Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: The Real Pineda? Plus Buy Low/Sell High

Episode Date: April 11, 2017

Does Michael Pineda's change up make him an improved pitcher and a legit breakout? Or was this just another tease? We talk about Pineda, Wil Myers, Brandon Finnegan, James Paxton and so many more standouts from Monday's games ... It's our first Buy Low/Sell High episode. It's not the easiest exercise this early in the season, but there are some good candidates ... Are Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds and Brett Gardner reviving their careers? Are Adam Wainwright and Taijuan Walker droppable? ... 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

Michael Paneda is awesome. Will Myers hit for the cycle. Jay Bruce went double dongs and James Paxton is going to win the Siam. These hot takes and more on today's fantasy baseball today episode. Adam Azer with Scott White. Hello, hello, Scott. Oh, a sing-songy introduction. Hello, Chris Towers.

Hello, Adam. There we go. We're in a good mood today. We're rolling along on this Tuesday. and we got your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com, and I think I'm in such a sing-songy mood because it's team name Tuesday. It's my favorite type of Tuesday. Love team name Tuesday.

We got some good ones for you. That's what you always say. But we make time for the things we care about the most, Adam. And about 50% of the time, it's team name like the following Thursday. Today I promise there will be a team name Tuesday. Famous last words. And I always say that they're good, and usually they're not that. They're funny when I read them, but when I say them out loud, they're not as good.

But considering most people are going to read team names in their league, I think people have good team names. I just suck and delivering them. Thank you, Chris. So, we also have Joaquin Benoit being named the Phillies Closer and some injury news and update on Julio Arreus. And buy low, sell high. I hope you guys have some buy low, sell high candidates on your brain.

I just made a buy low, sell high trade. The ultimate Bilo SELHI trade You traded Michael Paneda No You traded Mitch Hanager No What did you do

I traded I think it was our head-to-head Auction League I traded I gave up Dylan Bundy To get Garrett Cole Oh Okay

I feel that That's kind of a combo Bilo and sell high But was it Justify. Grade the trade, Scott? To be. That's...

No, no. I don't know that I would have taken it in Chris's position, it being a head-to-head points league in Bundy, being a relief pitcher eligible, and I know... Who did you have higher a week ago? No, I know my rankings say to take Cole. I just... Like, I take kind of a do-no-harm approach to trading,

especially when I'm not desperate, and it's week two. So, I, like, unless I'm, like, dead set. You were taking Garrett Cole. I'm winning this trade. You were taking Garrett Cole, five or six rounds. I know, I understand. I understand the logic. I understand the logic.

I just kind of. So how is this do no harm? You're getting five to six rounds of surplus value. I'm pessimistic about Cole, and I'm optimistic about Bundy. Unless I planned on just swinging Cole for a better pitcher than Bundy right after making this trade. I don't know that I'd want to do it. It's two starts and you've already changed your opinion on Garrett Cole.

I'm not saying you. wrong to do it. I just don't know that I could have done it. And it's only one start for Dylan Bundy. I mean, yesterday you could have made a Brandon Finnegan for Garrett Coal Trade and you could have said, I don't know about that. And then look what Finnegan did yesterday. It was terrible. Well, I mean, he's not quite Dylan Bundy, but I get what you're saying. But again, I just, like, I don't ever want to look back on a trade and regret it. And I rarely do. I could I really do. Yeah.

Like, the way I looked at it, it just, it wouldn't be philosophically consistent with how I view fantasy baseball to pass that trade up. Because it would be overreacting to a week's worth of games, and that's not something that I do. I get it. I do get it. Yeah. All right. Well, let's overreact about Michael Panetta. Bad day.

Bad day to be a Panada Heda yesterday. I'm a Panetta Heda, and he goes seven and two-thirds. He took a perfect game into the seventh or the eighth? to seventh, I think. And he struck out 11 with no walks, gave up one run on two hits, and threw about 12 changeups, depending on which website you want to look at. But that's very significant. That's the most important and encouraging thing for me in this outing.

If he had just done this with his fastball and his slider, I'd be like, well, Michael Panetta once struck out 16 Orioles over seven innings with no walks, and then he was terrible basically the rest of the season. That was two years ago. and we've seen this before. But the change-up, you know, about a dozen change-ups yesterday, which is a lot more than he threw in the first start. Very encouraging sign,

and maybe that means there's something to this Pinedis thing. Yeah, Joe Girardi, I think it was, said hopefully this shows him that by mixing in that third pitch he can be a lot more effective because he's been, it seems like there's been a reluctance on his part to use the change-up. And I don't even know, like, I don't think it's a particularly good change-up, but just having that third offering to show hitters to throw off their timing might make a big difference. Austin Romine, who caught Panetta in this game, did say it was the best change-up he's seen

from him, though. Guys, can we not? I don't know. I mean, I don't want to. On April 16th last season, he threw 14 change-ups. Oh, yes? In a May start, he threw 14. He threw 15 and 1.

Followed that up with nine and then 15 in the next start. He had 14 to 3 starts later. I, let's not do this with Michael Paneda. Let's not like try to find meaning in the tea leaves that are Michael Paneda's outings. Like this is what he does. He looks really good sometimes. But of course he looks really good sometimes. He's a high variance pitcher with great stuff who can't command it.

He commanded it yesterday. And if he's fixed that, that's fine. He wasn't pitching up in the strike zone. He seemed to have a good sense of where his pitches were supposed to go. But, okay, I did this yesterday. He struck out 10 or more six times prior today, prior to yesterday's start. 10 or more and six different starts. His next six starts, he averaged a 429 ERA with 29 strikeouts in 35 and two-thirds innings.

I think that's the most Michael Panetta stat of all time. I'm just, I'm not going to look at Michael Panetta and say, ah, this is the one. This is now, are any of us doing that? Kind of? I don't feel like I was doing that. No. I mean, like, oh, he's throwing his change up. Austin, Roman says it's like, this is what Michael Panetta does.

There's no, there's no inherent value in a single good Michael Panetta start. But nobody's disputing that. Like, we're offering information. I, yeah. And you're just saying ignore all the information. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe, look, I think Michael Panetta is the biggest sell high.

in fantasy baseball right now. So, like, I don't, what I don't want to happen is you take such a strong stance that just by virtue of, you know, adjacency, I look like I'm taking the opposite stance. I'm not taking the opposite stance here. I don't love Michael Paneda, and I think now is the golden opportunity to cash in. I need to take the strong stance on Michael Panetta. And look, I think I'm the high guy on Michael Panetta and the standings, because of the rankings, because anyone who can strike out 250 batters in a season has some value.

But it's just, I don't think a flip just switched for Michael Panetta. Okay. All right. So we haven't really – But Scott, you did move him up a little bit in your rankings. Chris didn't. Right. But he's still higher on Panetta than you are.

He is more valuable today than he was at this time yesterday. I think it'd be crazy not to say that. But is he better than he was yesterday? I don't know. Yeah. I don't want to take the chance if I have a good offer. And look, if you took Michael Paneda into late rounds thinking, you know, he's a breakout candidate. And he is.

He was. Like, if you're making the right kind of trade with him right now, you're still getting the benefit of that breakout potential. Just you're passing the risk off to somebody else. So, like, that's a trade. I'd trade Panetta for Colts. day. That's a trade I do, even if I'd be reluctant to do the same with Bundy. Yeah, that's a no-brainer. Yeah. Would you trade Michael Panetta for Kenta Maida?

Yes. I'd rather have Maida. All right. Cycle alert. Will Myers hit the second cycle in Padres history. Both of them have been at Corr's Field. Matt Kemp had the other one. Myers went four for four. We had some standout performances yesterday, for sure. Myers is hitting 382 with three home runs. He has not stolen a base yet. No Walk 6 strikeouts, is Will Myers a sell-high candidate? Or just hold? Yeah, just hold. He's a top 10 first baseman.

I don't think this has changed anything. If someone views him as a top-five first baseman, yeah, but I kind of doubt that. Right. And in the unrealistic, like the unrealistic, unless you're playing with sort of an amateur, you sell Will Myers for Miguel Cabrera right now. Absolutely. Every time. I'm not going to happen. You know, the funny thing is.

is when we were talking about the spring that he had, one of the things that we were optimistic about with Well Myers was his strikeout to walk ratio was really good, and it was a lot better in the first half last season than it was in the second half last season. He's yet to walk this season. Mike Zanito, too, right? Mike Zanito had a good walk to strikeout ratio.

That's not carrying over. Yeah, it's spring. Yeah. All right, so not much to say about Myers. Congratulations on the cycle. Jay Bruce. Let's talk about some more standouts from Monday, and then we'll get into Bilo's so high in a little bit and talk about Joaquin Benoit, how much fab you would put on Joaquin Benoit, who is the new Phillies closer. And pretty decent numbers, a good career as well.

Jay Bruce went two for three with two home runs. He has four home runs. The Mets as a team have eight home runs. So he is at half of their dongs. Off to a great start with a 304 batting average. He had a seven, no, he has. had a 685 OPS in 50 games with the Mets last year. He was terrible.

It was 613 at City Field. These two home runs were on the road yesterday at Philadelphia. Is anybody believing in Jay Bruce who, did he make the All-Star team last year with the Reds? That sounds right. He was very good. I tell you that much. Yeah, I know he led the NL and RBI at the time of the trade.

And I don't think, I think all his line with the Mets was was just an ill-timed slump that, you know, Jay Bruce is always going to have slumps. And just it happened to come at the start of his Met's career, because the second half of that stint with New York, he hit like 280 with six home runs or something. He went. He went well in September.

Yeah. So, I think he's the same player. He always has been, you know, he's going to hit 30 home runs. It was nice that he hit a home run off a lefty yesterday because that's always a concern for him. I don't think he's put himself in jeopardy

in a crowded outfield situation, losing playing time. I would also call him, just by virtue of him being the top scoring outfielder and head-to-head points league so far, six walks to three strikeouts. I mean, that's not something you would expect to continue. So I would also call him a good sell high candidate, even though I expect 30 home runs from him this year. In the interest of consistency, because I'm the flyball guy. Jay Bruce is another person who has talked about how he, I believe he said if I don't hit a single ground ball season, that will be successful. He has hit a ground ball this season. Failure. Already failing Jay Bruce, but he does have a 19.6 degree launch angle, which is about 60% higher than

the league average. He has a 60% fly ball rate. I know it's early and these numbers are very small, but his approach so far does seem to be working. He's the kind of guy that you would think that approach would work for. By the way, I read a very interesting story about Ryan Zimmerman and his launch angle. You read that? We'll talk a little bit more about Zimmerman later. I don't know if I read the same one, but I know that he, Daniel Murphy has taken him under his wing. Daniel Murphy and Justin Turner are like the main disciples of the main disciples of this.

this fly ball revolution. They're just taking everyone under their wings and trying to make them sore. Well, the story was that Zimmerman is not really trying to do that, at least seems. Yeah, I thought that's the story I read. The launch angle actually isn't up yet. No, I know he talked about that being his intention before. Well, he, okay, the story Adam and I read, and maybe it'll play out differently, but it was less about actually changing the angle of his swing and more about swinging at pitches higher in the zone to make them fly balls. So, I mean, the same, he's aiming for the same result, but just in a different way. Is that how you interpreted it, Adam? Well, actually, I don't know.

Maybe we all, there are a lot of articles about Ryan Zimmerman. His biggest change was he's not diving at pitches anymore. He's staying more upright with his swing. It's less of like a new age mechanical thing and more of an old school mechanical thing where he was just kind of diving all over the place for balls last year. He had a terrible year. He hit the ball hard, but he didn't get results. And now he's staying more upright with his swing. He's being a little more aggressive, swinging earlier in the count. He's also... I think we read the same thing. We just had different takeaways from it. He's also been a pretty bad hitter, I think, for... He's been a pretty useless fantasy hitter for a while. I'm not sure I care about Ryan Zimmerman seven games.

but he's batting 400 with three home runs. I'm ready to take a fly. I have him on a couple of rosters. I'm to the point now, you know, as hot as Trevor Shaw was those first. Travis Shaw? Travis Shaw, yeah. I think I might be willing to swap them out if it wasn't obviously a third base in a situation. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. He's not here. He would power bomb you through this time.

What is it? Scott, you're going to... So last week, it was... was pick up Travis Shaw, now it's Drop Shaw for Zimmerman? I thought we played the waiver wire the same way, Adam. That's how it works. You ride the hot hand until he's not the hot hand anymore. It's a week. We played seven games.

I mean... The whole point is to corner the breakouts, and if there's another player... Like, obviously, if Shaw's not the bottom player on my roster, he's not the one I'm dropping, but I imagine in some leagues he would be. I mean... If I hadn't had some DL spots to use, I probably wouldn't have picked up Ryan Zimmerman. but I think I actually did start him in one of my leagues this week. I mean, but Zimmerman's like 33 years old or something.

I don't know that we can call him a breakout. He also is one of the most injury-prone players in baseball. He hasn't played more than 115 games, I think, in three seasons. Yeah, I mean, but look at just, I mean, last year was obviously terrible from start to finish, but two years ago he had like that 11-Homer September or something. Yeah, but he had. I mean, it wasn't enough to redeem his numbers completely, but. It was a month.

He showed he still has something left. Okay. Let's see. James Paxton was awesome. James Paxton or Garrett Cole? Paxton. Yes. I might have had that ranking before the season.

The buy low, sell high stuff is going to be kind of a theme today. Is James Paxton a sell high or is he a buy high? You're asking the wrong two guys. I don't think either of us is going to say he's a cell high. high because we were probably the two highest people in the industry. I was definitely the highest person in the industry on him. But my biggest regret is that I don't own James Paxton in a single fantasy. I own him in two and I've been trying to trade for him. I just offered someone Danny Duffy for James Paxton straight up and I really hope he accepts it. Yeah, I've tried to trade for him too,

but I just, I hate that. Like, you're right about a player and you're probably righter than the person who actually drafted him was about him, but you just waited too long. So you guys completely buy it with him? Yeah, I just, I look at it. How hard he throws, how hard his fastball is to hit, and then he has two plus secondary pitches. For me, the only question's injury.

And really, he didn't get hurt last season. Like, he got hit by a line drive. I'm not counting that. You know what it's crazy to think about? Like, he wasn't, he can throw 100, and he was, he topped out at 97, I think it was yesterday. It was sitting at 95. Like, it wasn't even his best stock. Okay.

Well, this is James Paxton. We're talking about a big riser. Paxton or Tanaka? Paxton. Oh, man. I'm not sure I'm ready to drop Tanaka that far yet. I had Paxton ahead of Tanaka before the season. Okay, fair enough.

Paxton or Porcelo? I had Paxton ahead of Porcelo. the season. Yeah, I'll stick with Porcelo. Geez, I don't even know who Chris had ahead of Paxton or Clayton-Cardrow, Chris. I do not draft To tell you how I am on James Paxon, I

had him ahead of Lance McCullors. Wow. Well, I did too. All right, we love Paxton. You, okay. We have to couch this for each individual person. He was my number 22

starting pitcher in Roto coming into the season. What did you think of Brandon Finnegan yesterday, 89% own two innings. Now remember, I said this after his great start, seven scoreless with nine strikeouts against Philadelphia. Walks can be the issue for Finnegan, and even when he was really good last year at the end of the season, he still was a little wild.

And he walked five. Yeah, no, I think we were all cautioning that. And that's all I read this as right now. I mean, if he has another start like this next timeout, maybe we think about dropping him again. But I'm willing to give him a pass as good as that first start was, knowing that control issues do happen for him from time to time. Okay.

So, look, it is important for us in the deeper leagues. People can't really add drop the way we like to, Scott. So Finnegan is definitely a hold, right? Yeah, it would have to be a pretty shallow league for me to even think about dropping. I'm like 10 teams or fewer. Okay. Any other standouts from yesterday that you guys want to discuss? I have Brett Gardner later on in the notes.

I have Mark Reynolds, who homered again, is 55% of... I'll just talk about something I was watching yesterday. There's going to come a point at some point in like the next three years where it clicks for Tyler Glass now, but he is really far away right now. Okay. Like he was... Yesterday, his start was a good example of when a pitcher doesn't have command or control. He was just...

He was all over the place when he was in the strike. He was leaving it belt high and in. I don't know if he's worth owning right now. Considering the Finnegan and Glass Now matchup was head to head, is there any evidence for or against it being a smaller, like were they getting squeezed by the umpire? It certainly does not look that way based on the, uh, Brandon Finnegan might have had two balls called inside of the strike zone, so it doesn't look like it was. that was the case.

Okay. Just, I mean, they both have control issues. No, Glass Now, Glass Now was just all over the place. He was a disaster. Right. Like, and he's, I mean, he's had in the miners, even this spring. Like, he'll follow up a start like this with a start where he strikes out like nine and five minutes. Oh, in the minors, he was striking out 12 per nine, but he was working five per nine.

It's just nobody could hit him. down there. I think he's actually like, and I think Andrew Miller, young Andrew Miller had this issue. I don't think he's strong enough to control his long limbs. I don't know if that makes sense, but like, I don't know if he has like the muscle strength, like the core strength to like repeat his delivery. Like Gumby. That's just the, the, the sense I get from him. He's so skinny that it's just, he has no control over what he's doing. Yeah. He has no center of gravity. That's Gumby. Yeah, that's the, uh, the old Gumby. Dumby disease. Dumby couldn't pitch.

Terrible pitching. Yeah. So, you know, as like, it's going to click at some point for Tyler Glass now. He's 70%-0. I think that's the guy that if you want someone on waivers, you can cut Tyler Glass now loose. I was watching Alex Wood last night,

whose final line was absolutely terrible. I really, like, he is nasty. And I don't know when it's going to happen. And I know that he's not even in the rotation when they're all healthy for the Dodgers, but I feel like at some point we're going to be talking about Alex Wood being a must-ad. I don't know. He's so tough because so much of his, like, he does have pretty good stuff, but it feels like so much of his success when he does succeed is based on deception and guile. Right.

I think this stuff last night was kind of misleading because he was throwing like 94-95. Yeah. But he's normally like 91-92. I think it's just he was still in that reliever mindset. I don't know. He was starting. That's not a bad thing. Danny Duffy stayed in that reliever mindset all year last year and was really good. Right.

So I don't know if that's necessarily a bad thing. I think that's something that some pitchers should. But could he as a starter? Could he just throw three miles per hour harder? He hasn't really been able to stick as a starter doing what he was doing before, so why to try it? But, yeah, I mean, like, that's my thing. I don't know. I don't know that it was performance that, I mean, we're kind of getting off on on Alex Wood Tame.

Yeah, let's, yeah, let's rein it in. Yeah, I should have brought it up. But there, we have more fantasy relevant stuff to talk about here. Let's talk by low, sell high. Well, actually, let me give you the big news first. Joaquin Benoit has been named the Philadelphia closer. So, you know, we mentioned that that was certainly a possibility, along with Hector Neris. And how much fab would you use on Benoit?

I think his security is Like he's a good enough pitcher to close all year I don't think it's like with John Mar Gomez the closer We knew he was gonna lose the job at some point Well I guess the problem is like we knew John Mar Gomez Was the third best reliever in his own bullpen He may have been less than that Yeah and now we know Joaquin Benoit

is probably no better than the second best Relever in his own bullpen Right but he's I mean he's had a very success successful dominant career. And even last year, I think after he went over to the, what was the Blue Jays. Yes. That got him straightened out. Yeah, he was terrific.

He was 0380. He's closing for the Phillies. And there is a good reliever behind him. So I moved him like behind. He's right between Jim Johnson and Neftali Phillies in my rankings. So how much fab do you spend on him? it kind of just depends how how scarce closers

are in your league. You know, if it's everybody who, if you need saves and everybody who who's getting saves is owned, I might spend like a tenth of my fab budget on him. Yeah, that's what I was thinking, like $10.10.

Buster Posey was hit by a pitch in the head by Taiwan Walker. It appears he's escaped serious injury. Trade Turner. Was he diagnosed with a concussion? Not that I'm aware. Yeah. Okay, because that's, if he is, that's a real concern. They're saying he's okay, but what I was reading is they also felt that way about Joe Panic at first, and then he actually played for a while before he started to develop concussion symptoms. Concussion symptoms don't always come about immediately.

Yeah. Tray Turner's on the D.L. with a hamstring injury. Still not eligible at shortstop one more game, but they're thinking it might only be 10 days on the DL for Trey Turner, and the Nationals called up Michael Taylor. Gene Seguera day-to-day with a mild hamstring injury. Taylor Motter replaced him. They're hoping that Seguer doesn't miss more than a day or two. He's going on the DL. It's a 10-day DL.

It's like... Trey Turner was only supposed to miss a day or two, too. Right. Like, a day or two can... If you're worried it's going to become five or six, you just put him on the DL now. If you have seven games or eight games in the next 10 days and he's going to miss two of them anyway,

get that extra play. Like, we're going to see some. many players on the D. I'm already starting to get annoyed with it, I think. Maybe it'll actually be a welcome thing in fantasy because you can just assume. Right, you can just assume, okay, he's going on

the DL. Except what Josh Donaldson when he just outright says, I'm going to play in the home opener. We'll see if that was just a lot of tough talk or if he actually does. David Price, making progress. Still no timetable for his return. Jackie Bradley Jr. is on the D.L. with a sprained ligament in his knee.

Gary Sanchez is going to miss four weeks with a bicep strain. Justin Turner left with a mild leg injury. This one really might be a mild leg injury. Turner might not go. I think it could have been a Charlie horse. They're not sure. So he could be okay. And Dave Roberts talking about Julio Arias and saying maybe by the end of April we'll see Arreus pitch for the Dodgers.

So hooray for him. By low, sell high coming up in just a bit. But question for you listeners out there. want 15% off a new watch. And an awesome looking watch at that. Check out movement watches. Their website is MVMT. That's M as in Mary, MVMT watches.com. Our offer is at MVMT watches.com slash F baseball. That's MVMVMVWaches.com slash F baseball. 15% off. Movement watches was founded on the belief that style shouldn't break the bank. We want to look good without paying too much, right? That formula has led to movement watches becoming the world's

fastest growing watch company. Just go to the website, see for yourself. It's really awesome stuff. They've got men's and women's watches. I like the Maverick watch. I think that's my favorite. And I'm pretty much astonished at how affordable everything is. Watches can be pretty pricey. This is a great way to get a great watch at a great price. So get 15% off today with free shipping and free returns. It's really an awesome offer. Take advantage of it. Go to mvmtwaches.com. slash F baseball. Step up your watch game. MVMTW watches.com slash F baseball. Join the movement. All right. Bilo's sell high. Who comes to mind? Let me just throw out names of studs who are off the terrible starts, and you tell me if any of them are not Bilo candidates. Are there any red flags here?

Jose Altuve, no extra base hits, 188 batting average. Has it even scored a run. Miguel Cabrera. Oh, sorry. Are we not going one by one? No, let me read a bunch of names here. Okay. Miguel Cabrera is 2 for 21 with no runs or RBIs. Charlie Blackman's off to a bad start. He's batting 219.

Carlos Gonzalez and Trevor Story are both hitting very poorly. Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seeger are off to bad starts. And Matt Carpenter is off to a bad start as well. So Altuve, Cabrera, Blackman, Carlos Gonzalez, Story, Nelson Cruz, Kyle Seeger, Matt Carpenter. do any of those guys worry you or are they all obvious bylaws? I'd buy low on any of them.

You do have to acknowledge that Miguel Cabrera came into the season with a back entry and it's possible that that's not fully healed and what, Carpenter had a, what did he have this spring? He had a back injury as well. Back injury. They were worried to turn into the oblique.

And story strikes out. So, like, there are reasons you could be like you could see how this could become a bigger issue, but it's just, like, it's so early, like, it's, and knowing their track records, it's like, the, the fairest assumption is to just say, let's not do with Miguel Cabrero what we spent a decade doing with David Ortiz, which is every April, be like, this is the one. Hey, yeah, this is it, he's done. Like, he's still, the, he still, I think, led the majors in exit velocity last season. He's still well above average. So, far this season, not concerned. And Cabrera, it's April 11th today. On April 24th, 2016, Miguel Cabrera was batting 206 with a 302 slugging percentage of one home run, and he finished the year with... And he was terrible.

Yeah, he was awful. The rest of the year. Yeah, he finished the year of 316 batting average with 38 homers and 108 RBIs. Carlos Gonzalez, like, I guess he's a buy low. Yeah, I don't know that he's someone I'd buy, just because I didn't. want him to begin with. He only had like 25 home runs last year, and he hit six after the All-Star break, and I don't know, I've just sort of been waiting for the end of the line for Carlos Gonzalez. It hasn't happened. For like four years. He steals like zero bases. Now,

you might get two steals out of Carlos Gonzalez. So I do agree to buy low if you could give up, like I'd give up Adam Eaton for him, but I don't necessarily know that I'm going out of my way to make Carlos Gonzalez offers. The only, reason I'd be concerned is if we think this slow start leads to the Rockies trading him. But as long as he's in course field, I'm not going to be concerned. Okay. Speaking of Adam Eaton, I do have, well, we'll get to him in a second. I have him as a potential sell high.

I want to get your opinion on that. How about Tanaka? Well, we talked about him yesterday. I think he's a, I think Scott and I think he's a buy low. How about Andrew McCutcheon? Four for 24. There's no way I'm buying low on him. There's no way.

Yeah, if Adam Azer was the Andrew McCutcheon owner, I would definitely make an offer. If someone's panicking and not viewing him as a top 25 outfielder, I would go out and make an offer for him, yeah. Yeah, that's not a big priority for me, but, well, you know, I'm trying to think of examples. This kind of gets to the Bundy Cole thing, actually. Would you do Mazarra straight up for McCutcheon? I think so. Would you do Pueeg straight up for McCutche? I'm pretty sure I would.

But those players both have so much upside themselves that you could certainly see how it would backfire. I think I'd be... Like a sell high, I'd be more interested in doing would be like Jay Bruce, who... I'd pretty much know who Jay Bruce is... I'd rather have McHughan. But I'd rather take the chance on McCutcheon.

I would too. The thing is with McCutcheon, I really think he might end up being a very format-specific guy, because even though he has two walks of seven strikeouts, I feel like he'll do pretty well in walk-to-strike-out ratio and be a better outfielder in points leagues than Roto. I don't think he's going to stand out in any category. You know, he used to be a stand-out in batting average, give you about 30 home runs and good steals.

I don't know that he's going to give you any stand-out in any category at this point. So, you know, like Scott and I briefly debated adding Dinard Span in a head-to-head categories league, and Scott's like, well, it doesn't really stand out in any categories. I feel like McCutcheon doesn't either. So in a Roto League, yeah, I'm just not really interested in buying low on him or having him. Yeah, well, I still like him. Having is a little strong because then you get into what if somebody releases. Of course, I would pick him up if somebody released him.

But realistically, I know I'd have to pay a price to have him. And he'll get hot. I mean, he'll have a nice little stretch. It just seems like, well, you know how I feel about McCutcheon, but you guys obviously think... In the entire Pirates team isn't hitting right now, right? Nobody's really hitting well. No.

No, they're not. All the guys we like a lot more, or some people liked a lot more, at least. Yeah, they're all struggling. All right, is Chris Davis with a K a buy high? Maybe people aren't really buying it, but last year he was the number 18 outfield, and points number 11 in Roto.

Should we be valuing Chris Davis with a K as a top 15 outfielder? Four home runs by the way. I think he's just pretty good. Yeah, I mean, I understand I ranked him lower than what he finished as last year, but I ranked him more or less with the expectation he could do that again. It's just I felt like there were hitters with – there were some outfielder with upside. I liked a little more who I thought had a chance of leapfrogging him that I ranked ahead and still do.

Nothing about Chris Davis's K-Riss Davis' performance so far has really changed my opinion on him. Did you have Trumbo ahead of him? Yes. Okay. I view them pretty much the same. Davis just, he hits the ball really hard. But where's McCutcheon? Like, would you rather have McCutcheon or Carus Davis?

McCutcheon still. See, that's a means. I don't say McCutcheon, though if it's a Roto scenario where I drafted Chris Davis, like, I need his power. Like, I drafted him because I know I needed those home runs from him. I don't know that I'd make that trade. And I would make the trade in that if I had McCutcheon and was being offered, and like somebody just didn't really buy Chris Davis or whatever, and I offered my McCutcheon for Chris Davis, I would do that. I think I would rather have Chris Davis. It depends on the format for me.

Sure, good point. Again, format specific thing. Maybe in a points league, no, in a roto league, yes. As mentioned, Chris Davis was 18th in points, 11th in Roto last year. Sell High candidates. Who's a sell high candidate to you guys? Paneda. Anyone that we haven't talked about today, though?

Well, I kind of spoiled my two biggest ones in Paneda and Jay Bruce. Because a lot of the players who have performed the best. their position so far are still ones who aren't even universally owned. And I think it's always hard to trade those players for more than other borderline rosterable players. I mean, J.T. Real Muto. Yeah, that's a good one. Like, nobody expects him to hit 500, obviously, but his batted ball profile early in

the season, his exit velocity is actually, I believe, below average by a couple of miles per hour. He got really lucky, I think, on Sunday night, had a triple that Jay Bruce pretty obviously should have caught. That's the downside to the Jay Bruce experience, even when he's hitting home runs. He has to play the field for the Mets. So he's an obvious sell-high candidate to me. And I like the idea of, like, I don't think you could trade Real Muto for Jonathan Bucro. He's off to a bad start. I don't think you could make that trade one for one in a league with owners of any.

sense, but, you know, maybe Rio Muto with your sixth starting pitcher for Luke Roy, I could see that working potentially. And I would probably, this is a risky one, and I don't feel super great about it, but Nomar Mizarra, I think is worth viewing as a sell high. There's a chance that it's just clicked for him. He's an elite prospect. He has the pedigree. If he turns into, I made the cop yesterday to Scott, but if he turns into like Freddie Freeman overnight, it wouldn't surprise me because he has that kind of talent. But the underlying stats last season didn't back up even the relatively middling numbers that he put up. But who cares about Mazar's stats as a rookie? He was so young. Right. That's, that's the thing is that if it clicks, then he could be a

monster. He could be, you know, like I said, Freddie Freeman or like Prime Carlos Gonzalez type of player. It's just the underlying skill set wasn't there last year, so you're betting on him having figured it out with not a lot of evidence backing it up yet. And also still no success against left-handed pitchers. But you could be trading away this year's breakout. So that is a little risky. Yeah, that's kind of gets into the do no harm territory I was talking about. Look, I'm not, in my actual playing out of fantasy leagues and partly it's because I know the people I'm playing against I'm not going to like pull the wool over their eyes you know I don't really I'm not big on actually doing the buy low sell high game like in real life um and part of it's because of what I was

saying about the level of my competition but part of it's too because I'm not confident really in anything I'm seeing right now. Yeah, like that's, my default is to not change my opinion on a player until like, unless there's like a really compelling reason to not really change my opinion on a player until like the end of April. But when it's a player like Mazara, who I didn't rank very high because I know I didn't need to invest that much in him, but like from the get-go, I acknowledge he has a ton of upside.

And if this could be the start of it, like just, just to kind of like, you know, have some kind of small gain on my roster, like to turn it into a small gain when it could. Mazar himself could be a monster gain. Yeah. Like, that's just not worth it to me. Right. And I think when you have guys who have a longer track record, it's clearer right now who's a buy-sell candidate. Right, like the Bruce example.

Exactly. And that's why I really want to try to get Masira Tanaka and I actually am going to make some offers for Tanaka. Here's a guy I'm thinking about selling, and I'm very happy with him so far, and I think he's good, really good. But Kyle Schwerber. Kyle Schwerber is only batting 222, but he is a 382 on base. He's got two home runs. He has six walks, 10 strikeouts. He's being a good lead-off hitter.

Hasn't played catcher yet, whatever. He's played seven games and scored five runs. He hadn't sat yet. Kyle Schwerber has played every game. So is Joe Madden, was he lying to us? or are they really going to start sitting him? And he's supposed to play 140 games maximum, and he's played 7 out of 7,

and including five days in a row now. And the interesting thing is he has been pulled from five of those games. He still had five played appearances in each game that he was pulled from except for one. He's a big winner right now, a big time. Oh, yeah, no, I've been very encouraged. And I've been encouraged by how much the Cubs have played Jason Hayward in center field.

I know just top of mind, it's at least three. games that Hayward started in Center, which is allow Schwabers-Zobrist and bias all three in the lineup at once. I'm more surprised to how much bias has played. I'm surprised at Bo. Like, Schwerver, one of my biggest, one of the biggest, like, the biggest reason I had been my bus column is because I didn't think he was going to play every day,

and I thought maybe he'd sit a lot against left-handers. And that, they've only faced one left-handed starter, I think, so far. So, you know, we're not completely out of the woods with that. but it's very encouraging. Like, I'd almost call him a by low. By high. Well, he's batting what, 200? 230 or something.

230. 222. So, like, before the season, in my mind, it was absolutely no doubt I wanted Gregory Polanco over Kyle Schwerver. Maybe I make that trade offer. I am still a little concerned about Gregory Polanco's shoulder, and he's off to such a bad start, except for like one four-hit game.

But, you know, maybe that's something I want to do, because I do think there's going to be, there are going to be some days where Kyle Schwerver sits. There's just no question about it. The fact that he could, you know, stumble into catch your eligibility is still out there for me. I'm still not, uh, that's a real long shot to me, though.

Okay. Man, it's tough. It's so hard to sell high on guys sometimes, unless you just know that you, you should be doing it. But, you know, maybe I should reach even higher. Maybe, like, I should try for Stanton instead of Schwerber or something like that. With Schorber?

Yeah. I feel like people are going to fall in love with Kyle Schwerber, and you might be able to really pull off huge deals with him. And it could be warranted. But are they there yet? He's not off to a very good star, right? I think he is. Well, let's see. Let's find out where Kyle Schwerber ranks.

I'll look that up. Let me give you the next guy ahead of my potential sell high list. And that was Adam Eaton, who's batting 333. He's basically had the same exact season two years in a row. And he hits about 285 with 14 home runs and 16-ish steals and scores over 90 runs. He's in a better lineup now. And he's batting 333 right now with already two steals and three doubles, eight walk, seven strikeouts.

I think this is more of a roto thing because Eaton's great in points leagues. It's a lot of doubles and triples. but do you think Adam Eaton is a Roto cell high? Yeah, I think so. I think his limitations are pretty clear and he's not going... I don't see him taking a big step forward in home runs or stolen bases.

I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being a career season just because of the caliber of hitters batting behind him. Like I'm thinking specifically with walks and runs scored. I could see him having his best season. and maybe what ends up being the best season of his career. But certainly in Roto, I wouldn't be afraid to trade him if there was a good offer for him. And the big thing for me is that he is hitting at the top of that lineup. There was some concern in the spring that they were going to bat him fifth,

which didn't make any sense. But the fact that he's hitting at the top of that lineup, that's a very good sign for me. So I'm not necessarily viewing him as a sell high. Koshwarber, by the way, is the number 17 outfield in points leagues. He's like number 37 in Roto Because his batting average is so bad But his on base percentage is so good

There's going to be someone who has like three steals That's just way up at the top of the list Just because it's so early in the season Like Aaron Judge is ahead of Schwerver in Roto And Corey Dickerson is ahead And stuff like that So it's still early Anyone else? Who else did I have on the

Oh Brandon Crawford I don't buy Brandon Crawford His best So Brandon Crawford's best season was 2015 he was the number four shortstop in fantasy. If he replicated those numbers, 256 with 21 home runs, last year that would have made him the number 15 shortstop in fantasy.

So same amount of points made him number four in 2015 would have made him number 15 behind Dede Gregorius in 2016. Very different landscape. Yeah, so unless he's going to be a better hitter and adjust to the landscape or the landscape is going to go back to what it was in 2015, I would be looking to sell Brandon Crawford right now. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, so would I.

He's not even in my top 15 shortstops. One sell high that I've seen a couple people pull off already, and this guy's only about 70% owned, but being a closer, in some leagues he can be invaluable. That's Brandon Kinsler, who I don't think is very good, and I don't think the twins are very good, but they've already given him three saves so far. if you have saves excess and Brandi Kinsler is part of that he's absolutely the one to trade

all right as the season unfolds a little bit more we'll tell you more by low more sell high and more buy high guys that we actually believe in that maybe you can get cheap right now but we got a we got a lot more to talk about Taiwan Walker is he dropable uh Matt Moore had a great start yesterday Adam Wainwright is he dropable we'll talk about all that after Team Name Tuesday! Told you I was going to get to it. And I'm going to sing, because that's kind of what I do. Paul in Wichita has a couple of 80s, made-in-the-eighties-themed team names.

Welcome to the Junkho! I think that's great. Welcome to the Junkho by Gog. Gogs and Roses. And Mr. Rovato, which we've had before, which is also very good. Sorry for the screeching there. This is from John. This one's perfect for our podcast.

Ernan Zero Chances. Ernan Zero Chance. Ernan Zero chances. Non Zero. Oh, non-zero. Okay, yeah, I got it. Do you always think about the Shield when you hear Ernan Perez's name, Adam? No, why?

Because there was a character the last couple seasons name Ernan, who they were always talking about. There was? Yeah. It was some kind of informant for, I think the FBI. No, I don't remember that. Okay. This is from Keenan Duke straight out of Los Angeles.

For all the anime fans out there, Ghost in the Snell. Yeah, that's pretty good. I had a feeling Chris would get that one, because I don't. Lou D. from Brooklyn, New York, there's Sano... It's hard to say. There's Sanoi in Team. I like it. Yeah, it could just be Sinoi in Team.

No, that's good. This is from Ju Young Six Pence Nunn the Gritchick I like that one a lot You got Pence and Gritchick in there Yeah

What's the actual Six Pence None the Richer Okay Was a I think it's a Shakespeare quote But it was a Nineties alternative rock band Kiss me

They sing Kiss Me There she goes I don't know if they were alternative rock That's a cover though Yes I believe by the lead singer's dad No kidding I think that's true.

Wow. But I could have just made that up. This is from Ryan. 50-50. Team name Tuesday. Kipness Everdeen. Yeah. Pretty good.

I like that. Now I got a legit chuckle from me. And Ben, on Twitter, he had a picture of the neighbors in Christmas vacation. And the team name is, I don't know, Margo. Right? It's brilliant. It's brilliant. Awesome team name.

The last two were the best. Yeah, we saved the best for last. Career revivals. Are you buying career revivals from Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds, and Brett Gardner, who has five steals? I am buying it from Ryan Zimmerman. I think Brett Gardner can be useful. I don't see why we would think Mark Reynolds would be relevant

when we didn't really view him as relevant last year, playing in the exact same role. Yeah, and it's not going to last long. Gardner with five steals. He hasn't even had 25 in a season since 2011. So he already has five. You know what I say about steals, though? It's a matter of desire.

I agree with you. I agree with you in most cases, and I agree in this case, because I think the Yankees are going to have a bad lineup, and they know that they need him to run. Right. They must have told him something. I tried to find something written about this, because that would obviously encourage me even more,

but five for five already. and week and a half into the season. I think that's something worth monitoring. Over under 30 steals, Brett Gardner. You're still taking the under. Yeah. I think I'm willing to say the over it, just barely, at this point. Gardner, by the way, in 2014 and 2015,

he was about the number 25 outfielder in both points and Roto. So is it possible that he could be a top 30 outfielder this year? It was terrible last year, but could Gardner, who's 44% owned, be a top 30 outfielder? Sure, it's possible. It's going to depend on him, I think, recapturing the base stealing he used to have, though. Well, yeah, or hitting, like, 12 home runs or something. I'm less confident in that at this stage of his career. Yeah, he hit 17 and 16 home runs in those two seasons.

They only stole 21 and 20 bases. It's still finished as a 25th outfielder or so. So we're hoping maybe more steals fewer home runs this year. Some pitchers from yesterday Where should we go to? Are any of these pitchers who are about 90% owned? Are any of them dropable? Not necessarily today, but in the near future,

are these guys waiver, wire fodder? And some were good, some were bad yesterday. But just generally speaking. Taiwan Walker, Matt Moore, Ian Kennedy, Adam Wainwright, Jared Eichoff. I would be fine dropping Adam Wainwright right now. Yes.

Taiwan Walker did show yesterday that he's not just going to throw his fastball all the time. It took him a little while early in the start. He was just throwing his fastball. But I think he ended up only throwing the fastball about 50 to 55% of the time. I think that's a key sign for him. He needs to actually pitch, not just throw. And the results weren't great yesterday, but I am still. willing to give him a little bit of rope.

Okay, and obviously nobody's dropping Ikoff the way he's been pitching. No. Kennedy is the one in a shallower league. I think he's mostly 87% owned because of a two-star week. So if you want to lean into that in a shallow league... You know who he is. Yeah. I do think he's undervalued on the whole, but, you know, if your league's not particularly deep...

You're hoping one of these guys, Icoff, Moore, or Walker could be special. something clicks. Right. It's really, it's very unlikely that Ian Kennedy is going to be anything but Ian Kennedy. Yeah, and Moore has just been so good at AT&T Park. Last year at AT&T Park, he had a 316 ERA. Only 12 walks and 37 innings. It's great for him.

I don't know if that's great for him, but it's not terrible. And he had a great start last night. No walks, five strikeouts in eight innings with one run against, I don't know, maybe the hottest lineup in baseball, the Diamondbacks. So good job, Matt Moore. Other starting pitchers from yesterday. Alex Cobb had a really interesting start. He pitched better than the line.

He pitched a lot better than the line. I wish they had taken him out after the 7th. They left him in the 8th, and two more runs came in. One was earned. But one walk, seven strikeouts. Change up apparently is not all the way there yet. But, you know, you look at Cobb and so far two, I think, encouraging starts against, I was going to say,

not a great lineup of the Yankees. He's faced them twice. And I was just reading one of the writers that covers him saying the same thing. Very good start for Alex Cobb, and he's encouraged. So, 78% owned. It was about 60% last time we talked about him. I think that feels about right, right? Seventy-eight percent for Cobb? I'd rather have him than Wayne Wright. Yep, me too. I think I'd rather have him than Taiwan Walker. I can still talk myself into Taiwan Walker having more upside. I don't know if that's rational. No, I'd agree. I agree. I agree that you can talk yourself into it, but it's not all about it. upside, you know, I think Walker clearly has more downside. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I feel Alex Cobb, you know, there are a lot of guys that have a lot of upside, like Robbie Ray and Taiwan Walker and anyone else who pitches for the Diamondbacks, basically. Like, I just, I don't know. I keep falling on the Alex Cobb side of that. I feel like he's got safety. Like, the only thing about Alex Cobb is, like, he hasn't had that start that grabs everyone's attention yet, and he wasn't. this widely publicized sleeper, breakout pitcher coming in, which is kind of weird because

him and Lance Lynn coming back from Tommy John's surgery, Alex Cobb, was the more highly valued of the two before that. So I don't know why, I don't know why there's this lack of enthusiasm for him. I don't know if there's like, you can use that to your advantage. I don't know if there's like a ton of enthusiasm over Lance Lynn or if it's just that like one person on this show became a Lance Lynn guy instead of an artist cop guy. Well, I mean, just look at the difference in ownership percentage, though. Especially before his first start of the season, Cobb was about 60% owned, which really just surprised me.

And I've been making the case. I mean, the guy had a sub-3ERA, two seasons in a row, and then he had Tommy John. He was so bad last year when he came back. But at least he came back, you know? Yeah. No, I didn't get past with that. I didn't realize Lance Lynn was 10% higher than him. Yeah, that doesn't make a ton of sense.

All righty. And let's see who else. Oh, Jarrell Cotton. Darrell Cotton had a great start after a really bad opening start. And Tyler Glass now, we talked about Charlie Morton also pitched. Out of Cobb, Cotton, and Morton, who's your favorite? I think I... Cobb.

Yeah, I thought we were doing it. Sorry, I didn't hear you. Yeah, Cobb's my favorite, but Morton's second. Morton's second? Morton was going well through four innings, and then it kind of all came apart for him in the fifth. Now, I'm not saying that I'm a genius. But I'm not necessarily saying that I'm not a genius, but I'm not a genius. I am. Okay, no, I'm not a genius.

I mentioned, I watched Charlie Borden's first start of the season, and I mentioned that he felt to me like the kind of pitcher that was going to struggle the third time through the order. So, yeah, I think I am a genius. That's what happened yesterday? Why did you feel that way? I don't know if I was on that show with you. No, you weren't. The reason I felt that way was because I sort of saw the Mariners were taking a more aggressive approach with his fastball,

as they saw it a second time. And, you know, it's a very good pitch right now, but I think people were sort of jumping on it. I think eventually as the game goes on, he won't be able to just use the fastball and the secondary pitches will become more important. And he... Well, I think his curveball is just as important

to his success as fastball, and he got a lot of swings and misses on it. He's mostly thrown it to left-handers so far. I don't know why. But I did see that stat. They showed like a full-screen of that stat. I think I was watching the Astros broadcast usage against lefties versus righties. It looks like a good curveball, and it wasn't one he featured as extensively before this year with the Astros.

So I still have some hope. I mean, it was a good strikeout total in this game. He did throw 17 of his 28 curveballs to lefties yesterday. Yeah, like, I really threw his fastball at all. I don't know if I'm going to be right about that. It's something I'm kind of keeping an eye on. Well, usually, you know, like this is Dylan Bundy really. struggled the third time through the order was one of the worst pitchers in baseball in that

regard last season. And I think a big part of that is usually just a lack of a consistent third pitch or a fourth, you know, and I think that could be the case with Charlie Morton. He's got the fastball. He's got the curve ball. There's like a cutter and a two seamer that, you know, he doesn't seem to trust too much yet. Okay. And then in the bullpen, we had Cota Glover pitching the eighth in what was going to be a save situation. Nationals ended up blowing it open, but it looked like Glover was going to probably set up Trinon. Not a surprise. And Sean Doolittle got the save for Oakland.

So there you go. They were saving Doolittle for the lefties. Yeah, he faced two lefties and Casillas pitched the eighth and also struck out the side in a clean inning. I do want to mention quickly, Glover, Trinan was unavailable for this game. Oh, he was. So Kelly was up to get the save over Glover if it came to. He ended up pitching the ninth anyway, but it wasn't a save situation anymore. Okay, so maybe I hit that.

He looks like the backup for saves in Washington. Interesting. Interesting. All right. We got a few minutes left. Let's read some emails. This is Chris in Marathon, New York. Should I drop Nate Jones for Trevor Rosenthal in a holds league?

Nah. I wouldn't. Neither would I. Now, you got a better chance of having a closer with Jones. Bill in Charleston, South Carolina. Hey, Eddie Stone and Mike. No idea. Yeah, me either.

Ten team head-to-head mixed points league. I've got Howie Kendrick on my bench. What do you, he wants to know, like, is Howie Kendrick, you know, anything? Could he be a utility option? Not in a 10-team league, no. Maybe like a 16-team league. We've got Leante from Florida. Dear DJ, Carlos, and Nolan.

Those are Rockies. Those are Rockies. Besides Bunkata, are there any prospects I should have my eye on? Should read Scott White's prospect watch column from last week on CBSSports.com. He has five guys. Five to stash. And actually, every week I'll be updating who the top five minor leaguers are to stash at that moment in time. That latest column I had Bradley Zimmer in there.

Of course, Julio Arias, who's in the minors right now. And then I also had Bellinger, Cody Bellinger, and Jose de Leon. but he's going to be out for this next one because he's dealing with a four-arm issue right now. Oh, wonderful. Chris, I'm pretty sure that was Pearl Jam, Eddie Stone and Mike. I thought that. Yeah. I thought that, because Mike McCready and Eddie Vedder, I don't know who Stone is.

Just a few more guys. Samir from Toronto, 7-by-7 OBP and OPS League. Who should I pick up? Ryan Healy, Greg Bird, Byron Buxton, or Travis Shaw? Go to the guy who's hitting right now, Ryan Healy. I'd rather still have birds That's what I said I replied to Samaria

I said bird too I don't feel crazy Yeah I'm not I'm not ready to Completely Dispell my spring enthusiasm for bird Neither But I was enthusiastic about Ryan Healy too Okay

Healy actually is not hitting all that well He's got the homer He's getting better than bird Tyler last one Grade the Trade Give up Todd Frazier Get Carlos Martinez A plus

You and Heath, I swear. A minus. This isn't a past fail course, okay? It's an A minus. That is a huge win. Todd Frazier, I don't know if we talked about it enough, but I was talking to Heath about it yesterday. He made some changes last year that look like what you do when you're just about to lose it and you need to hang on for whatever. He just became like a deadpool, deadfly ball, cheat on fastball.

kind of guy. So you had pessimism for Frazier coming in. Because, I mean, they were drafted in basically the same spot. Frazier probably ahead in categories. So I'm going to call this an even C. No. I like it. I didn't call it a-n-A.

But I understand where Scott's coming from. And I understand that this is the end of the show. But we'll be back tomorrow to dazzle you again. Thank you very much for listening. This is fantasy baseball today. Tell your friends. See tomorrow.