Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Garrett, Suarez, Triggs and our Band Name!

Episode Date: April 13, 2017

So many players who weren't really on our preseason radar have impressed during the first two weeks. How excited are we about Amir Garrett, Eugenio Suarez, Andrew Triggs, Mike Leake, Brandon McCarthy and Jordan Montgomery? ... Marcus Semien's steals, Elvis Andrus' homers, Marcus Stroman's strikeouts and Vince Velasquez's struggles ... An early glance at two-start pitchers, an update on the Rangers bullpen and our thoughts on Aaron Judge's encouraging start ... 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

The show today on Fantasy Baseball today, in fact, so busy, did not even have time for buyer's sell or to her fault to completely different segments. I'm Adam Azer with Heath Cummings and Chris Towers. We're going to talk about Vince Malesquez and his early struggles. Talk about some middle infielders that are excelling in areas they've never excelled before. Some people got their first hits of the season, first home runs of the season, first save of the season yesterday. We'll talk about that. Good morning, guys. we've been talking about the NBA playoffs.

Real quick, who's going to win the NBA championship this year go? The Warriors, that was quick enough. And I'm not going to let this stand, Adam. It's Thursday. America has been clamoring for the hottest new game to just capture people's attention. They're playing it in bars. They're playing it in churches.

They're playing it everywhere. You buried it at the very end of the show last week. It's unfair. Giant Jenga? What are you talking about? The best new game in the world, do you even know who I am? Oh, you name players and I have no idea who they are, do you embarrass me? I forgot to put you on the clock for do you even know who I am.

All right, we'll play a round of that a little bit later. I want to start with some good old-fashioned trivia. Stump you guys. So we know third base is this position with some of the absolute best players in baseball. We had four third basemen, including Manny Machado, drafted in the first round. Can you name right now through nine-ish games the top two third baseman in fantasy, both points in Roto? Same guys.

Same guys. Daniel Murphy. False. He's not third base. That would make it difficult for him to be number one. Awful guess. I will just, like, I really can't is the answer. So I will say Jan Harvus Delarte.

He's third. That's a good game. He's third in points. Much better guest than Chris, though, right? Yeah, so I'll give you a hint. One is in the National League West. One is in the National League Central. Jake Lamb?

Jake Lamb is number one. One's the National League Central? Yeah. Travis Shaw. No. I'm looking at the Fangraph's leaderboards. I think I have it. Go for it.

That's cheating. Hey, Euhayneos Suarez. 43% owned, batting 429 with two home runs. five walks, four strikeouts, and three doubles, also eight RBIs for a 25-year-old who wasn't very good last year, but in 2015, Suarez hit 280, slug 446. That's something, right? And he's got power. He's got 20 homer power.

We know that. But what do you think? Is there a chance E. E. E. E. Haneo-Swarz breaks out this year, and is mixed league relevant? I think he's really streaky, and you should pick him up and ride this streak until he cools off in a Roto League. Is he still eligible at other positions? I don't believe so. I think just corner infield and third. He was a lot more interesting when he was shortstop eligible.

He is only corner eligible and third base eligible. People are asking about Ehio Henro Swarra. So I wanted to throw him a bone there. He's off to a nice start. And okay, there you go. He says pick him up while he's hot. By the way, he's much better, usually better, much better against lefties or just better. And has only faced four so far this year.

So it should be some good production against lefties coming for. Juarez. So who stood out to you guys yesterday? What were the big stories in fantasy baseball for you? How about Danny Salazar? Yep. Fired. Absolutely dominant. 11 strikeouts and six innings had the changeup was absolutely unhittable against a bad. I don't even know if they're quad A. I think that's a AAA lineup at this point. They're a AAA lineup with like four major league hitters. And then five AAA guys.

And some of those major league hitters are kind of hypothetical. The White Tucks? Yeah. They got Frazier, Melkin Cabrero? Yesterday they did not have. Jose I agree. Yesterday they did not have Todd Frazier, for what it's worth. And Salazar through six innings, gave up two runs, actually got the loss with 11

strikeouts. If you look at both of his starts this year, this is why Scott didn't really like Salazar. He's thrown six innings, and he's thrown five and two-thirds innings. He has 20 strikeouts to six walks in 11 and two-thirds. The fact that Salazar strikes out so many guys means. he doesn't pitch that many innings, but you're not going to turn down and start like yesterday's. No, and I'm kind of, like, if he can just get to a hundred, normally we're wanting guys to get over 200 innings, right? Yeah.

He's the type of guy that could be a top 25 pitcher with 190s. And 200 innings is like, like, if you throw 200 innings, you're probably a top 20 pitcher. Yeah. I don't think it happens very often. You'd have to be bad. You have a bad year to throw 200 innings and not be top 20, probably. And usually bad pitchers don't get to 200. hundred innings.

Right. Yeah, no, look, I always sided with you guys on Salazar. I think he's good. But he did walk four in his first outing. Does Salazar have control issues? I don't know if that's clear. His career has been a little up and down. He has command issues.

Okay. And that manifests as control issues sometimes. Anyone else? Other standouts from yesterday? Elvis Andrews. Oh, yeah. All right. Let's talk about two middle infielders who are excelling in categories.

They've never excelled in before. Elvis Andrews has three home runs, and Marcus Simeon has four steals. He has never stolen more than 11 in a year. Simeon also is batting leadoff right now, and he has eight walks, 10 strikeouts, and he's, according to his manager last week, Bob Melvin said Simeon has not been chasing breaking balls as much as he used to. Now, he's batting 172, but there's a reason to think that'll come up. Yeah, so are you more encouraged by Marcus Simeon steals four and four attempts, or Elvis Andrews home runs, three so far?

I would say Simeon Steels. Yeah, probably Simeon steals because I think he's... The power we believe in with him, so anything else he can add to that, I think it's useful. Now, that being said, I still like Andrews more than I like Simeon. Right. We pretty much know who Andrews is, unless he's going to hit 300 again like he did last year,

which was a surprise. He had been more like a 260 hitter, but he had a great second half last year, batting 314. and I don't know why, like, let's not overlook his steals. Elvis Andrews is a very reliable, what, like 25 steals guy? Yeah. I think he's got, I would expect him to hit between 280 and 300 and steal between 20 and 30 bases.

See, the 280 to 300 is questionable to me just because he's been, other than last year, he's been closer to 260, Andrews. I will point out his average exit velocity is 83 miles per hour, which is really, really bad for an everyday player. So just keep that in mind. I'm not sure he's exactly hitting the ball consistently hard right now. No, he's not going to... I'd be really surprised, honestly, if he hits double-digit home runs this year.

Right. But Simian, let's talk about Simian then. Let me finish Andrews. Would you rather have Andrews or Paraza? Paraza. Yeah. In a Roto League, I'd say Perraza. Parraza, because I think he's going to steal more bases.

I'm not sure. I'm still not completely sold. He had a good game last night. I'm not completely sold. He's up to like 3.30, right? Yeah. He's hitting well, and he's got four steals, I think. Paraza.

So off to a nice start. But I don't know if he has any extra base. Maybe, but not much. Simeon 76% owned. Again, he's batting 172. He has not homered yet, and that is actually something he did very well last year. He had 27 home runs.

What do you make of this? It's a very different start, you know, other than low batting average, which he gave you last year. No power but for steals and good plate discipline, eight walks, 10 strikeouts so far. What do you make a simian start? The interesting thing is if you look, like if you had a fan graphs, they will have their grades for players' various skills at the top of their page. And they've always had him with a better speed grade than raw power grade. I think we always thought he was someone that could steal more bases. He had a year where he stole 26 in the minors.

Yeah, I think he has 20-20 upside. Right. I expected his homers to come down just a little bit this year. So 20 may be closer to the ceiling for home runs, but it's definitely the ceiling for stolen bases as well. It's tough to have a middle infielder that's going to hit in the 230s, though. He has to hit like 40 home runs, which is not going to happen. Or steal 40 bases.

I don't know, still 30 bases. But 230's batting average is just awful. He had 238 last year. Is that what we expect from Simeon, or could it get better? Significantly better. I would expect it to be somewhere, like 230, you're saying. It was actually 238. It's 2.30s, yeah.

I would expect it to be somewhere between 235 and 260, just depending on batted ball luck. Yeah. All right. Let's talk about Vince Velasquez. Vince Velasquez is 88% owned. Yesterday I gave you some pictures like J.Hap, and I don't even remember everybody that was on there. But, you know, guys who were pretty widely owned, Jeff Samaraja, and I said, who could you see yourself dropping, you know, after a few more bad starts?

And Chris, I think you said most of them. I don't remember the specifics. Well, you named a bunch of older guys without much upside as well. Well, how about Velasquez? Is he somebody that you're going to ride it out for at least a month, let's say, if he continues to struggle? I'm probably not going to start him next week at this pace, but I don't know. He might be a two-star pitcher next week, so we'll see. Look, the issue for him last season was inconsistency.

I think the issue for him so far this season's inconsistency. He's allowed three home runs, I believe two of them have come with two strikes. He's actually ended 14 at bats with two strikes. He struck out 10 of those. And he's allowed two home runs, a double, and a single. So, you know, I think he's so close and I think he's so talented that I'm definitely not giving up on him anytime soon. He's got a 438 Mabit against and a 38% home run to fly ball rate. Two starts.

Those things aren't going. But after two starts, it's not like you can just say that's all luck. He's getting hit hard. It's not just two starts for Velasquez. It's last year, too. He was mostly drafted off of because of upside, not because of production. So other than the Padres game last year. All right.

I saw a tweet from Chris about Nick Castiano's 82% owned. Nick Castiano? It's Nicholas now. Oh, is it really? We're being very formal. Really? Just like Mitchell Trubisky. He is Nicholas Castianos, please.

What would you like to say about Nicholas Castianos? Good old, jolly old St. Nicholas. I think we probably old. overlooked him. I know last season, the rate stats were better than the counting stats because he wasn't a great run producer or a great run score, but I think that was as much a product of where he batted in the lineup. He is hitting the ball really hard all over the field. He probably should have had a home run yesterday. I think he bounced at like two feet short of the of the top of the wall. He's hitting the ball. 97.9 miles per hour, average exit velocity. I think. I think.

I think he's someone that we might have overlooked coming into the season. I kind of feel like, Adam, since you were so excited about Gregory Polanco, you should have been equally excited about Nick Castianos. Yeah, you could definitely make that case. I mean, he's still young. I don't think, I think that's one of the things is that we don't, we don't consider him young because he's been around so long. Right. But he's only 25, and he just turned 25. Gregory Polanco, by the way, I'll talk about him in a second.

Yeah, Castiano got off to a great start, and then he got hurt, and then he struggled. But what did he, he like broke a bone last year, right? You remember? I think it was a wrist injury, wasn't it? Oh, okay. I don't recall. So has he separated himself from any of these guys who were... Broken left hand.

Okay, so I don't know how much that affected him. I think Polanco was playing through injuries. Castiano's went on the DL. So has Castiano separated himself from any of the following? is these guys were sort of viewed similarly. Mike Mustakas, Ryan Healy, Travis Shaw, Nick Castiano, Nicholas Castellanos. Mustakas Healy, Shaw, Castellanos.

Has anybody separated themselves in that group? I think I probably like him more than anyone in that group right now. I don't, obviously, because you said Travis Shaw. But I would say that he has elevated himself along with Travis Shaw, who's now struggling again. but I would separate Castiano's from Mastrakis. And he actually, Castiano's last year in particular, a lot of his profile looked a lot like J.D. Martinez.

And so, you know, I wonder, and I've never seen anything about it, but I wonder if he's kind of bought into the J.D. Martinez's hatred of ground balls. We haven't spoken about Amir Garrett yet. We will. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We've got your emails. We'll also talk about Mike Leak, and we've got band names. Yesterday, we asked you to submit band names for the four of us.

If the four of us started a band, what would our band name be? And we've got some pretty good ones. But before we get to the pitchers from yesterday, Michael Conforto is 32% owned. He led off and he homered. Juan Lagaris is going to come back soon. And Conforto, by the way, is four for ten with two home runs, two walks, and two strikeouts so far. Remember, in 2015, he batted 270 and slugged 506. and he had a 335 on base.

So Conforto, that was a rookie season. Very good. Terrible last year. They've got to find more time for him. Is he going to be someone who is widely owned? Again, Conforto 32% owned. Will he be widely owned in a few weeks, a month? I don't see how it happens, barring injury.

What's Jack Peterson's ownership? It's probably the 80s. Well, no, I mean, Jack Peterson has a job. That's the issue with him. No, but I think that's his upside. What's the path to a job for Michael Confortum? I think... No, the path to a job is...

Sorry to cut you up. The path to a job is the Mets getting some damn sense and playing him over a guy like Curtis Granderson. Yeah, I don't... Curtis Garnison, I think, would have to go into a really long slump. And the thing is, we've seen long slumps from him in recent years that have turned around. Jay Bruce is hitting the ball too well right now to consider benching.

He would have been the main candidate before the season, I thought. They should trade him. trade him right now they tried they tried really hard in the off season now he might have value is hitting too well to consider moving j bruce to first base which is something they talked about in the first uh in the off season yeah i i just it's really hard with the way the mats are set up right now to see how michael conforto becomes an everyday player although i think he should be i think he's their second best outfield yeah all right we'll see it's good points you make there it's a little frustrating for the 32% of our owners that have, well, that's not true.

The owners that have Michael Conforto, he's owned in 32% of our leagues, not 32% of our owners. All right, the fringy starting pitchers. These are the guys that are going to be added and dropped off the waiver wire. A lot of these guys are two-star pitchers. Vince Velasquez, by the way, is not a two-star pitcher next week, as of right now. Zach Wheeler had a nice start, and he's only walked two so far in nine and two-thirds. Now, he was throwing a scoreless outing, Zach Wheeler, at Philadelphia, and you shouldn't overreact to starts against the Phillies.

But then he ran into trouble in the 6th. He gave up a couple of hits and a walk. He left the game. Hansel Robles came in, grand slam to Michael Franco, three runs charged to Wheeler. Amir Garrett is now 56% owned. In two starts, he's thrown 12 and 2 thirds, giving up 7 hits,

two runs with two walks and nine strikeouts against the Pirates and the Cardinals, both on the road. He was very good last night, and his change-up has been great. Brandon McCarthy has had two good starts. One against the Padres, one last night at the Cubs. Mike Leak is off to a great start. 13 strikeouts in 14 innings, one run so far against the Reds and the Nationals.

Andrew Triggs, RP eligible, is also off to a good start. He only has four strikeouts in 11 and 2-thirds, but has not given up a run-run-run-run-up yet. and he did strike out about a battle per inning last year. And I think Jordan Montgomery did enough to get mentioned in today's show. Oh, my goodness. What did you think? I said yesterday five innings, three runs.

You said no. He goes four and two-thirds and gives up three runs. Two runs. Two earned. Yeah, no, that makes sense then. The one earned run, un-earned run. Yeah. Well, no, I mean, he wouldn't have given up the run if not for a stupid error.

But Montgomery had 17 swinging strikes. He throws four pitches. He got swinging strikes on all of his pitches. He gave up a two-run homer in the first inning and shut the raise down after. I actually thought it was a pretty good debut for him. But he's probably second to last on this list. But let's talk about these guys. Wheeler, Garrett, McCarthy, Leak, Triggs, Montgomery.

Who would you be looking to add right now? I'd be okay with adding Garrett. I'm not particularly excited about what my... Mike Leak has shown because I would assume he's still Mike Leak. I don't see. But Mike Leak's a two-star pitcher next week. They all are pretty much. I am pretty excited about starting Mike Leak on a two-start week next week.

It's kind of like two-star Tom. Is he at home? He's got Pittsburgh at home and he's at Milwaukee. Pittsburgh cannot hit right now. You've got to go get like Mike Leak should be closer to like 60% of it. Yeah. But seriously. Mike League for next week.

Everybody on this list, I'm pretty sure, is a two-star pitcher. So, like, it could just be matchups. He's got very good matchups. Brandon McCarthy, unfortunately, is facing the Diamondbacks twice next week. Yeah, I'm not really excited about Brandon McCarthy. Amir Garrett is somebody that definitely needs to see his ownership go up again. Triggs, if you're in a points league, close to a must add as a spark. Let me tell you what I did yesterday in our podcast, Points League.

I put in three waiver claims dropping Carlos Belchon and our first part. all three. So I knew I was only going to get one of them. First was Amir Garrett. That was my number one priority. I watched a lot of baseball last night. I watched him, and here's what I can tell you about Garrett. He's a gigantic lefty. He used to play basketball for St. John's. And his main, his most important pitch is his change-up. So he even said, if he's commanding the change-up, you know, the results are going to be there. He didn't command it in spring training. He got hit around. So that does worry me a little bit with Garrett. If his change-ups not working, does that mean he's going to get hit hard, very

possible, but he was outstanding last night. It looked really good. My second one was Andrew Triggs because it was a points league. Personally, I kind of feel like it's smoke and mirrors with him, but I don't know. Yeah, I was not particularly impressed by him watching him last night. I mean, he was going up against the worst lineup in baseball, so. Yeah, the Royals. Right, you watched him.

I watched a little bit. It just felt like a guy who's going to get figured out. I did not realize that he was throwing the ball from like third base. Right. I guess I just hadn't noticed that when I watched him before. So he's going to be difficult to pick up for righties, but I don't know how lefties don't just pound him. Yeah. But still, points Lee, where you can start him, he's got two starts next week, and he's RP eligible,

and Triggs has Texas and Seattle at home. And then my third waiver claim was Aaron Judge, actually, because I'm encouraged by the start he's gotten off to. But Garrett, I prioritize over both of that. I will say that watching Jordan Montgomery, I was relatively impressed by the number of swings and misses he was able to generate. Yeah, I don't know how relevant he's going to be. There's going to be some ups and downs. That was his major league debut. But at the very least, Montgomery should be on people's radar, right?

Yes. Anything else to say about this group? I mean, like, who's got the most upside? Could Amir Garratt be a Waver-Wire star this year? I would probably say he has the most upside of this group, either him or Montgomery. Not Wheeler? Would have the most upside if he wasn't on a 120 inning limit, which means that even if he does pitch well, he probably won't pitch much past July. Right.

Would you drop Brandon Finnegan for any of these guys? No. No, probably not. Would you drop J.Hap for any of these guys? No. I would not either. Would you rather have Senzatella or Garrett? Garrett.

Garrett. Yeah. Alex Cobb or Garrett? That'd be a tough one for me. Cobb. Yeah, I go Cobb. Garrett has two starts next week? Yes. I'll say, Girard. Cob might.

Cob has two starts this week. Ah. And I'm not sure that I'm playing the two-start game this early, by the way. If it's a pitcher that I think can help me all year, it's week three. I understand that. I think that's fair. I just don't know that there's enough difference between Garrett and Cobb. Well, this is one of those, like, there's like some game theory involved.

I'm thinking of, like, the show where they give you the three doors and they eliminate one of them. like you've got a guy if you think there's another guy who's very similar to him I almost like I hesitate to make that move just because like you've already got one of them what are your chances of being right so you said game theory

do you think it's time to play do you even know who I am I have so much to do on the show today I'm sorry it is not and we'll talk about some bad starting pitchers in a moment by the way I also dropped Vince I don't not Vince Glasses I dropped Willie Peralta for Amir-Garrett yesterday, so in a different league.

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It's beautiful stuff, really. Take a look. Just peruse. I think you'll like it. I had bad pitchers from yesterday. Stephen Wright gave up eight runs in an inning in a third. He's 70% own. Blake Snell was pitching really well.

He was cruising along, and then he had some control issues, and couldn't get through the fifth inning. at the Yankees. So that's two discouraging starts in a row for Snell, who's 66% owned. Yvonne Nova, 82% owned. He's basically had one bad inning in two starts this year. And that was, you know, he had six innings three runs, but four runs, three earned last night. But only 1K against the Reds.

Jason Hamill got roughed up again. Shelby Miller, didn't really do it for me last night or for anyone. And that's it. We've got Stephen Wright, Blake Snell, Yvonne Nova, Hamel, and Miller. Shelby Miller. Who's the best of this five pitcher bunch? Yes. I'm... Nova for me.

I'm probably just going to... If these are my five choices, I'm probably just going to stick with Blake Snell. I hope he figures it out. Yeah, honestly, I'm most interested in owning either Snell or Miller at this point among this group. I guess, Nova's fine. What is it that you don't like about Nova? I mean, he really was very good with the pirates last year. It was a very small sample size.

He didn't strike anyone out. He didn't strike. I don't dislike Nova, but I just don't see any upside. You're not going to get strikeouts. That's clear, but you're also not going to get walks. So he's a guy that might be able to help you a lot in WIP if he's good. News and notes. Matt Bush has a sore shoulder.

So they're not saying that this is a DL thing. Bush could be back on four. Friday, apparently he dealt with shoulder soreness last year as well. Jose LeClerc got in there yesterday and pitched pretty well, and he walks everyone, but doesn't give up runs. Is Jose LeClerc a dark horse in the Rangers bullpen? Yesterday was weird, because they went for him for a five-out save, and Jeffers, who I think we all assumed would have been next in line after Matt Bush, pitched the seventh and one out

in the 8th. So that was kind of weird. Now, LeClerc came in, got two outs in the 8th. It was a three-run game at the time. Then the Rangers added two more runs in the 9th, and it was no longer a save situation. So maybe that's why they left them in. I'm not sure. That sounds like a reasonable assumption. I don't know who they would have gone to. Yeah, I don't know. Dyson? I just can't imagine he was available.

I don't know. Well, LeClerc, I mean, I'm just putting the name out there. He's done well so far in limited big league action, but he walks a lot of guys. So that's a problem. But Matt Bush with the sore shoulder, it's something to keep an eye on. Todd Fraser's day to day. Jason Kipnis was hit by a pitch on the hand during a rehab assignment. He was removed, they're saying, precautionary.

Brett Gardner is not going to play today. He collided with Ricky Weeks. He has a bruised jaw and a strain neck does not. Did not test positive for a concussion, so that was good. Weeks has a bone bruise in his shoulder. Byron Buxton sat. J.D. Martinez might be slightly ahead of schedule. You might get him back fairly soon from the Liss-Frank injury.

Dodgers are putting Franklin Gutierrez on the DL. He plays against lefties. Justin Turner is expected to start today after sitting yesterday. Clay Buckholt has a partial tear of his right flexor pronator mass. That is apparently something in your arm. So that could be a long term. Is that what Stephen Mats is supposed to have as well? Or like a strain?

Which is a partial tear? Isn't his a flexor mass injury? A flexor tendon? Is that the same as a flexor pronator mass? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know anything about masses. Yeah.

Rookie Davis is on the DL. Cody Reed and Robert Stevenson could replace him in the Reds rotation. Jorge Solair could start a rehab assignment next week. And here are some tidbits for you. Ooh. Yeah. Alex Bregman was moved to sixth in the Houston order with Josh Redick batting second against the righty

and Evan Gattis sat again. Doesn't matter. He's top five catcher. Played three times a week. I feel so stupid. Yeah. It's early. There's still the injury scenario. He shouldn't feel stupid for this.

Yeah, that's true. Heath has been, or Chris has been writing, if Heath had written it, I wouldn't mention it, but Chris has been writing about eligibility. and Carlos Santana needs two more appearances to be outfield eligible. Which none of us realized at the time. It was kind of one of those things we,

once somebody realized we were like, wait, Carlos Santana's been playing right field. He's started two games there. I feel stupid for not realizing that. But he hasn't gotten, I think we noticed that like four days ago and he hasn't gotten an appearance since, so we'll keep an eye on that,

but that would definitely boost his value. Yeah, it would be nice. Trevor Story says he feels really close to coming out of a slump, so hope he's right. Cool story, bro. Gregory Polanco sat against a lefty. I am a little concerned about Polanco. I don't think he's necessarily going to start sitting against lefties,

but I just worry about that shoulder. Just a day off. Yeah, he's been terrible. Clear your head. Mitch Morland hit his league-leading seventh double of the season. Man, one of them should go over the fence at some point, right? I guess so. And he's got seven doubles.

Mookie Betts and Zander Bogarts have combined for zero extra base hits. It's a space jam situation, I think. I have no idea what you mean by that. Mitch Morland has stolen Mookiee Betts and Zander Bogart's power. Okay, of course that's what you meant. Have you ever seen Space Jam? Yes, but... It's kind of the central...

Everyone knew exactly what he meant when he said that. Did they? You should do a Twitter poll. I should or Chris should? You should. Okay. I will do that while you guys answer some questions. So I got some emails.

I think they're relevant, not just for the emailers themselves, but for all of us listeners out there. Except for this first one. This first one is really very personal. It's from Anonymous. I'm not going to name this guy because I was very mad at him yesterday. You were mad at him? Yeah, I thought it was a very rude email. Very rude.

And I responded. But I also think it's funny. So let's read it out loud. Adam, you're an idiot. First off, points for using the right, you're. That's true. If he had called me an idiot. That's an upset, really.

That's a, wouldn't have been on that. Well, first of all, let me back up and say what happened. Yesterday, if you missed it, I said, I don't want to get too personal. I don't want to talk about who I like and don't like. I hate Marcelo Zuna now because he said, quote, I detest cats. I thought it was pretty obvious sarcasm.

I failed in that regard. I'm sorry. I don't hate Marzell Osuna. I love cats. It was a joke. But this guy wrote, Adam, you're an idiot. Can't believe you now don't like Ozuna because he detest cats.

If you get offended because of that, you need to grow a spine. Geez, no wonder our world is so PC now. I got bingo. Like Heath, I am now an Ozuna lover, and I will pick him up when I can. You have bingo because of the PC thing? Yeah. Yeah. So I just thought that was a rude email, but also funny.

So thank you for contributing to the show. We have our first entry into the 2018 for the People Podcast League. Chats are great. All right, this is from Peter. Wayne Wright or Finnegan, rest of season? Fingan easily. This is from Ryan. Ten team head in.

Actually, there was something interesting with Wayne Wright. Can I? Yeah, yeah. He was having trouble commanding his curveball in his most recent start. So he started pitching like Francisco Liriano. He was moving around on the mound, depending on whether it was. a righty or a lefty who was up to the plate. So that'll be interesting to keep an eye on his.

I think he was lining up on the third base side against lefties. Okay. Interesting. So just keep that in mind. Didn't really work. From Ryan, I'm considering dropping Anthony Rendon for Janherva Solarte in a 10-team head-to-head categories league. What do you think? I don't really believe there's as much separation,

between the two of them as the consensus would say, but I would still rather have Rendon. It is in a 10-team league. I think it's an interesting thought, because I think we all had Rendon right around number 10 at the third-based position anyway. But you probably have a worse player than Anthony Rendon, right?

The fact is, it's a 10-team league, so maybe you don't, but Solarte, he's a team team. This was a guy that Heath really liked, and he's gotten sort of incrementally better every year of his career. I kind of feel like he's streaky. I don't have – I didn't look it up. I don't know if that's true or not. But I just not really confident that he's going to put it together for a full season. I do like the fact that he's hitting cleanup.

Yeah, well, somebody has to clean up for that. A lot of RBI. A lot of protection behind him. Well, that's not true. Jake and K.C. With Colin McHugh injured and fires being terrible, is Chris Devensky worth a speculative ad in case he joins the rotation? Is there a chance of that and is a 12-team Roto League the right format to give that a shot on Chris Divenske? I'm not particularly moved to try to make this happen.

I mean, he's kind of interesting right now in a Roto League just as a super reliever. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. We need to give this guy some credit. As a reliever, Chris Divensky has been like 100 innings, 100 strikeouts. last year, although he did do some starting last year. But he's been great as a reliever. And I'm going to tell you something.

As a starter, he actually had five starts last year, and four of them were pretty good. One was terrible, and it was at Boston. We know how tough that is. I don't think this is a bad call. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I think we need to give Chris Devensky a little appreciation, a little attention right now. Yeah, I would guess with McHugh-Hurt, he's probably next in line. Is it Michael Files, the other guy who was also a starter that's pitching out of the bullpen for them? Yeah, I believe so.

And then they've got Francis Martes in AAA. So they do have some depth, but they talked about Chris DeVansky as a rotation option before the season, before ultimately using him in the bullpen. So I do think he'll get a shot at some point. Okay, Ryan, in Lutz, Florida, I've never heard of that. I have to drop one of the following pitchers in my 14-te-to-head points league. Who should I drop? Amir Garrett, Francisco Liriano, Jarrell Codin, or Willie Peralta.

Peralta. Let me tell you about Harry's Razors, and then we'll read more emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. There's nothing like a good shave, guys. Nice, clean, comfortable shave, nothing like saving money on razors and razor blades. I don't know if there's a bigger rip-off out there than Razor Blades. Try Harry's razors. H-A-R-R-Y-S dot com as in fantasy baseball today. Harries.com slash F-B-T.

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Chris from Oklahoma. Could you break down Keon Broxton versus Steven Souza? One or the other or find a way to have both? What do you think, guys? I feel better about Susa this year. I think Broxton still has more upside, but neither of them are still young enough to where I feel like they have star potential anymore.

I guess the edge goes to Souser right now just because there's a guarantee of playing time that Broxton doesn't have. The one thing Broxton does have is he plays in Miller Park. I think Broxon's going to get the playing time. What scenario does he not get the playing time? The current one. He does not play better than Domingo Santana, and Lewis Brinson is ready.

I guess they should take a step back because he's been playing, but they have the D.H. At Toronto right, so you're right. I mean, he's got 19 plate appearances. He's been... Well, he got hit in the face. He got hit in the face. No, I think for the next two months, it's a battle between him and Domingo Santana to see who gets to stay in the starting lineup. Quinn Brinson's ready.

Okay. It'd be nice if he didn't strike out, and 40% of his plate appearances. Sal from Los Angeles, should I pick up Ehuyaheos Juarez or Mitch Hanager? Hanager. Yeah, Hanigur. Vinny from Atlanta. Why is Zander Bogart's batting sixth? Is this some sort of cruel joke?

Mitch Moreland is hitting in front of him. I'm starting to question my own existence. The only explanation I've heard is they wanted to free him up to run more, and you'd rather run with bad hitters at the plate. Is that really something you heard? Yeah. Your fault, Adam. Is it a problem for that he bats sixth?

It's not ideal. I mean, you lose about, for most lineups, I think you lose about 20 plate appearances over the course of a full season with every drop spot in the lineup. So from second to sixth, you're looking at 80 plate appearances for a full season. That's pretty significant.

Yeah, second to sixth is significant. I'm going to look up where Hanley Ramirez is batted last year. Fifth or sixth? He batted fifth. I believe he was fifth pretty consistently. Yeah, he was a fifth hitter. What's interesting is their number two hitter currently is supposed to be an on-base guy, and I don't believe he's drawn a walk yet, Andrew Benintennantini.

Okay, he walked a couple times yesterday. Change that. Welcome. And this is from Dan. Heath looks like Travis Shaw may explain Heath's love for the. the Brewer's third baseman. Maybe I'm crazy. Check it out.

Thank you very much. Trevor Shaw is a very good-looking man. I think you do look a little like him. And our last email is from Paul and Carl's Bad. It drives me nuts, hyperbole, that you never mention the bad news bears while discussing baseball movies. As a child of the 70s and 80s, it had a profound impact on my life. I wear my Chico's bail-bonds shirt with pride and those in the know want one.

It's a good one. It's a good point. It's a very good baseball movie. It's not a major league. Much better than Money Bowl. I don't know about that The remake wasn't very good Shocker

I forgot Richard Linklater directed that which was surprising But the original was Great, what's his name? The angry guy Billy Bob Thornton Oh Walter Mathau Well yeah

Fantastic Yeah he's the man And this is a follow-up from Paul Why isn't So obviously I don't think Die Hard's a Christmas movie Heath does Chris, where do you fall on that?

No, it's clearly a Christmas. No, you guys are idiots. Why isn't Die Hard a Christmas movie? Simple. There is no Christmas in Die Hard. The day never happens. It's an action movie that takes place in December. Amazing point.

I never even thought about that. It's not even Christmas. That's amazing. So by that logic, the fact that a golf tournament takes place during Kettysheck definitely makes it a sports movie. No, it's not a sports movie. You don't care at all. The Big Lebowski's definitely a sports movie. Oh, my gosh.

The sports are so irrelevant in those movies. I don't care about the sports. 90% of love actually takes place on days that aren't Christmas. I would like you to take all of the golf and golf course scenes out of Caddyshack and tell me how good the movie is. Does any of home alone take place on Christmas? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

For sure. All right. Yesterday was a day of firsts. We'll come back and we'll do some band names in a second. Yesterday was a day of first. Andrew McCutcheon got his first extra base hit. Russell Martin and Austin Hedges got their first hits of the season. David Robertson got a save, and John Carlos Stanton hit his first two home runs of the season.

Let's stop there. McCutcheon, first extra base hit. Russell Martin and Austin Hedges got on the board with hits. Robertson got a save, and Stanton hit two dongs. What stands out? I would say if Robertson maybe gets another save or two, let's see if you can trade him before he gets traded to a team where he's his setup, man. Or the closer.

I think if he gets traded to Washington, he's pretty cool. clearly going to be a closer. Yeah. Good point. Stanton. Stanton was off to a kind of troubling start, I think. He was getting hits. He just wasn't getting home runs.

Helps that it was a lefty. He is much better against lefties, but it's good to see. A good reminder that he can still hit the ball very, very, very, very hard. I believe both home runs had an exit velocity above 110 miles per hour. All right.

More first yesterday. Lorenzo Kane got his first extra base hit of the season. Will Myers drew his first walk. Keon Broxton hit his first double a day after hitting his first home run. And Matt Kane got his first April win in his last 19 April starts. Wow. Kane first extra base hit, Myers first walk. Broxton first double. Matt Kane, first April win in 19 April starts.

Yeah, I tried to give Will Myers some praise in the office yesterday. And immediately got the response from Chris. This is completely misrepresenting the discussion. I just want to point out that he hasn't even drawn a walk yet. Heath is deliberately misrepresenting the nature and context of this discussion. Scott follows up with he's going to have to start running if he's going to be as good as he was last year. That's exactly true. What Scott said is true.

But Heath is lying. I'm very excited about Will Myers. It looks good. Yeah, he's off to a good start. He's trying. He's trying. got a little complacent after the All-Star break last year. So I'm also optimistic, but we know he's not going to have a good walk-to-strike-out ratio.

It's going to be hard for him to have a great batting average, right? No, I think he'll have an average average. And we would like to see some steals. But those come in bunches sometimes. Lorenzo Cain's off to a nice start. I mean, he's not hitting for any power, but nine-walk, seven strikeouts, three steals, and a 30-8 batting average. He's been pretty Lorenzo Kane, except the walks are a nice addition. It's good to see because there was a little bit of concern about that oblique injury at the end of spring.

Would you rather have Lorenzo Kane or Stephen Piscotti? Or is it a depends on what I need kind of thing? Yeah, probably depends. He had a very good game yesterday, too. Piscotti in points, Kane and Roto. Would you rather have Lorenzo Kane or Andrew Benintendi? Kane. Ben and Tendi.

All right. Let's do three up and one down. Three up number one is Aaron Judge, 67% own. My name is Judge. Two for three with a home run. Two runs, three RBIs, and a walk yesterday. He's homered in two straight games. There's no doubting his power.

But Judge is batting 308. It's hot right now. Three walks, six strikeouts. Like for him, six strikeouts in eight games is, like, amazing. So I'm intrigued. I don't know where he ranks with guys like Brockston and Carlos Gomez and Carlos Belchon and Hunter Renfro But he's in that discussion, right?

And I feel like he was sort of at the back of that line When we were drafting Oh yeah, he was, I would say going on drafted More often than not until the very end Yeah, I've moved him up a little bit My most recent rankings update But he's still not to the point to me Where he's must own

Aaron Judge? Okay, yeah, he's not must own But would you... Okay, Carlos Gomez homered yesterday but he's been kind of a tease this year. Would you rather have Carlos Gomez or Aaron Judge? I think Gomez slightly higher. Yeah. Okay.

Ender Enciarte. He hit two home runs yesterday. Would you rather have Enciarte or Aaron Judge? I'd probably rather have Judge. Yeah, probably so. N.C.arte is three-up number two, by the way. After the All-Star break last year, he batted 3-41, 3-96 on base, 4-40 slugging, with eight steals in 72 games.

I think he only had two home runs in those 72 games, and he matched that yesterday, so he's not going to homer. And then three-up number three is Ryan Zimmerman, whose 53% owner is just off to an excellent start batting 382. So how about Ryan Zimmerman or Aaron Judge just as a utility? Who do you think you would prefer to have? I'd probably rather bet on Judge as an upside play. Okay. Judge, let's see, let me give some more outfit this here. I think Aaron Judge is pretty interesting right now, Yankees.

Yeah, he has made the adjustments he needed to make. He struck out 44% of the time in 95 played appearances last year. That's down to 20% in his first 29, very small sample size still. But his hard hit rate was excellent last year. His batted ball profile seems like it should be excellent. He's cut the swing strike rate down to 12.8%. This is all very early. It takes a while for these numbers to stabilize,

but this is exactly what we wanted to see from Aaron Judge. Real quick, Heath, I might go to the Cardinals Yankees game tomorrow night. If you went to that game with me, who would you root for? So I'm going to watch the Cardinals and the Yankees with you. Yeah. Beer. Routing for lots. I'm going to need a ton of beer.

Well, you're going to do a ton of money then. Aaron Judge, Emmanuel Margo Probably Margot. Aaron Judge or Stephen Sousa? Suza. Judge. Man, you're going to get burned by Stephen Sousa. It's going to hurt.

I'm not going to get burned by Stephen Sousa. I've got him as like a top 50-60 outfielder. All right. And one down, DJ LaMahue. Any concerns about DJ LaMahue? No at all. Some pitchers from yesterday that we haven't talked about. John Lackie is striking everybody out.

He's got 17 strikeouts and 12 innings. Marcus Stroman threw a complete game. and he got the loss. He's striking nobody out. He has nine strikeouts in 15 and a third innings, but he's being Stroman. Michael Fulmer had another good start. Yeah, it's pretty good.

Three runs and six innings against the twins. It's fine, but seven strikeouts, and he's off to a good start. Anything you want to say about Lackie, Stroman, or Fulmer? I think some of those runs for Fulmer, I was watching that game. I think some of them were inherited. I'm not 100%. I don't believe that's true.

No. No. They were down 3-0-0. I think, and then Romott hit a grand slam to go up 4'3. No, I think John Lackey is pretty much who he is. I don't buy this big strikeout jump.

But he had a great strikeout year last year for him anyway. It was like 8.7 or something? I would bet he had a two-start stretch last year where he struck out 17 as well. Yeah, I think he's roughly a strikeout per inning guy, John Lackey. Oh, okay.

Well, that's great for him in his career because 8.6 last year tied a career high. Yeah, I think he's close. He'll be close to what he was last year. I think he ran out of steam last year in the second half. You should keep an eye on Lackey. None of us really liked Lackey coming into the year, right? Scott did. Yeah, Scott did.

I would expect, I mean, he's 38 years old. I definitely think you need to. If he keeps this up for a couple starts, I would be looking to sell him. Okay. And I think Marcus Stroman is just terrific, and I don't know why Toronto can't hit. Toronto really can't hit right now. I actually was listening to the broadcast yesterday,

and the announcer, or two days ago, the Blue Jays announcer said, you know, the Indians in the playoffs, they threw so many breaking balls to the Blue Jays, and he expects that pitchers are going to come into Roger's center and just, even when the Blue Jays are on the road, whatever, and they're just going to pepper them with breaking pitches and not give them fast balls.

It's interesting, but Donaldson's playing hurt. you know, he played, but he was pinched run for in the ninth inning. He's obviously not moving well with the calf. Bautista's ice cold. They're all ice cold, so it's not a tough matchup right now. Are you worried at all that Strowman's strikeouts just aren't there at all at the start of the season? Like we were kind of hoping the second half of last year when his strikeout rate went up. He had five and six and a third last start.

That's about what I think his upside probably is. He faced the team last night, though. The Brewers led baseball on strikeouts last year, and Stroman struck out four and nine innings. I still think he has Dallas Heichael upside. Are we going to nitpick a guy who just threw a complete game with two runs allowed? I don't care. I don't care.

I mean, I'm into it. You're going to care if he strikes out six batters per nine for the year. Yeah, but if he strikes out seven, I'll be fine with this. Because he's not going to throw complete games, although they're having two runs very often. That's not that's not. That's not the rest of it. It was working for him. I think the thing about Marcus Sherman, and he has shown that he can be two different types of pitchers when he needs to. He started relying more on the four-seam fastball for swinging strikes and strikeouts last season in the second half.

And it worked for him. But that two-seamer is also really tough for batters to square up. And if he's in a situation, I think, where he can get away with relying more on the two-seamer, and not need those swinging strikes, I think he can do that as well. I think he's the type of pitcher who has the ability to attack hitters in different ways. I just wonder going into a game, how do you know when all the con...

So, I think you... pitchers adjust to what they're seeing from opposing hitters. Guys, I laid it out during spring training. He had a big strikeout rate, Stroman, in the second half last year. You take away the two starts against the Astros, and it was like 7.5 per 9, is a little bit better. Yeah, but if you take away the two worst, like that, that, that logic, that logic never

works. It does work. He racked up the strikeouts against the team that swung, that probably led the A.O. But if you take out his two worst strikeout games, you're going to see a similar move in the other direction. It doesn't make sense to take a small sample size and make it even smaller arbitrarily. I don't think it's arbitrarily, though. I think it's looking at, like, you say, all right, this guy's got four starts, and, well,

he faced the Padres in one of them, and they're terrible. I don't, that's taking a small start and small sample size and making it even smaller and I think that's actually the right thing to do. I think it helps add context. And I don't think, like, Stroman is not a six strikeout per nine guy. He's a seven strikeout per nine guy. It's that I'm fine with that personally. I expect that.

And I think he can be, I still think he can be a great fantasy pitcher at seven per nine. He can be. I'm not trying to say that. I said positive things about him in the preseason as well. All I'm saying is, if you're, You're a seven strikeout per nine guy. You have a small margin for error, and you do not have as much control over your own success. Would you rather have Stroman or Keikl?

I will take Stroman for sure, because I still believe there's a chance that he strikes more guys out. But they are very, very similar. But as Keikle has shown, you don't need to be an elite strikeout pitcher if you get 60% ground balls. Right. No, he just has to be better than he. be average. If he's just an average strikeout pitcher, I think he's got a upside. But he's got to do something different than he's done for his first 377 innings to get the average. But he struck out guys in his first start. He didn't yesterday.

It just, I'm not, I'm not in crisis mode with Marcus Stroman. Nobody said crisis mode. It's just about what category is going to help you in. Stroman or, let's see. Cole Hamels. I would probably go Hamels, but I may need to re-look at my rankings. Hamels. Yeah, Stroman or James Paxton. Pax-Texian. All right.

Let's read some band names. What would our band name be if the four of us, including Scott, started a little music group? The Non-Zero Chances, or Non-Zero Chance? Yeah, one of them was Non-Zero Chance the rapper, which I liked a lot. Yeah, I just think like non-zero chance is great. Like, hey, we are non-zero chance. This is fantasy baseball today. I love it.

System of a Dong. PM Dong, Dong, Denley. All good. I like that. Leonard Skin Nerds, with N-E-R-D-S, capitalized. Dong-Fogarty. Yes, because he's even got the baseball song, you know. Exactly.

That's... We could just be cash, which would be Chris Adam Scott Heath. and the S could be a dollar sign And I'm not going to say the names of the people who sent these I apologize but I appreciate all your All your suggestions We could be an a cappella group called Adam Azor in the Bullpenes No

Scammed by Kreef Sure The Kreth scams The false truth sellers Based on yesterday's true or false game Wobo War and the X-FIP Sorry, go ahead There was one

The Tragically FIP Which I liked a lot Tragically FIP The Angry Agist and the Younger Guys Sure Random number generators That's great The White Strikes

I like it The Dong Show And three men and a baby Sure Who's the baby? Probably me I think I like non-zero chance

what do you guys think well that that seemed to be the consensus I feel like like the three first responses we got were all non-zero chances I thought you hated non-zero chance I hate that we say it I think it's funny as a band name I think it's good

and System of the Dong I think is very funny too we're grateful stat heads great stats that works I like that well these are very interesting and funny suggestions, and I thank you all for it. And that will take us to the end of the third.

Oh, Saber's the Day. Any, um, save for the day. Any, uh, DFS advice today, Heath, or Chris? No. What? I haven't looked yet. Sorry. No.

Why not? Um, because it's 10 o'clock in the morning, and it's the ninth show of the baseball season, and it's the first time you've asked me if I had any DFS advice. And I haven't looked. Joe Panic at the Disco. Now that's been a popular team name, so we can't use that. All right, if we look at the late slate tonight, there are only six games. And here are the pitchers.

Matt Andres and Luis Severino. Kevin Gossman and Francisco Liriano. Jimmy Nelson and Bronson Arroyo. Robert Gisleman and Wei and Chen. Jesse Hahn and Jason Vargas. John Gray and Madison Bumgarner at the Giants. Will you be playing J.T. Riddle? Is that a pitcher or some team?

No, it's not. I don't know who that is. You don't? No. Chris? Sturgle Phippson. J.T. Riddle is a shortstop for the Miami Marlins. No way. Already has a hit this year.

Just like Steve Selsky. I have no idea. Elfielder for the Red Sox. What? What? Yes. How about Lurie Garcia? Oh, Lurie Garcia.

That actually I should know. Um, give me Reds. Reds outfielder. No, third baselder. Of course. Unlike your boy, Alan Hanson. No idea. Los Campesinos hitters.

All of these guys already have a hit this season. Wow. And he is a second basement for the Pirates. All right. Do you have to go Madison Bumgarner tonight? Or would you, Maybe go Gazellman at the Marlins? Yeah, I think both are decent plays, but I'd much more likely go with Bunkware.

All right. There's your DFS advice. Sorry we couldn't be more helpful. You can just tweet Chris and Heath. They'll help you out. At C-Towers, CBS, at Heath Cummings, Senior and Heath Cummings SR. Clap your hands, say you. Oh, we're still doing band names.

Thank you for listening, everybody. We are non-zero chance. See you later.