Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/22: Injury Replacements, Weekend Standouts, and Waiver Adds (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 22, 2019

Everything from the weekend's games, including injury replacements you need to know about. Plus, should we stop doubting these guys?  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 lead. Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. Welcome back to fantasy baseball today. It's Heath Cummings here with Scott White, team hot on this fine Monday morning.

I'm not sure it is. a fine Monday morning as I went through the notes on Sunday night, Scott. We could do an entire show that's just welcoming back guys from injuries and talking about the guys going on the injured list. It was an eventful weekend and especially an eventful Sunday. There's a lot to dig into here. So perhaps it's good that there's only two voices to dig into it. Yes.

Less competing for airtime. Team Hot will get through this quickly. And I've got to run the show. So you're going to get to talk all you want, Scott. I will not step on your toes. You don't have to worry about talking over Adam. Just talk over me. Let's start with your number one hitter to add from the weekend.

Well, it looks like a lot of people have already followed through on this, but he is still available in 22% of CBS leagues. I imagine a lot more in other places, other leagues. Clint Frazier, who has, his job security has gone way up. As we last talked about him, Aaron Judge going on the DL with a significant oblique strain. So he's going to be out a while. And meanwhile, Cliff Fraser just continues to rig. He had three home runs over the past week.

I think the most encouraging thing is that his strikeout percentage, his strikeout rate is below 20%. He's looking like he's getting an opportunity to break through and is finally breaking through. And of course, that leads us into probably the biggest news from the weekend. And Aaron Judge with a significant oblique strain. We don't like any type of oblique strain. This is one of the worst types of injuries that's not a season end or necessarily for hitters because it can just nag and nag and nag and nag. Do you have any idea on Monday how long we think this is going to keep Judge out? They haven't offered a timetable.

I would just be guessing. I would think like two months. maybe the six to eight week timetable. But it could be longer than that. I don't think it would be shorter than that. Because for Frazier to lose playing time, he needs Hicks and Stanton to come back and judge,

or do you think when two of those guys are back, he might be in trouble? Well, it depends how he continues to perform. There's an opening, even if everybody's healthy, there's an opening for him in Brett Gardner's place, like time to phase out. out Brett Gardner. He's not off to a great start.

He's old, et cetera. Make him a fourth outfielder. If just one guy's out, then I think there's clearly an opening there for Frazier. And the way he's performing, I don't know why they take him out. I am a little bit surprised that Frazier's only 78%. But when I was looking through for the guys to add this week, one guy I was shocked. He's not available in our leagues because we were talking about him in March and the possibility he was going to win this job. but Ryan McMahon gained second base eligibility is still just 72% owned.

First base, second base. You can use him at either of the corner or middle infield positions. He has that Coors Field effect. Would you rather have Frazier over McMahon and shouldn't both these guys be close to 90% owned? Yes. I would actually rather have McMahon. Me too. I feel like because it's Coors Field and looking at his minor league track record,

remembering what he did this spring, I feel like there's a chance he's just an out and out stud. And I'm not sure the upside is quite that high for Frazier. You know, after that two homer return, McMahon, I think, went one for 11 with three strikeouts. So it wasn't, he didn't, he didn't exactly follow through on it. But, you know, still we're talking about a tiny sample size for a guy with significant upside. And second base among the positions where both of these players are eligible. I think it's clearly the weakest.

and it would be hard not to start him even in shallow leagues. So add Clint Frazier, add Ryan McMahon, let's get to the pitchers. Who is your top pitcher to add? Is Mike Soroka too owned yet? No, he's not. He's less owned than Frazier. He's, I think he's right around 60% owned. And yeah, he would be the most interesting pitcher to add, I think.

It kind of played out like I thought it would this weekend, And whoever had the best start between him and Tuki Toussaint got to stick around. Toussaint was terrible in his start after that great long relief appearance, gave up seven runs and less than two winnings. So he got sent down. Soroka has a spot, at least until he blows it, because obviously the Braves have a lot of reserves there and the miners that they could try. But interesting pitcher whose strikeouts have been, you know, he improved his strikeout rate last. year when he was healthy and really a diverse arsenal, four pitches, got a good number of swinging strikes in that first start.

It just seems like a really polished pitcher for a 21-year-old. That's always been the scouting report on him. So I'm excited to see where this goes. And he is only, it looks like 54% owned. So that's a good one. I'm going to go a little bit higher. But Luke Weaver was one of the most added players from the weekend. He's still just 72% owned.

I think he should be near universally owned. and definitely when he's a two-start pitcher. So let's move on to the big news, and there is a bunch of it. Francisco Lundor is back, and he donned on Sunday. Aaron Judge, of course, we talked about him on the 10-day I.L. With a pretty significant strained oblique, Starling Marte was placed on the IL with an abdominal wall injury. What's an abdominal wall injury, Scott?

I don't know. That sounds like what Matt Kemp suffered, too. That's a new one. the wall injury. I hadn't heard of that before. Kemp, it sounds like, is going to avoid the I.O. for whatever that's worth.

But I don't think, I don't think that's supposed to be a long absence. So, Brandon Morrow was shut down. It sounds like forever, but at least until further notice, he was working his way back. Pedro Strope, I guess,

looks pretty safe now as the Cubs Closer. Yeah, he did blow a save this weekend, but he's been he's been fine and I don't know who they who else they'd go with. So that that played out pretty nicely if you invested in Pedro Strobe. Tucci Toussaint, you mentioned, was sent down to AAA. Also, Corbyn Burns sent down to AAA. You're not holding on to either one of these guys? I mean, in a deep enough league.

It would probably have to be like 15 or deeper. I'd at least think about it. But even then I'd check to see what's available. Joey Votto missed the weekend with back stiffness. He's always a topic of conversation on this show. you starting Joey Votto this week? I think he's supposed to be ready to go. If it's a shallow league scenario

and you're looking to get like a Ryan McMahon in, maybe I play it safe and bench Votto, but for the most part, I think I'm starting it. Rich Hill is supposed to rejoin the rotation on Sunday. There's no way we ever start Rich Hill when he's supposed to start the following Sunday, right?

How many times is Rich Hill? Only takes it being pushed back one day and you're sunk. Mike Mustakis has a fractured tip of a finger. He will not go to the injured list. Jacob de Grom played catch twice, even though there's still talk that he may get an MRI on Monday. What are the Mets doing? I don't know.

It seemed like they were going to pass on the MRI entirely. And that was coming from doctors. They weren't sure that it was necessary. He's probably fine. I think I'd start him. I think I'd start him because he's supposed to go against Milwaukee. He's assuming he gets cleared. And obviously the upside is so high.

But it would depend on what my alternatives were. And Austin Meadows is on the injured lith with the right thumb sprain. We will have more injury news in just a moment. Let's first get to the week in standouts. And I'm kind of mad that Scott stole my hitter. It was everybody's hitter. It was Clint Frazier. had a dong on Saturday, a dong on Sunday.

He's hitting 3.39. He is red-hot, and he's going to get to play all that he wants. So I'll give my pitcher, and it was Kyle Hendricks on Friday night. 11 strikeouts, no earned runs over seven innings against the pirates. Are the pirates just this bad? Do you have some hope for Kyle Hendricks again? He has been a very good pitcher in the past, never really a high strikeout pitcher. You look at the peripherals, and it looks like he's gotten steadily worse.

But not like he should not be as bad as he was at the start of this year. Do you feel confident is Hendricks back in the trust zone? I wouldn't say he's in the trust zone, but I don't think I would have been dropping him in the first place. He got more depth on his sinker in this start. That had been an issue for him. It looked more like it was up to speed. And obviously a very important pitch for him, got a lot of swinging strikes on the changeout. up another important pitch.

I look at his career and I see it more as there was one outlier season where he contended for a Cy Young Award. But otherwise, he's been a reliable run preventer on a good team. And that's good enough for me to roster him, certainly. So I think, yeah, if he got dropped,

I think I'd be picking him up. What other standouts did you have from the weekend? Where to begin? Where to begin. The top. Christian Walker is another hitter I'm looking to add again. He is dealing with a little bit of a nagging injury, but it's, you know, he's supposed to be back in the lineup next game. So he's good.

Gosh, there were a lot of pitchers who had been great who suddenly struggled. Like Colin McHugh. that was weird yesterday at Texas but after four awesome starts I'm not so concerned about it I feel like Texas is one of those places where these things happen sometimes it actually rated as the most

favorable hitters park in baseball last year even over course field Garrett Cole was terrible too and just a terrible weekend for Astros pitchers but he thought he was tipping his pitches so that might explain that speaking of tipping pitches the Rangers think

that that's what's going on with Jose LeClerc, who managed to almost had another disastrous blown save yesterday. Ended up getting bailed out from the blown save, but it was a bad outing. And it kind of explains what you're talking about last time we brought him up, Heath, about how he wasn't getting the swinging strikes he was last year. They're not swinging at the change up when it doesn't, it seems weird that they're wouldn't be as effective as that pitch has been for them. So the Rangers are going to look

into that more. Meanwhile, they're sticking with Leclerc as their closer. I don't know, where else do you want to go? I think that's good. I've got five pages of notes here. We're not going to get to all of those, but we'll get to as much as we can. I've got three names here, and maybe some of them are in

your notes, maybe some of them are not. But I'm just curious, we've doubted all three of these players to varying degrees. So is it time to stop doubting Jock Peterson, Carlos Rodon, and Tim Anderson. I feel the same about Tim Anderson

as I always have, so I guess that would be doubt. And Jack Peterson, I didn't have any doubts against when he's facing right-handed pitchers. But he's been so good that it doesn't matter that he sits out two or three days a week, because he's got 10-0 runs already. I don't

think they face that many left-handed pitchers. Am I wrong? He only has he doesn't have a single hit against a left-hander this year of course he doesn't play against them that much I think he's like 0 for 10 and yeah they faced the last lefty they faced was

April 5th when they faced four in a row and he didn't start any of those games so it really hasn't mattered the past what two three weeks just because they haven't faced any lefties two and a half weeks if he's if he's this good against

righties it doesn't matter if he sits against lefties Well, it matters. Yeah, I mean, you can't, if they're facing four lefties in a week, you're not going to start him. But he's sat out four games already this year and he has 10 home runs? What? What was that? He sat out four games already this year and he has 10 home runs? Yes, but you wouldn't have started him the week he face.

Like I said, there were four lefties in a row. He started only three of the team's first eight games because of all the lefties they happened to face at the beginning. of the year and he's only sat one time since and that happened to be against a Ritey I guess they wanted to work somebody else in but yeah they're still I'm not saying he's look obviously a daily league he's

worth owning because you can play the matchups to the fullest extent weekly league is still worth owning probably because he must start whenever they're facing a bunch of Rydies but I don't think he's just automatically start him no matter what the matchups look like

so the answer is no it's not time to stop doubting Jock Peterson. Is it time to stop doubting Tim Anderson? He has nine stolen bases now this season. His strikeout rate is below 20% for the first time in his career. He's already hit four home runs. Hasn't he shown enough that he's improved as a hitter or at least as a fantasy producer? I mean, to the extent he needs to be owned, sure, but certainly in a points league, I'd be looking to sell high. In a Categories League, you know, he got off to this kind of start with the steals last year and still finished in his usual 20 range. So I'm not sure he's going to stick with this aggressive approach. Like he's never had it before. He's never stuck with it before.

I don't know why he would now. And as little as he walks, you know, he's obviously not going to hit over 400 forever. If he hits in the high 200s, okay, he'll be good. But it doesn't have the track record for that. I'm, you know, I'm not really changing my tune on him. Well, then we've all got one name left, and it's the one that I would like for you to change your mind on the most. It's Carlos Rodon as a 2.89 ERA. His FIP is even better than that so far this year. 2.45 FIPP 28 in five starts. He's 3 and 2, 11.3K per 9.

The walks are right about in the same range as where they've always been. They're not as bad as they've been when Rodon's been really bad, but still at 3.8 walks per 9. So the walks are still a bit of a problem, but other than those, he's been fantastic. Yeah, he has. I think he's must own. I'm not totally convinced this is like the big breakout, but there's enough evidence of it. He had, he was a guy before this last start, he had been doing kind of the Patrick Corbyn trick of featuring his slider more than ever. And obviously it was paying dividends. That wasn't so much the case in this last start, but it was still a really good start. So, you know, obviously whatever he was doing. he recognized who is getting the results he needed to with it. I'm encouraged. I'm willing to see where it takes him. Hey, that's the most, I think that Carla Ford-on won that section.

We're going to talk about who we added and dropped this weekend, as well as the most added players and much, much more right after this. Okay, Scott, who did you add and drop this week? I know the answer to this question. I don't know why I need to ask you, because I see all the emails and see where you outbid me on certain players that I wanted. I added Homer Bailey, Mike Miner, and Frankie Montas all in the same league this week.

Well, that is interesting. The pitchers I don't really like. Though I did end up with Homer Bailey in both of my 15 team leagues. I had a modest bid on him and won both. So I guess that shows you where the rest of the industry is sitting with him. I like who? Mike Minor. Yes, I do like Mike Miner.

I do like Mike Miner because not only is he pitching deep in the games, already three, seven inning starts, but his swinging strike rate is what it was when he was pitching out of the bullpen two years ago with the Royals. Don't need to remind you it's a small sample size. It could come back down to Earth. But that, you know, it dropped a lot with his return to the rotation last year. And now it's back up.

And he's a two-star pitcher this week. So yes, I was. I made sure he was owned everywhere he was still available. He's up to 86% now, so that wasn't that, you know, you probably can't get him now, at least not in a CBS league. I did add Hunter Dozier in a league where I needed an extra bat because I like his matchups this week. I did, I like Dwight Smith matchups this week and was looking to add him in Tau Wars at 15 Team 5 outfielder league. I got outbid for him. Somebody bid like a thousand dollar budget.

Somebody bid like $1,000. to get Dwight Smith. I thought that was going overboard, but, you know, his stock seems to be up. 48% ownership seems a little low. I wouldn't go much higher than that. But yeah, those were some of the players I was looking at. Yeah, I added Luke Weaver for sure.

The one that I think we can talk about maybe more later, but Jared Eikoff, I think he probably needs to be owned in close to 20, 25% of leagues. I mean, that's not a very, those are mostly deep leagues. And there is a chance. that he just holds on as the fifth starter for the Phillies? A chance, but I wasn't impressed by this latest start.

Well, it was at Coors. It was at Coors, yeah, but he walked four. He got like 10 swinging strikes. He did have eight strikeouts, but it wasn't with an impressive swinging strike total. And when they sent down Nick Povetta, based on their comments, it was clearly with an eye of bringing him back up as soon as he showed potential again. So I don't know that they're that committed to Icoff, but, you know, if you're talking about just 25% ownership, that's not, I don't think that's out of sorts, out of line.

Let's get to the bullpen news. There was another player on my most added list. Rowanis Leas for the Mariners had to save on Friday. Zawrzak got the save on Saturday. We'll start with the Mariners bullpen. Is it just a committee situation and you have no confidence in who the closer is? Or do you think it's Swarzak? Which one do you think it is?

I think it's Swarzak. I'm trying to remember the circumstances surrounding that Alia's save if it was an extra inning situation, maybe Strickland allowed a home run and sent it to the – I don't remember exactly what it was, but it was nothing that made me think. Okay, they're... Well, he actually saved Thursday's game and Friday's game. Oh, there was two saves. Okay, so I may be...

Okay. But I don't know. Yeah. I think at Strickland, he's allowed a home run in each of his past two appearances. Swarzek. Yeah, Swarzak. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, it would be a deeper league where I was adding at least.

Ryan Brazier saved all three games. games at Tampa Bay. You feel fully confident he's the closer for the Red Sox? I feel fully confident that between him and Barnes, Brazier is the one I want to own. Yes, Barnes did sneak in there with the save. And there was a couple of outings where Brazier worked prior to the ninth inning.

So they're going with less than traditional bullpen usage here. But Brazier is obviously getting the high percentage of save opportunities for the Red Sox. We talked about Jose Leclerc. He's now allowed seven earned runs in his last six appearances, walked three straight batters before he got pulled on Sunday. We talked about Pedro Strope, a little bit more confidence in him, now that there really isn't anybody to challenge him.

He did blow a save on Sunday, though. I want to talk about Hector Nerris and the Phillies bullpen. He got a five-out save at Colorado on Saturday. How would you rank the six or seven Phillies relievers that are going to get saves the rest of the year? I think Neris has jumped to number one, clearly. He's gotten their last two saves, converted them both, a guy who was really dominant down the stretch last year.

And with David Robertson on the IL presently, don't think he's expected to miss a long time, but he wasn't being used in like you'd expect a closer to be used at all prior to going on the IL and was struggling. and, you know, Sir Anthony Dominguez hasn't touched the ninth inning, really, all year. You know, the thinking coming into the years, if it wasn't Robertson, it was Dominguez. I think it's Nairus. As much as it can be anybody for the Phillies, and they are going to be the most annoying of all the committee,

the closer committees this year, I think it's Nairus. Cody Allen has been bad lately. He was very bad over the weekend. Sergio Romo did get a save on Friday. It looks pretty clear. He's the Marlins closer. Let's go over one more team, though, because Taylor Rogers did have a two-inning save on Saturday.

He got another save on Sunday. It was kind of a weird situation because Blake Parker missed the weekend with a bit of a stomach bug. How do you feel about the twins relievers moving forward? I think that's still pretty murky, but Blake Parker does seem to be at the top dog there. Taylor Rogers, I don't think either of the same. were clean and I think he gave up at least a run in both. He's going to be in the mix some as a lefty who may be their best reliever,

but I think Blake Parker's still the guy to own there. All right, let's get to the other news from the weekend before we get to the third section of news because, yes, there was just that much news over the weekend. Danny Duffy will rejoin the Royals rotation this week. The Pirates called up Brian Reynolds and Cole Tucker. Do they matter to you, Scott? No, not really, not really. I mean, keep an eye on them, but they're not prospects I was eager, you know, anxiously anticipating their arrival.

Matt Shoemaker will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL so you can drop him. Joey Windle was activated from the injured list and started on Sunday. Are we concerned at all about playing time for either Yandi Diaz or Brandon Lau? not really helping the situation is and this is obviously disappointing news the kind of start he was off to but Austin Meadows

went on the aisle with the thumb sprain and is going to miss some time with that but regardless in Wendell's absence, Brandon Lowe and Yandi Diaz have both been they've been a revelation you know revelations I guess since there's more than one of them

And I think they've secured playing time. Joey Wendell's kind of boring, right? Pretty boring. He's a little boring. He was pretty good last year, but not in a super exciting way. I'm sure there will be times over. I mean, we all thought Yandi Diaz was a little bit boring coming into this season. Gio Gonzalez opted out of his contract with the Yankees.

Scott Kingery and Gene Seguera both on the IL with handstring injuries for the Phillies. I did notice Sazar Hernandez hitting second yesterday. Could be a little boost to his value. Yeah, he's been hot Saysa Hernandez has been hot I was not really buying into the Scott Kingery thing The strikeouts were way down But otherwise I wasn't seeing much to get excited about

It's nice to get that A little pest out of the way though Pesky Kingery So I guess we're gonna Because Oduble's on the IL as well So we're going to see a lot more Altair or I don't see another option

Nick Williams, I assume, is still around? Nick Williams could be there as well. We are up on our backup Phillies outfielders. Jordan Lyles does not expect to miss his next start. The Indians DFA'd Hanley Ramirez, who could have seen that coming? Nade Avaldi was placed on the 10-day aisle with loose bodies in his elbow. The Diamondbacks acquired Blake Swihart. Mike Clevenger will not have surgery on his back.

And that's going to do it for that section of the. the news. We'll just break it up a little bit. Hey, real quick, Scott. Is Christian Yelich the number one overall pick if we drafted right now? No. What do you mean? He might be the third overall pick. That's as high as I'd be willing to go. But no, I would not back off my initial Mike Trout. Certainly not Mike Trout. And Moogie Betts stance. Yelich. Yelich does look like a MVP caliber player, though, legitimately. And he's been the best player in baseball for the last calendar year, right?

For the last count, I don't, I mean, I haven't looked up that number. He might have been. Yeah, I mean, I know he obviously had a tremendous finish. But look, you tell me, you're an analyst. Would you take Yellich first overall? I'm a host right now. You're the analyst, and that's why it was Hey, Real Quick. Scott says Christian Yellich is still not the number one overall pick.

Hey, real quick, is Pete Alonzo maybe a top five first baseman? Definitely could be. The potential is there. I think the fact that Bellinger's off to the start he's off to, and Reese Hoskins is now eligible at first base, makes it tougher. But, you know, depending what happens to Joey Votto, well, even if you take Joey Votto out,

that's still five at the top that I feel really good about. I have Alonzo, like, right around 10th at the position, but you could make the case for him high as sixth, I guess. I have him right around 10th to 12th as well in a similar spot. I just got to thinking yesterday, are there five other first baseman that I'm sure are going to be better than Pete Alonzo the rest of the year? He hits the ball so hard. It doesn't seem like it's really fair to have his strength with the baseballs they're using these days.

Yeah, he's kind of up there with, I don't know if it exactly rates out this way, but Aaron judge in terms of exit velocity he gets. And, you know, I'm not sure. I mean, that's obviously he's less proven than the others, and the others are giving me no reason to believe they're not still studs, those being beyond Bellinger and Hoskins, I'm putting Goldschmidt, Freeman, and Anthony Rizzo up there. So that's kind of the group he's competing with now.

it's not outside the realm of possibility he's the best first baseman this year alonzo but you're talking about a rookie with less than a hundred plate appearances and we don't know exactly what could go wrong for him when those others are obviously proven studs so i don't think you could really talk about ranking him ahead of them yet we have not talked hardly at all about starting pitchers from the weekend we're over halfway into the show we've got several players getting closer to coming back. We're going to talk about those things and more right after this. So Scott, we had a lot of guys get hurt over the weekend, but we have a lot of guys it sounds like are getting ready to work their way back. Gary Sanchez could be back by Wednesday. How bad would your Gary Sanchez replacement have to be for you to start Gary Sanchez this week? I don't think bad at all. Catcher is abysmal. It's abysmal. Like if you picked up Estudio. He's been playing a little more. But I... He wasn't widely available when Sanchez went down, I don't think.

So, you know, even a guy like Mitch Garver, who's had two home runs, I believe, Saturday and has looked good. He started one of the twins past six games. You know, even there's just either there's not a lot of production happening at the position. That's mostly the case. Or guys aren't playing regularly enough. Or both. It's so bad. Like if you picked up like an Austin Hedges or, I don't know,

like Brian McCann may have been your replacement, somebody like that. I think you just go to Sanchez and his half week's going to be better than a full week of most anybody else who would be widely available in fantasy because they might only be playing half a week anyway just because of as much as they said. One guy you can't do that with is Gregory Polanco. I don't know for sure that he's coming back this week, but there's a good chance

coming back and you should at least make sure that Gregory Polanco is owned no matter what kind of league you're in because he should be back

in the next week to two. Carlos Martinez is a week away from starting a rehab assignment. Are you making sure that he is owned? They're not, they're still non-committal

on the role. Obviously, if he's a middle reliever, he's not going to be that useful in fantasy, but they have needs in their starting rotation and they might still be willing to do that. It would be a long wait, you know,

just because he's beginning a rehab assignment. If he's building up a starter's workload, we're talking a month at least probably till we see him in the majors. So I don't know that in shallow leagues, like 12 teams are fewer. He has to be owned. If you have a free aisle spot, obviously why not? But if you don't, yeah, I'm not super excited about stashing him.

Athletics GM, David Forst, said he expects Matt Olson back within two weeks. Are you making sure he's rostered? Yes, he probably should be rostered everywhere. Maybe you could get away with not doing it in a points league. It just depends on what kind of IL space you have. Who else is already there? I do expect that the power will be limited for maybe the first month after he returns, just because that's what we've seen from Broken Handmaid Bones in the past.

It certainly played out that way for both U.S. Gurriel and Justin Turner last year. But eventually they got back to being their normal selves. Daniel Murphy and Todd Frazier both played in rehab games over the weekend. Frazier doesn't matter for fantasy, obviously. But I feel like it's pretty likely Murphy is going to have a major negative impact on Garrett Hampson's playing time. Oh, yeah. I wonder, though, are the Mets actually going to try to play Todd Frazier regularly when he comes back?

Or you think he's just rehabbing so he can sit on the bench? I think he's rehabbing so he can sit on the bench. Okay. He might play against left-handers. Like, he might be somebody who spells Jeff McNeil. Yeah, against left-handers. Which would be bad. Well, he's already been sitting against left-handers, McNeil.

He hasn't, he's been sitting for J.D. Davis instead. Or they could follow through on their plan of playing McNeil in the outfields, and maybe Frazier gets more playing time. third, but that would mean they're kicking a good defensive option out of the outfield. So that, I mean, I guess it could play out that way, but either way, I'm not excited about Frazier.

I don't think it impacts Pete Alonzo's playing time anyway, you know. No, I wouldn't think so. Shohay Otani will see live pitching this week. Nick Senzel will report to AAA this week. Reporting AAA is something apparently Otani is not going to do. He's going to skip the rehab assignment and just join the big league club. would you rather have Sinezell or Otani on your roster right now? Let's assume it's a weekly roster, not daily.

So I just want to follow up on what I was saying. It looks like J.D. Davis, it looks like Meneal's already been playing a lot of left field and J.D. Davis has just been starting against Ritey's and doing well. So that might impact J.D. Davis, most of all, the Frasier return. But, yeah, getting to the question between Otani and Senzel. I would go Otani because we know we know what. Once he's ready to go, he'll be back. We know he's good.

He's in an IL spot right now, so you can stash him easier. But I am excited about Sunzel. I think he's, after Guerrero, of course, he's the best minor leaguer to stash. It's just, it's a little harder to do than Otani, and the rewards are less certain. We had four double dongs on the weekend. Christian Yelich again on Saturday. Ryan Zimmerman, Josh Donaldson, Tommy Lestella, all three on Sunday. day, some really relevant names there.

Let's get to some hitter ads before we get to the pitchers. I mentioned S2Dio earlier. He's still just 74% owned. We've talked about a lot of catchers that are just getting added because they've been hot. He had three more hits and a home run

over the weekend. He's a number 12 catcher in points, even with the amount of playing time he's had so far this season. I think Williams a studio needs to be owned and started in most leagues. Yes. I mean, points leagues. has the advantage of not striking out much in

roto league, I mean, particularly if you're talking to a catcher league, that's obvious. But he's going to be help and batting average because he never like never strikes out. I love his stateline. Strikeout to walk ratio. One to one

for the year. That's not a ratio. That's the actual numbers of strikeouts and walks he has this season. So he should hit 300 just because he's never striking out, right? the league average babb at 2.95, he's probably had some bad luck there. But yeah, he does see, like, the twins seem to be coming to the idea, around to the idea of playing him more. He started between first base and catcher. He started four of the last

six games. That's, oh, actually, sorry, five of the last seven games. I mean, that's, that's more than the average catcher, frankly. So yeah, I agree. He should probably be owned, started everywhere. couple guys we mentioned earlier. Ryan McMahon, 72%. He is now second base eligible and probably a borderline top 12 second basement at that. Christian Walker. When I looked last night, 61% had six more hits over the weekend. You do have to watch and make sure he's not going to go on the injured list, but I think he's okay from what it sounded like. And then I've got some other names. You just tell me if there's any interest at all. I'll start with one that's easy for you. Alex Gordon, 67% on now, he had his fourth home run on Sunday, has a 398 on base percentage.

Has he done it for long enough for you to start believing again? No, and I haven't added him anywhere either, but it's obviously really good. I'm trying to find reasons why he's different. I'm not seeing it in the bat-a-ball profile. Yes, he's striking out less, and that helps, but it doesn't explain the power resurgence. He said he's straightened up his posture at the plate last August. But you look at what he did last August in September. it was okay. It wasn't near this good.

I want to find a reason to believe because I love guys who walk a lot and strike out little as he's done so far, but I'm not finding much, and he's 35, seems weird. Shin Suu, speaking of old dudes that can rake, 56% owned, hitting 323, 318 now with a 430 on-base percentages. Updated statistics are nice. Of course, not striking out all he doesn't.

I don't really get why he's only, 56% on. We don't have that many three outfield or roto leagues. Yeah, I don't get it either. He had a good year last year. Slow finish, and I think there was a back issue going on at the time that was still bothering him some this spring. So I understand why there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm coming into the year, even though it was a good year overall. But I think he's, I think he's put those concerns to wrap.

right? He's definitely in my top 10 sleeper hitters for this week. Jose Martinez, Justin Smoke, Avicale Garcia, Rowdy Tellez, four more names you could look to add. Who's the one you like the most out of that group, Scott? I like

Justin Smoke the most. That was one of the names you mentioned, right? Yep. You nailed it. Let's get to pitchers, and of course we have to start the pitchers with the stallion report. No, we're not going to play that terrible song. Please stop asking. Trevor Richards, six and a third innings over the weekend.

I only gave up three earned runs, so it was a quality start, struck out seven. He was outdone by Caleb Smith six innings of one earned run, eight strikeouts now is a 2.35 ERA. The one thing I'll say about Richards and it hasn't happened to Smith yet. Trevor Richards has like a 3.7 ERA and I think he's 0 and 3 on the season. That is still a problem for both of these guys. it's going to be difficult for either of them to be like a top 30 starting pitcher in a points league if they win eight games. But Smith in particular looked fantastic.

Oh, yeah. He's been lights out this year. I think he's only 79% on, which is ludicrous. But Richards, you know, I'm certainly not giving up on Richards. He has one non-quality start this year. And yet I feel like we still haven't seen. him deliver his best outcome yet in this last this most recent start which was you know fine it was six and a third innings three and run seven strikeouts 22 string swinging strikes 13 on that changeup

that's so good but that is that is a huge number i don't think caleb smith he may have had that number in one of his starts but that's that's not something you see except from pitchers who have elite stuff. And Trevor Richards, he needs to cut down on the walks, but the stuff looks really good. Both of these guys are, in my opinion, very close to must own.

And it just goes to show you how, what the bubble that we live in, because I am in a league, most of my leagues have Chris Towers in them. Most of them have Scott White in them. I cannot imagine either of these guys are available in either. Trevor Richards is available in 42% of CBS leagues right now.

Yeah. That's nuts because you know Points League is the shallower league that we talk about and that is widely played on our site and that's where you need pitchers most. So it's I think it probably has to do with that win loss record. Like you said, he's just not showing up high enough in the scoring, but he's going to win some games. He's not going to win a lot of games. He's going to win enough that he'll be somebody who's worth rostering everywhere. And just to follow up on the swinging strikes note I gave Caleb Smith's season high. is 18 and like I said

Trevor Richards just had a 22 game with 22 they're they're both inside my top 40 starting pitchers now I it's going to be hard for them to get a lot higher than that it's going to be hard for either of them to have like a true ace season just because of the situation but that doesn't mean

they can't be very good fantasy starters for you getting his studs being studs one guy that I think after his last start we decided it was okay another one that had been struggling up and to this start Stephen Strasbourg, James Paxton, both phenomenal over the weekend. Strasbourg 11Ks and eight innings, no-warned runs.

Yeah, it was against the Marlins. James Paxton, 12Ks, six innings pitched, no-er-and-runs, yeah, it was against the Royals. Yeah, but they're good. They're good. Strasbourg's velocity has been down, but the strikeouts haven't been down. So I'm not so concerned about it. His secondary stuff's good enough that he doesn't. He's one of those pitchers who I think can figure out how to succeed with less velocity

and, you know, obviously facing the Marlins helps, but I think he's fine. Yeah, I didn't really move Strasbourg in my rankings at any point. He was one of those guys that I was getting close to thinking, okay, if the next start is that bad, I might have to drop him a couple of spots, but he's still very easily in my top 20s, starting pitchers. I've got him 14th right now, 15th, 15th, actually. So I'm pretty confident in him. A guy I think that's kind of tough to rank still is Clayton Kershaw. He had another good start against the Brewers. The four walks were weird, but maybe he was pitching at Miller Park, and you just can't be too careful at Miller Park. Did strike out seven brewers, only gave up two

earned runs. I right now have Kershaw as my number nine starting pitcher. How crazy is that? Ooh, it's aggressive. It's aggressive. I think especially knowing there's going to come a point where he's going to have to rest that back. But in terms of when he's healthy enough to pitch, I think he's going to be reliable. He was last year, even though the rates were all down. He's not a guy I see contending for Cy Young's anymore, maybe never again, just because he's always going to have that back issue.

contend with but um you know reduced velocity doesn't seem to matter he's he's he's still missing enough bats and kind of like i was saying with strasburg obviously to a more advanced degree just a good enough pitcher to maneuver a loss of velocity jen jen ryu came back off the disabled list again at milwaukee struck out nine and five and two thirds. He's been very, very good whenever he's pitched and now he's back healthy. Should we be considering

him like a top 30 starting pitcher? I think he's in the discussion. Yeah, I don't have them probably too low in my rankings. And a lot of it has to do with, it's the Dodgers and, you know, I know he's not going to give me the innings just because of that. They're going to find

reasons to rest him and mix in Ross Stripling, Julio Reyes, who are both going to be out of job once Rich Helgim's back. But Rios seems very safe to start when he's healthy. I wrote a piece on Friday talking about they might be aces. And I knew what was going to happen as I would write about these guys and then over the weekend they'd all have disastrous starts and make the article look

ridiculous. Only Shane Bieber really did that. One of the guys who definitely didn't do that, Luis Castillo, another phenomenal start. Nine strikeouts and six innings, only gave up one earned run. he has legitimately been one of the best starting pitchers in baseball so far this season. Do you think he can keep it up? I mean, he's not going to keep up a 140 ERA or whatever it is, 147. But I do think this is a legit breakout. This is exactly what we're waiting for from him.

A guy who looked like he could be a standout in all three of the FIP measurements. And actually, he hasn't been in the walks. The walks have been kind of high. But in terms of getting ground balls to avoid home runs, a ton of strikeouts with that change-up, it's all coming together for him. And by the way, he looked great down the stretch last year, too. So not totally out of left field. Terrible start last year, but started to put things together.

And I think he's even taken another step forward with the strikeouts this year. The one other guy, I think we really need to talk about from this group. And I'm not even sure. Like, I didn't have enough time to go through the 17 different categorizations that Adam does. so I'm putting this guy in a stud being stud, and we'll see if you think he's really a stud. And he's a brave. It's Max Fried.

He had another very good start on Sunday night against the Cleveland Indians, did strike out six batterers and six and a third, walked three, only gave up two earned runs. I'm having a hard time buying the way that he's doing what he's doing. Are you trying to sell Max Fried High? I don't think it's a bad idea for a number of

reasons. I agree with you that other than run prevention, he hasn't really stood out in any way. And he's avoided hits. I mean, I think he's, I think he's good, but I think he's not as good as maybe his last three starts would lead people to believe. This was his first game with double-digit swinging strikes. He only has really the two pitches. And I feel like, like the curveball gets rave reviews. but when your only pitches are a fastball and a curveball and it's a curveball with a really good shape, I imagine it's got to look so different coming out of the hand than the fastball that it's just not that deceiving.

It's hard to hit, but it's not a pitch that's going to get a lot of strikeouts for him. And then the fact that obviously he has all the innings concerns of a young pitcher breaking in, I know he was less than like 140 innings last year. And the fact that the Braves have so many other young pitchers they're trying to work in, there's going to come a point where either they're going to have a short leash with him if he has, you know, two or three bad starts or they're just going to want to arrest him, maybe a Phantom DL or IL situation.

But he's not going to be somebody you can bank on all season long. I don't think. Even though it's obviously encouraging, obviously step in the right direction. Maybe you have reason to be excited about him in like a dynasty scenario. But yeah, I have questions about his ability to sustain this. A couple other notes on studs being studs before we get to the guys we really need to talk about the duds. Robbie Ray had a good bounce back start against the Cubs. The strikeouts weren't there, but the walks weren't there either. So it was good performance.

Six innings, just one earn run allowed. Marcus Stroman, very good against the Oakland Athletics, when eight innings only give up one earned run, now has an ERA below two, and needs to be viewed as a must-own, must-start starting pitcher, I believe. I'm putting them in the trust zone. David Price, 10 strikeouts and five innings pitched

against his old team in the revenge game against Tampa Bay. And then John Gray, not a lot of strikeouts again, but six shutout innings at home against the Phillies. Anytime you get a good productive start from John Gray at home, that's fantastic because that means that's one less home start he has to make in the future. Let's get to the duds. What is wrong with Noah Sendergarde? Five innings pitched, six runs, only four of them were earned.

Five strikeouts, two walks at St. Louis. Is he going to have any good starts this year? He hasn't yet, but the stuff seems fine. Just because of that, I think you can call him a buy low. He is his reason for struggling, the one he's giving, is that he's having trouble repeating his delivery. And he said this is something he hasn't dealt with since 2014 when he was still in the minors. And if you're up on your Noah Cinderguard knowledge, 2014 was the year he had a 460 ERA at AAA.

And there were some doubts beginning to emerge about whether or not he was this stud prospect that he was considered to be before that. But obviously the next year was the year he broke through in the majors and was obviously great. He got it figured out. And I think he will this year too, especially since it's something he says he's dealt with before. So yeah, I think he's a by-low. Max Scher gave up six runs to the Marlins in five and a third, but he struck out nine. He didn't walk any. I don't really care.

Charlie Morton, six innings pitched, five earned runs against Boston. The strikeouts were still there. We don't really care about that one either, right? Right, right. I mean, a bigger concern with Morton is how often is he going to get to pitch six innings because there hasn't been. And he just did it when he gave up five runs. That's pretty great.

I know. Colin McHugh got lit up against the Texas Rangers. Nine earned runs in three and a third innings pitched. Just one strikeout. Only one walk, I guess that's a positive. They just beat him all over the park. This is just one bad out. outing and you don't care that much, right?

Well, it is one bad outing. And like I said earlier, at Texas, it makes it easier to give a guy a pass for that. Just like it's easier to give a pass against the brave. Shane Bieber did just go two and a third, gave up five earned runs against Atlanta. He only

walked one. He struck out three. It'd been very good in his first three starts. I jinxed him by writing an article about him. It's okay. We're not going to worry about Shane Bieber, right? Yeah, I'm not worried about Shane Bieber. as good as he was before that. That Braves lineup. It's tough. Got a lot of high OVP guys in there.

And Josh Donaldson went, he's coming back. He's bouncing back in a loud way here. I hope you didn't give up on Josh Donaldson. He did devil dong. You let me gloss over his name, pretending like he was in the same classification as Tommy Lestella earlier. So I'm glad you got something in there good about Josh Donaldson at the end. I was going to call this guy a stud being a dud, but then you dropped him over the weekend. so I think we can all agree he's a fringy starting pitcher now. Rick Porcelo, five and two thirds innings pitched. Only give up two earned runs has an ERA of like 8.7 now

and no longer owned by Scott White in a points league. Yes, it was a situation where this tends to be the league where the best players are available on waivers of all the leagues I play in. So I'm hoping to get away with it. I don't think Porcelo is done. but I wanted to free up a roster spot and his horrible start to the season had gave me an excuse to do that.

Like if you cut his innings pitched in half, you would almost have his ERA. He has been disastrously bad. His teammate... But this was a step in the right direction. This was almost a quality start. His teammate almost had a quality start as well. Eduardo Rodriguez, five and a third,

six K's, three earned runs. he's been really terribly bad also so far this year. This start wasn't quite as good as Porcellos in some ways. It was better in others. These guys are both owned and right around 80% of leagues. Which one would you rather have? I'd rather have Eduardo Rodriguez. He is doing some interesting things beneath the surface.

16 swinging strikes in this start, even though it wasn't very good. 18 in the last start. He had 13 in his first start. So three with a really high number of swinging strikes. And in this start, he got six on the cutter. So in the past, he'd been mostly a fastball change-up guy, but it seems like he's having some success with the rest of his arsenal in a way he hasn't before. Got off to a terrible start, but it's been a little better here lately.

I think he's interesting. I think he might be a by-low candidate. I kind of feel like the brewers are looking at all of us out in Brewer fanland and the fantasy community and saying, well, are you happy? We started all of the young kids. We didn't put any of those old boring pitchers in that you wanted to. And now all the young kids are either hurt or bad. Brandon Woodruff with another subpar outing over the weekend. Five earn runs allowed.

Five and two thirds innings pitched. He walked three. He has a 5.81 ERA. The FIP, I got a little pushback the last time I questioned him because the FIP is better. The strikeouts are there. He's just not been able to actually be good yet. Are you holding on to Brandon Woodruff or is he just lucky that Freddie Peralta got hurt and Corbyn Burns is worse? Yeah, I don't really worry about him so much from a job security standpoint, but there's not much incentive to start him right now, like you're saying.

So I don't, he hasn't had a single quality start yet, but strikeout rates high. You know, you point to the reasons why you can still be encouraged. I don't think he's, I don't think you have to hold on to him. But it's kind of like Rick Porcell, where if I was dropping him, I'm doing so more because I feel like I can get away with it than because I think he's just bad. And I would be keeping a close eye on him going forward. Somebody tweeted at us and I'd actually already put this guy in the notes. But somebody tweeted and said, when can we just accept that Derek Rodriguez is actually. a good pitcher. Five and two-thirds

against the pirates. Only four strikeouts. He's not a big strikeout guy. This is actually a little disappointing for a Rodriguez start because he usually, when he's good, goes deeper into games, but he did only give up two earned runs. He's off to a relatively good start. I always like starting Rodriguez at home. Is he

someone you'd consider starting on the road against at least good matchups? So let's just look at him on a surface level. Okay? If we assume he's really as good as he's been. he's still a non-strikeout pitcher for a terrible team with fantastic control

even so I mean that that's not much to get excited about and then beyond that you look at the fact that he's somehow having this success despite giving up tons of hard contact tons of line drives I think there's a good chance it's just all falls apart for him at some point man so the answer to your tweet sir is Scouts never going to acknowledge it. Four guys, fringy starting pitchers that had relatively encouraging starts over the weekend.

I want you to rank these four guys for me. You can talk a little bit about the one you're most excited about. Kyle Gibson, six innings, only two earn runs allowed at Baltimore. It did have six strikeouts. Matt Strom bounced back. Eight innings, five strikeouts, one earned run against Cincinnati. Jordan Liles had a good outing against the San Francisco Giants with six strikeouts and six shutout innings.

and then Vince Velasquez, five and two-thirds, struck out eight at Colorado, which are these guys who are you most excited about, and go ahead and rank them? I am most excited about Liles, followed by Velasquez, followed by Kyle Gibson, mostly because of what he did last year. Still not feeling Matt Strom. His velocity is way down from his time in the bullpen last year on all of his pitches, but the fastball and slider are the best two. It was not a good bat missing performance here against the Reds.

Five strikeouts and eight innings. You know, obviously got a good result, but it wasn't. It wasn't the underlying stats weren't anything to get excited about. And I'm kind of beyond the idea that he's going to be this big breakout in a starting pitcher role, just because with the reduced stuff, he's no kind of bat misser. So he's still, he's bottom on the list for. me. I really want him to be good now because last week you wrote the 16 things that Scott White was already wrong about and Matt Strom being good was in that 16 things. I think he's had

two good starts since you wrote that. And I just think it would be fun if he's really good until you buy back in and then it's just terrible again because that type of thing happens to me all the time. Yeah, the yo-yo effect. No, I'm not, I am not changing my opinion on Matt strong unless he strings together a few starts where he has a strikeout per inning or better. I have been impressed with Velasquez so far this year, at least in his ability to

work out of trouble, which is something he just could not do the last two seasons and was really the only reason that he wasn't a decent fantasy pitcher because he has good stuff. He'd just get a man on base and he'd panic and things would go all kinds of haywire. He's been much better in that situation

so far this year. They talked in the off season about how he was working with a mental coach. Hopefully that's something that actually paid off a little bit. And he can have a good start outside of Cores as well. We're going to finish it off with five pitchers who had relatively good, some great outings over the weekend. And I just want you to tell me, Scott, do any of these guys matter? Chase Anderson threw five innings, struck out five,

did not give up a run against the Dodgers. Dylan Bundy was okay against the twins. Rinaldo Lopez was very good against the Tigers. Tyler Chatwood was throwing strikes. He only walked two batters in six innings and then Anthony Descliffeani. Six innings, just one earned run, six strikeouts.

Do any of these guys matter? I think the one who could potentially matter is Raydonaldo Lopez, who has put together two good starts in a row. He said, at the start of the streak, he looked at some video from when he was at his best last, year and made some mechanical adjustments based on that got throttled his first few starts

and i think still has a lot to prove but i'm at least keeping an eye on him he throws hard seems to have a pretty good breaking ball and uh seems to throw pretty good number of strikes so i'm at least keeping it on him the others i'm kind of over i'm at least keeping it on him the other is i'm kind of over i'm dylan bundy for the second straight year has been getting a lot of swinging strikes but with no no results to get excited about so i think we're we're kind of moving moving on from him. I just wanted to check what I said on Lopez. The walks happen.

Hi. One person we found out today for sure matters is Adam Azer. He'll be back tomorrow so you won't have to listen to me trying to run this show. Thank you all, though, for listening to this Monday edition. We'll talk to you again on TV.