Fantasy Baseball Today - 04/29: Weekend Roundup - How About Those Rookies (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 29, 2019

Hitters to add (2:30) must include rookies Carter Kieboom and Michael Chavis while SPs to add (7:10) are a little risky this week. How much do we trust Reynaldo Lopez and Chris Bassitt? Who are some one-start streamers to consider? We also give you the big news (15:15) including our thoughts on Griffin Canning and an update on the LAA bullpen from Michael Caine himself! ... Most Added list (24:00)! A lot of RP talk as Emilio Pagan and Pedro Strop are getting looks. Then it's "Buy Low or Heck No" for some struggling aces (28:50) like Jacob deGrom, Corey Kluber and Noah Syndergaard ... SP talk (37:20) for the final 20 minutes of the show ... Email us 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, everybody. What's going on? This is Fantasy Baseball today here on Monday, April 29th.

Another week in the books. Hope you were successful this week at Fantasy Baseball. We're going to talk about everything you need to know. Haders to add, pitchers to add, Heath Cummings, and Scott White are here. I'm Adam Azer, and we got to hopefully some emails at Fantasy Baseball at Cbsi.com. Happy Monday, guys. Scott White, how was your weekend? The weekend was terrific. I took Friday off, not for this reason, but it made it possible for me to go see the Avengers on Friday.

and while I struggled to make it through the three hours without visiting the lavatory, I pulled it out. I managed to pull it out because that last hour was so magical that I forgot all about it. I forgot that I had to be. You think that was the right word choice there, Scott. Come on now. You caught that, right? Oh, yes.

Okay. I definitely caught that. What did I do? You said you said you had to go. to the bathroom and then your way of saying that you didn't go to the bathroom was you said you pulled it out what are you thinking here sky white this is a family what is an friendly show i don't understand because i've seen a lot of people talk about this like i i wasn't sure if i'd be able to make it without going to the bathroom for three hours right well people go to the bathroom every three hours when the pressure is high not to go to the bathroom it makes you want to go more what you i'm never taking a road trip with you At least don't watch the Avengers If you are

All right guys Enough of bathroom talk here Heath I just want to say you're a huge frontrunner With your Celtics jersey on today I have been a Celtics fan For over 30 years I'm not a front runner at all Is that I think that is true actually

Of course 30 years ago they were awesome So yeah you're a front runner But one hitter to add One pitcher to add I'll throw it to you first Heath Give me a hitter to add I don't know this guy's ownership, but I did add him over the weekend. I made a couple ads.

Brandon Lau, I assume, is not available to hardly anyone, but I was able to pick him up. And then Christian Walker was the other one. I'm just about all in. I even picked him up in a 12-team points league this week. He's just absolutely on fire. Only has five games this week, but three of them are at course. So that's like seven games for anyone else. Yeah, I think Scott you would know, but it's got to be a number of teams with only five games this week.

light schedule on Monday and Thursday. There's 11. 11 teams with only five games. So, right. They're going to be starting some players with five games. And that's why if you have only one-star pitchers in your lineup, you might be okay. It's just kind of one of those weeks. So Brandon Lough and Christian Walker, Walker is 80% own.

Low is probably higher than that. Make sure their own. Scott, how about you, one hitter to add? So Carter Kibum homered a couple times this weekend. and started all three games for the nationals and is shortstop eligible. I don't know that he's must add everywhere, those head-to-head lineups being so small, you don't necessarily have to add him there. But I made sure he was owned in all my roto leagues, including the 215 team leagues I'm in.

They just have weekly bab. And so I put in some big bids on him, some, you know, $1,000 budget over $100,000. $100 for Carter Kibum. All right, yeah. And Kibum, so he is off to a great start, 250 with two home runs, only one walk to five strikeouts. And he is the most added player in CBS Sports League. I think, you know what, why don't we just look at the rookies, okay, three of them in

particular. Carter Kibu, Michael Chavis, Chavis, he's 35 percent own. He's off to a better start than Kibuom. He's played more games, he's played eight games, but six walks, seven strikes. breakouts, batting 250 with three home runs, five runs, one steal and two attempts, and a double. So Michael Chavis actually off to an excellent start for the Red Sox. Meanwhile, Rafael Devers is off to a bad start, and Devers has made eight errors already. So you've got second basement on the mend.

Nunez starting a rehab game, a rehab assignment today, Padroia later this week. But they need to win. I mean, I think they're 11 and 17. So you've got Chavis, you've got Key Boom, who it sounds like they do want to give him, I think there's a path to him continuing to play when Trey Turner comes back if he plays his way into it. And then probably last here, but Kelvin Gutierrez

at 1% owned for the Royals, he's up, he's 3 for 7 with a walk and two strikeouts. Well, who would you guys prioritize? Kibuom or Chavis? I think I'd rather have Chavis just because second base is so much worse. Like, it's really hard for me if you told me Carter Caboom was up for

the rest of the season to get him into my top 15 shortstop. There's There's a much easier path to a top 15 second basement. The problem with Chavez is unless he replaces Devers a third. We're talking about a matter of days for him as opposed to a matter of weeks. Probably. I mean, maybe they just don't care about getting Dustin Bucroy back in the lineup anymore. Exactly.

He's rehabbing. Exactly. Why can't they just, you know, like I said this on Friday, a little bit of second base. Devers sits against the lefty maybe. It's bad, it would be obviously bad for Devers. A little bit of third base, a little bit of DH. who knows. Yeah, I think it's less clear over the next two weeks,

but it's easier for me to believe that Chavis could have a job the rest of the year than it is, Kaboom. But if Kaboom has a job the rest of the year, it's probably going to be at second base, right? Right. You would think so. I mean, it depends on how he and Dozier perform going forward. I don't think Howie Kendrick would just become the outright starter at second base if Kaboom's playing well, and Dozier isn't. But I'd be more worried about Dozier and Kendrick than I would, Padraea and Nunez. Yeah.

Hedroia, you know, he's such a legacy. All right. So those guys, again, Key Boom is 62% owned. Shavis, 35% own. And then Heath, what do you think about Kelvin Gutierrez? I don't really know much of anything about Kelvin Gutierrez. Like, nothing. Okay.

He must not be such a big deal. But if you're in an AL-only league. Scott, do you? I don't remember. I remember being particularly impressed when I was looking at the minor league numbers. God, he's a royal. Am I getting his name wrong?

No. That's his name. 740 OPS? Okay, we'll take a pass on that. How about a pitcher to add? I got a few names here sort of at different levels of ownership, but Scott, if there's one pitcher that needs to be added right now,

I think I know who you're going to say. It begins with a R and ends with an A. Aldo Lopez maybe? Yeah, I didn't pick him up everywhere, but he was highly available, and that was an impressive star yesterday, striking 14, striking out 14 against the tigers. So you have to factor that in 24 swinging strikes, 17 of them were on the fastball,

which is an unusual ratio when you're talking swinging strikes. He did say he's pitching the fastball up in the zone anymore. I didn't get a, I didn't get that. spin rate reading on that. But usually when they're talking about pitching high with the fastball, it's a high spin rate fastball, which would be a good one that's good at getting swinging strikes. But I don't know. I don't know if that's Rinaldo Lopez or not. If the 14th strikeout game was in isolation, I probably wouldn't be that interested in picking him up, given that he still has an ERA over seven on the year and wasn't very good last year. But

this was his third good start in a row. So, yeah, I did pick him up in leagues where, like, more than 300 players were rostered, and we'll see where it goes. Let's be fair to Reynoldo Lopez. ZRA is only 6.03. Okay. Yeah, his first three starts were terrible. His last three starts have been 18 innings, three earned runs, and those starts have come against the Royals and I think twice against the Tigers. He gets Boston this week. So, I mean, I don't want to set up Scott to make it sound like he's all in on Ronaldo.

Lopez, he clearly said he isn't. But that was one pitcher who jumped out. For me, guys, it wasn't the most active week of adding and dropping. Heath, any pitchers that stood out to you? I actually added more hitters this week than pitchers, which is rare, I feel like. Bassett, I think Chris Bassett has to be the guy that we talk about a little bit here. He's made two starts so far this season against the Rangers and the Blue Jays. 12 innings, 16 strikeouts, one earned run, made it through seven innings against the

Blue Jays over the weekend. I wasn't particularly excited about him before the season, but this is two very impressive starts in a row. And he's 15% owned Chris Bassett. And the thing, like Toronto's 23rd and runs scored. But they've been hitting the ball pretty well lately, and he faced them with Vladimir Guerrera Jr. And the Rangers are second in baseball and runs scored.

And that's having, they might be number one in runs per game. If they're not one, they're probably two. So, so far so good for. Bassett. He did have a 302 ERA last year in only 47 and two-thirds. And he's at Pittsburgh this week. That is a really interesting one-start streamer. Chris Bassett at Pittsburgh. Let me see where Pittsburgh is second to last and runs scored. Six more runs than the Miami Marlins and two fewer get gosh the Marlins. 28 games, 78 runs. What a matchup that is. That's why like Zach Eflin-start didn't really move the needle for me all that much yesterday. Or when it was yesterday, yeah, great start against the ball.

same thing with Icoff, I think Friday. I'm kind of excited about the things Icoff's done so far, but it's hard to get too excited about seven shut out of anything against the Marlins. Agreed. So the pitchers I had on the, you know, maybe you want to add them list, not so much based on what he did on Friday, but Tyler Skaggs is 64% owned. That just strikes me as a little low.

I might be leaving my bench this week. I think he has Toronto in a one-star week, borderline. Rinaldo Lopez, Jared Eichoff, and Chris Bassett. So we talked about two of the four. So I guess is Skaggs a better ad than Rinaldo Lopez or Ikoff or Bassett? Yeah. Skaggs? I would rather have – do you mention Skaggs?

Yeah, I would rather have them than those, yes. Okay. And then other one-start streamers you could consider, if that's what you're into this week. Sunny Gray is only 78% owned. Still pitching pretty well. Decent start yesterday at St. Louis, five innings, five strikeouts, two runs. You can live with that, but he's got the Giants this week at home. Sunny Gray, I know that's a lot of ownership, 78%.

Vince Velasquez, 58% owned. He will have the Tigers at home this week. They have scored the fourth fewest runs in baseball. Those are the four teams, Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Detroit that I really look at. I don't know if you guys have anyone else in mind. After that, the lowest scoring teams after Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Detroit are Cincinnati, San Diego, Cleveland, and Toronto. Cleveland, of course, has the doorback. San Diego may have just lost one of their best hitters.

Cincinnati, we think, is better than what they've done. But Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Detroit. Those are the big four for me that I think, if you want to stream against, those are the ones. Thoughts? Agreed. I don't know about San Diego still, but I can see why you'd put them in there based on the way they've performed. No, no, I don't put them in there. He did not put them in there.

Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Detroit. Oh, I heard. Okay. All right. Sure. Okay, great. All right, guys. Let's read an email.

We love this email. Fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. It's from Heath's Nightmare, one of our podcast leaguers. Dear Adam, Chris, Scott, and most importantly, Heath. Hubris is a funny thing, isn't it? It's one of those words you learn in high school, ride for a B-plus on an English essay, and then promptly forget. At least you forget until someone says something cocky that ends up making them look silly.

On Friday's episode, Adam asked Heath what his record was in the podcast Points League. Heath checked his record and said, I'm going to be three and one. As his opponent last week, I was like, not cool, Heath. Then that weekend, Heath coughed up a 60-point lead and looked like a big dummy. It made me feel good to see him lose after prematurely declaring victory. I couldn't describe what had happened at first, and then it hit me hubris. I may not win the league Heath, but I'm going to beat you. Any response?

Larry Burr? I'm very happy for you. I don't know what your name is because Adam didn't put it in the email thing, and I don't know who I lost you this week. Let's, yeah, I didn't put it in the email. I should have put it in the email. Let's get his accent. Was it Chris Towers?

What's your stupid name in this league? You don't have to ask that. Everyone knows. Yeah, money, money. Oh my gosh. Okay, you lost to the Raptor Paddock, which is a team name that Scott likes quite a bit. And the Raptor Paddock is Scott and Andy. So you lost to a Scott.

How about that? Congratulations. All right, we got some big news to get to, including Fernando Tatis and his hamstring injury. And, oh, another big blow for Heath. One of his favorite guys is out for more than a month. We'll tell you about the big news when we come back on fantasy baseball today. All right, here we go. The news, Fernando Tatis.

left with a hamstring injury. I don't know the severity of it, but, you know, could be an I L. We'll see. I'm not going to speculate. We don't know anything, right? You don't know anything? I don't know anything. No, Andy Green was saying it's hamstrings are tricky.

He could feel better tomorrow. He could be out for weeks. But, yeah, he looked like he was in pain. It was, he did a full split stretching out for a throw at second. Eloy Jimenez is out at least a month with a high ankle sprain. That's a tough break. Oh, the Angels are calling up Griffin Canning. He will make his MLB debut tomorrow.

He is on the most ad list. Griffin Canning. Scott, what is your level of excitement for Canning, who is now 32% own? I'm less excited than curious to see how it performs. I mean, he has a pretty good prospect. He was never one of my favorites. But anytime you're talking about that kind of potential put in a major league role, I mean, it's worth monitoring to see how it does.

it does look like it looks like they're willing to commit to him it's not just like a spot start situation I mean I suppose if he's terrible they'll reconsider but it looks like he might be here for a while Griffin Canning has Toronto tomorrow and then next week he will have Detroit

at least one start at Detroit so he's interesting he is a right-hander 32% on as I mentioned would you drop Zach Eflin or Vince Velasquez for Griffin Canning No. I wouldn't. No. Would you drop, would you rather have

Eloy, excuse me, Griffin Canning, reading my notes, or Pablo Lopez? I'd keep Pablo. Yeah, Pablo hasn't had many good starts, but I like some of the underlying numbers. I think I'd stick with him. Chris Bassett or Griffin Canning? I think I'd take the flyer on Canning at that point.

I'm not really sure. Bassett's been great in his two starts, but I'm not really sure where the strikeouts are coming from because he hasn't shown much ability to do that in the past. past. So I think I'd take a fly around Canning. Heath, Canning, or Bassett? I think I'd go Bassett.

Michael Waka's coming off the IEL today. He's at the Nationals and at the Cubs. Start or sit. Michael Waka, 74% own. Sit him. Those matchups. Okay. Kyle Freeland's scheduled to come off the IL today.

Start or sit Kyle Freeland at Milwaukee, home against Arizona. Sit. I'd be more likely to start him than Waka. but it's, I'd rather not. F. Miller and AdCores. Yeah. Cody Allen is. Yeah, I just think he's better than Walker.

Cody Allen is on the IL with a back injury, a lumbar spine strain. Scott, what's going on to the Angels bullpen? I once knew a man named Lorenzo, last name Kane, like mine only spelled differently. No E. So I was in the supermarket looking for a certain type of bread to eat for my breakfast. I walked up to the guy behind the bread counter. I asked, what do you have for breakfast? What would you recommend?

He said, well, we have the biscuits. We have the bagels. We have the muffins. We have the English muffins. I told him, stop right there. I know what I want. He said, now, wait a second, sir. I have something else that I baked extra special, a certain sweet bread.

And he said, I said to him, well, what's in it? How good is it? He said, well, we put it right there in the dough. We put the cinnamon, we put the sugar, we put some nuts, sometimes maybe a fruit, like a blueberry, cranberry, and we bake it. We pull it back out, more cinnamon and sugar on the outside. It's delicious. It's a real, it's perfect if you have a sweet tooth, a real Hansel and Gretel sort of deal. What about you, Mr. Kane?

Do you have a sweet tooth? Are you a Hansel sort of guy? I said to him, no, sir. I prefer my bread. Butchery. But Michael Cain is wrong. It looks like Hansel Robles is actually the guy. Not Ty Buctery.

Not Tide Butchery. Great job, Scott. At least based on the way they were used yesterday. Yeah, it was just yesterday. But yeah, since Cody Allen was removed from the closer's role, Ty Buttrey has made two appearances and I think two, maybe more. but not in the same situations. So that was pretty interesting.

But yes, Robles is someone you could pick up. Hansel and Robles. Does that why you did that? Hansel and Gretel for Hansel Robles? So Michael Kane would clearly prefer Butchery, and I would too, for what it's worth. But the way they were used yesterday with Butchery pitching, did it end up not being a safe situation? Butchery pitched the eighth, I believe, and Robles was saved for the ninth. And it looks like, obviously, Alan, going on the IL, it's going to be, there's more interest in this than there was heading into the weekend, more interest in this situation.

I think in leagues where saves are scarce, you got to own both. But Robles looks to be in the driver's seat there. Did you write all that out and read it? But you did, right? I didn't write it out. No, but I rehearsed it a few times. I think that, like, I think that Lorenzo Keynes' sentence is like my, my, my. calibrator for getting in the Michael Cain voice.

So, whenever I pull out the Michael Cain again, like it's always going to start with that sentence. Okay. That's okay. So, Giancarlo Stanton says he could rejoin the team this week, but that doesn't mean, like, play this week, right? Just like they were on the road and he could... Get on the bench, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. But Miguel And Duhar could be back this week, so that's interesting. And more Yankees injuries. DJ La Mayhew left with knee inflammation and Giovanni O'Shella left after being hit by a pitch on the hand. X-rays for both players were negative, but... You know, obviously nobody's starting Urchella, even though he's been hitting. But LeMayhew, that would be pretty risky.

Williams-Austadillo is on the I-L with a hamstring injury. Damn it! And Chris Archer's on the I.O. with thumb inflammation. It has bothered him for his last two starts. And in those last two starts, nine innings, nine earn runs. And Archer's ERA has risen from 2 to 433. So he will take a little bit of a break. Check on these injuries in this sort of day-to-day fashion.

Anthony Rendon, this feels. was a little risky because he came back in the lineup and then he sat for two straight games after his elbow injury, so he's still dealing with the sore elbow. J.D. Martinez missed two straight games with back spasms. Christian Yowich left with back discomfort on Sunday. Robinson Canoe

was hit by a pitch on the hand. Billy Hamilton sat with hamstring tightness. Mitch Hanager left with a shoulder injury as Droble Cabreras missed three in a row with a sore calf. Trey Mancini's day-to-day with a finger injury. All right. A little bit more on

ads and drops here. We definitely have to talk about pitchers, including Chris Sale. He finally pitched and we didn't lead with Chris Sale, so that's progress we're making. But he's among the, I don't know, he had a pretty good start, actually. But there were some struggling studs like Miles Michaelis, Jacob de Grom, Noah Cindergarde, so we'll get to them. I don't know that we talk about who we added and drops unless you've got anything really interesting. We could just look at the most added list, which is... It was a quiet, weekend for me. It was the quietest so far in terms of ad drops. I think everybody was just really into the NFL draft and Game of Thrones and nobody paid

attention to baseball this weekend. And Avengers. Come on. Yeah. It's a, it was a trifect of big cultural events going on. Aren't you tired of these comic book movies? Every single one is the same exact thing. No. It's the same thing. Oh my gosh. You sound like such an old man, Adam. Well, I've been an old man for many, many years now. It's, it's, it's probably the most impressive in terms of movie world building, probably the most impressive feat in history. I mean, it's hard enough to get a trilogy to connect as in a way that's satisfactory. And to do this over a span of 22 movies, make them all interconnected in a way where there, I mean, in terms of which one's

just aren't good. It's probably like two or three, you know? Yeah, but they're all the scene. It's a really impressive achievement. I'm sorry. And this movie kind of celebrates all of them while also bringing them all together. It was wonderful. It was great. Glad you liked them. I'm glad you didn't have to go to the bathroom, but I only get movie reviews from Michael Cain going forward. Cardikey Boom number one on the most added list. Emilio Pagan is number two on the most added list. I just feel bad, Heath, for all the Jose Alvarado owners.

because this raised bullpen is crazy. Pagan got the save, I think, on Saturday. And then, or was it Sunday? And then Diego Castillo got one the next day. Yeah. And Alvarado pitched, I think, in both of those games. So should we be picking up Emilio Paghan? He went from 0 to 29% owned.

I was going to say, and I didn't know what his ownership was, but I was going to say, I think Emilio Paghan should be owned in about 30% of leagues. So I think fantasy owner's great job. That was the appropriate amount of adding Emilio Pagong. We can stop now. He's not going to be valuable in any points league. He's not going to be valuable, I don't think, in like a more shallow categories league.

But probably most of our 12-team categories leagues, somebody is that desperate for saves. And he's probably going to help you in ratios as well. So yes. I think the ownership needs to be a little higher than that. Well, yeah, I said 30. It's 29. one more person needs to add him. It might be, like, I don't think there's a roto league where I'd let him go unowned.

I think, you know, maybe something shallower than 12 teams. Yeah, but I think 55% of our leagues are points leagues. All right, so how about this? Would you rather have Pagan or Robles? Robles. Yeah, I think I'd rather have Robles, but I was looking at both of them. Also in leagues where I need saves, and maybe you're about to get to this, I was looking at Luke Jackson. Because AJ Minter is clearly not getting it done in the Braves bullpen after a huge blown save on Saturday that raised his ERA up over nine with a whip approaching two.

He nearly blew a save yesterday too, and Luke Jackson had to come bail him out. I don't think – I'm skeptical Luke Jackson is really closer material, but he has been one of their more reliable pitchers. late and they don't have much else to turn to. So he's kind of interesting, you know, below Robles and even below Pagan. Griffin Canning number three on the most added list. Mike Soroka, two starts this week. He's number four. Mike Zanino has been hitting well.

He's number five. So I guess if you need an Astidio replacement, just know that Zanino is a lot better in Roto leagues because his play discipline is so bad. But ride the hot hand. I do think there's some interesting stuff going on with Zino. I don't know that it means anything, but he is with the raise now. It's his first year with them, and so never mind. He struck out a bunch over the weekend.

He had gone like 12 games with two strikeouts. Oh, really? Maybe he was making a little more contact, but I think he has five over the weekend, so never mind. Oh, that's interesting. With three walks, 18 strikeouts. But, okay, we'll keep an eye on it. Dwight Smith is number six. Orioles outfielder.

Renato Nunez is number seven. Oriel's infielder. Talked about them a lot last week. And number eight is John Means, Orioles pitcher, who's relief pitcher eligible, and he's staying in the rotation. And John Means,

you know, he's about the same ownership as Chris Bassett. And who would you guys rather have? Means so far is a 174 ERA, six walks, 23 strikeouts in 20 and 2 thirds. He has made three starts out of seven appearances.

I am interested in Means. I haven't had an occasion to add him or Bassett for that matter, but means changeup looks like it could be a really good pitch. And if a pitcher has a single pitch like that that looks like it could be among the best of generating whiffs in baseball, then it doesn't take a big leap from there for him to just be an effective pitcher outright. So I'm at least keeping an eye on him. I don't know that he deserves to be much more than 18% owned right now, but he has my attention.

Yeah, I would rather have Bassett. I am interested in both. I think there's a decent chance with his stuff and the opportunities he's got that the ends justify the means. But you'd rather have Bassett? Yeah. Okay. You know, I just, that was... Heath, two more guys I want to talk about here.

Josh Reddick is 36% own. Only one lefty on the schedule for the Astros this week. And Eric Thames is 24% own. So Reddick and Thames available in a lot of... in many leagues, 75% or more, basically. Do you think now's the time to get them before it's too late, or are these just hot hand plays? I think they're just hot hand plays. All righty.

Buy low or heck no, with some stud pitchers. Tell me if there's anything here that's making you say, you know what, they're great, but I'm avoiding them. I don't want to buy low. Or they're not great, you know. That was a really bad way to frame it. Buy low or heck no. Chris Sale.

Chris Sale. Billo or heck no. I'm still wondering how much you can really buy low on him. There's, even with his last two starts, the end result being very promising. There are still a lot of naysayers out there who maybe are having an influence on the sale owner. I just wonder if the sale owner hadn't traded before these two starts, why he would choose now to trade. And I do think things are moving in the right direction here. You know, three starts ago, he showed he still could pull out the velocity if he wanted to.

Obviously, there's been a lot of talk about how he's pulling it back on purpose. And yesterday's start, he was getting hit hard very early, but then the pitching coach noticed something in his delivery after about the third or fourth inning. And he was terrific after that. The exit velocities are still high off of him. But getting more whiffs, like I said, he showed the velocity a few starts ago. I think he's going to be okay. So buy low if possible. Yes, I'm definitely buying low.

he has fallen another spot in my rankings, but only because Clayton Kershaw moved ahead of him. Kershaw baffles me. You know, I just have a problem where I just, velocity is so important to me, and he just doesn't have it. But gosh, the results have been so good for Clayton Kershaw. Well, I think it shows that, like, the Chris Sail thing throwing slower might have worked better if he had Clayton Kershaw's command. Like, Kershaw doesn't have to throw hard to be an awesome pitcher. He puts the baseball wherever he wants to. That's true, and his curveball is still, like, incredible getting whips on that pitch.

Jacob DeGrom and Noah Cindergarde, guys. Do you see causes for concern here? DeGrom says that he feels fine, but his mechanics are off. Noah Cindergarde said, quote, right now it just feels like I don't have trusted my slider in my curveball. Every time I get a new baseball out there, it feels like I am holding an ice cube. Every baseball I get feels as slick as can be, I have zero grip on the ball. That was Cinderguard.

He has one quality start and six starts. DeGrom has a 485 ERA and has given up 14 runs in his last 13 innings, and he's already had a D.L stint. So do you want to buy low on them, or are you nervous? And look, if you can turn Caleb Smith into them, yeah, obviously. But, okay, so don't take it so literally as like the last guy on your roster. Are you willing to give up something substantial? a good player for de Grom or Cindergarde.

It hopes that you're getting a great player. I would, in most every league I'm in, I would much rather trade a good, like non-starting pitcher for a good starting pitcher just because it's so hard to find a good starting pitcher. And I do believe they're both still good starting pitchers. Cinderguard, as you said, has allowed four or five earned runs in every start but one.

but unlike Chris Sale, the exit velocity is very low against him. He's not getting hit hard at all. And obviously, the velocity's there. I think he's going to be fine in the long run. DeGrom, too. I mean, it seems like a mechanical thing. They say the elbow feels good. The MRI that he finally did have confirmed that the elbow's good.

And he had a couple great starts to begin the year. So I think he's going to turn things around quickly. I like both as bi-low options. They are both by low options Thindergard has fallen a little bit in my rankings I think there's 16 deaf aces And he's still in that tier but he's 16th now for me Who's moving behind

I'd rather have Grinky I'd rather have Ranking I think I'd rather have Like Paxton Carrasco Okay All right Corey Kluber guys You have any concerns about him He's got a 581 ERA 15

35 strikeouts and 31 innings. He will face the highest scoring team in baseball this week, the Seattle Mariners. Corey Klober. Yeah, like, I would buy low on him on Klober, but I was a little nervous about him going into the season. He's probably fine, right? Yeah, I mean, if things continued down the same path in terms of where he looked like he might be regressing, I'd be more than Hervis. But the swinging striker, he's back up from, you know, closer to where it was two years ago.

So I'm not that concerned. I think he's going to be okay. I don't see any major red flags here for Cory Klooper. The only thing it concerns me a little bit is the walks, because his control has always been. So he has three starts already this year with more than three walks, or at least three walks in less than six innings. That doesn't sound like Corey Kluber at all.

And that might prevent him from being a top 10 starting pitcher. All right. So I mentioned four elite guys. Guys, Sayle, de Grom, Cindergarde, and Clover. Who concerns you the most? Cindergarde. I would say Cluber. Okay.

All right, then I got two more. Miles, Michaelis, and Kyle Hendricks. By low or heck no? No. I mean, that's obviously a lower standard to begin with. We're not talking about eighth-level talent here. Although Michaelis came pretty close last year. But I would say heck no on those two.

Michaelis, especially the fact that he's, I mean, he dominated mostly because he kept the ball on the ground last year. The fly ball rate is way up. He's already halfway to last year's home run total. We know he's not much of a bat misser. I mean, he could obviously get things back under control and be a great groundball pitcher again. But I don't think the upside is so high. And I wasn't so confident coming in that I'm just going to assume it. The thing is, I still think I would rather have Miles Michaelis than one of the stallions.

So if you could make that type of trade, I still think Miles Michaelis is going to be more valuable rest of the season than Chris Paddock, especially in a points league. So I guess I still would buy low on them. Well, the only stallion who's going to give you, who you could really sell high on right now is Caleb Smith, right? Yeah. Yeah. I want to trade Caleb Smith for Michaelis. Oh, man. You would, and we wouldn't trade Caleb Smith for Kyle Hendricks.

Hendricks, I mean, then... No. I don't know if it's just he's done or what, but 533 R.A. He does have a good strikeout rate, 24 and 25 and a third, but... And last time out, he had 11 strikes. I just think he's like the NL version of Rick Porcelo, where it doesn't... It doesn't take being off much to just have a disastrous start. All righty.

We got some pitchers. Those are some bad pitchers. How about some good ones? One that might be better than we thought. And we'll update you on some bullpen stuff. Talk about some hitters who are double-donging right now. Like all of the twins, they hit 13 home runs in three games or something like that at Baltimore. It was pretty incredible.

But we're going to take one more quick break here on fantasy baseball today. better than we thought when we come back. We'll be right back. Got some pitchers for you. They are doing some awesome things. Junjin Ryu, 10 strikeouts and seven innings against the pirates. He has a 296 ERA.

Last year he had a, what, 197 ERA, and more than a strikeout per inning and a 1.01 whip. It is a 1.02 whip. I mean, is he better than we thought? Is Shungi Ryu just like awesome? It's beginning to look that way. Yes.

I especially like that, including this weekend start. He's already made a couple of seven innings starts this year. So it doesn't look like the Dodgers are babying him despite his injury history, which is a good thing. Yeah, when you've got eight starting pitchers, just let him go. He'll go on the aisle for a couple weeks, and you'll bring one of your other great starting pitchers up. I think one of the most interesting guys in fantasy baseball right now is Marcus Stroman. 86% owns 16 swinging strikes against the A's. They don't strike out that much.

and he has a 143 ERA. He's only one in three, but 36 strikeouts in 37 and two thirds. I meant to look at the doubt. Is he throwing, I feel like he's throwing his slider more this year, and is Marcus Stroman becoming a pitcher that's actually going to get a strikeouts and not just be sort of a points league specialist? Is he better than we thought, Marcus Stroman? Well, I mean, if you're comparing the standard to last year, it's not surprising he's,

you know, if you made last year the standard, it's not surprising he's better than we thought. but he is doing some things a little differently. The ground ball rate is down. He used to be kind of up there with Dallas Kikell in terms of league outliers, which was the key to his success. It's still high, but it's down. Swinging strike rate is up. Yes, he is throwing his slider a lot more.

And that tradeoff seems to be going well for him. So I am, if I am a Stroman owner right now, knowing how hard it is to find that workhorse type who is reliable, a reliable workhorse. I think I'm just sticking with him. And is Mike Minor this good, Heath? 2880, RA, 39 strikeouts, and 40 and two-thirds. Four starts of seven or more innings.

And how about this? Four starts of seven or more innings and two or fewer earn runs for Mike Minor against teams that have ranked second, third, fifth, and 26th in OPS versus lefties. So three like really tough matchups based on early stats, and he's gone seven or more with two or fewer runs against them. That's Mike Minor. Is he really this good?

He's definitely had stretches where he looked almost this good in the past. I don't think he's quite this good. I wouldn't expect him to have a sub three ERA, but I do think that he is a must-start starting pitcher right now, and I wouldn't be that surprised if he was a must-start starting pitcher for the rest of the year. I mean, I would have been surprised to hear someone say that a few weeks ago, you know? Right. Yeah, he is.

better than we thought. I don't think he's quite this good. And Domingo Raman. Yeah, this felt a lot better before the sixth inning. He had five scoreless innings at San Francisco and then kind of fell apart in the six, gave up four runs. And I do wonder if he can go deep into games. He hasn't really done that.

He's only had one star with more than 89 pitches. And Domingo Raman has had a pretty easy schedule so far. He'll get Minnesota this week. But really, he's having a great year. I think he's tied for the league lead and wins, five and one, two, fifty, 60 RA. Scott, Domingo Raman, is he better than we thought? He also leads to A.L. and whip, which is a testament to the fact that he throws strikes. Sure, I think he's better than... Look, he's must-own now, and I don't know that he was

getting drafted as more than a late-round flyer, and that was only towards the end of spring training when it was clear they would have enough players on the IL to give him a spot. He has three pitches that generate swings and misses. The strikeout rate actually isn't even as high. as I was hoping it would be, but he's improved enough in other ways that it's all come together for him. And it's, it's rare that if I'm a, if I'm a Domingo Santana, if I'm a Domingo Hermann owner, sorry, that I'm sitting in. All right. So guys, rank Domingo Raman, Mike Minor and Marcus Stroman, Heath and Scott, Domingo Raman, Mike Minor, Marcus Strowman.

Strowman, Minor, Herman. Yeah. I think I'm going to go, I think I'm going to go minor. Stroman, Hermann. But they're all like in a range of 15 pitchers, I feel like. Which sounds like a lot. But in that stretch where there's so much

so much flipping around, it's really not. Yeah, I think I have all three of them within like nine spots in my rankings. They are pretty close. Between 40 and 50. All right, bullpins. Yeah, bullpins. Anthony Swarzak blew a save on

Friday. He hadn't pitched in six days. Rowena Silius got the win on Friday. He pitched two scoreless innings. They're owned in right about the same amount of leagues, right about 50%. Anthony Swarczak and Rowena Salyas. Who would you rather have in the Seattle bullpen? I think Swarzat. Yeah, barely. Hector Nerris has the last three saves for Philadelphia. He is 44% owned. How would you compare Neris to the Seattle guys, the Tampa Bay guys, anyone else we've taught, the Angels guys, anyone we've talked about today, Hector Nerris. I think he's right there at the top for me.

It's been surprisingly consistent how often Gabe Kapler's gone to him in the ninth inning. Encouraging. But. For people looking for saves. What about David Robertson? I mean, he will be back. What about David Robertson? Yeah.

Was he really being used like a closer before he went on the injured list? No, he wasn't. So I think it's, I think Narris keeps this role. Okay. For the time being. We talked about Pagan. There was a weird situation in the Cardinals bullpen yesterday. You may have noticed Jordan Hicks got one out in the 8th,

and then John Gant got a one-out save in the 9th. I couldn't figure it out, but it was strange. It was 3-0-0-0, I think, Cardinals, or there was 2-0. Hicks came in, got out of the inning. Then the Cardinals scored three more runs, and they thought, well, we could take Hicks out of the game. It's 5-0. They bring in a reliever who gives up two runs,

and then they bring in Gant for the save. Okay, so no big deal there. Hicks has been awesome. Butchery. Hader, Josh Hader got a two-inning save. Jeremy Jeffers had a bad outing on Saturday. Hater came in and rescued him. But Jeremy, Jeffers, that was his first appearance allowing an earn run in five appearances.

He has not been used as a closer yet. So how much longer should we hang on to Jeffers? He's 43% own. Two weeks. Very specific. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I'm not, I'm probably not making a move for Robles or Emilio Pagan in a league where Jeremy Jeffers is available.

But we'll point out, Jeremy Jeffers' velocity hasn't been close to what it was last year. So that is concerning. And I'm not sure. I'm not sure he's going to be the same guy without it. And then one more pitcher who is owned in about the same amount of leagues as Swarzak and Nerris and Rowanus Aalius

is Blake Parker. He got to save his fifth save of the season on Sunday for the Twins. Taylor Rogers had the previous two saves from Minnesota, So where's Blake Parker in this mix? He's right behind Harris. I think he's ahead of like the Mariners duo and anybody in the Angels bullpen ahead of Jeffress. I don't have a lot of confidence in his ability, but I think we can eliminate him from sort of the guys who are plagued by committees right now. He doesn't seem to be.

You guys were the team that dropped Taylor Rogers and he or the People League, right? Yes, we were. That was a very fun situation because you guys dropped him. We put on a waiver claim almost immediately. I think he got two saves while he was on waivers. Then we won him. We were very happy about it.

And then immediately after he was on our roster, Blake Parker got to say. Yeah. Parker was sick for a while there. Oh, that's right. That is right. Good call. And Pedro Strope is 50% own,

and I think I'd rather just have him. He's the guy. Yeah. For the Cubs. All right. I'm not going to say much about hitters. We'll just spend the rest on starting pitchers. I will say this, though.

Heath, you talked about Brandon Lau. He did sit against some lefties this weekend. So that could be an issue. Also, he... Yeah, I don't think he has any lefties this week, though. Good. It's really weird. Like, doing the show right now

and going to Pedro Stokes' player page and seeing a video of myself talking. It's freaking me out. News and notes. Because these videos that we do, we're doing the show on video, they get cut up into little VODs and they get put on player pages. It's really wonderful. Oh. You can watch us like that.

Oh, fun. Yeah. Or you can watch us. You've been doing this job a long time, Adam. Certainly, that's not the first time you've seen that. Well, this is the first time we had the podcast on video. That's true. The first time this sort of like, you know, we got this Brady Bunch thing going on with the squares.

Yeah, no, but usually the videos are just you. Not me. I haven't done really video in like five years or something. No. It's true. How do I look? Brandon Morrow says he's confident he'll be back this season. So like I said, Stroop's the guy right now.

Brett Anderson is the first pitcher to face both Vladimir Guerrero Senior and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Jordan Zimmerman's on the I-O with a UCL sprain. Ryan Zimmerman's on the I-L with Planner for Shiders. Should we add Matt Adams anywhere? I wasn't adding him anywhere, no. I mean, really deep league in L only, fine, but no. Alex Wood had a setback. Carlos Martinez is nearing a rehab assignment, and Minnesota hit 12 home runs in three games at Baltimore.

I mentioned that. I thought it was 13. It was only 12. Okay, what do we got? We got about 15 minutes left, and we got starting pitchers to talk about here. Studs being studs. Is there anything you want to say about? Steven Strasbourg, two good ones in a row. Clayton Kershaw, David Price, and Charlie Morton.

Strasberg Price, Kershaw, and Morton. So, there has been, there has been. was some concern raised about Price coming into the year having to do with swinging strike rate. Kershaw, obviously, we've talked about the drop in swinging strike rate last year. Strasbourg, his velocity's been down this year. All three of them, Price, Kershaw and Strasbourg have career high swinging strike rates so far. Strasbourg was struggling. His last two starts have been against San Diego, I think both against San Diego.

And as we mentioned earlier, San Diego has been a pretty bad offense so far. So I don't know. Should that taint the success of Steven Strasbourg? I don't think so. No, wait, I was wrong. It was San Diego and Miami. In fact, his last three stars are San Francisco, Miami, and San Diego. That's a good stretch.

You're going to have those. I'm not, like, he's in that ace tier. He didn't do anything for me to fall out of it. And so these are very good, rewarding starts. But him and Kershaw, I just, I feel very good about Price. I was just wrong about at the beginning of the year, and he's moved up into my top 30 starting pitchers and might move a little higher.

Okay, yeah, just set him against the Yankees. Last year, Price had a $2.92 against every team, not named the Yankees. And we'd like to see Morton go a little bit deeper into games. How about it? Charlie Morton has pitched seven innings once since July 1st of 2018. A couple other studs being studs.

Why are they called studs? Because they're owned in more than 80% of leagues. Matt Boyd, he might just legitimately be a stud. and then Zach Eflin, complete game, one run, three strikeouts against Miami. The strikeout rate way down. But Boyd, like, wow.

Boyd could have been in that better-than conversation. How would you compare Boyd to Stroman, Minor, Erman? Ahead of all of them. Yep, I agree. Okay. And do you think... It's like a breakout.

Do you think it's okay to drop Zach Eflin, or do you want to keep him? I'd like to keep him. Yeah, I'd like to keep him. like to, but I don't see a lot of reason for excitement. I think the previous two starts where he struggled are closer to my expectations for him than this most recent start against Miami. You know, really low swinging strike rate. Velocity isn't where it was last year.

Yeah, I don't think he's that good. That's Eflin. Studs being Duds, part one. Bumgarner, bad. Arieta Bad Kintana Bad

John Gray Worse Bumgarner Areeta Kintana John Gray Heath give me your take on these studs being duds Well I was

pretty concerned about Bumgarner coming into the year And even when he got off to a relatively good start I didn't necessarily think that it was legit I don't know that Madison Bumgarner is a must start

starting pitcher anymore The gray thing is frustrating because he had really, really started to look a little bit more consistent at the start of this year. And then to have it go this bad in a road start, still, it's just one start. I'm probably going to stick with him. Yeah, and all four of these guys, Bumgarner, Dodgers at home, Areietta, Washington at home, Kintana, St. Louis at home, John Gray at Milwaukee. All four of them have tough matchups. How many of them would you start, Scott? Bum Garner against the Dodgers, Arieta against the Nationals, Kintana against the Cardinals, John Gray at Milwaukee.

I, the one who I might look to sit just because I don't think he's very good is Jake Areeta. Now, if I was in a great situation pitching-wise, I had a lot of alternatives, I'd consider sitting any of these four. But Areeta is the one who I really have just no confidence in him, even though this was his first non-quality start of the season this weekend. If I had all four of these guys in my roster, and I needed to start one, it would be John Gray. If I needed to start two, it would be John Gray and Madison Bumgarner. If I needed to start three, it would be Gray, Bumgarner, and Kintana. What if you needed to start four? Well, then I would probably be looking for somebody on the waiver wire or I'd start Jake Carrietta.

I think I would start Vince Velazquez against Detroit over all four of them. I would over Carrietta for sure. I'm not sure about the rest. Studs being Duds part two. Luke Weaver, bad against the Cubs. Carlos Rodon, bad against the Tigers. Not everybody's good against the Tigers. He was terrible.

Really bad. Joey Lucasey. He's struggling right now. No quality starts in six starts. And Kevin Gosman. Again, why are these guys... Why are these guys studs their own in more than 80% of leagues? but I think they were all two-star pitchers last week.

Weaver, Rodon, no, not Rodon. Weaver, Rodon, Lucchese and Gosman. Rodan was not a two-star pitcher. Drop them, keep them? What do you think? I think Lucchasey is the one I'm most confident dropping at this point because the whole... He could get away with not facing a lineup a third time through,

rarely go into six innings required if a quality start if the ratios were good. But three of his last four starts. have been awful. And so I'm not really sure what reason there is to use him anymore. And if you can't justify using a guy ever, why do you have him on your roster? The other three Weaver Rodon, Gausman, I'm the most skeptical of Rodon, but he had been good enough that I'll give him a pass for this one awful start and stick with him for now. The one I'm definitely not dropping is Luke Weaver.

I'm going to try really hard not to drop Rodon. I don't care if the other two, whatever. And now it's time for some waiver wire pitchers. Fringy starting pitchers part one. These guys are owned in 65 to 79% of leagues. Stephen Mats, Sonny Gray, and Derek Rodriguez. Here's what's going to happen with Steven Mats. So he, three starts ago, he didn't get out of the first inning against Philadelphia.

And he had a two-start week, and I sat him because I didn't want him to be terrible against Philadelphia again. And Milwaukee, tough matchups, going to sit him. So he had two good starts, of course. This week he's at Milwaukee. I haven't decided what I'm going to do, but I'm probably going to sit him because Milwaukee is so good at home. He's going to do really well in the start. Like, guaranteed. If I sit him, he's going to do well.

Then I'm going to put him in my line up the following weekend. He's going to be awful. That is going to be Stephen Mats. I don't think we want Sunday. I don't think we want Derek Rodriguez. That's just my hunch. So between Mats and Sunny Gray, shallower leagues, who would you rather own? Matt's or Gray?

Gray. I think it's great. It is like, that Stephen Matt's start was so incredibly historically bad. Yeah. But everything else has been really good. I just don't know why what's good is good. That's the main thing. He doesn't have a pitch that's getting any kind of whiffs for him.

You know, still hasn't used the slider that made him his success early on. I don't know. I don't know why he's succeeding when he succeeds. So that makes me obviously skeptical. I feel like Sonny Gray, we know what makes him good when he's good. Matt's, and also he had that great start against the Nash, the Phillies, whoever it was, where the strike zone was so big that Harper got ejected. I think it was the Phillies, right?

Right? There was a start like that where we were kind of given, forget it, who cares? Fincy starting pitchers part two. 50 to 64% own. I'm going to tie those skags. Plus Brandon Woodruff. Trevor Richards. Aaron Sanchez.

Finally healthy. Two straight years where he's dealt with finger issues. Matt Strom. And Kyle Gibson and Wade Miley. A big group here. Tyler Skaggs, Brandon Woodruff. Trevor Richards. Aaron Sanchez.

Matt Strom. Kyle Gibson. Wade Miley. Scott, have I said any names that jump off the page. at you. No. No. I don't know that any of these guys deserves to be more owned than they are. I have some interest in Skaggs, Woodruff, and Trevor Richards, but I want to consider any of them must own. I actually

dropped Brandon Woodruff in a league this weekend. Trevor Richards, I mean, life comes at you fast. Suddenly, his numbers don't look so good anymore. Two of his last three starts have been pretty bad. Obviously, he's still interesting with that change up, but not much of a supporting cast. I think if you cut him loose now, there's not going to be a lot of interest in him on the waiver wire. Matt Strom does not make any sense to me at all, but I do think we should probably talk a little bit more about him because he had a terrible first start only lasted two and two-thirds innings.

His last four starts since then, he has two walks in the four starts. He has a pair of quality starts in his last two. He's only given up like four earned runs in his last four starts. he's been very good it's not quite the way that we thought he would be very good although he did have eight strikeouts and sixth in the third it's been mattsy it's been maxi

not sure what's making him good but he's been better yeah he's not totally bearing it's spectacular that's one of the thing that's made him good none of these guys have great matchups this week skaggs woodruff Richards Aaron Sanchez Matt Strom Kyle Gibson

maybe Gibson at the Yankees but that's what I thought about like Derek Rodriguez and it didn't work out. And Wade Miley at the Angels. Wade Miley at the Angels might have the best matchup of this bunch, but he just... How about this? Wade Miley, 22 straight starts of three earned runs or fewer.

He just, you know, doesn't really give you much other than that, but you need to me or I help. Wade Miley might help you there. And Fringy starting pitchers part three, 30 to 49% owned, Pablo Lopez, Reinaldo Lopez, and Jared Eichoff. In a way, they're more interesting than a lot from the last group. All three of them.

I would probably rank Pablo Lopez ahead of Trevor Richards now among the stallions. And I would take a flyer on Raynaldo Lopez while he's riding this hot streak, see where it goes, over maybe all but scags from the last group. Okay. And then Heath, I know I promised you that if we didn't talk about Homer Bailey, we wouldn't talk about Lance Lynn. They're the first two guys in the deep league section. Bailey at Detroit. You're a liar.

Lance Lynn, Chris Bassett, Gio Gonzalez, Tyler Malley, Dakota Hudson, Danny Duffy, Chase Anderson, and Anthony D.Sclafani. Did I say any names other than Chris Bassett that are worth looking at? No, other than Chris Bassett, I'm not interested in anyone on those lists.

All right, I think we're done. See you. Thanks, guys. Bye. All right, now that's it for Fantasy Baseball today. Make sure you listen to Fantasy Football today. We're going to recap the NFL draft.

It's going to be wonderful. Thanks so much for listening. We'll come back at you on Tuesday on Fantasy Baseball today with a Monday recap. And your emails at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. See you later.