Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/23: Regulators, Ranking Relevant Players and More from Monday (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 23, 2019

Monday's standouts include some hitters that we have no choice but to keep mentioning (2:06) like Hunter Dozier, Alex Gordon and Yandy Diaz. Who looks like a mainstay on Fantasy rosters? We also discuss Joe Musgrove (8:00) and Steven Matz (9:25) before giving a stat about BAL's terrible pitching staff (14:55) and the state of hitting across MLB ... "Welcome Back" (20:00) to several players who could cause playing time issues. And should we be adding a CLE minor leaguer (25:05)? And then let's rank some relevant players (26:26)! Clint Frazier vs. Gregory Polanco, Jack Flaherty vs. Clayton Kershaw, The Stallions vs. Rick Porcello and more! ... Fantasy Regulators (35:15)! Plus Adam makes an Easter confession (41:00) and we talk about underrated storylines (42:40), Team Name Tuesday (47:30), SPs from yesterday and an email about baseball uniforms ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Adam, Scott, Heath, and Chris. All right, welcome to the Tuesday edition of Fantasy Baseball today. It is April 23rd, and I am back, and I missed you guys. Not Scott or Heath or Chris.

Not you guys. I miss the listeners. I'm happy to be back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You missed a busy show, Adam. You missed a busy show. And I can't help but wonder. Because, you know, Adam's job, people think Adam's job is to come here and sound nice. But, you know, that's a small part of it. It's actually putting together the show notes where Adam really does the grunt work. You know, if Adam's job is to sound nice, he is failing so far in this episode. saying that he doesn't miss us after being away for several days. I'm personally offended, taken aback, by your lack of civility. I apologize. It's sad.

It's just sad. You know what? I think you can regulate me, but we have the regulators coming up today. That's why I'm so excited to be back. I'm going to get to play the Welcome Back Kotter theme song. I can play it for me right now. Welcome back to me. Yeah.

And we'll talk about everything that happened on money that you need to know about. You know, somebody said we need to have a drop of Chris going, You're in the show. And I will try to buy that and edit that and get a drop out of that. Did you do my request for a drop? I know we're talking about the stallions today. No. You're a monster. You're a bad one.

Okay. So let's start with Monday standouts. Scott White, it's your turn to nominate a player. Okay, Monday standouts. And I'm got to admit I'm flying a little blind this show because I left my notes for it in the office last night. So I'm going to say just the fact that Hunter Dozier homered again for the second straight day, he has, he's not slowing down. and he has a great walk rate, a great strikeout rate, a great fly ball rate.

It's getting harder to ignore him. He did leave the game with like a minor back issue, but that issue was known heading into the game. And obviously he's still homeburned, so I'm not really sure that's anything to worry about. I'm getting very interested in him. Okay, so why don't we transition to a segment that I had as I did the grunt work and put together the show notes? And it's called These Guys Again? I didn't put a question mark at the end of it, so I guess it's just these guys again with an exclamation point.

And Hunter Dozier's one of them. And so is his teammate Alex Gordon. And so is a guy he faced yesterday who homered in Yandi Diaz. And so is Jorge Polanco, who went four for five with a home run and a double, and he's a top ten shortstop, fifth and points, tenth in Roto. And so is Christian Walker, who we were just talking about off the air, actually, is Christian Walker does almost all of his damage in the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings. I don't know if he's had any extra innings, heroics.

But look at these guys. We keep talking about them and they stay relevant. Polanco, Alex Gordon, Hunter Dozier, Yandy Diaz, Christian Walker. Dozier is actually the lowest owned of this group of five at 64%. But when you look at them, who looks to you like someone who's going to be on your roster all year long? Diaz is number one. Diaz, I have very few doubts about at this point. He's basically must start in my mind.

great plate discipline and just a slight improvement in his launch angle has led to a power outburst here as was planned as was the reason that rays acquired him in the first place so i'm very excited about him uh the others i all have some interest in like i don't think i'd be letting them go unowned except in a really shallow situation with the exception of maybe alix gordon who Keith and I talked about yesterday. I just can't figure out what's different for him. I may miss the boat because of it.

I love guys with great plate discipline, and he's exhibited that so far. But I'm 35-year-olds and no underlying changes that I can detect. I don't get it. Yeah, Alex Gordon's on-base percentage is 392 this year, as you will see if you are watching our video. You can find

our video on our website, by the way, or if you go to YouTube and look at the CBS Sports channel on YouTube, you can find our show on there as well. We have video on demand. We have clips on the website. You know, ways to watch it. But his OBP is 392. Alex Gordon's slugging percentage, slugging percentage.

His previous three seasons, he did not get to 392, 380, 315, and 370. So that's, yeah, I agree. That's the one I was going to say. In fact, exactly what Scott said. Like, I don't understand how Yandy Diaz is not more than 69% owned. he's got 15 walks of 16 strikeouts and six homers he's just been great and then Gordon would probably be the one I wouldn't be buying into but then Chris why don't you give your takes on Jorge Polanco

Hunter Dozier and Christian Walker who are Polanco's 82% owned Dozier 64% and Christian Walker 70% owned I was all ready to just dismiss Christian Walker He had to get six games to start the season and then was like two for his next 28 and I was all ready to say good. He had a good week, but that's it. This guy is not for real. And then he's been red hot for like eight or nine games at this point.

I don't necessarily buy it entirely, but it's not out of the question that he could be this year's Hazer's Hagelar. Hazer's Aguilar is not this year's Hazer's Hagelar so far. There is an interesting note that Scott brought up before the show that he has hit all of his home runs in the seventh, eighth or ninth. Innings, he has a 2329 OPS in those three innings and a below 580 OPS in the first six. I don't know what that means, but it's interesting. He's clutch. I don't know if it's relevant. He hasn't done anything really against starting pitchers.

He has no home runs, two doubles. He's hitting 146. Maybe that's because starting pitchers are on the whole a little better than relievers. I don't know. No, that's not... It seems kind of random. He's clutch. That's what it means.

I mean, obviously, he rises to the vacation. My biggest concern about Walker is the strikeout rate's 30%. So, like, his bat-hip right now is approaching 4.50. So I'm not sure how that's going to play out, but the power seems legit. I mean, he was his last two years in the minors, I think he hit about 60 home runs between them. So he can definitely hit for power. For what it's worth, Pete Alonzo has sort of been like Christian Walker in producing mostly late in the game. He has one home run in the first three innings, one home run innings four through six.

And I guess I would just say he has one home run in the first five innings of the game. And then innings seven through nine, he has an 1811 OPS. But he does have it. He has hit well in the first three innings Alonzo and like Walker. He just doesn't have the home runs. All right. And then Polanco, yeah, I mean, he profiles, I think, more as a points league guy,

hits a lot of doubles and triples. But right now, he's got four home runs, and just off to a great start, batting 392. I see a reason to own Polanco right now. 82% own. You could start him. And the other one was, who? Hunter Dozier.

Hunter Dozier. We talked about him. Okay, great. Wonderful. Chris, who stood out to you in Monday's games? Joe Musgrove continues to be very impressive early on this. season. He actually had his worst start of the season, and that was three earned runs in six innings with two walks and five strikeouts, which tells you how good he's been. He's getting a ton of

swinging strikes. He's using his slider more often. That's the pitch that he's been throwing more, and the results so far have been spectacular. This was not a guy that I expected to be a high strikeout guy, and he's, I think, below one per inning for the season. But, But good control, has done a good job limiting hard contact. I'm very impressed with what we've seen from Joe Musgrove so far. Joe Musgrove, yeah, he's just under a strikeout per inning, but he has a 159 ERA, six walks to 26 strikeouts and a 0.85 whip. His first 14 starts of last season, he had a 331 ERA,

and then Musgrove kind of fell apart with a 635 ERA, even though the strikeouts went up in the final five starts of the season. But adding a slider would certainly help. So Musgroves off to a great start. My standout was Stephen Mats, and I confess I sat Stephen Mats. He is 78% O. And I sat him in a two-star week in a Roto League. I was worried he was going to have two stinkers.

He's got Milwaukee coming up this weekend. And he faced Philadelphia last night. The last time he faced Philadelphia was last week. And he gave up six runs without recording it out. He had a historically terrible start. So that, though, is Matt's only start allowing more than tour runs. and I think you look at his pedigree and his career, and Stephen Matt's is someone where I sit there and I ask,

is he good? I really don't know. What do you think about Stephen Matt's? Again, 78% of it. He is available in some leagues. Well, Chris was pointing out, and you could certainly, if you saw some of the video from this game,

the Phillies were taking exception to the strike zone last night. Can't help but think Matt's probably benefited from that. I'm kind of with you, Adam. He finished last year really strong. He's had a couple eight strikeout games this year. But he's not getting a lot of swings and misses. And like we saw last time out, when things go wrong, they can go really wrong.

So he's like I feel like he's right on the fringes of a roster spot for me. and obviously after a start like this I'm more inclined to add him but we know he's not having a two start week again for a while so it doesn't seem like a huge priority yeah he he got away with a lot of let's call them borderline called strikes and uh I don't know I I'm skeptical of relying on pitchers who have to rely quite that heavily on call

strikes. His swinging strike rate is not very good overall, 9.8%. So I think he can be like an average pitcher with an ERA in the 4 range. And that's useful. That's not going to hurt you, but it's not a priority for sure. Yeah. It's just frustrating with Matt's because at least you'd like to know when to start him and when to sit him, but you leave him on your bench, maybe 55% started. So obviously a lot of people weren't comfortable and I get it. It's just kind of a frustrating thing with fantasy. There's not much you can do about it. But some pitchers, you know, to start him in good matchups,

sit him in bad matchups. Mats, maybe we don't know. Maybe he's just going to be unpredictable. There are some pitchers that are like that. I won't overreact with this. It's just one star. But let's see how he does against the Brewers this weekend. Would you rather have Mottas?

I would rather have Montas. I'd rather have Mats. I'm not feeling the Montas thing. All right, let me get one more pitcher here that might be available. while waivers. Stephen Mattes is the only pitcher who throws harder than Max Fried. Oh, that's a big deal. Max Free.

Max Fried doesn't throw that hard. No, he's making fun of me. He's a young Randy Johnson. He does throw hard. Stephen Matt's or Kevin Gosman? Gosman. Yes, definitely Gosman. Very excited about Gosman.

We'll see how he does tonight. Okay, let's get to more of the show. Got a lot of injury news to get to. And we got a fun show today. Somebody picked up this guy in one of my leagues, and I want to know why. That's a segment that's coming up later. But right now I want to tell you about something here, listeners. Do you miss when sports networks covered just the news and the highlights without the yelling,

without the fake debates? I really do. I miss the good old days of sports coverage. If you miss that, too, you need to watch CBS Sports HQ. It's the free 24-hour sports network that's built for fans like you and me. You're going to find tons of highlights, analysis, and instant game reactions. Everything that matters about the game. No diving into politics.

Social issues are off-the-field topics like on the other sports networks. If you like listening to our show, you're going to love watching us on CBS Sports HQ. And this week, CBS Sports HQ is going to Nashville for the NFL draft. And for all three days, CBS Sports HQ is going to be in Music City with extensive draft coverage and even a few surprises. They're going to have their full NFL crew there providing analysis grades, fantasy implications. for every pick over all seven rounds. And it's all going to be live beginning on Thursday night with Friday night and all day Saturday as well. I'm talking Pete Prisco, Danny Cannell, Brady Quinn, Jason Lock and Four, Ryan Wilson, Brian McFadden, Jamie Eisenberg, and more.

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I'm glad it's free because, man, they just raise Netflix. We're starting to get to the point where, like, I'm not sure there's enough on Netflix to justify. Well, they're losing stuff, right? Come on. I'm serious. I find something on Netflix. I watch it in like three days, and then I'm just dormant for the rest of the month,

basically. There's so much out there. Hey, here's your stand in the day. There's been too many streaming services. It could be. You're going to have to cut cable. just to afford all the streaming services. He might be right, folks.

That's why HQ's great. It's free. But the CBS one. Top notch. Yes, exactly. All access. All right, stat of the day. This started out as a Glabre Torres stat

morphed into a Baltimore stack. Labor Torres has 20 hits this season. 12 of them came in six games against Baltimore. Jerks and ProFar has 15 hits this season and two home runs. Five of his 15 hits and both of his home runs were at Baltimore. Baltimore has the worst. ERA and baseball at 637. Boston is second worst at 562. That is a huge gap between 29 and 30 in ERA, Baltimore being the worst. Baltimore is allowed 59 home runs. That leads baseball. Milwaukee is

second. They've allowed 43 home runs. It is unfathomable. I believe Baltimore has already set the record for most home runs allowed by May 1st. They did that on like April 20th. It is worth noting that they're the worst ever. Yes, but also the ball is super duper juiced. Like way more than it even had been in 2017. It's ridiculous. They started using the major league ball at AAA, I think in the international league only. And home runs are up 50% so far from this point last season.

I think right now the home runs per nine for the league, for the major leagues as a whole, would be the highest ever. And that's in April when home runs tend to be lower. than the rest of the season. We could be seeing not just, because last year it seemed to go back a little bit, we could be seeing home runs at a higher rate this year than 2017 even or 2016 when things were really ridiculous.

Yeah, I'm not sure, because there hasn't been any reports of them changing the ball. I have noticed that... There never are. Well, I have noticed that fly ball rate is up more significantly than home run to fly ball rate is up. And I just wonder if it's a combination of, yes, now we have the juge ball from a few years ago, and the fly ball revolution is having an effect.

At Baltimore. On top of that. The Orioles are contributing to this. But I guess if I could bring this back and make it about Glaver Torres, he's now number 21 in points, number 20 in Roto at second base. And got off to a great start. First week of the season looked like, ooh, man, maybe he's, you know, second year breakout, even though he had obviously a great rookie season. But now his last 13 games, Glaver Torres is batting 143 with one walk to 17 strikeouts.

We just talked about Christian Walker earlier in the show. He's a cautionary tale not to make too much of streaks. But it is a little concerning. I think that Torres has done basically nothing against anybody not named Baltimore. And we were calling him a bus at the start of the season. Do you think Glaber Torres is dropable for any of the guys that we've talked about, like a Hunter Dozier or Andy Diaz? Brandon Lau we haven't talked about

but he's in that group too or do you want to stick it out? You have a player with less potential than Glaber Torres to drop. Okay. Probably. I mean, we're talking a shallow league scenario if we're looking at those guys anyway.

Chris, what kind of league? I think, I... Shallow. Shallow. Who needs a drop? We've got it on demand. Yeah, sorry, Scott. Go ahead.

I think the only player you mentioned who plays either of Torres's positions was Lowe, right? Yeah, yeah. I didn't mention Polanco this time, but yeah, he's there. Yeah, I mean, Palanco's more than 80% own. But, I mean, we probably have people listening from other sites where these guys are, these guys might be more available. Yeah, I, it gets back to for me, like, if you are in a league, so shall, that guys like

Lao and certainly Polanco are available, then what are you really losing by giving up Torres? Is that how you feel? You're not potentially losing a breakout campus player? Yeah, you're potentially losing a 3015 guy.

Right, but... Are you that confident somebody's going to pick him up? I think so, yes. That's a big name. I think someone would jump on him, yes. It's not that big. It's only like, 12 letters. I'm not sure.

I'm glad I haven't faced that decision, but sometimes, I am often surprised in my shallow leagues who doesn't get picked up when I drop them. So I tend to feel like I'm not as aggressive as I should be sometime. Here's one more thing about the juice ball. What would you guys say as a good hard hit rate?

38%. Scott Just throw a number out there I don't know Between 35 and 40 The league average hard hit rate this season is 37.6% Five years ago it was 28.8%. Wow

So even like a 39% hard hit rate That's just okay now It's ridiculous what's happening And with baseball so far Well, Rob Bantford's going to be very happy about the home run trend. Okay, it's time to play some music. Three players coming back either yesterday or hopefully today. We say to Daniel Murphy could return today.

To Gregory Polanco, who batted third for the pirates, went two for four with a run, a walk, and a double. And we kind of begrudgingly say it to Todd Frazier. Kind of not. We're just hoping that he doesn't mess with Jeff McNeil, who did that second yesterday, but he also played second because Robinson Cano is out, and McNeil was hit by a pitch on the hand. He should be fine.

All right, so Polanco we're going to get to in a bit. I got some rankings with Gregory Polanco. And he is, by the way, only 76% owned. So take a look. Yesterday I looked to make sure Polanco was owned in all my leagues, and he is. But Daniel Murphy and Todd Frazier, could they screw up playing time for Ryan McMahon and Jeff McNeil respectively? I think the Mets situation is more going to be J.D. Davis.

Because you remember the initial plan was McNeil and left, Jed Lowry at third base. And Davis has really been the beneficiary of Frazier's absence. McNeil has mostly been playing left field recently, obviously got the start at second. So I'm not so worried about him. But J.D. Davis could be a loss. I noticed he was, he ranked high in ex-Woba. I was looking at the ex-Woba leaders yesterday. So our stat cast really likes what Davis has been doing.

But, you know, eventually Lowry's going to be back and it's going to, Davis would have probably been gone anyway. For the Rockies, Garrett Hampson has been so bad. He hasn't done any of the things we thought he'd do well. Well, he hasn't done really. anything well. So I don't imagine McMahon's going to be the one impacted here. Okay. Thank you very much. We're going to take a quick break on fantasy baseball today when we come back. Regulators, news and notes, fun stuff, and ranking relevant players. We always got to do that.

We'll be right back on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back, everybody. I have a quick Easter confession. Actually, I'll do it after the news and notes. Let's do the news and notes real quick here. Jacob de Grom is scheduled to start on Friday. Vladimir Guerrero could be up very soon. I'm just going to blow through these here. Nate Avaldi is out four to six weeks after elbow surgery. Kyle Freeland is on the IL with a blister, and Tyler Anderson came off the IL. The Yankees released Geo Gonzalez.

If you're in an NL-only league, he's been linked to some National League teams, so maybe Geo Gonzalez, not that he's so good, but could become a starter soon. Routen Editor could be back this weekend. Gene Segura expected back this weekend. mentioned that Kanoe sat with a hand injury. Anthony Rendon also sat. He was hit by a pitch on the elbow on Sunday.

Michael Waka's on the unlawful. IL with a knee injury, he is expected to miss just one start. Austin Meadows is on the DL, as we know, but he could return in a couple of weeks, so it might not be a long-term thing for Austin Meadows. I hope you didn't, well, if you saw the video of Pittsburgh relief pitcher, Nick Birdie crumpling down on the mound with an arm injury, it was tough, it was sad, and hopefully he's okay, but it could be a long-term injury for him. Mani Benuelos, you saw maybe yesterday, he pitched pretty well for the White Sox.

At Baltimore, that was a spot start. He should be headed back to a long relief role. Elvis Andrews was hit by a pitch. He left the game. X-rays were negative for Andrews. Hunter Dozier day-to-day with back spasms. The Orioles, this is another reason why their pitching staff has been so bad. They've used a position player to pitch already three times this season.

Wow. Lucas Gialito could be back shortly. Danny Duffy is going to start on Friday for Kansas City. Does anybody have any interest in Danny Duffy? Nope. No. And Eloy Jimenez is going to miss three games, including last night. So two more.

He is on the bereavement list. Somebody picked this guy up in one of my leagues, and I want to know why. A new segment here on Fantasy Baseball today. My favorite out in John's song. Somebody picked this guy up in one of my league. Cleveland Minor League outfielder Oscar Mercado. Mercado. He's 24 years old.

He runs. He steals a lot. And he's batting 324. He is finally hitting well. Career 673 OPS in the minor. but 203 steals and 6010 games. Do we see Oscar Mercado being called up by the Indians? Did somebody know something that I didn't know?

I haven't seen anything. But there's a chance he could be what we hoped Greg Allen would be for the Indians. Greg Allen has been maybe the worst player in baseball so far this season. So maybe he gets a chance and maybe he can be a steel specialist. But no, he's not someone that I think you need to go out. pick up right now. I think he made headlines this spring and almost forced his way onto the roster with the performance and maybe it's just speculating.

Is it a deep league? It's our 12-team Roto League. Pretty deep. 12-team Roto? Yeah, it's our Memorial Magazine League. Not a lot on waivers there. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. But a bad outfield. Oscar Mercado. Let's rank some relevant players. I haven't forgotten about my Easter confession, but you want to talk fantasy baseball. Ranked these three. Clint Frazier, Gregory Polanco, and Ryan McMahon. Good choice. Thank you. Relevant players. McMan Polanco, Frazier. I think that's right. I might go Polanco over McMahon, but I have concerns about whether he's going to be able to hit for power.

What did you guys say about, I apologize for not listening, what did you say about Clint Frazier on yesterday's show? Generally excited. I mean, obviously, his job securities is, way up now and he had a three homer week. He's making a lot more contact than we've seen from him in the majors in the past. It does look like a breakthrough. Now that he's gotten an opportunity to break through, I just wonder if the upside is quite the same as for these others too, since it's, you know, he doesn't get on base a lot.

It's obviously not going to run much, I wouldn't think. So, you know, it's ranking. Breaking him third is not necessarily a reflection of me feeling, you know, not feeling great about. If Gregory Polanco wasn't coming off serious shoulder surgery, I would really be super excited about a breakout. You know, last year, last year he hit 23 homers, he stole 12 bases. He's got like a... That was in 130 games. Right, in 130 games.

And he hit the ball harder and he hit more fly balls. It's a great combination for a breakout. And look, maybe Matt Chapman showed us that you could be worried about off-season surgery, and sometimes it doesn't matter. But we know, like Chris said, there's some concern about him playing or hitting for power. I think we can all agree. Well, I think we can all agree, right? Polanco should be owned in 12-team leagues.

And there have to be some 12-team leagues where he's not owned. But what about a 10-team lead? Do you think Polanco is a must-own there? Not necessarily. I play in one 10-team league, but it's 25-man rosters. and I happen to own him, but he is one of the last, one of the bottom two or three players on my roster. So if he doesn't get off to a hot start and I need an extra pitcher some week, I could see dropping him. All right, let's rank these relevant players.

Let's rank some stallions. Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards. I was going to put Rocky Balboa because he's the Italian stallion, but then I realized it wasn't a very funny joke. So I went with Rick Porcelo instead. Caleb Smith, Trevor Richards, and Rick Porcelo. How would you rank him? Smith, Richards, Porcelo. Yep.

Play the song, Adam. I don't have this song. Richards 59% own. He's 0.3. He's 0 and 3. 4 quality starts and 5 starts. Smith is 2 and 0, which is great. Porcelo, like, he's basically just been a little while,

but that's going to improve. This is his first season with more than 2.3 walks per 9 since his rookie season, 2009. I think he's going to be better than Trevor Richards. Take that. I mean, there's certainly a chance. He'll have a higher ERA, but I think the other stuff will be better. It's about pursuing upside for me this early in the season, especially since Trevor Richards is, the win-loss record, he's off to a good start.

doing what we well I mean the walks have been kind of high too but there have been enough encouraging signs for me not to give up on that upside yet but I would I would say just because of the innings and the wins potential the probability of Porcelo finishing ahead of him is pretty high

I just don't want to miss out on the next big thing you know okay and Porcelo is kind of like that Adam Jones type of player from a few years ago where yeah he might finish in the top 30 at starting pitcher. But is he ever actually a top 30 starting pitcher? Or is it just like that's where he ends up. But at no point during the season, would you actually consider him like a must-start guy?

Sure. Which is what Porcelo was last year. All right. Jack Flaherty, Clayton Kershaw, Jose Burrios. Flaherty pitched very well last night. Clayton Kershaw pitched great on my bench on Sunday. And Jose Burrios is just having a really good year. So Flaherty, Kershaw, Berrios, rank him, Scott.

then Chris. I will go Kershaw, Flaherty, Berrios. Ooh. Chris. I'm surprised. Chris, how about you? I was hoping you wouldn't come to me.

Yeah, why? It's tough. I'll go, it's really tough. Yeah, I think they all bring different things to the table. I think I would probably go Kershaw, Berrios, Flaherty, but I don't think there's a big deal. difference between them.

Man, I'm surprised. I really thought it was going to be Flaherty first. This is like the 20 to 25 range of my rankings, so it is really close. And it's, you know, a lot of it is

my nothing significant enough has happened for any of these three to shake my preseason opinion of them. So I'm kind of holding to that. I think the most significant thing that's happened is Kershaw's

come back and look great. Pitched deep into game into both starts. You know, the strikeout rate is looking like it was last year, which, you know, it was a very good year, not a Kershaw like year, but we're not talking about him in terms of number one overall anymore. We're talking about him in terms of top 20.

I think he's definitely that. Okay. Last one. Rank these relevant players. Max Fried. Joe Musk, Joe Musk, and I'm gonna, oh, I have the drop. And Tyler Skaggs. Freed, Musgrove Skaggs. I will rank them,

I'll rank the Musgrove, Freed and Skagg. Musgrove Skaggs, Freed. Okay. How are we feeling about Max? I thought you were going to do the drop. Yeah, I did, but my iPad is muted. I'm going to Tiger Skagg. There we go.

Max Fried, 138, R.A. I'm going to need some more strikeouts out of you, but he does get a lot of ground balls. I'm going to try to sell Max Fried at this point. I don't know who's by. Like, I like him. You could start him, but let's see if I can turn him into something by Lowy. I mean, if nothing else, before you even get to the strikeout issue, he had like 110 innings last year. So eventually, eventually he's going to have to be phased out or limited in some way.

That's far enough down the road where personally I don't really care since I just pick them up off waivers, you know? Like I'll just take what I could get at this. I'll just take any production he gives. Sure. But in terms of selling, like if you can sell high on him and get something, you know, something better. Right. And he is pretty much a two pitch pitcher. And maybe if he threw his curveball more and was able to get more swinging strikes, I might be able to buy into him.

but he's a 60% basketball guy. He has a 439 Sierra so far, a 406 for his career. There's definitely potential, but I think the most likely outcome is that he's kind of just a guy. Okay, well, I feel like this is a win for me

with Max Fried. Because if you pick them up when I fell in love with him, you got some good productions. He might have helped you win a couple of weeks. You're welcome, everybody. Now we're going to take a break. When we come back,

we are going to regulate on fantasy baseball today. All right, here we go. We haven't done some fantasy regulating in a long time, so it begins. Adam from San Diego. Dear regulators, is it okay to kick someone out of a league for being a jerk?

My friends and I have been in a league for eight years. A friend of a friend joined three years ago, and a friend of a friend joined three years ago, and since then, he has been nothing but trouble. He goes on vicious tirades and personally attacks others in the league. And when a commissioner's decision doesn't go his way, he always puts up a big stink. My friends have asked me to remove him from the league on many occasions, reporting that he sucks the fun out of the league. Most recently, he posted a derogatory team name and an obscene avatar.

When I asked him to change it, he initially refused, then changed the name to an equally offensive one in Spanish, before ultimately complying a few hours later. That was the last straw. I kicked him out and gave his team to someone else. Was I right in kicking him out of the league or was I too harsh? It's, yeah, I've kicked jerks out of leagues before. I think if you're the commissioner, you can kick a person out of the league for whatever reason you want. Now, if other people in your league think you're being unfair about it or don't agree with it,

then you run the risk of losing them. But I don't think that would be the issue in this case. It's absolutely within your right to do that. Yeah, in one of my home leagues, we had to kick a guy out because he, I think he refused to pay until the debt, like, until after the deadline and was like being a real jerk about it and like flaunting that he hadn't paid. And again, it was a situation where it was a friend of a friend. The thing you have to keep in mind is, is it is the relationship that you have with this person worth putting stress on in order to kick them out of a league? In the case of a friend of a friend, get him out of there. Yeah, see you later.

All right, that you have been regulated, bro. This is from Derek. This is a funny one. Dear Ernie and Lou, my league is mostly diehard Cardinals fans. A few years ago, we started a no-cubs rule. It is exactly what it sounds like. Cubs players are not allowed. That sounds petty to you, but we really had a problem where,

where Cubs were being undervalued because nobody wanted to have conflicted loyalties that come with having a dirty cub on your roster. Rather than rewarding owners who played with their head instead of their heart, we eliminated the problem by eliminating the Cubs. Despite many requests, the website still doesn't have a no-cubs option, so we have to enforce this rule ourselves. This isn't rocket science, of course, but last week, one of four more casual owners picked up Cole Hamels, not realizing that this otherwise high-quality individual is actually

a disgusting cubs. these days. This was caught immediately and mercilessly mocked so no harm was done. However, there needs to be a penalty for this individual beyond just losing one of his 30 ads. Fantasy regulators, what should the penalty be for this closet Cubs fan? FYI, this rule includes a player who is acquired by the Cubs midseason. He is immediately ineligible and must be dropped. I'm so funny.

You got to make this guy. You have to make this guy wear a Cubs jersey or something in the most. ball you know go i i do want to point out to a car to cbys on the cbs commissioner product you can choose to exclude a team really no kidding wow perfect might be worth that sign up fee uh yeah i didn't know that um derrick i've never played in a no cubs league maximum derrick i mean if you're if you have a like serious answers if you have a limit of 30 transactions all year very low-nob number. That seems like punishment enough to me, but I don't know. He's such a dirty cub that I guess maybe you have to come up with something worse. All right. That is a funny one. Thank you,

Derek, for that. One more here. Let's regulate. This is from another Derek. Derek McIntyre from New Brunswick, Canada. Not to be confused with Derek from probably St. Louis. Okay, my wife and I operate two teams in the same league, and we each try very hard to win. But a lot of information and strategy gets shared in our house. We generally know who the other is adding, what their fab bids are, their auction strategies, etc. Is that bad for the league in any way? There's no collusion.

And both me and my wife really want to win. No, I'm in a football league with my wife and I help her with her waiver wire ads. And I don't think it's a problem. You know, Scott and I yesterday were talking about. our teams in the Dynasty League and we were talking some strategy I don't think there's anything wrong with that okay yeah

I think as long as you don't make any bad trades together you know as long as you know it's done in good faith they're both honestly trying to win which it sounds like it is I mean I think it's fine what are you listening to I'm listening to the regulators you don't hear it

no really yeah no I don't hear it you should hear it otherwise it just looks like I'm dancing to nothing Oh, there it is. Okay. Okay. Bye.

All right, thank you for your regulators, submissions, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Easter confession. So I had a nice, happy little Easter on Sunday. It was beautiful. I'm going to say something.

I feel sick about it. I think you all know where I'm going with this. Oh, you had a peep? I think I like peeps. I think they're okay. Oh, God.

Oh, this is cute. Question, though. Question before you get too excited. I had a piece. pink one. They were like the birds, I think, or the bunny. I think they were the birds. No, no, they were the bunnies. Do those taste differently than the yellow

birds? They all taste the same. That I think I like Peeps. They're like fruit loops at them. I think I'm in. It's a sugar-covered marshmallow. Why wouldn't you like peeps? It's a good question. So bad. That's what I thought. That's what I thought, but maybe we need to try it again. Try the pink ones.

You know when you know when marshmallows are good? In small, and no other time. Oh, come on. Hot chocolate? That's ridiculous. Hot chocolate, Chris? I'm just going to just like marshmallow.

If you don't like marshmallows, of course, you want to like peeps. But I think most people like marks. I think Adam was swayed by the Twitter mob. And so many people are on peeps. And they just need faithfulity. No, Adam's just not, he's not a man of conviction. Oh, yeah. He's a coward.

And a turncoat. Benedict Adam Caused him to Coutile to the Twitter mob And He got some He's easily swayed He knows

Yeah They're gross That's what I thought Chris But you know what My eyes have been open All right Let's time for some

Underrated storylines Tell me what you think about this Adam Eaton He's doing Not much But he is stealing bases He has four steals His career high is 18

So it's not that many But four steals In 20 games He is obviously on a career pace. Atab Eaton, he is batting 314 and slugging 395. Second straight year with absolutely no power, but at least he's running. Mike El Franco, he had been batting eighth all year. He's batted fifth in two straight games and he's still a top 10 third baseman with 18 walks, sorry, 13 walks to seven strikeouts. Trevor Bauer, man, they are riding Trevor Bauer. He has thrown

108 or more pitches in every start, 112 or more in four straight starts. And he, look, last year he threw, I don't know if he had one start of less than 100 pitches when he was healthy before the injury. He averaged 108 pitches per game, Trevor Bauer, and his first 25 starts. But that's been his low this year. So, you know, relax Terry Frankona. Mitch Hanigar's plate discipline has been terrible. He's a top 10 outfielder, top five in Roto, but

kind of strange. Six walks of 32 strikeouts for Hanigar. And Brian Dozer is homered in three of his last four games. Two at Miami, one at Colorado. He still has just 12 hits this year. So I said a lot there. We can go through it one by one, I guess, and give a quick take. Chris, give me your quick take on Adam Eaton and his, he seems to maybe have morphed from a points league guy to a roto league guy because he's a batting average and steals guy now. Thoughts on Eaton? I wouldn't expect much more than about 15 to 18 steals from Adam Eaton either way here, but it's mostly nice to just see that he's able to run. I think that's kind of the big

thing with Adam Eaton is he's not hurt right now. And when he's not hurt, he's a pretty good player. And he has 15 runs in 20 games, so that is nice for Adam Eaton. Scott, Michael Franco, batting fifth in the order now for each of the last two games. I don't know if that has anything to do with Seguera and Kingery. I don't think it should. But there you go with Michael Franco. Yeah, I mean, that would obviously help the situation for him trying to, and maybe more about Oduble Herrera who's been out with the hamstring injury. But I don't know that. I don't know why Herrera deserves to bat higher in the lineup than Franco does.

I feel like they're, you know, they have similar shortcomings, similar strengths. So we'll see if this, I mean, if Franco stays sought and I don't know why they want to keep him there. Chris Trevor Bauer. I know he's a workhorse. I know he can handle it, but it's a lot of pitches so far for Trevor. Bauer. Yeah, I guess it's a little bit concerning, but I don't know. He's been durable.

He broke his leg, but that's not our fractured his leg, but that's not something that you can chalk up to throwing too many pitches. So we haven't seen injuries from- If he didn't throw that pitch, he never would have got him to the leg. Might comebacker. You know, Bauer average, before he got hurt, you know, he came back and had some short starts leading into the play. but he averaged 108 pitches in his 25 starts before the injury.

So he's a guy who throws a lot of pitches. Yeah, he kind of seems like a freak. Like he does that long toss from the foul line. Yes. During pregame. Like, he's built himself for this. I don't think he's any greater in injury risk than any other starting pitchers. Scott Mitch Haniguer's plate discipline has been terrible.

He's batting 262 with seven home runs and he has 10 doubles in a triple and 25 games. six walks, 32 strikeouts for Mitch Hanigar. It's unusual for him. Yeah, it is. It is. I'm not sure what to say about it beyond that at this point. I'd rather see him doing what I expect him to do because it makes him more predictable. If he continues to strike out at this rate, it's going to be a problem.

And if he doesn't walk like he did last year, it's also going to be a problem because that was a big part of his value. But in April, I'm not really ready to react to it in any way. And Chris, Brian Dozier, 73% owned. He's homered in three of his last four games. Again, one of those at Colorado. But if Dozier were available in any of your leagues, would you make sure you owned a 73% owned Brian Dozier? Sure.

Yeah, I mean, he has a 195 Babbap right now, and that explains most of the really low batting average. And it's 19 games. Weird things can happen in 19 games, and just because these are the first 19 games, doesn't mean that we need to just give up on Brian Dozier. So yeah, I would add him if he was available.

And weird things happen on Team Name Tuesday. It is Team Name Tuesday. Feel free to keep submitting them. Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Here we go. Tie the glass now. Funk Soul Brother. Very good.

That's good. I ain't no Vogel Bach Girl. Yeah. Big Buxton's... This is a tough one to say. Big Bucksons is no family. like big bucks no way

okay oh okay like big bucks yeah control altouva delete okay also that bad

I liked when Mike Alt was in the league and you could do control ultra delete but you you make use of what you have yeah it's good

control altuvie delete the sixth senzel yeah sure this one is inspired by Heath it's all caps. You're not my real

Vlad! Sure. Yes, that's from he's a very harsh fantasy regulation earlier in the year. Ketel, Wan, and Soto. I think we've had that before. Kent is it like, oh, but it's like

Ketal Marte. Yeah, it's good. Ketel Juan and Soto. Rosario Speedwagon. Excellent. Very good. This one's a little controversial. I'm not sure if I should say it.

so I probably should say it, right? It's just about tobacco. It's just about tobacco. I don't smoke, I chew. Smoke, chew. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's not that controversial.

Just a big wimp. Just don't do it, more from yesterday. EG rated. Yeah, don't ever do it. Don't eat Big League Chew either. It's just... Why?

Because it's basically kid dip. Big League Chew, it's evil. Chewing gum. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, Look at the guy on the front of the Big League Chew, he's dipping. The problem with Big League Chew is after you chew it for like 30 minutes, it just kind of dissolves and just like loses all of its chemical bonds. For how long? I never had Big League, so I don't know, but I could see that being a thing.

I used to like the candy cigarettes that they then renamed Dinosaur Bones. I used to think those were big good. But unlike peeps, I've outgrown this. Scott, what a bad influence you are. All right. Four-man rotation from yesterday, Jack Flaherty, Jake Arenda, Joe Musgrove, and Jayap. They all begin with the letter J. I just realized that. That's terrific. We have talked about Flaherty and we have talked about Musgrove. Heath called Flaherty a by-low before this start. He said, you know, his two bad starts have come against the Brewers.

And again, he gave up three home runs yesterday, but I think he had 10 strikeouts. So, look, five walks, 32 strikeouts. Controls been great. I think we probably like Flaherty a lot. If anybody sees that ERA and wants to sell, you know, bye. Hap only struck out five batters last night, but he had a good start, and the Angels have the fewest strikeouts in baseball right now, and I believe the fewest per game. And Arietta is also not a strikeout guy, but he did get him last night.

So how would you rank, I know Flaherty is one. How would you rank Arietta, Musgrove, and Hap? Musgrove is a distant one. And I would still put Hap ahead of Arietta because I feel like, So Haps made a change here. Haps made a change. I'm not sure whether to consider it good news or not. Obviously, things weren't going so well for him before the change. But this is something we've seen him do before.

It's basically featured the two-seamer more at the expense of the four-seamer. And at his best, he's leaned heavily on the four-seamer. That half-season in Pittsburgh where he was dominant and the past two years, he leaned heavily on the four-seamer. Those were among his best strikeout years. but he's been a quality pitch or two when he's been gone away from the strikeouts but I think obviously that that limits is upside in fantasy

so he's been better but in a way that limits is upside I don't know if it's going to continue he's gone back and forth with this so many times in his career but I think even if he sticks with the two seamer that kind of puts him in the same range as Jake Garrietta who we know isn't going to give you strikeouts anymore Yeah, there's

The other thing with Arietta Is his swing and strike rates down to 6.5% Which is Just terrible He doesn't seem to have much confidence In his slider cutter And it's been a bad pitch for him so far But it's his best swing and miss pitch

So there is some room for him to improve If he Finds the feel for that pit The guy on the cover of the big league chew bag. He's not dipping. I was wrong. He's not chewing.

But he is the most roided up guy I've ever seen. This is a really bad image for young kids who are chewing gum and playing baseball. Wow. Well, they put a woman or a girl. I don't know if they're a woman or a girl. They have a girl. They have a girl on it too. Yeah.

Yeah, she's cool. She's not roided up. She looks very classy. Should they be this owned? All of these players are like 99, 80. six and up. And they're two-star pitchers, so is that part of it? Should we hang on to them? Should they be must-own guys? Brad Keller, Mike Minor, and Brad Peacock. Brad Keller, Mike Minor, and Brad Peacock. Chris, should those three guys all be owned in more than 85% of leagues? Once it's not a two-star pitcher, Brad Keller doesn't need to be that owned. He is an RP, which helps.

So he probably deserves to be owned in points leagues, but I'm not sure he's going to do much to help you out in Roto. The other two I do think are worth owning. We've seen some really good stuff from Mike Minor. It's actually been a rough start for Brad Peacock. He's not getting the kind of strikeouts or the kind of swings and misses that we were hoping for so far. But that comes down mostly, I think, to him not using his slider as much.

He threw 40% of the time last year. He's down to 32%. So far this year, he's like trying he's throwing a change up a little bit his curveball a little bit more trying to be a little more varied when he's starting i think eventually they're going to figure out that the slider needs to be featured more and i think he's going to be fine okay yeah i've been a little disappointed obviously had high hopes for brad peacock he gave up three runs yesterday originally two of them were ruled as unearned runs and he probably should have been out of the inning in the first inning but like

Nelson Cruz beat out a grounder because I think it was Bregman botched it. But yeah, anyway, the runs were then given to him as earned runs. So five innings, three runs. Did not get a win. Did not get a quality start. And Fringy starting pitchers real quick. Scott White, Zach Godley is 76% owned. Jake Oteresey's 35% own.

Chris Bassett is 8% owned. And Bassett had a good start yesterday against the Texas Rangers. Godley, Odorezi, and Bassett, do you feel any need to own those guys? No, I really don't. No interest whatsoever. Perfect. Then let's read some emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com and finish the show. This is from Zach.

Hey, Gary, Sean, and Nate. I know them. Gary, Sean, and Nate. Yes. Seattle Supersonics. Ah. Seattle Super Sonicas. Yesterday on the show, you talked a lot about promising second baseman,

but you didn't really rank them. That's because I wasn't there. In a head-to-head category league, I have Brandon Lau, Raphael Devers, Jurexon Profar, and Hasus Aguilar. Should I drop any of them? Lau, Devers, Profar, and Aguilar. Should I drop any of them for Ryan McMahon or Nick Senzel? I'm fine dropping both ProFar and Aguilar for both of those guys, especially Senzal starting to play in minor league games, I think a couple days ago was his debut. So if you don't need them to start, and you're probably not getting enough from,

ProFar or Aguilar or frankly Devers To start them right now? Yeah, I think it's fine to drop them. Okay, I'd stop short of dropping any of them for Senzel. But the one I would drop for McMahon Is probably Devers. Over ProFar? Yeah, I mean, ProFar is eligible at every infield spot.

I want to see a little more from them. Okay. No name on this one, but do you like any of the? these streamers this week. Eric Swanson at San Diego, Jonathan Loisigua at the Angels, Luke Weaver at the Pirates, Merrill Kelly at the Pirates,

Mike Soroka, Mike Soroka at Cincinnati, and Vince Velasquez at the Mets. I like Weaver, Soroka, and Velasquez. Velasquez actually, we haven't talked about much, but he's off to a great start.

Yeah, I'm starting him this week. Yeah, I like him too. Okay, yeah, those are good options there. This is from Jordan. Polanco or Luke Voight in a points league? I'm going Polanco. Yeah, I still really like Luke Voight, but it's hard to fit him in a points league lineup.

It's easier to fit Polanco since you have more outfield spots. I think it's interesting that Void's 95% owned, so as in general, people haven't lost faith in him. He's got like a 33 game on base streak going back to last year. It's pretty surprising. Luke Boyd. I mean, his on-base percentage is higher than you'd expect, comparing it to his batting average.

He's walked a lot. He has walked a lot. I'm... You know, if you have... Give me a name, give me a name, we gotta go. If you don't have a crowded utility situation, I'd rather have Boyd, but otherwise, Polanco. All right, from Charlie, Jesse Winker or Gregory Polanco, rest of season,

12-team, 8-by-8 category league, four keepers. Winker or Polanco? Winker. Yeah, I guess. I guess. Okay, from Casey. I drop Brian Dozier for McMahon or Brandon Lau? I would not do that.

No. Wait, drop Dozier. Yes, I would drop him for either one. I would drop him for McMahon first. I would hope you have a worse player or a player with less upside. And finally, Robert Galvin from Florida, in California, says, While watching the Angels Yankees game last night,

I thought of a rule that I'd like to see Major League Baseball Incorporate. It has nothing to do with the playing of the game. I'm a lifelong Dodgers fan, but more importantly, I'm a baseball fan. The Yankees are the most iconic franchise in baseball. One of the iconic things about the Yankees is their pinstripes. So here's my idea. MLB should declare that the Yankees are the only team that can wear pinstripes. The history of teams, bad teams, that have worn pinstripes is ridiculous.

Pinstripes are synonymous with the Yankees, and this would be a great way to honor them and their contribution to baseball. The only other team that maybe could wear them is the Mets. Adam, if you don't know, look up why the Mets wear pinstripes. It's an interesting reason. What do you think about my proposed rule change? Thanks for reading my email. Love the show.

I think it's terrific. I'm all in favor of it. I like pinstripes. I want to go back to the way it was in the 90s where like two thirds of all teams had a pinstriped uniform. It was more fun. This is a ludicrous suggestion.

I don't mean to be rude to our good friend, Robert from Fullerton, but no. Like we already bend over backwards enough for that team. For the Yankees? Yeah, we, we all, they're on Sunday night baseball every week. We have to sit through these three and a half, four hour games with them. They're fine. The Yankees are doing fine.

We don't need to give the Yankees any more special treatment. They're worth like $9 billion. I don't know. No. They're not worth it. The Yankees should be banned from wearing pensions. I can't figure out. Robert, please email us.

And put some names on the back. of your jersey. Tell us, yeah, I support that. Tell us why the Mets wear pit stripes, because I cannot find it. And that is the end of today's wacky fun show. Peeps for everyone. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Baseball

today.