Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/12: Thu. Recap, Most Added, Week 4 Help (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 12, 2019

Plenty of talk about Jose Ramirez's struggles, Pete Alonso's prowess (7:25), Walker Buehler's slow start (10:00) and Jose Quintana's awesome outing (14:41) ... News and notes (17:31) as we are not loving that Ozzie Albies contract. Plus we've got "Hey, Real Quick" (26:15) as we debate Khris Davis vs. Kris Bryant and Trevor Story vs. Adalberto Mondesi. We also take a look at the Most Added list (28:33) ... Some odd early trends (33:55) from the first few weeks of the season. Matthew Boyd leads MLB in Ks! David Peralta hasn't walked yet! Then it's Buy or Sell (39:00), a Thursday recap (45:45) and hitting advice plus two-start pitchers for Week 4 (50:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Domingo. Welcome to fantasy baseball today. It is Adam, Scott, and Chris. On this Friday, going to get you ready for fantasy week before. We're going to talk about some of the things that have happened in the first two and a half weeks of the regular season. Like, for example, did you know that the Rockies don't have one home run from Charlie Blackfin or No One Aeronado so far? We'll also do some buy or sell. What?

Oh, yeah, they're both washed up completely. Washed. Yeah. Of course I wasn't saying that, just so you know. But they haven't had a home run. from those two guys. That is Chris. Who says washed up anymore?

Come on. Come on. Come on old thing. Is that real? It's too washed now. Really? Washed. So old.

Short man. Such an old man. I didn't know that. All right. Let's get to the show here. Two star pitchers for next week. I don't know if we have any hitting matchup advice from Chris. I'll ask him later.

We'll say, okay, good. I was going to leave the listeners in suspense. And like I said, buy or sell. And also, I got some weekend streamers for you. My favorite is probably Vince Velasquez at Miami. He's 38% owned. I think he might help you out. Maybe win you a week with a good start this weekend.

Tweet of the day comes from Heath, who's not here. Heat says, I am not worried about Jose Ramirez. I am starting to consider when I might become worried about Jose Ramirez. Jose Ramirez is six for 44. Without a home run. Two doubles and 12 games. Only two walks. Oh, look at that tweet. There it is.

Yeah, who's starting to consider when you might become worried about Jose Ramirez? I've got another tweet of the day. This one's from August 27th of 2017 from Heathcoming Senior. I'm not worried about Jose Ramirez. I am starting to consider when I might become worried about Jose Ramirez. In the previous 39 games during that stretch, he had one home run, but only hit a 595, four OPS, only three stolen bases. Should we be worried about Jose Ramirez?

I'm confused. When was that tweet dated? Yeah, I'm confused too. It's a fake tweet, guys. It's just, I'm referring to that. No, that's terrible. That was so, that was such a washed joke. That was terrible.

Now you're not even using it right. The point is, he had a stretch just as long, that was just as bad. And he was better than ever. before coming off of that. So the question isn't, should we be worried because Jose Ramirez is in a slump? Because he's had that before, and we weren't worried. Or maybe we were at the time. When was that?

July 14th to August 26th, really, really nicely, right after the All-Star Break. But what year? So you know something happened. 2017. 2017. Okay. Last year, his last 38 games, he finished terribly at a 577 OPS, but at least he was walking. Scott, but yeah, you want to weigh in on Jose?

Yeah, I mean, that's the only reason why any concern might be raised is because the last six weeks of last season were so poor for Jose Ramirez as well. But I looked a little deeper at things for him yesterday to respond to some tweets. And, you know, it is true. This has been brought up before. It is true he was terrible on breaking balls last year, specifically sliders and curve balls, terrible. All of his hits so far this year have come on sliders and curveballs, nothing else,

which maybe doesn't mean anything. But what does probably mean something is that previous years in his career, he didn't struggle against those pitches really at all. So I'm not sure it's just something the league has figured out. He's incapable of hitting those pitches. I would also point out that he began last year 2 for 33, which is even worse than 6 for 40. in my mind, and obviously things turned out okay for him.

Then his average exit velocity on the fastball this year is pretty much the same as it's always been, so it's not like he's swinging slowdown or something. He's striking out as infrequently as ever. Apart from the fact that he finished last year on a down note, I'm struggling to find anything, any real cause for concern here. There is one thing that has changed during last year's slow close, slow close, and then early on this year, and that's he's pulling the ball a lot less. And that's where most of his power comes from is when he hits the ball in the air to the pole side. So if you want to look for a

reason, that's probably it. There was actually a fan graph's piece on this like last week that showed some examples of him going the opposite way with pitches on the inner half of the plate that he probably should have tried to pull. So if you really want to look for a reason, that's probably the best one you can find, but for me, I just look at it as we've seen him struggle before. We've seen him turn it around. I didn't expect him to be as good as he was last year in the power department anyway, so that he probably won't get there now doesn't really concern me very much. All right, Jose Ramirez.

Get going a little bit here, so we don't have to be so worried about Jose Ramirez, although apparently we're not worried. Thursday's standouts. So, yeah, let's talk about Thursday's games. There were only 10 of them. By the way, there's already a rain out today. There will be 14 games on this Friday. Scott, who stood out to you on Thursday?

Well, there were a lot of bananas pitching performances yesterday, but I think what was probably the most bananas pitching performance of the entire season was Zach Godley. I'm not sure whether to be completely discouraged and on the verge of dumping him or to be encouraged by the fact he had 21 swinging strikes, including 16 on his curveball, which you might remember was the pitch that led to the breakthrough, the not fully realized breakthrough, it turns out, of two years ago. A ton of strikeouts, well, not a ton of strikeouts, eight and six innings. I mean, it's pretty good, but just the fact that he got so many swinging strikes.

It was still a disaster start. I mean, this is a groundball pitcher who gave up, I think, three home runs in this start. Yeah. And hasn't really had a great start yet. Two home runs. I just, like, if I hadn't seen that swinging strike number, I'd be like, all right, it's time to move on. Enough is enough, but that gives me pause. Interesting.

All right, he's 76% on Zach Godley. I had him on the drop-o-meter, so zero to ten for Godley on the drop-o meter. Five, six. Okay. Can drop him, but you don't have to. All right, I got to stand out. Pete Alonzo. He's talked about him as a sell high on yesterday's show.

All of the points he made. are still valid. He's striking out a lot. He's got some numbers that are not sustainable. But my goodness, this is now five home runs in his last five games. He's got a 378 batting average, six home runs, 17 RBIs, and six walks to 16 strikeouts. Is there anything to say right now about Pete Alonzo that Heath didn't say yesterday? He's really good, but if you can flip him for like Joe Evato or something, you might want to do that. What do you think? I still think the Mets are idiots for calling him up on opening day.

No, you don't. I know. I didn't think they were idiots at the first place. This is why you call the prospects up because they can carry you for a couple of weeks, and that could be really important. Go Mets. Yeah. That's all I was saying. He's awesome. So, like, addressing the strikeout issue that he brought up yesterday, which first of all, I mean, it's such a small sample that I'm not even sure.

I'm not even sure we should concern until he'll be that bad of a strikeout hitter. But that home run he hit yesterday, like, scalded to center field. There's apparently water behind the center field fence in SunTrust Park, which I never knew before seeing that ball he hit because I guess nobody's ever reached that far back. But the exit velocity on it was the, I think it was the third highest ever recorded. And like the only hitters on a home run. And the only hitters who ever get in that range are Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge. Like if an exit velocity, I mean, that was that was what first put him on the map as a prospect.

People are like, holy cow, look at the exit velocities this guy produces. Like, that's how Aaron Judge is able to overcome a horrible strikeout rate is because he hits the ball on another level in terms of how hard it is. So even if Alonzo ends up being a high strikeout guy like that, I think there's a good chance he's somebody who'll be able to overcome it too. Yeah, but would you flip him for Joey Votto? I actually don't think that's that easy of an answer. I mean, on this show it probably is, but for fantasy owners out there, it might not be. Yeah, I'm sorry, what was the answer?

Would you flip Alonzo for Vado? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I have Alonzo 11th, I think, at first base now. And he'd said, you know, even with his concerns, he's probably a borderline top 12 second base. I don't think we're that different on where we land. I'm just not maybe thinking the downside is as low as Heath is. Okay. All right.

And let's talk about, Chris, let's talk about Walker Bueller. I've got to stand out from you as well. We'll talk about Walker Bueller. We're talking about Jose Cantana. How concerned are you about Walker Bueller? Four innings, five runs. And he only allowed one extra base hit. That was good.

But it's obviously a troubling start for him. 825 ERA on the young season for Walker Bueller. I'm actually, I have less to say about Walker Bueller than I do about like the fantasy community writ large. And I think we've learned a lesson early this season. I was talking about it yesterday on Twitter. Scott wrote about it a little bit in this morning's waiver wire column that you can find on CBSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball. We probably did not do a good enough job of preparing ourselves for the possibility that these guys who basically skip training or skip spring training. would get off to slow starts.

And, you know, Chris Sale, Walker, Bueller, none of the other Red Sox pitchers were held back quite as much as Chris Sale, but we're seeing that this seems to have had a real impact. And that's not surprising. Spring training, you know, we don't care about spring training results all that much, but we should probably steal ourselves to care more about spring training process. As far as whether I'm concerned, right. No more than I was before this season.

And I was a little less warm on Walker Bueller than everyone else was. Right. Well, that's the thing. I mean, you can just look at, hey, they got a late start. And I think we did do a good job preparing people for Walker Bueller. I mean, Scott especially talked about that a lot because, you know, his first start might be piggybacked or whatever the situation was.

We kind of felt like Walker Bueller might not. even be somebody worth starting in the opening week of the season. I don't know that we thought his first three starts were going to be so bad. But when you look at Bueller, the huge workload last year, the big innings jump, and pitching into the World Series gave me and I think a lot of people some concerns. When you look at Chris Sale, the shoulder issues at the end of last year, I mean, I don't know that we can just chalk up their slow starts to abbreviated spring training. There's more there.

Well, it is. I mean, the whole Red Sox rotation was, I think. I think Avaldi through seven innings this spring. There may have been some of the backfields that didn't get recorded officially. But who is suffering, and I don't know the answer to this, are any of them losing velocity like Chris Sale? Because it seems like Chris Sale has that unique problem. Not really.

Like they're all within, from what I understand, I think they're all within like one mile per hour of where they've been last year. So with the exception of Chris Sale, none of that is really concerning. And it actually, it is worth. noting that the idea that pitchers underperform after World Series runs doesn't really have a lot of statistical backing. Oh, I disagree. You know, Saris did, well, I did my own analysis.

At least in terms, at least in terms, well, there's a distinction to be made that's worth noting. And it's pitchers coming off of long world series runs tend to perform worse than they did the previous season, but we also need to factor in that teams, who make World Series runs are inevitably going to have more outlier performances than the rest of the league.

So it's not so much that pitchers don't pitch worse coming off World Series runs. They usually on the whole do not pitch much worse than their projections. Okay. All right. I don't want to get off on a tangent there. Walker, would you rather have Walker Bueller or Chris Sale?

Sale. Would you rather have Walker Bueller or Armand Marquez? Bueller, I mean, I'm not really changing anything, Bueller. I think he's going to be fine, and two of his first three starts are bad. I think when we look back on it, when we look back on his season, we're not even going to remember that, to be honest. Okay, so last question. Who's the best Dodgers pitcher rest of season?

Bueller. All right. Probably Bueller. Doing your Ben Stein impression over there. I believe Bueller is a two-star. Actually, I don't know if he's a two-star pitcher. because Kershaw is joining the rotation. So it might be one start against Cincinnati,

if not it's Cincinnati and at Milwaukee. Are we calling Walker Bueller a start next week? Yeah. Against Cincinnati, for sure. All right, finally, Jose Cantana, seven scoreless hittings, 11 strikeouts on four hits against the Pittsburgh Pirates, 15 swinging strikes,

and you will start him next week at Miami. He's 82% owned, so, you know, I would pick him up just for the Miami start and see where it goes from there. But I just, I don't really understand what happened to Jose Cantana, why he went from being the most consistent pitcher in baseball to someone who basically wasn't even worth using. And, yeah, beautiful start last night. What does it mean, Scott White?

Oh, I don't really understand it either. It was one of the biggest mysteries to me of last season. If you want to point to something that was different about yesterday's start, he did throw a change up much more than he ever does. a new pitch for him. And he threw 13 of them and got four swinging strikes on it, which is pretty good. I mean, they were talking about it's a good changeup, apparently. I don't, I don't know if that's going to be what saves him.

This is the first I've heard of it. And he's had, I think he had starts like this last year, too, where he kind of faked this into believing, oh, he's back. And then he wasn't. So I don't want to read too much into it. The main thing I read into it is that I was probably getting pretty close to dropping Jose Cantana too, and now obviously I'm not. I looked at all of his game log from last year. There were a few starts that were really good.

This one was better than all of them, but look, this was probably the best start for most pitchers, seven scoreless endings with one walk and 11 strikeouts. All right, so hang on to Jose Cantana, and we'll see what happens. Take a quick break here on fantasy baseball today. When we come back, news and notes, Chris loves the Ozzy Albee's contract. Hey, real quick, most added list. We're less than three weeks into the season and dot, dot, dot, dot. Some buyer sell and a lot more.

We've got a busy show today. So stick around. We're coming right back on fantasy baseball today. Okay, here we go, Chris. Look, I don't get the option years. That's what bothers me. I don't know what. Yeah.

What mystical power do the Atlanta Braves have that they've been able to, like, Ozzy Albiz and Ronald Acuna have probably sacrificed collectively $350 million in lifetime. earnings for the Atlanta Braves. I don't understand anything about these deals. Like, from their perspective, I understand. Get the money now. It just gets into lots of really problematic things about the way baseball's economy works. And I don't want to go on a big ramp. But these guys didn't sign big bonuses. And baseball teams are taking advantage of that by getting them to sign. I mean, in both cases, probably for a third of what they will likely be.

worth. It's really bad. I just keep thinking, like, if somebody offered me $35 million, and even if I thought I had the chance to make $150 million, there's a good chance I'd take it. Here, well, you're not really good at baseball. You've never seen me. You know, I'm not trying to besmirch your good name, but there's actually a lot of studies that, like, if you offer people $1,000, a chance to win $1,000. or they have a 50-50 chance to win $1,000 or you give them a certain amount of money. I think that you only have to go down to like $370 before they'll start taking it.

It's just people are really, really risk-averse, and I totally understand that. But from a larger context of the baseball world, these deals are really, really bad. Okay, well. It's really the option years, like Adam was saying, that I think pushes them into unprecedented territory. Because, you know, just buying out the pre-arb years and the arb years and a couple years after that. I mean, there have been plenty of players that have followed that path. Some great, like, well, Evan Longoria ended up being great. I don't know.

It was great for the team. Yeah. He was a perennial. Except he's still in that contract now. No, it's on the second contract. Okay. Well, the race gave out one contract. that was really bad.

It ended up being bad. I can't remember what it was. I think it was the real. I mean, the Astros did the one with John Singleton, but... Yeah, Matt Moore. Maybe. Maybe. But the numbers are so small that if Ozzy Albee's never plays another baseball game,

the Braves will not even notice the amount of money that they gave him on this contract. So that that's the thing is that there is zero risk for the teams. And now we're looking at like, free agency is just not going to exist. Or like the next decade. Things will change. But these players are under contract. That doesn't change. Well, yeah, but they're not the only players in baseball.

I think the new collective bargaining agreement really has to address. It's just a little unfair that teams control the best years of a player's career. Like, they've got to start hitting free agency earlier. That would solve some problems. Yeah. I mean, I think the way the aging curve has kind of changed too is because there's just not much earning potential anymore after age 30. Right. And so I don't know, I don't know what the fix is.

I mean, I get why I'd be upset as like Tony Clark or, you know. Yeah. But I think Clark's fault. Let's wrap it up. There's no solidarity between the Players Association players and the larger group. And we should start planning maybe after this podcast on how we're going to spend the entire 2021 season. All right. Clayton's George.

Clayton Kirshod is going to start on Monday and he won't be on a pitch count, so he avoids the Brewers this weekend. He gets the Reds on Monday. Chris Sale is going to have his next start push back two days. He will face the Yankees next week. Start or sit Kershaw, starter sit, Chris Sale next week. I'm okay with starting Kershaw. He's not a must start, but the matchup's good enough that you can. There's not a chance I'm starting Chris Sailing's the Yankees. Witts, Witt-Mariefield's hit streak ended at 31 games at Heath Cummings.

it here. Coincidence? Yes. Ronald Acuna has homered in three straight games. Two of them were at Colorado. Seattle set a record for the most consecutive games with a home run to start the season. They have homered in 15 straight games. Corey Seeger got hit on the hamstring. He left with a hamstring injury, but it's just a bruise. So hopefully he's back out there soon, Corey Seeger. Mike Fultenevich is going to make another rehab start this weekend. Nick Castiano's has a sprained toe. Billy Hamilton left with a knee injury. Would anybody, other than me, pick up Terence Gore just as a speculative ad

only in like a 15 team roto okay well this is a 12 team roto but my team's so bad that I'm actually in 15th place uh Max Muncie left with a hand injury one game away from second base eligibility

so he hurt his hand I don't know anything else and hope for the best with Mac Muncie Max Muncie Sunny Gray I pronounce myself done with Sunny Gray I guess I'm not shocked

I knew he'd have a good start against the Marlins, but he was having a great start, and then he got hit by a comebacker. He left with a calf contusion. His status for his next start is unknown. But, Scott, what are your overall thoughts on Sunny Gray? I feel pretty good about him. I mean, it is weird that it was an afternoon injury, and there was no update provided later on the extent of it. But, yeah, his last two starts have been great. His spring was great.

There was a lot of hope that leaving the Yankees, who didn't agree with the way they were encouraging him to use his arsenal, throwing a slider he didn't feel was that great of a pitch more. And he hasn't been throwing it as much with the Reds and has been getting great results. So he's must-own and hopefully he's okay. He is 64% own. And hopefully he's okay, Sunny Gray, but hopefully he's okay enough to just be pushed back a day or two because that would mean he would avoid the Dodgers next week

and instead we get the Padres. Here is a fantasy PSA. If you have a questionable starting pitcher, do not start him against the Los Angeles Dodgers. It is a terrible, terrible idea. I was lucky. I'm a genius when I'm in 15th place in the 12th team league. I sat Michael Waka.

So that was one good decision I made. Routi to Les. All right, stat cast, backers. No, he did not hit a 500 foot foot. a 505 foot home run. Originally he was given the longest home run in Fenway Park history and then Stackass had to basically remove their projection of the distance because it was clear, I guess, that it wasn't that deep.

It went like 8 to 9. It was probably like a 420 foot home run. He hit it a long way, but there was no way in the world that it was a 500. This is why we can't have robot arms. I love the technology. It's great once the numbers start to settle and you get a lot. of them, but no, we can't have robot ums when we're using technology that thinks that was a 500 5 foot, five foot home run. There were some who, there were some people on Twitter who was trying,

who were trying to tell me that it hit off the facing of the upper deck and bounced back into the crowd, but I, you know, I tried pausing it. They had a nice second angle that showed it it, you know, that showed it from the side that should have made it out. Like, I didn't see that. There was, there was a second batter. Okay, guys, real quick here. Ken Giles had the longest active streak of converted saves end. He had 34 in a row. He blew the save. Devers with the walk-off hit. You saw Pedro Avila pitch for San Diego. It might be one and done. He was called up just to give Chris Paddock an extra day's rest. Jay Bruce could play today, and Todd Frazier could be back any day now for the Mets.

And I do wonder what happens to Jeff McNeil. He's off to a very good start. High batting average, not a ton of power. But I'm sure we'd rather see Juan Ligaris get the boot. or something like that than Jeff McNeil. Yeah. I mean, McNeil has hardly been playing against lefties as it is,

so I don't think anything changes for him. I'd wonder more about J.D. Davis, but, you know, he's not playing consistent enough to be fantasy relevant anyway. I guess, honestly, Nimmo might not have. Nimmo might not be long.

Yeah, he's still leading off. But right, like, why not play McNeil over Nimmo? Maybe there's a defense issue there. Let's do some hey real quick with a couple of Chris's. Chris is that spelled our name with a K which must drive Chris Towers with a C crazy with a K

Hey real quick Chris Davis or Chris Bryant I think I go with Bryant Only because he's not DH only That's the only reason why it's even a question I think And Chris Davis is on a heater

Over his last 365 days He's hitting 249 He's on fire. But he has nine home runs. I don't think that's the only question, Adam. I mean, Chris, without an H, but with decay, is, I think his ceiling is unquestionably higher. It's just how confident are you that he's going to reach it after a couple years in a row where he fell short? Yeah, right.

I mean, Chris Davis is probably going to hit 250 or less again. 249. 47. 47. But he's probably going to approach 50 home runs, and so that's obviously really value. Hey, real quick. Hey, real quick.

What's the answer? Who you got? I'm done rambling. But who you got? Next one. You're taking Chris Davis, too? I think I'm taking Brian, but it's close. Okay, there you go.

Hey, real quick, Ad Alberto Mondesi or Trevor's story? Story. Story. Really? Okay. Boy, Monassie. Is that quick enough for you? Yeah, too quick.

Montysey's off to quite a start. It looks pretty legit. You know I love Mondesie. Come on. I know, I know. There's nothing to do with that. It's just, I'm not ready to, you know, I'm not ready to run away from my preseason expectations for Trevor Story.

All right, Mondice, three steals so far, I think that's actually a pretty good number because he only has six singles and three walks. So he hasn't been on first base. Like, he's got a lot of extra base hits and three steals for Monadie. Story 0 for two on stolen base attempts thus far. And the Rockies have only played five home games compared to eight road games. Story, this is the, you know, it's early, but 611 OPS on the road. Not what we want to see from Trevor's story.

So let's take a look at the most added list on CBS Sports.com. Daniel, I'm bringing Vogel back. Thank you, team name Tuesday. Yeah. He is number one. And Max, freedom is number two. and Jason Hayward is number three and Dansby Swanson's number four

Yandi Diaz number five if you're watching the video you see it all there sexy names there Vogelbach, Freed Hayward, Swanson, Diaz Chris, your reaction to the top five in the most added list. I'm not adding Jason Hayward, I'm sorry I like all the other guys though

I'm really happy with what Dansby Swanson's doing this started in spring training He's focusing more on driving the ball to all fields, which was the profile that we kind of expected from him coming up. And, you know, I love Yandi Diaz. He's a stud. Big damn, baby. So who's the best player on this list?

Vogelbach, Freed, Hayward, Swanson, Yandy. I think it's... I would bet it's Swanson. Ooh. I would bet... I would bet Diaz, but I think Vogelbach has the most upside. There are obvious playing time concerns there, though now Bruce's banged up makes it a little easier. And even before he was banged up, it seemed like they were motivated to get him in the lineup.

So I think his ownership percentage could stand to go up from there. From 52%. From 52, yeah. The one I'm actually least excited about is freed because there's just so many potential replacements. And he hasn't, as good as his last two starts were, there weren't a lot of, there wasn't a lot of swing in. missing them. That's okay. So I'm not... He's a ground ball machine, Scott. Yeah,

he could be. He could be. But I think there's still a lot to prove there. Unlike Chris, I am interested in Hayward from a five outfielder league perspective. And his ownership percentage is probably pretty appropriate now.

56%. It's three stolen bases already, so he's running more, and he's elevating better. It's obviously small sample driven and could normalize, but there's a chance. When anybody who strikes out as little as he does

has a much higher margin for error to be relevant in fantasy. Another play I want to talk about is Yanni Chorinos. Chorinos is 58% oh, excuse me, and he's made two starts and they both have been very good, including seven scoreless inning, seven innings one run

against Houston. but he's in the bullpen right now. He's not going to make a start this week. I guess it's unclear what the race's plans are for Yanni Chorinos. Right now, he looks like a pretty good pitcher. I just don't know what to recommend for fantasy owners, so I'm going to make you recommend something to fantasy owners on Yanni Chorinos. I have him in a 15-team league.

I think he's must-own there. I think, do Heath and I have him in The For the People, which is 14 teams, or 16 teams? It's 16 team, yeah. So any bigger league like that, I think he is most own. I think he's really good. There are questions about what the role might be, but he's got good stuff.

He throws hard. I think his velocity is up quite a bit in the early going and has a really good splitter that he started throwing more this season. So I think there's a good amount. have potential. I like him more than Max Fried. Oh, okay. Yanni Chorinos or Sunny Gray? Sunny Gray.

Yeah, I think still. Okay. That could pretty much suffice for the most added list. Anthony Swarzak has not gotten a save in either of the last two games. He was not available yesterday. We're going to talk about the bullpen in a little bit. Take another quick break. Some early season trends, some buyer sell, some week four help, the Legitometer.

the dropometer. Your emails hopefully at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. It's all coming up right after this on Fantasy Baseball today. Okay, guys, here's a segment called, We're less than three weeks into the season and dot, dot, dot, dot. So we're less than, I do I have to say it every time? We're less than three weeks into the season, and Raphael Devers has been moved out of the three spot.

He has batted fifth or sixth in four straight games, and he had a good game yesterday, but he is off to a bad start, and he's batting 200 with one double and 15 at bats against lefties. So Raphael Devers, does he appear to be an early loser for you guys? I wish he got off to a hot start.

I'd feel better about it. He could wind up back in the three-hole. I mean, that's kind of one thing that I think is kind of funny about the way we fix eight over line-up spots is just managers tinker a ton with their lineups these days. By these days, I mean, that's probably been true of the last 15 years. So I don't know why we, I don't know why we get.

so worked up about it. Yeah. Well, he is up to bad stuff. But right now it's Mitch Morland, I think, batting third. So you're right. Devers could play his way back into it. Would you rather have Rafael Devers or Josh Donaldson? Donaldson hasn't done anything, right?

Nothing. Yeah, I mean, my preseason ranking holds for each. And I have Donaldson, I think, eight spots ahead of Devers. Okay. Yeah, much more of a track record there. And, you know. At some point, I'll get concerned, but not yet. I'll just start Yandi Diaz until either of them gets hot, you know?

Okay. Hey, we're less than three weeks into the season, and No-Wan Aronado and Charlie Blackman have not homered. Yeah. Kind of weird, huh? True. Any concerns? Rockies are off to a horrible start.

They really are. I thought there was a chance they could topple the Dodgers this year, but it's everything, just about everything that could go wrong has. I don't think Wade Davis has a save yet, you know? I'm not really concerned. It's just one of those early season oddities. Like Aronado has really bad, bad at ball data, but the track record is so long.

Like it could be one of those seasons where he just never figures it out, but it's way, way too early to start thinking about that. So Aronado started last year with a home run on opening day, and then he went 14 straight games without a homer, and right now it's 13 straight games. straight games. I think, you know, Blackman could certainly is more worrisome just because he's not as good as

Nolan Aronado and he didn't have a great year last year and he's getting older, but I assume we're cool with him. He did have a great year. To be clear. He had a pretty good year. Not his standards, but it was, it was great

in a vacuum. Okay. It was worse than the year before. It was pretty good. year. So we are less than three weeks into the season, and David Peralta leads baseball with nine doubles, and he also is last in baseball with zero walks. That is weird. David Peralta has not drawn a walk, but he has doubled nine times. This guy was the number 17 outfielder in points leagues. Number 14 in Roto, what do you make of David Peralta's start? I remain skeptical

of him as a whole. I recognize that it could make me look really dumb, but the batted ball data for him is not super impressive so far. It was just a one-year thing. So I'm at least on the baseball savant side. I don't know. I haven't looked at fan graphs, but he's hitting the ball okay hard,

but not particularly well in terms of the angle of impact. So, okay. Like, if you believe in him, you should still believe in him. I just, I didn't believe in him, so I still don't. The main thing that changed from last year is he, his hard contact rate, he became one of the best at that. I think he had the second highest hard contact rate of any hitter. Yep. And that is, that is way up again.

Obviously, with bat at ball data this time of year, it can change very quickly. but so far I'm encouraged. A guy who I didn't have much confidence coming in, I want to say my confidence is way up, but I feel pretty good if I drafted him. Yeah, and you know what? Arizona has faced a ton of lefties, third most of the bats against lefties behind the Giants and the A's.

The Giants are way ahead of the field. The A's have played a couple extra games, I think. I know they had the Japan games. And Peralta's 9 for 24 with four doubles against lefties, so that's good, too. So there's some good and some bad for David Baralta. And finally, we're less than three weeks into the season and your MLB leader in strikeouts.

Just ahead of Max Scherzer and Jacob de Grom and Blake Snell is Matt Boyd. Or Matthew Boyd. Don't know your name. Matthias Boyd, but you need baseball in strikeouts. And how about that? We've talked enough about Matthew Boyd. I just wanted to give him a shout out for being so wonderful. Let's do some buy or sell.

Some of these are from me. Most of them are from the listeners. By or sell from me. Garrett Hampson will remain in. In the Colorado lineup, he will be a regular in the Colorado lineup. Garrett Hanson. The good news for him is nobody else is hitting, but he has earned every bit of his slow start.

There are not a lot of signs. Buy or sell. Bye. I'm going to buy also. That he stays in line of. Okay. Someone dropped him in a 13-team Roto League that I'm in, and I probably will be picking him up.

He does have four hits in his last four games. 40% owned Garrett Hampson. By or sell, Jose Martinez will become a regular in the Cardinals lineup. So? I'm going to buy. You got four hits yesterday. It hasn't made many starts.

But Dexter Fowler is not long for the right field job. It's just a question of do they go with Martinez or O'Neillmore. Buy or sell, Jesse Winker. 61% own needs to be added immediately. 100% buy. Yeah, I would buy two. Basically, his first five games were bad, and he's hitting like 260 with an 880 OPS since. I think that, by the way, Chris did say this in his waiver wire column yesterday, that you should pick up Jesse Winker.

I think, Chris, that 100% buy should be your catchphrase whenever you leave a room. 100% buy. Yes, exactly. All right, from Matthew Ziegler. Buy herself. Fantasy Cat is the third best analyst on the pod. Is he here today? Tiger?

Tiger Cat. El Tigray? And he sleeps through it. I don't know what kind of analysis you're looking for, but... That's the cutest kind of. He is the second cutest. He's not cute. Bye.

You pet him, you wind up with his old man drool all over you. There's nothing cute about that. That is adorable. By herself also from Matthew, Robinson Canoe is washed. He said washed up. I will fix it. Robinson Kano is washed. Sell.

Sell. Buy herself from Billy. Yohan Moncada is a top five second basement in both points and roto. I sell, but I want to buy. Maybe I'll buy some futures. 12. Can I go 12? Certainly at second.

I'd be willing to predict that at this point. I think I moved him up that high in my rankings. You have a 15th. But he can go... In second? He can go... He can go ahead of ProFar Parazza in VR. Like, NPR's off to doger.

He could. He could. He could. He could. Yeah. All right, that's, that's, that's, that's kind of a messy borsum right there. But I could see ranking him above all of them. Buy herself from Brent. Ronald Ocuna hits 40 home runs.

I'll sell, but it won't, there will become a point in September where I'll feel a little antsy about it. My head says sell. My gut says bye. Look at the graphics department here for video Going through my mentions And getting the tweet up there I love it Now I have to accurately read the tweet though

So the pressure is on This is from Kieran Hall Buy or sell Burrios is a top 10 starting pitcher Sell Yeah you don't need me to say that Buy or sell from Michael Peter Alonzo hits 30 plus home runs And bats 260

I buy the 30 home runs part for sure Yeah Yeah you throw the combo at us but I'll buy it based on what I was saying earlier. All right, 30 homers, 30 plus homers, and the 260 average for Alonzo. We're buying it. This is from Paul.

Buy ourselves, Chris Davis, hits 60 home runs. I mean, he hasn't had a hit in like 60 at plate appearances. Oh, oh, sell. Yeah, I got to sell. You could get me to buy 50, but 60 is a bridge too far. This is from Eric, buy or sell, D. Gordon,

and Malick Smith will finish one end. two in steals for the season. Sell. There are too many royals. All right. Next up we have from lineup legends. Buy or sell. Richard Love Lady finishes the season with 15 plus saves.

I'll sell. Sure. I'll go bold prediction there. I think I mean there's yeah, I mean there's the bullpen's terrible and he has upside. So I'll buy.

We've got a couple, a few more here. Buy yourself from Aaron. Forrest Whitley, Astro's prospect, the pitcher, is a must own. Forrest Whitley. Not right now. At some point. Hopefully. I did remove him from, and we talked about this a little yesterday.

I actually wrote the column yesterday after the podcast, though. And I did remove him from the top five prospects to stash. He would probably be among the top 10. but there's a few things that have to happen before he's getting called up and I'm sure we'll have plenty of forewarning before those things do happen.

This is from the rhodo feed. Buy or sell, nearly all foods that end with Eitos are delicious. I can't think of any that aren't. Other than like chip brands. Burritos. What are we talking about?

Burritos. Oh, burritos. Yeah, that's the, I think. Takedos. Tequitos, yeah. I don't know that... I'm not sure I've had a tequot. I don't know that fritos are delicious.

Like, fritos are fine. They're not delicious. Oh, they're delicious. Come on. They're a great receptacle for getting delicious things in your mouth, and I'll give them credit for that. They're part of the team. The simplicity of the... There's only three ingredients in a frito.

You know that? Three ingredient. Scott White should be a food critic. This guy, he takes such a scientific approach to all his food opinions. I love it. Lee from Fargo has our last buy or sell. By herself, Melki Cabrera played with Babe Ruth. Seriously, I've played fantasy baseball for 30 years,

and I can't remember a year without Melki Cabrera. Bye. And every single year, he went undrafted, and then somebody was starting him by June. Who Bay, Bruce? Okay, let's go. All right, so here's what we're going to do. We're going to get through all of yesterday's stuff that's important.

And we're going to do it quickly. We start with a Legitometer. Zero to 10 on the Legitometer. I know I keep mentioning some of the same names, but they keep on performing. So, Enrique Hernandez, top two second basement in fantasy right now, batting 349 with four home runs, 0 to 10, Enrique Hernandez. Six. He's a legitimate middle infielder.

I'll go seven. There's no way he should be on waivers than any league at this point. Marcus Simeon, legitimate, legitimate. 71% own Simeon is batting 323 with three homers and a steel. he's good no he's not seven or eight he's he's not good he's always he's always at least a starting middle infielder not really like last year he was last year he wasn't i mean didn't he have like 15 steals and 15 homers that's not good 15 homers 14 steals a 255

batting average in a rhodo league that's a starting middle infielder line i mean you know they're if every if everybody in a 12 team rhodo league is paying attention, then, I mean, it would be one of the worst starting middle infielder, but it would deserve to be a starting middle infielder. I'm intrigued just from the standpoint that his strikeout rate for the second straight year is way down. And it was in spring. It has been, he has, the A's have played, the A's and Mariners have both played so much

more than everybody else. So he's already at 72 played appearances for the regular season. Combined the ones with spring training and he's up around like 120. and hardly any strikeout. So if that's true, if that's a new thing for him, then he suddenly becomes much more interesting. Yeah, that's a good point. All right, so that's Marcus Simeon.

Freddie Galvis on the legionelior meter. Zero. What's weird about, yeah, I mean, I'm going to go zero. Just say zero. What's weird about him is, okay. Yeah. Dropometer, drop omit. We got a late start today due to my fault. Let's do it.

Let's do it. We got to end the show in about six minutes. Dropometer. Zach Godley, zero to ten. Oh, we already did him. Six. Yes. Miguel Cabrera, batting 261 with...

No, he's not... Is he betting 261? Yeah, he think he is. But he stinks. Miguel Cabrera. Three. Two. Josh Donaldson, batting 186 with three doubles.

All three of his doubles have come in the last four games. Josh Donaldson. Two. Danny Jansen, 79% own. Three. Two. Boy, that's a bad start. Five for 34, down in the order.

He's still playing a ton for a catcher. Jung Ho Gong, 32% own. Nine. Yeah, nine sounds good. Okay. Let me talk about some fringes here. Stephen Matt's, Aaron Sanchez, Kevin Gosman, Pablo Lopez, Mike Leak. Do you like any of them long term?

Stephen Matt's, Aaron Sanchez, Kevin Gosman, Pablo Lopez, Mike Leak. definitely intrigued by Matt's. I wish he was getting more swinging strikes, but this is two eight strikeout games in a row after a really impressive finish to last season. The numbers from his last seven starts were ace-like. So I think he deserves to be more owned than he is. And I'm not giving up on Pablo Lopez.

I might drop him at this point to make room for somebody else, but I think there's still a lot of upside there. And Pablo Lopez is probably the kind of guy that you can drop and he won't go at it. So I think it makes sense. I think it's time to take a look at week four. Chris, you have some hitting advice for us? Yeah, let me just open up that spreadsheet that I've got that's available on

Sportsline.com for users. Now, before you do that, let me tell you, go to Sportsline.com. If you want this information, you got to pay $1 for your first month. Use the promo code Vegas on Sportsline.com. Also, it's Masters Week underway, full swing. Is that a golf expression, full swing? Go to CBSports.com slash Masters First Cut for different camera views.

You can follow different types of things and watch CBS Sports HQ all week during the Masters. CBS Sports.com slash Masters First Cut and check out the first cut podcast as well. All right, what do we got in terms of hitters? We got some really good ones. I think you probably put Philadelphia at the top. They've got three games against the Mets,

which will probably be tough. But then four games at Colorado, so seven games overall. great for the Phillies. I think you probably keep starting Michael Franco. I'm not sure they really have any fringy guys. Otherwise, maybe says Hernandez, but I don't think he's really someone that you're widely owned right now.

And Minnesota has Toronto and at Baltimore. That is sensational. So I think we're sticking with Byron Buxton, who's looked really good so far. And the White Sox have home against Kansas City at Detroit for seven games. Angels have three at Texas, four versus Seattle. So there's some good ones out there for sure. So fellas, yeah, to the listeners, I need to apologize for being so rushed.

But I did have, you know, I was the reason why we're late to start today. And that's why we have to finish pretty quickly. And so I'm going to go through the two-star pitchers fairly quickly here. And then I'll try to get some one-star weekend streamers to try to help you win this current week. but Aaron Nola has the Mets and then he's at Colorado. Are you starting Aaron Nola? Yes. Okay.

Chris Sale is not going to be a two-star pitcher, I don't think, because he's being pushback. So just be aware of that. And we're probably not starting him in one start against the Yankees. Joey Lucchese, Colorado and Cincinnati, both at home. Both at Colorado? No, no. No, both in San Diego. You definitely, you start him.

You start Lucchasey. Robbie Ray is at Atlanta and at the Cubs. No. Yeah, I'm just worried about, I'd be worried about the whip in a Roto League. In a points league, I'd probably do it. Yeah, points, yeah. Kenta Maeda, Cincinnati at home, Milwaukee on the road. Start.

Yeah. Yeah. There is no way I'm... Maybe not Roto. No way I'm starting Freddie Peralta against the Cardinals and Dodgers at home. No. All right, this is a tough one. Matt Shoemaker.

at Minnesota and at Oakland. I think I would. Oh, I don't think it's tough. I think that's a yes for me. Matthew Boyd, Pittsburgh and the White Sox at home. Yep. Yep. Now, I'm going to ask you about you say Kikuchi.

Cleveland at home and the Angels on the road, and I would typically start him, but we're getting to the point, or are they going to just throw like a bullpen day with one of his starts? Because, you know, we're getting to like six starts for him. I think he's made four already. I think...

given the time off after his first start in Japan, that maybe they might be able to avoid that? I'm not sure. I haven't seen anything. All right. It's a touch risky, but I think the first start at home against Cleveland could be a good one. Max Fried, Arizona, and at Cleveland.

Yeah, I think he can. I was supposed to be a two-star pitcher this week. What happens? Yeah, what happened? Yeah, I would start him. Okay, that's good. You Darvish at Miami and home against Arizona. Are you kidding with these matchups?

I think you have to. You do have to? I know. God. The matchups are you so good. How can you, like, oh, he's been so bad, though. Exactly. No, you'd only consider it in a points league.

Yeah. I think I'm going to have to do it in a Roto League because I'm in 15th place at 12th team. Domingo Armand, Boston and Kansas City at home. That one's really, really interesting. I think no. Really? The Boston, I mean, I know Boston's been bad,

so far, but I'm not going to... Yeah, but the other one's Kansas City. Sure. He's been great so far. But they don't really strike out very much. Oh, he'll strike them out. I'm going yes, sir. All right, we got a split on Irman.

Nick Povetta, no. Mets at home, Rockies on the road, no. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Trevor Richards, Cubs and Nationals. That one's really tough. Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry. I believe it. I believe in Richards.

Let's do it. Two starts. Let's do it. All right, Trevolution. These are all, these are guys that you can pick up. We got Kyle Gibson, Aaron Sanchez, Brandon Woodruff, Mike Minor, Derek Rodriguez, two roadstarts, Mike Leak, Jake Oterese, Dylan Bundy, Tyler Malley, Dakota Hudson, Ronaldo Lopez, Matt Harvey, Jorge Lopez. That's probably all we'll consider there.

I think Tyler Malley is worth considering. You know, that starts at L.A., but then at San Diego. Yeah, he probably does standout here. Two good matchups. Yeah, he's got Toronto and at Baltimore. I mean, Baltimore is a tough place to pitch, but I don't buy that their offense has been decent so far. I guess I don't believe he's a good pitcher.

I think he can be good enough. Who's this, Oteresee? Oter Ezy, yeah. Yeah, that is our good matchups. Wow. Miner, and I want to do Mike Miner, not with those matchups. I have to apologize. Probably my second favorite of the one scarcely owned here.

I really wanted to read some emails, and I apologize for that. So I'll make sure we do it next week, even though it's a busy week, a lot of games. Weekend streamers real quick. Julio Arias, 72% owned. He's facing Milwaukee, but he's really good. I like Michael Paneda. He's 76% own also. He's getting Detroit.

Caleb Smith against Philadelphia is not bad. He's 50% owned. I'm fairly interested in Merrill Kelly, 31% against San Diego. Not the easiest matchup, but could do worse. And then I really like Vince Velasquez, 38% owned at Miami. Jake Junis, maybe against Cleveland, but he's been pretty bad. I think I'd probably start Eric Lauer, 68% own at Arizona. But Velasquez is my favorite.

So please enjoy. Thank you for listening, and so sorry about the short show and the Rush Show. My fault. Have a great weekend. We will talk to you on Monday. We're Scott and Chris. I'm Adam. See you later.

Strong a way.