Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/10: Worryometer Wednesday! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 10, 2019

Chris Sale, Aaron Nola, Justin Turner, Jose Ramirez, Stephen Strasburg and other potentially worrisome players to talk about as we break out the Worryometer to begin the show. But it's not all bad news! We're pumped about Max Fried (15:26) and Luis Castillo (22:00). And how do we feel about Austin Meadows and Anthony Swarzak? ... Pitcher problems (28:40)! Reacting to the news on Luis Severino, Jon Lester and Mike Clevinger. Then we've got "Hey, Real Quick" (33:20), bullpen updates (35:40) and your emails (38:30) about Travis Shaw, Kolten Wong, Byron Buxton and others ... What is Cody Bellinger's value (44:40)? Grade the Trade (47:10), SP talk and deep league guys to end the show ... 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. Where fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome to the Chris Sale Show, otherwise known as Wariometer Wednesday on Fantasy Baseball today.

Adam Beezer here with Heath Cummings and Chris Towers. Are you ready to be hurried along at a very annoying rate by me today? That's exactly the type of intro I would have had if I was trying to do a show quickly. You definitely nailed that one. Yes, we are going to try to do it. No, I will not be hurried. I will, oh, you will be hurried. I will plant myself like a tree.

I know. On the hurryometer. This is a hurryometer Wednesday. That's a good call. I know that if I don't speed us along, we'll talk about Chris Sale for hours. So it is Worryometer Wednesday, and we welcome you everybody to Fantasy Baseball today. We'll read some of your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We'll grade some trades.

We'll talk about Cody Bellinger's value. We'll do some hey real quick for the first time this season. But let's start with Worryometer Wednesday. Four pitchers, four hitters. The pitchers are Chris Sale, and you might be like, hey, why are some of these guys on here? All right, fine. Give me a zero on the Wariometer. That's fine.

Chris Sale, Zach Rankie, Aaroni, Arenola, Stephen Strauss. I'll tell you about the hitters in a little bit. Zero to ten on Chris Sale. How worried are you? Three. Five. Three? Did you say three?

Yeah. He picked up like six miles per hour yesterday. That's not. Objectively not true. High wash. No, not true also. What do you mean? It was three.

Three. His average fastball velocity was 90 miles per hour yesterday. He was hitting 94 at times. Lower than his first start. Okay. So. I have no concerns about Chris Sale. He was hitting 94 in the first inning, and then he couldn't.

Three out of ten concerns. Okay. The concern is the Red Sox are not going to stop being stupid soon enough. I, okay. This is preposterous. Yeah, go ahead, Chris. What's that? It's just preposterous to be like that Chris Sale is pitching poorly because the Red Sox want him to pitch poorly.

Chris Sale has nothing. It's not true. Well, it depends on which thing you believe. No, no, no, no. at this point, it's pretty clear that that was not the thing. Because yesterday before the game, Alex Cora came out and said,

well, he was sick before his second start. That's why he threw that way. And after that start, he also said, I think he'll get his velocity back. It's just a question of when. So we are going to believe these things, they say, and not the other things. Last night, Chris Sale said,

I'm frustrated. This has never happened to me before. I don't have an explanation. At this point, it's pretty clear that they've been trying to come up with explanations for it, and there is no explanation for it. Sure, there is. He's not throwing hard. They did hold his velocity down in the spring, or you think they just made that up?

No, I think that's probably something. Okay, it just takes him a little while to work up to it. Okay, but he was not really throwing. He was hitting 94, but that was early in the game, and then from one inning to the next, his velocity dropped pretty alarmingly. But he hit 94 in his final inning. which was a disaster. Yeah, right. He got Babipped really hard.

And he's getting... Well, that is a good point. There were no extra base hits. That's fine. Yes, some of it can be explained by Babbip. He had two swinging strikes on his fastball, which were the first two he's had in three starts. He had no command.

Sounds like you're more than a five. Everything was belt. No, I'm a five because if he keeps pitching this way, I don't think he can be much more than an average pitch best. I'm not a 10 because I don't know why this is happening and I have to assume that at some point

it will get better. But if it doesn't, I'm absolutely, there's no way you can't not be concerned. Yeah, I just think the second start is now the outlier. He had 12, 12 swinging strikes on 76 pitches

in his first start. He had 10 swinging strikes on 76 pitches in his second start. He has not been Chris Sale. He has also been I would say very unlucky. Well, this is the problem when we just throw Babit and say, well, it's just bad luck. When you pitch poorly, you will also give up more hits

and he's pitching poorly. He's giving up a lot of ground ball singles. Okay. He gave up a lot of ground ball singles in yesterday's start. He gave up, what, three home runs the first one? Yes. So let me just jump in. He's only given up one extra base hit Chris Sale in his last two starts. So that is encouraging. But you know, you talk about the swinging strikes. It's obviously not what we expect from Chris Sale. We expect better than that. But also, it's just not coming on the fastball,

which is something Chris alluded to. He's just not getting whiffs on the fastball. Chris Sale has a fastball problem. I think we can sum that. I think we can say that. The question on how worried you are about him is whether or not you think that fastball velocity is coming back and when it's going to happen. So I know, Heath, you made a Chris Sale trade offer last night. And please tell us what it was. I offered Aaron Nola and Oduble Herrera for Chris Sale and Starling-Martee. Yeah, well. Which is, that's an answer trade.

No. No, I, I, I, I, I, I put it on Twitter to see what general consensus was. Because you didn't think it was a good trade. It was about 55-45 in favor of the Chris Sale side. Right, because everyone's reactionary. Well, the Key, the Key, I don't know. One was a reactionary too. The key there is that Odubo Herrera is, he's off to a good start, but he's not much of a fantasy asset. And Martailles, would you, I would.

That's not true. That is. He is not a match. He's not good. Because he's not good. He is good. This is an argument that I have clearly won in the past. We've had a lot of arguments.

Odubo Herrera is definitely one for Atomazer. No question. That guy is not a good fantasy asset. Starling Marte, I think I'd rather have Starling Marte than Chris Sale, straight up. How about you guys? I mean, you look in a roto draft. Yes or no? There's probably about...

Yes or no? Marte or sale? No, I'd rather have sale. Yeah, I think there's more outside there. All right. It's not like Starling Marte's been good. No, but I expect him to be. He's been awful.

Fine. Zach Rankie on the Worryometer. Two? Yeah, I think one. Okay. We can move on. He struck out nine. He wasn't really very bad in his last start.

He's got a lot of strikeouts in his last two. Yeah, it's just home runs, 42.9% home run to fly ball rate. Yeah, speaking of which, Aaron Nola, Aaron Nola right now is a 646 ERA, eight walks, 13 strikeouts, five homers allowed in 15 and a third, and he is giving up a lot of long balls. Wariometer on Aaron Nola. Two?

Yeah, two. He's pitched worse than Zach Rankie for sure. Zach Rankies probably had a bit of bad luck, but I think the track record for Nola at this point is too strong to overreact a three-star. Steven Strasbourg gave up two home runs yesterday. He has a 540 ERA. Seven walks at 20 strikeouts.

His first two-home runs of the season, by the way. In 16 and 2-thirds, 20 strikeouts, that's excellent. Definitely not throwing as hard as he used to throw. I want to say he's got the lowest velocity of his career. Steven Strasbourg Oriometer. His velocity is down about one and a half miles per hour from last season, which is his previous low. So that's a little concerning, but not terribly.

I would say again, a two. One. Philly's got to him yesterday. He threw six and two-thirds shutout innings in his start before that. He had 17 strikeouts and 12-and-two-thirds innings before this start. I'm not worried about him. It was a bad start. All right, so we're not really worried about these pitchers.

Very low scores for Granky and Nola and Strasbourg. Obviously some concern with Chris Sale. But if you're not giving up Sale straight up for Starling Marte, who was a third or fourth round pick in a roto league, then you can't be that concerned about Chris Sale. Hitters on the Wariometer, and I expect some low scores here. Jose Ramirez, he, you know,

you know what's like the most frustrating thing in fantasy? Let's say, for me, okay, you own Jose Ramirez. I own him in two leagues. And you see the Indians put up eight runs, and they've hit some homers, and you're thinking, oh, Jose Ramirez must have had a huge day. Well, he went over for four.

He's now batting 171 with no home runs, two doubles, two walks, four strikeouts, three steals. Worryometer on Jose Ramirez. I'm worried that he's not going to hit 40 homers and steal 35 bases again, but I didn't necessarily expect him to do that anyway. I haven't seen much reason to believe the skill set has deteriorate. Yeah, and he's already got three steals in 10 games. I would put him as a one just because I am a little bit worried, and I know it's maybe only, a 5 to 10% difference. I'm a little bit worried the Indians

are just awful and he's not going to come close to the 215 run plus RBI and so he's going to not be worth the pick you paid for him because of that, but I'm not worried about his actual performance. Okay, that's Jose Ramirez. Justin Turner, off to a slow start, 2.95 with only one

extra base hit. And yeah, you can see the numbers there. 396 OBP is great, but 13 strikeouts to six walks, so that's a pretty high strikeout rate for Justin Turner. Any concerns here? Zero to ten. One, there's a chance that, you know, he is 34. So there's a chance that it just fell off for him in the off season, but again, the track record's

way too strong for me to write him off. Two. Okay, yeah, this is a weak worryometer Wednesday. How about Matt Carpenter? Batting 2.14 with one home run, four doubles in 11 games. He's two for 12 against lefties. Matt Carpenter, 0 to 10. Heath is at a 0? No, I'll give him a 2 just like Turner. He's older than... He's old.

He's younger than Turner. Right, but he's old, relatively speaking. He's 33. Yeah, right. So the guy's 33 and over get a 2. But again, we've seen this for Matt Carpenter at the start of the year before, and he wasn't very good at the start of last year. Still hitting the ball hard, so I don't see my reason to be fair.

and I'll go with a one. Yeah, actually, his batted ball data, Carpenter's batted ball data, it's early, but it looks very, very similar to years past. He started, first 35 games, Carpenter had a 558 OPS last year. He batted 140 in his first 35 games with 40 strikeouts. His next 79 games, 1154 OPS, he slugged 721. He hit 30 homers in 79 games. Okay, Andrew Benintendi on the Wuriometer. He's batting 21.

He has not homered. He has two doubles and a triple. He is two for 10 against lefties, but good news, three walks, one strikeout against left-handed pitchers. What do you think about Ben in Tendee, zero to ten? One. I will go four. Hey, make it an interesting. All right.

Just relative to where he was drafted, because I wasn't necessarily sure he was worth that draft spot to begin with. that goes with everything that we've been saying about the start of the year. You're going to be higher on the worry on me about guys that you thought that weren't as good as what everybody did else did. Sure. Yeah. That's true.

There's always going to be confirmation bias at play. But what does stick out to me is while his average and his on-base percentage, looking at the last 81 game, his average and on-base percentage have been 290-350. which is solid, but he's slugging 400 in that span. And from what I can gather, he's kind of stopped pulling the ball. And you're not relying on Andrew Benintendi to be a big-time power source,

but he stopped hitting for power in the second half of last season. He hasn't been hitting for power so far. And we haven't seen any other gains because of that. Like, it's not like he's striking out less in this span or hitting for a better average. It does seem, there does appear to have been some kind of shift in the way he's approaching his plate appearances

that hasn't led to good production. And I've seen a lot of Red Sox fans talking about. It does, according to fan graphs, look like his poll percentage this year is six points higher than it was last year and 10 points higher than it was in 2017. Okay. So it's not worked,

but he has been pulling the ball at least and he's been hitting it in the air more. it's just, well, that's not actually true. He's hit more fly balls, less line drives. I'm just, it's too early, and there's not any flashing red light, so I'm fine. Well, for me, it's just, I thought he needed to take a little bit of a step forward to be worth this.

He just doesn't hit the ball hard. And until he takes a step forward that way, I think there's just, there's kind of a ceiling on what he can get. So this is Andrew Ben and Tendi we're talking about, and just to wrap it up on Ben and Tendi, He's only played one home game. Last year he was a top 10 outfield or seventh and points, ninth in Roto, and he made his money at home. He batted 314, slugged 498 at home.

He batted 263 on the road. So hopefully some home cooking helps him. And hopes, well, I don't hope so, but hopefully it helps the Red Sox as well, who are obviously off to a really bad start. And that is your Wariometer. And we've got some good things to talk about, like Max Fried and Anthony Swarzak and Austin Meadows. Those are the guys who really stood out to me yesterday. I'll ask Heath and Chris for their standouts as well.

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All right, let's do the Tuesday standouts, guys. I will talk about Max Fried. I, you know, a little confused. You can't complain about the two starts. Total of 12 innings, six hits, one unearned run, nine strikeouts in those 12 innings against the Cubs at home and at Colorado yesterday. So obviously, positive developments for freed. But minor league track record is not great.

He seems to be cutting down the walks. That's really good. The strikeouts, that's what stands out. out, nine strikeouts and 12 innings in these two starts. So I can't leave him on waivers at this point. He's 62% owned, but what are your expectations for Max Fried? Heath, you'd like him more. I don't really.

I mostly just picked him up because Adam was tweeting about him and it was a 16 team league. We didn't start him this week. I thought that the upside for Max Fried revolved around him striking out a lot. lot of batters and he has not done that so far. The thing that concerns me about him, and I do think there's still potential there. The Braves have dozens of arms with potential. The thing that concerns me is they came into this season with the plan slash expectation that Max Fried was going to be their long man in the bullpen.

And so I don't know that he has as long of leash when things do go wrong. And if he keeps striking out six per nine innings, things are going to go wrong at some point. I don't mind using him for now, but I don't, my expectations are that he's probably going to end up at the bullpen at some point this year. One thing that I do want to watch with him the next time he makes it start is he's introduced to slider this season. He's thrown about 20 of them, and it's been his second best swing and miss pitch. His curve ball is really good, but curves aren't necessarily amazing swing and miss pitches.

And so if he can get another pitch that he can get, whiffs on, that'll be something that could potentially help fix this problem. But it's early. He's only thrown 20. Well, also, he does, Max Freed does get a lot of ground balls, a lot of ground balls. So that's working in his favor. If you're not going to strike guys out, you've got to get some ground balls. And he's doing that. And one more positive thing on Freed, if you're in a daily, and you're, I heath, I didn't start him either. I have him in, I think, five of my, four of my six leagues. I didn't start him this week either at Colorado and home against the Mets. I'll probably start him this weekend against the Mets.

He'll probably get crushed. But at Cleveland next week, so if you pick up Max Fried at Cleveland, I would definitely drop Freddie Peralta for Max for Max Fried. Would you guys? I don't think so. Really? I don't think I would either. Ah, okay.

Parato's like 90% owned. He's got crushed. Crushed yesterday. Freed is, by the way, the most added player. I'd drop Matt Shoemaker for Max Fried. Yes. Yeah? Jordan Zimmerman.

Jordan Zimmerman for Max Fried. Sure. Okay. Anthony Swarzak, I'm just going through my standouts real quick. Anthony Swarzak, 42% owned. He probably is the Mariners closer. He's gotten each of their last two saves. He got one yesterday. Is he worth, is he good enough, Anthony Swarzak?

He's good enough to keep that job with the other options in the Seattle Mariners bullpen. I think it just depends on if he's healthy. You know, before last year, he was really, really good in 2017. and then he just could not stay healthy in 2018. If he's healthy and he's right, I think he could keep that job, yeah. And then I'm going to give you two players who are owned in right around 68% of leagues.

I want you to tell me if you think they're more like they should be universally owned. Austin Meadows, who went four for five with a home run and a steel. He's batting 308 with three homers and two steals. He has sat against three of four lefties, though, Austin Mendesby. Swanson, homered yesterday in Cores Field. So Meadows and Swanson, big standouts. Swanson, the second most added player in fantasy behind Max Fried.

Meadows, I don't know if his ownership percentage is going up much, but people are excited about him. What do you guys think about Meadows and Swanson? I wrote about this this morning, and I think it's hilarious, because Meadows yesterday had a 235 average, was sitting against lefties in like a 760 OPS, and there was really no reason to be interested in one game. That's what April can do for you.

I'm more interested in Swanson just because in a league where I need a middle infielder, I thought he was worth drafting anyway, and for some reason he wasn't drafted in all those leagues. I don't know that either of these guys are going to crack a starting rotation in a standard points league. But Meadows could be a good fifth outfielder, and Swanson could be a very good middle infielder. Yeah, Meadows is really tough to figure out because he's someone that, for the most part, Scouts have always pretty much liked a lot more than the actual production, especially once he got to AAA, things really fell off. He had a 768 OPS in 178 games of AAA.

I think he has, in the best case scenario, I think he has the better fantasy profile than Dansby Swanson, because Danesby Swanson is not really going to run very much, so you're going to need the bat to carry a lot more, whereas Meadows does have 15 to 20 stolen base potential, maybe a little bit more. And he leads off when he plays Austin Meadow. I think he leads off pretty regularly against Reities. I could be wrong about that. I'm sorry.

Sponson hits toward the bottom of the order. I want to find out who Chris and Heath have as standouts from Tuesday's games. Take a quick break on fantasy baseball today. We also have to talk about Luis Severino, John Lester, Junjun Ryu, Mike Clevenger. Big pitcher news that came out yesterday. We will get to it in just a second, and we'll be right back.

Guys, who stood out to you in Tuesday's games? Let's talk about the Reds. They broke out in a big way, helped along by the Marlins two worst pitchers, Jose Irania and Wei and Chen. But Jesse Winker hit a home run and had two hits. So that's very promising, even if it was against,

you know, maybe the worst combination of pitchers that the Marlins could throw out there. And then we also have to talk about Luis Castillo, who's been just outstanding so far this season. Eight strikeouts. One walk, two hits, seven innings yesterday. He has an 092 ERA to start the season.

He's getting a ton of swinging strikes. The change-up has looked as good as ever. He's not necessarily doing anything different. Like, his pitch mix is pretty much the same. He's throwing his change-up a little more, his sinker a little less. That's good. Right.

I would expect there will be a bad start at some point, but it's been as promising of a start as you could have hoped for for Luis Castillo, especially if you were buying him as a breakout. There are two things because he was going to be my standout, and I'll find somebody else while I talk. But the two things that I noticed when looking at his page, first off is swinging strike rates like 17% right now.

It's absurd. Second, when he was good in 2017, he had a 58% ground ball rate that fell to 45, 46% last year, which isn't bad, but it's not elite. It's 57% so far this year. With his ability to miss bats, If he can just be over 50%, that's going to really help him break out. Yeah, I was, I was looking at Ken Giles' numbers yesterday.

He had like a 51% contact rate going in the last season. That's percentage of pitches that hit or swing at that they make contact with. And 51%, even for a reliever, is really, really good. Luis Castillo is at 57% right now, which is wholly unsustainable, but just goes to show you how dominant he's been so. Yeah, but, right. So, I mean, I love you, Luis Castile. I'm excited about it, but I did think he was going to start throwing a breaking ball a little bit more and becoming a three-pitch pitcher.

I talked about it yesterday, so I don't want to belabor the point, but I do have trouble trusting two-pitch pitchers, especially right-handers. If you're going to be a two-pitch pitcher, Castillo might be able to pull it off because his pitch, he throws so hard and his change-up is so good. I also want to point out he has faced the Pirates and the Marlins. He also had a very good start against the Brewers, but he has had two. of his three matchups been pretty good. Is this a sell high opportunity, or do you want to just hang on to Luis Casas? Do you want to just hold Luis Casth?

Do you want to just hold Luis Casth? You'll see where this goes. I don't think... I made this joke about someone yesterday, but I don't think the three amazing starts that he's had so far really tell us anything about what he's going to do in the future because he's been so

inconsistent. We've seen stretches like this from him before. So I don't know what's actionable one way or the other. If somebody wants to give you, I don't know, Jose Barrios for him, I think you do that. But, you know, I'm not sure how high someone's willing to go with a guy like Luis Castillo. There may be one guy who's just mad that they didn't get to draft him, believes he's a superstar, and will overpay. Because I

don't think his value has changed too much so far. I will say that I know you guys would do this, but I personally would not give up Luis Castillo for Chris Sale. But I, I, I don't. I, I bet some people who have Castillo and want sale could execute that trade, like maybe 20% of the time the Chris Sale owner would click accept. I just have a, I have a, I have a concern that Chris Sale is going to go on the IL. That's just, I do too. And I, you know, I just, that's my concern. I was, I was living and dying with every single pitch Chris Sale through.

A lot of fun. I was, I was literally analyzing like each pitch. Yeah. Which is super informative. Luis Castillo does not have the upside that Chris Sale does. Obviously not. I'm afraid of Chris Sale. Sure, but I'm a little bit afraid of Luis Castillo, too.

He wasn't that good last year. I will say Castillo has moved into my top 25 starting pitchers now, mostly because everyone outside of the top 20 has been absolutely a mystery to find out. And I think he goes in the same range still as someone like Shane Bieber, and it's right behind that Jose Villas, James, and Tyone range for me. Okay, so let's do rank them. Rank these three pitchers. Armand Marquez, they all pitched yesterday.

Armand Marquez got crushed by the Braves in Corse Field, his first home start. Luis Castillo and Charlie Morton. How would you rank Armand Marquez, Luis Castillo, and Charlie Morton, who is just not pitching deep into games, which is pretty strange right now. He hasn't pitched six innings yet, or no more than six inning. He doesn't. Well, but this is like 93 pitches yesterday.

I think that was his season high. So they're really treating him with kid gloves. But Marquez Castillo-Morton, guys, real quick, rank them, please? So Marquez's PR guy, Scott White, was on Twitter last night, pointing out that he had a one ERA in his final seven starts at course field last season. So he is not concerned. I'm a little concerned. I didn't quite have the same expectations.

So I would probably still rank them Marquez Castillo-Morton, but I think it's pretty close. I think they have very similar skill sets. I would go Castillo, Marquez Morton. All right, Heath, do you got to stand out from yesterday? Well, I had Luis Castillo. Is it too early to talk about Richard Love Lady? No, please talk about Richard Lovellady.

Richard Love Lady is in the major leagues, and he made his debut, and it's fantastic. He is a reliever for the royals who have no relievers that are even kind of good. Show some respect to Ian Kennedy. Ian Kennedy's awful. So is Willie Peralta. Oh is Brad Boxburger. Richard Love Lady is not.

He pitched a scoreless clean inning last night, struck out two hitters, and if the Royals are going to have a closer this year, he's the guy I would bet on. I picked him up in a Dynasty League. I picked him up in an AL-only league, and I picked him up in one mixed categories league. Awesome.

They've got some great names in that bullpen. Yes. I just saw Glenn Sparkman. Sparkman. Would be a better name for like a slap-hitting lead-off hitter, but still pretty good. Boxberger. Yeah.

It's a pretty good name. Love Lady? That's very good. No, I'm... Lovely. 1%0 and Richard Love Lady. All right, that brings us to some news. Pitcher problems.

All right, Luis Severino is out until at least July. He has a lat strain in his shoulder. Bad news for Severino. John Lester's on the IL with a hamstring injury. Junjin Ryu, we knew he's on the IL with a groin injury. And Mike Clevenger is not going to be able to pick up a baseball for six to eight weeks. So he might have a similar timetable to Luis Severino. I'm trying to do the...

the math in my head. Six to eight weeks picks up a baseball in like mid-May, maybe. I think July is the my answer. Okay, yeah, so July for both those guys. Well, I mean, I was kind of dismissing Domingo or Man, but I guess this keeps him in the rotation unless they go out and sign someone. Are there any interesting options to replace Lester, maybe short-term, or Clevenger in the Cubs and Indians' rotations, respectively? I don't think so. Tyler Chatwood is probably going to replace Lester. He's not interesting even a little bit. The Indians do have a very interesting prospect in Tristan McKenzie, but he's shut down right now, I think, for the first six weeks of the season, so he may not be

ready before Clevenger is. I'm not particularly excited about anyone that could replace these guys. Yeah. No, and I do want to point out Dr. Brand Bowers, who writes for Sportsline, he's a doctor, physical therapy, pointed out that the typical return to play time table for a grade two lat strain for a pitcher is 100 days. So, yeah, like mid-July, but boy, I'm real worried about Louis Severino, even when he gets back. Yeah, I think there's a chance he just doesn't give you anything this year. Probably never going to be good again. Should be concerned. I mean, that's how we, that's how the whole fantasy community treated Carlos Martinez when he had a latch strain, so. Oh, please. So we already told you why you were wrong about that yesterday, Chris.

You didn't. We did. They were talking about him being moved to the bullpen, and he spent all of last year heard as well. But I think with Severino, you know, like everybody saw with Cinderguard, basically the hardest throwing right-handed pitcher couldn't stay healthy. Severino actually throws even harder than Cindergarde and did manage to stay healthy, but I guess it's a red flag. Somebody who throws that hard, maybe that means they're injury prone. Looking at you, Luis Castillo. Please avoid the curse. But it sucks.

Let me just get your thoughts on Domingo Ramon, guys. So far, he's given up two run runs and 11 innings with seven walks and 10 strikeouts against Detroit and at Baltimore. Do you think he's a guy that fantasy owners can rely on? Domingo Raman. Rely on? I think he's somebody that's worth a speculative ad. The stuff is really good. He potentially has four above average swing and miss pitch.

is. He hasn't shown consistency yet. I think the best thing to do is rank Domingo Hermon amongst the Stallions. Sure. And Max Fried. Throw Max Fried in there too. Max Fried's a little behind the Stalin.

He's behind Herman. Let's not be silly. What? Really? All of the Stallions? Yeah. I mean, who knows what Stalin we're talking about? Trevor Richards or Domingo Hermon?

Trevor Richards. Pablo Lopez or Domingo Hermon Pablo Lopez Domingo or Domingo Hermon Caleb Smith or Domingo Hermon I think the only one I might rank higher than him or him higher than a Sandy Alcantara I have Hermon second amongst the stallions

Only Trevor Richards ahead of him Caleb Smith right behind him You hate the Marlins I well no I don't But I can't imagine caring about them enough to hate them You hate the Braves Max Fried behind all the stallions. All right, cool, big news.

Mike Trout, day-to-day with a groin strain. Don't get hurt, Mike Trout. Again, Kansas City called up Richard Love Lady. You know that. David Dahl is on the IL. David Dahl expects to be back when the 10 days are up. Mike Fultenevich could return this weekend. All right, how about Mike Fultenevich,

how would you rank him? Where would you rank him? Is he behind the Luis Castillo, Charlie Borden group? Oh, yeah, way. Yeah, I think he's ahead of the, Ermann slash the Good Marlins pitchers range, but

not in the Castillo range, I don't think. Trey Turner could be out four to six weeks according to the athletic. I think that includes the time he's already missed, so maybe three to five more weeks. Marcelo Zuna made a hilariously bad play in left field. It was awesome. Please look it up. I'm sure Cardinals fans reacted appropriately. Jeremy Jeffers had a terrible rehab outing.

Just a rehab outing. It was his first. And Clayton Kirschaw had a good rehab batting. He gave up two run runs in six innings with six strikeouts and is probably going to pitch this weekend for the Dodgers. It's time for hey real quick. Here we go. Hey real quick. And remember, the segment's called hey real quick.

Hey real quick. Yoan Moncada or Mike Mustakas? Well, no. Munkata. Really? Yep. I don't really have to think too hard about it. I do have Mankada ranked higher rest of season in Roto leagues. I am not

quite sold that this is real yet. Has he faced more than one lefty yet? Hey, real quick, Heath. Yeah, I think he has. I'll take Musaka still in points. My thing with Moncada is if he were to have a breakout,

this is what it would look like. That doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be sustainable, but he's been more aggressive. He's making hard contact, which he always has. And so my thing was always, he just had to start swinging.

Because he's been patient to a fault so far, and he hasn't allowed his natural abilities to carry him. All right, and then hey real quick, D. Gordon or Malick Smith? I'll still take Malix. Yeah, I didn't consider them too far apart before the season, but probably Malik still. I think that this is one of two situations where the teams, you can't rule out the possibility that they flip-flop the one and nine hitters. Because right now Malik Smith is leading off and he's ice cold,

and Dee Gordon is batting ninth and he looks like D. Gordon. Okay, he's got, I think, his six deals so far. And the other one is Washington, where Victor Robles, I think he's just probably a better hitter than Adam Eaton. Might be a little premature to say that, but Robles had another good game yesterday. Eaton finally doubled, but he went one for five. So just something to keep in mind,

because Gordon's batting 9th Smith first. If they flip-flop, that's probably going to change our answer to this D-Gordon versus Malick-Smith debate. Yeah, and I will just say that, like, Malick Smith is only hitting 216, his BAB's 80 points lower than his career average. So I think he's probably okay. Dee Gordon, by the way. I mean, you talk about the value of steals

and the value of lineup placement in different formats. Right now he is the number 11 second baseman in points leagues and number two in Roto. All right, to the bullpen. Edubre Ramos blew a save for the Phillies. Pat Neeshack and David Robertson were unavailable. Hector Neras pitched the eighth. Welcome to the Phillies.

Jose Alvarado got one. one out in the eighth inning. He came in with the team leading eight to four and the bases loaded in two outs. He walked in a run and then he got out of the inning. I would say that's how a closer would be used. High leverage situation in the eighth. He didn't get a save. I know, but he got the save. He saved the game. I'm surprised I didn't leave him in that the race scored two runs in the top of the night to make it 10-5. They brought it Adam Kalerick, whatever. Alvarado basically used as the closer. Matt Barnes used in a non-save situation trailing late in the game, gave up a run in two-thirds of an inning. Is Ryan

Brazier? Who would you rather have Brazier or Barnes? The joy in your voice saying that Matt Barnes was using a non-save situation. You are so invested in Ryan Brazier being the Red Sox closer. I would say right now he's going to lead the team in saves, but they don't actually have a closer. You think that's how it came off? Because I'm actually, I was Team Brazier in the preseason. You're glowing. No.

I'm not. You have a glow. Because I let you get Brazier for $2. I put a $1 bit on him, and I'm still. mad about it in the roto league so mad uh hose the clerk gave up three runs he had given up no runs in four and a third before that he's fine and blake parker came in in the eighth in the seventh inning got an out in the seventh and out in the eighth at the mets so welcome to the uh welcome to the twins 2019 okay lots get to and we won't get to all of it because i suck at putting shows together

quick round of emails why am i reading emails 36 minutes into the show because these are good emails about important players. And we're going to read those emails in just a second. We'll be right back. Final break on Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. That's our email address. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

All right, from Tyler, I tried to ignore Travis Shaw's horrendous spring with all the strikeouts, but it seems to have carried over into the season and I'm concerned. How do you guys feel about Travis Shaw? What should I do? This would have been a good guy to put in the Worryometer.

What I will just say is, and I do this with a lot of guys, but Travis Shaw had a stretch in 2017 where he went 98 plate appearances and hit 167. He had a stretch in 2018 where he went 75 plate appearances and hit 174. It hasn't been long enough for me to change my opinion of Travis Shaw. He struck out 41 times in his last 100 plate appearances.

Counting spring training. Counting spring training. I mean, it's not like he's... Well, the spring training thing, they kind of talked about that. They tried to play him against lefties as much as possible to help him get comfortable against lefties. It didn't work.

Sure, but it is still true that he has. Because it'd be one thing if he struck out a ton in spring training and then just came in and was kind of cold but wasn't striking out very much. He has a 33% strikeout rate so far. And his contact rate is way down as well. I'm not, I'll, five. Maybe he just forgot how to hit at 28. Yeah, five.

I mean, look, I think this is probably a decent bylaw opportunity. I'll just say two things. One, he struck out seven times in the last two games. So, you know, it looks worse than it did before. I think two days ago his walk rate and his strikeout rate were the same. It was seven walks. And now he struck out twice as often as he's walked. Right, exactly.

And I guess what you just said about the spring training stuff, which I didn't know, doesn't give me a ton of confidence that he's going to play every day against lefties. The Brewers have only faced two lefties. one of those games Travis Shaw sat, one of those games Mike Mastakas sat. All right, moving on to Will's email. Why aren't you buying Colton Wong? His fly ball rate is up, his hard hit rate is up, the ground ball rate is down. If you're buying Dansby Swanson's breakout, why not Colton Wong?

Danesby Swanson's hitting the ball pretty hard so far. He has 92.7 mile per hour average. Ex-velocity, 12.8% bar. rate Colton Wong as an 83.3.3 mile per hour average exit velocity. And that's bad. That's, it's not quite Gordon, but if he did it for a full season, it would be among the worst. He has been really weird in that he has a lot of hard contact and a lot of very, very, very soft contact. I would not expect him to have a 32% soft contact rate the rest of the year, but he's never had anywhere close to a 40% hard contact rate. So it's just nothing makes sense.

I'm going to give you one total minute for the next four emails. Here we go. Mike in Nueva, York. Who would you rather have Charlie Blackman or Andrew Benintendi? Blackman. I'll still say Benintendi. Thank. Very helpful. From Nick, should I drop Cesar Hernandez for Jorge Polanco. It's fine. I think so, yeah. Yeah, Palanco's off to a really good start. But it seems more like a points league guy than a rotel league guy.

This is a category of the league that he was talking about. I'd still think you'd do it. From Kyle, are you encouraged or discouraged by Byron Buxton's start to the season? I can't decide. And I'll tell you, Buxton's batting 2.92. Has it homered, but he said five doubles. And he has three steals and three attempts, one walk, six strikeouts. This actually flew under the radar for me.

Are you encouraged or discouraged by Byron Buxton's start? he is hitting the ever-loving crap out of the ball right now. 96.2 average exit velocity miles per hour. I'm encouraged. I'm not ready to say he's a stud or anything close, but he's showing stuff he hasn't before. I'm unmoved. And finally from Luke,

should I trade Tatis for Profar straight up in a Categories League? No. I don't know why you would do that. No. No. ProFar's been bad. No. ProFar has a bad.

Four hits yesterday. He did. Okay, he's had one good game. That's right. Maybe two. I don't know. Because he was, his numbers were, we brought him up yesterday, right? He was, his numbers were awful.

They're still awful after the four hit game. Yes, but yesterday was a day of first. McGill Cabrera got an extra base hit. Jesse Winker, Homer, Jerks, and ProFar, homered. Jonathan Scope hit his first two home runs of the season. And Tommy Lestella hit two home runs. He has homered in consecutive games for the first time in his career. He has an angel's second.

basement. He does not matter. That could have gone in the Let's Go Streaking section. Okay, you know what? Let's go right to we're going streaking. Jacob DeGrom's quality start streak has stopped at 26 consecutive. He did not break the record. He is tied with Bob Gibson for the MLB record. 26 straight quality

starts. Witt-Mariefield has a 30-game hit streak. We got a text from Heath Cummings last night. What did it say? The Witt streak needs to be on the podcast tomorrow. Of course it does, right? Well, it's on the podcast, Steve.

Whitmerfield, currently the number five second basement of points, number seven in Roto. 30 game hitting streak at is tied with George Brett for the longest in Royals history. Good. Yeah, I think 30 is when you start paying attention to hit streaks because there will be numerous 15 and 20 game hit streaks. And yes, this goes back to last year. And yes, that still counts. I mean, you know, he got a six-month break. He's got an 8.9% strikeout rate so far this year.

He's very good. He is a very, very good hitter, and I hope he gets to 40. Okay, the must-read article of the day is Scott's 12 hitters to Stash article. Good stuff there. I think you're going to enjoy it. One of those is Williams Astudillo, and we were alerted to a website by Nick in Chicago. Is Latortuga in the lineup.com? It's very fun, and it will take you only a second.

Go to Is Latortuga in the lineup.com. I just want you guys to know real quick that the whole front, Dog rhyme thing is actually somewhat of a popular debate on the internet, I believe. So getting a lot more support than I was at the beginning for this. There's a lot of really popular debates on the internet. There's also a lot of things baseball related that we need to talk about. You need to move on. You're right.

What is Cody Bellinger's value right now? He is batting 440 with seven home runs, one steel, six walk, six strikeouts. He has six. I got the wrong stats. on lefties because he's definitely not six for six. He might be six for 16. But he's off to a very good start against lefties. What is Cody Bellinger's value right now?

What do you think? In my opinion, he is a top six first baseman, a top 15 outfielder. I have moved him ahead of Joey Votto and Jose Abraeu since the start of the season. His strikeout rate is really, really low, right? Yep, really. Six strikeouts. Yeah, that's a... Is that like 11?

11% strikeout rate for Coding Bellinger. That's incredible. He is as locked in as we've ever seen him. His average exit velocity is 95.9 miles per hour. He is, it's wild. I think you have to have bumped him up, but you also should have factored in a breakout in your preseason ranking as well.

I don't, yeah, like I'm not going to trade them. I'd have to get a first round pick for him. I just I think he could be the story of the season, you know? I think he could be the man. Obviously, you all know how I feel about Cody Bellinger, but would you be

looking to make offers right now if you had Cody Bellinger? Would you try to get a Starling Marte? No, that's not good enough. Would you try to get... Yeah, Heath. Go ahead. Would you trade Cody Bellinger for Andrew Ben, Ben, intendee? You'd get Benintendi.

I don't think there's any way you can do it. Well, were you asking me your question? Yeah, okay. And I'm also giving my opinion because it's a two-way street. I think in a points league I would. Okay. No. In a point in a league, I believe I would.

I wouldn't trade him for Chris Sale. I would not give up Bell under for sale. But who would? Yeah, I think I would. Who would? You would? I would have a really hard time doing that. And for me, it's just I don't, like I said earlier,

I just don't know that you can do anything with Chris Sale. Okay, well, that is his value, and I wanted to get some more trades in there. So let's grade the trade. Today's teacher theme song. I've got to be honest with, these are recycled from last year, but I still get a kick out of it. All right. We're teachers. We're grading trades.

Get your red pet out. From Nathan. Dear Charlie, Patrick, and Sam. I don't know them. No idea. I traded Chris Archer for Zach Wheeler and you Darvish. B plus. Yeah, I think it's a B.

Would you rather have Wheeler, straight up, or Darvish? I would rather have Wheeler right now. Yeah. I'd rank them Archer, Wheeler, Darvish, but the two are worth more than the one. If Charlie Patrick and Sam are from the perks of being a wallflower,

that is a strange reference. But it's a great. And I've never read the book, but I love the movie. The movie's really good. I liked the book, too. Yeah, I don't read books. From Andrew. Formative. Grade the Trade.

Corey Seeger and Eloy Jimenez. I give up Corey Seeger and Eloy Jimenez. I get Jay Almuto. I like that. And Victor Robles in a Categories league. I think that's an A. Heath? B.

From Blaine, grade the trade. I give up Springer and Travis Shaw. I get Jose Ramirez and Gregory Polanco. A. C. Hmm. Palanco. What's Polanco's ownership? He should be staffed.

It's right around 60 to 70%. I think he's playing in rehab games, hopefully, by this weekend. Right. I mean, you're getting the best player in the deal and the worst player in the deal. I don't know. I think it's a C. I don't know if Polanco is the worst player in the deal. I mean, because he's not healthy right now, I think.

And he's never been as good as we thought he would be. Sure, but he wasn't. Was he worse than Travis Shaw on a per game basis last year? I don't think so. Gregor Polanco hit 254 with 20. I bet he was. 23 homers, 12 steals. But one thing I noticed about him is that he hit more fly balls and he hit the ball harder.

And that is the recipe for a breakout, a recipe for a breakout. But I would love him if you weren't coming off the shoulder injury. You got to downgrade him with the injury. Okay. Great to trade. From Ian. 14 team head-to-head categories league. Give up Gary Sanchez and Max Muncie.

Sanchez and Muncie. Get Trey Turner and Yosmani Grandal. I think that's a E. B-plus. I think it'd be an awesome trade if Trey Turner was healthy. Wait, you said it's a what, Chris? D. And I said B-plus.

D as in. We do not agree at all. Yeah, I think I would do it. Turner is so much better than Sanchez. wait out the month, I'd do it. Right, but... There's also a possibility. I don't know if 2017 Gary Sanchez is that much worse than Trey Turner minus four to six weeks.

And we're getting some signs that Gary Sanchez looks more like 2017 or 2017 than 2018. It's definitely going to be better than 2018. Maybe I'm just kind of seduced by the start that Trey Trey. Turner got off to and how aggressive he was on the base paths. But, um, okay, fine. We're all in the middle. Chris says D. I say C plus. Heath says B. Let's do some news and notes real quick.

Alex Bregman tweaked his hamstring. Thinks he'll be fine. Dustin Bidroyo returned. Miguel And Duhar is going to try to throw today. The National signed Bud Norris to a minor league deal. It doesn't matter. Alex Cobb is on the IL with a lumbar strain. It doesn't matter. Billy Hamilton scored from second base on a sacrifice fly. It was a deep sacrifice fly.

And Chris Archer is suspended five games. And Yasil Puik is suspended. the two games, and Pueig began serving the suspension yesterday, which is a shame because he didn't get to beat up on the Marlins, and Chris Archer is going to appeal his suspension. I did rank them part one with Marquez, Castillo, and Morton. Let's rank them part two. Marco Gonzalez, Freddie Peralta, and Joey Lucchase.

How would you rank Marco Gonzalez, Freddie Peralta, and Joey Lucchasey? You already did. I think I'd put Lucchasey above Peralta. That is the correct answer Gonzalez 1 Lucchasey 2 Peralta 3 Well you hate Freddie Peralta He has one Percorentz He's on page for like 30 wins guys

I don't like two pitch pitchers Freddy Peralta is a one pitch pitcher Yeah his margin for error is super slim Like when he's on he'll be awesome But there are going to be a lot of starts Where he just gets rocked And Yeah I don't know

I don't know how you'll be able to tell When one is coming and the other is I want to say something about Marco Gonzalez. He has only 16 strikeouts in 25 and 2 thirds. Obviously a terrible rate. Last year, 145 strikeouts and 166 and 2 thirds. He's not going to be a strikeout guy. But so far, Gonzalez has made four starts.

He's 4-0. All four of the teams he's faced are in the bottom eight in strikeouts per game. And that they don't strike out a lot. So that I think explains the even lower than usual strikeout rate for Marco Gonzalez. Some leftovers from yesterday. Corey Kluber pitched quite well. One earn run, two runs total,

eight strikeouts at Detroit, bouncing back from a brutal start against the White Sox. And Ross Stripling pitched, and he's been less than great. He's been okay so far this year. He's got a 3.70-80RA, five walks, 15 strikeouts,

and 16 and two-thirds. Yesterday not so good. Anything to say about Kluber and Stripling? Glover's good. Stripling, or Kluber's great. Stripling, I think he's good, but there are some questions still, despite how very good he was last year.

Yeah, he's not been as good as he was last year, and we weren't sure he was as good as he was last year, so that's a little bit concerning. I think Stripling's value is tough to gauge. How long is he in the rotation? Obviously. As we've seen, I think he's just going to be in the rotation more often than not.

He's got a lot of cushion, because when Kershaw was coming back, it was Urius that was going to leave the rotation until Ryu got hurt. Right. So when the first of Rich Hill or Yung Jin Ryu come back, whichever one it is, dripling's still in the rotation.

He's going to need Kershaw, Rich Hill, and Yon Jinn Riu to all be healthy before he loses a spot. And, I mean, Walker Bueller's a pitcher too. Right. So. Yeah. There will be opportunities.

French is starting pitchers. Matt Shoemaker. He's 82% on and I put him in here. He must be, oh, is he a two-star pitcher this week? I got him as a two-star pitcher next week, but I could be wrong about that. Shoemaker, look, he wasn't that bad. Gave up two runs, four runs, two earn runs at Boston. He has a .92 ERA right now.

Then we have Jordan Zimmerman. I, stupid. This is the problem with the, it's going to be easy to stream two-star pitchers this week because he looked like the perfect candidate. I streamed him in a couple of different leagues, and sometimes bad pitchers are bad against bad offenses. And Mike Miner, actually, Mike Miner might not be so bad. He's 48% owned.

Seven innings, two runs at the Diamondbacks yesterday, only five strikeouts. Final 17 starts of the 2018 season for Mike Miner. He had a 323 ERA and a 0.99 whip. 222 Babib helped, and he doesn't strike out a lot of guys. So I don't know. Like, how would you compare Mike Minor to Trevor Cahill? I'd rather have Cahill. Yeah, I'm not so sure about that.

They're really close, and there are two guys that I have not updated in my rankings yet, and I probably need to move up a little from where I had. I don't necessarily expect either of them to get anywhere close to 180 innings over the year. I think I'd rather have minor. And then the last guy I have in Fringy starting pitchers is Dakota Hudson. So when you look at Matt Shoemaker, Jordan Zimmerman, Mike Minor, Dakota Hudson, who stands out to you? Are there any must-own guys here?

Shoemaker would still be my favorite. I agree. Yesterday was the perfect encapsulation of the Matt Shoemaker experience. He got seven swinging strikes on 27 spliters and zero swinging strikes on 66 other pitches. He has one good pitch, and when he throws that pitch a lot, good things tend to happen. He needs to throw it more than he does. Dakota Hudson's line right now is just absolutely awesome. He has a 2.79 ERA and a 7.22 FIP.

He has stranded 100% of the runners that have reached, but he's also given up a 3.45 BAPIP. It's just outstanding. I love a full debt lines. And a 60% home run to fly ball rate. What's really interesting about him is there is some Dallas Kuykel potential here. He needs to get the control better, but he is both going back to the minors and in his limited time in the majors,

an extreme ground ball pitcher, 62.2% in his very limited major league time, but he was consistently 57 to 58% in the minors. So deep leagues real quick, we'll finish the show here. Good job, guys. Good pace today. Do you have any interest in these guys? They're all owned in 26% of leagues or if you were, 26% or less. Mitch Morland, 20%. Mitch Garver, 10%. Oh, this could have been like... Never mind. I could have used the word Mitch to make it clever.

Yeah. Mitch Morland, Mitch Garver, Chad Pinder, Brett Anderson, Derek Holland. I think Morland and Pinder are probably just Daily League guys, but you can make an argument that they should both be owned more than they. are currently because they should be good when they play. Morlin, you said? Yeah, Morlin and Pinder.

And then Garver is a catcher with a heartbeat. Yeah, I think Garver should be better than he's been so far. And he wasn't awful for a catcher last year. I mean, he had like a 750 OPS. You look at his career and he only strikes out 22% of the time and he's got close to a 40% hard contact rate in 363 plate appearances. The problem is he needs to go away

so Williams Estudio can play all the time. Or they just need to play him La Tortuga in center field. Center field. It's terrible idea. Just let him pitch. Just play him every day somewhere. Derek Holland is 16% Owen,

and we liked him this week. He had two home starts. He's got Colorado this weekend, and he'll be at Pittsburgh next week. He had a good year. It was a huge shock. 357 ERA. last year

a strike out preening with the Giants but probably should be more than 16% on but not that much more that's going to do it for today's show did you have a final thought no

it's about Derek Colin is good tell us Derek Collins it's about Derek Collins so we don't really need to to air it Derek Holland or the stallion I think he's

he should probably be started most of the time he's at home okay I think I think Max Fried is like my guy now I think every time he starts,

it's going to basically decide by my reputation. We made you a trade offer in the For the People League, and you should have Max Fried in that league. I mean, he is your guy. He should be on your roster. We offered you Max Fried and Gary Sanchez, your favorite catcher for Chris Sale. And that was before this most recent.

This was, hold on. You did not run this by. I would not do that. I would take that trade. Is it still a trade? Is it still out there? I'll propose it right now. No.

I will take it. I have to talk to Scott. I have to talk to Scott about it. No, you want to go to this trade. It's like, it's like a submarine. You need both people pulling the lever. You agreed to this trade offer. You laughed when I said it and said that that would be a great trade.

Let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, see? All right. Trade's going to happen. Yes, thank you. Propose it. I will talk to Scott.

We'll let you know tomorrow. That's it for today's show. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Baseball today.