Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/15: Weekend Roundup - Are We Buying These Hitters? (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 15, 2019

Scott gives you one hitter (1:25) and one SP (5:43) to add to begin the show. And we discuss which surprising hitters we are buying into (9:15). Freddy Galvis? Alex Gordon? Leonys Martin? ... Weekend standouts (17:40) including Chris Paddack and Elvis Andrus. We also look at the Most Added list (23:00) and bullpen developments (28:00) in BOS, MIL, MIN and more ... Some more talk about hitters (33:33) and then we focus on SPs (37:40) for the final 25 minutes of the show. What's going on with Carlos Carrasco and Corey Kluber? Are there any sell high candidates? Which SPs are we recommending to add? ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. All right, everybody. Welcome to the Monday edition of Fantasy Baseball today. We are recapping the weekend.

Team scam here on Monday, April 15th. Oh, it's Tax Day, Scott White. Did you get your taxes done? Yes, I did. Did you? Of course, responsible, man. Of course I got my taxes done. Who waits to the last minute?

Yeah, ridiculous. Homer Simpson waits to the last minute. You've got to get your identity stolen that way, waiting until the last minute. You know that? The longer you wait, the more likely it is to happen. Is that true? Somebody's going to use your Social Security number. Really?

Look at that. It's true. Scott, what is your Social Security number? Let's just make sure nobody's using it. I'll keep that to myself. A little PSA for you here to begin the show. We're going to get one hitter to add and one pitcher to add from Scott White. We're going to look at the most added list.

We're going to tell you, we're going to use the word add a lot on today's show. We're going to tell you who needs to be on your roster. And let's get to it. Scott, who's one hitter to add right now? The must add guy. Who is it? Well, I'm basing this on ownership percentage. This guy wasn't somebody I had the ability to add in any of my leagues over the weekend.

but Jesse Winker seems to be coming around and the Reds seem to know he's coming around because they have started him in six straight. He is homered four times in those six games. The walk rate isn't quite what we're used to seeing, yet only four walks all season, but that is an even more reliable part of his skill set than power. The Reds haven't faced a left-hander in any of those six games,

so it'll be interesting to see if he's in a lot-hand. in the lineup then, but I think the upside is such that if somebody dropped him in your league, because of course he was drafted nearly everywhere. But if somebody dropped in him, he's available in like 32% of leagues still. Time to add him again. Yeah, and the other guy that I, by the way, this was a great, great weekend for all of Scott's sleepers. Armand Marquez throws this complete game, one hitter.

Brandon Lau is the other guy I wanted to talk about because I think at least in a daily League, you should be adding Brandon Lauer where you can. Jesse Winker was one of Scott's favorites. Fram O'Reis is hopefully back in the good graces of the Padres, and he is hitting well. Scott, what a one. Zach Granky had a great start.

What a wonderful weekend for you, Scott White. Not exactly a sleeper Granky, but yes, it was. After a lot of things went wrong the first couple of weeks, yeah. Things looking up for that group. Yes, that's good stuff. And, yeah,

Winker. Let's see. He's got Clayton Kershaw today. So this is a big week for Winker, Scott, because he's got four lefties on the schedule. And I don't think they face a left-handed starting pitcher all year. So yes, at him for sure. I think maybe don't start Winker because we don't know what it's going to be in terms of playing time. And he's got Kershaw, Strom, Lauer, and Lucchasey on the schedule this week. That's four lefties out of seven games. We'll see. None all year. That's amazing. Interesting, yeah, I know. I'm not positive about that, but I'm pretty sure.

I just looked it up, yeah. Yeah, so how about? Yeah, that's a good idea to bench him for now, if you can. I mean, five outfielders leagues, you may not have a choice. Right. But hopefully this is the sign of him turning things around and living up to the sleeper expectations I had for him and a lot of other people in the industry had for him. And do you agree about Brandon Lowe that Brandon Lowe should be picked up?

I mean, he has certainly come around. He homered twice on Friday. He's now batting 302 with four home runs and two steals, which matches the amount of steals that Lough had last year. They face four lefties this year, and you should know Austin Meadows has sat against all four lefties. Brandon Lowe has sat against three or four lefties this year. And this week, Lowe will face sale and price. I think he has a six-game week and two lefties. But, I mean, I have a couple of leagues where I can change my lineup every day instead of every week,

and I own Lowe in both of those leagues. And I'm excited about him. Yeah, I mean, there are a couple. issues with Lau, the playing time concerns you mentioned, and the fact he's struck out at like a 30% rate so far, if that continues, it'll be hard for him to, to maximize his potential to be a mixed league caliber bat. But there is a lot of power potential here. There's more on base skills than he's even shown so far. I think definitely in like a roto lineup league where you have all those extra hitter spots to fill, he is must own. I'd be more likely to own him in a head-to-head categories league than head-to-head points. Points, of course, you fill your bench spot with a lot of pitchers, and the strikeouts are holding him back there. So I don't think he's quite must-add everywhere.

But there's still a good amount of upside here, and I'm still pretty excited about him. All right, so Lao, who would you rather stash, Lowe or Senzel, or just who'd rather own, like Senzel or Brandon Lowe? I'll say Lowe. Yeah, I mean, Senzel still weighs away. and, of course, completely untested at the major league level. So, you know, good bat. All right, give me one pitcher to add, the must-ad starting pitcher. Must-add starting pitcher, again, this is a guy I couldn't add,

but he's available in 28% of leagues. And he's making two starts this week, and that's Trevor Richards of the Marlins, who a little confused why he's still so available. I guess it's because he hasn't won a game yet, but he has three qualities. All three of his starts have been quality starts. that changeup has been

has been really working for him strikeout per inning so far he has a lot of walks but those were basically all in one start and they were all early in that start so I don't put much on that I think he's looking like a really good pitcher two matchups this week could be better but it's not like any of the three teams he's faced

it's not like any of them were super favorable matchups and again all three were quality starts So Richards, I think, is must own with or without the two starts coming up this week. 72% own Trevor Richards, and he has one of the worst pitchers in baseball opposing him tonight, U Darvish, in a home game against the Cub. And the good thing for Richards, both starts are at home. He has the Cubs and the Nationals, Darvish and Strasbourg, this week. Okay, who's the pitcher that I...

Oh, Tuki Toussons. We should probably talk about him. Is he a must add? Is Tuki Tucson a must add starting pitcher, Scott? I'd put him a little shy I must add. So if you can at him, yeah, there's a lot of upside there. He's overtaken Sean Newcomb. It happened pretty suddenly, but he relieved him in Saturday's game, I believe it was.

Newcomb didn't even make it two innings. And then Sean Newcomb through, I mean, Tughey Tucson through six and a third with seven strikeouts, no earned runs. And then they sent Sean Newcomb down after the game. The Braves did. So it looks like Tuki Tucson overtook him right there. And he has a lot of swing and miss potential, really good curveball. His velocity was down quite a bit from what we saw last year when he was up in the majors. I'm not sure what to make of that yet.

Obviously, the results were good. And it may just been a fluky thing. But it's something to keep an eye on. And he's had control issues in the past. So still a lot to prove for Tucson. I think it's shallower leagues. You're not dropping anybody that's, um, You know, you're not dropping like a Domingo Hermon for him or somebody like that.

You're not dropping Trevor Richards for him. But yeah, he's a pretty good pickup. Overall, I like the skills more than like a Max Freed, who's ownership up pretty high right now too. You take it easy on Max Freed. I think Max Freed is a two-star pitcher this week. Now, if you want to take a gamble on Tucson, he's got a good matchup. He's got Cleveland this weekend.

Freed has two starts as well, and they are Arizona and at Cleveland. So I've got freed in a couple lineups, at least two lineups this week. I'm hopeful for a big week for Max Fried with those favorable matchups, Arizona and at Cleveland, although I suppose it's possible Cleveland could have Francisco Indoorback by Sunday. He's on a rehab assignment. But I have a feeling that rehab assignment's going to last a little while. The one pitcher that I want to just mention here, Jordan Liles. He's R.P. eligible, and he's got Detroit this week.

A one-star week for Jordan Liles against the Detroit Tigers. Take a look at him, especially if you just lost a lot. the Rodas Viscayano in a points league or something like that. You want to throw them in your RP spot. Scott spoke favorably of Jordan Liles earlier last week. There are some hitters that are doing some crazy things that it's just hard to buy. But I'm going to give you them, and I want you to tell me if you are adding them, if you are buying them.

Alex Gordon is batting 360 with three home runs and five doubles. The last three seasons, he has slugged. Slugged, 380, 315, and 370. Alex Gordon is 52% own. Freddie Galvis is the number seven shortstop and points, number five in Roto. He has moved to the top of the Toronto order. He's batting 351 with five home runs. He has never slugged 400 in the season.

He slugged 399. That's a career high. And Leonis Martine is 48% owned. And Martin in his last six games is nine for 21 with three home runs, six walks to five strikeouts. He was actually okay last year. He had 11 homers in seven. deals in 84 games and he batted 255, you know, kind of a deep league guy.

But between Alex Gordon, Freddie Galvis, and Leonis Martin, have you thought about adding any of them, Scott? I've thought about adding Gordon. It's, you know, I like, I love plate discipline guys and that's at his best what he was, more walks than strikeouts this year. It's just hard to buy because it's not really seeing anything different in the batta ball profile, and he's 35 years old. I'm not sure where this is coming from

after the last three years he had. I actually have added Freddie Galvis in one league. It's a 16 team league. It's the team we share, Adam. We have Freddy Galvis? And he's one of my top 10 sleepers hitters for this week. Oh, wow. Well, our team is way too good to be starting Freddie Galvis.

We went 10 and 0 last week. We crushed it team scam. Yeah, we did. Although, I mean, we had like a 6ERA for the week. The other guys was just worse. But that aside. No, Freddie Galvis is elevating the ball more. He's always had a really good line drive rate.

I'm surprised he hasn't hit for higher averages based on that. I don't think it's like a breakout or anything, but really good matchups this week. Like I said, a sleeper hitter. And I don't mind riding that hot hand at a position where the, you know, the depth. It's lacking in depth. It's better overall, but it's lacking in depth still, shortstop. So that's the one of the three I added. I was kind of surprised, though, you didn't include Jason Hayward among this group.

I'm pretty much not letting him be available in any of my leagues anymore. Yeah, I was watching a game a few nights ago. I guess he's made some changes to his stance, and we'll see how long it lasts. I'm sure he's made a lot of changes to his stance over the last few years. They haven't worked. But hopefully he's found something that has worked. He homered again this week. He stole another base.

He has eight walks to four strikeouts all year, I think. So that's why it's easier to justify in a points league, too, that played discipline is so good. Yeah. I'm not totally in on the idea that he's fixed, but there's enough evidence of it that I don't want to be the one who misses out on him if he is. All right, we've got some big news to get to here

and some players that we added. and I'm really, I'm looking forward to talking about a little bit of a trend that I'm seeing right now in fantasy baseball. So we'll get back to that. How was your weekend, Scott? How's everything going? Let's get a little, let's get a little friend. Always love to ask me about my weekend. Yeah, well, let's be friends, but not to just be colleagues.

My weekend's always the same, Adam. I take care of the kids all day, Saturday. And I go through box scores on Sunday. Wait, wait, wait, wait. I didn't do anything that exciting. Wait, you go through box scores of Friday and Saturday and Sunday all at once or what? No. Okay.

No, I... But Saturday and Sunday is usually the day where I go through and make all my ad drops, too. So I probably spend a total of three hours on the computer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Just getting ready for this podcast, basically. Well... Not just that, but playing fantasy baseball, then. It's...

I kind of like to, you know, consolidate. the time so I'm not spending hours upon hours throughout the week on it. Yeah, I could see that. Yeah, I mean, I think we are spending hours and hours every week on, but that's what we do. Well, yes. Yeah. Even more hours. What was I going to say?

Did you catch up on Game of Thrones? Are you like ready for the, it started last night? Did you get all the way up to season eight? No. And I'm just trying to be caught up for the finale, which if I average a season a week, going forward. You know. That's what I've done so far.

I'm through three, so I saw the red wedding. Beautiful wedding. Yeah. Okay. Great. Thank you. It was red. Thank you for that update on your life.

Scott White. My weekend was great. Thanks for asking. Mike Trout missed the weekend series. And what should we do with Mike Trout? Should we start him this week? I would be inclined to. I mean, the fact they haven't put them on the DL or IL.

I think it means they're expecting them back soon. But maybe in the shallowest of leagues you could get away with not doing it. Yeah, I'm starting him. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will be up sooner rather than later. Francisco Lindoror is scheduled to begin a rehab assignment today. Daniel Murphy won't need finger surgery. That's good news. Andrew Benintendez, Bruce, his foot.

He found the ball off his foot. He says he does not think it's serious. The Braves, we talked about this. They sent Kyle Wright to AAA. They sent Sean Nucum to Troum to Trich. AAA, Tuki Tucson is in the rotation. And Erotus Viscayano is on the IL with right shoulder inflammation. So clearly, A.J. Minter is the guy to get there.

Do we have any timetable for Viscayano? Not that I've seen, no. And I wish they'd just sign Kimberl already. But it sounds like there was a report this week, and the Aege is still wants five years, 20 million per. Yeah. So I don't know. I don't know if anyone's going to cave on that. That's a lot.

That's not happening. way because I think Chapman and Jansen signed in like the 80 million range that he is not getting a hundred million dollar contract well I think I think wasn't Chapman five a hundred or about that I think it was like five or 86 or something like that I look at it oh that those two deals are kind of what they're comparing it to and and I mean look he has a he's probably historically been the best of three though you know it's pretty close yeah 86 million for Chapman over five years Chapman, by the way, apparently was throwing like 100 miles per hour in his most recent outing, so that is good news if you had any concerns about that.

Mike Fultenevich could be back this weekend. Too risky to start him, but he'll make a rehab start tonight and may be able to pitch this weekend for the Braves. Rich Hill will begin a rehab assignment on Wednesday. Jeremy Jeffress, this is the big one, Scott. Jeremy Jeffers could be back today or tomorrow. So I think, you know, you probably don't want to start Jeffers if you can avoid it. But what do you do if you're a Josh Hader owner and you specifically need saves? I mean, if you, I think you start, I think you start him.

You may be not in a points league where you're usually starting just two relievers and you don't get much value from anything other than saves out of relievers. But anything else, I mean, haters going to give you good numbers. That's, that's why you drafted them. You weren't really drafting them expecting saves, I doubt. Right. But it's, and look, he might, it's no guarantee. Jeremy Jeffers claims this.

role. He was, it wasn't the prettiest rehab assignment. He gave up at least to run in all four of his outings. So, uh, I think he has to prove himself before they entertained the idea of using him in the ninth inning. I still think it's ultimately going to happen, but I doubt it's going to be right away. And finally, Kyle Freeland has a blister, but he is not expected to miss a start. Start Kyle Freeland at your own risk. Weekend standouts. All right, so we've talked about some hitters and pitchers to add. Obviously, they are standouts. If you've got other names you want to throw out there, Scott, feel free. We definitely will talk about Corey Klob.

And Carlos Carrasco. Jacob de Grom will just talk about him. I'm sure he's fine, but he's having trouble commanding the ball. All those pitchers that are interesting right now. Chris Paddock stands out to me, Scott, and I really think I'm going to try as hard as I can to trade Chris Paddock. First of all, I think he's going to struggle getting wins. He doesn't have one. He has no one-loss record right now.

And he pitched really well over the weekend at Arizona. But he's got Cincinnati this week. By the way, he hasn't thrown 90 pitches into game yet. Cincinnati this week, they're starting to hit. Then Seattle at Atlanta, the Dodgers at Colorado. That is Paddock's projected schedule. It probably won't be that because they've already moved him back a day or two, you know, to give him some extra rest.

Who knows, maybe they skip him. But I think Paddock is going to maybe underwhelm fantasy owners a little bit just because they're not going to let him go deep into games. He's going to have trouble getting quality stars. He's going to have trouble getting wins. And he is pretty much a two-pitch pitcher. So I like him. I'm going to try to trade him.

I have no idea what I'm going to be looking for. But I think I'm going to try to make some offers involving Chris Paddock. The upside is such that he has to be owned. And so maybe from that perspective, you could call him a sell high. But the fact he hasn't delivered a six-inning start yet, I don't know. I mean, beyond what you said, I mean, he's going to face a pretty, an innings gap pretty early on, unless there's like an I-L stint along the way. He threw 90 innings last year in what was his first year back from Tommy John's surgery.

So are they going to let him go beyond like 130? Right. I'd be surprised. So, yeah, I get what you're saying. It's worth trying. Yeah, I think there are less savvy owners than us who would take Chris Pat. And there's nothing wrong with Chris Paddock. I start him every time he pitches.

I just think now's the time to take a... He's had a pretty soft schedule so far, and it's about to get a lot harder. And then another guy that really stood out to me is Elvis Andrews. It looks like Elvis Andrews might be back. He's currently the number one shortstop in points, number two in Roto. He's batting 4-14. Okay, he's not going to do that, but three home runs and four steals. And that was huge.

Four steals and four attempts. Scott rightly pointed out that Andrews. He stopped running late last year and did not run at all during spring training. Here he is with four steals and four attempts. I actually am so confident in Andrews as a starter. Maybe not top five. Maybe more like number 10. But a respectable starter at shortstop that I picked him up and I already looked last night.

I'm going to try to make some trades. I have Carlos Correa. And I will try to turn Carlos Correa into maybe a starting pitcher and just use Elvis Andrews as my starting shortstop. stop in our podcast. Yeah, yeah. It's a downgrade. Don't get me wrong,

but I think he's perfectly fine as a starter, Andrews, and I need pitching. So take that. Yeah, I'm not saying it's wrong. I mean, four steals, three home runs already. That's definitely a different Elvis Andrews than we saw last year.

When he was coming back from a fractured elbow, most of that time, I was concerned he was just getting old. and he 30s old for a short stop. A lot of mileage, too, because he started his career so young. But I'm definitely encouraged by what I'm seeing. And that seems like a decent approach. Yeah, and I think one of the toughest things in fantasy in the preseason

when we're trying to figure out who we like is figuring out if a guy had a bad year, how much was it related to injury? And I am typically a little bit more forgiving of guys, and sometimes that burns me. But this year, Jose Al Tuve looks amazing. Elvis Andrews looks like he's back. And Dee Gordon, I really think was limited by the toe. It was obvious now.

It was limited by the toe injury. And if you got good value on those guys, and even Altuve in the second round was great value, hopefully you're going to be happy with that. They look like themselves again. And that is nice to see. Then again, maybe Joey Votto, I thought, was dealing with an injury last year.

He hasn't come around. We'll see. The jury's still out. And it's only been two and a half weeks on these guys. Anything else you want to talk about? Ads, drops. We get to the most added list here. Let's look at the most added list, Adam.

All right, we'll do that in one second. That sounds like a good idea. Okay, actually, yeah, I'm ready to do that. Let's take a look at the most added list. Scott is right. Scott is running the show right now. First, we're going to take a quick break on fantasy baseball today and look at Daniel Vogelbach, Josh Feigley,

and Nick Margievich and more on the most added list when we come back. Big Dan Vogelbach, Scott White, 75% owned, and Josh Feigley is number two, and Nick Margievich is actually somebody that I added, because he's pitched well, and he gets Colorado at home this week, and Colorado's been pretty bad. But Vogelbach and Feigley are pretty interesting, and do you think they deserve to be owned in 75% and 55% of leagues respectively? I do. I do. Vogelbach didn't end on a high note.

He finally sat a game Saturday, and then struck out four. four times Sunday. But obviously he showed us plenty before that. And I think the Mariners' commitment to using him is obvious. And I'm curious to see where this goes. I think there's a ton of upside there. He could be this year's Max Muncie potentially. Begley is just playing a lot more than I think any of us suspected. He started six of the past seven games for the athletics. And while I'm not totally convinced he's going to be somebody who hits well. He has so far, and there's not a lot

to get excited about a catcher. You kind of just have to fill in the spot with whoever's doing something. And right now that's Feigley. Yeah, it's crazy. Fegley, who's the other catcher? Mitch Garver. Yeah, who would you rather have, Garver or Fegley?

I think Mitch Garver is the more interesting player. You look at his minor league numbers, particularly late in his minor league career, it looks like a good hitter. But there's a lot of competition for a bat's there, Jason Castro, and of course,

Williams, a studio who I'm sure most fantasy owners would prefer to see starting at catcher regularly than Mitch Garver. So I think from, in terms of ownership, Fegley's going to be the more useful right now, but I'm keeping an eye on Garver. The rest of the most added list that you need to know about, Max Fried, two great matchups this week.

Well, Markievich, I don't know if you want to, talk about him. But he has been pretty solid. He also is not pitching deep into games, but Margevichis has gone. Six innings one run, five innings one run, five innings one run, facing the Giants twice and the Cardinals on the road, and he will get, like I said, the Rockies at home. So he's 50% owned Nick Margievich, and you can compare him to like a two-star Trevor Cahill, who's 48% owned but has really bad matchups at Texas and home against Seattle. So if you were going to use one this week, would it be a one-start Margievichus or a two-start Cahill? Two-star Cahill.

I'm not totally on board with Margievichus yet. I haven't added him anywhere. But he's on, you know, he's on my scout team. Max Fried is 87% owned, which makes me happy and only me happy. Austin Meadows, 95% owned. And it'll be an interesting week for Austin Meadows. The guy's been amazing. But three or four lefties on the schedule, like I mentioned.

with Brandon Lowe and oh no no that was Winker sorry only two lefties on the schedule for meadows so you go ahead and start him uh Alex Gordon Jason Hayward we discussed them Mike Leak is Mike Leak a two-star pitcher he's 45 he is a two-star pitcher yes yeah Cleveland at home not an advisable not an advisable one for me but he's he's there making two starts yeah he sure um you know here's a guy I thought about picking up Mitch Morland So, Moreland's not going to play against lefties, but right now I think he's batting third and hitting very well for the Red Sox, and he's 39% of it. And we have seen this before with Mitch Morland. You know, you pick him up and then he lets you down.

But, you know, that almost sounded like a Rick Ross, Rick Astley's song there, never going to pick you up. Oh, it's going to let me down. There we go. So Mitch Morland, you just got Mitch rolled there. He typically, I looked it up the last few years. years, it's like April and May are usually good for him. So what do you think about Moreland?

Yeah, I mean, beyond just he sits against lefties, he's lost a couple starts to Steve Pierce against Ritees. Well, one of them he started at D.H. So I guess he's just lost one. And Jackie Bradley was out of the lineup instead. I'm not that excited beyond like deeper leagues where you have a corner infield spot to fill. I just, I don't think there's enough upside and I don't think there's enough upside. there's enough playing time for him to really be an impact contributor.

So let's look at the bullpen, Scott White. That's a look at the most ad list. And, of course, you can see that on our website. Always take a look there. But in the bullpen, Ryan Brazier, you know, he's got the last three saves for the Red Sox. But then again, Matt Barnes pitched the ninth yesterday. But it was a 4-0 game, and Brazier pitched the 8th. It was a 1-0 game when Brazer pitched in the 8th, then it was 4-0-0 and Barnes came in.

Should they both be owned? I mean, in leagues where saves are scarce, yeah, Barnes has been pitching really well, so he's been giving you good ratios. It's usually a Categories league where we talk about saves are scarce, not a points league. I'm just, since it's not a lefty-righty thing, it's hard to tell exactly what Alex Cora is doing here. obviously Brazier still looks like the favorite for saves. I'm thinking, let's see. So who was up in the 8th when Brazier came in? It was Chris Davis.

Right, it was not the heart of the order. But they don't have a heart of the order, but it wasn't the heart of the order. It's true. But in 9th it was Mancini, who's their best hitter, you would think. Well, I think using Brazier in a 1-0 game and then saving Barnes for the 9th means that Brazier is not going to get all of the saves. That's kind of how I think it seems that way. Yeah, I just, you know, who's, who does he consider the best reliever, Corr?

And I haven't been paying enough attention to who was up in the ninth when Brazier got those saves. It may be that the higher leverage situation was all the times Barnes was working. Or maybe that it was Brazier. It's hard to tell with the Orioles lineup, like you're saying. It hasn't been the case because I think two saves ago for Brazier, Barnes pitched one out in the seventh, and that was all he used them for. So, I mean, personally... Well, they've been a high leverage situation.

It was leading three to two. He came in with the bases empty after... So it was 3-0 going into the 7th. Eduardo Rodriguez gave up a two-run homer. And then Barnes came in with the bases empty and two outs. He actually struck out two batters. One of them reached on a wild pitch. So it was base as empty two outs,

and he only got two outs, really, only one counted. I don't know. If I were going to sum it up, I would say I'd rather have Brazier than Barnes. but I think they're both going to get saves until mid-season when they acquire someone. Anything else stand out in the bullpen? I think the way that Josh Hader was used this weekend made me think that they don't want him to just be the closer.

Although I don't know that that's anything new. I think the way that Blake Parker was used this weekend shows that he is mostly the closer, but he was so bad in his last outing that he had to actually get relieved for Hildenberger. But I like Parker. I think he's underowned at 33%. And then I think Sergio Romo was used,

well, he was used as a closer would be used in a tie game of the ninth inning at home against Philadelphia on Sunday with Steckin Rider pitching the eighth. So those were some developments that stood out to me. Yeah. Yeah, I'm still hesitant with Parker. He definitely has been used like the closer, and he's probably the guy to own.

but he's not even probably he might be the fourth best reliever in that bullpen, frankly, and I'm just not sure that's going to last. I really like Rogers. Trevor May is off to a decent start. I guess not any better than Parker, but I think his overall upside is better. Yeah, I mean, we'll see about that, but Parker does seem to be the clear favorite right now.

Would you rather have Parker or A.J. Minter? I think I would rather have mentor. You know what they say, Scott? Mentor is coming. You know what that means now. You know what it means. News and notes. Routenador is on the aisle with a knee sprain.

The Phillies are reportedly interested in Madison Bumgarner. No, we don't want that. We don't want that at all. You may have noticed Domingo Raman pitched out of the bullpen on Saturday, but he will start on Thursday against Kansas City. Miguel and Duhar might be able to avoid shoulder surgery. Nick Castellanos has a sprained big toe. I don't think he played at all this weekend, so that's going to be kind of up in the air for Castellanos.

Billy Hamilton should be able to start this week. They're expecting him back in the lineup. Cleveland called up Carlos Gonzalez. Miami called up Austin Dean. Do either of those register for you, Scott? Austin Dean for the Marlins, Carlos Gonzalez for the Indians? Deeper league context. I mean, Austin Dean came up and nearly hit for the...

the cycle in his first game. After the game, they changed his triple to a double. So it wasn't the cycle. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know. Yeah. But he's always, he's hit for really high batting averages in the minors.

So keeping an eye on him, but not adding him anywhere of standard size. Detroit's starting pitcher Matt Moore could be out four to six weeks with a torn meniscus. Met's third baseman, Todd Frazier could be back today. I wonder when they're going to read. realize that he is like the worst hitter of the bunch. And hopefully they just don't use Todd Frazier. Yeah, we'll see. They will.

Jorge Alfaro expected to start today. He's a little banged up, and Gregory Polanco began a rehab assignment. All right, it's time to get into what we saw over the weekend with some hitters, some pitch, a lot of pitchers to talk about, obviously. I want to talk about the hitters other than Elvis Andrews and Jesse Winker and Brandon Lau. Actually, we talked about most of these hitters. So this can be a short segment.

But Tim Anderson, Scott, wow, 429 with three home runs and five steals. Six best shortstop in points leagues because he has one walk to 10 strikeouts. But number one in Roto, are you buying this breakout from Tim Anderson? I'm really not. It looks like just a hot start. He's hitting a ton of ground balls, actually, more than ever. He's never been great at elevating the ball. But actually, it's been worse this year.

despite the power production, I think he's going to settle into about his usual numbers, which is a 20-20 guy last year, but with terrible plate discipline, I think that Roto points divide is going to remain. And other than as a hot hand play in points leagues,

I don't have much interested in that particular format. Yeah, I do think he was a top... It was top 12 for sure in Roto last year at shortstop, but, you know, he stole somewhere around 25 bases and got off to an incredible start in terms of steals. I'm trying to look it up now. I'm trying to filibuster here. His first 15 games, Tim Anderson, stole eight bases.

And clearly did not keep up that pace, but he's off to another good start on the base paths. You know what else is off to a good start is Josh Bell, kind of under the radar. He's 70% own. Bell is the number 7 first baseman in points league, number 9 in Rodo. And he's hitting for some power.

Three homers and five doubles. That's great. And he's actually doing well at home, too. He has an 1162 OPS at home. So Josh Bell, you still have an opportunity in some leagues to pick him up at 70% owned. Do you buy this breakout? I wouldn't say I buy it, but I'm kind of like where I am with Hayward, where it seems feasible enough that I'd like to own him if possible.

I haven't actually added them anywhere yet. I think Chris Towers was especially excited about him coming into the, year because he showed a little more power in the second half last year, a guy who tried to elevate the ball more. It's about the same, the fly ball rate, as it was last year. In fact, everything is about the same as last year, but he has hit the ball harder. We'll see. We'll see.

There's untapped potential here, I think. All right, those are your hitters. We've talked about every hitter that you need to know about. We haven't talked about a lot of pitchers, and we will. Again, the Indians guys, Corey Klouber and Carlos Carrasco, were terrible. Patrick Corbyn is off to a brilliant start. Zach Granky's looking great, although we did go up two more home runs. Jose Barrios might be taking that next step into, I don't know, maybe the near elite tier.

And we've got a lot of guys that you can pick up, maybe for one start this week, maybe for the rest of the season. We'll talk to you about these starting pitchers after this quick break on fantasy baseball today. Scott, you ready to pitch? Let's do it. All right, here we go. Studs being Studs, Part one. I don't know. If you don't have anything to say about these guys, then please shut up. Patrick Corbin.

Jose Barrio. Yeah, Patrick Corby. Zach Granky. Jose Barrios. German Marquez. Chris Archer, Madison, Bumgarner, and David Price. All brilliant this week. How about these two, Bumgarner and Price?

Bumgarner's got a 312 VRA, four walks, 23 strikeouts. He's in 26 innings. He's at Pittsburgh this week. David Price. Look, it was Baltimore. But you look at his game log, and there hasn't been a bad start in there. So he's probably been the best pitcher on the staff. How much do you trust, excuse me, Bum Garner and Price this year?

They haven't really elevated my trust in them. They were both just outside the top 20, and that's where they remain. I do like Price more than Bum Garner. I think there's still reason to be concerned. This could be a really bad year for Boom Garner, despite what's been a fine start. I mean, the stuff still doesn't look great. But price is fine.

I mean, a little less than an ace, but he gives you the innings and has a good, at least in theory, a good lineup backing him. Would you be looking to trade high on any of these pitchers? Corby, Granky, Burrios, Marquez, Archer? I don't think I would. No, I wouldn't give up a high. end starting pitcher without getting one in return because I feel like that is the hardest

commodity to find it off the waiver wire these days. Do you think Chris Archer, do you think Chris Archer is a high-end starting pitcher? Well, you know, I thought that come again. Yeah, and I think he's only validated that so far. High-end, though, he wasn't a top 20 pitcher for you. He was just outside it, and it was mostly because I knew I could get him discounted, but he had been a top 20 pitcher, top 15 pitcher. more or less for like the three years prior for me.

Yeah. There's really nothing different about him. I guess he's still... He's throwing pitches beyond the slider and fastball now. He actually got three swinging strikes on the change-up in this most recent start, which was, I think encouraging because even though he had been throwing them more, he hadn't really... They hadn't looked effective for him.

He's 80% fastball slider still. It is a little bit more change-up usage. So that is nice to see. And I think there's a two-seem fastball now that he wasn't throwing much any before. It was mostly just four seamers and sliders. But it could be wrong with that. Not according to Brooks baseball. Like, well, okay, okay.

According to Brooks baseball, he started throwing his two-seamer last year, like 25% of the time. And he's only thrown it in Saturday's start. He threw it 6.38% of the time. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he ain't this good, obviously. but look, I'm the guy who doesn't like Chris Archer, but I see the case. His primary source of struggles was the ALE East. He just stunk at Baltimore.

He stunk at Toronto. He stunk at Yankee Stadium. He stunk at Fenway. Getting out of the ALE East could have been a great thing for him. Unfortunately, the NL Central is pretty good itself. But, yeah, I could see him having a better year than what we've seen. And I know that Scott and I would disagree on how bad is yours really where, and we won't get into it. Studs being Studs Part 2.

All right, Ross Stripling, Cole Hamels, Jake Arenda, who's been using his change-up a little bit more this year, Eduardo Rodriguez, who used Baltimore to get off the Schneid. But the Studs Being Studs Part 2 for me is Stripling, Hamels, Arieta, and Eduardo Rodriguez. Who's your favorite in that group? It's Hamels. Hamils.

It's Hamils. Yeah, it's Hamils, who I think is not so far behind, like, Jose Barrios from the last group. the strikeouts haven't been there yet like they were last year so i guess that's a little concerning but i he's he's shown in the past the ability to bounce back from issues like that i'm actually a little concerned about ross stripling among this group because like a lot of what got us excited about him last year was both terrific strikeout rate and a terrific walk rate. The strikeouts really haven't been there so far this year.

And the velocity wasn't there. Like when he was at his best, it's more like when he was dealing with injuries in the second half, averaging right around 90 on his fastball. So I'm not sure the strikeout rate is going to recover. Obviously, he has a great line of backing him, and he seems to have pretty good. Well, you know what? When Kershaw comes back, Reyes is probably out right, and then Hill comes back. I guess it would depend on Ryu if Striplin stays in the rotation. How long Ryu is going to be out? But, yeah, he may not be long for the role either, Stripling.

Okay, and I don't know that you can take much out of this, Eduardo Rodriguez start. He's going to either be at the Yankees or at Tampa Bay, I think at Tampa Bay this week. And then Jake Arieta, I still like, he's got 15 strikeouts and 20 innings. Yeah, I don't know. I don't think Jake Arrieta is a guy that needs to be owned in 12-team mixed leagues. I might be in the minority there. He's obviously you own in almost every league. But I agree with you.

I agree with you. He had one strikeout in his previous start. Right. And he just faced the Marlins. I think all three of them have been quality starts, but not with encouraging peripherals or reason to think he's bouncing back from a bad season. Studs being Studs part three. Okay, these guys are not must-own.

Some of them are... When I say studs, they're own in 80% of leagues or more. Some of them, because they were two-star pitchers. Trevor Williams, currently has a 245 ERA, and his final 13 starts of last year, he had a 1290RA. Trevor Williams. Brad Keller struck out 10 Indians on Friday, and he'll be at the White Sox this week.

He has four quality starts and four starts. Faced really only one good team. Carlos Rodon had a nice start. at the Yankees and been pretty good with the walks. Nine walks in 22 innings, 29 strikeouts, though. But his walks in four starts, I think. I think what I'm trying to say is most of his walks were concentrated in one start. And he's at Detroit this week, Carlos Rodan.

And then Julio Taran had a very good start. His first quality start of the season. I think we could probably ignore him, although he is at Cleveland this week. How many of these guys, Trevor Williams, Brad Keller, Carlos Rodon, Julio Taran, do you think are must-own? None of them. I think my favorite is probably Keller because he has

he's an elite ground ball pitcher he's the one pitcher who does something in an elite way of this group the 10 strikeouts were not something we're used to seeing from him but something he did interesting in this starting against Cleveland was he led with his slider it was the pitch he threw even more than

his fastball and so that was probably responsible for the 10 strikeouts It may have had something to do with the five walks, too. I don't know if it's something he can really sustain, but it was interesting. He's my favorite of them. I don't have any shares in any of the others, and frankly, if I saw them dropped. When are we going to give Trevor Williams some credit? This is like 16 or 17 starts in a row now, where he's got a sub 2ERA going back to last year.

And he gets a ton of soft contact and medium contact, or at least I'll say he doesn't give up a lot of hard contact. But, you know, let's give the man some credit, Trevor Williams. And he's got the Giants this week. Yeah, I just, I get it. It's been a long time. It was two solid years for Eulisha Seen of doing similar things, and now it looks like he's crashing hard. So I just have a hard time putting faith in that skill set.

If you're not, like, strikeouts, I think, are the most important thing. for a pitcher. If you're not getting them and Williams doesn't, then you either need to be like elite with your control, elite in terms of getting ground balls, probably both, like a Miles Michaelis last year. But even that, we're seeing, you know, it's looking like not a great margin for error, even for that kind of pitcher. Yeah, yeah, it's a tough start for him. All right, so let's go to the studs being duds, maybe more interesting than the ones being studs. I'm sure we're just fine with Jacob de Grom.

He was starting like 98 miles per hour yesterday, and he has 36 strikeouts in 22 innings, but struggling with the control a little bit and some home runs. Meanwhile, Corey Klobber and Carlos Carrasco had brutal starts at Kansas City this weekend. And I'm so upset about Tanaka because Tanaka had this great matchup against the White Sox, gives up a Grand Slam, had a Grand Slam taken, you know, robbed basically by an Aaron Judge catch. So he stunk, but he's got the Royals this week. I was going to say, after this royal start, sell high on Tanaka. He's not doing anything differently. He still has no fastball.

He's fine, but I thought he would get off to a great start, and you might be able to sell high on him. Do you have any concerns about Klooper or Krasco? Not really. No, I mean, not really. There's not, considering they've all had great starts this year, you know, that makes it easy to give them a pass for the bad ones. Carrasco

he said he just didn't have anything and his catcher said he couldn't get him to throw a slider with conviction but he looked great in the bullpen before and he was coming off an awesome start so you know if his velocity was way down I'd be worried I guess by this one start and the comment that he didn't have anything

but it was only a little bit down I think it's okay Kluber said he got he reverted to some bad habits in this start Tanaka said he couldn't get a great grip on is splitter, which is, of course, his best pitch. So I'm not really worried, no. I think, obviously, now's a terrible time to trade any of them.

And you wouldn't want to, anyway, for what I was saying earlier, about how hard it is to find a replacement, like a high-end pitcher off the waiver wire. Would you still trade, like, Jose Barrios, or Armand-Marquez for Carrasco or Kluber? No. Wait, yes. Yes, I would.

I would trade Marquez or who was the other one? Berrios? Brioz? Yeah. Yeah, I would still do that. All right, Studs being Duds part two. These guys are all owned in like 90% of leagues or more, and I want you to tell me if you're ready to drop any of them.

Zach Eflin, what? The most baffling start of the weekend. Six runs in four innings at Miami for Zach Eflin. And he's at Colorado this week, so no thanks. Yolishasine, Dodgers this week, no thanks. Jay Hap has been terrible, gets the Royals this week, but he's already faced Baltimore twice in the White Sox, and he has an 876 ERA.

Rick Porcelo, 1112 ERA, struggling against Baltimore, and Kyle Freeland, who has a blister and gets Philadelphia this week and off to a pretty bad start, but does have a lot of strikeouts. Would you drop Eflin, Shasine, Hat, Porcelo, or Freeland?

The only one I could get behind dropping is Shasin, I think Eflin and Freeland are right on the fringes for me And you know what? I did put in a claim where I was dropping Porcelo Though it didn't end up going through.

I don't see any reason to believe The most rostrable of these hap and Porcelo are just washed. Like Porcelo has 12 walks in 11 and I think 11 in a third inning. More walks than innings, which is just not him at all. He's really good control pitchers.

So something is off there, but it's not the stuff. And I think he'll be able to figure it out eventually, though I wouldn't want to be starting him in the meantime. Hap is still getting a good whiff rate on the fastball. So I think he's okay too. You know, I'd prefer to hold on to free Linden-Eflin, but I could see how in the shallowest of leagues that there may be your opportunity to free up a roster spot,

don't think the upside is so high that you have to hold onto them necessarily. And then Chasin, like I was saying earlier, talking about Trevor Williams. He's been a unicorn for a couple years now where, you know, doesn't really, should it really exist like that. Okay, then let's get to the fringes guys you might be able to pick up. Shallower leagues, fringee starting pitchers part one owed in 65 to 79% of leagues. Tyler Skaggs, Michael Paneda, and Julio Arias. Skaggs, Paneda, Arias. You know, I thought that Skaggs's bad start was probably due to the wind

because there was like a 20 mile per hour breeze in Wrigley Field, and all he did was give up home runs. But apparently they were moonshot, so I'm not quite sure that was the case. And he's off to a bad start. And he's at Texas this week, and then the Yankees. So it's kind of a rough schedule for Skag. Then there's Paneda and Arias. Who do you want from that group, Scott?

I don't want a Reyes, really. I think you can move on from him. He's not long for the rotation anyway and hasn't been startable, really. Skaggs and Paneda I'd like to have, but I don't think either is like Mustone. You know, if somebody drops them, you're automatically picking them up. I think they're both interesting. Paneda's velocity is down from before having Tommy John surgery. So that's a little concerning.

But he's pitched well so far, and he's pitched and increased his workload an inning in each of his three starts. So he seems to be on the right track otherwise. And Panetta gets Philadelphia this week. So I think, you know, he could serve. I'm sorry, he gets Toronto this week. He already faced Philadelphia. Toronto this week, that's a great matchup. They are so bad.

So that could work for him. Fringy starting pitchers part two. Okay. Who do you like in this group? Corbyn Burns. I'm about ready to drop him. Caleb Smith. I'm not there yet. But one more bad start.

Yeah. Getting burned. Yep. Caleb Smith. Corby Burns, Caleb Smith, Matt Strom, Anabal Sanchez. What is, are we not hyping the stallions enough? How is Caleb Smith only 51% own? That is not the problem.

We are definitely hyping his stallions. We call them the stallions. I think that means we're hyping them enough. Yeah, 51%. Now, Caleb Smith should be owned everywhere. just like Trevor Richards. You know, the other stallion, Pablo Lopez. I still like him, but he has been, you know, he's had a couple bad starts in a row,

so you probably don't have to own him. But Corbyn Burns, I still want to own too. I think there's a lot of upside. Three home runs in every start after a minor league career where Corbyn Burns gave up only 11 home runs total. So that, I mean, that's weird. That's weird, obviously. I don't think you can start him. right now until he gets this situation under control.

But ridiculous fastball, I think he's must own. Strom and Sanchez, I really have no interest in them. Strom, I did coming out of spring training, but his velocity is not near what it was last year. When he was mostly working out of the bullpen, but still, those spot starts he made. He was throwing like three miles per hour harder than he's been throwing this year, and he's not really missing any bat.

So I'm fine moving on from Matt Strom, despite my initial enthusiasm. Frenchie starting pitchers part three. These guys are owned in 30 to 49% of leagues. Lou Gweaver had a great start against San Diego on Friday. Merrill Kelly did not have such a good start against San Diego on Saturday. Not terrible, but five innings, four runs on eight hits. Brett Anderson has a 263 ERA, and he is not on the IL yet, which is amazing.

I lost that bet. Vince Velasquez, good start at Miami, but at Colorado this week for Velasquez. And Wade Miley. Yeah, he's been okay And he's at Texas this week Luke Weaver, Merrill Kelly, Brett Anderson, Vince Velasquez, Wade Miley I'm gonna say

Not an extremely exciting group Maybe Luke Weaver But not that good of a group here I like owning Miley too Just because of what the Aster's have done With pitchers in the past But it's been You know, it hasn't exactly been an eye-opening start

To the season for Miley And it's interesting that the guy who relieved him when he only went four innings this weekend was Brad Peacock, who was getting skipped this turn, and struck out seven and, I think, three in a third innings. Yeah, he's better. It makes you wonder when,

you know, it makes you wonder who really deserves a spa more between him and Miley, and if push comes to shove, who they would remove if it came to that. And in Deep League's... Oh, sorry. But I'd still rather own Miley. And Luke Weaver's probably my second favorite of this group.

You'd rather own Miley than Peacock? No, no, no, no. Oh, okay. I'd rather own Miley than not own Miley. Oh, okay, okay, okay. All right, Deep Leagues. Own and less than I was about to jump through the computer and punch Scott White. Oh, boy.

Sorry. All the Game of Thrones adrenaline. Getting really mad. Scott White Walker. All right, Deep Leagues. Derek Holland. Zach Davies. Jose Orania.

Felix Hernandez. Tanner Roark. Adam Wainwright. Jeffrey Rodriguez got sent down. Homer Bailey. Clay Buckles. C.C. Sabathia. Yvonne Nova.

Trent Thornton. Drew Pomerance. What an exciting way to present these names. I'll say, Sabathia has the Royals this week, and he's fine. He went 14 and 5 two years ago with a 369 ERA.

Last year he had a 365 ERA, and he won nine games, nine and seven. He's okay. 22% own, and I did pick him up for a one-starred streamer against Kansas City. I don't think I'd be interested in anyone else. No, I don't know. Derek Holland, he's okay. Yeah, Derek Hollins is actually, like, even this start against the Rockies yesterday was not very good,

but I think he had 17 swinging strikes. Wow. Yeah, I don't know that he deserves to be much more owned than 25%, but he's somebody who I'm always like right on the version. of adding. And that's probably the most interesting of this group. I agree. I mean, Homer Bailey had a great start where he threw a lot of splitters, which was interesting and obviously has something of a track record there, but I need to see a lot more than one great start against Cleveland. Yeah. Time for some emails now at Fantasy Baseball at Cbsi.com. We got about three,

two minutes left, Scott. Here we go. This is from Taylor and Georgia. I'm in an eight-team league. Should I pick up Musgrove or Colin McHugh? And would you drop any of the following for Musgrove or McHugh? Glassnow, Paxton, Trinen, do little, a roll this chappin. No. Nope, Stan Pat. I mean, I consider both Musgrove and McHugh must own, but I guess this is the... Not an 18-lemmy.

The dilemma you face in an 18-league. Yeah. Maybe one where some other owners aren't paying attention. This is from a hopeless fantasy player. would you keep Clevenger in your IL spot or drop him for a streaming pitcher? I guess you can't do both. I don't understand. Like, I've gotten this.

I get it. If you have an I L spot, why do you not stash him in an IA? Because I like the deal. Like I had a team, I had to drop a Rota's Viscayano, was obviously not as good as Clevenger, because he was my fourth guy on IL. So I think that's what's being left out here. Like they don't really have an IL spot. Like an overflowing IL situation.

Yes. No, I think Clevenger's upside and the scarcity of what he brings to the table is such that he should be one of your priorities over somebody who may be coming back sooner. Because that's what you have to consider too. I mean, when somebody comes off the IL to activate them, you're going to have to drop somebody. So the fact that a guy's coming back sooner isn't always a good thing, you know? Yeah. And then Tim has a question about Chris Sale. The sale owner in my league seems desperate to get rid of him is Tyler.

Glass Now, too much to give up for Chris Sale or for Cory Klooper? You can trade Glass Now for either of them? Yeah. I would still trade Glass Now for either of them. He does seem like he's taking an ace turn, but I think it's an opportunity to buy low on both of those guys. I would prefer Kluber. I think he's less dangerous. So yeah, I'd be fine trading Glass now for the more proven ace.

Scott always prefers the less dangerous. Take a walk on the wild side, Scott White. Come on. No, I agree with you. Okay. That's Scott. I'm Adam Azer tomorrow. Who is it? Ethan Scott?

Chris and Scott? Who knows? I'll be here. I'll tell you that much. We'll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks for listening, everybody. Thanks for watching. Check us out on YouTube on CBSports.com.

Bye. Talk to tomorrow.