Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/17: Tue. Recap and Fill in the Blank! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 17, 2019

Aces living up to expectations, aces falling short, and maybe-aces making the leap. We discuss Chris Sale's mixed start against the Yankees, and debate him vs. Tyler Glasnow. Is Glasnow this year's Blake Snell? Is Jose Quintana back? Drop Robbie Ray? Plus fill-in-the-blank, Mike Minor's great start, Yoan Moncada's homers and 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. What a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. On the Wednesday on the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. I'm Chris Towers. Here's Heath Cummings.

We're here without Adam Azer. So I'm hosting today, Heath. How do you feel about that? Welcome back. Welcome back. I'm welcome myself back. Oh, welcome back. I haven't been here in almost a week.

I thought it was peaceful. I'm sure you enjoyed it. This is going to be much more fun, though. Why? It's just your hosting, which is always fun for everyone involved, and I'm back, which is more fun. So it's going to be great. I'm looking forward to it.

We've got quite a bit to talk about from Tuesday night, and I was told by Adam Azer that we can't spend too much time talking about Chris Sale, but we'll get to that shortly. We'll talk about some players. that it might be time to drop. Some big injury news, Blake Snell on the DL. We'll talk about that, or IL, sorry. And a couple of other interesting pitching performances.

But first, what's your biggest standout from Tuesday night? I'm going to go with Mike Miner. He got off to a terrible start to the season. I think gave up six runs in his first start against the Cubs and has been just fantastic ever since. Complete game shutout against the Angels on Tuesday night. three straight starts now of at least seven innings, no more than two runs allowed in any of those starts.

And he is someone who we got a little bit excited about last year from time to time. I think he's 56% owned right now. When a guy's going this well, I think he needs to be close to 100% owned until we see how real it is. How high are you going to move him in your rankings based on what we've seen so far? You know, I just did a massive rankings update yesterday, so I hesitate to do another one today, but he looks to me like a borderline top 50 guy.

Like we've got these guys right around, and I'll just look at the range. Because there's this group of pitchers in the low 50s. Domingo Hermon, Carlos Rodon, Brad Keller. I think he belongs right in that range of guys that we're not really sure if they're going to be good. but we need to roster them because it looks like they might.

Would you draw Mike Fultenevitz for him? It's hilarious because that group of pitchers I gave you are just ahead of the injured pitchers that are almost back group or maybe Fultenevich is almost back. He may just stay in the minor leagues. They keep pushing him back. I think I'd rather have minor than Fulte, but full disclosure,

I've been the lowest guy on Mike Fultenevich since throughout his breakout. What about Tugutu Kusan? I know you're a big fan of his. I would rank him slightly ahead of Tucson. I would have a hard time dropping Tucson. Okay. We're going to get into

more of yesterday's action. My standout. Call him a cue for that crazy Matrix play that he made. It was almost the really wrong thing to do like trying to dodge backwards from a pitch coming at or a

ball coming out of? Catch it. Why are you ducking out of the way? Or just go forward, which is where your momentum's carrying you. He almost got like nailed in the face. Yeah, that would have been bad. But it was an amazing play. It was incredible. So that was my two days.

And he was very good also. So it fits multiple ways. He did throw six shutout innings. He's been awesome all year. How high have you ranked him? He is not yet starting pitcher eligible. So I have him right in the same Brad Keller range in my RP rankings. So I do think he probably deserves a little bump up now and needs to be in the 40 range.

I still have some question marks about how many innings he's going to throw and whether at some point they'll say, Okay, Call him, EQ is going to go to the bullpen for two weeks now. And Brett Pee Pee Poc is going to be a starter. Sure. Adam's not here, but we'll talk about what happened in Yankee Stadium last night because it was a fascinating performance between two guys who were both coming into the game struggling. Chris Sale and James Paxton. One of them left the game still struggling, but there might have actually been some positive signs for Chris Sale last night.

He gave up four earned runs in five innings of work, seven hits, six strikeouts, season high, 12 swinging strikes. average 95.5 miles per hour with his fastball. Was this a good start or a bad start for Chris Sale? I think it's definitively a bad start when you go five innings and give up four runs. I think he lowered his ERA. He probably did lower his ERA. He definitely increased his strikeout rates.

But I do think, like if you were on the I'm either buying or holding Chris Sale train, this makes you feel just a little bit better because before we were doing it mostly because he'd been so good in the past. There was nothing he was showing us that made us think he was good this year. At least in this start, we got a little bit of encouragement. And it's just worth noting that this Yankees lineup he was facing was not the A team Yankees. It was not the B team Yankees. This was like the D minus team Yankees.

So that's not a good thing. But no, I was a moral victory is the way I put it in the way where I were. There was a moral victory. Yeah, he averaged 95.5. he was hitting 97, 98 with the fastball. Only one swinging strike on 33 fastballs, barely through the change up yesterday. Still a lot of command problems, still too many balls left inside the strike zone. Gave up nine batted balls that were hit at least 95 miles per hour.

I mean, to a certain extent, he sort of got babb to death, but even then you look at his season and it's a 310 babbip. So, right. I'm still just kind of. Kind of, I'm not doing anything. Well, if you have him, you have to do something. Yeah, no, I don't. You're going to leave me in your starting lineup?

No, but I wouldn't have started him today. You're benching him. Right, but I mean in terms of roster. But you won't sell him. No, and I won't buy him. I'm paralyzed with fear about Chris sale. Now you've got to do something. What about James Paxton?

If there are 110 pitches, 20 swinging strikes, 12 strikeouts, eight innings, and not, I mean, it's been a not, great Boston lineup so far, but we still think this is one of the most talented lineups in the league. They didn't have Andrew Benintendant yesterday. He's missed a couple games with a foot injury, but against the left-handed pitcher, that wouldn't change the outlook of this lineup so much. No more worries about James Paxton? Paxton's one of the guys that when I was doing my rankings update yesterday, I realized I had not moved him up or down the entire season, and I thought, well, he's pitching

tonight. I'll just wait, and I won't move him up or down. I'm still not going to move him up or down. He's my 14th starting pitcher. I think on a per start basis, he's probably going to be close to an ace most of the time. I do still have concerns about is he ever going to throw 180 in the major leagues? And I think you have to have concerns about the home runs pitching at Yankee Stadium when he's always had problems with home runs or had problems in the past at times with home runs. So this was a very encouraging start. I'm not changing my opinion of James Paxson. I hadn't changed it when he was bad. Yeah, 391 ERA for the season, 318 FIPP, 31 strikeouts in 23-innings.

So it really, it is the home runs. And whether he can keep those to just, it's always going to be a problem because he's a flyball pitcher, but if he can keep them to a relatively normal rate, he's going to be pretty good. We'll bring up one more guy who definitely wasn't in the James Paxston-Christain-Christale discussion before the season. but maybe putting himself in there now. I know you've got Tyler Glass now near your top 20, but not inside of it, right? In a night of weird starts,

this was another weird start for Tyler Glass now, because I looked, I think, in the fourth inning, and he's going up against the Orioles. Great matchup. He's been dominant. And in the fourth inning in this game, he'd given up seven hits and two runs and had one strikeout.

And somehow got to the seventh, didn't walk anybody again, which is fantastic. It's kind of weird to pitch against the Orioles and have three strikeouts over seven innings for a dominant starting pitcher. But yeah, he is part of that group of starting pitchers that I've moved right to the precipice of the ace tier.

Yeah, seven innings, seven hits, two earn runs, three strikeouts, no walks. Got through seven innings on 87 pitches. I believe he hasn't thrown more than 90 pitches in a start so far. So here's our email of the day, and it has to do with both Tyler Glass. Nile and Chris Sale.

Oh, no. No. Joe. That's who wrote this email in. Sorry, I was... Don't do this to us, Joe. I don't want to say this. Hey, guys. Love the show. Listen every day. I mean, you kind of have to answer his question now that he loves the show. I'm glad you listen every day, Joe. Thank you. I was curious if you could take a couple minutes and really dissect Tyler Glass now, is he this year's Blake Snell, would you sell high, buy high? Has he faced an easy schedule? Another aspect he's noticed so far among fantasy baseball people,

he's a real popular sell candidate to try to go get one of the struggling aces. In years past, selling him for a clover, snail, Granky, Bueller, Nola, etc., would be a no-brainer. But if it really is a breakout for him, is it easier said than done? And what about sale for Glassnow? I think he could be this year's Blake Snow. I don't, I'm not ready to say that he is this year's Blake Snow. I don't think his ceiling is quite as high as, as what Snells is.

But I'm pretty much all in. I'm buying high. Now, at the same time, I would sell him for one of the struggling cases. Any one of them? There's not. Guler, Nola, Uber, Sale, you would trade him for Granky? I would trade him for Grinky. You would trade him for sale right now?

I don't want to do that. That's what I knew was coming. Somebody sent me Chris Sale for Tyler Glass. Now, yes. would accept it. Okay. The one that I am a little concerned about, it's the closest to him in the rankings, is Walker Bueller, just because I had concerns about Walker Bueller in August and September, and now he's not been very good in April. And so I don't know if I'm getting two to three months of a very good starting pitcher, and you just have to assume, Yanjin Riu is going to come back,

somebody else is going to come back, and I say, okay, Walker, it's your turn for the I.O. Just for a couple weeks. Sure. Through four starts, 24 innings, at least six, in three of his four starts. The only one he didn't was five innings of one run on his first start against Houston, his toughest matchup of the season. The schedule has been a little late so far. Last three starts at San Francisco, at Chicago White Sox and versus Baltimore. Not exactly a murderer's row. He has 24 strikeouts in 24 innings. Only three walks. That's the incredible thing. 113.1.18 WIP. This was a guy who couldn't find the strike zone for most of his time.

And we talk about how zone percentage doesn't really correlate with walk rate. But for a guy like a guy like him that kind of has trouble with that, I do think it's encouraging that he's up over 50% of his pitches in the strike zone for the first time. He's actually a 58, which might be too much. But with his stuff, it also might work. Yeah, this was something that I pointed out in a piece I wrote on Monday on CBSports.com, where if you look at the strike zone map for him, it's not that he's necessarily always pitching in the strike zone,

but when he's missing out of the strike zone, it's where you would want him to. It's fastball high, curveball low, and there's not a lot of missing Easter West, I guess, to the sides of the plate. It's been mostly vertical, and that's what you would hope for with a guy like him who has that fastball, has that big curveball.

So I've been really impressed with what we've seen. I don't know if he's an ace yet, but I'm certainly... So you're not doing anything with Chris Sale at all, but if you have Chris Sale and someone sends you

Tyler Glassnow and no other pieces... The good news is I don't have Chris Sale anyway? That's not the question. I think you would probably have to take that deal.

You would take Glass Now? No, I would take sale. Okay. But I wouldn't feel great about it. No. Let's talk about some of the big news from Tuesday. Blake's now was placed on the 10-day IL

with a fractured fourth toe was trying to move some least important does your ring toe right yeah and you wear your toe ring at the beach you put it on that toe why why is that relevant it's your ring toe do you wear toe rings no thank you're welcome uh yeah he was moving something in his bathroom apparently after taking a shower and dropped a huge piece of marble on his toe so uh but looks like he might only miss one start as a result of this, so that's good news.

Greg Byrd was placed on the injured list with a left planter fascia tear. We'll be in a walking boot for two weeks. Safe to say. I mean, you probably should have dropped Greg Bird before this, but... And that's why I said it was the Yankees D-Minus lineup and not their F lineup, because Greg Bird wasn't in it. Mike Talkman did start.

Yankees acquired him from the Rockies just before the season. He went two for four with a home run. He'll probably see a little more playing time with Greg Bird out. Cody Bellinger was out of the lineup with a knee-ins. injury yesterday, but he did appear in the on-deck circle late in the game, would have come in as a pinch hitter if the opportunity had come up. So it looks like it's not that serious. Andrew Benintendi missed his second straight game with a foot injury.

Any concerns there at this point? Not yet. Any concerns about his performance yet? Nope. Blake Swihart was DFAed by the Red Sox. That one's sort of interesting because he's a catcher. A catcher who present. presumably still has some potential.

At least that's the way he gets talked about. I don't know why. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the track record, he basically hasn't been good at any point since, like, 2014. But he could probably be a low 700s OPS catcher if he catches on somewhere and gets regular playing time. There are probably a lot of teams out there who could use a flyer. The problem is he's not very good as a defensive catcher either, right?

No, he's not considered to be. So you're not a good hitter and not a good catcher. Yeah. If he ends up somewhere where he gets regular playing time, he'll be worth looking at in a two-catcher league, but not someone you run out and get. Jeng Riyu is expected back in the rotation within a week. He threw a 40-pitch, quote, aggressive bullpen session yesterday.

So that's great news. Doesn't look like this groin injury is as serious as the one he suffered last year, which was the initial diagnosis. That's great to hear. Is he must start when he's healthy? Yeah, I've got on several DLs right now because I couldn't believe he was available in the 20th round of some of our drafts. This is bad news for Julio Urius most likely. Sounds like he'll be the first to go out unless, I mean, the Dodgers may find someone else to put on the aisle in the next five days.

Shohei Otani will not require a minor league rehab assignment. He's going to start facing live batting practice in the next week or so. I kind of feel like I saw that news blurb when I kind of feel like it should read, Shohay Otani will not be accepting a minor league rehab assignment. to show Hayatani does not want to ride buses. It could be that. So he's going to take live batting practice in the next week or so. If he's available anywhere as a DH, is he a must add now that he's on the road to returning?

Yeah, yeah, for sure. What are your expectations? Not quite as good as he was last year. But I think he'll hit some home runs, steal some bases, be a top 100 hitter. Okay. Tyler O'Neill was placed on the injured list with an. elbow ulnar nerve subluxation. Yeah.

Which doesn't sound good. Apparently he injured it, making that throw that Scott and Adam were making fun of yesterday. They were making fun of an injured man. Apparently so. No compassion with those two. Do we expect Jose Martinez to get more playing time? I think he'll get more playing time.

I don't know that he'll still get regular playing time. They still need Dexter Fowler to disappear. Yeah, Fowler's having a weird season because he has like a 360 on base percentage so far, but he's basically doing nothing else. Lots of singles. That's good. And some walks. Yeah.

All right, let's talk about a little bit of rankings before we go to a break. Mentioned it a little earlier. McCu is not starting pitcher eligible. He needs one more appearance. Where exactly would you put him at your starting pitcher rankings? And there are a couple of guys like this. Oh, we're going to get to them. We're going to get to those guys too.

Okay. I assume Brandon Woodruff is one of them. McHugh, I would put, at 56. Seems a little low to me. I think it could be 10 spots low. Like you get up into the 40s and you've got, like would you put him ahead of Matthew Boyd?

Yes. You would. Yeah. Okay. Because Boyd's been better than he has. He has been better than McCu, but McCu's been awesome so far. He's been very good. And I would accept that maybe he should be in the,

that low 40s. I wouldn't be able to put him ahead of you, Darvish. Sure. Who I have at 41. That seems fair. I still like Trevor Richards a little bit better, who I have at 42. I think they're very similar. But yeah, in that 45 to 55 range. What about Brad Peacock? He

should be back in the rotation in another week or so. Who knows how long that'll last. This time around where would you put him once he's starting pitcher eligible? He's going to be right around 60, because I don't expect him to stay. I think it's going to be a situation like this where he does a little bit of bouncing around.

And I don't know how, when he's doing that, it seems less likely he's going to give you seven innings as a starter. Maybe a lot of five-innings starts, which does cap the upside. It's kind of like with Chris Paddock, he's been awesome so far. But he doesn't really rank that high. It's hard to get wins when you go five innings, and you don't get any of those points. Holiariah is probably in the same range.

Once he becomes starting pitcher eligible or a little lower, because there's less certainty about the role. I'm probably too much of a Ureas believer. And so I would have him a couple of spots higher than Peacock. It hasn't clicked for him yet, but I still think there's a chance that he goes to the bullpen or the minor leagues for a month and then comes up and then it's just awesome for a couple months. He represents kind of an interesting philosophical question when you're ranking.

When you move Julio Ariris into your starting pitcher ranking, are you ranking him, like knowing that he'll be in the rotation for, however long. Are you ranking him where you think he'll be then? Or are you factoring in the fact that he might be pulled out of the rotation? And are you going to drop him when he gets pulled out of the rotation? It's a combination. I know the question you're asking.

I'm not ranking him as if I think he's going to finish 60 second in points over the rest of the season. But I'm also not ranking him as high of, I think he might be a top 40 starting pitcher for the time he's a starting pitcher. I think it's somewhere in between those two things. where would you rank Craig Kimberl if and when he signs? And it does sound like he's getting closer to making a decision. There's been a lot of reports over the last couple of days just about Craig Kimbril in general. So if he ends up signing, let's say the Braves,

who are a good but not potentially, maybe not great team. Yeah, I'd probably put him seventh or eighth at relief pitcher. He's not going to go ahead of Brad Hand for me, but the rest of those guys have all got just a little bit of question mark. I would expect he's going to need a little bit of time to get sharp, but he'll be one of the best closers in baseball once he is. Where during Jeremy Jeffress, if he ends up closing for the birds? He came off the aisle yesterday after dealing with shoulder issues in the spring.

Yeah, I don't think he's going to get every save, even once that happens. And it sounds like they want to get him in low-leverage situations and really work him into that role. It kind of sounds like they still have some questions, he said, Jeffers says he feels really good. I'd see him right around 13, maybe just ahead of Wade Davis. He was not great on his rehab assignment. No.

So a little bit concerning there. We're going to take a quick break and then we'll get to more Tuesday's action, talking about a lot of aces, potential aces, maybe no longer aces. So we'll be right back. All right. Let's talk about some aces who are pretty concerning right now. Steven Strausberg, he did have an RBI double. yesterday, but against a not great Giants lineup, gave up four earned runs and six innings,

six hits, no walks, eight strikeouts, but he gave up three home runs. You know, it was a 540 ERA, five home runs in 22 and two-thirds innings on the season. What's your level of concern with Steven Strasbourg? Did you move him down yesterday? No, because he was pitching that night, and I thought, I'm not going to move him down yet. I still don't think I'm probably, like, the problem is he's pretty close to the back of the ace tier for me, as it was, because of injury concerns and because he has had a little bit of ups and downs. But I'm not ready to move him behind guys like Jose Barrios, Tyler Glassnow,

Shane Bieber, which is kind of the next tier of starting pitcher. So I still feel pretty confident that Strausberg's going to be okay. I don't expect him to have a 24% home run to fly ball ratio all year, and the home runs have really been the worst thing about him. He's still striking out quite a few batters. The control's still been okay. I'm mostly not concerned. I'd put them at a three on the Worryometer. That's not the game we're playing. That's what I just did, though.

Are you more concerned about Steven Strasbourg or Jack Flaherty, who was chased after two and two-thirds innings? Granted, it was Milwaukee Brewers and God-level Christian Yelich. He gave up nine hits, five earned runs, one walk, four strikeouts. He now has a four ERA and has only thrown 18 innings and four starts. Well, that's the really fun part is he's now made four starts, and one of our emails alluded to this earlier, schedule matters so much this time of year. And he's made two of his four starts have been at Miller Park. He's gone seven innings and given up nine runs in those two starts.

He's made two other starts at home against the Dodgers and Padres, 11 innings, 14 strikeouts, one earned run. So I'm a little disappointed in that I was hoping Flaherty was going to take a step this year to a new level. I don't think being bad at Miller Park precludes him from being a borderline ace, because really it's only the aces that I would trust at Miller Park against that lineup. And even some of them I don't feel very good about in that park. So I don't really have concerned the positive for him. He's only walked four batters in those 18 innings. Yeah, that would have been the concern for me.

And so something that I look for early in the season is when you're either struggling or when you're doing really well better than expectations, I look for are you struggling in the way that we would have thought you would have struggled? And for Flaherty, it would have been control. And that hasn't been an issue. It's just been the Brewers. Yeah. And even that matchup against the Dodgers, that's a really tough matchup no matter where you're pitching. And he threw six shutout innings. So less concerned about Flaherty than Strasbourg?

I'm less, I had Strasbourg ranked ahead. I still have Strasbourg ranked ahead. I'm less concerned about Flaherty justifying that ranking than I am Strasberg justifying his top 15 ranking. Okay. Let's talk about some other maybe aces being maybe aces. Is that a good? I'm just so mad at you right now.

Why? Because I made reference to Shane Bieber. You know how I feel about Shane Bieber. Some of these names and performances are no better than what Shane Bieber did, who you said was not noteworthy last night. And he wasn't spectacular. We'll talk about Shane Beard. Okay, thank you.

I promise you. It's okay. It's okay. I'm already talking about Jose Cantana now. No, let's talk about Shane Bieber first. It's so important. He was going against God-level Seattle Mariners lineup. Six innings, one earned run aloud, five strikeouts, three walks for Shane Beaver.

E.R. I sits at 171 right now. You were maybe the highest person on Earth on Shane Bieber. You have him within your top 24 at starting pitcher, right? He is currently. Yes, he started the year at 30. How are we feeling about him? I feel fantastic.

Now, there are two of his three starts. He has not struck out a batter per inning. One of them, he was absolutely dominant. But he has been everything that I was hoping it would be. This was really his first difficult matchup. He faced the Blue Jades in his first start, and then he was at Detroit. Seattle's been awesome. They did still hit a home run in this game, but not against him.

The three walks, I wonder if that kind of goes back to what you. you were talking about at the beginning of the year, he does need to stay out of the strike zone just a little bit, and especially against the offense as hot as them, he may have been a little too much out of the strike zone last night, but he has been fantastic. He's been a little fortunate. He's not a below-2-ER-A pitcher,

but I still think he could be a below-3-ER-a pitcher. Here's something that I think is really positive about what Shane Bieber's done so far, and this was something that Alex Chamberlain, one of our contributors, wrote about before the season, Last year, Shane Bieber looked like the prototypical bad luck guy. Low FIP, high ERA. But what he pointed out was Bieber didn't put guys away well enough.

He had really solid swing and swing and strike rates. Slider looked like a great swinging strike pitch, but he still threw his four-scene fastball 55% of the time against righties with two strikes, 59% of the time against lefties. So far this season, he's lowered that to, 44% against lefties. He's using his curveball as the main out pitch, and 38% foreseen fastball usage with two strikes against righties. That, I think, can help fuel him going to the

levels where we want him to be. So it's been a very encouraging start so far. What about Jose Kintana? Two excellent starts in a row, seven shutout innings again against the Marlins, seven strikeouts, no walks, six hits. Is he back? We do have to give the asterisk. It's the Marlins. That's what I said. Well, no. You said against the Marlins, but we need to clarify.

You can't get too excited about a start against the Marlins. But that's now, it's 18 strikeouts over his last 14 innings, and he's giving up no runs in those innings. So he was a guy I moved fairly early in the season down, just barely outside of my top 50, because he was so bad last year and was just horrible to start the year. A good example of why we shouldn't overreact. too much. I will be moving him back up

into that number 40 starting pitcher range. I don't know that he's back, but the strikeouts are very encouraging and I think he had, even last year when he was bad, it was kind of surprising how many swinging strikes he was getting at times. So I still think there's really a pretty good chance that

Kentana is a serviceable starter all year. Kentana or Darvish. I'm going to stick with Darvish, but they'll be all. No, I'm going to go with Cantana. Yeah, it is funny. After two starts, he had a 10-29, R.A looked disastrous. So really it was one terrible start.

Now he has a 343RA, 29 strikeouts and 21 innings, seven walks. That's not great, but it's not terrible. He looks a lot better after two starts. It is a good example of... Just don't move your ranking. Well, after two starts, there's still two more starts.

Yeah. And then probably 28. Two more after that. On that. Yep. But yeah, you shouldn't overreact to two starts one way or the end. other. Max Fried, speaking of overreacting, six innings, two earned runs, three strikeouts,

one walk. He is Adam Azers' favorite pitcher in the history of baseball. Can we just trade him for Chris Sale? I mean, yes, if we could get Chris Sale for Max Freed. We have to throw in Gary Sanchez. I'm not going to do that. Yeah, I mean, he's on the I, L, we're not getting anything out of him anyway. I'm a little befuddled by Max Fried. He was pretty exciting last year. just for a short stretch because of his strikeout potential. He throws very hard for a lefty. He has good stuff. He's got like 12 strikeouts and 19 innings this year.

And hasn't really had like exceptional strikeout numbers in the past either. I said this on Twitter last night and of course no one agreed. And I have it ranked this way. I would rather have Carlos Rode on. I don't think that's absurd. And Carlos Rodon's another guy that if he were breaking out, this is what his breakout would look like. He's throwing his slider just a ton. My thought with him was always he needed to increase the change-up usage.

He might be just going the Patrick Corbin route. I will just say if Max Fried is breaking out, this is not what it will look like. He will not be really, really good with 5.5K per 9. How high have you moved Matthew Boyd up? another seven innings versus Pittsburgh, seven strikeouts. Three-earn runs this time, but I think that gives him four quality starts in a road to open the season. 296 ERA, 11-11 whip, 36Ks, and 24 in a third innings. Well, just want you to just help me out with this, because I didn't move him yesterday.

Okay. At all. I had moved him multiple times. He was all the way up to my number 40 starting pitcher, which is like 50 spots higher than I had him at the start of the year. I've never really liked Matthew. Boyd. He has been so much better than any previous version of Matthew Boyd that we've ever seen. So would you rather have Matthew Boyd than Chris Paddock? I'm the kind of person who tends to prioritize ERA and WIP and rate stats when it comes to starting

pitchers. And I would bet Chris Paddock's going to be better at those things. And I'll just you know, let the innings figure themselves out. So I think I would rather have Paddock. Would you rather have Paddock or Boyd or John Gray, who is another guy who was very good last night, or at least good? Yeah, it was another, it was like a five-strikeout three walk game, I think. I, or. Robbie Ray?

I think I'd rather have Boyd than Robbie Ray. So you just think I need to move Robbie Ray down. Cole Hamels? I, that's the, there's this, there's this range of starting pitchers that for me starts right around Miles Michaelis or Chris Archer, which is 26, 27 and extends all the way down to like you, Darvish with guys that I could see all of these guys being in my top 25 and like two starts. But I'm not really sure what to expect many of them on a start to start basis. That seems very fair. What about Joe Musgrove? He's been excellent to start the season, 22 and a third innings.

08-1 ERA, nearly a strikeout per inning, very few walks. He was excellent last night. Where are you sitting on Joe Musgra? He's moved up a lot in my rankings. He's up to 46 now, so not too far behind Matthew Boyd. I don't think there's the same upside, but he's looked very good. Again, a guy kind of like Mike Minor that we were excited about last year, got off to a slow start, and then had some mixed results.

But I think he could be a top 40 starting pitcher. And he's another guy who has up the slider usage largely at the expense of his fastball, which isn't a bad thing because he's got kind of middling velocity. So let's take Joe Musgrove. You don't like Max Fried. You seem to like Joe Musgrove. Let's take him as the cutoff. If he's available something, are you dropping?

So next segment's called Time to Drop. Robbie Ray, Nick Povetta, Stephen Mats. Are you dropping Robbie Ray for Joe Musgrove? I'm not. I've got this group of pitchers, and Ray and Povetta are both in the group. Stephen Mats is not. He was never ranked near those guys before. He had been very good before last night's historically awful start.

One of the worst things anyone's ever done. Fifth pitcher since 1893 to allow eight runs without recording an out in a start. And in fairness to him, Ahmed Rosario should have recorded two outs, but made two errors in that same time period. And he still gave up two home rights. He was very, very bad. But I feel like we should give Amaz Rzario an ERA of like 27 just for that game. So yes, you would drop Stephen Mats for Joe Musker.

100%. Mats are freed. Freed. Okay. There are literally dozens of pitchers. I'd take over Stephen Mats. All right. So Joe Musker over Robbie Ray.

I'm going to stick with Robbie Ray. I don't think. In 201 in the third innings, 26. strikeouts 4-6-4-E-R-A. He's been bad and Adam is very happy with you for talking about how bad Robbie Ray is because Adam hates him. I don't

think I have any teams where Robbie Ray is my worst pitcher and somebody might disagree with that. But none of these guys that we're talking about have top six or seven upside. Robbie Ray does. We've seen it. Yeah.

Technically. Yeah, that's actually true. It's factually right. Technically correct. Yes, the best kind. What about Nick Povetta? You were really high on Nick Povetta coming in, expecting the breakout, and he's been awful.

835 ERA, 16 strikeouts, eight walks and 18 the third innings, gave up three runs in five innings yesterday, three walks, two strikeouts, probably his best start of the season. Yeah, he's had a couple of those, I think, five-ending, three-run things, and, And what I said, I think after his last start, was that I wasn't dropping him until May 1st. I do have both Matthew Boyd and Joe Musgrove ranked ahead of him. So if they were available, honestly, I probably would have to. But I don't really want to.

I mean, the good news, nobody's picking up Nick Povetta right now. That would help. I think I've dropped him in one league and it's just, understanding that nobody's likely to pick him up unless they just really have a roster spot to burn right now. It's really sad. Yeah, I don't know. He might just be like the new Ricking Alaska.

We may see Jared, or Jared Eichoff in the rotation. I believe he was called up yesterday. He actually came in to pitch after they took out to Povetta. He didn't do well, though, did he? I do, I don't know. Okay. All right.

I don't know. Let's talk about some tweets. first off, we're going to go with a non-baseball tweet because this is a topic that we love discussing. It's one of these One's Gotta Go tweets. We've got five options for Easter candy. One's got to go. Jelly beans, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups,

the egg-shaped peeps, chocolate bunny, chocolate rabbit, I guess, would just be, yeah. Right. Or a Cadbury cream egg. I am like a couple things. One, these are supposed to be difficult, and this one's not at all, because one of these things is literally like trash that should only be in the trash and should never be anywhere close to anyone's mouth and especially not being stirred in anyone's teeth. See, I think there's two that are.

But also, I'm not the best person to ask these questions because I don't love candy that much. I would still say it's easily the peeps that have got to go. I'd be happy to eat any of the other four things. I have no interest in a Cadbury cream egg. Have you ever had one? Yes. Okay. They're not great.

Yeah. They're the, like if two had to go, that's what I would say was the next one. But you don't know what's inside that bunny. It's probably not. It might be hollow. It's usually hollow. It could be hollow. It could be hollow.

It's just like a massive. A gold coin. A truffle. Yeah. Could be anything. That'd be a lot. But the peep's got to go. I agree.

They're too. Everybody but Scott would agree with that. Fill in the blank. Here's some more tweets. I went on Twitter last night. Fill in the blank. I'm panicking about blank. My answer,

I don't have enough Yohan Mankata. Yep. Which is a little weird because I've been the biggest Y'A Mankata fan on the podcast. He hit two more home runs yesterday. He's hitting 3.31 with an OPS. Right around 10.30. What's something you're panicking about?

And I want to be clear, I'm not dropping him. People have asked me. So I'm not panic, I don't do that. But I'm panicking about Travis Shaw. Okay. It's like the strikeouts are out of control. There's only a couple extra base hits.

He was dropped to sixth in the order yesterday. They're putting moose in the four hole. And right now that makes sense because Shaw's been awful. Yon Moncada or Travis Shaw? I believe I have Moncada ranked one spot ahead of Mustakis and Mustacas ranked one spot ahead of Shaw. They're both fun fact. all three of those guys are both second and third base eligible.

So you got to keep it consistent. You got to make sure that you're keeping consistent. All right. Next one. I'm panicking about this one's from Collins Allison. Carlos Carrasco, how panicked should we be about Carlos Carrasco? Another pitcher that has not yet moved in my rankings.

I believe he has a 1250 ERA. Yeah, gave up like 72 runs against the Royals, which I mean, understandable. but I'm not yet that concerned with him. I've not seen anything that, like, I don't think he's probably going to give up a 613 bab-ip. A 6-13 bab-ip so far this season. Seems unlucky.

That's twice as many hits as he should have allowed. Yeah. And maybe he's not, I mean, he's not been as good as he should be, but he's not, like, you're not, you don't have to panic about him. He's okay. At JZ Thrash, Noel. I'm panicking about the Mets pitching staff, all of them. Can I hate drop Stephen Mats?

100%. What about the rest of the tweet? I would not hate drop Jacob de Grom or Noah Cindergarde. Seems fair. I am not really concerned. First off, Jason Vargas is terrible. And his ERA is a football score. I thought his whip was his ERA and I was like,

oh, Jason Vargas has been kind of good this year. His ERA is a football score. He has a 284 whip. Yeah. I am okay dropping mats. The only guy I'm really concerned about besides him is Wheeler, just because what he did last year was a little bit weird to me, and the control's been terrible so far this season, 11 walks and 15 innings.

I'm worried he might not be a top 40 starting pitcher, but Cindergarten de Grom would be fine. He is throwing even harder this year. Maybe he should take something off and try to throw a strike. Yeah, 97.6 miles per hour with his fastball so far. Next one, Hispanic at the disco, I'm panicking about Chris Bryant. Should he be? I don't think so yet, but I'm a little bit concerned that we're not going to get the Chris Bryant bounce back that we were hoping for.

But I also, I think he's going to be a lot better than he has been so far. at baseball likeer I'm panning about Aaron Nola No I'm not Not at all No Okay No concern

That's interesting Are you? No Okay But I mean Most of these guys in the same range Like I just told you Carlos Carrasco has got like a 15 ERA

And I wasn't worried about him I can't be worried about Aaron Nola His ERA is almost twice as good Yes 745 It's the walks That's the only thing Because his control

And his command have always been his calling card going back to college when he was a prospect. And he does have 11 walks and 19 in the third innings. But at this point in the season, especially when it comes to a pitcher, and especially when it comes to an ace level pitcher, unless there's a physical reason to be concerned,

it's really hard to be concerned. Like we said with Jose Cantana, two starts from now, Aaron Nola might have a 290 RA. That'd be tough, but I think because he's four in. Yeah. Yeah. And it's two straight, complete game shot. Shoutouts.

Okay. At Jeff Criscoe, I'm panning about Charlie Blackman. Same with Chris Bryant. Maybe not going to expect the bounce back season? Well, I think the thing is, and you made this point throughout draft season, that sometimes emphatically, his bad season was still awesome. Yes. That maybe discounted the idea that his bad season at 32 could lead to a worse season as

he turned 33. But we haven't really seen, the strikeouts have not gone up so far. He's not made, I guess, great contact. But I'm not particularly, the Rockies had like five home games so far. That's,

that's the thing. He's played 17 games so far. He has 79 played appearances, four games, 19 played appearances at home. And he was great in that home series. So for me, no worry about Charlie Blackman.

And the last one, at Micro Jackson. I'm panicking about Fernando Tatis's strikeout rate. Yeah, I don't know that you should really be all that surprised about Fernando Tatis's strikeout rate. In AA, he struck out like 28% of the time. He didn't play in AAA. He was probably going to strike out a lot. When he is hitting the baseball, he's kind of crushing it.

So I'm not worried. I'm more concerned. about Eloi Jimenez than I am Ferneda Tatis. And both of these guys, it's way too early to actually be concerned. Nothing has been shown to us for either one that makes you question the upside they possess. All right, we're going to take one more break, come back, talk about some bullpen, the rest of the news and notes, a couple of hitters that we probably shouldn't be ignoring or maybe shouldn't be ignoring, and a little bit more to close out the show.

We'll be right back. All right, so let's talk about some bullpen stuff. And I think, let's start with AJ Menter, who has just been really bad, pretty much every appearance that he's made yesterday, two thirds of an inning, two hits, one walk, one strikeout, one run aloud, came in in the tie game, got the loss, led to chance of we want Kimbril from the Braves crowd. That probably didn't feel good. How long is A.J. Mentor going to be the Braves closer?

Well, I don't really get the indication that they're going to be the team that signs Craig Kimball, because I don't think he's going to accept a fraction of what, a small fraction of what he's worth. He wants at least half of what he's actually worth, and I don't think the Braves will pay that. So it probably still depends on how long is the Rota's Viscay, you know, on the deal, or on the IL. I'm kind of riding off this guy, you know, at this point. Just like done.

Well, because so far early in this season, They've been treating him with kids' gloves, and he still is dealing with shoulder. Maybe they should make one of these 17 starters they have their closer. That would actually be interesting. It would be interesting to see, like, Sean Newcomb in a starter's role, or Tuky Tusson. I mean, I know we want to see him get a starter, but he has the stuff that could be really effective out of the bullpen. I don't think, because Mentor got such a late start on the season, I don't think he's probably yet in danger of losing this role. but I don't feel good about having him in my lineup.

All right, Ken Giles didn't blow a save, but did give up a run on two hits. He does 12 strikeouts, five walks, three and runs and eight innings. Are you concerned about Ken Giles at all? No. What about Shane Green? Gave up two runs for his first loss.

Good. First two runs allowed. Good. He has a 2.0. I was getting super annoyed by Shane Green being the best reliever in baseball, and I'm happy to see him come back to Earth a little bit. I believe he is still the best reliever in baseball.

Eight saves. 2.0. I think Roberto Ozuna has seven saves. Okay, he might be a little bit. And has like a negative four FIP or something. Well, you don't get fantasy points for FIPP. That's true. Jose Alvarado did not get the save for the Tampa Bay raise yesterday.

Daniel Castillo did. However, Jose Alvarado did come in in the eighth inning, got the hold, and he faced the top of the line. Diego Castillo. Diego, Yes, Steve. Okay. Yes. Alvarado came in, pissed a scoreless inning, no base runners allowed, face the top of the Orioles lineup.

That seems okay. Yeah, I think this is going, we knew this was going to be a little messy. Alvarado has been better than anyone could have dreamed of him being so far this year. He might be the best reliever in baseball, just not in fantasy baseball. But he's got four saves just a little bit over a tenth of the way through the season. So he's on a, like, if he gets 30, he's going to be awesome. Don't worry about it. We saw a little glimpse of what the Pirates bullpen might look like

in the event of a Felipe Rivera trade, and I believe that was one of Adam Azers' preseason predictions that he'll be the closer for the Red Sox by July. So Felipe Rivera was unavailable. He threw 43 pitches on Sunday. He got Monday and Tuesday off. Keone and Kella came in, blew the save. He has an 810 ERA.

Yep, that's what their bullpen will look like. That's not super promising, if you were hoping to grab a Pirates closure in the event of a trade. So we'll see if he can turn it around. Let's talk about a few more news and note items before we move on. Andrew Heaney could be back on a mound in 10 to 12 days. That's good news. It's kind of looking a little bit similar to what happened last year.

Had the elbow scare right at the start of the season. Ultimately did end up able to pitch and pitch well. So we'll see. Is he someone worth stashing? I don't really think so because his, like, his pitching well was 180 endings, which is awesome for him of a 4-1-5 ERA and a strikeout break. The peripherals were better than that. Yeah, he had a 399 FIP, so he's fine.

I'm not saying anything bad about Andrew Haney, but he's going to have a hard, like if you told me he was starting tomorrow, he wouldn't be in my top 50 starting pitchers. Okay. Brennan Nimmo left with neck stiffness. Yesterday, Jean Sagarra left with hamstring tightness. Doesn't look like either of those is a serious concern. Justin Turner missed yesterday's game after he fouled a pitch off his ankle during batting practice.

He was also dealing with some hamstring tightness. So they're going to be super cautious with Justin. He's old and has been brittle. So they'll be super cautious with him. Hopefully he'll be back in a couple of days. Ryan McMahon and David Dahl are both playing an extended spring training games in the minors. So that's a good sign as they come back. Garrett Hansen did Homer and steal the first base yesterday.

So that was good to see. I don't know if there will be enough time for him to lock down a starting room. He needs to do that again probably today. Yeah. Maybe tomorrow. And I think the bigger hope would be that they just kind of stop running Ian Desmond out there at some point. Just let the young guys play. I think Ian Desmond should send like bouquet to Chris Davis.

Because if it wasn't for Chris Davis, everyone would really realize how bad Ian Desmond's been. Yeah. Mike Fultenevich will make his fourth rehab start this weekend. You alluded to it earlier. They just keep pushing it back. I'm not sure. I think two starts ago, he didn't throw that many pitches. But he got to 85 in the most recent start.

And they said he looked bad. It's bizarre. Well, I just wonder if they're thinking that what he did last year was real and they keep waiting for him to look like that in the minor leagues. And he's not that good. All right. Freddie Peralta was placed on the 10-day I-L with a shoulder injury. should be brief, but it wouldn't surprise me if we don't see him back in the rotation.

No, this is, this felt more like he's bad. And Aaron Hicks hit off a T and threw on the field Tuesday. So that's a good sign. One of the first signs that he's actually been able to do baseball activities since coming back from that. Back injury, still worth stashing? Yeah, I, like, I would rather have Gregory Polanco, but I'd still be holding on to Hicks if I can.

Sure. I would expect Gregory Polanco's. back before Aaron Hicks at his point because he moved up to AAA over the weekend in his rehab assignment. He could be back by next week. Yep. I think I know your answer to the next two. Should we keep ignoring obviously O Garcia? He went two for four with a home run yesterday and three RBI. He's 14 for 31 with seven RBI over his last six games. This is one of those guys that I have just not thought about at any point in the season. So I have been ignoring him. But, But before I just, like, I don't think he's very good.

Yeah. And the one good year that he had was wholly unsustainable. And now he's in a much worse park than he was in the year that he had that good year when he had like a $390 BAPID. So I'm not really very excited. But he is playing every day, which I wasn't sure he was going to get with that. lineup. We should stop ignoring him in five outfielder leagues. And this one, we can probably safely ignore it outside of NL only leagues, but Scott Kingery was a monster last night. Hit another home run yesterday. His OPS is up to like 1,400 in limited

opportunities this season. Let's not forget how excited we were about this guy a year ago. There were the fantasy. I was the poo-pooer. The fantasy baseball world. There was talk about him potentially being a top 100 guy towards the end of drafts last year. Power speed combination. Just no obvious path to playing time right now. The key will be, there's Gene Segura, take a 10-day stint to rest his hamstring. Because I think that he needs somebody to get hurt. And they've got guys on that team that could get Bryce Harper has missed time in the past.

And I think just about anyone gets hurt. Kingery is the fill-in because he can play everywhere. I believe he was in the lineup yesterday because Reese Hoskins was out. Yes, Franco was at first and he was playing third. So he's the guy, but he needs a significant injury. A hot take, bold prediction. Scott Kingery is starting at third base by July. I don't like that.

Let's not poo-poo the one good month of Michael Franco's... He's had several good months, but I just... I'm not buying it. I went over some of the batted bono. all data on yesterday's show, but it's a lot of infield fly balls. He's not hitting the ball, particularly hard, particularly consistently. It's been a lot

of smoke and mirrors, so. Yeah, I don't I don't necessarily disagree what you said, but I like Michael Franco when he's doing well, so I don't want to hear anything about him losing his job. All right, let's close out with a couple of emails. Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. If you want to get your email on the show,

Jake from Germantown, or Brett from Germantown, Wisconsin. Excuse me. Yellich for Trout in a points league. Who are you taking? I'm still taking Mike Trout. Yelich has been awesome. I'm still taking Mike Trout.

But your expectations for Yelich have increased? Another home run yesterday, nine on the season. It's ridiculous. Like if you just stop hitting so many home runs, I might be more likely to believe it. Which makes all kinds of sense, right? It's too good to be true. No.

He's like my number five outfielder. I like him a lot. I'd still rather have Bryce Harper. Bill writes in head-to-head points league. He has Benintendi, Hicks, Piscotti, Puee, and Winker. Jock Peterson was dropped and is available. Should he add Jock or stay putt. Again, Ben Intendi, Hicks, Piscotti, Pueg, Winkley.

Yeah, this is the problem. That's too many names. Would you drop Hicks for Jock Peterson? Not unless I desperately needed a starter right now. Would you drop Piscotti for Peterson? No. Okay. And is it worth stashing Mike Clevenger on IL if he was dropped?

If you have an aisle spot 100% yes. Okay. Gabriel, LeClerc just became available in my league, currently owns Cody Allen and Jordan Hicks. Should he drop Hicks for LeClerc? I hate dropping Jordan Hicks, but I do think I'd rather have LeClerc. I was skeptical of LeClerc coming into this year, but you have no reason to not be skeptical of George. and Hicks too. So I'd rather have LaClerc. Yes. And last one, Nathan. How would you grade this

trade? Adam Eaton and Joe Musgrove give up? Get Jose Abrae. C plus. What about an alternative scenario where he gets Edwin and Carnaccio? C. Minus? Okay. I'd still rather have Abrae over Adam Eat and Joe Musgrove. I'm very skeptical how long. I'm very skeptical how long long Adam Eaton's going to be healthy and playing baseball. That's why I think it's more like a B plus. I think that would be a really good trade for this guy to do. Yeah, I wish Abrae would like done something. He's hitting the ball hard.

He has been an exit velocity star. I don't get any fantasy points for exit velocity. Just like FIPP. Yep, just like FIP. All right, that's going to do it for us on this Wednesday. Thanks so much for listening to Fantasy Baseball. Thanks for watching on our various video platforms. for Heath Cummings or Adam Azer.

Or Scott White. Or Scott White. I mean, usually not here on my seat. Almost never. I'm Chris Towers. Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you tomorrow.