? Points. Points. Overall fantasy points. Yeah, fantasy points. All right. I'm down.

I'm in. All right, check out the column. And I guess there must be a lot of off days next week, which is typical of week. There are six teams playing five games next week. And we're going to see more of that in general this year because more off days have been baked into the Major League schedule. It's part of the reason why this season started so early, March 29th, the earliest I can remember. So, yeah, so there aren't a ton of two-star pitchers on the waiver wire. All right, I think we're done.

I'll just read a couple emails real quick from Brian. I have Chapman and Diaz in a 10-team Roto League. Should I drop A.J. Minter or Josh Hader for Keone Keller? I'd drop Hater. Yeah, I mean, you have to for a guy who's closing. Yeah. And Doc Kroitzer, our theme song, man, says, Hot Take.

There should be a moratorium on using a player's name, in your team's name if said player is not on your team, you wouldn't wear a Pearl Jam t-shirt to a U-2 concert. I think a lot of people would. Waring a Pearl Jam concert to a t-shirt to a U-2 concert is better than wearing a U-2 t-shirt to a U-2 concert. Because, like, you're at the concert, you don't need to tell people how much you like you, too.

Oh, I'm sorry. It's assumed if you're there. I thought you were going to hate on you two. No, no, I love you to. Do you not wear a Marlins jersey to a Marlins game? Not the same thing. assume you like the marlins? Not the same thing.

I kind of agree with this. The Marlins jersey is to show support for the guys on the field. You don't show support for the guys on stage? Botto doesn't need my support. That guy's got enough self-confidence, all right? Maybe Larry. Yeah. I mean, that's the drummers.

You don't think maybe the Marlins don't have any self-confidence, but most fans out there, you don't think Giancarlo Stanton? I don't want to talk about John Carlos Stanton. I'm just going to have to get the bleep button out, and I can't deal with it right now. Speaking of which, you guys should get your dog chasers picks ready for later today, because I am way ahead in the standings with John Carlos Jantons. Bryce Harper. Oh, nice work.

Okay. Rice Harper's on the slate, guys. We're out of here. See you later. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll talk you about it.