Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/16: Struggling Pitchers, Kershaw Returns, Early Trends (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 16, 2019

Beginning the show with a discussion (2:06) about Yu Darvish, Raisel Iglesias, Noah Syndergaard and Aaron Nola. Whose struggles appear to be legit? Is Darvish just going to throw as hard as possible going forward? And what did we make of Clayton Kershaw's return (12:00)? ... MLB news (16:45) as we take a look at the PHI bullpen and weird Paul Goldschmidt splits. Plus, some 2018 trends are continuing into 2019 (21:50). Christian Yelich is a power hitter, Kris Bryant and Freddie Freeman are not. Joey Gallo has batting average issues ... We answer your questions about Peeps (34:50), Hunter Dozier (39:22), Travis Shaw and more. We also discuss stash candidates (42:00), players you shouldn't have given up on (45:30) and yesterday's SPs (53:00) like Yusei Kikuchi, Luis Castillo, Freddy Peralta and Joey Lucchesi ... 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, I sense an exciting show. I sense that we've got some pep in our step today. Chris Towers is like making jokes off the air.

He's in a good mood. Scott seems like he's in a good mood. coming up, which means we get to talk about Peeps, the worst food ever, if you can even call them food. Clayton Kirshaw is back and there's plenty to get to from the world of fantasy baseball. Good morning, guys. Happy Tuesday to you. I'm Adam Azer. Hello, Scott White. What's up? We're really going to do this with Peeps again. We are every year. Every year. Are you still putting them in your tea or whatever you do? Have you ever done it with coffee? I don't drink coffee. So no, I've never, and yes, I still do, I still put it.

Did I sound offended when I said that? Yes, very. Okay. I hit my head off. Yeah, wow. Idiot. I thought we were in good mood this morning. Yeah, the show is rude.

I thought we had talked about this before. It makes me realize you don't remember any, any personal details of mine. Yeah. We remember. You know, Adam, you said we were in good mood. Scott's actually in kind of a jerky mood between that and the headline that he put for his piece on the struggling stars. He's kind of a grouch. Well, let's see. What is it? What's the, what's the headline?

Fantasy baseball, Poland. Aaron Nola, Jose Ramirez, and all those other struggling studs will be fine, comma, you impatient ingrates. Oh my gosh, Scott White. Scott White, what's going on over there? Well, let's start with, uh, all right, Jose Ramirez had a good game. He homered and he stole two bases, so that's nice to see. But let's start with the struggling pitchers from yesterday. And the four that I have in this section are Noah Cindergarde, Aaron Nola, U. Darvish. I'm sure we'll have a lot of – there's good and bad with you Darvish. And R.S. El Clesias, he blew his first save.

He's got a 675 ERA. But the two guys who squared off yesterday, Mets and Phillies, Noah Cindergard, I think you look at his game blog. It's really not that bad. It's just, you know, 113 whips, great. 29 strikeouts and 24 innings, but a bloated ERA, 563. Aaron Nola, though, I mean, the control has been bad. 11 walks, 19 strikeouts, and 19 in a third.

Gabe Cap, we're talking about how Noah just doesn't really have his command right now. Do you guys have, well, Scott White, what do you think about those morons out there that have concerns about Noah's Cindergarde and Aaron Nola? I think it doesn't pay to have concerns ultimately. You're talking about a two-and-a-half-week stretch of the season that would probably go. unnoticed if it happened at a later stretch. And I say that even understanding Nola, I don't think he ever gave it more than four earned runs in a start

last year. But that was obviously something so abnormal that you shouldn't have expected it to continue. I think there's not really any concrete concerns for for Nola in terms of like a loss of skill. We could

quibble about a mile per hour of velocity, maybe, but I don't think that's Making all the difference here. I think it's more a matter of, I think he made only three starts this spring. Another case of a guy who maybe didn't pitch enough, and he doesn't have his off-speed arsenal up to mid-season form yet.

It's really just the fact that he's not getting as much movement on those pitches as he did before. And that's probably all it is. He's probably going to be fine. You're not going to, if you try trading him now, you're obviously going to get 80 cents on the dollar at most, and you're limiting your team's upside that way, when it's probably nothing. There's like a 90% chance it's nothing.

Yeah. And that's a bad idea. Yeah, Nola's next start is at Colorado. So if you really want to, if you want to gamble, you really want to buy low, you could try to wait another start. I mean, I think everybody knows it's tough to pitch in Colorado, but the numbers could still look bad if he has a bad start.

But, I mean, I feel like. all of us are, would say buy low on Aaronola. Chris, are you seeing anything with either Cindergarde or Nola that concerns you? And I'll just say Cindergarde has a 289 FIP right now, by the way. So I think things look good for him. What about Noah? No, not really. I mean, even, you know, like his velocity is down, but when you compare it to last March slash April, it's really not. It's right around where it was at this point last season. So now I don't see anything with both of these guys. Like with Cinderguard, you can look and see while he's throwing his slider and

curveball a little less hard. Maybe that's making them a little less effective, but he's only given up one home run between the two pitches. I don't think he's given up an extra base hit on the slider yet. So no, I don't see much that's concerning with either to these two guys. You know, unless there's just something, it's possible there's something we don't know about and that we can't know about right now. But based on the information we have, I see no reason to,

worry about them. When you look at Nola and Cindergarde, Nola Cindergarde, do you maybe reduce your expectations? Do you say, oh, Nola's fine, but he might not be the Salyong caliber pitcher we thought, or do you still have those high expectations? Yeah, I mean, Nola was in a weird spot with the starting pitcher rankings before the season, at least in 80p, because I think it was like sixth off the board. And that's kind of a weird spot because it felt like there was like a clear top tier and then things got a little muddier from like 6 to 11 maybe. So maybe he's more like the 10th best pitcher. I don't see any reason right now to really adjust your expectations for him. Okay.

After Colorado this weekend, he should line up to face Miami and Detroit at home in the two starts after that. That's Aaronola. What did we think of you, Darvish? I had a strange night. I watched this game until, I don't know, about the fifth inning. and then I fell asleep in the 8 o'clock hour, and then I woke up and watched almost all of the Dodgers game from like 10 o'clock to almost 1 a.m.

because I wanted to see Kershaw pitch. Darvish, though, like, I just don't know if he's good, but I missed the part where he started saying, screw it, I'm just going to throw as hard as I can. Toward the end of his start, he is throwing 98, 99 miles per hour. He said he was tired in the first inning because of the Miami. heat and it was freezing in Chicago. They come to Miami. He's exhausted.

He just didn't look like that good of a pitcher, but then I missed the highlights, I guess. So I don't know. Scott sent me a trade offer on U. Darvish, which I don't think I'm going to take, but it was fair. He sent me my U. Darvish for his Marco Gonzalez. I don't know, guys. Where are we on Darvish? I'm very confused. Very confused. There were two interesting things about this start. There was the one pitch late in the start that he threw it like 99 miles an hour that

hit Lewis Brinson, bounced off the catcher's glove, appeared to hurt Wilson Contreras a little bit, and hit the umpire, which was kind of incredible. And also, just that quote after the start, quote, I was trying to throw as hard as I could,

not for the strike zone, just as hard as I could. I should do that next time. Seriously, I'm thinking too much for strike, strike, strike, I should do that for next time. Yeah,

his 15 walks in 17 and 2 thirds really makes me think that you, Darvish is thinking too much about throwing, strikes. His command was terrible last year and he's walking a lot of guys this year. All right, so I'm sorry, where are we on you, Darvish? I'll stop talk.

I have a lot to say on you Darvish, but I'll let you guys do it. I mean, thinking too much about throwing strikes and not throwing strikes is something that I've heard happens. You don't want to aim with the ball. You want to just use your natural athleticism

to throw it straight to the plate. I think that's a thing. We need a drop. I mean, we're talking about, I think his peak prior to this start velocity was 95 miles per hour. So we're talking about an increase of two to three just in this one start here. And I think it's very encouraging. I think it's... Well, wait, wait, but listen, that's with context, Scott, right? Because, like, he just reared back and said, screw it, I'm going to throw as hard as I can.

That is not a sustainable philosophy. And he didn't do that for a lot of. of the start. And like you said, Chris, it hit Lewis Brinson. So if he is going to throw 98 miles per hour, he's probably not going to be throwing strikes. Well, he threw several pitches 98. And he's not throwing strikes at 93, 94 either. So I'd rather him not throw strikes at 98, 99. That's not going to, he's not going to be throwing 98 miles per hour every pitch. Like his arm is going to fall off. Look, we've, this is something that we've seen in Major League Baseball, of it. last few years is guys just realizing that since there's no expectation of them going through the order multiple times and you darvish has only finished six innings and nine of his 12 starts

since joining the cubs anyway you might as well just be as good as you can for as long as you can wait and then figure out the rest three of his 12 starts you mean i think three of his 12 starts he has gone six okay it's not like this is the first time he's thrown 98 i mean he threw many 97 miles Where are we on you Darvish? How much do you trust him? I don't trust you, Darvish. Yeah, that's right. I am.

I was starting to get nervous. Even at the start of yesterday's start, I was starting to get nervous. But as you said, I made you a tradeoff for afterward. I think what this was the most encouraging sign for him. Yeah, I mean, he had 14 swinging strikes in this game. Marlins. After, I think, 12 last time. Marlins?

I still think there's a lot there to work with. I do think it's tough to gauge people based on how they do against the Marlins. That is such a bad lineup. I think he's clearly getting better with each start, and his next two starts should be against the Diamondbacks, which is a fairly favorable matchup. Yeah. Who would you rather have Chris?

Marco Gonzalez, you, Darvish. I'm going to reject the trade offer. It was a fair trade offer, Scott. I think you saw my tweets about how I was a little discouraged about Darvish yesterday, and you tried to capitalize. I'm going to reject it. I made offers in several leagues. It wasn't just you.

I wasn't just picking on Adam. maze are here. Okay. That's fine. Wasn't picking on me. I rejected it too. All right. So then we'll say Darvish ahead of Marco Gonzalez, but is there another pitcher that may

have surpassed him that was drafted after you Darvish? Like obviously Glass Now is in the same range. Glass now is way ahead of him. How about like Colin McHue or you Darvish? I would take McHugh. Me too. Okay. Reisel Glacius.

We have reason to be concerned. here or just a bad start for Iglesias, bad beginning to the season? He's essentially made one start, right? Like six and two thirds innings. He's giving up four runs. Is that what the, what it is right now? Yeah, two homers, five walks, eight strikeouts. Yeah.

Okay. Unless there's signs of injury or diminished stuff, I don't think you worry about relievers at this point in the season. Unless they're going to all the terms and he's not. And all the alternatives except for, I think Amir Garrett's been fine, but everybody else has been lousy. So why? They want to be thinking about removing him anyway.

Okay, from some of the struggling pitchers to a season debut, I don't know what the adjective was for it. I'm going to tell you this. He pitched well. I don't think I'm going to start him this weekend at Milwaukee. I don't, this is Clayton Kershaw we're talking about. Maybe that's controversial. I don't think he's earned it.

There was good, but there, I mean, I mean, he is not throwing hard at all. And, you know, I read that, like, an ESPN article, a scout said that his slider did not have enough depth to distinguish it from, like, a cutter. And that's important because it really did look like he was throwing a cutter. I know he doesn't throw a cutter, Clayton Kershaw, who threw seven innings, gave up two runs in the first, and then six scoreless after that. He struck out six. He got a ton of ground balls, ten ground balls, three fly balls. And 14 swinging strikes, really good rate on 84 pitches.

But very, very reliant on his curve ball, just doesn't really have. have his fastball now. I feel like my personal opinion, I think he's going to have to pick up some velocity if he's going to be great. He could, maybe can still be very good, but what do you guys think about Clayton Kirshaw? I feel like that's last year's battle you're fighting, right? I mean, it was down a little from last year, but the big drop happened last year. And that cutter, slider, whatever we're going to call it, it had, you know, he got seven swinging strikes with it. He got half of his swinging strikes on it. I was encouraged. I mean, just the fact that he went, I think he went

seven innings. Seven. Yep. I mean, that's fresh off the DL. 84 pitches. He was very efficient. Yeah. I mean, that they let him go seven. And, you know, just that still makes him a standout at starting pitcher, even if he's not going to be a strikeout for any guy, which he wasn't last year either.

I will say this, Adam. If I had told you before the season, Clayton Kirshall was going to be throwing as hard as Chris Sale. I feel like you would have been ecstatic. So, got to think about it that way. Context matters. Yeah. Did you guys watch the start? I watched a little bit of it, yeah.

Right? It's not the same. It's not the same Kirshall. That's just... Right. And that's the thing is... It's not that he can't be good. It's that his margin for error is a lot slimmer when he's averaging 90 and peaking at 91

than when he was averaging 93, 94, and peaking in the high 90s. But that doesn't mean he can't be good. This is still one of the best command and control pitchers in baseball. We still saw him finish fourth in the National League in the RA last season. Still nearly a strikeout printing, not quite. You worry about him staying healthy, but his price was discounted enough once we were drafting that I think you can just look at Clayton Kershaw, someone who's going to help you when he's there.

He's not going to be the ace of your staff and carry you, but I definitely think he's not going to hurt you. Maybe you do sit him against a Milwaukee. But that says as much about, like, how many pitchers wouldn't you sit against Milwaukee? And is that in Miller Park? Yeah, it's in Miller Park, yeah. Yeah, like how many pitchers wouldn't you sit at Milwaukee?

Well, I guess that's my question. Is he, is he, he's, I guess he's not, maybe he's in that group. I'm going to be maybe a little nervous about it. But, I mean, he's sitting, excuse me, Kershaw's behind Cindergarden Nola for you. Now that he's healthy, he's still behind them, right? Yes, sure. Okay. Let's see, who else?

Armagh, Marquez or Clayton Kershaw? Kershaw. I think I have Marquez. Marquez, yeah, I'll say Marquez. Okay. All right, so overall, you know what? Good start. Very good start.

And not only did they let him pitch the seventh, they actually let him hit in the sixth to come out in the seventh. We thought maybe it might be done because it was a 2-1 or 2-2 game or something like that. They let him hit, and they wanted him to pitch 7 innings. And he did. He did not get the win, although the Dodgers did win on a walk-off home run from Jack Peterson.

And if you've got Jack Peterson and he's got Ritees, like I think nothing but Ritees this week, too, maybe one lefty, you start him because he is hitting. And you should go to sportsline.com. We got some fantasy content on there. You got an injury analysis, hitter matchups, things like that. But also it's a gambling site. It's a great gambling site.

And you will make your money back quickly with the advice on Sportsline. And especially the first month, the first month is only a dollar if you sign up on Sportsline.com with our promo code Vegas. promo code is Vegas. $1 for your first month in $9.99 after that. We only had 10 games yesterday, but we have a lot of news. Cody Bellinger left after being hit by a pitch on the leg. X-rays were negative. He's not expected to miss an extended amount of time.

He's still the number one hitter in fantasy, still ahead of Christian Yelich. Jeremy Jeffress will be activated today. Yesterday, Josh Hader pitched one inning. He gave up a run. He gave up a home run. He came in in a 10-6 game in the ninth inning. So not a save situation, but let's call it a closer-like situation. We'll see what happens. Jeffers should be back today. Mike Trout, DH. David Robertson is on the I-L with elbow soreness. Okay, who do you want in the Phillies bullpen right now, guys? Like, it was a mess even before this.

So, I mean, Dominguez is probably the best pitcher still off to his slow start. But, you know, he doesn't have a save yet. The only two who do have saves are Neris and Neshik. And there's a lefty whose name I don't even know, he got a save in a 14-in-a-game, and that's it. So, I... I guess Dominguez, but like, you just shouldn't, you shouldn't count on anybody for saves right now. Okay, I have Hector Neras.

I don't, Dominguez wasn't available in the league I have, but I think, I think any of them could get a save. And Neres, I've said this before when I picked them up. You know, he's a, he's a good pitcher. He got off to a really bad start last year. He came back. They sent him down. He came back, and he was amazing. He was stupid good at the end of last year.

Yeah, so I'm hoping. 35 strikeouts in his final 17 and two-thirds. in the second half of the season. Oh, man, Tyler Skaggs. Why, you got to be on the IL already? At least it's not an arm injury. And he had a tough matchup this week anyway, but Tyler Skaggs has an ankle injury.

He expects to miss just the minimum. And I got a request to play something. So here we go. I'm going to Tyler Skag. No, you're not. That's for 10 days. No, he did Tyler Skaggs. Yes.

He did Tyler Skaggs. He's out of the IL. Ken Giles was sick yesterday. be a genie filled in and got the safe for Toronto. Harrison Bader has a hamstring injury and Tyler O'Neill left with arm so you should take a look and see if Jose Martinez is available. I have a little stash section and he is in that section. Jose Martinez is 46% owned.

Maybe you get some playing time here. Jose Ramirez, like I said, he home run and he stole two bases. And how about this? Paul Goldschmidt guys, he has hit five of his seven home runs in Miller Park. He's batting 226 with seven home runs. He has a career high K rate so far. Pretty high walk rate too, but 21 strikeouts in 16 games. Just a 182 bad bit.

But at home, Paul Goldschmidt's batting 115. On the road, he's batting 306 with five home runs. They've all come at Miller Park. Do you think that's fantasy relevant at all for Paul Goldschmidt? No. Not at all. Okay. So I'm not trying to be dismissive, but his strikeout rate was higher last year.

It was really, really high at the beginning of the season. season and then he turned back into Paul Goldschman. It's not like he's even been disappointing so far this season. So, no, I think Paul Goldman's Paul Goldschmidt. No, I guess I'm saying, like, do you think there's a chance that he's going to be disappointing because he's going to be hurt by his home ballpark? And right now his numbers are inflated by five home runs at Miller Park. I don't think he's playing in a worse park than he did last year.

Yeah, okay. And, yeah, I mean, they happen to have played two series at Miller Park. One of those games, at least one was against Corbett Burns, has given up home runs to everybody. So I would agree. It's just too little. It's too small of a sample to really make anything of it, you know? Well, we do have to talk about Christian Yelich and some 2018 trends that are continuing.

Yelich is a power hitter. Freddie Freeman, as not so much of a power hitter. We'll come back and talk about those 2018 trends that are continuing into 2019 right after this quick break. Christian Yelich had a 35% home run to fly ball rate last year. Unsustainable, they said. But now it's 38.2% after his three homer day. And he's actually hitting fly balls this year, including some pop-ups in-field fly-balls.

Yeah, that's the thing. He's not going to have a 38% home run to fly ball rate this season. Not going to have a 35% home run to fly ball rate. If he did, he would probably hit 60 home run. Because he is hitting the ball in the air more. off and his ground ball rate is down to 43.6%, which is by far the lowest rate of his career. He has, I think, 31 batted balls in the air compared to 24 on the ground so far. If Christian Yelich is a legitimate fly ball hitter now, then everything both Heath and I said

about him not hitting for as much power this year is probably going to look really stupid. And that's what we have to remember with all of these things. and we talked about a little bit with Madison Bumgarner earlier in the season where, you know, when we say a guy can't do X, it's also assuming that he continues to do Y from the previous season. But if Christian Yelich really has continued to tweak his swing to get the ball in the air more, then all bets are off. He might end up being, you know, a 35 homer guy every single season. I think Yelich, Scott, when would you draft Yelich now?

because, yeah, I was a little nervous about drafting him, like, eighth or ninth overall. I just didn't think he would hit 30 home runs. He already has eight. He's obviously great. Maybe it's too early to just dismiss all doubts, but, I mean, I think he's probably a top five pick at this point. Yeah, well, I was setting the over-under for home runs of 29 and a half, which is higher than, I think, Chris and Heath had him. but it was still also expecting a pretty big step back in that category. And I had him as like a late first rounder.

Like, I still think, I mean, he's probably closer to J.D. Martinez now, which is the middle of the first round. Between the two, I think I'd still take Martinez, but it's more of a toss-up. How about Jose Ramirez or Christian Eilich? Ramirez, for me. Yeah, I mean, I'm not really worried about Ramirez, so I, I guess I'd have to say him. I mean, as awful as he's been, he's up to five steals now on the season, so he's been contributing something.

And there's not looking at what he's doing in terms of making contact and the way the ball's coming off the bat. There's not really much to be worried about for Ramirez. So I would still take Ramirez. All right. Well, that was a 2018 trend continuing Christian Yewitch's power. How about Chris Bryant is not a power? hitter. That trend is continuing so far. He's batting just 236 with one home run and five doubles

in 14 games, and he is actually hitting a lot of ground balls, a 50% ground ball rate for Chris Bryant. And it's been okay against Ritey's. That was a problem for him last year. But, you know, since the shoulder injury, like the first 38 games of the season last year, and this is something that people might forget about Chris Bryant, he actually had a 1022 OPS. He had eight home runs in 38 games. Last 64 games, he had a 717 OPS. He hit five home runs in 64 games. So, look, it's a slow start for Chris Bryant.

Is that all it is, or are we concerned, Chris? I mean, it's one of those things where it hasn't been like bad luck. When you look at the bad at ball data, he actually has pretty much hit the ball about as poorly as his results would suggest. He has a 312 woba and a 310 expected Wobah. So you can't just say, well, his luck will come through. But I do think he's better than this. He has hit the ball harder this season. The ground ball rate's a little concerning, but it's so early and he's been such a consistent fly ball hitter that I, I mean, you're a little bit worried, I guess,

but that concern was priced into his draft price. So I haven't changed my opinion on Chris that much so forth. All right. So do you think he's a good buy low or do you kind of feel a little nervous? It depends how low. Eh, E. E. E. E. Haneo Suarez or Chris Bryant? I would take Chris Bryant, yeah. Scott?

Yeah, I agree. I'd be reluctant to do anything with Bryant just because of the investment I have in him. Fortunately, I'm not invested in him personally because I was concerned about really the two-year trend of not hitting for much home run power when that's the main thing he brings to the table. So this is, you know, this, this continues a longer term trend and that's when I think you have to be worried about, about maybe early season numbers or when there's a clear loss of skill. So I'm a little concerned, yeah, but at the same time, it still could turn around pretty quickly. It's still a small sample. It's still hard to know what to make of it. It's just a little

more concerning because of the recent history. All right. Next trend that has continued, that's Chris Bryant we're talking about. Next trend that has continued, Freddie Freeman is not a power hitter. And I don't think you can really complain. He's having a great start to the season batting 345 with 14 walks to eight strikeouts and five doubles, but only one home run. And it looks, you know, it looks kind of a lot like last year just a ton of line drives, and Freddie Freeman only hit 23 home runs last year. He still was a top two second baseman, number 12 hitter in points, number 17 in Roto. I picked him... First base. First base. Also a top two first base. Yeah. I pick Freddie Freeman to win the

MVP, I think, because I kind of felt like as he got further removed from the wrist injury, maybe the power would come back and he would just be like an absolutely amazing hitter. I'm content with him just like this, but I just want to point it out, Freddie Freeman is not a power hitter. and do you think he'll hit even 25 home runs this year? I would take the over. He's still hitting the world really, really hard. He's still, you know, his launch angle is actually up a little bit. I don't see much reason to be concerned that he's not going to be a source of power.

There was that year and like a quarter where he looked like he might be a legitimate 35 to 40 homer guy before the wrist injury. that's, I think we are past that enough to say that that's probably not going to happen. But he's so good at everything else when it comes to hitting that, no, I have zero concerns about Freddie Freeman. Next trend. Rafael Devers still can't hit lefties, Scott. He is three for 20 with one double. He hasn't hit right. He's all that well.

He's hit them a 308 batting average, but only a 359 slugging. And this is someone that people are concerned about, and I don't blame them. Rafael Devers still struggling against lefties. and he's also committed five errors, Scott. Yeah, I mean, I think they're going, I don't think they're really thinking about limiting his playing time because of that. The encouraging thing he's done is he's greatly improved both his walk and strikeout rates from last year. Now, he's not really elevating the ball at all.

It's almost like he's almost like he's having to address all these different issues one at a time and very slowly and there's probably still a great hitter at the end of it. We got to remember this guy is only he's only 22 years old he got called up so young and

there just seems to be a lot of on-the-job learning because of that. But I do still think the upside is very high. I don't think in like a head-to-head context with the smaller roster spots he's necessarily must-own but if you do have the ability to stash

upside. He's somebody that you still want to have stashed away. Okay, that's Rafael Devers for you. My starting third baseman in the podcast points league, and I am thinking about trying to acquire a third basement. Joey Gallo is still a batting average liability, Chris Towers.

He is batting 217 right now after a good day. He's batting average going up and down a lot, obviously, early in the season, but, you know, we were hoping that he might be able to hit like in the 240s. So far, not so good in that regard for Joey Gallo. Yeah, the thing that's tough with him is he's always going to underperform your expectations when it comes to comparing his batted ball profile to other players because he is so shiftable and teams. I believe the shift rate is up to 96.1% of his plate appearances he has been shifted on according to stat cast.

So they're basically, every team is basically just saying we're going to do this until you beat us. The one thing I will point out, though, is in 2017, he had a 222 expected batting average. In 2018, he had a 232. And he underperformed both of those, and I think you would expect him to. This year, he has a 291 expected batting average so far. It's early, only 23 batted balls. But there are signs that he has made some changes that could lead to better results. I still think

240 is closer to the ceiling, but it's still realistic to me. And I think he was hitting like 180 before yesterday's game or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's also leading baseball and hard contact rate, Joey Gallo. And this one, I'm going to skip it because we're getting a little long here.

David Peralta hits the ball hard. This is continuing from last year. Last year he had a 48.2%, no, 48.6% hard contact rate this year. 48.2% for David Peralta. So, so far, he's the number 16 outfielder in points, number 17 in Roto, and that's basically where he was last year. And he finally walked.

David Peralta drew two walks, I think, over the weekend, batting 373, and has nine doubles. It is team name Tuesday. I've got a few of them. E-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you're fegly. Yeah, yeah, you're fegly. Okay. This one, I don't know, but Pat and Ohio, our man, sent it in for team name Tuesday for baseball. Golden Tate Warriors.

All right, I'll just bring it up this. Warriors blew a 31-point lead last night. Pretty amazing. Don't forget about the time they blew a 3-1 series lead in the NBA final. I won't. When they had the unanimous MVP. Who was playing with a bad ankle is the only reason why they lost that series. I think it was an ankle.

Delusions of Grand... Let's get these jokes off. Delusions of Grandal. Sure, yeah. Grandolph the Grey. Yep, yep. Seashek, seashells by the seashore. That's excellent.

Forgot about Trey? Yeah, I like that one. Yeah, yeah. Forgot about Trey? Yeah, it's good. Mancini or Turner? Turner. Okay.

Either way. Yeah. I prefer Mancini. Bohemian Rhapsodo. Yeah, that's very good. I want my vocal back, vocal back, vocal back. That's good. Yeah.

And dogs don't know it's not Bregman. Is that like bacon? Dogs don't know it's not bacon? Yeah, I think it's the Began strips. Right. It's Bregman. All right, we got some of your emails when we come back, plus stash candidates,

a segment called Never Gonna Give You Up, and injuries, news, and notes. And what else? Marcelo Zuna and Wilson Contreras have been great. Deep League targets, and much more. We'll be right back on fantasy baseball today. All right, quick round of emails here at fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Hoppy Easter Week, says Brett G from Wisconsin.

Dear Peter, Roger, and Bugs. They have nothing in common. There's a rabbits. Two of them are rabbits, ones a bunny. Oh, right, right. What is your stance on if peeps are and should be considered a candy? Do we even like peeps? I hope you're all watching the video today.

We have a peeps gross or not gross graphics here. Are they can't? Yes, they're candy. I mean, what else would they be? They're candy. Well, so when you go to the supermarket, you don't find peeps in the candy aisle. You find them in the garbage aisle. Where all the garbage is.

They're just terrible. I still never heard this peeps are bad take until the arrival of social media. I feel like it's one of those. instances. You live in your cloistered little bubble and social media has just brought you more world views, okay? Yeah, I guess. You know, you got to get out of your bubble and talk to real Americans. It's a sugar-covered marshmallow. Like, if you don't like marshmallows or you don't like sugar, fine, peeps are gross. But if you, if you're somebody who genuinely likes, generally likes candy, I don't see why you would be repulsed by it. I don't think it's the best candy ever. It's like the worst type of. It's like the worst type of. marshmallow ever. It's like, It's like, grainy. Can I ask Scott a question here? Yeah, because of the sugar on it. No, it's the marshmallow itself. Scott, do you like peanut butter?

Sure. Do you like chocolate? Yeah? We can all agree. Peanut butter and chocolate is one of the greatest combos. It is so hard to screw that up. Yet Butterfinger somehow manages to screw up peanut butterfinger and chocolate. Oh, no, Butterfingers are delicious. Get out of here. Both of you? You're, no. Yeah, listen, guys, they have. Go. Go. Go. Go. It's one of the best. They made a new butterfinger. They came out with a new butterfinger.

If a candy was so good, they would never have made a new one. They needed to make a new one because it was terrible. This is a ridiculous argument on its face. Because there are like 11 billion different kinds of Reese's cup. Which you just said is the candy that's impossible to screw up. No, that's not a... There's not a... There's the big cups.

There's the big cups with Reese's pieces inside of them. No, that's different. That's just variation. It's the same exact thing. No, it's not. This is like a new candy. This is like a do-over. This is like, forget about the old Butterfinger.

No, they've got a new one. Now they just have a creamy one and it's great. It's terrible. Okay. The best part about Butterfinger is the texture. The way it's like crumbles in your mouth. The best part... There's going to be a class action lawsuit for all the fillings that people have lost eating butterfings.

The best part about Butterfingers is how it gets stuck in your teeth forever and you have an uncomfortable feeling. in your mouth. I love that about a candy. Robert, Robert from Lodi, California, says, Gene Seguerra just stole his first base of the season. Should we be worried? He's not going to run. And can we drop Nate

Evaldi? Do you not like steak because it gets stuck in your teeth and you have to floss afterward? I mean, I think you feel like that's worse. No, it's not worse. It's not that it gets stuck in your teeth. It's that it coats your teeth. It becomes your teeth, a butterfinger. You have

saliva in your mouth that dissolves it away quickly enough? Not quickly enough. Do you think Gene Cigura is going to run this year and can we drop Nativaldi? I like a Heathbar. You like a Kreezebar? Yeah, he'll run.

He's not as much. He may not as much, which is, you know, he was a 22 steel guy last year. Is that right? Something like that. I'd be a little concerned. He's between 15 and 20 as opposed to over 20, but, you know, I'm not sure that makes a huge difference in terms of how often you play him. I think of Aldi is dropable, yeah. You may be picking him up again at some point, but the upside isn't so high that you have to stick with him and keep a roster spot invested in him if there are other interesting things emerging off waivers.

Where do you guys think Gene Seguro ranks among shortstop so far? Nine. I would guess lower because of some weirdos like Swanson. I'll say 17th. 11th and points, 14th in Roto for Sigura. Okay, near next question is from Luke and Canton. Dear Creethan, scam, can we talk about Hunter Dozier? I know he had some past prospect hype and is hitting the ball hard.

Does Hunter Dozier have post-type sleeper appeal? Dozier is a Royals first base and third base eligible infielder. He is batting 300 with four home runs. He is better than Brian Dozier. Hunter Dozier has five straight multi-hit games. Does he have some sleeper appeal? Maybe. Both of you talk at the same time, go.

I'd pretty much written him off, but he's making a lot of contact, and he has a fly ball rate over 40, so that would suggest that he could potentially hit a good number of home runs. It's too early for me to completely be back on board, but I'm at least keeping an eye on him. Okay, Hunter Dozier is 16%

Oh, might take a chance that Would you drop Christian Walker for Hunter Dozier? Sure. No, and a yes. Okay, very helpful. From Kurt, what in the world do you do with Travis Shaw right now? Move on, write it out, or get what you can get on the trade market? I don't think you're going to get much.

He's a guy who's probably always been a little undervalued by the community as a whole. So, I think you just got to hope he turns it around. And he probably will. He sat against a lefty over the weekend. I do want to point that out. They have some options there, but yeah, I'll probably turn it around. Bad start for Travis Shaw. From Christian, Dear Donald, Aaron, Pretzels, and Max.

What? Donald, Aaron, pretzels, and Max? I need to know what this is. The rest of the way in a roto league. Rafael Devers or Jeff McNeil? I think I'd probably go with Devers just because of the playing time. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Jeff McNeil's lack of playing times, consistency he sat against lefties,

has been one of the more disappointing developments of the season so far. And he could still just keep hitting so well that it changes, but they have a lot of alternatives there, the Mets. You guys said Devers? Yeah. Okay. So I was looking up Donald Aaron, pretzels, and Max. I do not have the answers.

I have no idea. Talk about some stash candidates here. Tell me if you think these guys are worth stashing. People are stashing. Williams Astu Dio, who started at third base yesterday after sitting two straight games. But Marvin Gonzalez has been pretty bad, but Miguel Seno is coming back. And Jimmy Nelson is also owned a lot of leagues. Estadio and Nelson are about 75% owned.

And then a little bit lower, you got Jose Martinez, Alex Verdugo, maybe. Scott Kingery, I put him on here because Seza Hernandez, although Seza Hernandez is heating up a little bit, but he has been bad, and Kingery's been good, eight for 17 so far. And Eric Thames, if Jesus Aguilar just gets benched, which has been the case a little bit recently. So again, my name's on this list. I want to know if you think there's stash candidates. Williams Astuillo, Jimmy Nelson, Jose Martinez, Alex Verdugo, Scott Kingery, and Eric Thames. Yeah, I mean, my favorites would be Astu Dio, who's obviously well-owned already.

And Verdugo and Jose Martinez, I think those are the... ones who if they play, I feel confident, are going to be productive in fantasy. Kingery and Thames, not so much. So those would be my preferred options. I feel like it would have to be, you know, maybe not as studio because most anyone, if you're looking to the waiver wire for catching help, then most anyone you put there is not going to be providing much of anything anyway. So maybe you can just get away with starting a, you know, a guy who plays maybe 50% of the

time at most elsewhere. but the others Jose Martinez Alex Verdugo I think you're talking about like a roto lineup context where the roster sizes are bigger that's really the main place you're going to be able to stash players like them I would love to see Kingery get an opportunity to play because there is still

a lot of potential let's not forget how excited we were about him last year but he's not someone that I think you have to stash right now because he doesn't have that path to playing time if someone gets hurt and it opens up either Segarra or Cesar Hernandez, then yeah, I would be really interested in adding him because there's a power speed threat there.

But right now, no, you don't need to be stashing him. I will say, Scott, he wasn't on the graphics. I don't know if you forgot, but Jimmy Nelson, I definitely want to stash him where he's available. We can't forget. He was kind of the Armand Marquez of 2017, the way he finished that season before the shoulder injury. we don't know if the velocity jump that he had that year is going to be there

but he was pitching like a legitimate borderline ace that year yeah so and if he's back I want him and he's easy to stash everywhere because of the IL spot and because because he's a pitcher frankly I mean the the shallower leagues I think you're more likely to have a pitcher on your bench than a a hardly playing you know position player did you guys see O'Neill's throw last night, I am just seeing it now. Just do a news search for Tyler O'Neill.

Because I wanted to discuss, because Jose Martinez, like, forget about Stashley. Tyler O'Neill left with an injury, and Harrison Bader's banged up right now. I mean, he might just straight up play, and he's 46% own. But Tyler O'Neill made a throw last night. Oh, my goodness, that is what? Where does he throwing that? That was awesome. That looks like a throw I would have made playing Intermural Softball.

They stuck me in the outfield. That was always a bad idea sticking me in the outfield. That was useless out there. You guys may not believe me. I was a great kickball center fielder. Just terrific. Okay, next section is called. Got to cue it up.

Here we go. It is. Never going to give you up. Brandon Nimmo, Jesse Winker. Okay, that's all we're getting. Brandon, Nimo, Jesse Winker, Fram O'Reyes. I hope you did. didn't give them up because they're coming around.

Brandon Nimmo in his last eight games is 11 for 28 with three home runs. Briefly, he was putting the eight spot in the order, but now he's back to lead off. Jesse Winker, all right, he sat yesterday against Clayton Kershaw, against the lefty, but he's seven for 18 with four homers in his last six games. And Framo Reyes is the most available. Winker and Nimmo are 71 percent own. Reyes, 53 percent own. And not starting every game.

He has started five straight, though. That's great. And he now has four home runs. in his last eight games and he's hitting, I think, over 300 in that stretch. Yeah, Scott, I know you talked about Nimmo and Winker yesterday. I'm going to let Chris talk about these guys. Nimmo Winker Reyes, are they Mustones or do you think the ownership levels are appropriate? I think Winker's probably Mustone.

He got off to a bad start this season, but the batted ball data has mostly suggested that he's still hitting the ball well. I guess the walk rate's not where you hope it would be, but it's not bad. so I see very little reason to think he can't live up to the expectations we had for him before the season. I'm a little less optimistic about Nimmo, but he should probably be owned more than 71%. And the thing with Reyes, that is really interesting is it does seem like now that he's gotten hot, I think he started seven in the last nine games overall as well. Now that he's hitting, they want to keep him in the lineup. and I think that's a great sign

because that might not necessarily be the case for other guys in the mix for them. And I think their ideal outcome does have Fran Mill Reyes in the lineup a lot more often than it doesn't. He had a 933 OPS in his last 49 games in 2018. He has good plate discipline. Scott really liked Fram, really like Framoreas.

And I mean, I think he should be more than 53% own. I'm going to look for him in all of my leagues. And then, yeah, Winker, Winker's the one who sat against the lefty. That's the only concern I have about him meeting the potential. This is the first lefty starting pitcher they faced all year. Yeah, both of those picks were dependent on them both playing so well that they forced their way into every day at bats.

Because I feel like in a, particularly in like a points league, three outfielder league, it's hard to stash more than maybe one guy, one hitter who to have one guy who you're not able to start because of playing time concerns and you just have on your bench hoping he finds his way into more so that's really the problem with both of them

but I would absolutely love to have both of them I think it's easier to own Winker at this point in that format and race you know of course you can own in the other okay quick news items here Jorge Alfaro could be back today for the Marlins Jason Kipnis is off the

he's not good. Billy Hamilton returned to the lineup. Danny Duffy making progress. Anybody you want, Danny Duffy? Any interest? Not unless they make him the closer, which was something that he talked about maybe going to the bullpen,

other than that now. Carlos Martinez threw a bullpen session. We continue to track him. Lewis Brinson left after being hit by a pitch by a madman on the mound who was just going to throw it as hard as he could, no matter where it ended up. Mitch Garver led off for the twins yesterday with Max Kepler taking a breather sitting

sitting yesterday. Garber starting to play a little more, I think. And then Eric Swanson is going to start for the Mariners on Wednesday. I don't know who he is. Do we care about Eric Swanson? He's kind of interesting. Yeah, he was part of the James Pax.

Oh, yeah, I think he was. Yeah. And he's had some interesting numbers in the minors. But it's one of those guys who the production's been better than the scouting reports. And sometimes that works out great, but there's often a reason for it too. So I'm kind of taking a step back and waiting and seeing how this goes.

He looks way too happy in this picture that showed up on Google. Like he does not have a game face. Just happy to be there. Yeah, he just doesn't have a game face. I need a game face. I don't see it. Like the 98 Falcons, just happy to be there. Can't believe he missed that kick, Scott. Oh, wait, was that the... Oh, no, that was that? That was the Vikings missed the kick. It was Gary Anderson missed the kick, right?

Right. Yeah, Gary. The season, kicking field goals, except when it mattered most. Morton Anderson was on the Falcons, right? Okay. Yes, he was. Ian, as Ian. Okay, so some more from Monday's games.

Two up. Marcel Ozuna and Wilson Contreras. Marcel Ozuna having a bounce back season. Well, they're both having bounce back seasons. Ozuna is the number 15 outfielder in points leagues. has just two walks of 15 strikeouts. Number nine outfielder in Roto leagues. Contreras is the number one catcher in points,

number two in Roto behind Grandal. They're both having great starts. They both have six home runs, and Contreras has three in his last two games. So, look, Contreras is a must-start guy. I guess I'll ask, where is he in your catcher rankings? Is he two?

Is he three? He is four. Behind Grandaul? Because there's real mood. John Sanchez. I don't think there's any reason to you might flip the order of those two but there's, I don't think there's a good reason to move them out of the top two.

I mean, with Sanchez being heard, he's probably too. And then there's Grondall who's been, I think, the highest scoring catcher maybe Contreras passed him last night. He did. Yeah. Grondal's doing everything I hoped he'd do. And and then there's Contreras. So, good for him, but there

are, it's yeah, I think those others have done well enough or in Real Muto's case, had such a head start that there's no reason to move them behind Contreras. Do you guys see any reason

not to buy the starts for Marcelo Zuna or Wilson Contreras? Marcelo Zuna is good. Yeah, it's certainly looking that way. But how good? I mean, is he as good as he was? I get the years mixed up. 2017?

It was 17 was the big breakout. I don't think he's quite that good, but I think he, when you look at his career, 2017 looks like this major outlier, and more often than not, he looks like a high 700s OPS bat. But if you looked at the batted ball data last year, it mostly supported him being somewhere between his career and the 2017 breakout. And that was while he was playing with that shoulder issue. He got that fixed this off season.

He's come out hitting the ball hard, looks like himself. I think he's going to be a mid-to-high 800s OPS bat. Okay. And let's go to the rotation from yesterday. five pitchers on the bump to talk about. They're all owned in 90% or more of leagues except one. Freddie Peralta, 86% owned. And why don't we just talk like Freddie Peralta?

Goodbye. Off my roster. Goodbye, Freddie Peralta. How old people not moved on from him yet? This was two starts, I bet. Three out of four starts with less than four innings. It was two out of three before. I don't know.

But that one, you've got to move on now. But that one was really good. Yeah, he had eight scores at Cincinnati. We're going to chase those moments for a long time, but yeah, he doesn't have the consistency yet. You say Kikuchi does not know how to throw in the first or second inning. He has a 720 ERA in the first inning and a 9 ERA in the second inning. And he's made five starts. He has three quality starts.

His strikeout rate is pretty low, but he has faced mostly low strikeout teams. Yesterday, five strikeouts and six innings against Cleveland. What do you think about Kikuchi? Is he a... He's must own. You've got to think he's must own. Is he must start? Yeah.

I mean, he hasn't done anything wrong enough to be dropped. So from that perspective, he's must own. But I've been pretty underwhelmed by him. I think this is two of the, how many, five starts, right? Yeah. And two of them, he's had double-digit swinging strikes, which is, you know, even then barely breaking double digits. So he does not look like much of a bat-misser.

and I think he's had a couple where the walks have been kind of high. It's just not, there's not a lot to get excited about, really. All right, so let's rank the pitchers in this group here, and Castillo is going to be number one. It's Kikuchi, Luis Castillo, Joey Lucase, Freddie Peralta, and Matt Shoemaker. If we make Castillo number one, and we'll put Peralta number five, how would you rank Kikuchi, Lucase, and Shoemaker?

I would go, I think it's close. I think it's close. I would go, I feel like upside-wise, it's Lucasey Shoemaker Kikuchi right now. But in terms of how safe they are, Kikuchi might be number one. So it's very bunchy. I'd go Lucchasey-Kakuchi-Schumaker. It's too bad we couldn't keep that trend going. Do we have another she?

We get thrown on at the end. Not that I know of. Fringianci starting pitchers, only two I have from yesterday are both named Trevor. Trevor Cahill and Trevor Richards. I picked up Cahill for a two-star week. I actually sat him, though, because I just didn't think he was going to do well

at Texas and home against Seattle. I don't trust Cahill in a tough matchup. He's 50% owned. And then Trevor Richards has had some control issues. 14 walks and 22 and 2 thirds. That's interesting. Yeah. And it was close to four per nine last year, which is something I didn't really notice, to be honest.

I was more looking at what he did well than what he did poorly. But yeah, the control issues might be something that comes up from time to time. You're still talking about three of his first four starts where quality starts with a good strikeout rate. I'm not dropping him after this. But it's disappointing that the time where he was probably activated the most because, you know, good three starts and two-star week. And then he delivers this stinker. It's disappointing. Yeah.

And his next matchup is at Philadelphia this weekend. We'll see if Richards can bounce back. I would say to me, Trevor Richards is the pitcher who has the most difference in value, the biggest change in value in a quality starts league versus a wins league. Any disagreement there? He's certainly in the discussion, yeah. I mean, the good pitcher on a bad team is basically all you have to be in that discussion. And the bullpen, Kenley Jansen, he got the win, but he gave up a run in an inning.

We were a little concerned about Kenley Jansen's swinging strikes. It's been pretty good in three straight appearances, four or five swinging strikes, which is good for a guy who's throwing like 20-ish pitches. So at least those are coming back. I don't know if the velocity is coming back. But that's my thought. Yeah, I'm not too worried about Kenley Jansen anymore. I think later this week I'm going to write a column about things.

I feel like I'm already wrong about because mostly my opinions haven't changed on anybody. Do it before Easter, so you can include peeps in there. I'm fine with peeps. The whole world's gone mad. Yeah. Okay, and in the deep leagues, we have, tell me if you're interested in any of these guys,

Dwight Smith, Orioles outfielder, has three home runs, and they've all come in as, it might have four, I think it has three. They've all come in his last five games. Three. I, listen. Two steals.

I say this as a Yankees fan, and I do think Yankee Stadium is a dumb stadium. It is basically a Little League park. But the pesky pole, now that the hill in Houston has been eliminated a few years ago, the pesky pole is the dumbest thing in baseball. Stop. Dwight Smith hit a home run right next to the pesky pole. It's basically a single. I could hit that.

That's fine, but it's great. It's great that it exists. We should be happy that baseball has these. These, not this one, idiosyncrasies. Idiot synchracy. Bring back Talsall's. Bring it back. The Towsl was ridiculous.

Let's bring back the polo grounds, baby. It had a statue in the field. Monument Park used to be on the field, if I recall, at Yankee Stadium. Let's do it. I don't recall. That was before my time. Dwight Smith, Martine Perez, Brian Goodwin, and Antonio Sensatella. So I have a soft spot for Dwight Smith, because he is the first into the,

this point only major leagher to come from my high school. That is a fun note about Dwight Smith. He hasn't struck out much and you could make the case he's actually had some bad bad bet block. There's speed there. I'm not sure how much power

is there but he's going to get a lot of playing time. He's played other than Mancini maybe VR. He's been an everyday player for the Orioles and that doesn't look like it's going to change. So in like five outfield or leagues, I could see him having some value.

But it's limited upside. Okay. Dwight Smith. And on a team name Tuesday, Antonio Sands Nettella. Sands, like, you know, no, to tell. Hold the Nitella. Yeah, no, I get it. Oh, yeah, like Nitella. I'm not sure that's original.

I just kind of died down. A little bit. Yeah, you know, we... Millennials are turning on Nitella. No, it just, there was a period, like, four or five years ago when every single, like, cooking video that came up on Facebook was like Nutella pizza and Nutella

I can't think of anything weird. Nutella lasagna. And then they realized it was candy and candy is evil. It's just fine. It's pretty good. In marshmallow form. My wife gets Nutella ice cream my wife likes to get Nutella ice cream. It's usually

one of her... I'm mixing Nutella with ice cream. Well, she gets the flavor. One of the two scoops she gets is typically Nutella. I'm not quite sure I'm there. All right, so you take a gram cracker, right? You get the two halves of a gram cracker. You spread Nutella on both crackers, and you put vanilla ice cream in the middle

and sticking in the freezer for a few hours. That is a delicious tree, because the Nutella kind of hardens. That's excellent. I was really worried you were going to say put a peep on it and throw it in the microwave, and I was going to have to leave the company. We're going to have to leave the show.

Scott gives a good, food take and I'm not going to give any takes because you know they're going to be bad. We'll talk to you tomorrow on fantasy baseball today. See you later, everybody.