Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/02: Early Concerns; Andujar Replacements (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 2, 2019

Another day of baseball gives us more SPs to get excited about. Can Julio Urias stay in the LAD rotation (2:30)? How are we ranking the MIA SPs (6:15)? Should you be patient with Matt Strahm or cut him loose (14:28)? ... Injury updates as we look for replacements for Giancarlo Stanton (21:50) and Miguel Andujar (24:40). Then we've got a segment called "Who the Heck Are You!?" (31:30) headlined by Aaron Brooks ... Who are we concerned about this early in the season (35:00)? Jesse Winker? Max Muncy? Josh Donaldson? Plus bullpen updates (44:55), more SP talk (49:00), early observations (52:30) and Team Name Tuesday (54:30) ... 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

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. We're fantasy. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. Caleb Smith, good. Matt Strom, not so much.

Also, what's going on with Ricell Iglesias? He's off to a bad start. As are a bunch of hitters like Francisco, Mejia. He's barely playing right now. Jose Martinez, guys like that. Max Muncie has sat against two lefties. We're going to talk about all of these things that may be concerning to fantasy managers right now, maybe concerning to Scott White and Chris Towers.

I am Adam Azer. I am wearing a matching shirt with Chris. Chris, nice shirt. I was actually, I was really worried that the intro you were going to go with was, Ricell Iglesias has been bad, and so are Chris Towers and Scott White. I really thought that's where you were going to go with it. I was really worried. No, that was my original intro, but I thought it was too mean.

Hey, I forgot to say something to Scott White. Happy belated birthday. Nobody, no grown-up likes their birthday more than Scott White, so we needed to give him a shout-out. Happy birthday. Scott can be president now. Yeah, 35, huh? I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true.

I can't be president. That part is true. 35. Yeah, I mean, I think. The thing about 35 is you think about how recently it feels like you turn 20, and that's how soon it's going to be that you turn 50. It's a pressing thought. But I can run for president if I want.

I didn't think about it. 35's kind of the last big one, right? Like there's no other things you can do at any other A. I guess like you turn 55, you can join the AARP. That's kind of the only one, right? There's when you start the Social Security age. I'm not even sure if that is anymore. 67. Well, Scott, if you think about when you turn 15, that's how close you are to being AARP

eligible. So this is a great day for you. By the way, thanks for commenting on my haircut, guys. Appreciate that. All right, Monday standouts. Scott, who stood out to you? And remember, we are going to talk about players that might be concerning us just a little bit. Like I mentioned Jose Martinez, Francisco Mejia. How about Eloi Jimenez? How about the batted ball trade trends for Michael Conforto, all of that coming up later. Scott, who stood out to you on Monday? Well, my favorite performance for Monday, I'm going to leave for Chris, because I know he's very excited to talk about it.

And instead, I'm going to talk about Julio Reyes, who made his first start in a couple years, obviously worked out of the bullpen last year, but dominated against the Giants. It was against the Giants, but he did show three swing and miss pitches, and I think most impressively. His average fastball velocity was 95. That's up a mile and an hour per hour and a half over where it was in that last start, even though he's had shoulder surgery since then. I think at the time he had it, there was some concern. Oh, no, he might not be the same again. Well, turns out him going from being a teenager at the time to guy in his early 20s now, those man muscles counteracted whatever happened into surgery because he looks like a really

impressive pitcher who unfortunately won't have a rotation spot for long but you know you know how the dodgers rotation works there will be another opening soon enough right we're talking about who the o're he he was sorry chris he was outstanding he is so filthy um a pleasure to watch so i actually had a segment called rotation mainstays question mark and if you guys think that Arias and the other guy who's about the same ownership percentage Brad Peacock who threw six and two thirds, two hits, one run, five strikeouts

at Texas, if you think they can give you a, let's say, 150 inning season with a lot of starts. You know, it's obviously more realistic for Peacock, but do you think either of them

is a mainstay, at least in fantasy owners' lineups, Peacock and Arias? I don't see why Peacock wouldn't be. Just innings? I don't know if he's built up. Yeah, well, the way I kind of view it, and I think Scott views it,

we take the same set of facts and we view them kind of differently, whereas when I look at the fact that nobody really throws a ton of innings anymore, that kind of makes me look at a guy like Brad Peacock who could potentially give you really, really valuable ratios over 150 innings and say, that's more valuable than a guy.

it's ever been because you're not really going to get a huge amount of innings from a lot of guys anyway so you might as well get really really good ones at least in road i think it's a different thing when you're talking about a head-to-head league but if you're talking about a road or a categories league i think brad peacock's going to be someone you start pretty much every week unless something goes wrong okay and then chris do you think julio or rius he's just so he's so good uh what do you think what did you want to say about him life final away. He will get 130 innings. It's a question of whether

you'll be able to start him every week. I would say you probably won't. But two notes on him. I believe I saw yesterday that it has been 630-something days since his last major league start, and he is still the fourth youngest pitcher in baseball right now.

Wow. And his last three fastballs were 95 miles an hour. So he actually maintained his velocity exceptionally well throughout this start, only there's 77 pitches, but to me that's a great sign for someone who was a reliever most of the last year coming back from all these injuries. The fact that he didn't lose velocity, even the way you see a normal, a usual pitcher do is highly encourage.

Okay, Chris, who is your standout from Monday? Well, you know, it's got to be Caleb Smith. The fourth member of the Stallions. It's actually the Marlins rotation has been better than I possibly could have dreamed of. They've been outstanding. And Caleb Smith yesterday. Yeah, yeah. There they are. Each one more magnificent than the last.

Perfect. Yeah. They're glorious, obviously. But can I turn it down now? It's great. I was starting to move faster. I was just respected. I don't know.

I've never seen Silicon. Oh, we're playing the whole episode of Silicon Valley. I've never seen it. I never seen the episode. So yeah, Caleb Smith and the Stallions, they have all been ex. exceptional last night I think 22 swinging strikes on 87 pitches which is an absolutely ridiculous rate eight strikeouts and five innings against a met's offense that we do think is pretty good it's not like it's the Indians or something so it was it was another very impressive start these guys are

all for the most part still available in a hand in a decent amount of leagues you get Caleb smith he's got a really, really good fastball that generates a lot of swings and misses. And his breaking pitch yesterday looked pretty good, too. All right, let's rank the Marlins pitchers. Scott, you want to kick it off? Yeah, well, this really each has been more magnificent than the last. So this has been changing. This has changed a couple times for me just in the last week.

But right now I am inclined to go Caleb Smith number one, those 21 swinging strikes. And the fact that he had 19 strikeouts and 13 to 13th innings, the spring. He had 10.2 strikeouts per nine in eighth last year, really a healthy track record of strikeout production. So, Kayla Smith one. I go Trevor Richards, two, because he does have the best singular pitch of any of these stallions. And then I go Pablo Lopez three, Alcatara fourth, who I'm not so quick to write off anymore. You know, he's four of his seven major league starts. He's had 13 swinging strikes or more. So I think, despite with the minor league numbers show,

he's looking like a guy who can miss bats pretty well in his own right. All right, Scott goes Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards, Pablo Lopez, Sandy Alcantara, Chris, how do you rank the stallions? I think I go Pablo Lopez first. He was really, really impressive in his first start. Looks like he might have, well, he pitched last year and showed the makings of multiple plus pitches, his change-up and curveball both had good swinging strike rates

and his fastball location is really good. He's got a good sinker, could be a guy who has an above average strike rate, good control, and ground balls. Then I go Smith, then I go Richards, Alcantara, fourth. But like Scott said, the fact that he has shown the ability to miss some bats that he didn't really do in the minors. And the fact that he didn't, he walked, I don't think he walked anybody in his first start on Saturday night.

That's really impressive for him. It's all going to come down to that. All four of those starts, too, four. of the seven where he had 13 swinging strikes or more. There were seven innings or more, including the eight innings start just the other day. I'm sorry. Who are we talking about here?

I'm sort of lost. I just went through my... Alcantara. Alcantara. All right. Okay. O'contera. Okay. I just went through it.

Other than Alcantara, I checked to see if I had at least one of these guys in some of my leagues. And thankfully, I have a share in each of Smith, Richards, and Pablo Lillard. Pablo Lopez. I think, like, they are close to Must Own in my mind now.

They are, their ownership percentages, they've been gobbled up in all of our leagues because we've been talking about them since spring. I drafted multiple in each league. We did pretty much.

Yeah, there's still a good amount of availability there for all of them. All right, so let me be the wet blanket here. First of all, Scott, your birthday thunder has been stolen

because I just logged into Gmail and Gmail is turning 15 today. happy birthday Gmail. Sorry about that wet blank. You can think about when Gmail first started and that's how that much longer I'm going to be 50. Yeah, exactly. Gmail can drink in six years. These are going to get wild.

So, I am not as high on the Marlins starting pitchers for two reasons. One, as much as we don't chase this category, wins do matter. Now, if you play in equality starts the league, it's different. But wins matter and they're going to be bad and they're going to have trouble winning games.

Uh, two, I feel like we did this last year with Richards and Caleb Smith in particular, just them, and it did not work out well. So, Richards, I think... Like a hurt. Well, Richards really has to show that he has a third pitch, that he has the curveball, which he didn't exactly do. He threw a breaking ball like 23 times in that first start. And I went back and double-checked. He was literally a two-pitch pitcher last year. I don't know why they classified it as a slider instead of a curveball.

He was not throwing his curveball. The third pitch was definitely there at his first start. All right. So, okay, good start then. But, all right. And then Caleb Smith, he struck out guys last year, didn't he? I mean, you know, this wasn't exactly new for him. He had 88 strikeouts and 77 in a third.

He had five quality starts and 16 starts. Are these guys getting better? Yeah, hopefully. But I just remember being excited about these guys last year. And Smith had a 419 ERA and a 1-2-4. four whip and that was with i think a pretty low hit rate i don't want to oversell the case they're exciting because they're young they have potential and they're free they were free in drafts you could have drafted them at any point in your draft that you wanted to and in a lot of the leagues

they're still available it doesn't mean that we think they're going to be aces yes wins are going to be hard to come by but the potential that they've shown i think makes them worth going out and getting because they're free. If they don't win enough games and the potential doesn't live up or if one of them gets hurt or they just don't live up to what we hope they'll be,

you can cut them and there's no loss. But right now with what they all showed, especially the three Lopez-Smith and Richards in the spring, the skills that they showed last year and then what they did in their first start, I think you have to add them even if we acknowledge

that maybe the upside is, is, you know, 25 to 30th starting pitcher for all of them for various reasons. I would also add that among the pitchers who are emerging off the waiver wire, and as Chris said, we were excited about these guys even before the season started, which is factoring into the calculation now. But just going by ownership percentage, they were widely available. Among the pitchers emerging off the waiver wire with impressive starts right now, they're the ones who have faced the most impressive opposition.

I mean, even somebody like Julio Eureas, it was the Giants yesterday, you know. You mentioned, Chris, that the Mets look like they have a pretty good lineup. The pictures they faced in the opening series were Max Scher, Steven Strasberg, and Patrick Corbyn. Caleb Smith was the pitcher who dominated them the most. I mean, I guess Scherz dominated them pretty thoroughly, too. But in terms of missing bats, Caleb Smith was right there. The Mets do have a good lineup. And Caleb Smith destroyed them.

Well, I mean, he gave up two runs in five innings. Again, this is a guy who had five quality starts and 16 starts. So I'll give him a pass. I'll give them a pass because it's early in the season. They're not going to go that deep. But I want to see him go deeper into games. That, I guess, is my point there. Camus puts only 46% of it.

If they were totally polished and perfect, they wouldn't have been on favors. Like, you know, they were free. Like Chris is. There's so many guys to pick up. It's tough. It's like every night we're getting. And then my standout was Matt Strom. Give up five runs in two and two thirds.

Are we dropping Matt Strom? I think it's perfectly reasonable to drop Matt Strom. Sure. You know, it's just who's the great, the guy who is great in his first turn that's going to be bad in his second turn. You know, you could sort of play starting pitcher roulette at this point in this season. So I think one thing you do have to keep in mind is more than I can remember in recent years,

there are some truly hopeless teams. right now. The Indians, okay, maybe when Lindor gets back, they can be just upgraded to just mediocre, but right now they look abysmal. The Tigers and Blue Jays, every single starting pitcher in that series was good, but we don't think that they're all that talented, with the exception of maybe Stroman, maybe Sanchez, maybe Boyd, but for the most part, that looks like the result of some pretty bad offenses. The Giants the same. So I think that's one place that you can start to differentiate. It doesn't mean that those guys don't have potential, but when it's coming against a good lineup versus a bad lineup, that's where you start to make those calls.

Okay. I mean, like, I have Stephen Mats in a league, and I would drop him for those Marlins pitchers. Sure. It's not that I don't want the Marlins pitchers. First of all, they're not available in my leagues, because I play with you guys. And I think you have to make some tough calls at this point. So we'll try to help people out, figure out who to add, and who to drop. Who to drop is a tough call. It's easy to look at a guy and say, yeah, I want to add him. But who to drop is a really tough call right now. So Matt Strom, Scott, how patient do you want to be with him? Well, I want to be more patient than this one start. And I think the velocity was not right in this one. I'm not really sure why. It was down a fair amount. We'll have to see how it goes

in his next start. I think, though, this is part of the game early in the season when you're trying to maximize roster space is somebody who was on the fringes of being rostered, even if it's somebody you believe in. If you're looking at a guy on waivers and you can be convinced that he could be really good too, like one of those Marlins pitchers, I think it does make sense to swap out the guy who was horrible for the one you're at risk of losing to somebody else. And then if Strom is great next time out, you reassess. I'm not saying you do that with like a Jordan Zimmerman

or somebody who we know is probably not very good but for one of these Marlins pitchers that we can get excited about even for like Domingo Hermann yesterday who had a great start I think I'd be willing to make that swap with Strom even though my preference would be to hold on to him you need you sometimes need to find an excuse to drop somebody to not miss out on the next big thing Did Domingo Armand have a great start?

That's what Scott just said. There was greatness in it, for sure. But he did walk five guys, which is a little bit of a problem for him. Okay, we'll talk about Domingo or Man in just a little bit. Bullpen stuff, bullpen stuff, who are worried about? I have a segment called Who the Heck Are You? It is headlined by David Hess and Aaron Brooks. And much worse.

Stick around. We'll be right back here on fantasy baseball today. All right, some fringy starting pitchers from yesterday that we haven't talked about. Stephen Matt, 65% owned. Three runs, one earned in five and a third. He wasn't bad, but only three strikeouts at Miami. I was expecting more from him. Domingo Armand is 55% owned.

There is probably a shelf life with Armand. I dropped him because I thought he might get the opener treatment yesterday, but they started him. Oh, by the, geez. Miguel Land Duhar. We will talk about that, I promise. And then Caleb Smith and Tanner Roark. Those are the four fringy starting pitchers.

They go from 65% to 38% own. Matt's, Armand, Smith, and Roark. At this point, it's easy to put Caleb Smith at the top of this group, right? I would, yes. I don't think we care much about Tanner Roark. It's my guess. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm not, we'll move on.

So let's talk about Domingo Armand. Five innings, one hit, no runs. Five walks, seven strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 79 pitches. The guy can strike people out. No question. He had 102 strikeouts in 85 and two thirds last year. He does have some walk issues. I don't really trust Domingo Armand.

Does anybody trust Domingo Armand? Well, I don't know what the question means. Do you trust him as an every single week starter? No. But as someone who I want to chase some upside with on my bench and occasionally start against the right matchup, sure. And, you know, if you started him yesterday, the results were really good.

The five walks, the process wasn't ideal because of the five walks, but a ton of swinging strikes with both his fastball and his curveball. You know, control could be an issue for him. As far as his spot in the rotation, like I said with Julio Reyes, and as Yankees fans should be painfully aware, given the start of this season, life finds way. Like, he's being blocked by a very old pitcher coming off knee surgery, I believe, or hip surgery.

Uh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think he'll end up making 25 or so starts. No way. Some way. I don't know that he's good enough. No way?

I don't think so. But I guess I don't have a tall. If he's good enough. I mean, the thing about him versus somebody like Arias is there's no Ross stripling there. Yeah, but he's not Arias. That's the problem. Like, Arias is an amazing pitcher. I think so.

Domingo Ramon should not be mentioned with him. Okay. Okay, that's a little tough. What I liked about Hermann, especially in this start, is like he kind of handcuffed himself. He only used two of his pitches, really, when his change-up is another swing and miss offering that he barely deployed here against the Royals. So, you know, I don't think it's gone. I think he'll unveil it later on, but he didn't have a feel for it or whatever, and he still one hit them over five with a ton of strikeouts.

Yeah, Tigers. I think there's a ton of upside here. Tigers last night, Baltimore later this week, so should get off to a good start. Okay, news and notes. So other than Domingo, Armand, it was not a good day in Yankee land. John Carlos Stanton is on the IL with a bicep strain. The Yankees called up Clint Frazier. They have Talkman to start in the outfield, but I think Frazier will get some playing time here.

And Stanton could miss at least a month. They're hoping to get them back by the end of April. So let's just say he's going to miss a month. month, and who knows, could be more. So we'll go to And Duhar in a second, but Stanton's out. Scott, Clint Fraser is 14% owned. What do you think about him? I think he's interesting.

I have him in a couple of 15-team-5 outfielder leagues, and the plan, Aaron Boone said, is to he's going to be the primary out there, despite Talkman starting yesterday. Had an awful spring, but apparently he's been killing it and extended spring training. and as a former top prospect who has been waiting a long time for his chance had some concussion issues last year. In between them, he had his most impressive production ever in the minors. I think in those deeper five outfielder leagues, he's worth a flyer. Would you guys rather pick up Jay Bruce, who is homered in three straight games, or Clint Frazier? Bruce.

Bruce. I think Bruce is back. I think it's, there was a case. to be made and it was kind of just trusting in the track record recognizing Bruce really isn't that old I think he's 31 and just how consistent he was prior to last year

that led some people to believe that it was just him playing through planter fasciitis all last year why he had such a bad season and so far the results seem to be validating that idea and if he is back you're talking about 30 homers

90 RBI or so somebody who's really hard to sit in a five outfielder league so I'm you know there's a chance Frazier could be better than that but the odds are pretty low yeah Bruce were correct on his age Bruce is by one day

37% oh yeah 307% returns 32 tomorrow hey all right I wonder how recently he feels like he was 20 12 years ago 12 years ago I would guess so so J Bruce in 2018 was terrible

he slugged 370 in 94 games. But 2016, he was the number 19 outfielder in points, number 16 in Roto. In 2017, he was 21st and points, 20th in Roto. So you're talking about a top 20 outfielder two years in a row with more than 30 homers, about 100 RBIs. That was Jay Bruce. And not a great batting average. But, yeah, I mean, I've been saying it for a while.

I said yesterday he's under owned and now he's 37% owned. Would you rather have Clint Fraser or Jorge Solair real quick? I'll take the shot on Frasier. All right, Frazier for Chris. So there for Scott. Let's go to Miguel and Duhar. He has a partially torn labrum. He could need surgery.

That would mean a long absence, maybe the year. I don't know. But you need a third basement right now. Tim Beckham is the most added third basement, 75%. Ryan Healy is 60%. Yandi Diaz is 19% owned. I said it with some excitement. Get excited.

Jung-Hogam. All right, yeah. So, Beckham, Healy, Yandi, Diaz, Jung Hogan, the top four most added third baseman. Chris says Diaz is number one for him. Scott, how about you? Yeah, no, Diaz for me too. Despite being widely available, he started all five. I believe the Razzie played five games.

Now he started all of them. And his fly ball percentage, that was the goal. That was kind of the project they took on this spring when they acquired Diaz from Cleveland. great exit velocity. If he could just elevate the ball, seems like there's some power they could get out of it. He has been elevating the ball better so far. Struck out only once.

It really is, if he can sustain that fly ball rate, the skill set looks an awful lot like Miguel Anduhar in that probably going to hit for average. The power hopefully will be there. Actually, we'll get on base at a higher rate than Miguel Andehar because he walks considerably more. I checked in the one league where I own Andahar is the podcast league, the Head to Head Points League, and Chris already owned him despite his low ownership rate, so I couldn't pick him up.

I like Andy Diaz as a deep sleeper coming into the year because the stack house metrics have been really impressive for him when he's gotten a chance. And, you know, the race seemed like a kind of team that could potentially get the most out of a guy like him. So that appears to be what's happening early So that's what we hope is happening early on They've batted him I think I guess yesterday he batted No he's batted no lower than fifth in the lineup He batted lead off once he batted fourth once He hit one of the hardest balls of the season off of Garrett Cole for his home run

So there's a lot of skill there Yeah and this is like I think you have to make a move now to shore of third base if you're a Miguel Anduhar owner. This injury that he suffered, he suffered it sliding back into a base. Like, it's basically what Jimmy Nelson, what happened to Jimmy Nelson a couple years ago. I don't know if the injury is as bad, but I feel like if they're talking about surgery for an injury that you pretty much always here requires surgery, it's kind of like what we went through with Corey Kenebel, where, yeah, this is probably, he's probably done. Maybe there's that slim chance he's not, but he probably is.

Yeah, he'll do a platelet-rich plasma injection and try to see if he can recover. All right, so listen, yeah, it's bad news. Here's the problem. Third base, a deep position on draft day. All those guys are owned. So you don't have a lot of great options on waivers, honestly. Eduardo Escobar is out there. Evan Longoria, Brian Anderson.

Miguel Sino, if you want to wait a little while, but it's a little while. Jake Lamb, Jung Ho Gong would be, I think, one of the better options. Jamer Candelario. Yondi Diaz for sure. Gosh,

Brandon Drury. It's not great. Maybe you want to make a buy-low offer. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is beginning baseball activities, so he's on his way back. Max Muncie.

I mean, hopefully if you're an Andrew Har owner, you bought into that excess at third base and you got yourself another third baseman in the draft. I think there's a high probability of that. But failing that, beyond the guys you mentioned, there are a couple of players who are about to game third base eligibility. One of them is the guy replacing Andrew Harper the Yankees, DJ LaMayhew.

Another is Jeff McNeil for the Mets, who I think I would add even over Diaz. They're owned in two-thirds of CBS leagues already, but that means they're not in one-third. And I'm sure if you look on some of the other sites where the ownership percentages tend to be lower, they're still available in a lot of those. So don't forget about those two either. I'm looking at the eligibility tracker email that we get every morning,

and I'll probably put together a piece on this sometime this week. Marlon Gonzalez needs two more games to be third-base eligible. DJ LaMayhew needs three. Jeff McNeil needs three. Those are probably the only ones that are really worth noting there. I don't really think DJ LaMayhew has a path to being super fan. Relevant here. He is 67% owned, but he's been a course field product. He has very little power. He doesn't steal anymore. And he's going to probably hit toward the bottom of the order, although it's really not that great of an order right now.

So I'm not, I mean, I get, I'm glad you mentioned it. I was going to mention it because, you know, we need options here. But, I mean, I think, Scott, you're right on. Jeff McNeil would be a better option for sure. Okay, Clayton Kershaw could be back in a week. it got to get going here. Andrew Heaney has chronic changes in his elbow. Chronic changes in his elbow, but it's good news. Andrew He does not need surgery. He could be back.

I don't know. He's going to rest a little bit, but you can stash Andrew Heaney. Zander Bogartz agreed to a six-year deal. Yeah, chronic change is very strange. Zander Bogartz agreed to a six-year $132 million deal with the Red Sox. Cincinnati had the smallest attendance figure in their ballpark's history under 8,000 yesterday, and their former number two overall pick in the 2017 draft Hunter Green he needs Tommy John surgery.

That's a bummer. Dustin Bidroy is going to begin a rehab assignment on Thursday. How about the Blue Jays? They're hitters in their first five games. First time through the order, first three innings. They are one for 46. One for 46 in the first three innings to their first five games. I did mention that Vlad has resumed baseball activities

and Tim Anderson missed yesterday's game for the birth of his child. Congratulations, Tim Anderson. We have some other podcasts that you definitely want to listen to on CBS Sports. Bsports.com slash podcast. Go there. Our wrestling podcast, actually wrestling, MMA, and boxing is heating up right now. So check that out. That would be the state of combat podcast. Awesome show.

And sportsline.com. Sportsline.com promo code is Vegas. First month for just a dollar with the promo code Vegas. Go to sportsline.com and join with that code Vegas. Great gambling advice. Fantasy content. Good stuff. All right.

Here's a segment called Who the heck are you? Christian Walker, 14% owed. Now, he only starts against lefties, but he's Arizona first basement. That's who the heck he is. He's off to a good start, and Jake Lamb is one for 10 with three strikeouts. Do you think there's a path to more playing time for Christian Walker?

Yes, we're looking at deep league stuff here, but what do you guys think? Yeah, no, I mean, I don't think it's a stretch to say he obviously, the probability's low, but he could be the next Hesu's out. I mean, you look at what he's done in the minors in recent years. It's surprising he hasn't gotten a chance already, and he's clearly making good on this one so far,

while Jake Lamb, who knows if he has anything left to bring? I mean, last year was pretty much a disaster for him. At the very least, it looks like he's sitting against lefties. I think he's at against a righty already, too. Christian Walker, 18 home runs and 324 bats last year, years ago, 32 homers in the minors with a guy who doesn't strike out a ton. Pretty good on base skills.

He's a deep sleeper. Okay, Christian Walker. And then who the heck are these guys? Merrill Kelly, he's in Arizona starting pitcher. One is debut last night. I think he got the win. Aaron Brooks, not the basketball player. The Oakland starting pitcher who shut out the Red Sox. Six innings, two hits, one walk, six strikeouts.

And David Hess had a no-hitter. Got pulled with a no-hitter in the seventh inning with eight strikeouts at Toronto. Yeah, Merrill Kelly, Aaron Brooks, David Hess. Chris, any interest? Is it the former Saints quarterback? Who's that? Aaron Brooks? Aaron Brooks.

You remember him? Like the Joe Horn era, I believe. Yeah, yeah, of course. Yes, yes, yes. was that who I was saying he was a bad there was a basketball player too yeah yeah no there's there's three now okay okay okay okay okay every sport has one awesome it's like uh i was gonna say steve smith matt more right matt more oh yeah there's like a thousand basketball's writer yeah there's a quarterback though also okay what do you think yeah merrill kelly

is another Korean baseball organization transplant. He went over there for three years after kind of flaming out in the minors. He never got a chance in the majors. But his last year playing for S.K. Wyverns of the Korean baseball organization in 2017, he did strike out a batter per inning. He did a pretty good job of limiting home runs, given that the KBO has become, you know, one of the more home or happy leagues in the world over the last couple of years.

So there's not nothing there, but there doesn't seem to be a lot. Maybe you're hoping he could be a poor man's Miles Michaelis. Okay, that's Merrill Kelly. Do you have any interest in adding Aaron Brooks or David Hess? No. I think Toronto, until they call those young guys up, this is going to be a team that goes through some really, really ugly stretches. There's a ton of swing and miss in that lineup.

Okay, so no. All right, next segment. Is called Any Concerns? Question mark. Now it's not even a week into the same. season, so we typically don't get concerned. But playing time is something that might concern us. So I'm going to go one by one.

And I want you to tell me, are you concerned? And, you know, in certain cases, would you drop the player? Like I think Jose Martinez, you can ask that question. Jose Altovae, not so much. And, you know, whatever fantasy thought comes into mind. Okay, let's start with Jose Martinez. He has started one of five games for the Cardinals. He's 64% own.

Are you concerned? and could you drop him? Scott White. Yeah, I'm concerned. I mean, this one, he didn't have a job to himself. He didn't have a spot in the lineup coming out of spring training, so there was concern. I thought maybe it'd be more like 40% at the time he started, and it still may be in the long run.

But I think, I don't think he's must own. No, it would have to be a roto lineup type league with more than 300 players rostered. Jesse Winker. I'm going to stick with Scott on this one. He's 78% owned. He's only started one of three games. They've only played three games.

And he has sat twice against Ritey's. That's strange. Jesse Winker, Scott. Mm-hmm. And I could kind of understand if Matt Kemp killed it the second game, had to keep him in the lineup. But Matt Kemp's hitless so far, too. So I don't know how Winker goes for being the leadoff hitter on opening day to this.

I think in three outfielder points leagues specifically, you're trying to fit these stallions on your roster. Like, you can't start him in this format unless you trust he's playing close to every day. I don't think you can devote a bench spot to him. Other formats, categories, leagues? Yeah, you can. You can devote a bench spot to him. Trust it'll pay off in the long run.

But I think roster space is too constricted in points leagues for you to hold on to him. Okay. Jesse Winker. Unless I'm wrong and just no, there's no interesting pitchers out there, but that's not how it's working in my points leagues. Yeah, it's tough. my guess is they're just placating Matt Kemp and letting him get some playing time early

so that he doesn't get upset but you know it's complicated by the fact that they've only played three games and we just really don't know it's a small sample size so far yeah it's the first week of the season if you really like Jesse Winker you know better times are ahead he's not going to sit against right that just doesn't make any sense

so I understand dropping him for a pitcher with huge upside. But I also understand if you feel like you're good and you just want to stash him, play the long game, might not even be that long. Francisco Maha'iahia, Chris, Padres catcher. We talked about him yesterday a bit 69% only has started one of five games. Yeah, the tough thing is that if he had started one more game,

it's probably not a concern. And so this is the thing with the small sample. If he starts two of the next three, then you're starting to get, pretty close to where we hoped he would be, which is starting about half of their games. I think you probably want to hold on to him in a two-catcher league just because the kind of guy you're likely to pick up on waivers

as your second catcher isn't playing every day, and if he is, he's hurting you more than he helps. So right now I think you live with it with Mejia, but if you had him as your only catcher in a head-to-head point league where you only start one catcher, then I think you start looking for other options. Yeah, so the problem is Austin Barnes, I mean, like, that's, I think we've given the seal.

That's the guy. We've given the seal of approval there. But other than that, it's like Christian Vasquez, Jorge Alfaro, Armar Narvaez. Pretty interesting guy. Those are the other three, those are the other four, three of the other four most added catchers. Yeah, I think, you know what, Scott, I think I might drop. Ah, that's so short-sighted to drop Mejia for Omar Narvaez. But I might do it. Well, I mean, you could lose Narvaeas, and then you're potentially stuck with.

the backup catcher. True. And complete sludge on the waiver wire. So I think in a one catcher league, you know, in a league is shallow enough that Narvae is still available, that Barnes is still available. I don't know that you have to worry about losing Mihia to somebody else. I think sometimes we can get too attached to the guys we drafted

just because we drafted them, so they must be better than the guys that are out there. And look, a lot of fantasy owners go too far the other way. And so maybe, you know, I don't want to overstate the case. But at the same time, you've got to sometimes be willing to pull the plug just to make sure you don't miss out on a good thing. All right, this list is about to get more interesting. You're not dropping any of these guys, but are we getting concerned? Max Muncie.

He's two for 16. He does have three walks to five strikeouts and five games. But Muncie has sat against both lefties with David Frees starting at first base. And by the way, he slugged 529 with eight home runs and 102 at bats against lefties last year, Max Muncie. But anybody getting concerned about double M, Max Muncie? Yeah. I mean, this was a concern coming in, and I hoped it would play out differently. It doesn't look like it is so far.

Small sample, but you kind of knew this when you drafted Muncie. Yeah. Okay. So nothing really has changed since what we thought when we drafted. Jose Altuve, three for 18, no steals in one attempt, one homer. Any concerns? No. Okay. Eloy Jimenez, two for 15, one walk, six strikeouts, zero extra base hits for Elohimenez. I believe he's driven in two runs, driven in quotes, because I believe he was hit on a pitch by one and then walked. the other one in.

So, I mean, he hasn't looked great, but you should, this should be baked into your expectations with any young player. When Vladimir Guerrero comes up, he might have a bad couple of weeks to start up. It's really hard to hit Major League pitching. We're asking these guys a lot to come in and be fantasy relevant right away. I think he will be. I think any concerns right now are almost certainly overblown, but, you know, they're, there might be an adjustment period that takes a couple weeks.

You know, he hasn't hit the ground running. He looks a little awkward. I don't think that's a big concern, but he's been a little bit overmatched so far. Okay. Ilo Jimenez is there. How about Michael Conforto? He is batting 353, but he has no extra base hits. And so far, it's been four games.

But he is going opposite field 41.7% of the time, which is up from about 25% typically. Why am I mentioning that? Well, we got the Chili Davis factor. Silly Davis doesn't want you to just hit home runs all the time. He wants you to use all fields. And the Mets have been very successful, but it might not be great for a guy like Michael Conforto.

He also has no walks five strikeouts in four games. And he's, as we've mentioned, has faced great pitching. Scott, are you concerned about Michael Conforto, who, by the way, is not pulling the ball less. He has replaced his balls up the middle with balls hit to opposite field. Well, I don't know that that, like as long as he's pulling the ball at the same rate. I don't think it's reason for concern in terms of power production.

I get the angle with Chili Davis. But yeah, I'm not really concerned. It's too small of the sample size, and it's not inherently a bad thing. There's the potential for it to rob him of power, I guess, but

it's not like a at its face and negative thing. Last three guys on my list from Miguel Cabrera, Buster Posey, and Josh Donaldson. the slow starts. Miguel Cabrera with no extra base hits. Two for 17. Three walks, five strikeouts. Buster Posey, two for 15. Josh Donaldson. Three for 15. Again, no extra base hits. Starting to hit a little bit better. Three hits, two runs scored in his last two games for Donaldson.

So I guess I'll just ask a general question. Are you concerned about anybody right now? Is there anyone that's been like, uh-oh? This ain't good. It's a lot easier to be concerned about pitchers because you're getting 100 individual events in each game or 80. or 90, whatever it is right now or with hitters. You know, you're really getting three or four at bats per game. So it just takes a lot longer for things to stabilize for them. So now, it's hard for me to be too worried about anyone right now. It's really just playing time issues like the ones you brought up.

Garrett Hampson, there's been playing time issues there. Those are the main things that concern me right now. I mean, you can look at sometimes, like Brandon Lowe is a player I'm excited about, and he's struck out a ton so far. He does have what looks like an easier path to a bat's now, but the strikeouts may prevent him from living up to his potential. But even that, it's too early to tell, and he could go a couple weeks where he strikes out hardly at all, and then everything looks right again. And Brandon Lowe did Homer yesterday, which was very nice. I'm definitely worried about you Darvish without question. And I think Kyle Hendricks, too.

We can transition into that in a second. But Kyle Hendricks, look, he only gave up two run runs, but did not have a good start. Ten hits and four and a third. Six errors in the game. I don't know how many were made with Kyle Hendricks on the mound, but that doesn't help. Okay, more you have to get extra outs. But I didn't draft him because his K-rate has decreased three straight years. From 8.4 to 8.1 to 7.9 to 7.3.

and I just don't know how much longer Kyle Hendricks can continue to be good. So this wasn't a great start for him. Was a great start for Chris Archer. We'll talk about that in a bit. Let's go to the bullpen, though. Watch the roll as Chapman last night. Velocity's still down but ticked up a little bit. I think 97, maybe a 98 mile per hour pitch in there.

He only got one swinging strike. So we'll keep an eye on that. Josh Hater, second straight one-inning appearance and his third save of the season. so they are using him like a closer right now. Ryssel Iglesias has been struggling. Good to see Jordan Hicks drop bounce back, but let's talk about Ryssel Iglesias, who did not have a good spring and now has had two bad appearances.

Are we sounding any alarms? Are we picking up anybody in the Reds bullpen with Iglesias struggling a bit? I'm not picking anyone up, no. I'm not even sure who would be the person to pick up in that bullpen. So I'll stick with Iglesias and bet on the track record that he'll turn it around. Very consistent track record and a great one for Iglesias. I would think maybe Jared Hughes, I know David Hernandez, replaced Iglesias in the first game and got a save,

but Hughes had seven saves last year in a very good season. But it's very speculative. We're not getting there yet. Drew Steckenrider was bad, Scott. Relentis Alias got a save. and the Orioles have won three games and Michael Givens just can't get a say but I have to think he was unavailable

he threw 49 pitches on Sunday but any thoughts on the Marlins the Mariners and the Orioles Go get through your Rojo I think it might be Romo yeah I mean Steck and Ryder

entered a tie game and you know the fact they were the home team they were tied at home in the 9th so that was It was the closer's role And he gave up four runs on the hits

It was a typical closer situation, right? He gave up that impressive home run Pete Alonzo's first career home run To center fields So you know, it was a good hitter Who got him But at the same time When he's trying to establish himself as a closer

This is a big knock against him And I don't know that I don't know that we could trust him To be the next man up The next time the Marlins have a save chance. I don't feel confident at all. It's going to be Steckenrider.

It could be, but I'm not confident in it. I don't think you should be confident. Romo's been bad himself, too. Yeah, I think he was bad the first time out. Bounce back. He's only thrown an inning in two-thirds over three appearances. So it's tough to say right now.

Tyron Guerrero is someone to really keep an eye on there, though. If he figures out his control, he could be a really good pitcher. I don't think you should expect Rowanus a little. Leas to get the next save. He was scheduled to face two lefties in the ninth inning, and it's going to be a mix and match for the Mariners. Scott, who was the one you said you were at Swarzac? Yeah, I mean, he's not back from the DL, but I think he would be the most likely candidate when he is. And for the Orioles, it was Richard Blyer who got the save at Toronto. But again, Givens through 16

pitches on Saturday and then 49 on Sunday. There's just no way he was available. I don't think they're going to use Givens in the ninth inning every time, but I feel like he is their... He's being used as their best reliever, and will be used in high-leverage situations. And AJ Minter could be back as early as this weekend. He will not just take over saves. I don't know how many he'll get,

but he's 28% own, and Minter could get some saves for the Braves. It's time for our email of the day. It is from Kyle at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Kyle says, I don't even have Twitter, and I am blocked by Chris Towers, really living up to that touchy millennial stereotype, Chris.

It's true. It's true. I remember exactly what it was with him, too. Yeah, perfect. Man, I had a lot to get to on today's show, and, of course, didn't get to it. Chris wrote in a very good article yesterday about some of his early season observations.

I'm going to ask you about that in a moment. Let's talk about the rotation. Five pitchers who are owned in most leagues, not all leagues. Chris Archer was awesome. Five scoreless innings, three walks, eight strikeouts against St. Louis. Mike Clevenger was even better.

Seven score the sending, three walks, 12 strikeouts against the White Sox. So those were the good ones. David Price was okay. Three home runs at Oakland. Four runs, but he did strikeout nine. Kyle Hendricks was bad, and Sean Newcomb was even worse.

And Sean Newcomb's 84% owed. I have a feeling that is a guy that we could drop. Sean Newcomb, right? For these... I would rather have any of the Stallions or Sean Newcomb. Yeah. I mean, I do object to you saying he was even worse than Hendricks yesterday when, you know,

Hendricks lost and Dukeham if he went a little longer, would have got the win. But, yeah, I mean. Okay. But Hendricks had the defense problem behind us. And that's a little bit of an Adam Greg Bird thing that you just did. Why? What did I do? Scott, I mean.

Oh, oh, oh, oh. He gave up, he allowed 10 base runners in four innings. He got three straight. No, he wasn't good. He wasn't good. He wasn't good, but Hendricks gave up seven runs and Newcomb gave up zero. Two earn runs for Hedrusks. I knew Adam would hear about it if I didn't bring it up, so I was trying to save him some grief.

Yeah, Newcomb was not good. And what's interesting about it is 70 of his 91 pitches were fastballs, and he still couldn't throw strikes. This was after a spring where he couldn't throw strikes at all. Unlike Tyler Glass now, who got that under control right away, I'm very worried about Nukum, especially since the brave stallions are, they're not as full grown as the Marlins, but they have some of their own. And he's never been that good. You know, he was a high 3SRA guy with, I think, less than a strikeout per inning last year, and it was abysmal for the final two or three months of the season. Yeah, I broke it down.

First 15 starts last year for Nukum. He actually was 8 and 2 with the 259 ERA, 38 walks to 8.5. 84 strikeouts and only six home runs allowed in 87 innings. So 259 ERA. His last 15 starts, 16 appearances, 15 starts. He had a 538 ERA. He gave up 12 homers twice as many as he did in his first 15 starts. So, yeah, I mean, he had a good first half based on ERA,

but I don't know that any of us were really buying it, and then his second half was terrible. And for Archer, you know, it was a great start, really good beginning of this season, but he still was only using two pitches, I think. think. So I personally would really like to see him get a third pitch in there, which I thought he was working on in the spring. That's what I think would elevate Archer. Not to another level, but to his own level where he was awesome. Adam. What? ERA matters. He gave up zero runs.

Which is unusual for him because his ERA is usually not very good. All right, Chris. Oh, wait, real quick, real quick. Deep leagues. Drew Pomerance, Felix, Fernandez, Yvanova. Any interest? Pomeran's the most interesting, but not enough to be worth owning outside of NL only and like a 15-team Roto. A lot of hitters I wanted to talk about that I didn't. I'll save them for tomorrow. Chris Davis, David Peralta, they're off to good starts. Adam Jones, Trey Mancini, Colton Wong, Kevin Kiermeier.

I looked for him in our five outfielder league. He was not available. Actually, did I look for him? I think I did. I think he was not available. I'm going to look for him right now. Kier-Myer. Not available. Not available.

You know, he gets the 20 bases. Chris, what really stood out? I loved your story. Please don't go through everything because there were a lot of things. But check it out on the website, cbsports.com slash fantasy. What you said about Madison Bumgarner's cutter, Y'amankata and Byron Bucksson hitting the cover off the ball. Those were great. Anything that you really wanted to talk about that you noticed over the weekend. Trevor Bauer threw his changes.

up like 24% of the time. He only once last year threw it more than 15% of the time. This was the pitch that he spent the offseason reworking. It's a different version of the change-up. And it looked really good. I'm all the way in on Trevor Bauer as an ace already, and this just makes him better. And Madison Bumgarner, it's just, you know,

we talked about it a little bit on Friday, but when pitchers get older, they either have to change who they are because they can't throw the same way with the stuff they have, or they just die. You know, they just can't be effective anymore. And what we've seen from Bum Garner, it started at the end of last season,

was he started throwing his cutter pretty much as his primary pitch. It's like an 85 mile an hour pitch. It doesn't seem like it should be super effective, but on Thursday it was. It was, you know, he had decent results at the end of last season too. So I'm encouraged that he's aware that he's aware that he's, needed to change something. That's a big thing for me. And then one other thing I noticed, we talked about them already, but Trevor Richards fell

behind Nolan Aronado 2-0 on Friday night at one point with a runner on base. There were three straight changeups in the zone. Nolan Aronado swung through all three of them. There are not a lot of pitchers in baseball who can do that to Nolan Aronado. I'm looking at Team Name Tuesday because I completely forgot about Team Name Tuesday. Are you guys ready for Team Name Tuesday? I'm always ready for team name Tuesday. I guess. Okay, somebody drafted Kane and Shaw and then picked up C.J. Crone.

I cane, I Shaw, I croncurd. That's very good. I love your enthusiasm for Team Name Tuesday, Chris. It's fantastic. Man bear Pueig. Oldie Bungoogoodie. Man bear Pueig. Like that one.

That's an oldie but a goodie, yeah. Let's see. I got to make sure these are. Oh, Ben Intentional Walk. That's pretty crappy. I like it. Chipsy Loy. Like Chips Ahoey.

Very good. Very good. Oh, Minter is coming. Yeah, yeah. Like that show I watched. Yeah. Well, he is coming. Game of Thrones.

Dude. Rebel Yellich. I definitely seen that. applicable. Rebel Yelich? Sure. Yeah, definitely. Rebel Yelich.

With a Rebel, yeah. Come on, Scott White. I did it all for the Tuki. Fantastic. The LeClerc store called They're Running Out of You. Terrific. Yeah, that's good. Okay, here's one from Rick and San Diego that I actually have used, that one of my teams.

I cannot say it. It is inappropriate, but I will say most of it. It is show me your... And then the last name of the rookie shortstop on the Padres. So there you go. Are you like that one, Chris? Child. What?

I'm a child? Yes. It's immature. It is. Grow up. Okay. What else do we got? This is a great segment.

Fradmill raisin mookies? No, that's terrible. What? Like oatmeal raisin cooking? I think that's what he's going for. Honey Nut Barrios. That's good. Yeah.

Yeah. Oldy bit of good. Mondi, Uporandi. That's good. Like M.O. I have no idea. Oh.

Like modus operandi, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'm done with Team Name Tuesday for today. So I'll read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com to finish the show. No name on this one. Would you drop any of these guys for Pablo Lopez? Marco Gonzalez, Matt Strom, Brandon Woodruff.

I would drop Strom. I would drop. I think Gonzalez would be the first one I drop, actually. Go for the upside a little more. Okay. Wes in Orange County. I drafted Scott Kingery. Is it too early to drop him for Jeff McNeil?

You should absolutely drop him for Jeff McNeil. Mm-hmm. I don't know why you drafted him over Jeff McNeil. I don't know either. Dave from a town in New Jersey. Hey, genius, handsome, intelligent, and Adam. I'm in a minimum... That's me and Adam.

I'm in a minimum seven starts per week fantasy league, but this can be taken advantage of by using starters who will have an opener. Then I get their innings without it counting as one of my starts. Who are some starters worth starting that will always have an opener for them? Yarborough is the only one so far, isn't he? Yeah, it does seem like there's a good chance Chorinos does. Yanni Chorinos, their bullpen, I think, was especially taxed why it didn't happen in his first time out. But then again, he was so good that maybe they'll decide he's one of the pitchers they don't need to use an opener for.

That's been the only one so far. There was some rumblings that maybe Hermann would have an opener yesterday. It didn't happen. And the A's talked about doing it. There's another team that talked about doing, but I don't think anybody's actually done it. And Chorinos did throw his splitter more in that first start. So that could be a way of him making sure he can get through the lineup multiple times. So I'm going to keep in mind.

From Ross, which of these two players would I look at picking up as a backup to Max Muncie? Michael Franco or Yandi Diaz? I like Yondi more. Yeah, I think we all... Yeah, I mean, Franco isn't available in many leagues. He's like 83% owned. I think in a I don't know

I think I would still lean Franco there but as we talked about Diaz is pretty interesting Mike in Vancouver should I give up Eloy Jimenez I actually no he'd give up Charlie Morton

to get Eloy Jimenez which side would you rather have It depends If you have spare hitting you should probably do it Or spare pitching You should probably do it But who has spare pitching

Right Well these guys These guys were picking up You know? Oh, no, he says my pitching isn't great either, so. But he picked up Paddock and Richardsons. They're pretty similar. It's a team-need thing, right?

Eloy versus Borton? Yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Okay, last one. Is Andrew Miller, this is from Jared Parker. Not that Jared Parker. Or maybe it is. Is Andrew Miller still worth rostering

with his control issues and slight decrease in velocity and overall poor performance this spring and season? I have been wondering that myself, guys. Andrew Miller still worth rostering. I don't think he's going to become the closer. So you need him to be elite with the ratios. I mean, how many innings are we talking about between spring and now? Like seven?

He wasn't good last year. I know he was hurt. But, yeah, I haven't dropped him yet. I haven't been a roto league. But he's on my radar of players I might drop. Let's be patient. Yeah, that's fair. But I think you give him time.

Like, it depends how many middle reliever type pitchers are owned in your league, too. If it's like five, then I don't know that he's somebody really have to protect that much. Even if he does bounce back and be great Andrew Miller, I mean, it's just not, it's, it's not the most common formats where those guys are especially valuable anyway. All right, 12 games on the schedule tonight. You know we're going to break it down on tomorrow's show. Thanks for listening to the Tuesday edition. We'll talk to you on Wednesday here on Fantasy Baseball today.