Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/26: Top 5 at Each Position; Ranking SPs; Week 6 Help (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 26, 2019

We start you off with our favorite two-start pitcher for Fantasy Week 6 before discussing Carter Kieboom's promotion (5:16), some SPs who are on their way back and yesterday's standouts (10:00) including the incredibly cold Justin Turner and the dominant Marco Gonzalez and Caleb Smith... Ranking SPs! First we rank three aces (18:30), then three near-aces (21:10), then an intriguing group that is not quite ace-level (24:24). How are we feeling about Aaron Nola? Zack Greinke? Masahiro Tanaka? ... Fantasy strategies that have worked so far (30:25), Most Added list (35:00), answering your questions (38:30), Top 5 at each position thus far (43:10), two-start pitchers (55:00) and weekend streamers (58:10) ... 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 your Kokomo Friday edition of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast. It is April 26th. It is Adam and Heath on the mic. Very excited for today's show. I don't know, man. I'm just, I'm really feeling it. I'm in a good mood. You know, I think Heath, I'm just very thankful to the MLB schedule makers.

They gave us an extremely uneventful day of only eight games because we were obviously watching the NFL draft. So that means we get to, you know, talk about some different stuff on today's show. We get to read some emails, fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. We get to give the top five at each position so far. We get to actually hear from Heath after my one minute long rambling intro. Hello, Heath. Hi, Adam. Hey.

You have a lot to say? That was a fantastic intro, one of the best you've ever had. Thank you. And I've been working on my outroes. They're pretty normal now. Yeah. I hadn't noticed. I just say, we'll see you tomorrow.

This is fantasy baseball today. I don't know what I say. It's just something. It's something consistent now, so I don't have to be terrible at that. Anyway, happy Friday, everybody. Heath, how is your night? Are you ready to talk about the draft on the football podcast? Oh, I'm very ready.

I enjoyed tweeting things at you whenever the Giants did things. That was fun. You're being a little hard on them. A little hard. Well, like, they picked someone that, like, not. number six that I did not think it was a top six quarterback. So that's bad. Yeah, yeah. It'd be hard on the rest. Okay. So baseball. Two-star pitchers. We're going to talk about that at the end of the show, but I gave you the task of picking the two-start pitcher who was

owned in less than 70% of leagues, the one that you would recommend. It is not easy. Yesterday, it was Mike Soroka, for me anyway. Now he's 73% owned, so he's not really in the discussion anymore, but take a look at Mike Soroka, 73% own, and has the Padre. and the Marlins next week. But if there was someone else that's somewhat widely available, can you recommend any two-star pitchers next week? No. No, we've had a really bad stretch.

And we talked about early in the year when we were looking at how bad some of these offenses are. And I think there was speculation, rightly, it seemed, that this might be a really good year for two-start streamers. And we've tried it a couple of times. over the last few weeks, and it's blown up almost every single time. And then you get to this week,

and there's not really a pitcher at less than 70% owned, that I think the closest for me might be Jake Junice. Yeah, it's bad. He's got Tampa Bay, and he's at Detroit. So at Detroit is a great matchup. It's tough. It's not a good week. Yeah, I don't think there are a lot of games on Monday.

or Thursday next week, particularly Monday, so I think it's a particularly light week for two-star pitchers. Now, let me open your mind to something here. I think we need to start considering one-start streamers more often because we saw this last year. They changed the MLB schedule. They extended the season a little bit. And it actually had, I think, a pretty fairly significant effect on two-star pitchers.

We just don't have as many as we used to because the games are more spread out. So I think you need to be more open-minded to, not you, Heath, but everyone needs to be more open-minded to one-start streamers. And can't really do that now. You sort of have to wait until the weekend, and we can talk about it on Monday. But it's just something to consider. You might want to take a look at one-star pitchers who have good match-ups. And there won't be that many two-star pitchers going against you next week. So, you know, it's a good week for one-start streamers.

Open your mind. Yeah. I don't know, like, I guess Yanni Chorinos is probably going to be a one-start streamer against the Royals. There you go. I don't know if it's going to be a good week for it or not, but it's been a rough season so far for picking which bad pitcher who's been pitching well lately is not going to blow up. Yeah. All right, well, let's not do that then. The NFL draft continues tonight and Saturday, and our coverage on CBS Sports HQ continues.

Download the CBS Sports app. You got it on your fire, on your Roku, on your Apple TV, wherever. You can watch it online as well. It's all free. It's 24-7. It's always streaming. It's great sports coverage. It's not just NFL draft.

There's obviously going to be fantasy talk on there. There's baseball. There's everything. It's old school sports coverage, and it's awesome. CBS Sports HQ, give it a shot. All right, news and notes. The Nationals are calling up Carter Keyboom. We talked about him yesterday.

He's 37% owned. in AAA he's batting 3.79 with three homers and 18 RBIs and 16 walks of 20 strikeouts. So very good numbers for Carter Keyboom. And is it short term? Is he a must add? You tell me, what do we do with this shortstop prospect for the nationals? And I didn't see any quotes. So this is just my speculation.

But I do believe this is short term. He is still, I mean, this is his age 21 season. He wasn't near this good in the minor leagues last. You had an 801 OPS split between AA and high A. So I think there's definitely some upside. There's definitely team name upside once he's ready. But I expect this to be a short-term situation. So you're not really rushing to pick him up because you know, you could still pick him up and just see what happens.

Right? I mean, yeah. I don't have like, and I'm sure some people do, but I don't have any teams where I'm like, man, I wish I could pick up a shortstop. Okay. but what if I don't think you'd be good enough to play as utility. Trey Turner comes back. Yeah.

I'm trying to think here. And they just bench Brian Dozier? Yes. That's possible. You know, and then in that scenario, Key Boom will pick up second base eligibility. Yeah, and you might, you might want to add him in a league

where you have a middle infielder and need some upside at that position. But I really expect it's going to be a short term. Okay. Ross Stripling is headed back to the bullpen when Rich Hill returns, which should be this weekend. So Hill is 85% owned. Stripling is 84% owned.

Should we make sure Hill is added in any league? He's mostly added, but still. And should we be dropping Ross Stripling? Yeah. I expect Ross Stripling's going to be back in the rotation in the next 40 days, probably. But there's certainly a league where you can't hold on to him. And Rich Hill is must add and pretty close to must start once he's...

I want to see him make one start and see that he's okay and then you just start him every time. Elvis Andrew returned Elvis Andrews, that guy, returned to the lineup and he went two for four at Seattle. Hashtag bye high, Heath. Buy high. Yeah, I don't. I don't think that's the case at all. Why? Why?

There's too many short stops and a lot of, it's been good badded ball luck so far. He might steal 25 bases. That would be exciting again. But I don't think he's going to. be better than like a top 10 shortstop, though. I think he's going to be... He's like a low-end starter. Glaver Torres, I was going to say.

I think he's going to be better than Claibor Torres. Maybe. Blabertores is not a top 12 shortstop for me right now. He's not a top 20 shortstop right now in terms of fantasy production. Let's see. Brandon Morrow can resume throwing in two weeks, but he still has a ways to go before he gets back. So pick up Pedro Strope. Miguel And Duhar could be back in a week.

That was a surprise. Yeah. What is that, you know, what do you think playing through a shoulder injury? You don't know how he's going to perform. Yeah, you don't, we don't generally like hitters playing through shoulder injuries, and that's after they've healed the prescribed amount of time. If he comes back early, I'm going to be very skeptical until we see him hit for some pop. And Duhar hit 2.97 with 27 home runs last year,

and he drove in 92 runs, and it was off to a 3-for-13 start before hurting him. his shoulder and he's still 89% oh and I thought he might get dropped him in more leagues than that. Bianke's acquired outfield or Cameron-Mabin that does not matter. Public service announcement, do not start U.S.A. Kikuchi today. He is going to pitch one, maybe two innings.

Tyler Skaggs is going to start today and I don't know if he want to start Tyler Skaggs, but I do think you want to add Tyler Skaggs. Why isn't it playing? I'm going to Tyler Skaggs. I guess I'll do it myself. I'm going to Tyler Skaggs. He's 64% out. I think that's too low, Heath.

for Skaggs. Yeah, I think that's a little bit too long. I'm not sure he should be 90% owned. But there's, like, even when, a lot of why we want him to be owned is because we think he's going to be better than he's been. There you go. That's right. Gene Segura expected back tomorrow.

Addison Russell is going to play some second base and some shortstop in the minors, but there's no timetable for his call up. As Drewa Cabrera left with Calf Tightness, Rudnet Odore is going to return today. Jay Bruce could be back this weekend. Jordan Zimmerman, left with an elbow issue, and Adam Jones has missed two games with a sore hand. All right, a lot of standouts from yesterday, but we'll probably go through it pretty quickly so we can read emails, preview next week, and look at the top five at each position. Kind of take a look at the landscape of fantasy baseball so far. All right, give me a standout.

It was your favorite starting pitcher, is that Grinky? Yeah. He was very good once again. And really, since the blowup on opening day, he's looked very much like Zach Grinky. Oh, he's looked better than Zach Gring. He's looked amazing. I don't think there's any reason to have any concern. He's got a 220 ERA.

He's 4-0, 5 walks, 36 strikeouts, and 4-Homers, and 32-and-2-thirds. That's Granky in the last five starts since that terrible start in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. I know I retweeted a stat from Al Malkiore. So let me just find it. It was about Zach Granky, and I think you might find it. Yes, he has a very high strikeout rate based on his swinging strike rate. A lot more strikeouts than you would expect for someone that gets the whiffs that he does. But that's also because Zat Grinky has always been a guy that pitches along the edges more than anyone else.

He's living on the edge. All right, so. He's halfway there. I really did not want Zach Granky, and now it looks like that was. A bad idea, but, you know, he's kind of old, and he struggled at the final two months of last season, so we'll see. But, yes, I mean, I can see. That guy's pitching great. Other standouts?

Luis Castillo had a really weird start, but in terms of fantasy production, it was another very good start. Did not allow a run, did not walk a batter, and the walks had been too high early in the year. But then, of course, you look at the stat line, and you see, also didn't really strike anybody out either, just six Ks or two Ks and six innings. So this isn't something. I've got Castillo just right on the cusp of jumping into that ace tier. This start was not enough to move them up into it. Two pitchers were just dazzling yesterday. Marco Gonzalez, seven scoreless with nine strikeouts,

Caleb Smith, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts, and 19 swinging strikes. Who would you rather have Marco Gonzalez or Caleb Smith? Caleb Smith, I think, may have jumped into my favorite stallion place in the rankings. And I had him about 10 spots ahead of Gonzalez. I don't really expect Marco Gonzalez to strike batterers out like this. And Smith's control has been better, and the strikeouts I have very little doubt about. So I'll go with Smith.

Smith's control has been better than Caleb Smith of last year, not than Marco Gonzalez, right? That's what you're making. Correct. Right. Marco Gonzalez, great control pitcher. Not a great strikeout pitcher despite yesterday. Nine walks, 34 strikeouts, and 45 innings, and a 1.20 whip. Yeah, he's probably going to have a somewhat higher whip than you'd expect for his ERA,

and he isn't going to kill out of guys, so I get it. But Marco Gonzalez is 5-0. We should give him some credit for that. We're going to rank pitchers. I think the easiest way to sum up yesterday's games is to just rank some pitchers. We're going to rank Castillo versus Granky versus Tyone. Marco Gonzalez versus Caleb Smith versus John Lester, three aces who may have gone back to back to back in drafts,

and they pitched last night. But two standouts I want to make sure we talk about before we get to that, Justin Turner. It's time to discuss Justin Turner. He's batting 250 with a 284 slugging percentage. Buy low or heck no on Justin Turner? I wouldn't mind buying really, really low. there are things that are a bit concerning.

He's striking out more than he has in the past. He's not lifting the ball. He's still hitting it very, very hard, though. And it's still early enough in the season, and I don't think he's just forgotten how to lift the ball. So I would buy very low. He's not currently a top 10 third baseman for me, though. Have you moved Michael Franco ahead of Justin Turner?

Oh, no, we haven't got that far yet. Okay. So who have you moved ahead? 25 spots apart at the beginning of the year, and now there are maybe 10 spots apart. Okay, can you know who you moved ahead of Justin Turner at third base? Matt Chapman? Matt Chapman, for sure.

Yoan Moncada? I think Mustakas is ahead of him. You've got them back to back right now, Turner 13, Mustakas 14. Yeah. What about Moncada? Yes. Yeah, see, I know the strikeouts are up in the groundball. But he is, Turner is hitting the ball really hard.

And he is still walking. 14 walks and 25 games. Career high, 51.4% hard contact rate. I have faith in him. I still, I always have trouble trading for guys that are going to get hurt. Because he's one of the most likely players to get hurt. But if you can get over that, like in a shallower league where it might not matter that much, you know, I think now is the time to get Justin Turner.

Not to say you're wrong about who you moved ahead of him in your rankings, but he's not this bad. He's still doing enough good things. I feel better about him than I do Travis Shaw. Okay. And Michael Chavis, one for four with a home run, he now has two homers and a double and a steal in two attempts in just six games. So we talked about maybe Key Boom's potential to just play second base instead of a bad second baseman, and Brian Dozier, if he is bad. Chavez has bad competition.

I mean, I know they're going to give pretty good. Droidia a chance, but I just don't have any faith in him. I do have some faith in Nunez, but it's, you know, it's kind of blind faith. And then Brockholz, nothing special. So Michael Chavez is 29% owned. And I am sorry, I keep forgetting to figure out how to pronounce his name if it's Chavis or Chavis, so I apologize for that. But I think he's off to a very nice start. Four walks of six strikeouts here.

I'm not sure we should be ignoring this. What do you think? Yeah, I don't think we should ignore it. I'm not really worried about the bat. I think he'll hit better than the other guys that you mentioned. I think he's the best hitter of the group. The question is whether he can play second base to a level that the Red Sox can accept. So far, I haven't seen Chavez play a lot, but he's not done anything embarrassing.

He hasn't committed any errors yet. He did turn a double play the other day. So it's kind of, I think it's just, if he can keep playing second base at just an adequate level, and there's not a lot of balls just out of his reach because of his limited range, then I think he's just going to stick. And let me just look up one thing here. He is a righty, which is good.

I think is there also the possibility, does he play third base? Could he play third? Yeah, he was originally at third base. So if they get fed up with Raphael Devers, who's starting to hit a little bit better, by the way, but maybe they could puttoon and sit Devers against lefties. They could do that,

But that's not really, like, it's not great for Chavez. He needs to be the everyday second base. No, he'd play a little second base. He'd play a little third base, you know. A little first base. Right, why not? Okay. Anybody can play first base.

So if you were going to stash Key Boom or Chavis, who would it be? I'd be Chavis. Okay. And I'm just going to say it the opposite way you'd say it every time. Let's cover our bases. I like that. All right, we're going to take a quick break on fantasy baseball today. When we come back, we are going to rank some starting pitch.

pitchers and take a look at the most added list and a lot more. Stick around. Ready for some rankings, Heath? Oh, yeah. I've been looking forward to this all morning. These three pitchers may have gone back to back to back in your drafts. They all pitched yesterday. Garrett Cole, Trevor Bauer, Aaron Nola, rank them.

I don't believe the order of these three has changed. Yeah, it has changed a little bit. I have Garrett Cole fourth overall at pitcher. I've got Trevor Bauer fifth. I have dropped Aaronola down to 11th. I'm not really worried about him being bad like he has been, but he's just not it's not there right now.

And it was a little bit surprising last year how good he was. And so he may just fall back into that barely an ace level just outside of the top 10 starting pitchers. I have no qualms about Garrett Cole. The Trevor Bauer walks thing is a little bit weird, but they're both going to be fantastic. Garrett Cole's strikeout rate is just outrageous.

54 strikeouts and 36 and a third. He's definitely better than that ERA. He's had one terrible start. He's got a 471 ERA, but five quality starts in six starts. He's gone seven innings or more twice in six starts, which is not a ton, but it's good because toward the end of last season, they were sort of limiting Garrett Cole's innings per start. You said you have Noah 11th.

Did you put him behind Kershaw? He has two spots behind Kershaw. So I think you might be a little bit aggressive with your Kershaw ranking. Yeah, I think I don't know where anybody else has. I know compared to Scott White, I'm definitely aggressive with my Kershaw ranking. I just feel like I've said this so many times that was not his last DL stint. I believe he will be back on the DL.L. Yeah.

I think that like if you make that bet about every pitcher in the top 15, that you'll be right more than you're wrong. Yeah, but Kershaw would be at the top of the list. He has an increased risk. Maybe he's 20% more likely to go on the DL. 20, at least 21. Oh, I said DL, didn't I? 21%.

I said D. I'm an IL. Thank you. Chavis. Have I thrown you off by interrupting you? I apologize. No, not at all. I was done. Okay, okay.

All right. Gabe Kapler said this about Aaron Nola yesterday. Really good sign for Nola, steps in the right direction, still not his best, still not his best curveball, but certainly moving in the right direction and looking more and more like himself. All right, rank him, part two.

Luis Castillo, Zach Granky, James and Tyone. And this is really about how high have you moved up Luis Castillo? Because I don't think Zach Grinke or James and Tion have moved in my rankings this season other than when I've moved someone else ahead of or behind them. Grinky is still firmly at the east. end of the ace tier. Tyone's still at the top of the almost aces.

And Castillo squeezed his way in between the two. I do think there's a possibility. I think there's more upside with Luis Castillo than there's the other two here. He's the one guy on this list. I could see being like a top seven or eight starting pitcher the rest of the way. And I don't really think Grinkier Tyone is going to. But they're all within a range of 10 starting pitchers. So I think that Tyone has.

done some stuff that could warrant a drop in the rankings. He has 25 strikeouts in 31 innings. He has a 406 ERA. He hasn't really dominated. And the last 14 starts of last season, Tyone had a 227 ERA, 86 strikeouts in 91 and a third. 12 of the 14 starts were quality starts, did not allow more than 300 runs in any of the 14 starts. He was really, really good. And he has not continued that. It's only five or six starts for him. So it's obviously early. Five starts, I believe. But I personally am disappointed in Tyone, and I'm wondering, is there a by-low opportunity, or was he overrated? Or is neither applicable here? You seem to just not have changed your mind. Yeah, I mean, I had him just like around 24th, I think,

a starting pitcher at the beginning of the year, 22nd, somewhere in that range. So that's not a guy that I really expected to dominate. So I haven't been that worried about what he's done so far. I think it's just well within the range of what's going to happen over five starts for a guy like him. There are some weird things that make me think he might be a little bit of a buy low, though, because the strikeout rate has really kind of collapsed. He's striking out 19.1% of hitters, which is considerably worse than it's been in the last couple of years. His swinging strike rate is a career high up to 12.5%. And last year, that was kind of what made the difference for him was he went from being an 8% guy to a 10%.

if he's a 12.5% swinging strike rate guy, I would expect a lot more strikeouts moving forward. And then you look at the peripherals, even with that strikeout rate, and his Phipps 3.11. Right. Sierra's not very good at 4.05, but that's kind of the range I expect from him.

I think he's going to be a mid-to-high 3 ZRA pitcher, and it's just going to depend on whether the strikeouts come back at all. Yeah. I was hoping for a lot more, a lot better than that from Tyone. And the swinging strike rate in the final 14 starts, and I think that's when he incorporated the slider last year. It wasn't just a random 14-start sample was 12%. So that's really good, and it's 12.5% now. So maybe we're on to something that maybe people aren't really down on James and Tyone.

You know, that's possible. But if somebody is, because the raw numbers don't look great, perhaps you've got an opportunity to get something there. All right, Rankum Part 3. There are five pitchers in this group, Heath. Marco Gonzalez, John Lester, Rick Porcelo, Caleb Smith, Masahiro Tanaka. Marco Gonzalez, John Lester, Rick Porcelo, Caleb Smith, and Masahiro Tanaka.

I will go Tanaka first, then Caleb Smith, then Marco Gonzalez, and Lester and Porcelo are left? Yes, you're going Tanaka, Caleb Smith, Gonzalez and then yes, Lester and Porcelo. Yeah, I think we're just going to leave both them there at the end together. I don't want to make a choice between the two of them. I mean, I think it's interesting to have Caleb Smith over John Lester.

Lester's having a really good start to the season. 237 ERA, 19 strikeouts, and 19 innings. Strikeout rate plummeted last year, but struck out a batter per nine two years ago with a bad ERA. He's weird. Oh, he's very, very weird. And he is a guy who has outperformed his peripherals significantly multiple times in the past. But right now he's got a 2-370 RA and a 4-11 FIP. I just don't know that I necessarily buy it.

Okay. I'll take Lester over Porcelo. All right, bullpen. By the way, PS, Masira Tanaka drives me absolutely crazy. He is just an example of a pitcher who has a terrible fastball. and what happens when his other stuff is not on. He goes out. Yeah, I mean, he blows a four-run lead at the Angels.

He's really good most of the time, and then every once in a while he gets to knock it around. That's right. In the bullpen, Hector Nerris took the loss yesterday. He gave up a two-run homer, but that was in his second inning of work. He pitched in the ninth inning at home in a tie game and threw a scoreless inning, and then he came back out. Don't make him come back out. Treat him like the closer that he is.

But Nerris is 44% owned and still is having a really good year. Two walks, 17 strikeouts, an 11, and a third. Sergio Romo also got a save. He's 18% owned. But we should focus on Nerris. What happens when David Robertson comes back? And you see Sergio Romo there as well. And he's the closer for the Marlins.

Just not going to get a ton of saves. But what happens to Hector Nerris when Robertson comes back? I don't think the Phillies are going to have a closure. I mean, I still think probably now you'd have to expect that Hector Nerris is going to lead this team in saves, but I don't expect anybody in the Phillies is going to get 20 of them. Oh, yeah.

Okay, so you said Nerris, you think, would leave the... I think he... Yeah, yeah, let's give Nerris 18, and we'll give Robertson maybe 12, 5 for Sir Anthony. They're 10 mixed amongst three or four players. All right, all right. And it's interesting, because I do think Nerris

has basically been used like a close. since Robertson went on the I.O. We're pretty much done with yesterday. Just some deep league guys. He's got a soft spot for Cole Calhoun, and he has homered in two straight games, and he's 26% own. His teammate Tommy Lestella already has seven home runs.

That's a career high for Tommy Lestella. He's 13% own. And then a couple of speedy guys. Tyler Wade for the Yankees. He has four steals in his last three games. And Gerard Dyson. He's actually only stolen three bases, but he's having by far his best season as a hitter.

333 with three home runs, nine walks, 10 strikeouts, and 20 games. He does sit against lefties, I'm pretty sure, but Dyson leads off against Ritey's. I don't know why I dropped him in our five outfielder league. I think I dropped him because I know that Gerard Dyson is a bad hitter and he has been every single year. But he's off to a good start.

But would you like to say anything about Cole Cahoon, Tommy Lestella, Tyler, Tyler, Wade, or Gerard Dyson? I think it's hilarious the way that you spelled Cole Coulthun's name in the notes. I do it every time. No, I do have a soft spot for him. I do think that he can be mixed league viable in a five outfielder league. He got off to another slow start this year, but he, like, he may just set a career

high in home runs, and he should score a lot of runs hitting in front of Mike Trout. It'd be nice if he wasn't hitting below the Mendoza line. The only other guy I'm really particularly interested in on that list is Dyson, and it's because of the steals, not because of the home runs or what he's done with his bat so far, but I do still think if he hits well enough to play regularly, he's going to steal 30 or 40 base. Yeah, well, he's stolen 26 to 36 bases in six of his last seven seasons, the only exception being last year when Dyson played just 67 games.

But usually he's such a bad bat. You pretty much can't justify putting him in your lineup. But leading off, that is a nice thing, even if it's only against Ritey's. All right. When we come back, the most added list. and I'm going to just ask Keith the general fantasy question. We're going to have a nice little conversation. It's going to be wonderful.

Coming right back on fantasy baseball today. So how's 2019 fantasy baseball going for you, Heath? I've got too many leagues to answer that accurately, I guess. But I think it's going meh so far. It's like you don't know anything about your team yet. my Michael Brantley teams are feeling pretty good and my Eli Jimenez teams are feeling pretty bad but I will say the teams where I prioritize

starting pitching are probably my best right now thank you for saying that because the podcast league I am an absolute embarrassment in the podcast league and I usually do well I make the playoffs just about every year in the podcast league the head-to-head points league and this year my first three picks were Freddie Freeman Aaron Judge.

Let me go back to the draft results. I know I really waited. You should go back and look at my first four picks. I know. How's your team doing? You're killing it or what? I think I'm two and one. Okay.

I'm going to be one and three. My picks were Freddie Freeman, Aaron Judge. Oh, I did take Strasbourg. Strasbourg, Carlos Correa, James. All right, I guess I didn't. I'm sorry. So I thought I...

You have a really bad team. Well, this is a Severino team. I thought I prioritized hitting more than usual in this draft. And I did. Just maybe not quite as much at the top. And it's backfired. Yeah, my best teams have good pitching. So that's interesting.

I'm going to be three and one. And I think I took pitcher with my first four or five picks in that league just because I wanted to do something different. and it's worked out pretty well. Yes, you took DeGrom, Cole, Paxton, Granky, and then Jose Abrae, and then Michael Brantley in the sixth round. Wow. Good for you. It's worked out well. It has. Yeah, we'll see. It's been sort of a so-so start for me as well, although I've got to say I got two teams that are like middle of the pack and they both have Jose Ramirez.

So I'm feeling good about those teams once he gets going. and I think I got a chance there. I have never won one of, well, first of up, I've never won one of our podcast leagues, but I've also never won one of our AL or NL only leagues. Okay. And I actually have, I'm in first place in our NL only industry league,

and I have Trey Turner on that team. Oh, very nice. It's Roto. Yeah. And the 14 team points league that we're in, editorial league, of court, like, just crush it. it. I just, I own that league. Absolutely

own it. Yeah? Have you ever won it? I think so. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Jamie and I share a team. We won it once. We're so good. It's just so good. If you're in a 14 team points league, just come to me. Because I just, I, ownership. Here's an email. Email of the day is from Thad in Raleigh, North Carolina. Subject, if you think Big League Chew is gross.

Dot, dot, dot. Check this out. Here in Raleigh in the 80s, there was an ice cream place whose whole thing was we have the craziest toppings. So you can probably see where this is going. Every time I went, I'd get chocolate ice cream with pink Big League chew as the topping. When cold, Big League chew morphs into a rubbery consistency. So it was kind of like chewing on a big cold ball

of plastic bag ties. Yum. That's the worst ice cream I've ever heard. Ever. Would you like to hear about the ice cream cake I ordered? for my wife for her birthday. Yeah, until your wife I said happy birthday. Thanks, I will.

Okay, so it's Ben and Jerry's cake. Have you had one? No. People love them. It's got chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolate fudge brownie are the flavors. The filling is crumbled brownies, and the toppings are drizzled fudge and M&Ms. That sounds better than Big League Chew.

It's going to be a really good cake. I'm very excited about this. Also excited about the most added list. Here we go. He'd say something interesting while I pull up the most added list. My son had a basketball tournament this week at his school. They do a third, fourth, and fifth grade one-on-one tournament. Anyone in the school can enter it.

And yesterday he won the third grade championship. Went seven and no and defeated in the tournament. Damn. All right. Way to go. Congrats. He has the best third grade basketball player at his school. That's awesome.

I keep telling him. He's just embarrassed by the whole thing. Yeah, I would say he is the Renato Nunez of third grade basketball. Renato Nunez is the most added player in CBS Sports Leagues. His teammate, Dwight Smith, is the second, excuse me, the second most added player. We talked about them the other day, but that is strange to have two Orioles is the most added. Then there's Mike Soroka and Hunter Dozier, Zach Davies, Cole Tucker who I guess we can compare

Cole Tucker to Key Boom and Chavis Chavis there's some closers on there that we'll get to Luke Weaver Louiever 79% own he's probably still underowned got a thought on the most added list

I'm not adding either of those Orioles to any of my mixed league teams and I understand why people are I don't think this is necessarily going to last Soroka and Weaver are the only two guys that I've really made an effort. I did go Adelius in one league where I was really desperate for saves,

but I don't know if he's going to give me any. And I've added Hunter Dozier in some league, of course. Zach Davies is 68% own. How does that sound to you? Almost perfect. Oh, really? I thought you were going to say too high. No, that's fine.

I probably need to make sure that Zach Davies is in my starting pitcher rankings. He's got a good matchup this weekend. No, he's at the Mets this weekend. Not necessarily a good matchup. If we just look at the relievers on the most added list, tell me who you like out of this group. Hector Nairus, Rowanus Alyas, Ryan Brazier, and Ty Butchrey.

I would rank those, I mean, since we've been doing the ranking thing all day, I would rank them Brazier, Neris, Elias, Butchry. Brazier is 75% owned and I don't know that he's getting every save for them, but every, like Barnes keeps being used in non-save situations, Brazier keeps being used in safe situations. If I told you the closer of the Red Sox was available in 25% of leagues, that guy just has to be owned in probably more leagues than that. Probably. I won't say definitely.

Yeah, again, I think the whole problem with these closer ownership percentages, and we've talked about it a lot, is it's just the bar for being owned in a points league as a relief pitcher is really, really high. Okay, so I still think, like, would you rather have Ryan Brazier or Brad Peacock? I have Brazier ranked higher right now. Right, that's what I'm saying.

Like, he, I understand wanting a spark over a normal closer, but I think Brazier's got a chance to be one of those closers that is absolutely must own regardless of format. I think he has a chance to be that. I don't think he's that yet. I've got him 27th in points in my relief pitcher rankings, and I need to move Ross Stripling behind him, so that I'll make him 26th.

But he's right there in that same range with, like, Pedro Strope. That if you're starting them, I think that's fine. I don't think you feel bad about it. But if you have two relievers and you notice that one of those two's available, I'm not sure you're dropping the guy you've been using. I agree. Potential to get there, not quite there yet. All right, time for a quick round of emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com.

This is from Michael. Is it time to drop Dallas Keikle? Dallas Keikle is 78% owned. Is it time to drop him? Yeah, it can be. I mean, it just depends at this point in the season. It's all about the roster construction and how many IL spots you have and how many IL players you have.

I've got a league where I only have two aisle spots. I think I have six players on the injured list that I just would not drop. And so I had Kikek on that team and I cut him loose. I'm much more likely to cut loose of him in a Categories league than I am a points league. This is from Justin. Is it time to drop you Darvish? Would you drop Darvish to hold on to Eloy Jimenez a little bit longer? I would rather hold on to Eloy than Darvish.

I'm not really at the point of considering dropping either of them. this is from Nick in New Jersey it's about Caleb Smith so we will skip it although Nick wants me to play Old Town Road Is that the song that Chris wanted me to play For the Stallions? Yes and it's just a, like it's a tear

What I hate about it is There was a big controversy over them Saying it wasn't a country song And I was on Old Town Road's side On that controversy Because almost nothing on the country charts Is what I would consider a country song So it should have been on the charts

But then I listened to it It's just awful Who sings it? Lil Nas Maybe Okay So featuring Billy Ray Cyrus Yes

So we'll try to get a little sample of it here We're not actually going to play it No no What do you do? Got a picture of stallions on this video I'm watching here Yeah I listened to it when Chris recommended It was awful

Yeah I'm gonna take my host Through the old town road I'm gonna Ride till I can I'm going to take my horse through the old town road. What are you doing right? I got to stay.

I don't know if there's any foul language or anything, so I have to turn it off. I think the whole thing's foul. That's very bad. That's a bad song. All right. This is Brandon from close to the home of the Flying Tigers. With Vladimir Guerrero Jr. coming up in a Dynasty League, I have to drop one. Who do I drop in Dynasty?

Clint Frazier, Nomar Mazarra, Kristen Stewart, Raphael Devers, Garrett Hampson, or Hunter Dozier. I would probably drop Dozier. Kristen Stewart is the easy one to drop for this year, but assuming that you don't have to start Dozier or Stewart, I would rather have Stewart on my bench in a Dynasty League. Mike from Boston, who do you like rest of season in a points league, Marcus Simeon or Jorge Polanco?

These are two guys that moved up the most in my shortstop rankings. I'm going to go with Polanco in a point. Yeah, I think Polanco was a top 12 shortstop in points last year. Well, wait, I get him confused. No, he was suspended last year, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure he wasn't top 12 in points. No, it was. Escobar was.

I get him confused with Escobar. But Polanco has a points league profile, whereas Simian didn't in the past. But because his plate discipline is so good, he kind of does now. We'll talk about that in a bit. Kyle wants to know, would you drop any of these guys for any of those guys? Victor Robles, Eloy Jimenez, or Ryan McMahon. Would you drop any of them? Robles, Jimenez, McMahon,

Christian Walker, Simian, Yandy Diaz, Josh Bell, or Jack Peterson? I would not. This is from Trevor and Plainfield. Who do I drop? Why aren't you reading any of the name so I can guess them all? Dear Frank, Paul, and Jose. I'm not sure. Yes, you are.

White Sox's first basement. Who should I drop to make room for Daniel Murphy? Brandon Lau, Hunter Dozier, Adam Jones, Eloy Jimenez, Clint Frazier, Josh Donaldson, or Malick Smith? I would be, well, if you're, it's to bring Murphy off the IL, you can just put Clint Frazier on the aisle. Okay, fine. The point is, though, I want you to do like some ranking. So who's your least favorite out of Lau, Hunter Dozier, Adam Jones, Eloy, Clint Frazier, Donaldson, and Malick Smith? I'm just trying to help the guy with strategy for fantasy baseball.

I understood. The two that I would consider would be Frazier and Dozier. Okay. All right. Let's look at the top five at each position. Heath, here we go. Your top five catchers in points leagues. I'll alternate between points in Roto.

Wilson Contreras. Yasmani Grandal. Omar Narvaez. J.T. Reaumuto and Yadier Malina. Again, top five catchers and points league are Wilson Contreras, he has Moni Grondal, Omar Narvias, J.T. Rayamuto, and Yadier Molina. I think you deserve some credit. I think you called the Omar Narvaez breakout, and it's happening.

I would not say that. Thank you. I appreciate it. I pointed out that Omar Narvaez was OBP league someone you wanted to pay attention to. He does walk a lot. Scott was probably a little bit more optimistic about Narvaez. as I was.

Do you think he's a good hitter? I think he is a good hitter for a catcher. Okay.

Batting 286 with five home runs and he has nine walks to 19 strikeouts. Wilson Contreras

actually leads all catchers with 13 walks. Is there anything here? By the way, I'm now

seeing, oh, in Roto, I should point out in Roto that Mitch Garver is a top five catcher,

but not in points. It's probably like sixth. seventh. And I'm surprised that Wilson Ramos is sixth in points. That's crazy to me because he has had a crap year. Batting 278 slugging 333.

But getting on base a decent amount, probably playing a lot. Wilson Ramos. Adam is a catcher. Yeah, yeah, but still, that's bad. All right, top five first basement. Let's go to Roto format here. Top five first basement. Cody Bellinger.

Pete Alonzo. Trey Mancini. Paul Goldschmidt and Christian Walker. Just like we expected. Bellinger, I've moved up to my number three first baseman rest of season, and I'm not sure that I'm done moving him for the rest of the season. He's been absolutely incredible. He's sliced the strikeout rate to a level where if he kept it there,

he's just going to be one of the best hitters in baseball. Yeah, he hasn't slowed down. Now, Mancini, you know, he cooled off a little, but not that much. I mean, Mancini's been pretty good too. He's still got an OPS just over 1,000. Yeah, it's uncomfortable. I wish he would cool off a little bit more. Like, if you look back to when he was really good in 2017,

at least really good for him, he hit almost 300 that year. With 24 home runs, he might get up to 30 this year. I still don't think he's going to drive in a lot of runs, but he might score 100. hitting at the top of the order. So I won't be able to find a way probably to get Trey Manzini into my top 12 first basement anytime in the next month. But if he keeps this up for a month from now, I'll have to reevaluate.

I want to tell you a trade that went down in one of my leagues, the 13-team Roto League involving Trey Mancini. So let me just get that for you because it was, I think, a very good sell high trades. Here we go. It was, I mean, this is just, this is just ridiculous. Giving up Kevin Gosman, Freddie Galvis, and Trey Mancini, getting George Springer, and Harrison Bader. So you're basically just getting Springer. But that's just giving up like three replaceable pieces,

unless you really believe in Kevin Gosman, just pitching's hard to find in this league. But Gosman, Mancini, and Galvis for Springer and Bader. And I think the guy getting Springer just, just, really won that trade. Oh, yeah. It was, I thought you were going to tell me that you had to veto it because it was unfair. No, it was a good trade.

It was good for him. And he's got a really good team. That pisses me off. Second base, top five in points leagues. Javier Baez, Yohan Moncada, Jose Altuvae, one steal and three attempts for Jose Altuve. Quit, Merrifield, and Colton Wong. Baez, Moncada, Altuve, Merrifield, and. walk.

Yeah, Harvey Arbias is just going to make us look like complete idiots this season. And I'm just like, I'll wear it. That's fine. He is, um, most of the things that I said,

well, that's not going to keep up because it's ridiculous and nobody does that. It has just gotten more ridiculous. He had a 24% home run to fly ball rate last year. He's up to 27% now. He had like a 350, 347 bad-up last year. he's at 377 now.

He's striking out more than he did in 2018, so that's fine. So what do you think? Do you think he sustains it? Or do you think? What do you want me to say? What? Like this is the reverse Matt Carpenter to where he was, it's just bled over into the first part of this year, but there's still a cold street coming.

He's not my number one second baseman for the rest of the year. I'd rather have Al-Tuvie. I'd still rather have Whitmeryfield. But what he's doing is both really good and doesn't make any sense to me. Yeah, he's just an interesting player. And I could understand Bias being number one in Roto, but the plate discipline should drag him down, and yet he's number one in points.

Also, Colton Wong, I mean, Colton Wong has 16 walks to 14 strikeouts. Yeah, that's really very impressive. He's not hitting for as much power lately, I don't think, but he's doing some good things. Yeah, because on this list, Like I've just decided to own the bias thing. That's fine. And I've moved Yoan Moncata up considerably.

I'm pretty much buying into him. Wong's the guy on this list that I really haven't yet. And it's getting closer to time where I might have to reevaluate that. Okay, I just want to, he's so much fewer at bat. So I want to see if he's playing against lefties. I suspect he is not. Well, they have only faced three left-handed starting pitchers. And Colton Wong.

Yeah, he's been in the lineup. He's been in the lineup for all three of them. Maybe he gets pinch it. No, they face four. And he's been to the lineup for all four. All right, but I don't know why he's so many fewer bats than the other guys. All right, let's move on to shortstop. Tim Anderson in Roto.

Tim Anderson is number one. Javier Baez is two. Trevor Story 3. Paul D. Young, four. Ad Alberto Mondese, five. Top five short stops in Roto are Tim Anderson, Harvey Baez, Trevor Story, Paul de Young, and Adelberto Mondecy. And you know what, Heath, let's extend it to six and mention Marcus Simeon.

Yeah, I don't have a lot to say about Marcus Simeon, but one that's really interesting to me is Tim Anderson. And Scott White said it before, I think on Monday when I was kind of giving out hard time, because I don't buy Andy Anderson much more than he does. But Anderson has really had months like this where he takes off and runs a ton. It looks like, oh, he's going to turn into the 40 or 50 steel guy, and he just hasn't. I know the batting average is not going to continue. I don't really think he's going to hit 30 home runs. But if he just keeps running like this,

a lot of that other stuff, regression is not going to matter too much. And then the Paul DeYoung, I think I need to rank him ahead of Corey Seeger and Roto. Okay. We've gotten to that point, huh? I think so. It's actually not Simeon who's eight. It's who's six. He's eighth.

Tim Beckham and Elvis Andrews are six and seven. Buy High and Andrews. Beckham, yeah, I don't think we, Beckham did Homer yesterday, but he had really cooled off. I don't think we're buying him. No. Okay.

Outfield. Or did we do, no, we didn't do third base. Sorry, graphics department. Third base, Hobby Baez. Hobby Baez is number one at second base, number two at shortstop, and number one at third base. Anthony Rendon, Yohan Moncada,

Michael Franco, and Matt Chapman. Talk about Franco and. Chapman. Chapman just looks like a star. He's one of the best defensive players in baseball, and he's just raking. And there's not anything. Like, he's hitting 3-11

with a 274 Babbitt right now. And he's got more walks and strikeouts. Yeah. His strikeout rates 10%. I don't think, like, he was a 24% strikeout. It was kind of almost a problem before that. 28% in 2017. I don't think this is anywhere close to real,

but it's kind of a weird thing that's happened that Scott has talked about with a couple of the athletic. Right. But if he's like below 20%, he gets it to like a Paul DeYoung this year level at 18%. He's still an absolute store, and we're probably going to keep showing him in this graphic. Top five outfielders in Roto, Cody Bellinger,

Christian Yelich, Marcel Ozuna, Domingo, Santana, George Springer. Top five outfielers in Roto. It's nice that Springer's there. He's usually better in points, not to say bad in Roto, but top five. So again, Bellinger, Yelich, Ozuna, Santana, Springer.

Yeah, like, we've talked so much about Bellinger and Yelich, and they're both awesome. And we've talked a lot about Domingo Santana. I don't know that we've talked enough about what Marcel Ozuna has done since his slow start. He's just been one of the hottest. He's at a stretch for a couple of weeks where he's been almost as good as Bellinger and Yelich. And then, yeah, Springer. It's kind of been quietly good, hasn't he? I would say so.

He's stolen two bases. He's batting 283, 8 home runs, 19 runs, 21 RBIs. That feels like a lot for a lead-off hitter. But, yeah, I would say quietly good. 3.74 on base percentage is really good for Springer. Let's see what he usually is at there. 357s is his career, but I don't think he's ever had it quite this high. All right.

So I don't know if the walk rate's much better. but 14 walks in 25 games, it's better, but it's not like off the chart. So he's just having a good year, but I guess the question is, is he a 265 hitter? Is he a 280 hitter? Because that's the difference between 2017 and 2018, basically, you know? No, I think that'll make a huge difference. And then the other thing is, like, he can't keep up this home run pace, but I don't know that 40s necessarily out of the question. You like Marcel O'Zuna or George Springer?

I still have Springer ranked higher. I've moved Ozuna up quite a bit. I don't think Springer's really moved too much in my rankings, but he was way ahead of him before the season. And it is worth noting, as far as Springer goes, according to baseball savant, his average X velocity is 93.1 miles per hour. That's elite.

Wow. His hard hit rate is 59%. I feel like it's a hot. I feel like it's a hot streak. You know, like he's really good. I don't know if he's great. I'd have to look at more into that because there was one year where it looked like Springer was absolutely great,

and then he got hurt. So I'm not, okay, you know what? I'm just going to look up my Springer notes and get back to you on that. We don't have time for pitchers, so let's go for the top five pitchers. in points in Roto. So let's just go, Heath, to the two-star pitchers for the crappy two-star pitchers for Fantasy Week 6. And I guess we can take a look at some of the high-owned guys

and whether or not we're going to start them or sit them. Do we have any at Colorado's? It's always the first thing I look at. Are we going to start Walker Bueller at San Francisco and at San Diego? Yeah, yeah. I'm not sure if he's not Walker Bueller right now, but we start bad pitchers at San Francisco. So absolutely.

Are we going to start Brad Keller against Blake Snell and Daniel Norris? He don't really like the first matchup, but he's a two, like, he's good enough to start pretty much almost every week that he's a two-star pitcher. Brad Keller's got Tampa Bay and Detroit. I don't know why I said the pitcher names. Frankie Montas at Boston and at Pittsburgh. This is the only one that is really a question for me on this first list of starting pitchers. and he's the least proven. I like the matchup at Pittsburgh enough to swallow the matchup at Boston.

I'll start him. So Montas has actually faced the Astros twice and the Rangers once, and they all have good lineups. And he's come through all of those starts fine. He's given up a total of eight runs in 16 and two-thirds innings in those three starts. So not great, but respectable. and in a points league, that would work in a two-star week. We're obviously going to start Blake Snell.

I think you could start Eduardo Rodriguez. You don't want to start Julio Taran, I'm guessing. But he does have San Diego and at Miami. No. Same matchups for Mike Soroka. Yeah, we definitely want to start him. Yolisha Seen, Colorado, and the Mets at home. I don't really want to, but I understand why somebody would.

Then we've got Nick Margavichis, Michael Paneda, Jeff Samarja, Jake Odorezi, and Abol Sanchez. Tanner Roark Jake Junis Adam Wainwright Ivan Nova Clay Buck Colts David Hess Hecht of Alaska Irvin Santana

Jason Vargas Daniel Ponce de Leon and Chad Bettis Yeah those are all the guys that I looked at and said no I don't see a pitcher under 70% that I can recommend starting Also Ponce de Leon was

I know He's not going to be It's possible Michael I don't think he has at all It's possible Michael Waka is going to be a two-star pitcher next week Yeah I think the most likely the outcome is probably that Ponce de Leon is a one-star pitcher and Michael Waka is a one-star pitcher.

Okay. Well, I think they sent Ponce de Leon to AAA though. Oh, did they send him back? Yes, on April 24th. Okay. Well, then that's not the most likely situation. Yes. Michael Waka will be back for his next start.

I don't know when that is, but it could be Monday at Washington. So he could be a two-star pitcher. If you need someone this weekend, if you want to win your league this weekend, Heath, do you like any of these guys? Friday streamers Matt Strom at Washington Jared Eichoff against Miami Chase Anderson at the Mets

Daniel Norris at the White Sox Tyler Skaggs at the Royals I don't I kind of like starting Icoff Yeah I mean the Marlins are just They're just the worst Yeah So I like I'm always going to pick on the Marlins

in this segment Is that is that it? I mean I think Skaggs is an okay start He would be my second second choice. Yeah. But it would definitely have to be a situation where I thought I had already lost ratios,

and I was just chasing wins in case. Okay. Saturday streamers. Tyler Malley at St. Louis. Aaron Sanchez against Oakland. Derek Holland at the Yankees. Trevor Richards at the Phillies. Jorge Lopez against the Angels.

I'm probably starting Trevor Richards. I think it's a bad matchup, but I think he's good enough that I'm just probably starting him until he hurts me. Derek Holland is at home against the Yankees, right? Yes. I would be my second favorite. I would consider that. Sunday streamers.

Yanni Torino's at Boston. Pablo Lopez at Philly. Zach Davies at the Mets. Stephen Mats, he is the most owned. Actually, Louiever is. They're both 78-ish-per-per-owned. Stephen Mats against Milwaukee. Mani Benuelos against Detroit.

Homer Bailey against the Angels. Derek Rodriguez against the Yankees. Eric Swanson against Texas. Lou Gweaver against the Cubs. Wade Miley against Cleveland. I'm starting Luke Weaver. I'm starting Pablo. I would probably start

Stephen Mats. He's been good a lot more often than he's been bad. And I don't think Derek Rodriguez is a terrible lot. I actually don't think Wade Miley is that bad of an option against Cleveland, even with Lindorback. As long as you're not aiming for strikeouts, I think you can get a quality start out of Wade Miley. Yeah, there's some decent streamers this week. Who's your absolute favorite?

It might be, other than Luke Weaver, she's 79% on it. I think it might be I call for me. Although, it might also be Trevor Richards. Right, yeah. See, I have a hard time thinking about Richards being a streamer. But, yeah, I would rather him than I call. He's 58% own. Right.

That's just, that's Trevor Richards. Pablo Lopez is still like 33% own or something. 33. Okay, 2017. for George Springer. So last year he disappointed. He batted 265 with 22 home runs in 140 games. But in 2017, his first 99 games, he batted 310 with 27 homers, a 973 OPS.

Why am I only looking at the first 99 games? Because that's before he sustained a quad injury. He missed two weeks with a quad injury. He came back. He had a 717 OPS in 47 games after the year. injury. And then he was the World Series MVP, I believe. He had five home runs in the final six games of the World Series. But I thought 2017 George Springer really busted out. And that's why I was so excited about him last year, which was a complete disaster. So maybe there's something there.

Maybe he really is kind of a top five outfielder. I know we're not going to rank him that way, but someone who could finish there. Thank you for listening, everybody. Enjoy your weekend. We'll talk to you on Monday. Make sure you listen to the Fantasy Football Today podcast We break down the NFL draft. And here on Fantasy Baseball today, we'll talk to you on Monday. See you later.