Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/05: Overreactions; Most Added; Week 2 Help (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

Have we made any interesting add/drops recently (2:10)? Why, yes we have! And we'll tell you why we're interested in Max Fried, Jordan Zimmermann, Jake Odorizzi and more. And are we adding Spencer Turnbull (11:24)? ... News and notes (19:24) with a Vlad update and lineup notes. Then it's time for some possible overreactions (21:30). Is Gary Sanchez once again the top catcher? Is Trevor Bauer the best SP? Is Robinson Cano done? ... We play "Are They Bad?" (32:00) with Joey Votto, Luke Voit and others. We also review Thursday's standouts (47:10) and the Most Added list before previewing Week 3 with two-start pitchers (52:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domingo San Beautiful Kocomo Friday here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome. I am Adam Azer with Scott Whiteheed

Cummings and Chris Towers. I'm very excited to talk about baseball today. I'm very excited to talk about Max Fried

basically for the entire hour, plus a little bit of the most Adamist and some week three help. Scott, are Braves fans

as excited about Max Fried as I am? I don't know. I mean, I'm excited about him from a fan standpoint, probably more so

than from a fantasy analyst standpoint, the threshold for being a quality pitcher is a little lower when you're just talking about major league standards versus like a 12-team league standard. But we'll get into it, we'll see. There's some reason for excitement there. Yeah, well, he's a superstar.

That's the reason. Welcome to Kreeh. Kreeh picked up Max Fried yesterday. We're going to talk about a lot more players. I do want to know who you're adding and dropping. We're going to play a game called Are They Bad? This was inspired by Heath's tweet about Luke Voight and also Heath emailing me about Josh Donaldson and his

Terribleness and we'll read your emails at Fantasy Baseball at Cbsi.com How's Kokomo Friday going for you guys? Creeth. Good. I was woken up at 6 in the morning by my dog barking at one of the cats and I could not go back to sleep. So that was nice, but I'm feeling good. So you're actually probably more awake than you normally are for the show because you've been awake for longer.

I've... This is unfair. It was just a question. I've been showing up on time for our early podcasts. Yesterday I didn't... Yesterday I didn't have my coffee. I was kind of a jerk. I apologize to stepdad's everywhere.

I was here before you today. Yes, you were. Wow. Nice word. We credit where credits do. So let's talk about some interesting ads that we've made or ad drops that we've made. Players that are on your roster that weren't as of just a few days ago. Chris, why don't you take it away?

Who you want to start with? Yeah, I'll go with Jake Oteresey, who we talked about a little bit early. in the week, but his first start was really, really interesting. He's someone who, when he was right and when he was good with the raise, he worked up in the strike zone with his fastball a lot. Got away from that the last couple of years, but he's worked with that same Repsoto tracker that everybody has, apparently, and, you know, that start against, it was the Indians, so giant asterisk, but he got 15 swinging strikes with his foreseen fastball.

He's not going to do that every start, but that's the path to, success for him. I thought it was a really, really promise. All right, so he's, you know, there are a bunch of pitchers that we're going to talk about. Scott, you want to talk about Matt Boyd, I believe, as a pitcher that you seem to really be buying into, I assume you like him more than Jake Oteresee.

Yeah, I do. I feel like, well, there's two starts where he dominated and not just one, and the second was against I think a pretty legitimate lineup, the Yankees. And just, you know, the 26 swinging strikes, 13 on the slider.

He seems to be, a lot of pitchers seem to be, but I think Boyd the most clearly seems to be taking the Patrick Corbyn route of success, where kind of leading with his best pitch instead of leading with the fastball. And we're seeing some pretty dramatic results from him. So I made sure he was owned in all of my leagues just last night. And I'm not a guy who makes a lot of midweek pickups. I usually save those for the end of the week. I made an exception for Boyd.

Okay, he's talk about the third pitcher that might be just complete absolute garbage based on his history. To, you know, O'Dorese, Matt Boyd, so far. Hey. Well, I'm serious. He has a history of success. Let's not lump him in with Matt Boyd. He's, he has a history of being good at home. He had like three years in a row of being a mid-3ZRA or something like that.

He has a much more sustained history than Matt Boyd does. He also has much more failure than Matt Boyd. I don't agree. I don't think Oteresey's ever been more than fringy. Never. In fantasy. Never. Get a 335 ERA in 2015.

Let's give the guys some credit. You are not allowed to talk about ERA. It's objectively true. That is my job to talk about ERA. He's always, Oter EZi in his heyday was a guy that you could start at home starts when he played in Tampa Bay. Maybe he's showing more promising stuff this year. All right, how about Jordan Zimmerman, who I guess actually does have a better track record? And I did pick him up, Heath, is it just, I picked him up because of the, uh,

The two starts next week, good matchups. How about you? That was mostly the reason I picked him up as well. And I was talking to Chris about this before, and I think it's a good point to go with all these interesting guys we're picking up. The thing I struggle with this time of year is I have three or four pitchers on my bench on most of my points league's teams that I thought were going to be good pitchers this year and maybe have made one bad start.

And I'm just not willing to drop them because of one bad start for a lot of these guys that have been bad for multiple years. Zimmerman over the first two games only has one walk, and it was an intentional walk. He does have two very good matchups next week. The thing I like about him is I know that I'm going to start him next week, and then I'll have a pretty good idea after those two games against the twins and the Indians, whether I want to hold on to him. Do you guys just feel like this segment is not going to age well, as the kids say?

I picked up Jake Oteresey, Matt Boyd and Jordan Zimmerman, and we look back at this in a month and we're going, I can't believe we picked up Jake Oteresey, Matt Boyd wins everyone. That's the thing I struggle with. I understand the idea of I don't want to miss the guy that has the great start and then wins me in my league. But I also don't want to drop the guy that I drafted because he had one bad start and somebody else did well against the Indians. Yeah. Can you give me a name or two that you're talking about that you don't want to drop?

Zach Goddly and Luke Weaver. Okay. Scott, you want to get in there? I thought I heard you. I mean, I think it's a philosophical difference. There is such a fine line between the players I take at an end of a draft and the players I don't take. I mean, just look at how much that pool of players turned over from spring training,

which was also a small sample and not as competitive of an environment as we're seeing here at the start of the year. You know, there's a lot of good things to be found this time of year. And when you drop the guy, You're not like this is this is something I don't think people Tend to process very well you're you're probably not going to lose him to somebody else You're probably just robbing him to sit on the waiver wire until the point when Maybe he's interesting again or maybe he isn't

But it like you don't have to treat You don't have to treat your your bench spots as You know the players you believe in and the waiver wire the players you don't believe in Okay. Well, it's time for me to fall in love again. Max Fried. Oh, my gosh. What enticing stuff. I just, I want to talk about how much I love Max Free. Do we have, oh, look at that. Look at the graphic, guys. Hearts everywhere. That's beautiful. Beautiful stuff. Is there, I mean, is he the hardest throwing lefty starting pitcher in baseball already? Who's a left-handed pitcher? Those 97 miles per hour with a hammer for a hook.

I can't believe... In average 94, but okay. But, oh, he hits 97, and you know he hits 97. Adam saw it. Yeah, I did see it. We all saw it. His velocity was a lot better than numbers. Notoriously accurate velocity tracker, Adam Azer.

I saw the freaking game. I saw he was hitting it multiple times. I can't believe his minor league numbers are not better. I don't get it. There's so much potential here. and they rave about his stuff. So he's only 22% owned. Freed might not even stay in the rotation

because Gosman and Fultenevich are coming back. But I think we might have something here. What do you guys think? We might have something. I do think there's a pretty good chance he stays in the rotation because I have to think he's leapfrog Kyle right for that fifth spot with this performance.

But I'm a little hesitant to endorse him as one of my favorite pickups because it would mostly be about the fact that he gave up only one hit in six innings. He featured basically two pitches in this start. He had less than a strike up for inning. He had seven total swinging strikes. That's not to say he doesn't have upside,

but I don't think this is the start where you can point to it and say, yes, this is the upside we've been waiting to see for Max Reed. I don't think the underlying number suggests you can count on doing this kind of stuff over and over again. I'm not saying you shouldn't make a play for him if you have a spot to play with, but among the pitchers

who've been showing us interesting things here early in the season, I don't think I'd put Freed in my top 10. Yeah, I don't know that he's necessarily somebody I want to add in a 12-team league, but if you're in like a 16-team league with 24-man rosters, this is the type of guy you want on your bin. Okay. So did you pick

up Max Reed in the Four of the People League just because I tweeted my love for him or was there? Of course. I literally saw your tweets comprised my reply and was texting Chris asking which of our three bad players he wanted to drop so that we could pick him up and then hit reply on Twitter. And you did that because you respect my baseball opinion so much that you thought, oh, Adam's probably right. Yeah, like I see you tweet. I get alerts my phone. And if you're tweeting about baseball, I'm looking to add that guy. And if you're tweeting about movies, I just roll my eyes.

Okay. All right, guys. So those are some of the ad drops. I wanted Chris to talk about Ratti Teles and Robbins and Chorinos. Chris can do that in about 15 seconds, Rattieheles and Robbins and Chorinos. Yeah, Rattieheles is a contact hitter with untapped power potential who has hit the ball hard so far. And Gianni Chorino's just, he's got a really good sinker. He started throwing his splittermore in his first start.

There's a lot of potential there. And they didn't use an opener with it. him. That's a good sign. Yeah, I, um, did you say Robinson, did you text me Robinson or Yonni Trinos? He asked you about Robinson Trinos? I thought I texted you about Yanni Chirino. I don't know. I think you just texted Trino. I told the graphics department Robinson Chirino so that I asked you about Yaddy Tritos. So I have totally screwed up. Let's see what Chris said. He said, Choritos. He said Chiritos. So which one was it? The better one. Yaddy? Obviously.

Okay. I thought maybe we were looking at like, a deep catcher or something like that. Today, Spencer Turnbull gets his own segment, Scott White. Six innings, three runs, two walks, ten strikeouts against Kansas City. His first start was five innings, three runs, five strikeouts at Toronto. Spencer Turnbull, Tiger's starting pitcher, he is 7% own. And he gets Cleveland next week, so we might have three encouraging starts to start the season. You picked him up for our team scam in the 16-team league.

Should he be owned? Should Turnbull be owned in any other type of format? Well, to put this in full context, I would rather have Max Reed than Spencer Turnbull, but Turnbull was a pitcher who I'd been eyeing since spring training when he started to, he started to make some waves there, looked at his minor league numbers. The guy had 10 strikeouts per nine innings in the minors last year. So seeing him strikeout 10 in his second start of the season, it may not be a fluke. He had 15 swinging strikes. Half of them came on a cutter that looks like a pretty impressive pitch if you go back and look through his history. He is pitching for the Tigers. That's probably the biggest downside.

Not a lot of win potential. But this start is reason to take notice of him. There could be some upside here. Okay. Spencer Turnbull, just 7% own. And look, one of our favorite... Did you say something, Chris? Yeah, one thing that I would keep in mind is something that Derek Cardi has talked. a lot about of ESPN.

The AL Central is a disaster, and his projection does take into account the division that pitchers pitch in, and pretty much all of the Tigers pitchers have higher projections for him because of that. It's something to keep in mind that this could just be such a bad division that it raises the prospect. It's by far the worst offensive division in baseball. It's a disaster.

I know. That's why Jose Burrios could really, benefit from because he's on the best offense by far. And I think... He could. ESPN? I've been talking about that. We've been talking about that for months, Chris Towers.

What's that all about? I mean, I don't have to projections, but... But actually, that made me... That made me think about... I'm so sorry, Adam. I'm sorry that I offended you. The AL Central... I mean, yes, the A.

I talk about it all the time about how many good matchups there are in the A.L. Central. Really? Do I have to tweet it for you to pay attention? frustrating thing. Would you feel like you've been driving up a point over and over? And somebody raises it like it's a new idea. I mean, it wasn't like yesterday. What?

I probably said it. I probably said it every single show for the last three months. But no, that actually, if you notice what's going on right now, the pitching is just ridiculous. I heard a stat yesterday that I think 23% of plate appearances were ending in strikeouts. I don't know if you have an update on that or whatever, but I mean, yeah, there, this is just, this is kind of something, this is kind of what I was saying when I mentioned, a lot of pitchers seem to be taking that Patrick Corbyn route to success. I mean, you could put Jordan Zimmerman in that category too, just the perspective of

throwing a lot more off-speed pitches at the expense of the fastball. Matt Shoemaker, another one, he threw his splitter about as often as his fastball on his most recent start. Those pitches are harder to hit in an environment that's so power-focused. So it seems like, you know, it's an adjustment counter-adjustment league and kind of the entire pitching pool has made this counter-adjustment. 36.1% of flight appearances have ended in a walk, a strikeout, or a home run. Yeah. Yeah, and this is something that it's been, I think, since 2008, there has been a new strikeout rate record in MLB. and last I saw before last night,

it was up another like percentage point and a half. And it's risen about a percentage point every year for at least the last five or so. And yeah, the one stat that I saw was last year was the first year since we began tracking pitches that there were more sliders than sinkers thrown in Major League Baseball. And the number was about 800 overall last season. Through the first week of games this year, I believe it's old. over 2,000 more sliders and sinkers. That's a big change.

People are trading sinkers for fastballs and sliders, and that's just inevitably going to lead to more strikeout. And in an era where nobody really expects most pitchers to go more than five or six innings, you don't really have to leave anything on the table anymore. Just throw your best stuff. One thing I don't know is, like, it's not, it'll be interesting. Because a lot of these guys, because the walks are up, just a little, bit too, and they're throwing so many of these sliders, which generally are not in the strike

zone. I think they're still throwing 90, 95 pitches. It's just over five or six innings instead of over seven innings. Right. I don't think it's any less taxing on the arm. No, no, no. It's not about taxing on the arm. It's just in prior generations, and we've talked about this, you would hold something back so you could get, like, the first time through the order, you would mostly throw your fast and sprinkle in a couple of seconds. And then the second time, you might work in a second pitch a little more. And then the third time, because you're always trying to keep hitters off balance, now, because that's not the expectation that you're going to go through the lineup three times, just give what you have now. That's the philosophy to state.

Chris Sale is taking the entirely opposite of pro. ESPN has definitely talked about that recently, I would say for sure. Okay, so. I think it was on the ringer or baseball perspective actually. I'm going to do the read about the masters now. Here we go. One of our favorite times of the year is upon us. It is the Masters. It is probably the only golf that I will watch all year. It's a tradition unlike any other, and CBS Sports is where you can get direct streaming access on your phone or computer to live coverage of all day for each round of the Masters. And the coolest part is you can choose between four different streams.

Whether you want to watch the feature groups of the day, follow the field as they come through Amen Corner or Holes 15 and 16. I said Amen Corner, right? I said that properly. Okay, good. Or see top golfers getting ready for their round on the practice range. And look, we've been looking forward to it for a long time. So there are different ways to follow the Masters. Obviously, CBS Sports HQ, but you can download the CBS Sports app on your phone

or visit CBSports.com slash masters first cut today. This is all free. CBSports.com slash masters first cut. Go there today. And while you are there, be sure to tune in to watch our friend Kyle Porter on CBS SportsHQ, which is our free 24-hour sports news network. He'll be reporting live from Augusta National all week long. So again, CBSports.com slash masters first cut.

And first cut is also the name of our golf podcast. Check it out, the first cut with Kyle Porter, Chip Patterson on that one as well. News and notes, Jose Ramirez left with a bruised foot. He's day-to-day. Should be hopefully fine. Vladimir Guerrero was set to play a rehab game yesterday. I'm just going to fire three days. Okay, good.

That's good. Clay Buckles could be back in a few weeks. You guys have any interest in Clay Buckles? Now a Blue Jays pitcher? No. There's too many pitchers for me to be in. Didn't play buckles. Ramon Luriano is absolutely incredible.

Just give him a gold glove now. He threw out three Red Sox on the bases in the series. That was amazing. Matt Chapman should be back today. He has a sore wrist. Victor Robles is Homer twice this year. Both off Noah Sindregard. Good stuff there.

Aaron Hicks has been cleared for baseball activity. Shohei Otani thinks he could play this month. probably won't, but he thinks he could, which means he's making good progress, Shohei Otani. Angelton Simmons left with lower back tightness, not expected to be serious. Atlanta sent Bryce Wilson to AAA. Toronto sent Anthony Alford to AAA. That was quick.

One game and gone. Socrates Brito replaced him. And Ozzie Albiz has attempted four steals in six games. That's a nice little trend there. He's two for four. Nick Marquakis apparently had been very unlucky going in the last night's game. He had been hitting the ball really hard, as the broadcasters were saying, on the same broadcast in which I saw Max Free Throw 97-mile-per-hour fastballs.

Then he went five for five with three doubles, so actually now he's off to a great start, Nick Marcakis. Nomar Mazzara sat with a sore quad. He should play today. Rafael Devere sat against the lefty, probably just a day off, but he has been struggling this year. Kyle Schwerber started against the lefty for the first time this season. I believe Jason Hayward sat. and Boston is off to the worst start for a World Series champion since the 1998 Marlins that was the fire sale 1998

Marlins their starting pitchers have a 908 ERA right now good plan there guys good plan saving those guys up ridiculous can't hurt your heart Rodriguez was like the one that they didn't

yeah and Eduardo Rodriguez was like the one they didn't it though and he might be up to the most the scariest start of all of them Okay, let's look at some statements that I'm going to make, and you tell me if they are overreactions. Overreactions?

Dot, dot, dot. Or are they? Here we go. Actually, Gary Sanchez is better than J.T. Reaumuto. I don't think it's an overreaction. It's not like you guys rank them super far apart coming into the season, at least in Roto. I mean, like, two rounds apart.

Yeah, I didn't. I had him, like, six-picks apart. I don't think it's, like, I wouldn't agree with it, but it's... Certainly a possibility. He could be better than Rio Muto. Sure. He is hitting, Gary Sanchez is hitting basically nothing but fly ball, 66.7% fly ball rate, which will lead to a lot of home runs.

But I'd rather him hit like 270 instead of 230. All right. I'm really trying not to get too, like, invested in bad at ball data this time of year because it's just so, like. Obviously, he's hit a lot of fly balls because he has three home runs, you know? It's descriptive, not predicted at this point. Sure. Overreaction or no, Trevor Bauer should be the number three starting pitcher in your rankings. Behind Scherzer and DeGrob.

Yeah, maybe he shouldn't exactly be number one or number three, but he's absolutely in the discussion for me. I've moved him up to number seven. Keep going. He's really good. Hey, I heard on another network that the A.L. Central has some easy lineups. It's too bad he doesn't get to face the Indians. That's dude, it's true.

Scott, where is Trevor Bauer for you? He's ahead of Chris Sale, I'll tell you that much. He's a candidate to finish third, sure. I would still take Verlander over him. I would still take Glover over him. You know, I think I'd still take Blake Snell over him, but he's in that discussion. We made the jokes about him tinkering his way into not being good anymore,

and we didn't acknowledge the possibility that he could tinker his way end up being the best picture in baseball. Well, and he was... It was close last year. Basically there last year. I mean, I think he was second in FIPP. He led the AL in most of the peripheral stats. He was already.

He had a good case for being the Sy Young winner last year. Yeah, and what I love about Bauer is in his first start, he threw just a handful of curveballs, like four-ish curveballs. And last night, in his no-hit bid, where he did walk six guys. he threw a ton of curveball, so he just has so many weapons. All right, is this an overreaction? Elvis Andrews is back. Yeah.

Seems like an overreaction to me. Yes, it does. Has he attempted a steal yet? One for one. He's one for one. Okay, so between spring training and the regular season, 22 games, one steal attempt. That's, I mean, that's going to be the biggest key for me, because, even if we're just completely

ruling out that 2017 season as a power apparation, he has to run to be a value. And I don't think 2018 or 2017 was just an aberrate. There were reasons to believe that he had made changes in his approach maybe not to be a 20 homer guy, but to not be a zero. And like with Adelberto Mondesie,

when we talked about him earlier this week and how he only has one stolen base, It was largely because he's not been on first base. Andrews has 10 singles and a walk, so he's had plenty of chances to run. All right, next up, overreaction or no, Adelberto Mondesie is a star. Ah. I mean, only number nine in Roto. That's a little.

One homer one shield. I mean, I'm going to say, yes, you're right. It's not an overreaction. No walks eight strikeouts, though, you know? That's bad. That's who he is. Nothing about what has happened has changed my opinion on Adaberto Modesty. He's pretty much looked like Adroberto Mondes.

The results have been really good. He's also, there are some frightening things in his approach. Okay, so Heath says it's not an overreaction. Scott, is Adelberto Monashy a star one week into the season? I mean, the answer to all of these questions is probably yes. But I was inclined to believe he had star potential already, So, you know, I'm more likely to grant this opinion than some of the others. I don't, it's not the biggest at Alberto Mondesie overreaction I've seen.

I believe Bill James tweeted a couple of days ago, he's a future MVP. Okay. And he knows a lot about baseball. He is, he is online. Robinson Canoe might be done, guys. Homer on opening day off Max Scherzer, he has five hints since then. He has one walk to eight strikeouts and 188 batting average. Robinson Canoe might be done.

Is that an overreaction? Complete over. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's 36 years old. He might be. It's a bad week after he hit, like, Robinson Canoe last year for the 15th season in a row. I'm just saying he might be.

That's a little, that's a little bit of an overstayment because he's had some pretty disappointing years with the Mariners. He's sort of alternated between, like, good and not bad. But he was never bad. Yeah. Well, they was, no, he wasn't bad. Right. I mean, his lowest batting average during that time with the Mariners was 280. He did have a year where he hit only 14 home runs, but the others were either 20 or a pace of 20, like last year.

He wasn't, he wasn't Yankees, Robinson Canoe, but he was still must-start caliber and fantasy. Well, okay, here is OPS. Kano's OPS in five seasons with Seattle, 836, 779, 8-8.8.8.5.5.5. 82, 791, 845. So two of those three seasons below 800 for a guy who doesn't steal. Not exactly must start, although in points leagues, always good play discipline. I will say it's tough. Great run in RBI production and obviously a great batting average.

Accumulator. Accumulator. But his bad seasons were like maybe a little bit below what we want Scooter Jeanette to do when he's healthy? Okay, last thing on him. It's just tough to judge the Mets. They face a lot of really good pitchers so far, including the stallions and the nationals. So keep that in mind.

All right, last overreaction. Jose Ramirez's counting stats are going to make him more like a second round pick this year. I think it's probably true. Really? That's so hurtful. No. I'm not ready to say that. So I'm not ready to say that.

either, but among the the more downer half of this podcast, I advise somebody yesterday to trade mooky bets for Ramirez and Mondesie. Was that something you would still advise? I think so. That feels like giving up to my

wait. He was trading mooky bets for Ramirez and Monash. Yeah, yeah. I would still do that, yes. I would trade mooky bets. Yeah. I mean, it's Trout and bets. They demand an enormous price tag, obviously. And so just to put some

reference to this. The team that had the most played appearances last year was 6,369, that was the Cubs. The lowest was 6,029. That's not an insignificant number, but when you're talking about the entire lineup, it's like 5% difference, I think, is what that

comes out to. It's not this gigantic, and this lineup won't be as bad as they have been so far. It's going to be pretty bad, though. I mean, it's not just played appearance. is it's runs and RBIs. Yeah, I think that's the problem is if we assume that he doesn't have a hot street coming

because he's started off cold, pretty soon, I mean, he's going to be far enough behind where you're just going to expect that. He's talking about Jose. I would say moving forward, I do not think he will play like a second round pit. Well, let me ask you this.

Wrap it up here. We'll go Scott Heathcris. If you're a redrafing, today, when would you take Jose Ramirez? Third. No, I wouldn't drop him to the third. I'd still take him in the first round, but maybe a little bit later in the first round.

Well, I think he meant third overall. He did, but he also... Of course, I meant third overall, and Heath knew that. He also went out of third, because I did say Scott Heath, Chris, but that's fine. So Chris said third overall. He'd said first round. Scott, how about you? I think I'd still take him third overall.

The lowest I would have been able to justify. is the sixth behind Martinez-Arenado and Scherzer. All right, fellas. Let's take a quick break here. When we come back, Are They Bad? We'll do that with Josh Donaldson, Joey Vado,

Luke Voight, and a few others. Oh, you Darvish. We've got to talk about him. We'll talk about a little bit more from Thursday's action. Only eight games on the schedule. And then we will take a look ahead to Fantasy Week 3.

Fantasy Week 2 for a lot of you, but for some of you, Fantasy Week 3. Stick around coming right back here on Fantasy Baseball today. So let's play, are they bad? Okay, first guy is Josh Donaldson. No extra base hits. Now, the funny thing about this list is pretty much all of these hitters have good plate discipline so far.

I have four hitters and one pitcher. So is Josh Donaldson bad, Heath? He's only batting 182, five walks, seven strikeouts, but still looking for an extra base hit. I don't think I'm ready to say that he's bad. I do think I'm less, like I was probably less excited about Donaldson than you guys were. I would expect that you are going to be more forgiving. I just had some questions about would he be the same guy he was and could he stay healthy? So far he stayed healthy, but he hasn't quite been the same guy.

Anybody worried? Yeah. There's nothing here that would change my opinion, which, I mean, there was concern. He was, you know, he was somebody I was passing up in like round nine. So, yeah, we don't really know who he is, but we still. I still don't know who he is. You know? Yeah, I didn't.

Obviously, a ton of upside. I don't think I drafted Donaldson in any of my leagues, and my prior was that I expected him to not be good. So, I'm saying it bad. I think there's a pretty good chance of it, yeah. Next up, you will never get anyone on this podcast to tell you that Joey Votto is bad. We make excuses for Joey Votto all the live long day. And here he is batting 220 with no homers, no RBIs,

but of course, four walks to four strikeouts. Is Joey Votto bad? No. Of course, he's played like five games. The entire lineup's been terrible. Yeah. No. But his bad ball profile, he's still hitting the ball as hard as he ever did.

No. I can't imagine why we'd be talking people, why we'd be continually talking people off the ledge for a guy who's perennial 900 OPS 300 hitter. I mean, last year was this terrible year where he hit 284 with an 837 OPS and was still, must start. He was not must start. He was not must start.

Scott, in head-to-head points leagues. Adam, did you have Joey Votto in any of your team? I honestly didn't. Are you saying you actually would have benched him? Probably not, but I think in retrospect, I should have benched him because Joey Votto was bad in Roto. He was just straight up bad in Roto. Well, Roto is deeper rosters.

Look, corner infield. You're probably still starting Joe. Guys, guys, he, he, he, he, Joey Votto, see, if you want to say he's not bad, that's fine. But I think you have to acknowledge, for the sake of our listeners, you have to give them this. Joey Votto was bad last year. He played 145 games. That's a fairly full season. He finished.

He led the NL on base percentage. He led the league on base percentage. Oh my God, he hit 12 home runs. He hit 12 home runs. Okay. Scott, just listen, right? So he hits 67 RBIs and 67 runs. Every single thing he did was bad, except for his on-base skills.

He was 12th in points at first base and 21st in Roto. Twenty-first in Roto. And all we've talked about is how bad first base is. It's not a deep position anymore. Joey Votto absolutely 100% was not a must-start player in Roto last year. If you cannot admit that on this show, then all the Joey Vado owners out there are going to hate you forever. So that is going to be on your conscience. Can you answer me a question?

Yeah. He led the National League and on base percent. He scored, that's objectively true. You agree to that, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, objectively. He scored 67 runs, objectively true, you would agree to that. Right. Did he just, like, trip and fall a bunch of times?

This is the key. This is the distinction that we can make. Joey Votto was not bad last year. Joey Votto is not bad. Joey Votto for fantasy last year and Roto was bad. Yes. It wasn't his fault. That's fine.

That's fine. That's what I'm saying is I wouldn't take what happened last year and project it forward. I'm not doing that. Even though the results haven't been there yet. I'm not doing that. I'm not. I'm not. I just said,

was he bad last year? That's all I said. That's not all I said, but that was my second argument. Was he bad last year? But what you're saying is you wouldn't have started you're saying you should have considered him not a must start player. But that's reacting to results

that I think all of us would agree probably if he does everything exactly the same last year, this year he probably scores a lot more than 67 run. That's a big part of it. I hope so, but a first baseman... He just didn't bring him around. A first baseman who hits 15 home runs, I'll give him 15 based on last year.

He had 12 and 1445 games, so it's probably more like 14. A first baseman who does that? Like, the RBIs aren't going to be that great. That's just not good enough. And a 284 batting average is very low for him. I know the on-base was great, but if you don't count OBP, what does that do for you? First of all, we're talking about the fictional scenario where 2019, Joey Votto is 2018 Joey Votto, which is very unlikely.

Why? He's 35, you know? Like, we should at least allow the possibility. And he was terrible against Lefties last year. He slugged 376 against Lefty. It was such an outlier for his career that even if he is on the decline, which, again, is questionable. Like, just law of averages says he's not going to put up that exact same stat line. It's very unlikely. So, yeah.

So, yeah, I guess I, I, I guess I, would just say if you could not find a way to fit that in your lineup, you have better roto hitters than I do. I mean, usually I'm starting a couple hitters that are pretty scrubby in the standard roto league. And Joey Vada wasn't pretty scruffy last year. But we have to get out of everybody plays in a shallow points league or a deep roto league. A lot of people play, a lot of people play in a head-to-head categories league. Okay. And the rosters aren't that big. And you're not necessarily starting a corner outfield. Also, you drafted Joe. Hevado with a top 60 or 70 pick, you didn't draft him to be the number 21 first baseman.

So, like, I don't say he wasn't disappointing last year. I will say in my one Yahoo League, it's a 10-team Yahoo League with those types of rosters, he was not must-start last year. He wasn't must-start in any Roto League last year. Right. And then this is something that, like, we had a, I had a back and forth with a listener via email, and he was talking about Joey Gallo versus Ian Desmond. That's what he was asking us about. And Ian Desmond was better last year.

But when you look at the skill set, when you look at what they're likely to do moving forward, it matters what they did last year only in as much as it tells us what they are likely to do this year. I do not believe that Joey Votto is likely to lead the National League in on-base percentage and only score 67 run. I do not believe Joey Votto is likely to have identical batted ball data to his career and hit 12 home runs with a 9.5 home run to fly ball rate. When I'm looking forward, I don't think the counting stats that he had last year in what should be a much better Reds lineup. Tell us all

that much about what's likely to happen this year. Right. All right. So let me just wrap it up. Because I agree, and I just want to clarify it. I'm not necessarily down on Joey Vado. This is a guy that I didn't draft this year, but I kind of wanted to because I do think you look at his profile and there's a lot to like, and he probably just had a bad statistical year and should be a lot better this year and the slow start whatever. Like Chris said, everybody in the Reds Order is not hitting blow. I just want, because I get into these arguments with you guys where I feel like, you know, it's not that I'm projecting Joey Vado.

I just want to acknowledge what he did. And sometimes I think with a guy like Joe Vado three years ago, whatever was with Corey Klob, where he wasn't really giving the fantasy results that backed up the peripherals, I do feel like sometimes you guys don't look at the actual results and you look at the process. And you know, like that's just, so I'm just trying to talk about what Joey Votto has done. I am still high on him this year. I do think he's a good player. But last year, I just don't think he was very good for fantasy.

That's all I'm saying. Well, and I don't think any of us disagreed with that. He said he was must start. There's no way he was must start. Right. But he wasn't very good for fantasy. I would say he wasn't. He was a bust for sure.

He was must start when you looked at like your lineup decision, not must start when you look at what actually happened. He was definitely a bust. Yeah, okay. All right, let's move on. Let's move on. Let's go real quick on these next guys. Luke Voigt, is he good or is he bad?

Heath, what was your Twitter poll? What were the results? I was, it's funny because he homered in the middle of the Twitter poll, which is bad for the scientific results. It's muddying the waters. Yeah, which is what we were going for. That's a push pole. For sure. There were three possible choices.

It's early. He's good. I have no idea. Oh, man. He sucks. I have no idea one with 56%, and that's exactly how I feel about Luke Voigt. It's early. He's good. Came in at 29%. Oh, man, he sucks.

He was actually doing pretty good before the home run. Fell off late. I don't know how you answer anything, but we don't know. Exactly, exactly. I feel like Luke Voigt's going to be a streaky player, but he did have, I don't know how many hits he has this year. He has two home runs. There's only extra base hits. He's batting 167.

Scott, are you feeling a little uneasy about Luke Voigt? No, I'm not. I mean, I answered the same thing on the poll because that's what I'd answer for most players this time of year, especially those with a limited track record. But I don't, other than the fact that he's a 28-year-old, I think, who couldn't find footing with his original organization, I don't see much reason to think he's bad.

I mean, even looking at what he did in the upper minors, showed a very good hit tool, got on base a ton. And, you know, he was actually even more of a contact profile down there than the big power he's shown already in the majors. So I think, obviously we have to let things play out, but the Yankees seem committed to him as we've seen the way they've made out their lineups this year. And yeah, I still think there's plenty of potential there. All right. Next up, Jake Bowers, off to a slow start, batting 200. He has one double in five games, but only three strikeouts. Guys, is Jake Bauer's bad?

And by the way, he has sat against the only lefty that the Indians have faced. I think he's probably bad. I don't think he's bad. Yeah, I mean, this probably is influenced by how you felt about him coming in. Keith was clearly the high guy. Who's Keith? Keith. That sounded like a Keith, right?

Like, I wasn't... It did kind of sound like a Keith. That's cool. because I was going Heath clearly, so I kind of mixed up my sounds there. Yeah, the only person I think that had him ranked close to where I did was Al Malkyor. Al liked him a lot as well. I am happy at least so far early on that the strikeouts are back where they were for most of his minor league career. They don't have any other hitters, so he has to hit in the middle of the order.

They don't have any other prospects, so there's no way to sit him down. So let's hope that he figures it out. I'm a little concerned with the slow start just because he does have an unproven track record. and the Indians might find someone else that they could play, but I still think he's good. There is evidence to suggest that prospects who get traded perform worse than prospects who don't. I don't know why that's fine.

It just has to be such a subtle distinction. No, no, it's like it's statistically significant. And it's because it's such a general take. for a very specific case. I don't know. I don't know. It's the kind of thing I... No, I think I know where Chris is going on with this.

I mean, like Danesbys wants... I think Adam's going to buy into this. The team that knows him best... Right, right, right. ...would be more likely if he was as good as the prospect rank. They tend to underperform their prospect rank is probably the better way to say it, relative to the guys who don't get traded.

And it's because the teams who know them best certainly know them better than the prospect of value. Well, and I would say a second... thing about that is you're a guy that's trying to adjust to the major leagues and you get traded one year in and you may be given a new approach. Okay. So, this is not going as quickly.

This is not going as quickly as I was hoping, but we have a lot of show to get to. I just texted Al Malkyor. Settle a podcast debate is Jake Bauer's Bad and he wrote, no, that was easy. Thank you, Al Malky. Thanks, Al. Let's see what else we got here. Last one is You Darvish Bad.

Sorry to get a little nervous about this one. I may have just replaced him as the I love with Max Fried. Is you Darvish bad? He's not good right now. He was the player you love? He was my player I love this year, yeah. You, Darvish.

It looks bad. It was better than the first. There's no way to sugarcooked. He's been, like, about as bad as you could possibly expect a major league pitcher. Like, as bad as you could possibly expect a minor league pitcher to pitch. Yeah. I mean, I, I'd give that to Chris Sale over Darvish.

I mean, Darvish is still throwing. Even Flossy's a little down, but nothing that concerning this time of year. He's still missing bats with his secondary stuff. He's just been really inefficient. Obviously, he didn't walk seven guys yesterday, but did struggle with control and wasn't allowed to go five, even though the Cubs bullpen has been abysmal and was abysmal again yesterday. It's like if not like I'm not I want to even entertain the thought of dropping him because the upside is is too high and the track record too lengthy. But I can't start him until he delivers the kind of start that would make me want to start him at this point.

Yeah, the reason they didn't let you, Darvish go five, Joe Madden wanted him to feel good about his start. That was very, very nice of Joe Madden. He wanted him to leave on a good note. It did not work out for the Chicago. He feels good about pitching four innings and giving up three runs and walking four and striking out two. There's nothing to feel good about there, Joe. He left with one of the runners. Right.

And one of the walks was intentional for what it's worth. But it was not, you know what it was raining? Let's just chalk it up to that. It was raining. He was intimidated. He was going up against the hardest throwing left-handed pitcher in baseball history. Max Fried. There's a lot working against you, Darvish.

I do think it's just good to remember because he obviously had a lot of problems last year with. help and wasn't great in the major leagues when he pitched. He's approaching 2,200 innings if you count what he did in Japan. Like, he might just be done. I'm a little nervous. I'm a little nervous. Okay, guys, let's move on here. So for the rest of the show, we're going to do Most Added.

Oh, crap, I didn't get to any of the emails. Such a failure on my part. Most Added and a look at next week's two-start pitchers. Before I do that, was there anything else from Thursday? that you really wanted to talk about. Here are some of the notes that I had. Glaver Torres at two home runs. Nico Goodrum's off to a nice start.

He's 56% owned. He has the second most doubles in baseball. Nico Goodrum, first base and second base eligible for the Tigers. Aaron Judge is 14 strikeouts in seven games and does not have a home run. And he had just a 121 ISO after the wrist injury last year. So, you know, I don't either just maybe kind of a Freddie Freeman situation there. Hope not, but just thought I bring it up. He was brushing it this spring.

Stephen Strasbourg pitching very well, but you do have to note he is throwing softer basically than he's ever thrown in his career. But so far, Strasbourg's off to a good start. Jake Junis, Aaron Sanchez, Michael Givens once again not being used as a closer. Shane Green has five saves. And Tyler Malley, Jordan Liles, they had good starts. I don't know. So those are just some notes kind of running through my head. Scott, anything there that you want to piggyback on?

Yeah, I'll mention a couple things. Malley, it's interesting the way Chris described how pitchers used to pitch because that seems to be what Tyler Malley is adopting now. He's always a guy who leans heavily on his basketball and it's a really good pitch. But to get through, to make it as a starter pitch through the order multiple times, he has to mix in other stuff. And he threw 31 of his first 39 pitches were fastballs in this one. and then the second time through the order,

he started to throw out secondary stuff and made it six strong. But there's no guarantee. He even has a rotation spot for long. Nico Goodrum's somebody who's caught my eye. It's probably too late in the formats where he's most valuable, which would be like a standard roto league. But the guy's going to have triple eligibility pretty soon here.

And in his eight games, he's walked seven times, already has six doubles, a really good line drive hitter. He had great numbers against lefties left. year but the splits against right he's held him back i think there's a good chance that corrects this year and he ends up being kind of an interesting power speed source uh so that's that's somebody who stock is up for me nico goodrum all right so yeah yeah gone Alex Gordon homered yesterday he's struck out once all season he's in the notes he's in the notes yeah i have been awful for three years basically but he's shown a little

little life. I wouldn't be picking him up anywhere, but I'm going to watch and see it. The plate discipline was pretty good when he was good. I really reject that I'm the biggest homer on this podcast. This is the second straight year that you brought up Alex Gordon after an Alex Gordon hot streak, and it felt like a homer call last year, and it was, and even just mentioning him, although he wasn't my notes. He's in the notes.

Yeah, but I'm allowed to. I literally found him by looking in your notes that you provided to it. I'm allowed to. For you, it's a homer call. You got an 1129 OPS. I just want the listeners to just pay attention throughout the rest of the season and really think about who the biggest Homer is. Because I do think it's Heath. I know everybody thinks it's me.

Okay. The Stallions, we've given the freaking Marlins pitching staff a nickname the Stallions because they each had one slightly above average start this year. Oh, wow. Wow. I'm not sure Chris is the most. Now you're shooting to kill. Okay, so why don't we all calm down, take a step back, take a deep breath, and think about what we're saying before we hurt anybody's feelings. Okay, I like that. I like that.

I don't know that we have to go to the most added list here. I've been plugging it, but these are names that we've talked about so much throughout the week. Colton Wong is not someone really buying. He's 70% owned. Matt Shoemaker. It's, you know, maybe worth a flyer. He's 56% owned. there's Enrique Hernandez.

Then there's Jock Peterson. I don't have his full matchups for next week, but his first four games are against right-handed pitchers. He's also at Colorado this weekend against two right-handed pitchers, Jock Peterson. So you can expect him to sit against lefties, but certainly I think you look at Peterson, you look at Schwerber.

If you see a week where they have mostly right-handed pitchers, they are definitely options for your lineup. And, you know, Peterson leads off, so it could be a really good option. Jack Peterson. This is Jack Peterson. Forget most added. Let's do the two-star pitchers. Okay.

Where should we start? How about John Lester, Pittsburgh, and the Angels? Feel good about it? I don't see how he said him if you own him. Yeah. Yeah, you start him. Okay. I'm sure you're going to be starting.

Like Miles Michaelis, we're going to start Dodgers and at the Reds. Yes, but he is, his velocity's down. I'm not totally uncons. Okay Joey Lucasey At San Francisco at Arizona It doesn't get much better than that Must start

Yeah I'll start him Yeah Okay Yolice Chasine Off to a nice start this season I think At the Angels At the Dodgers

For Chassine Hmm See I'm not He's 89% own But this feels less than automatic to me I'd probably I probably want to own him But if I did I'd start him

I think you probably start him in a points league. I don't know about erode. I do think Chasine, if you start him, you drop him right after his first start. You lock him in your lineup. He's just, he's been over-owned since the start of the year. And I think he's not someone that we're going to love on this podcast. You know, but we've been, we've been discounting Chasine for two years now. And I think, like, I think what some of the other pitchers are doing right now is kind of maybe opening into my eyes to what has made Chasine a success.

He throws his slider a lot, right? It's not a great swing and miss pitch, but it's a hard pitch to square up. And it might be, it might help explain why he's been such a statistical anomaly. Are we starting Marco Gonzalez at Kansas City and home against Houston? Yeah. I think so. Being at home home. Yeah.

Julio Taran at Colorado, home against the Mets. No, absolutely. Eric Lauer at San Francisco and at Arizona. Now we're starting to get to pitchers who might be available. in your leagues. Yeah, Lauer's 70% own with two great matchups. You know what's really disappointed? Max Freed's first start next week is at

Colorado. Damn it! They can't hit him. In a points league, I wouldn't give it a flat. No. I'm not saying you have to start him, but... His second starts against the Mets. I actually didn't realize Freed was a two-star pitcher.

All righty, we got Carlos Rodon, Tampa Bay, and at the Yankees? No. Probably not, but in a points league, I would consider it. Yeah, on the borderline. Two good matchups. If you're new to the show,

why do we start two-star pitchers in points leagues but not categories or rhodo leagues? Well, you do have to worry about your ratios going up. So that, you know, those fringy starting pitchers that might just accumulate some points, it's easier to start them, but they could hurt your ratios too much in Roto. So that's why we make the distinction. Jake Junis, home against Seattle, home against Cleveland.

It's interesting. I think that's a yes for me. Just straight up, cross the board. Okay, Jake June is 54% of it. Yeah, probably. I don't know if I would in Roto. There's going to be some streaming this week. I'm telling you, man.

Eric Lauer, Junis. Kyle Gibson is at the Mets and home against the Tigers. Thoughts? He did not look very good in his last start. I wouldn't want to do that. Have we got to Jordan Zimmerman yet? No, because he's only 39% own. Cleveland and at Minnesota.

Somebody talking? Chris? No. No. I was waiting for you to talk. Jordan Zimmerman is Cleveland and at Minnesota. Annabal Sanchez is at Philadelphia at home against Pittsburgh. Feels way too risky to me.

He left his last start with an injury. Should make his next start. But we like Zimmerman better than Annabal Sanchez, right? Yeah, I think at Philadelphia is going to be a real, avoid scenario this. All right. Yeah. So, like, how much do we trust Jordan Zimmerman this week with Cleveland and Minnesota, Minnesota on the road?

I think of all the names who said he's probably top ten for me this week. Minnesota is the one tough lineup in that division, right? Yeah. So it's it's something I would consider in a points league, but I have so many young pitchers who have shown big

strikeout upside added to my that I don't think I'm dropping one to make room for a two-star Zimmerman. And Zimmerman really could turn into a pumpkin and just be terrible, don't matter who he faces. Last thing I want to mention here to consider, then we'll go into some real deep league guys. If you have a two-star pitcher whose second start is on Sunday, remember, a lot of rainouts this time of year.

So they could miss that start. They could stay on schedule, but it's just something to keep in mind. Okay, we've got Marco Estrada, Trevor Cahill, Brett Anderson, Jason Vargas, Jose Orania, Felix Hernandez, Max Fried, Derek Holland, who's home against San Diego and Colorado, Homer Bailey and Andrew Cashner. I know I said a lot of names, but just repeat, if you think anybody's a good start in a two-star week, throw it out there. Arranias at Cincinnati and then home, but it's against Philadelphia. No, Homer. Probably not. I don't hate Derek Collins.

Holland, right? I don't hate Derek Holland this week. Yeah. San Diego and Colorado at home. Like, I'd be more likely to start Zimmerman, so clearly I'm not dropping a pitcher I like for Holland either. But, you know, Colorado in San Francisco doesn't seem like a bad matchup. Both of them in San Francisco. He's great at San Francisco last year.

A better bat misser than I think people gave him credit for, too. So it's not a bad play. I don't hate Marco Estrada either. at Baltimore and then at Texas. Second match, that's not great, but I think you could... Right now, Marco Estrada looks like... Texas. Texas looks like one of the toughest matchups in the American League.

They are really hitting. There's just a lot of crappy teams in the American League, so that's part of it. But that's... At Texas tough matchup. Joey Gallo has improved his contact rate so far this, though. That's something. I think he has eight walks and seven games.

Joe Gallo. Good stuff. So that is it for two-star pitchers. Let's finish real quick with emails here. Jared from Seattle is in a 10-team league. Should he drop Jake Bowers for Enrique Hernandez, Randall Gritchick, Kyle Schwabber, or Adam Jones? Yes. Probably.

I would. I might drop him for Hernandez if I needed Minnell and Field Hill. I might go Gritcher. I mean, he's actually proven that he can be a, and above average. From no name here, should I drop Eduardo Rodriguez for Pablo Lopez

in a 12-team points league? I don't know. I'd still be kind of reluctant to do that. I mean, Eduardo Rodriguez has been a big strikeout guy year over year in terms of raid. I mean, he's had health issues

that have held back the total. Velocity's down. I mean, it's concerning, but he's a guy I'm not quite ready to drop. Okay. If Pablo Lopez has another great start, though, then I think that is enough to make the move. Get in before the Stalin leaves the stable.

Okay, this is from Adam in New York City. Dear Fantasy Stallions, how much longer should I hold on to Craig Kimbril? Heath, you answer this one. Ten team categories league. I will probably. Ten team categories league makes it a little bit more difficult, but I plan on holding on to Craig Kimbril for a very long time. have no intention of dropping them.

There are probably three teams in the analysis. And Scott, we have to go. Scott, you answer this one from Kurt. Would you drop Fran Mill Reyes and or Garrett Hampson for Jorge Soler, J. Bruce, or Adam Eaton? Would you drop Framma... Oh my gosh, yes. Fram Mel Reyes and or Garrett Hampson for Jorge Saler, Jay Bruce, or Adam Eaton. If this is basically for a bench spot, well, I probably would swap out Hampson for Eden either way.

Reyes, if I needed another bat in my lineup, you have to go Bruce over him. But I'd rather hold on to Reyes and see if he can find his way into the lineup more regularly if it's just a guy sitting on my bench. Have a wonderful weekend, everybody. Thanks so much for listening to Fantasy Baseball today. We will talk to you on Monday with our weekend recap. See you there.