Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/17: Trades Trades Trades! Fantasy Regulators (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 17, 2018

Need to buy low, sell high or buy high? Today's show is just what you need to get an edge on your league. Before we get into trade candidates, we'll recap Wednesday's action which included Nick Pivetta's dazzling start (6:02), a new AL-Only infielder (8:00), the ageless Bartolo Colon (9:30) and bullpen news (13:40) ... A new outlook for MIguel Cabrera (17:24) and a bunch of trade talk! Buy low (25:10), sell high (27:55), buy high (30:32) and players we are actually concerned about (36:08) ... Assessing the values of infielders (39:45) like Paul Goldschmidt, Brian Dozier, Yasmani Grandal and Cesar Hernandez and outfielders (45:30) like Odubel Herrera, Michael Brantley and Gregory Polanco. Plus the Fantasy Regulators are back (52:05)! Should Robinson Cano be allowed on a team's DL? ... 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. Justin Verlander, complete game. Shutout.

He is the number one pitcher in fantasy. The Phillies are awesome, and they are all over today's show. Nick Pavella with 11 strikeouts. We are going to talk a lot of trade. Buy low, sell high, buy high. Players were concerned about overall value for a bunch of infielders and outfielders, and we welcome me to fantasy baseball today on Thursday, May 17th. I'm done talking.

Let's throw it over to Heath Cummings to say something cool. Heath. Yeah, I am. I have all kinds of cool things to say. Oh, good. I would like to announce that I am also no longer going to play hurt. Oh, good, good. Yeah, you know, I actually was happy to hear that from Miguel Cabrera, Heath.

I don't want him playing hurt. I want him healthy and mashing. Yeah, this is a major, major problem for the tigers and for Miguel Cabrera owners, but we can talk about that more later. Oh, I'm on Adam's side here. Even though taking Adam's side yesterday caused my Twitter feed to blow up and my night to be ruined. It's ridiculous. I'm again taking Adam's side here.

Well, this is the perfect time for that discussion, I think. Like, I assume this is the same thing that we got multiple emails about. I'm not discussing it anymore, Heath, no. Yeah, the whole thing is. No, I mean, if we're going to do buy lows and sell highs, then that's exactly why you would buy low and sell high because they have a hotter cold streak coming. Nope, not going to talk about it.

Lips, zipped. Yeah. I'm taking a memoratorium from Twitter after last night. The thing is, like, if you want to argue with us about it, you know, Scott and I kind of feeling like a guy who we expect to hit 300 or whatever is hitting 330 right now is probably going to have a little bit of a cold streak to get that batting average down. You know, like argue with us, but don't be jerks about it, people.

I mean, come on. We're all friends here. We're all friends. It's a moratorium, by the way. I said memoratorium. So people are. There's another reason to blow my Twitter feed. Citing with Chris Towers and you're asking them to argue in a respectful man.

Yeah, Chris sets the tone. Seems inconsistent with their values. Chris sets the top. But we did get some fun tweets yesterday. Also, I want to make an announcement about the intro music. So, no, the man did not tell me to use the new intro. I really like the new intro. I'm going to throw it in there.

We're going to mix it up. We'll have the songs. We'll definitely have Kokomo Friday. We'll mix it up. We'll have a variety of things. So the man did not make me do that. That was an atomizer idea. Tweet of the day.

So definitely not a decision that a man made. Exactly. The boy made it. Sean Murphy says, here's a fun topic for the baseball podcast. In NBA Jam Style, who are the best combos from any given MLB team in the league. Trout Otani, bets J.D. Martinez. Could be just position players, hit her pitcher combos.

Could also be Dynasty, like Akuna, Acuna and Albies. What's the NBA Jam style best combo? And what Sean didn't say was Blackman Arenado. That's probably it, right? But I don't know. What are you talking about? That's probably it. There's Rizzo Brian.

Blackman Aronado? No, I think Altuve Cole or. Or Altuvae Verlander might be better. If you want to pitch her. Well, that's the hard thing. I think this has to be just a hitter-hitter thing. I don't think it does. You know what?

I'm making the rules. The boy makes the rules today. Okay. So then it's easily Judge Severino, right? No. I would rather have Altupe and Cole or Verlander than that. Why wouldn't it be Judge Stan? Could be Judge Stanton.

That would be the most fun one. Like if it's an NBA jam style game, it's arcade style. It's going to be home run derby, obviously, because that's the best arcade style of baseball. And so it's Judge Stanton. If it were Dynasty, would it be the Braves guys? Actually, no, you know, in Dynasty, maybe would I go Trout Otani? Who would you go in Dynasty? Hmm.

Yeah, that's... I mean, the fun thing about the Braves combo is they're both 20. Like, it's not just young. It's Think of what you were doing When you were 20 Vlad Jr. and Bishit. Yeah, and you know,

how about Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez? It's not a bad one. No, what do you mean? I mean, you know how, you know how, I don't think the original NBA Jam was like this, at least. I don't, I can't remember if it was or not. But, you know, you could, you had the third player

you could opt in with. This is NBA Jam. I just want to... He's on fire! He's on fire! There we go. That wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be. All right, Scott.

Finish up your thought there. My bad. Well, you'd have the third player you could switch in for one of the two. Like, I remember with the Hawks, it was Dominic Wilkins and Kevin Willis. Also, Dominique. Also, Dominic. It could, like, up at Stacey Augman or something. Right.

It was a three-man-man-to-olde. Dominique Wilkins, yeah. Dominic Wilkins. There goes my Twitter feed again. All right. Thank you for the fun. tweet, Sean. Blackman and Aronado are probably the answer in seasonal. But there are some good candidates.

What do you mean? What the hell? What are you talking about? Like, is this entire arcade game played in Corse Field? If you had to take two teammates from two teammates for one team, like those are the two highest drafted. I thought this was an arcade game. I didn't know we were just picking the two best teammates for fantasy baseball. I'm sorry.

I misunderstood the question. I guess I did. to Wednesday standouts before we get into trade talk. Scott White, give me a standout. I will give you a standout, and that standout is Nick Povetta. Nicholas Povetta, who had clearly his best start of what was already looking like a breakout season to hit the giant striking out 11, 23 swinging strikes with a five-pitch mix. Four of them were, you know, the swinging strikes were pretty well divided in that

pitch mix. The Swaggy Strait's total was interesting to me because he had been slightly below average in swinging strike rate among just the major league standard for swinging strike rate. He was below that. So that was part of my hesitation for moving him away on my rankings. Obviously, he was in the mixed league range, but more of a borderline guy. I'm still a little skeptical of him being. this sudden, like, front-line must-start pitcher, but definitely raised an eyebrow this start.

Now, this was against Baltimore, Povetta's seven innings, two hits, one run, one walk, 11 strikeouts. Heath, Baltimore, they strike out a lot, right? Yeah, Baltimore are not very good at all against right-hand pitchers. In fact, one of the worst offenses in baseball so far this year against Ritees. I did see an interesting note on the Phillies official website. And it wasn't clear to me the way it was written if this was something he just started doing this start. But he said the Phillies had asked him in spring training to elevate his fastball at the top of the zone,

and he was doing it in this start. So I don't know. I guess we just got to see if this way he strike rate continues. All right. So would you rather have Nick Povetta or Walker Bueller? Well, certainly with the relief pitcher eligibility, Bueller takes the cake in a points league. It's pretty close, I think, in Roto.

Okay, and Heath says Walker Bueller. I stand out for you, Heath. I will go with Eric Gonzalez, who should maybe be the starting second baseman for the Cleveland Indians. He had two more hits yesterday. He is 7 for 16 in the last week, including a dong two days ago, and you thought that was just a throwaway segment.

Look at Eric Gonzalez's go. How about that? You think he's actually good, though? But his minor league track record, 760.1 OPS is down there. Sounds better than Jason Kippis. A 712 OPS, excuse me. All right, so it's an A-L-only play, right? Eric Gonzalez.

Yes. For the Cleveland Indians. Justin Verlander is the number one starting pitcher in fantasy. He has a 105 ERA, a 0.7-1 whip. He threw a complete game shutout. Only seven strikeouts at the Angels for Verlander. So this was actually a bad start, right? Less than a K-per-9.

Yep. Okay. Yeah, it's Verlander's stinks. Who's your favorite Astros pitcher? My favorite Astros pitch is Garrett Cole. Verlander in points, Cole and Roto. Does Christian Bergman matter? Seattle's starting pitcher, 1% ownership, 7 scoreless innings against Texas.

I don't think so. This is like, this looks like an organizational depth guy. He's already pitched in the major sum for the Rockies, I believe. He had 10.6 hits per 9 at AAA Tacoma. So, in fact, he's two hitting a major league club seems like a fluke. Christian Bergman. Heath, I ridicule you. Not so much on the show, but certainly behind your back to all of my friends.

When you stumped for Bartolo Cologne a few weeks ago, and your Cologne is smelling pretty good right now. First of all, do you wear Cologne? I've worn Cologne maybe three to five times in my life. Well, you don't even wear deodorant, so I know when it's. surprised you don't wear cologne i you know i have not worn cologne in a long long time i don't i wouldn't probably buy cologne for myself my wife hasn't bought me any for at least five years probably because my natural odor is so pleasing um no i do not but yeah another another another good outing

from bartolo cologne he is doing that thing that most no other pitcher in baseball can do Yeah, which is what? Take a ball off the gut and throw it to first base and retire someone, which is what he did yesterday. He's doing a lot very similar to what C.C. Sabathia does. Don't strike anybody out but just such precision with his control and not just like control, but command, and putting the ball in places where batters cannot hit the ball hard. He's getting hit harder than ever, though. his hard contact rate is the highest of his career, his soft contact rate is the lowest of his career,

the second lowest of his career. So I'm skeptical it's going to last. How crazy would it be to drop Chase Anderson or Michael Fulmer for Bartolo Cologne? I think it would be absurd. I mean, I assume that Bartolo Cologne doesn't have two starts next week, but does he? Oh, he probably does, actually. Let me check. Oh, yeah, I think one of them's at Colorado.

No, Yankees and Royals at home. Yankees and Royals at home. I'm more likely to start him next week than I am former Chase Anderson, probably. So while we're on the subject of two-start pitchers, let me just double-check. Nope, one-start pitcher. Okay, well, change the subject. There is a pitcher out there who is really not having a very good season. He has like a one-six whip or something like that.

He is holding opponents to a 204-359-293 slash line. Opponents are slugging 293 with a 651 OPS. I will repeat, opponents are slugging 293 against this pitcher. He is one of the hardest pitchers to hit in baseball. He is Tyler Chatwood, and he has a 314 ERA, but a terrible whip, 34 walks in 43 innings with 40 strikeouts. I couldn't believe that stat, though. I mean, he's not getting hit.

He's giving up one home run all year. Since we are in the trade mode today, buy low, sell high, buy high, whatever. What do you think about Tyler Chatwood, Scott? 80% owned and only two strikeouts, but one run allowed yesterday. But for the season, just a weird year for him. He's got Cleveland next week. Tyler Chatwood, go for it. I'm not interested in until he gets the walk rate.

down to just like normal bad level. Like he walks nearly as many hitters as he strikes out, right? Yeah. And we're talking four plus basically every start. Yes. That's... I think the term you're looking for is effectively wild. Well, I mean, he could we just say like, oh, all he needs to do is limit the walks to like

three, three and a half per nine, and he could be really good. And he's striking out a batter per inning this year just about. I just don't know if he starts throwing more strikes if that works out very well for him. Sure, you would think that the opponents would hit a little better if they had something to hit. I mean, point taken. All right, well, I just thought it was interesting, and thank you for ruling out Tyler Chatwood as a by-low. Some bullpen items. Soria pitched the seventh inning, and I think Nate Jones pitched the eighth inning.

So maybe it is Hector Rondone in the... Bruce. I think it's probably Bruce. Bruce Rondon? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe I don't care because it's what, a 10-win team?

Yep, they're bad. I care in a league where saves are scarce. Right. Right. A lot of the categories are weeks. Bruce Rondone is so bad that I don't know. I don't think anybody on the White Sox is going to have 10 saves. Bold prediction.

That's not true. No white socks reliever has 10 saves this year. Strong. Adubre Ramos got two outs in the ninth inning. The first two outs with two strikeouts at Baltimore with a four. one lead, and then Hector Neras came in for the final out with two outs in the ninth inning. So, thank you, Gabe Kapler. What was that all about?

Any thoughts? I don't know. I don't think that's going to change. Yeah. Okay, Bud Norris, 73% own. Does Bud Norris need to be closer to 100% own at this point? Yeah, I mean, I don't think closers can only get. Like there are only so many closers who are that widely owned.

Yeah, but I mean, this guy is the closer for the Cardinals. He is having a great year. Greg Holland continues to be terrible. 73%. No, I mean, he's the Cardinals closer. And he will be for as long as he gets the job done, I think. And he's pitched great. So I'm just trying to see who else is owned in the same range.

So he's more owned than Alex Colomé. I think I actually rank Colomé ahead. He's less owned than Hunter Strickland. I think I actually rank Norris ahead. Blake Trinen, 78% own. That's about the right range for Bud Norris. Works for me. And Errodesvis Cayano got the save against the Cubs.

AJ Minter pitched the eighth inning. We are getting closer and closer to some trade talk. But first, the big news. Not a lot of small news today. Joey Gallo does not want to play third base. If you put him at third base, he is going to be a very big. very unhappy person. That's with Adrian Belcher on the deal. He said he'd rather catch.

Miguel Cabrera, that's what he said. He said, I'd rather catch. He doesn't like what third base does to his body. Obviously, he's never going to catch. I don't like what he does to my batting average. So there. Yeah, and you know what? With this Gallo item, are they going to get Calhoun, Willie Calhoun, up? I was reading like a Q&A in one of the newspapers and the writer said, what's the point of starting his

service time when they're so bad this year. I thought that was kind of an unusual take. But, yeah, what do you guys think about Willie Calhoun and his process? I mean, the biggest problem, I think, is just that he hasn't. His minor league numbers this year aren't that good. He's been hitting a little better lately 333 over his last 10 games, but with no home runs. I mean, I don't know. I think he needs to get hotter than this for them to justify it.

I don't know that that argument specifically, like, so no team that's not winning is ever going to promote it. There's no reason to start a service clock unless you're winning. Like, bad teams promote prospects still. It happens. Right, right. Yeah. They can't just leave them in the minors forever. But Calhoun certainly isn't forcing the issue.

All right, Heath, tell me why you think that Miguel Cabrera saying he will not play hurt is a bad thing for Miggie owners. Because he's been playing hurt for like four years Well, he was really talking about last year, I think Well, but we've talked about Maybe four years is an exaggeration, but two to three for sure And we've talked about how the injuries were a concern But he just kept seeming to play through them And this also

Also sounds a little bit like he's not really very happy with the Tigers right now Which is understandable. They're awful So I I had dropped him before he said that, not dropped him in a league, but dropped him in my rankings. I do not have a lot of optimism for what the rest of the season holds from Miguel Cabrera. I don't have a lot of optimism that he is going to stay 100% healthy for the rest of the year. And you shouldn't have.

You shouldn't still, obviously. But, no, I took it to mean that, you know, the Fuller quote that he offered where, you know, when you play through hurt, when you play hurt and you're productive. suffers nobody appreciates it so i'm not going to do it anymore uh i took that to be a reference to last year where obviously his production did suffer greatly and it kind of was the clearest indication it was the clearest uh support of our theory that he must have been playing hurt last year and that's why uh the numbers turned out like they did and before he got hurt this year he was starting to look like the miguel cabrera of old i would much

rather have that Miguel Cabrera on my lineup, even if it's two-thirds to three-quarters at the time. I think that's very optimistic. Tigers are only two games back, by the way. I know. It's crazy. So 5-100, but the division's been pretty bad. CJ Crone homered off a righty. He continues to tear it up, but Scott's not buying it. Ryan Braun likely headed to the D.L. with a back injury.

Domingo Santana. We'll talk about him in a little bit. He homered yesterday. Ryan Brown. Oh, Ryan Brown. I know. I said that. Rich Hill is going to start against the Nationals on Sunday. Sit. Chase Anderson expected to pitch on Monday. James and Tyone, you know, the article that I read said that he didn't show any ill effects of the cuts on his hand, but watching the game yesterday, the White Sox announcers were saying that in the sixth inning when Tyone could not get through the inning, he seemed to be looking at his hand a lot. Kind of lost the strike zone. Tion may have been bothered by the cuts on his hand. So he had an okay start.

Darren O'Day could be back to O'Day, two day. Harlan Garcia is in the bullpen for the Marlins. He could get back in the rotation at some point, but they put him in the bullpen. Jaime Berea was sent down. Will Jaime Berea be back up soon? Is it just a scheduling thing? I would assume it's just a scheduling thing. He was coming off his best two starts, and they need six pitchers to allow Otani the rest he needs.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's just a scheduling thing. I'm going to mention Evan Gaddis every day until he's like 90% owned. He's 71% owned. He is homered three times in five games. He's a catcher, people. Pick him up. Matt Duffy sat with hamstring tightness. Houston called up outfielder or Tony Kemp.

Does that matter? No. I don't think he's going to play enough. A couple steals guys. Gerard Dyson batted second, stole a base against Milwaukee. Ragee Davis led off against a lefty. There are only two lefties on the schedule next week for the Indians, and he has bad matchups,

so you probably don't want to put too much into Rajah Davis. Dyson, more interesting, right? Heath? Yeah, I would expect so. I don't think he's going to be someone that plays every day, even without a Jake Pollock in the lineup. I don't expect he's going to play against lefties, but he should be a pretty decent source of steals that starts more often than he doesn't right now.

Jake Lamb could be back this weekend. Nelson Cruz expected to avoid the DL, and the Dodgers and Marlins have the same record. They are both 16 and 26. The Dodgers and the Marlins have the same record. 16 and 26. The Dodgers stink. But I think I read this morning that like two or three years ago,

they were also terrible at this point of the year, and then they won the division. Something like that. It is easy to forget, but it is still early. Yeah. We are, what, about a quarter of the way through? Yeah. Not that early, but...

Well, they're going to have to get Clayton Kershaw back to being Clayton Kershaw, and they're still not going to have Corey Seeger. So it's a big ask. A couple pitchers here. Tell me if they are aces. Trevor Bauer, J.Hap. I mean, it depends how loosely you want to define ace. That doesn't mean my criteria of an ace, neither one of them.

But Trevor Bauer, I think, is definitely validated the enthusiasm that he had for him coming into the year. Based on the way he finished last year, has continued to throw that curve ball about 30% of the time. And it's taking another step forward. Huge strikeout rate, pretty good ground ball pitcher. I think he's basically must start in fantasy. J.Hap, more question marks there. It was nice to see him bounce back after a two-start rough patch, 19 swinging strikes again, 10 strikeouts.

That was more like what he was doing at the start of the year. He's older, and I don't know if the trick of him elevating his fastball in the zone is one that's going to carry him all the way through the year. But, you know, I'm fine, enjoying it while at last. I'm not going to say anything good about J-Hap because you know what happened the last time I did. I'm just going to doubt him so all of J-Hap owners can enjoy his success. I don't think you can question Trevor Bauer's substance. He has been phenomenal, and he's a number two starter in fantasy, I would say.

Okay. We've waited way too long to get into trade talk, so let's do it. You want to get some buy-low candidates on your team. There are two ways to do it. Number one is make a trade. Number two is play draft. Get on the draft app, and you can have different players every, single day, every single night.

You can play a full slate of games. You can play a shorter slate of games, whatever you want to do. But join the draft, join draft. Get on the draft app or draft.com. And the promo code to use is FB Today. FB today. With that code, you will automatically follow me, and you'll see the drafts that I post. And you will get free entry into a real money baseball draft when you make your first

deposit with the code FB Today. Here was the winning team in the FBT podcast contest yesterday on draft. It was Chris Sale, Ozzy Albiz, Justin Boar, Mike Trout, with a big zero against Verlander, and Nick Marcaacus, Albis and Boar. I recommend focusing more on hitting unless there are very few good pitchers on your slate. And yesterday is actually the night games. I think there were only five and one of them got rained out, or there were six and one of that got rained out. So you did have to prioritize pitching.

The Verlander team came in second with Verlander, J.D. Martinez, huge games there. Rizzo, Encearte, and Pueg combined for three points on draft. So it's very fun. I'm really loving it. I've been reading the emails and the tweets about how much our listeners are loving draft. Please join us.

Download draft or go to draft.com and use the promo code FB today. FB today. All right, by-low. Sell high. Buy high. Player we're actually worried about. Heath, kick it off with a by-lo.

Oh, I thought we were going to start off with the sell high. I wasn't ready for the by-lo. I'm just joking. I am going to say that Travis Shaw is still a by-low. Chris Towers did this thing a couple weeks ago about how maybe Travis Shaw isn't actually that good. Travis Shaw is still crushing baseballs. Yeah, to bolster your argument here, because I just caught this last night. Travis Shaw this year, his strikeout rate is like much lower than last year.

he's one of the better contact power hitters in the league frankly he is hitting the ball as hard as he did last year elevating it even better than last year his babbip is 250 compared to 312 last year so like I feel like he's mostly made improvements from last year when obviously he was a borderline stud and he's just

I guess has had some bad luck so far He has had some bad luck. He's almost on a 40 homer pace. I think there is a good chance he improved across the board statistically from last year. It may be tough to get the average up over 273 with the quarter of the season at 248, but he's not going to hit 248 all year. The strikeout rates down to 17.6%. With his power, that is elite.

Yeah, Shaw's struggled against lefties this year, but he usually does pretty well against lefties. So hopefully that turns around. Scott White, Bilo. I'm going to go with Cole Hamels, who I was pretty much riding off coming into the year, but he has done a great job of correcting what went wrong for him last year, in part because he's sort of added to his arsenal here in an effort to get the swinging strikes up. And the swinging strike rate is back to where it was more like two years ago. Plus he's of the caliber of pitcher, somebody who's,

accustomed to throwing 200 innings every year. He actually gets to pitch six innings consistently. The fifth is kind of high, but that was from a lot of home runs he gave up early in the year. That has come around, and I think it's going to normalize, get back to where it was closer in his career.

I think the biggest reason he has not regained his standing at fantasy is because he's two and four. And if he keeps pitching like he has, that's going to correct itself as well. I think he's somebody you can rely on and potentially get for cheap right now. Scott White says Cole Hamels is a by low.

Heath said Travis Shaw. Sell high, Heath, who he's selling high on? I may be a little bit late on this one, but I'm selling high on Julio Turan. Most all of the peripherals agree. He's still a mediocre to below average starting pitcher. He's got a 486 FIPP, 459 Sierra. His strikeouts are just okay, slightly below average. The walk rate is not very good.

good, still giving up home runs. He's got a 224 babb-up against and an 83% strand rate. Neither of those are going to last. Julio Tehran. So high. Would you rather have Julio Terran or Cole Hamels? Cole Hamels. Scott, you agree?

Yeah, I agree. Okay. I wonder how much his FIP was inflated just from his last start when he gave up three walks, allowed two home runs, and had only one strikeout. That was an awful FIP start, clearly. I just wonder, because it looked like he was on a nice run before that.

Okay, Scott White, who's your cell high? My cell high is Jake Garietta. And if you want to look at a guy's peripherals and worry, as concerned as we were about the dominance metrics veering off into the bushes last year, it's even worse this year. The K-per-9 and the swinging strike rate, They've bottomed out there among the worst among full-time starting pitchers. He's compensated so far by becoming more of a ground ball specialist,

but I don't know how long you can reasonably expect that to last. 259 ERA 106 whip on the year. So I think just based on those numbers, somebody will offer you something pretty good for him. I basically think you should get it out while you still can with Jake Garietta. Okay, yeah, that's interesting. I just wonder, you know, when you look at all of the things, the guys who signed late, I feel like only two of them are doing well. Maybe I'm forgetting, but Mustacus and Arelletta, do you want to give him a little bit more leeway?

J.D. Martinez is doing well, too. Yeah. He is doing okay, Jady Martinez. I have to I think he's fine. Well, when did he sign? Was he as late as those guys? I don't remember. It's a good point, though. Yeah, I mean. Does it matter to you at all? It feels like the biggest problem for Like Cobb and Lance Lynn is just the command has been horrible. And that hasn't been Arieta's problem. And this is a continuation from things that already were beginning last year. I'm really concerned about Arieta. Okay.

So Travis Shaw and Cole Hamill's buy low. Julio Taranjic Arieta sell high. Heath, buy high. You're buying it. I am Scott White today just talking about Braves, but I am buying high on Sean Newcomb, which is probably a surprise to no one. I'm not even worried.

Like, if he just sticks at 4.2 walks per nine, he might be Robbie Ray without the hard contact, because he is not giving up hardly any 26% hard contact rate allowed. His ground ball rate is up this year, almost a 50% ground ball rate. Obviously, a very good strikeout pitcher. If you can strike out more than 10 batters per nine innings and have a 50% ground ball rate, you're going to be a borderline ace. Even with a 4-something walk per night, has there ever been a pitcher? than Robbie Ray, who's done well with that many walks?

I probably shouldn't say the word ever. Yes, there has ever. But I will have to. I will have a name, multiple names for you very shortly. It's probably a short list of guys who pitch enough with that walk rate to begin with. And by the way, Robbie Ray wasn't 4.9 last year. Well, he's at 4.2. This year, right?

No, Nukum is. No, Nukum was 5'1 last year, but it was... He was just breaking into the majors. Well, like I mentioned about Newcomb after his last start, so much of his success has been about limiting hits, and yet the BAPIP isn't crazy low. It's a little low, but nothing that would really suggest he has a huge correction coming.

Okay, Sean Newcomb, buy high. Scott White, buy high. I'm going with another relatively newcomer to the pitcher ranks, Miles Michaelis. We usually look at pitchers with Miles Michaelis strikeout rate in today's MLB and dismiss them outright. And so I'm sure there's a lot of Michaelis, people who look at Michaelis now and are just thinking this is more like a cell high. But he's doing two other things, I think, to compensate for that. And one is just being an excellent, excellent control pitcher, which we saw in Japan too before this year.

the two walks he had yesterday, and what was his worst start of the season, actually. The two walks he had yesterday give him five for the year. But one thing that didn't jump out to me until now is just how good of a ground ball pitcher he is. His ground ball rate is among the tops and all the baseball. So an extreme control pitcher, extreme ground ball pitcher, he's basically succeeding on two of the, you know, thriving and two of the three fit measures. measurements has a 357 FIP on the year. That's with a string of six quality starts that was just snapped.

Obviously, those have been hard to come by this year. I think he's a quality pitcher. I think he's a good number three, number four type in fantasy. And if yesterday started as an excuse, maybe for his owner to try selling them, you need a capital. Yeah, Miles Michaelis. All right, so who would you guys rather have Sean Newcomb or Miles Michaelis? Nukum. Newcomb.

Okay, Adam, I've got a list for you. All right, hold on. Travis Shaw, Cole Hamels, Bileau, Julio Taran, Jake Arieta, sell high, Sean Nukum, Miles Michaelis, bye, high. Heath Cummings, dazzle me with this list. 2009, Clayton Kershaw,

Gio Gonzalez has multiple times, Nolan Ryan for a good part of his career, Kerry Wood, Hadeo Nomo, Dice K Matsuzaki. Suzaka. David Cohn. All right, so what is this list exactly? pitchers that walked more than four batters per nine

had an ERA that it was at least 20% better than league average that year and through 150 innings. Cool. It's a solid list. I'm going to ask you for a player actually worried about in just one second. First, though, a delicious, incredible offer. You want three free meals? You want some free?

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Get three meals free. Blue Apron.com slash fantasy baseball. Blue Apron, a better way to cook. Heath, who are you actually worried about? I was going to say Miggy, but we talked enough about him. So I'm going to reverse course on a player that I think I may have used as a buy low a couple weeks ago that I'm actually starting to get worried about, and it's Matt Carpenter. Remember when Matt Carpenter is going to change his profile as a hitter?

Yep. Go back to what he was. He didn't. He didn't at all. In fact, he's striking out a lot more than he ever has, 28% strikeout rate. his fly ball percentage, 45%, is not quite as high as it was last year, but it's still really high.

I'm not, I don't think Matt Carpenter's done, done. I don't think he's going to be a 160 hit or by any means, but I am actually worried that he's not going to bounce back the way I thought he was. Well, they moved him down to seventh in the order, and Carpenter had three hits last night, so let's hope that gets him going, but yeah, it's quarter way through the It's so weird.

His line drive rate is like one of the best in all of baseball. And his soft contact rate is virtually non-existent. Like, I've started to worry about him too, just because how long can you keep saying that and him deliver dud results? But it's just the darndest thing. Scott, who are you actually worried about? Raphael Devers. And not to freak any Red Sox fans out. He's a 21-year-old who still has a bright few years.

But obviously there was a lot of talk about a breakout this year. For that to happen, obviously, he would have to improve on what he did last year. And instead, he's taken a step the other way. The strikeout rate is up significantly. The walk rate is down. The – his tendency to hit the ball to all fields last year, which was a big part of his appeal. He's gone to pulling it more this year. Like basically all the ways

All the things he was doing pretty well He's not doing his well anymore And he hasn't improved in the other way So at a deep position like third base To me he seems pretty replaceable Replacable wow So would you rather have It's easy to say Travis Shaw over Raphael Devers

At this point I would take Ehuyahui no Suarez That was my next question You would take Anya Suarez over Devers Okay here's one thing to keep in mind with the Red Sox I believe they have played In fact, I'm almost positive. They've played the most road games in baseball.

They haven't played a lot of home games. That probably is going to help the righties more than the lefties. But they've got a lot of home games coming up. Maybe it's now or never to get this thing turned around for Raphael Devers. But he's got some favorable park. You know, he's got a lot of Fenway games coming up. Again, that's probably better for righties than lefties. And like understand, if you play in a deeper league, like an AL-only or 16 teams are deeper

and you don't have access to that many potential replacements at third base. Like, you'll still be okay with Devers. It's just, you know, we were considering them a top 100 player coming into the year. It's more like top 200. And you're not dropping them. Well, it would depend on the format. If I have an Eurhani Oswaras, I'm probably not starting Devers at utility in, like, a head-to-head league. And I don't know that I necessarily want to keep a reserve a bench spot for him.

Yeah, I'm a little concerned. I could understand benching him. I still think he's like at his age and his pedigree. He's not somebody I'm dropping at this point. Okay, so we're worried about, he's worried about Matt Carpenter, both worried about Matt Carpenter, and Scott says Raphael Devers. I've got a whole bunch of names.

I want to know Buy, Sell, Hold. So I think we have to go through this a little bit more quickly than I anticipated. Just I want to get to as many names as possible. I've got a bunch of infielders and outfielders. Buy, Sell, Hold, Anthony Rizzo and his 195 batting average. Buy! Buying the player.

Yeah, yeah, right, right. I shouldn't have said the batting average. Yeah, definitely buy Rizzo. He's got a hot street coming. He does. Paul Goldschmidt, top, he's 21st in points. He's 35th in Roto at first base. He's batting 208.

Buy sell hold, Paul Goldschmidt, the player. I'm not completely without concern. You know, the data showing that the humidor is having a huge impact at Chase Field. And while Goldschmidt's road numbers are basically normal, his home numbers are terrible. But I would still buy trust in the track record over everything else. Sell him for Anthony Rizzo. Yeah, I mean, would you rather have Gary Sanchez or Paul Goldschmidt?

Goldschmidt. Ooh. That depends on what my other options are at first base, but there's a very good possibility that I have Sanchez. Buy sell hold, Reese High. Hoskins, who only has five home runs, walking a ton, but only five home runs. Buy-Selhold Hoskins. And striking out a ton.

Yeah. Like, his babbip is inflated now when last year, you know, one of the interesting things was it was so low. I am buying him, but with less gusto certainly than coming into the season. Hold. Hold. It's been a month ago. Hold. Hold.

Heaths for Heath. All right. How about this? Buy-sell-hold Eric Hosmer. He's eighth and points, 15th in Roto. at first base. 24 walks, very good, and 13 doubles also very good. But this is a team that has played the fewest road games in baseball.

Hosmer's been terrible at home, batting 380 and 13 road games with two home runs. San Diego's played the fewest road games, so they've got a lot of road games coming up. I don't know if it might be too early in the season to really worry about that. Because, you know, there are a lot of home games coming up, too. But buy-s-s-to-hold Eric Hosmer. I don't see big improvement coming for him, but he's also just fine. I'll hold. Yeah, I think Hold's probably the right answer.

I don't know what you could sell him for. Ozzy Albies, buy sell, hold. Hold. I think the price tag would be too high to try and buy. But I also think he's going to be a top five second basement, so hold. See if you can sell him for Jose Al-Tube. Yeah, that's... I guess it's worth a try.

Would you sell for Paul Goldsmith? Would you sell Albies for Goldsmith? No. No, you would not? You'd rather have Albys? I'd rather have Goldschmidt, but so much of that is going to depend on how your roster is constructed. Most people can't just extract an elite second baseman for an elite first baseman without causing major lineup upheaval. Right.

Am I starting a first baseman that is worse than the second basement I have to go grab on the waiver wire when I pick up Albis? No. Uh, Yasmani Grandal, buy, sell, hold. So, yeah, we got this thing. He's sitting a lot of ground balls, right? But he's having his best year. He's the number two catcher. Yeah, I guess I could see selling.

It's just, who are you going to replace him with? Luke, Macle. Uh, Brian Dozier, buy sell, sell, hole. Bye. Hold. Hold. You don't think Brian Dozier's a buy low? I mean, he, again, I don't know.

I don't think he's going to be this bad. Yeah. But I don't know what I'd have to give up to get him either. Well, I don't know either, but the track record of getting off to slow starts is well established at this point. Yeah, and then getting off going on unbelievably hot streaks for Dozier. I'll buy Dozier cheap. I think I'm still going to try to get him. I don't know that I can, but...

Sazar Hernandez, fifth in points, ninth in Roto at second base, and he has changed his hitting profile a little bit. More fly balls, more hard contact, and five home runs. His career high is nine. He's walking a lot. This is encouraging stuff. He's running more, too. Seven steals. Yeah, and he's got a ton of runs, 29 runs in 40 games.

Buy-sell hold, Sazar Hernandez. It's on base a lot. I don't know that buying makes sense because I think his owners appreciate him. at this point. Like, I think they're just probably starting him. But holds, I'm fine holding. I think it's mostly legit what he's doing. I'm not necessarily trying to, uh, to sell high on him.

He is somebody that I would sell for Dozier. Sure. Okay. You want to frame the conversation that way. Rognette O'Dore. Buy sell hold. I guess by, but I, like, only because I think the cost is so low, could take a shot on him, see where it goes.

I don't have huge faith in the upside anymore. Yeah, I wrote about him as a shallow league ad, actually, so I would buy him off the waiver wire. I think he's still available in almost 30% of leagues. Rognette O'Dore. Buy-Sel-hold, Cody Bellinger. Bye. Yeah, bye.

All right, let's do some outfielders. Michael Brantley, buy-sell. Hold. I guess it is, yeah, I guess it's too late to buy him, right? Yeah, I wonder if you sell him. He is one of the most injury-prone players in baseball, and he's not running. Yeah, that's a good point. Like, I don't know why we should just assume great health now that he's healthy for the first time in, what, three or four years.

Would you give up? But I don't know that his studliness depends on him running. He's just one of the, probably the best bat to ball guy in the, the majors now. Well, Jose Al-Tuva, I guess, still exists. But aside from him. Yeah. Ten strikeouts and 32 games for Brantley. And he's hitting the ball harder. It looks great. Like, he's hitting 338 with the 328 Babbitt. I think in like 35% of leagues you could get away with this trade of offering Brantley for Dozier. Would maybe 50%? Would you make that trade? Would you give up Brantley for Dozier?

Yes. So I guess. I don't know that I would. Really? Odubel Herrera. Sorry, go ahead, Scott. I was just going to say he is starting to play more regularly after the Indians were being careful with him early. So that's another point in his favor, Brantley's. I think Oduble Herrera is one of the most interesting players in fantasy. He's having an amazing year.

And he's even having gotten on base every single game this season, he is the number 19 outfielder in points, number 15 in Roto. He didn't even crack the opening day lineup at him. I know. Every game he's played this year, Oduble Herrera's gotten on base. Odubell. The batted ball data looks pretty similar. The strikeouts are way down. 3.95 Babeth, but as Scott pointed out, he's usually a 350 Babbitt guy.

Buy-sell hold, Odubel Herrera. Yeah, it's kind of, it's not as extreme the case as Brantley, but I'm telling you, these contact hitters in an era where contact is not. value is not appreciated anymore. They are, I think, potentially, players that can be overlooked in fantasy because you're just so trained to, oh, that guy has, that guy's batting 3.30? Clearly, that's not going to last.

But in the cases of Brantley, Andrewton Simmons, and O'Don-Herrera, the number suggests it could. Like, yeah, Odebel Herrera's Babbup is a little inflated right now, but he's batting more like 360 than 3.30, you know? I think he could be somebody who contends for a batting title all season and with pretty good pop.

He's in my top 30 help years now. Sorry. As the founder of the Odebel Herrera fan club, I think I'm selling. Really? The difference between him and Brantley is he is not hitting the ball hard at all. and he never really has. Yeah, he never has.

But he's also never hit like this. Like that's one of the things I feel like I've, because we're still figuring out how exactly to assess the hard, soft, contact stuff. Like, I think one of the things I've decided is that it's less about what a player does relative to other players and more about how it's different for him personally. Yeah, I mean, I just, his strikeout rate has dropped. in a huge way down to 14.8% he's a career 21% guy.

I just think he's probably more of a 280, 290 hitter with his batted ball profile. I don't really think he's going to hit more than 15 home runs. I mean, he doesn't have a high flat ball rate, which is good for batting average. He has a really high line drive rate, which is good for batting average. Like, every stat you look at other than the hard contact rate

suggests he's, going to be a good average hitter. And you know who else doesn't have a particularly hard contact rate and notorious for it is Jose Ramirez. So it's not like it's impossible to be that caliber of hitter. I think you can get a king's ransom for, not a king's ransom. I think you can get a lot for a doable Herrera. So that could be one reason to sell high,

but at the same time, if you stick with him, you know, are you going to get a player who was, last year he wasn't even really like a top 40 outfielder? Or, you know. And he's not really running. Go ahead. I was pretty low on Marcel Ozuno coming into the year, and he's not been very good. I would trade Herrera for Ozuna. Buy-so-hold, Gregory Polanco.

Holds. There's correction coming for the batting average. He's having what looks like a breakout season. I prefer Herrera to him. I prefer Ozuna to both, just to... He keeps reframing the conversation with really high-end players. I want to be... He should.

O'Hu's not been a really high-end player. I'm just trying to offer... He hasn't been, but he is. So I don't know. Maybe people really are that freaked about Marcelo Zuna that you could do that. Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's not a lot to like for Marcelo Zuna. His walk-to-strikeout ratio is terrible.

As Chris mentioned, he's hitting the ball hard, but it's on ground balls, not fly balls. He's not having a good year, but I still do want to take a shot on him. I still do want to get OZuna on my team. I'll take Polanco over Oduble the rest of the year. Odubba. Like, I'd rather... See, it's... It's one of those things where, like, I feel like Odubel Herrera's upside.

How many different ways are we going to say his name? I don't even know. I think it's Odubell, but I'm not positive. Odubel Herrera's upside. Versus Marcello Zuna's most likely scenario is pretty similar. So they're almost even to me, even though they're a part of my rankings. Like, I feel like if I'm buying low on Marcelo Zuna, I'm. doing it with a less exciting player than Odubel Herrera.

Let's just call him Audible. Audible Herrera. And finally, now let's move on. All right, so I think we'll come back to this a little bit tomorrow. We'll do some Babbip leaders and Babbip losers on the season and see... I want to help everybody out there make some trades, target some players to get on your roster. We have some good emails to get to. I think for right now, though, let's...

Regulates. If you want your league dispute regulations... You have to send us an email, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com, and put fantasy regulators in the subject line. It has to say fantasy regulators. All right. Josh from Atlanta. Dear Aaron, Joe, Joe, and Buck. Who'd at?

Aaron, Joe, Joe, and Buck. Sounds like Joe Buck, but I don't know who has. Famous home runs? Maybe. Okay. Let's see. I was lucky enough to be invited. This is funny.

This is a good email. I was lucky enough to be invited to a 16-team Categories League from this sports podcast that I listened to, Fantasy Baseball today. After being accepted, I asked if I could have a co-managers. I am very busy. I run a startup and I have three kids, but I was told that's not possible. I've now come to realize the four guys on the podcast actually share two teams and each have their own login. So clearly it is possible. Don't you think they should have extended the same?

same rules to everyone in the podcast for the People League, which Heath is the commissioner of, and Heath is denying this hardworking father of three the right to be a co-manager. I am regulating Heath Cummings. Let this man have a co-manager. Okay, I'm going to answer the first question. Don't you think they should extend the same rules to everyone? No, it's our league. The issue, though, of the email, I do not recall saying this is not possible. I'm not sure that I'm the person that said that,

but it doesn't sound like me at all. So Josh, tell me who you want to be your co-manager after a vetting process. That could be possible. By the way, co-managing a team sucks. Yeah, it's not fun. I enjoy it. I enjoy it. Especially in a league with like this one where it's instant ad drops,

it's not like fab or overnight waivers or whatever. Yeah. You have to confer with your league made before you make a move, and by the time that happens, it's too late. Yeah, I think we need to establish We need to establish the worst guy on our team That's like every day We need to know who the last guy on our team is

And if somebody exciting comes along We need to drop him Scott is married He should know this rule It is much easier to ask forgiveness than permission I don't ever ask Chris Occasionally if Chris is sitting there next to me And I think of something I might ask him

But I just make moves Well you guys are doing much better than we are So let's move to our next email from Dan The commission of our league wants to change the rules To where if a player is put on the DL early On a Monday or a Tuesday in the week You can switch that player out

For a player of the same position that hasn't played a game yet What do you think of this? So if a player A is put on the DL Tuesday at 8 a.m But his team played Monday evening But player B did not play yet You can change out player A for player B what do you think I actually kind of like it

I think it's a great rule yeah sorry Dan I'm all I'm all for it now I agree with what Dan said yeah he said uh I think this change should not be done midseason so he's voting against it I don't have a problem with that

I think it's the same rules for everyone who cares if it's midseason Scott what he says yeah it's not yeah I don't feel like like obviously if somebody objects to it then you don't change it midseason

but if everybody's on board with it It doesn't seem like the kind of thing that... So there's one little whiny baby that has... Sorry, Dan, you're not a winy baby. That has a problem with it and the rest of the league is cool with it? This is not a... Okay, this is not a mid-season rule change that would have affected the way you drafted. So I don't have a problem with it.

Which is why I'm open to the possibility of it being changed mid-season. And I suspect it would benefit everybody, so nobody would complain about it. Somebody did? I don't know. I don't like inviting conflict to leave. So you're going to have to determine if that's something you want to deal with as a commissioner. I'm going to consider instituting this for the podcast league. I'm going to give it a thought.

All right. Last one. Let's regulate now for Chris. Robinson Canoe hit the DL before being suspended. And our league allows players placed on the DL. Right. Okay, yeah. So you have DL spots.

Kano was then suspended for 80 games, which is very difficult on a team to hold a player that long. We're a 14-team league, so dropping Canoe would be also very difficult. Currently, the team that owns him has Canoe on the DL. The CBSD-L status is crossed out. Typically indicates player is not on the MLB-DL. Question, should this team be allowed to keep Robinson Canoe on the disabled list? If so, for how long? Because he will be healthy long before he returns.

If it doesn't force you to take him out of the DL spot, and he was on the D-L-Sport, then he was on the DL. I would say the Robinson Kanoe owner lucked out. It's a weird transactional move for the Meriters. I didn't even know it could happen. A guy goes on the 10-day DL and is technically removed before 10 days are over. It's only allowed because he was being moved from one inactive list to another. But, I mean, the rule is in place so that you can stash players well beyond the point they return from

the DL if you so desire, I think you've got to let it go. Now, there is a league setting that you can change that, right? Some leagues, when a player is off the DL, they're automatically kicked off the DL. Right. So, like, he is not on the DL now. Right. And so if the requirement is the player must be on the DL, he should not be on the deal. But it sounds like the league is set up, so that's not the requirement.

Like, if you want that to be, like, you can propose that rule change. but I'm saying obviously it would affect moves beyond just this one. So you think he should be able to stay on the DL throughout the suspension? If that's the like that is something leagues do. When players come off the DL, you can keep them in a DL spot. That's an option you can turn on or off in your league. It sounds like they've always had that option of leaving them on the DL in the DL spot even when they're off the DL.

This just seems like another example of that. I don't know. I haven't gotten that impression that they have that league setting. But, you know, it's kind of interesting if he should be on the DL or not because very, very rare case. This guy's got an 80-game suspension, but he also has a broken hand. So he should technically be on the DL right now. But he's not. But he's not.

I really don't know what I would do here. I think we don't know yet. If they don't have that setting, then the lineup's going to be illegal. Like, right, next week. Right now he's still going to show in the DL. What you need to do is look at what it is for next week. Right. Right.

That's true. Well, if you could just make a blanket statement, Robinson Canoe should or should not be on the DL for the length of his suspension, what would it be? Should not be. It shouldn't be. I mean, most of the leagues I play in when a player's removed from the DL, they're kicked out of a DL spot. Yeah.

So, but like that, if your league's set up that way, it'll police itself. What do you think about a compromise? Put them on the DL for like four to six, for five weeks. No, no. Okay. Why? Like, I don't know why you're... Because he's a broken hand.

Because he's a broken hand. He makes a special exception for this one. Because he has a broken hand. He really should be on the DL right now. He's not on the DL, though. All right. Yeah, but as a minor leaguer who's, you know, injured in the minors, breaks his hand or whatever.

Like, he's not on the DL either. He's too loud to stash him in a DL spot. Good point. And that'll conclude today is Trade Show. Thanks for listening. We'll come back tomorrow. Get you ready for the upcoming Fantasy Week. Talk Fabith and more on Fantasy Baseball today.