Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/13: Weekend Roundup - Prospects are Here! (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 13, 2019

We had some interesting call-ups this weekend, but it's possible only one of them really matters. Let's start with some hitters (2:00) and pitchers (6:22) to add including a couple of saves options. Also, Hyun-Jin Ryu deserves his own segment (15:30) ... Big injuries to talk about (18:30), the aforementioned call-ups (23:30) and their Fantasy values, a look at the Most Added list (25:30) and we play "Start, Sit or Drop" (32:00) for Joey Votto, Travis Shaw, Jose Ramirez and Daniel Murphy ... SP talk (39:00) for the remainder of the show, beginning with the studs and getting into the SPs you might actually be able to add. Who is the best Cubs pitcher? Best Dodgers pitcher? We're buying Frankie Montas now. Should you add Spencer Turnbull? Zach Davies? Also a look at today's matchups to end the show ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. It was a busy Saturday and Sunday for me. Add drops everywhere.

I even made a couple of trades all about fantasy baseball right now. Welcome to the show, everybody. It is Monday, May 13th. Hope everybody, excuse me, had a great weekend and a great Mother's Day. And here I am with Scott White. Scott, what's going on, my man? I'm fine, Adam. I'm doing fine. I didn't say, what's going on?

I didn't say, how are you? I know, I know. But that's a harder question to answer. What's going on is we're doing a podcast. And here we are. Here we are. There you go. You answered it perfectly.

So I did make a lot of bad drops. Did you also find yourself making a lot of transactions? this weekend? No, I wouldn't say I made a lot of transactions. I feel like it was about the normal amount of transactions. I'm interested to hear what kind of transactions you are making, frankly, because maybe I've been left behind. No, there were a couple players in the podcast Points League.

I'm two and four, and just a team is just, nothing has fallen into place. I've got a very talented IL, and I just, I'm done. I'm done with Ryan McMahon. I'm done with Adam Eaton. Two guys I was excited about when I drafted them. I had to drop them. You got these prospects getting called up,

and I know a lot of people are adding Corbin Martin, Cole Irvin, who are not quite on that train yet, and I get it, doesn't get a lot of strikeouts. You had J.P. Crawford and Shed Long get called up, so we're going to talk about that. And I guess let me start with one hitter to add. I think it was more pitchers for me, which is typical. But if there was one hitter to add, who would it be?

Yeah, it was more pitchers for me too, but probably the hitter to add would be from Il Reyes, whose ownership is still less than 70%, even though it's kind of all coming together for him here in May. Actually, his last 30 games, he has an OPS near 1,000 and batting over 300. You know, the things we've been talking about forever with him, the quality of contact, the line drive rate is great, hard contact, hits the ball to all. field should be a high bad-bip guy. And it got out to a very slow start. But the Padres kept the faith.

They've started him more than anybody expected coming into the season. I think he started 13 straight games now. And I think he's trending toward must-start status. The fact you could still get him off the waiver wire is pretty awesome. Yeah, I'm actually, as we speak, I'm going to drop Clint Frazier for Fran Mill Reyes. This is a points league. And like both Reyes and Frazier should probably be owned, but Frasier has. has like four walks or something like that.

Yeah, points league, three outfielders. That makes it a little tougher. It's a 14 team league. Somebody will probably pick them up, but... Yeah, they both should be owned, but I don't have the roster space. So I'm going to pick up Reyes, because I like him. I like him a lot, and I think Scott's 100% right. And I think that there's some first baseman that I thought were pretty interesting.

C.J. Crone is starting to come around. His slash line looks almost exactly like it did last year when he hit 30 home runs. Yuleiguriel, if you need batting average in like a category, league. He's like 68% owned or something, but Gurriel has hitting over 400, I think, in the month of May so far. And Mitch Morland, you know, I think only a five-day week for the Red Sox, but I said it on CBS Sports HQ yesterday. More about that later. I don't expect to keep up for more than I've said that on the podcast, too. But he's just been so hot that if he doesn't have a lot of lefties on the schedule, you might want to start Mitch Morland. Okay, I think I might have another hit. Oh, Hunter Pence. Yeah, look, I don't buy it with Hunter Pence.

I know Scott's going to tell me about the hitting coach. I think it's going to end. But if you are willing to stream pitchers, you should probably be willing to stream hitters. And I'm okay. I feel like a lot of people don't feel this way, and that's fine. But I'm okay chasing hot streaks to an extent. I'm not dropping anybody great for Hunter Pence.

But I'm going to pick it up. I'm going to see where it goes. Because he's homering. He's hitting great. So Hunter Pence deserves more respect right now, and I will write it out. I'm going to start him in a five outfielder league this week. Well, let's talk about the hitting coach, right?

We got to give a full take here on Hunter Pence. Doug Lata, the private inning instructor who made Justin Turner everything he is, is who Hunter Pence worked out with this offseason to the point that he then went and put it to the test in the Dominican Winter League. But really, we started to see the results in spring training. It was easy enough to ignore them because it was spring training, and he didn't even for sure have a roster spot. and if he did it'd probably be on the bench. Well, it's kept going now to the point that the Rangers have started him.

I believe now against three straight right-handed pitchers. Obviously, I mean, the numbers are ridiculous. So to this extent, I'm skeptical they're going to continue too. But if he continues to play against right-handers, I think he's going to be a useful option. I think there's enough smoke to pretty, that was preceding this fire that I'm not totally riding it off, even though he's a 36-year-old who the giant threw it off.

Yeah, it kind of reminds me of like Ryan Zimmerman a couple years ago where he had such an extended hot streak. And the main reason that he gave was like, I'm healthy now. And so... Yeah, this is a better reason, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also, I mean, it is. A swing change is nice.

And Scott, like, Scott was saying he's starting against Ritey's, well, he's going to starting against lefties. That's just, I think that was sort of unsaid. But one lefty and five righties on the schedule and not tough matchups. Duffy, Lopez, Bailey, Michaelis, Hudson, Flaherty. That's not a bad week for Hunter Pence, so he's in my lineup. Is there a pitcher that is must add right now? Well, Corbyn Martin, I actually was fortunate enough to add him in, I think at four leagues prior to Sunday start, Even though I was not super excited about him, he didn't have a single start of AAA this year where he went six innings.

And it doesn't sound totally clear that Colin McHugh's demotion to the bullpen is intended to be a permanent thing. I think it maybe could be, but it sounds like it might be more of a get him back on track thing. But as with any prospect call up, if he performs, there's usually a way to keep him around. And Corbyn Martin certainly performed in his first start against Texas yesterday. yesterday, five and a third innings, two run runs, nine strikeouts. This is a guy who, despite the short outings of AAA, 148, ERA, 103 whip, 10.4 strikeouts per nine innings. I like that of his 10 swinging strikes yesterday, four were on the fastball, three on the curveball, three on the changeup.

So there seems to be a diverse enough arsenal there. And obviously the Astros supported cast is great. So any of the leagues where I didn't add him, Saturday night, I added him, I tried to add him Sunday night. And I also think there's a second that is worth adding everywhere, and that is Lucas Gialito, who turned in his second straight dominant start of seven plus innings, eight strikeouts. They were against weak lineups, Cleveland and Toronto, but regardless, his swinging strike rate is way up this year. His fastball velocity is up. His secondary arsenal looks to improve both the changeup, and especially the slider.

and he might be breaking through here. He might be breaking through. Got to take a chance on... Really, the reason I took a chance on Martin and the reason why I don't think there's any reason not to take a chance on Gialito is... Like, you take a chance on any pitcher who's showing he has a chance to be more than fringy.

Sure. Because there are so few out there who do. And who's Gialito get this week? He gets the Toronto Blue Jays again. So it'll be another nice matchup for him. Yeah, look, I think that I'm going to... going to be starting Gialito in two leagues. I think I own him in two of six leagues. And I'm starting him fully aware that he's Lucas Gialito and based on his track record,

he could give up eight runs. He's got so many terrible starts under his belt in the early portions of his career. And I get it. But I liked him coming into the season. And the velocity is really encouraging. So I'm with you on Gialito. That was the pitcher I was going to recommend as the one guy to add. I think there are more that we'll get to. I take a look at Matt Strom. I picked him up in a league. because I had some RP injuries. We talked about him. There's a couple guys that I'm going to talk about in a second.

The results weren't great over the weekend, but some of the underlying stats are encouraging. But two other pitchers that you should pick up. Steve Sechek is 12% owned. He got the save yesterday. I really think he's the closer while Strope is out. I don't know that he gets every save, but he's the best option. But he's not even close to as good as Luke Jackson,

who is clearly the closer for the Braves. Luke Jackson is 35% owned, and he didn't get the save on Saturday. but he did pitch on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Scott... Two winning, saved Sunday. Yes, two in a week. Yes.

Scott dropped him in the Four of the People 16 team scam league. Yeah, so I don't know that I'm never going to let you forget that. We all make the stakes. But yeah, yeah, he mentors down in the minors now. And even the day he was off Sunday, Jacob Webb, who did seem like the backup option behind Jackson couldn't complete the ending or wasn't allowed to complete the ending.

Johnny Venters got a one-out save. So there doesn't really seem to be any other options right now, at least until the minor league, at least until the draft happens in less than a month and then the Braves signed Greg Gibral. Sure. Okay, pitchers that you might want to drop

but should think twice about. I started both of them in a Rotel League yesterday, and it didn't work out. Now, one is Griffin Canning. He's 65%-0, and he was a two-start pitcher. And I could understand not starting him. The results just haven't been there. He is a 565 ERA. But Griffin Canning, in three starts has 18, 17, and 16 swinging strikes. Tell him. And he hasn't got more than five and a third, so he's not throwing that many pitches. So I feel like Griffin Canning would probably be leading the league in swinging strike rate if he qualified. If not leading to the league, he'd be. be up there. So it's something to keep in mind. If he can put it together, he might have a chance to be sort of special. It gets Kansas City this week. And on three pitches, kind of like I was saying, for Corbyn Martin, kind of what initially attracted me to Hermann Marquette's. Three different

pitches getting those swinging strikes. And speaking of three pitches. That's great. Tyler Malley, pitched a lot better than the final line, four runs and six and a third. He gave up two runs. This was against the Giants. So, you know, I thought he'd really dominate. He gave up two runs in the first inning. The next five were scoreless. He came out for the seventh inning, and Tyler Malley gave up two more runs, and he leaves with four runs and six and a third doesn't look great. But one walk, eight strikeouts, and now he's got nine walks to 49 strikeouts and 45 and a third, a 3970 R. Malley's 0 and 5, but he's only 25 percent. O'N. So forget about like pitchers you might be thinking about dropping. He's the one I think you really should consider adding. We might have some

untapped potential there with Tyler Malley. Yeah, I mean, he's not bad, but I think there's a limit to his upside. Part of the reason I've been talking about three different pitches being effective for Martin and Canning is because Malley doesn't have that. So he's kind of the poster child for the direction. The league is going, not letting starting pitchers face a line up a third time through, which is why we're seeing this dearth of game-changing talent at the position. And so, yeah, I'm not loving Malley, but he can't be useful if he's used right by the Reds. By the way, Griffin Canning, is there a player in baseball whose name sounds more like a company than Griffin Canning?

Because if there is, I don't know what it is. We can think about that. But Tyler Malley, Scott, like I thought, you know, he's. using his curveball more and well I guess he's really just sort of replaced his slider with his curveball but I yeah I I okay he's less rel-he's becoming a little less reliant on the fastball a little all right all right you can pick the argument he's a one-pitch pitcher kind of less so less so this year than last year but yeah okay all right fair enough so I got to think of of names that sound like a company this is going to take me the rest of the show

promoting a few things here. We can get some audience suggestions for tomorrow's podcast. Okay. Kind of weave it into team name Tuesday. There you go. That makes sense. There you go. I'm planning the show.

You are on tomorrow's podcast, right? Yes, you are. Yeah, sure. Not on Wednesdays. That's the thing. Okay. God willing. We have a lot of podcasts, not just fantasy baseball today.

We have fantasy football today. We have Cannell and Bell off the bench. Great show every morning. Or Monday through Friday. That show gets out pretty early as well. like our show. And it's just like kind of a daily sports talk show. Cannell and Bell are a great, really entertaining show.

You're going to love it. It's also on CBS Sports HQ. We've got a combat podcast called State of Combat. That is MMA boxing and wrestling, all rolled into one. We have a golf podcast, three times a week, a golf podcast. Good luck finding golf coverage like that. That is called The First Cut with Kyle Porter. We have a lot more.

College basketball, college football, NFL. That's called Pick Six. Go to CBSports.com. slash podcasts or podcast, either one, CBSports.com slash podcast to get the full listing and ways to subscribe. We are on Spotify, so check out our shows on Spotify. And CBS Sports HQ, that's our 24-7 streaming service. I was plugging it all week long on Twitter, on the show. I said 3 to 7 p.m. Eastern. So if you tuned in looking for us at 3 to 7 p.m. Eastern, things changed. You've noticed that Heath hasn't been on the show. Chris is also out of town. Heath and Chris both out of town, so they were

unable to do the show yesterday. Plus, we had two game sevens in the NBA. So Scott and I went from three to seven to Scott did a half hour and I did an hour, but we're on from 330 to 430. But we'll be back. I don't believe we'll be back this weekend because of the PGA championship, but I'll let everybody know about CBS Sports HQ. It'll be longer than an hour going forward. I jump back on there for another segment later. You stopped watching and missed out. You can't stop watching CBSHQ because he never know when we're going to pop up. Exactly. I was driving home or I would have been watching. Before we get to the big news, and there's a lot of it with Altuve and the catcher injuries and Nelson

Cruz and Tyler Glass now. Jun Jinyu deserves his own segment, Scott. He has a 172 ERA. He has three walks to 54 strikeouts, a 0.7.3 whip, eight or more innings than three straight starts. You go back to last year now, so that's 82 and a third plus 52 and a third. That's, what, 134 innings, 134 and two-thirds innings with a sub-1 whip, a sub-2 ERA, and how many walks? 18 walks. So, oh, my gosh, he's been amazing. He deserves his own segment.

I mean, you go back a couple years, and could you have even imagined Tianjin Ryu would become Dodgers' workhorse? He was coming back from some, like, we just wondered if he'd even be decent again. He was coming back from some awful injuries. and when before all those injury troubles started, he was a great strikeout to walk ratio guy as well. Certainly he is now. You know, the BAP-up is low, but when you have three walks with the kind of innings he's pitching,

that's not something I'm going to harp on. Okay, he's not quite as good as a 172 ERA and 0.73 whip. I think he's still looking like Ace Material here. Right. So where is Junjin Ryu going to fall? your rankings. Yeah, it's something I'm going to have to take a look at, but we may have to move him into the top 25 at least.

That's it? Well, okay, who do you want him ahead of? Should I put him ahead of like, uh... Okay, I would take him ahead of of James Paxton, David Price, Shane Bieber, so that's top 20. I'd probably put him ahead of Tyler Glass now at this point, so that's top 19, and then he's in that group with Kershaw, Marquez, Berrios, Castillo, Bueller, which is, I think, very fair. That's probably fine. Yeah, top 20. Okay.

Late teens there. Seems like a good spot for him. Oh, Jung Juryu, really, really good. And I'm not even sure they're going to give him a fake injury this year. Speaking of fake injuries, we're going to talk about Derek Holland later. Let's go through the big news. We're going to do that right after this quick break on fantasy baseball today. Well, the big news starts with Jose Altovae, Scott.

He is on the IL with a hamstring strain. On CBS Sports H.Q, I talked to David Sampson, former president of the Miami Marlins. He has some concern about this injury. He said that the hamstring injuries are like, I think he said like a guest at a party who won't leave. They tend to linger. So I said, you know, Ledmas Diaz in deeper leagues, you might want to pick him up. I think I actually put in a claim for Led Miss Diaz. Yeah.

But I didn't get him. We have seen some quick returns from hamstring injuries this year, too. I don't know how they're rating it in terms of severity, but it seemed like he could. There was talk that he might be able to avoid the IL at first, so I don't know. I'm not terribly concerned, though. Yeah, I mean, muscle strains, they can sometimes cause setbacks and linger and that sort of thing. Right. Nelson Cruz is going to have an MRI on his wrist, so I don't really have much more information there,

but that's never a good thing, and fingers crossed on Nelson Cruz. Catcher injuries, Buster Posey's on the seven-day IL, as we know. He might actually be able to play at some point this week, but who knows, you know, you probably want to look for replacements there, Shallower League's Mitch Garver, and Williams Astadillo. Actually, that's going to affect both of them. They have now three catchers because Astridio is back. Asadio came off the DL and he let off yesterday.

So, yeah, that could be terrible. I'm still excited about Garver. I almost mentioned him when we were talking about hitter pickups, because it is shocking to me for as good as he's been and as terrible as the need is a catcher that he's still around 70% owned in leagues. Jason Castro has a long enough track record and the twins have kind of steered away from him more lately

and toward Garver that I feel I feel good he's going to become less and less of an issue and Williams Astudeo assuming he hits there are other places they can play him. I'm not saying he won't catch at all. but if Garver can find a way to catch between four and five games a week, I think there's enough production in his bat. You know, last year, in his final year in the minors,

he had an OPS over 900, so this isn't coming out of nowhere. I think there's enough production there that Garver is going to be worthwhile and won catcher leagues, even as shallow as like 10 team. Yeah, and still the best team name we've had, I think, so far this year, is filmed in front of a studio audience. Terrific. AJ Minter to the Miner's, as we mentioned, Tyler Glass now out four to six weeks

with a forearm strain. Ronald Acuna batted leadoff. So they moved into the lead off. Exciting because he's got, I think, two steals this year. And he did attempt to steal on Saturday. He was caught stealing, but this was a big deal for him last year.

Where Acuna batted in the order and how many stolen bases he attempted. Basically, when he let off, he ran. Don't know if it's permanent, but it's significant. He also hit much better in the leadoff spot last year. He's starting to hit, so he was starting to come out of it. But good stuff for Acuna if you're an Acuna owner. Miguel Sunnoe, going to look up his ownership real quick,

but he could be back this week. Guess Miguel Sinosown's ownership. Scott, I'm going to guess it is 78%. I would think it's more like 60, is my guess. 52% a terrible guess yeah if we're on the prices right we'd both be out yeah well what would be your level of enthusiasm

for picking up Sineau if you if you saw them on your waiver wire 52% own well corner infield is not a great need for me and you know obviously Sineau has had more bad than good as a major leaker so far but the power potential is really high. And at times he's shown the ability to get on base too.

It would be, I don't think the ownership should probably go much higher than where you put it at. 78%. That's probably about the highest that I'd want it to be. Would you drop- I can't see myself adding him in a points league at all. Would you drop Travis Shaw from Miguel Senau? I would be hesitant to do that because Shaw has been more consistent in the past. he's second base eligible, which is

bigger need. Okay. I'll finish off the notes here. Sean Kelly threw a bullpen session. He could be back, so if you have Chris Martin, you might not be getting much out of Chris Martin. Aaron Hicks is set to return today. Day to Day to Day. Day, Day, Day.

He's probably okay. I think the Cubs are off today. He had some back tightness after the extra inning game on Saturday. Brandon Belt did pinch hit yesterday. He's got knee inflammation. Ryan Braun pinch hit on Sunday. And Gary Sanchez and Glaber Torres were rested on Sunday. appear to be okay.

Their day-to-day. I think I'd probably, if I were, you know, Sanchez, you're going to start. Torres, I'm actually going to sit Torres for Jeff McNeil. Because Torres just hasn't been very good. And call-ups. Okay, so let's talk about the important ones here. Corbin Martin for the Astros is probably the most exciting. He's 45% own.

Vince Velasquez is on the aisle with a forearm strain. So Cole Irvin pitched yesterday. One run in seven innings with only five strikeouts. That's not his forte. But that's Cole Irvin for the Phillies. And then you got J.P. Crawford and Shed Long coming up for the Mariners, a couple of infielders. And Miami calling up Harold Ramirez, who's 2% owned, and he started in left field on Sunday and went one for four. Are you picking up Cole Irvin, J.P. Crawford, Shed Long, or Harold Ramirez?

Not in standard-sized leagues, no. It's not to say none of them have interesting minor league numbers. Like you said, the problem for Irvin, 5.8 strikeouts per nine innings at AAA. And they've been low throughout his minor league career. Other numbers have been good. But you have to kind of thread the needle to be a successful pitcher's without strikeouts in today's game. And I'm not confident that's going to happen. But I don't feel like, I mean, J.P. Crawford, we've seen the majors before and it hasn't gone well.

Harold Ramirez has been at this point, he's kind of a minor league journeyman. And I'm not sure he has enough power. I'm not sure how concrete the roll it. So yeah, I'm not particularly motivated to add these guys except in like AL and L only leaks. Okay. And for Shed Long,

I think D. Gordon's not supposed to go on the IL. So I don't know how long, how long. Shed Long is going to be up. And if you have them, you might want to shed them from your roster. Hey, but the Mariners are going to start selling. The Mariners are going to be in cell mode soon. And so you'll see Shed Long and J.P. Crawford, I assume a little bit more.

of them. All right, I told you who we added. Let's take a look at who you added. It is time for the most added players in CBS Sports.com leagues. Number one is Corby. Number two is Danny Duffy. So is he a two-start pitcher, Danny Duffy? Yes. Not one I'd recommend, but he is one who is coming off two good starts, three good starts, two good starts. And I think one of his match, is good. I just don't buy into the resurgence here. There's not enough backing it to justify the downside. Texas and at the Angels for Duffy. Third on the most added list is Mike Fires at Seattle and at Detroit. Fires and Duffy are owning about the same amount of leagues right around 50%. And I don't think we're going to recommend either of them.

Nah, I'd be more willing to start fires because that Detroit matchup is better, but I'd rather just leave them where they are. And Luke Jackson's 53% own. We're excited about that. So actually yesterday he was 35% owned. Now Luke Jackson is 53% own. It makes sense. Lucas Gialito, 58% own.

We talked about that. Kyle Gibson, 77% owned. Scott's feeling it with Kyle Gibson. He gets the Angels at home and the Mariners on the road this week. So good matchups for Kyle Gibson. That's a Mariners home game. And I don't think they hit very well at home. I've said that before, so now it's time to double check.

Hunter Pence, Mitch Garver. You know, I always know, Scott, that the show is good when we've talked about most of the most added list. That's a good thing. Brandon Woodruff, 87% owned. He's been pitching very well. James McCann, we haven't talked a lot about him, but if you need a catcher and you might with Zanino out and with Posey out, James McCann is 60% owned. Jonathan Lou Croy is 71-0, they're both on the most added list.

What do you think about Luke Croy and McCann? So they're kind of... And the other McCann, Brian McCann. Throw him in there. We got to throw him in there? Sure. So James McCann and LeCroix are kind of succeeding. Like the wake of catcher position falls short is there aren't enough guys who play enough.

And there aren't enough guys who hit enough. And they're kind of standing out for opposite reasons. LeCroix is one of the ones who plays the most. And James McCann has been the most productive when he plays. McCann's kind of in the same boat as Garver as far as playing time and production so far. but I don't buy into the legitimacy of it as much. Fine as a hot hand play, but don't get too attached. If you're desperate, you could do LaCroix,

but I'd rather not go for the guy who's succeeding just on playing time. And I had to pick up Brian McCann in a two-catcher league where I lost both my catchers. It was a rough week. Zanino, Posey, Altovae, Glass Now, and someone else. Tough week for me. Ty Owen, that was last week.

Yeah. Crap team. But you know the good thing about that, Scott? Is that now I can blame injuries for my failures. Now I can be like... Oh, that's so annoying. No, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it.

Who's going to listen? Who's going to sympathize with that, honestly? Who sympathizes with that? Even when people pretend to sympathize, they're really rolling their eyes behind your back. It's probably true. Like, everybody has to deal with injuries at some point. get over yourself. Altuvee, Glass Now Posey, Zanino all in the same week.

I think Zanino was this week. McCann, by the way, is not playing very often, unfortunately. So Brian McCann, that is. So I'm sure he'll be terrible on my terrible team. And also on the most added list, not my terrible team, my very injured team. It's the injury's fault. Let's see, some guys who might actually be available. John Means.

John Means is okay. He's, John Means, like, without ever seeing him pitch, I knew he was a lefty. John Means is the most Southpaw name that you could possibly have. He's 100% left-handed. He's 36% owned and has been all right. And Derek Dietrich, Tommy Lestella, who's got a better chance of actually being legit? I think Lestella, because the plate discipline is beyond good, he, like, walks as much as, like, twice as much as he strikes out, which the strikeouts are almost zero. obviously hasn't shown this kind of power in the past, but there's been a change in his batteball profile that would suggest more power.

And it's gone on long enough that I don't think we can just write him off. He does need to play more consistently. But that's true of Dietrich too. Are you buying David Fletcher or Ronnie Rodriguez? Yeah, Ronnie Rodriguez is kind of interesting. I wouldn't say I fully buy him because he's 26-year-olds. This is his second organization. first real chance.

But last year in the minors, he hit 338 with nine home runs, a 923 OPS, and about half a season's at bats, and hit 291 with 17 home runs a season before that. So I think there is some pop there. And shortstop eligible is probably going to get eligible in other spots. And that's in a 12-team rotisserie league, it was low on my waiver claims, but I had a claim in for him just because I kind of want to see where it goes. Fletcher is He kind of reminds me of Jeff McNeil

In terms of being a contact hitter I think McNeil's just better to begin with And I think McNeil also has a little more hope of power But Fletcher seems like A similar player who could be useful In a low-end sort of way All right, there we go That's a beautiful look at the waiver wire

At the most added list And hopefully you've got some of those players And you're getting them in your lineups But not the ones we don't like Not Danny Duffy and not Mike Fires basically and not necessarily David Fletcher. Get them out of there. Yeah, yeah.

Not everybody on the most added list deserves to be on the most added list. We are going to take a quick break here, our last one of the show, and when we come back. Start, sit, drop, some hitters who stood out and a lot of talk about pitching. We're coming right back on fantasy baseball today. Well, I hate to be asking this right now on May 13th,

but it's time for some start, sit, drop with guys, I never thought I'd have to ask this question about. Scott, start, sit, or drop, Travis Shaw. 75% owed. I was thinking if you thought you'd never have to ask that, then I'm probably not going to say drop to any. But I'm getting close with Travis Shaw. Clearly not for Miguel Sineau.

But in a shallower situation like that, maybe for like a Lucas G. Alito, you know, I might. If I was comfortable enough with my second base, but that I didn't feel like I was depending on a Travis Shaw rebound, because who knows? I mean, like it hasn't just been bad luck, clearly, but there's enough of a track record there that he could come, he could come roaring back.

But if I was fine at second base and third base, I'd be okay dropping him. Start, sit, or drop Joey Vado, and his 206 batting average and his seven RBIs this year. We're going to have to go another month before I consider dropping him. Sitting him is fine.

Sitting him, you probably have enough alternatives at first base that you could justify that. Jose Ramirez, start, sit or drop? Start. In fact, one of my bold predictions on CBS Sports H.Q yesterday. My bold prediction for the upcoming week was that it's the week Jose Ramirez

has roaring back because he has been hitting a little better of late. The batting average has been inching up there. And his matchups this week, he's got four games against the Orioles staff, two against the White Sox. It's going to happen. It's going to happen.

The bad at ball trends are too encouraging. I think this is the week it does. I need you to be right about this. Like, my fantasy baseball happiness basically depends more on Jose Ramirez than anyone else. Well, how's this? How crazy is this? So my two 15-te-te-te-team rodeo leagues, the highest profile ones, which are Tout Wars and the great fantasy baseball invitational. Jose Ramirez was my first round pick in both of those 15 team leagues.

I am in second place in both of them. Just imagine if we got true Jose Ramirez. Yeah. I actually was in second place in one of my Jose Ramirez leagues. and I fall into like six place, but it's a roto league and, you know, one good day I can move up four points, four spots, whatever. So I also feel good. Like I have Corey Seeger and I have Jose Ramirez. Those guys get going.

I think I'm in good shape. And, yeah, I'm hopeful. But, you know, I don't think he reached base yesterday. But before that, Jose Ramirez actually had a 20 game on base streak, which was a lot of walks. But still, it was something. And start, sit, or drop. Daniel Murphy. So people are like really angry because he appears to be in a platoon.

Daniel Murphy and he has three lefties on the schedule this week. So I think you got to sit, Daniel Murphy. What about you? And would you consider dropping him? So, yeah, I mean, he did start against one. They faced five straight lefties. And he did start against two of them. I think they have three more in a row coming up, at least two more in a row.

That's going to be seven or eight left in zero. I'm not sure how many of them were day games, because he's not going to be a guy who plays during the day much. He's a vampire. Daniel Murphy is a vampire. Yeah, I'd be fine. I think he's eventually going to come around, and when he comes around,

there won't be much justification to sit him just because of left-handers up. But I'd be fine sitting him this week. And in terms of hitters, we've talked about most of the guys I wanted to talk about, but Rymel Tapia has started, the last six games against righties and three of the last five games against lefties, which have been five in a row, like we said, for the Rockies. Tapia's 20% onlys batting 313, five home runs, six walks of 31 strikeouts. This week only five games for Tapia and for all the Rockies.

And they are Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez, Cole Irvin, Aaron Nola, and Jared Eichoff. Three lefties plus Nola and Icoff. So any left-handed Rockies, like, you're going to start Charlie Blackman. but I think like this might be a really bad week for David Dahl. I'm going to start him anyway. This might be a bad week for Tapia if you're, you know, in a deeper league. Well, they're kind of contending with each other for playing time. Although Dahl sometimes Steel starts from Desmond and Center.

But Toppia, I don't buy into Tapio at all for what it's worth. It seems like all Babbip. He's not a big power hitter. He doesn't walk at all. And he's not even making contact. at a high rate, really. So that's not going to last what Rymel Tapia is doing. Have you ever had Topioca pudding?

Yeah. Have I? I have. I don't think I have. I don't know, Adam. Our history only goes back so far. Oh, I know. I got Tapioca pudding from the Griffin Gannning Corporation.

More news and notes. Clay Buckholtz, I was like so proud of that, Joe. Clay Buckholt is on the IL. Felix Hernandez is on the IL because he's bad. Francisco Mejia is on the IL with a knee strain. Andrew Heaney could be back soon, and Derek Holland said he had a fake injury. And this was something I talked about with David Sampson yesterday, and it was hilarious because they demoted Derek Holland to the bullpen after he gave up, I think, 13 runs over two stars.

He gave him six runs. They put him on the IL. They brought him back. He pitched in bad conditions in Colorado. He had seven runs. They put him in the IL. Derek Holland did not like it. He resented it.

He called out the front office. He said he faked an injury. and I was like, how can you do that? And David Sampson was like, they could release him for this. Samson said, and again, he's the former president of the Miami Marlins, Samson said that, you know, it happens, and usually it's a shoulder strain. I think that's what he said, shoulder strain or shoulder soreness or something, because you can't dispute that.

And guys, if you see a guy go on the IL with a shoulder strain, a pitcher, that probably means, that might mean it's a fake injury. This for Holland was a finger injury But I just thought that whole situation was Comical and they're probably pretty mad Yeah so the Giants were the one who fake the injury Not Holland himself Right right right right

They made him fake the injury basically yes Okay well no no I mean yes they they they They put him on the IL for something he didn't think he needed to go with a fake injury Yeah and he pointed out that it wasn't an actual injury And so now they're probably going to get in trouble They could presume him for sure Yeah. Okay, Scott, let's talk about some pitchers.

The rest of the show dedicated to the hurlers. Studs being studs, there were a lot of them. Part one. Zach Granky, blown away by his year. Seven or more innings and four starts now. He's been, a strikeout per inning, he's been great. Zach Granky. Luis Castillo, I think he bounced back from, I think his last start was bad.

But second start with five walks this season, 24 walks and 56th. Yeah, it's been a high. Yeah, I don't really expect that to count. continue, Scott. I mean, he wasn't, he was, he was a great strike thrower in the minors. Right. So that's, it hasn't been true in the majors, though. So I'm not, I'm not necessarily, like, I don't know that it's going to get that

much better. Luis Castillo. I don't, I don't think, like obviously 176 are right. He's playing over his head. So that goes without saying there's going to be some normalization there. But I think he's an ace. Steven Strasbourg. Yeah, I've talked about this, he really appears to be just, just fine. 363 ERA is too high for Strasbourg, it'll come down.

And John Lester, John Lester's going to come up. He's a 116 ERA, but John Lester's been awesome and he was good again. Yeah, yeah, I think, like his strike rate's back up, more than one per inning. The swinging striker really hasn't improved, but he's kind of done the same trick Madison Bumgarner has, where when the fastball's not as good anymore, just start cutting it. and it becomes better. Like these wily veterans, like when you get a guy at near Hall of Fame level like they are,

and Cole Hamels was in this boat not too long ago, we're kind of seeing some signs of that from Adam Wainwright this year. Like, they get crafty. They figure it out. They didn't get to be near Hall of Fame level for no reason. So I think reports of Lester's demise were not greatly exaggerated, but exaggerated. I think it's tough to answer who the best Dodgers starting pitcher is for fantasy. And I think it's even tougher to answer who the best Cubs starting pitcher is for fantasy.

I think I would probably take Cole Hamels. And I would probably take, man, I think I'd take Ryu. I don't know if I'd have the guts to actually do that. But since I don't actually have to do it, I'd take Ryu. Why not? How about on the Cubs? Who's your favorite cub? No, Hamels, I agree with the Hamels take.

But I'm not even sure I'd rank Ryu second among the Dodgers three. Okay. But the way Bueller's last two stars are gone. But he's so close. Yeah, I think Bueller, I mean, I still have the concerns about Bueller like down the stretch at the end of the season. But I think it's pretty encouraging what he's been doing lately. You can understand the slow start from him. You know, he basically was like a Red Sox pitcher with the way.

They treated him in spring training, so he's kicked it in gear. And he's still not all the way back. It's still, like, the breaking ball still don't seem to be there, which is why his swinging strike rate is low. But slowly but surely he's getting there. And like he said, it's close between all three of them, Herschall Bueller and Ryu. They're probably all in that 15 to 20 range for me in my rankings.

Studs being Studs part two, Cole Hamels. He was good again, this time against Milwaukee. And he's got a 308 ERA. and a strikeout per inning. Miles Michaelis has been very good lately. His last three starts, 135 ERA, 16 strikeouts and 20 innings. That was with seven strikeouts against Pittsburgh on Saturday. And he has put seven or more innings in three of his last four starts

without throwing more than 100 pitches, Miles Michaelis. John Gray was pretty good. I'll give it to him. Three runs in six innings with eight strikeouts. Did give up two home runs. And Masahiro Tanaka got his split finger back. So he was sort of getting. by without his splitter. He got it back

on Sunday and he had one of his best starts, maybe his best. Sevennings one run, seven strikeouts at Tampa Bay. You have anything to say about this group? Cole Hamill's Miles Michaels, Michaelis, John Gray, and Masahiro Tanaka. Miles Michaelis' last three starts that would have been so good. His ground ball rate, it's about, it was about as high as it's been

all year and all three of them. And part of the problem he was having is he hadn't been as much of an outlier with that ground ball rate this year as he was last year. He was giving up some home runs. So hopefully he's back on trackdown. The control has certainly been there, which is the other reason he was so good last year.

How would you rank Hamill's, Michaelis, Gray, and Tanaka? I would go... I think Tanaka first, just ahead of Hamels, followed by... I'll put Michaelis back ahead of Gray with that recent revelation of his. Gray is... Gray is always, like, less than great,

but good enough that... you're not so disappointed you started him. Yeah. I don't know if that's going to change. And you need the strikeouts, and he gives him two. Okay, studs being studs part three. Frankie three. Frankie Montas is a stud.

278 ERA and Scott's going to talk about his splitter. Kenta Maeda said he felt good about his sliders, had a good feel for his sliders. That was nice. Jake Oterese keeps it going. Last five starts, 0.86ERA. And he's faced Houston twice in the Yankees in that stretch of five starts. Eduardo Rodriguez.

Eduardo Rodriguez, he has now gone seven in, he went seven innings last time out. And, oh, what was this stat? Well, you know he doesn't do that very often. I don't think he did that once last year. So it's getting a little deeper into games, which is good. And Zach Eflin. Zach Eflin threw his second complete game in his last. three starts.

This Eflin guy. I know. Eflin's been working with his personal catcher now. Andrew Knapp for his last three starts and in those starts, he hasn't been striking guys out because that's not what he does, but he's been really, really good. So Montas, Maeda, Eduardo Rodriguez, Jake Oteresey and Zach Eflin, how would you rank them? Yeah.

Oh, you want to do a ranking thing, huh? I will go. I'm going to put Montas at the top now, followed by Eduardo Rodriguez, Eflin, Maida. Maybe Oteresea ahead of Maida, but the bottom line is of this group. I mean, it's hard to know what to make of Maeda,

but the ones I'm believing in most are Montas and Rodriguez, and the ones I'm believing in Least are Eflin and Odorezi. Montas, yes, my concerns have proven invalid. I'm doing it about-face. That splitter has made a huge difference. Three of his past four starts have been his three best swinging strike efforts of the year, and it's a 20% swinging strike grade on the splitter. And plus the splitter's been a great ground ball pitch for him.

So, yeah, he looks like he's going to be a useful option for you. Eflin is annoying to me because the strikeout rate is so low. And really, I'm not sure we've talked about Zach Davies at all, even though he has like a 150 ERA this year. You kind of put Zach Davies in the same category as Zach Eflin, where the quality of contact has been so poor that the ex-WOBA is basically aligned with the Wobah makes it look legitimate. But I feel like what I'm learning about ex-WOBA is it's a better explanation for how things should have gone than a predictor of how things will go. because I'm not sure quality of contact is something you can trust

over the long haul the same way you can strike out rate, walk rate, home run rate, which is how, you know, like, the ways, the things that feed into more like X-FIP and Sierra, Ethelins, X-FIP and Sierra, both project an ERA over four.

Davies projects an ERA close to five. And I think the thing is just going to be like, it's hard to be that precise, as precise as they need, to allow the weak contact they've been allowing so far. That is difficult to sustain for long stretches of time. It's kind of the story of Mike Fires' career, honestly, because Mike Fires for stretches has looked like a dominant pitcher, too,

and then it falls apart. Interesting. So that's kind of where I stand with Ethlyn and Davies, who isn't pictured here. Yeah, well, Davies, I think, is in the Fringies part one. He's only 78% Owen, so we're going to get to him. Studs being Duds. Not many. Jake Areeta and Marco Gonzalez were the only two that I had.

Stud, remember, stud is more than 80% own. Jake Areeta, yeah, three home runs at Kansas City. He's been mostly good this year, but he has a 132 whip. And Marco Gonzalez has had an interesting season, some really good starts, a predictably terrible start at Boston, but he's a 318 ERA on the season. So, yeah, what do you think? Do either Areeta or Gonzalez, they're not must starts necessarily, but are they like probably starts for you?

Yeah, I guess that's about right. I don't know that it's fair, but I like Gonzalez more than Arietta. I might just be still, you know, that might be my disdain of Arietta from last year creeping in. He's been a pretty good ground ball pitcher this year. I might be able to succeed because of that. Studs being something in between studs and duds. Maybe we should skip this segment.

What do you think? I think we're going to skip this segment. because I want to get to the guys that fantasy owners might actually be able to pick up. But I will say this about Blake Snell. I know we love Blake Snell. He has only one start of more than six innings, no more than 102 pitches in any start this season.

And if you go back to his last 11 starts of 2018 after he came off the IL, it was really very similar. He did not throw more than 104 pitches in any start and did not have more than seven innings in any start. of those 11. So I don't know if that puts a cap on how great Blake Snell can be. I mean, like, I think the 356 ERA is ridiculous.

He's a sub-3ERA guy. He might be like a sub-250. He's amazing. But they don't let him go that deep into games anymore. And they haven't anyway since last year. I just want to bring that up on Snell. All right. Let's do the fringes.

Okay, part one. You like any of these guys. They're mostly owned, but this is for, shallow leagues. In the Shaz. I don't have the drop today. Julio Taran. Anthony Desclifani.

Zach Davies. Yolice Chasin. Brad Keller and Kevin Gosman. Taran Disclafani Davies. Chasin Keller Gosman. I don't think any of them are must own. The ones I'd be most likely to own are Desclavani Gosman.

And yes, Zach Davies, just because there's always that chance that I'm wrong. And maybe he's. is, I mean, not 150 ERA good, but a useful option all year. Maybe. I mean, you've got to get desperate at starting pitcher eventually because there's a lot of, there's a lot not to like out there. Yeah, and Brad Keller's the only one who has a good matchup this week, and he's just not good.

He's been over-owned since the start of the season. Fringy starting pitchers part two. Jordan Liles, who's been using, I think he's been using a slider more instead of his curveball, and the last two starts been pretty good for Liles. And Spencer Turnbull actually tried to pitchers. pick up Spencer Turnbull. I think Scott outbid me for him. I think I put a $2 bit on Turnbull out of $100 budget

with like $70 left. And you got him for four? Yeah, I originally went to. I changed it to four. There you go. Lucky man. Gone three. Yeah. Yeah, Turnbull's got open this week. Liles is at San Diego. Any interest in these dudes? Turnbull is probably

my preference to over anybody even on the last list. The Desclafani, Gosman Davies, list because he he's gotten that weak contact thing he has that going for him so far and he's a decent bat misser almost a strikeout per

with a good sometimes it's classified as cutter sometimes slider and a decent strikeout rate on a curfball too so good a couple breakers there that suggest there might even be more upside some walk issues some supporting cast issues maybe some innings issues eventually but again you can only be so picky

at starting pitcher but you'd prefer Gio Lido to Turnbull? Yes. Tyler Malley or Turnbull? Turnbull. Fringy starting pitchers part 3. 30 to 49% owed. Adam Wainwright, Jeffrey Rodriguez,

Pablo Lopez, Gio Gonzalez, Merrill Kelly, and John Means. Adam Wainwright, Jeffrey Rodriguez, Pablo Lopez. Gio Gonzalez, Merrill Kelly, John Means. Yeah, so we got a lot of tweets after Lopez's week and start where he gave up tenor runs in three innings about him being a fake stallion.

And I don't know, like some people were calling him like a donkey or, I don't know, whatever the worst version of a horse would be. Right. But, but yeah, he does have an ex-fippin Sierra more in the 380 range despite a really high ERA, which shows the reason we do like him. But at the same time, I don't think you have to hold on to him if there's somebody. I mean, you drop him. He's probably not getting picked up. So you could probably let him go. He's the most exciting of this group still, though, I think.

Okay. In deep leagues, is there anyone in this group that you'd be interested in picking up? Lance Lynn, Daniel Norris, Homer Bailey, Trevor Cahill. No. No, they all look pretty scrubby. Okay. Take a look at Matt Barnes. It really looks like he's the closer for the Reds.

Red Sox, and maybe we'll talk about Blake Trinan and Wade Davis some other time. Quickly, some emails. This is from Tommy. Will Myers was dropped in my 12-team points league. We start four outfielders. Would you drop Chu or Piscotti to add Will Myers? I would drop either one to add Will Myers, though I don't think it's a big gap between any of them. Okay.

Myers is not a must-own in a points league. In fact, I might prefer Chu to him. Yeah, I mean, I think in the long run, Myers is going to be better, but their profile is geared more toward those different formats, yeah. This is Ed from Minnesota. He says, Dear Jeff Alfredo, Saxi, and Franklin. Jeff Alfredo, Saxie and Franklin. I don't have a clue. That should be a giveaway.

S-A-X-Y. The secret to a saxy fetichini Alfredo. I see that pop up from chef talk.com from 2015. Okay, I don't know. I have Aaron Hicks coming off the IL and Jose Altuve going on it. My only other second baseman on my roster is Travis Shaw. Should I activate Hicks and use Travis Shaw until Altuve returns? Drop either Hicks or Shaw to pick up a second baseman like Wong, Lestela, Dietrich, Scope,

Cesar Hernandez, Kike Hernandez, S. Drubel Cabrera, Danny Santana, Jose Parraza, Brian Dozier, Ryan McMahon. For Travis Shaw, dropping Travis Shaw for any of them. I would, I don't think so. I don't think any of them are exciting. Like maybe Brian McMahon if you wanted to gamble on that upside, but you're gambling on upside either way

without having seen much signs of it coming through. Okay, let's take a look at today's scoreboard, Scott White, and tell people who to start and who to sit. I think I think it's a light week. I'm going to guess there's nine games today. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven games. Ooh, vacation. All right.

Get to catch up on billions. David Hess at Jonathan Loisiga. Nah. Freddie Peralta at Aaron Nola. Just Nola. And I'd be okay with Nola against the Brewers. The game I, ooh, there's two games that I'm going to have to watch. Brad Peacock at Matt Boyd, start of both.

Yep. There's three games I'm going to want to watch. Tyler Skaggs at Jose Burrios. This will be one. I've got to see some skags. I think I'm going to sit scags. Yes, you're not. Yeah, I would sit scags.

Guess you're not watching billions after all. We'll make time. Shane Bieber at Rinaldo Lopez. Just Bieber. Nick Kingham. Nick Kingham at Robbie Ray. Yeah, it'd be good with Ray. And my, oh, a tough one here.

Mike fires or you say Kikuchi. I think I'm going to have to go with Kikuchi. I'm not sure I want either. Well, I definitely don't want fires. But it'd be more like to start Kukuchi. I mean, Kukuchi, Kikuchi is last two starts, seven innings one run, seven and two-thirds, one run. You just, you know you're not going to get the strikeouts. But what are you laughing at?

Because I miss, I said his name. and inappropriately. Okay. That's it for the show. Thanks for listening, everybody. We're back tomorrow to recap those seven games. I'm not going to Tyler Skaggs, but I hope he does well tonight.

Turn that season around. Thanks for listening. Talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Baseball today.