Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/20: Weekend Roundup - deGrom Concerns? Adding Mahle? (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 20, 2019

Starting with the most important hitters (1:40) and SPs (6:26) to add. Nicky Lopez and Willie Calhoun deserve more attention. The SPs might be less obvious but make sure Griffin Canning is owned in your leagues. Who are are some one-start streamers you could use this week (9:30)? And what are the key injuries to know (12:56)? ... Who we added and dropped (19:40) plus a look at the Most Added list (25:30) as we discuss some Catchers you could stream. We've also got a look at some streaking hitters (35:00) like Daniel Vogelbach and C.J. Cron ... Pitchers, pitchers, pitchers (39:30)! Starting with bullpen thoughts and getting to the studs and duds from the week. And finally we finish with Start or Sit for today's games (1:00:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS sports. All right. One pitch. Basketball pulled and cast Alvarez and toward the corner. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy.

Now here's Adam, Scott Heath and Chris. All right, everybody. Welcome to another week of fantasy baseball. Another week of fantasy baseball today. It is Monday, May 20th. What's going on? I'm Adam Azer. Scott White is here. Scott and I are right at high after a big 10-0 week, 10-to-nothing week, I guess I could say, in the Team Scam League, in the podcast for the People League.

What's up? Good morning, Scott. We have a couple of those 10-0 weeks, and I think we have about 35 wins on the season. So I don't know what that says. Head-to-head categories leagues are fun. And Heath Cummings is here. He is under 500, and he is under the West. Sorry for the rude intro Heath. Hope you're feeling better. I expect nothing more from you. And nothing less.

And you got it. All right, pitchers to add, hitters to add, most added list. Jacob de Grom is struggling. Jose Barrio struggling. I've got some one-start streamer options. If you don't have two-start streamer options, maybe you can go with one-of-the-one-start guys. Although I've got to tell you it's a pretty lousy list this week.

Well, of course, check in on some of those rookies, those prospects and how they did. I've got a headline of the day. It's going to make everybody smile. Let's get to the show. Heath, I'm going to start with you. Give me one hitter to add right now. I will stay true to Brand.

I was shocked when I looked this morning at the most added list. And Nikki Lopez is still just 33% owned. He gained second-face eligibility over the weekend. I think he's hitting 320. Still showing excellent plate discipline, does not swing and miss. I think he's locked into the number two spot in that order behind Whitmeryfield ahead of Alibald. Mondecy. There's no playing time concerns.

And he's going to be a very good second baseman in points leagues. What about in Roto leagues? You know he, you know what he sounds an awful lot like? A less powerful version of Tommy Lestella. Not that you can add Tommy Lestella anymore, probably. But I'm just putting that out there. Well, the difference is we haven't seen him be a bench player for five years in the

Major League. We haven't seen him be a player at all. You're right. Yeah, so most added hitter to add. I mean, Willie Calhoun was somebody I was trying to add everywhere because I think he sat. I think he sat one game since he came up for the minors and it's hit very well. It was his best minor league showing ever prior to getting called up. Guy who has power and makes a lot of contact.

It's a really interesting profile. So I ended up having to drop him in one of the leagues where I added him. But, you know, ideally, Willie Calhoun is somebody who would be owned by me. That's probably the number one choice. He's still 54% on, just 54% of them. All right, so there you go. It didn't take long for us to talk about the prospects. Nikki Lopez and Willie Calhoun, I know Calhoun not technically a prospect, but he was as recently as last year.

And he's got some pretty good matchups this week. Six games, three against Seattle, three at Los Angeles. And I don't see one ace. Maybe Griffin Canning. They have a lot of lefties coming up, though? At least two. One of the pitchers is TBD. Marco Gonzalez and Tyler Skaggs are on the schedule against Willie Calhoun, who did

pinch hit yesterday and he singled. All right, so can you, like, can we just reflect on last week? And all of these rookies, I mean, the top four players and five of the top six on the most added list are Austin Riley, Willie Calhoun, Kestin-Hara, Brendan Rogers, then Tommy Lestella than Nikki Lopez. Just this amazing influx of talent. And it's the story of fantasy baseball. And I can't recall a week quite like it, Scott.

Yeah, I guess I can't either. There's probably been one. I just can't recall it. But yeah, what's... I would say that if you added them, none of them has given you reason to drop them except for maybe Brendan Rogers. who hasn't been playing.

No, no. You know what? I guess yesterday was his first time out of the lineup, too, but it's not as clear that he has a path there because Trevor's story didn't end up going on the deal with the knee bruise. Ryan McMahon had a two-homer game this weekend. So, yeah, I'm not really sure there's going to be playing time. I'm not sure it's going to be a long stay for Rogers.

But Riley has had, you know, every game, but yesterday, he's done big things. and Kestan Hura had a two-hit game yesterday, and I'll see Travis Shaw getting the job back from him. So, yeah, there's a lot to like here. I think Kestin-Hura is in a very similar spot to Brennan Rogers, just because I don't think Ryan McMahon is necessarily a bigger challenge to overcome than Travis Shaw. Yes, Shaw has been awful to start the year,

but he's done a lot more in the major leagues than Ryan McMahon has. He has started six straight. Shaw has started none of those games anywhere else. Well, Shaw's on the I-O. He's always been on the disabled list. Yeah, Shaw's on the I-O. He's going to start a rehab assignment today. I mean, if we had this conversation yesterday,

you're talking about the first, not the first good game for Kestan Hira, but the first home run for Kestan Hira. He has one walk to eight strikeouts so far. And Ryan McMahon had been pretty terrible. He had a two-homework game yesterday. So this is an important week for both Kestan Hira and Brendan Rogers. I certainly agree there.

And I know a lot of people use a lot of fab on those guys in our $100 Fab League, both Kestin Hira and Brendan Rogers went for more than $30, right around $30 to $33. I got Rogers for $33. And, yeah, I certainly acknowledge there's a chance that it doesn't work out. But I also think Ryan McMahon could play some first base because they obviously are not playing Daniel Murphy every day. So, yeah, big week for Rogers and Hira, prove it, you know, give yourself some job security

for sure. How about pitchers to add, guys? Heath, if there was one... Heath, what's wrong, by the way? I really feel like I haven't been concerned enough, you know, as the host of this show. You're my dude. What's wrong? You feeling all right?

Yeah, I just don't have much of a voice. Got a little bit of a cough, a little bit of sniffles, but I'm here. Okay, good. I'll play through it. Fighting through it. Okay, pitcher to add, Heath. The guy that I added that I was shocked to add, and I think people, after the things I've said about him at times, will be surprised I added was Mike Leak.

What? Three straight, three straight quality starts, and he's a two-start pitcher this week. I'm rolling with him at least one league. Okay. So let me just check. Do you know the matchups for a leak? Oakland and Texas. Okay, good luck.

Scott? It was not a category league. It was a points league. Fair enough. Scott, pitcher dad? Well, as you mentioned, I was shocked to see Griffin Canning available in one of our leagues. I don't think there's any doubt. He should be owned.

I'm not sure what his ownership is. It may be too high to really qualify for this. And he just happened to slip through the cracks in that. one league. Of the two-star pitchers that are available are widely available still, Spencer Turnbull, I think, is the one to add. And he was a late addition to the two-start pitchers list. He's just been... Oh, wow, yeah. He's been a pretty reliable starter.

70% own, he's got Miami and at the Mets this week. He might have a new coach by the time. Spencer Turnbull faces them. Griffin Canning, I'm looking for his ownership percentage. I think it's around 50%. 51%. Really? That low? Here's the thing about Griffin Canning, right? This is his first good start. But he is a swinging strike. He is a swinging strike machine. If he qualified, if he qualified, he'd have the second best swinging strike rate in baseball

behind just Blake's now. That's my stat. That's what I was saying last week. I said, don't drop Griffin Canning. He's getting whiffs at an unbelievable rate. Well, yeah, and this was, I think this was the best one. He had 16. This one. No, I don't think it was the best one. Believe it or not. And he has three pitches that he gets it with. Like,

it's not just like one really dominant pitch. Three, like it's, it's such a, it's such a full arsenal. Um, and the thing is, like for all the swinging strikes he was getting before.

He said he'd been tentative before this past start. Like that was the change for him. Like, I actually attacked titters this time. And I think we can, we can excuse the subpar numbers. I mean, he's faced the Blue Jays,

Tigers, Orioles and Royals. Yeah, actually this was 16 swinging strikes against the Royals was his third lowest. He's had 18, 17, 13, and 16 swinging strikes in four starts. But yeah, pretty easy schedule for Griffin Canning. I don't know that I would leave him unowned in any of my league, so I agree he needs to be owned.

But I understand why he's only 51% owned is he had a 565 ERA before this weekend start against Kansas City. Okay, then. How about some one-start streamers? Here are some names. This was tough. what I do with this segment is I go through all the pictures that were noteworthy, made the notes from over the weekend, and I look at who has a good matchup, and I didn't see a ton of them.

Kyle Gibson has the White Sox. He's coming off a disappointing two-star week. It wasn't terrible, but wasn't great. And he gets the White Sox this week. Gibson's 78% owned. Starters sit. Gibson. White Sox.

I'd prefer to sit. Yeah, I'd prefer to sit. Kevin Gosman is at San Francisco. He did have a nice start against Milwaukee. In fact, two good starts in a row, and Gosman at San Francisco. Yeah, start him. I mean, you know how I feel about the one-star sleeper.

You're in a pretty low spot with your pitching staff if that's what you're having to turn to. So I'm probably going to pernizate all of these guys, though I understand why they're on this list. Are you so good at pitcher at every league that you can't even stoop to the level of us one-star streamer guys? Hate your C. I just feel like, If you're adding a pitcher off the waiver wire, it better be one making two starts or else, wow, your pitching's test is in trouble.

Gosman's owned in 68% of leagues. A lot of people just have him and are trying to decide on a weekly basis whether to start him. That's true. Some people are, yeah. I mean, two-thirds of leagues. Well, I imagine a lot of those, that number is just leagues where, you know, they're obviously so deep that they never sit Kevin Gosman. So, yeah. I guess there are some that are probably having to debate that.

I mean, and, you know, I bet a lot of them have five better pitchers than Kevin Gosman. Hey, look, this doesn't have to just be a one-star streamer segment. These guys are available in some leagues. I mean, Gibson is not available in many leagues, but he is...

In the shallow... In those leagues, he's available. This comes here. And then there's Danny Duffy, who was on the most... stateless last week might still be there. Duffy's 48% owned. He had a nice start against the Angels on Sunday.

He will face the Yankees at home this week. Start or add, Danny Duffy. I don't really buy into what Danny Duffy's doing yet. So yeah, he's probably just somebody. I wouldn't, even with a good matchup, I wouldn't use him. I wouldn't want

to cut anything of value for him. Probably just leaving him out there. Yeah, I think Duffy should be owned him. He's underowned at 48%. He should probably be in that 60 to 70% range. I wouldn't necessarily want to start. I'd rather start Gosman this week for sure. If you see Duffy's overall numbers,

you see 23 strikeouts and 28 and 2 thirds. Keep in mind, in his first start of the season, he had one strikeout. And in his last four starts, he has 22 strikeouts and 23 and 2 thirds. So that's certainly a better number. C.C. Sabathia is the last one. I think he pitched six innings for the first.

Yeah, he did. Six innings pitch. on 87 pitch his first start of the season of more than five and a third. So he's really not a very good fantasy option. But Sabathia is at Baltimore this week, and he's 38% of him if you're desperate in a deeper league. I think he's got a pretty good chance to get a win, less chance to get a quality start,

but, you know, tepid endorsement for C.C. Sabathia. Okay, George Springer, headlines the news and notes. He left with back tightness. He won't play today. Between Springer and Pueig, who has a right short, Shoulder sprain, not currently expected to go on the IL. And Javier Baez, do you guys have any strong start or sit takes for Springer, Pue, and Baez?

I don't think there's much incentive to start Pueg. No, shoulder sprain sounds, like, I'm surprised that's not an automatic IL stint. And, you know, obviously he's not as productive as those other two to begin with. So I probably wouldn't start him. The other two are questionable. Shallow enough leagues, you might want to play it safe. But, you know, you'd have to have a pretty good alternative. I think Baez feels safer than Springer, especially given Springer's injury concerns.

But apparently Springer was not, was looking uncomfortable during his at-bats yesterday. Baez, Bruce Thiel, it didn't, the way they spoke about it didn't seem as bad as Springer. Nelson Cruz is on the I.L. with a wrist injury. He could return on Friday. Zach Granky, everything's looking good. Looks like he's on track to start Tuesday. David Price is coming off the IL to make two starts. He's at Toronto and at Houston.

Start or sit. David Price this week. Two starts, I think you start him. Here is your slew of Yankees news. John Carlos Stanton could begin a rehab assignment this week. James Paxton could return this week. Actually, he didn't have a great bullpen session yesterday, so I wouldn't expect Paxon this week.

He's making some progress, but still feel. feeling it a little bit in his knee. Masahiro Tanaka. Do we know if Tanaka is going to be able to pitch this week? He took a comebacker off the shin on Saturday. I think I saw that they weren't that concerned about that. Yeah, I think he will. Are we starting him for team scams, Scott?

That's my plan. I haven't reviewed our options yet, but we haven't sat him yet. Well, we have an early start time today. We've got to get that lineup set early, although not with Tanaka. And D.D. O'O.D. O'Rearious is only 63%. He could be back in June. He's making good progress from Tommy John. D.D. Gagoria, 63% owned.

Jimmy Nelson could be back soon. He's 71% owned. And Mike Clevenger could be back in a few weeks. More news. Houston relief pitcher Ryan Presley set an MLB record. No. Was it? No, it can't be.

Was it? Okay. 39 straight scoreless appearances for Ryan Presley. He's quite good. At least Astros' version is very good. UlyGuriel has made three appearances. It's second base, so that's good. Maybe before Altuve comes off the IL, which could be soon.

Guriel picks up second base eligibility. San Diego sent Nick Margievichus to AAA. Fernando Tatis is aiming for a Friday return. Yandy Diaz is day-to-day with a bruised hand. Eloy Jimenez could be back any day now. Jose LeClerc. They've been using Jose LeClerc very oddly. Well, he was an opener.

He threw two innings and struck out five yesterday in the middle of the game. It doesn't look like he's getting that closer's job. back anytime soon, but he has been very good lately. I do believe their manager was asked yesterday, how close is he to getting the job back and said very close? No. So really? Okay.

Because when I... They're not using him like that, but... I didn't see that, but he has put together, I think, four and a third straight, perfect innings. So, you know, if the idea was to get him right and get him back in the role, it looks much closer to right now. So let me read you, I guess, what my basis was. This is from the AP recap yesterday. Leclerc. Jose Leclerc, who has been everything from a closer to an opener for Texas this season, matched the career high for strikeouts, blah, blah, blah. Woodward said he'll return the clerk to the

closer's role later this season, but currently sees him as, quote, our version of Andrew Miller back in the Cleveland days, end quote. So that is why I put that note in the notes. That's interesting. I don't, Heath, can you find your quote? And we cross-reference the quotes, sir. I will make an effort. Okay, thank you. In the meantime, you know, would you rather own Sean Kelly, who hopefully will be off the aisle soon, or Chris Martin, or what?

I think Martin, because the last comment I saw from Woodward said he's the guy. It was in an article about Kelly coming back, and Woodward seemed to back Martin as his guy. So it's, you know, Martin's only gotten one save while Kelly's been out. I'm not sure it's of the highest priority. I don't think either Kelly or Martin would be long for the role. I don't know that we've gotten more quotes about the closer situation from a manager in fantasy baseball history than we have about this one from Chris Woodward. So thank you, Chris Woodward for giving us some info, even if we are getting conflicting info.

Final note for me is Travis Shaw could begin a rehab assignment today, but I did already mention that. Heath, do you have your Rangers quote pulled up? I have found the article that it was linked from. I have not found the actual quote yet. Best of luck to you. I'm going to give you a quick break to find... He was asked, how close is he to regaining the closer role?

His response was, he's real close. Okay. Everybody's right and everybody's wrong. Quick break here on fantasy baseball today. When we come back, most added list, who we added, who we dropped. We'll get into some hitters that you need to know about. The bullpens and all the pitchers from over the weekend. Stick around.

Okay, ads and drops. So, I read Scott's Sleeper Hitters article. I need an outfielder desperately, and I picked up Byron Buxton, who is on a nice little role here in a 12-team points league. And I'm nervous about it because Buxton has had one week of more than 19 fantasy points in a points league. and that's what happens when you bat ninth. But he is hitting well lately. I also added Ronaldo Lopez in a 12-team Roto League.

And here's the thing about Ronaldo Lopez. People are asking about Ronaldo Lopez. You look at his recent like six or seven games, I think six starts. He's been good against every team with the Red Sox. But all of those teams have been very easy matchups. I think he has the twins this week, so I will not be starting Ronaldo Lopez, but I think he's interesting enough to roster for easier matchups. I also added Christian Vasquez, who's having a career year right now,

in a two-catcher league. And I added Marvin-Gonzalez in a 14-team points league to be an Elvis Andrews replacement, even though Andrews is going to be back soon. I just need them for this week. Marvin-Gonzalez is eligible just about everywhere. I think everywhere but catcher. So I've added Buxton, Rinaldo Lopez, Christian Vasquez, and Marvin-Gonzalez, and I will tell you that I think all four of these guys have a good chance to be off my team in a week.

I added another number-nine hitter that I didn't really think was supposed to be a number-nine hitter, but Clint Fraser this week has seven games and four of them are at Camden Yards against the Orioles pitching. He has been terrible since coming off the IL. This is, you know how you make up for a cold streak? You face the Orioles in Camden Yards. You would think so, but it didn't quite work for Jose Ramirez. Now, it wasn't in Camden Yards, but we'll talk about that in a bit,

but I can't believe Jose Ramirez didn't have a better week. I'm starting to get very concerned. Heath, you have any more ads or drops you want to discuss? It was a really interesting week in weekly Fab League because all of those rookies came up and for the most part they were unknown. So in one league I did where I was really struggling, I did actually get Nikki Lopez, Austin Riley,

and Corbyn Martin all three. Oh. Who do you prefer, Corbyn Martin or Griffin Canning? I think Martin has more upside. Really? Yeah. Hmm. Not agreeing?

Yeah, I was, I was, I almost dropped Martin after yesterday's start. Two swinging strikes. But I didn't. I'm going to give him another chance because that first start was pretty encouraging. Yeah, I mean, it's Fenway Park. Red Sox don't strike out. Give him a break, Scott. Give him a break.

I'm giving them a break. I'm giving them a break. It's just roster space is limited. And what are you going to do? I mean, Scott's got 17 good pitchers on every team. On every team. Fab, he's right that that was a tough week for preserving fab. My fab in leagues that use fab definitely took a hit.

And, you know, not all of those guys are probably going to have been worth it. You just don't know where the impact is coming from. And there are only so many opportunities to find impact on the waiver wire. But I think it's a good reminder that as much as you can help it, you know, if you're in a league and you have the kind of options on your bench that you feel like you can drop, that you know you're going to go hard for the next big prospect call up to try and corner them beforehand and add them for nothing as opposed to for a quarter of your fab budget or whatever. Right. So obviously, Nord and Alvarez, I mean, he's more than 50% owned, but he's the guy definitely way. on now if you want pitching help Zach Gallen of the Marlins though

he had his first bad start of the year yesterday at AAA Scott there was a report there was a report that Zach Allen wasn't close wasn't particularly close it's just it's in our player updates I'll try to read it for you I'll get your take on it but

I'm glad you mentioned Alvarez I basically skipped over that there's definitely a chance that George Springer goes on the IL so you know you're an Alvarez well and there's a definitely And there's definitely a chance it wouldn't be Alvarez, especially since it's a short-term injury. It wouldn't be Alvarez getting called up. You know, he's not on the 40-man roster.

Kyle Tucker's been much better of late. But at the same time, I mean, if Alvarez does get called up, and he eventually will get called up, like, it's, you'd rather not have to go, you'd rather not have to blow all your fab budget on him or, or, you know, or miss out on him, which is even more likely. And I did notice when I was looking at the most added list, shockingly, Jesus Lozardo is actually on the most dropped list. He was down another 5% this week, and I think it's only 50% own now. That is a guy that I would want to have on my roster.

Susan Slesser, who's an athletics beat writer, it was kind of just a throwaway line in an article about Jarrell Cotton, actually, but all the aggregators picked it up. She doesn't think Luzardo is going to be an option until August or September. I actually asked her about it on Twitter because I'm like, you know, it seems like he's on the stated timeline.

Is this, you think he's, I don't know, she didn't really give me a great answer, but that's what she said, and she's more plugged in, obviously, than I am with the athletics thinking. I feel like she's pretty good. Susan Slosser, we talk about her. She's an excellent beat writer. I feel like she's pretty good at responding to people on Twitter, too.

Scott, I feel like you always get info from her. Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And we'll take a look at the most added list now. What was the, oh, here's the report on Gowan. Gowan may have to wait for an injury or a trade to open up a spot in the Marlins rotation before making his big league debut, Joe Frasaro of MLB.com reports.

Just throwing that out there. So then, most added list. What are we looking at here? We got those prospects. Riley, Calhoun, Hira, Brendan Rogers, Tommy Lestella, Nikki Lopez, Jason Castro. Funny guys, like, I feel like

catcher, stinks. But at the same time, Jason Castro's been pretty good, even with Garber out now. As I mentioned, Christian Vasquez has been pretty good. Jonathan Lucroy is having sort of a bounce back season. Am I crazy here? Catchers actually been okay. There have been a lot of hot streaks from catchers that were widely available. I feel like, depending on what your timing has been, it's either been a great year or a terrible year for streaming catcher because if you've jumped on these guys right when they started to get hot, you've probably experienced a couple of really good runs from a couple of mediocre catchers. But I could also see somebody be in a

position where every time they add one of these hot catchers, they either get hurt or stop hitting. Sure. Always a risk there. Do you think that Jason Castro or Christian Vasquez are solid options if people need a catcher? They're fine for this week. I mean, Vasquez, definitely. Vasquez looks like he is entered at a terrible position he's entered must start territory Castro

has a long trackard of not being very useful and still has to contend with Williams Estadio is eventually going to have to contend with Mitch Garver again I don't see him as much as being long-term help but short-term help fine

more on the most added list Mike Leek and Gio Gonzalez are on there CJ C.J. C.J. C.J. Cron, we should probably talk about. He's only 57% own, and he is red hot. Got some notes on C.J. Cron that I am trying to find. Oh, there we go. 263 batting average, 12 home runs, 29 RBIs, two big weeks in a row for Cron. And he must have decent matchups this week, right, Scott, for the twins? Yeah, he's on my top 10 sleeper hitters list. Let me find the matchups.

Let's get the Angels rotation for three And the White Sox rotation for three Yes, those are the second best matchups of any major league team There you go Corbyn's only 72% owned So based on his first start You might want to pick up Corbyn Martin Could see that ownership going up

Lucas Gialido is 80% owned And do we trust Gialito this week At Houston What do you think? I think you answered your own question I'd rather not, but I can't imagine. I don't know what his ownership percentage is up to, but that's a guy who is definitely showing promising enough signs

that he needs to be owned. 80% for Gialito. And 76% for Jordan Liles, who had one of the better starts from over the weekend. Nobody was as good as Shane Bieber, who had 15 strikeouts, I think in a complete game shutout against the Orioles. But Jordan Liles has gone up from 66% on Friday

to 76% owned. seven innings of one run ball, 12 strikeouts, second start with double-digit swinging strikes. He had 21 of them against the Padres. They do strike out a lot to Padres. And Lyles is home against Colorado. Heath, give me your take on Jordan Lyles. I am not yet sold that Jordan Lyles is someone that I'm going to keep on my roster

for the rest of the year. But after this start and with a home matchup against the Rockies, who we know are not near as good outside of Coorsfield, if he was available as one of those one-start streamers we talked about at the top of the show, I'd love to use him. And I think he could be more than that, too. I'm just not sold to it.

It's weird because after this start, I took a longer look at him. And sometimes we get so, you know, we get so stuck in the advanced numbers. And for good reason, they're generally more telling. But sometimes it's as simple as the guy has a 197 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning. You know, I mean, he's also up to 80% owned now. but I made sure he was, I made sure to pick him up or at least put in a claim for him in the leagues where he was still available this weekend. Okay, that's Jordan Liles.

And there are a bunch of closers on here. Hansel Robles, 35% own. He's getting the saves for the Angels. Steve Sechick getting the saves for the Cubs. He's 32% own, although I will not imagine Cich being available today. How about Chris Bassett or Jordan Liles? Who would you rather own? I'd rather own Lyle.

So I think Bassett for having an unimpressive track record, you have to take a flyer on him with the kind of work he's done and the kind of help he could provide at a thin position. Just to give the deeper leagues out there a little love, we've got Felix Pena starting pitcher for the Angels. I think he's a two-star pitcher. That might not go well. Ronnie Rodriguez, 33% own and Logan Forsyth.

I believe both are shortstop eligible. Yeah, Forsyth is actually first, second, third, and short eligible. I don't know what his playing time is when Andrews comes back. But do you have any interest in Ronnie Rodriguez or Logan Forsyth guys? Forsyth is only 14% owned. Rodriguez is 33% on it. Yeah? It would be a deep league scenario.

Right. Yeah. How about... I have interest in both in a deep enough league, sure. How about Jordan Looplo at 9%. Yeah, I have. own him in a couple of deep leagues. But, you know,

standard mixed league scenario, there's not a chance I'd be going after somebody like him yet. Like even in a five outfielder league, if it's just 12 teams, I don't think I'm interested in. Right. Right. Thank you for the additional context. There you go.

All right. And last guy, I meant to talk about him earlier. Tyler Malley. You know, I owned him in two leagues. I sat him in both leagues for one start against the Dodgers. He goes six innings, gives up four hits, no runs, two walks and five strikeouts. Malley now has a 351 ERA,

11 walks to 54 strikeouts and 51 and a third, a 1-1-7 whip. His last four starts have been excellent, 231 ERA. He's not a big swinging strike guy. He gives up fly balls, which is a little dangerous in his home park. And he's still only 32% home,

which surprised me given the recent results. Heath, where are we on Tyler Mallee? I actually like to get both of your opinions here, but Heath, you can kick it off. Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing that he's done so far this year as you look at that walk total the first two years in the majors he'd really struggled with his control he's down below two walks per nine i don't think that there's like top 25 upside here but i look into the peripherals he's got a 347 fifth there's nothing really that

he's doing that doesn't look like it's sustainable he'd shown us last year the ability to strike out close to a batter per inning if you can do that with very good control then you're a startable pitcher in fantasy Scott, Malley? Yeah, and he's expanded his arsenal this year, which was a must for him. He leaned so heavily on his fastball in the past. But his change-up in curveball, they've done okay. They've been passable.

So it seems like that's probably part of his success. I feel like he's done a better job being Joey Lucasey than Lucasey has. And by that, I mean a guy who delivers satisfactory ratios, but you know it's not going to be. a guy who pitches deep into innings very much, or goes deep into games very much, I should say. I think he swapped the slider for a curveball, as I recall. And see, like, here's the thing.

This is so annoying because Malley's pitching great, and he's at the Cubs this week. And I sat him against the Dodgers, because I think the Dodgers are basically the toughest National League matchup, except for at Colorado. I think the Cubs might be second. So I don't know what I'm not. I might sit Tyler Malley again.

They're both daily league, so I guess I can see how I'm feeling. on that day. But I don't know. I get nervous. But you'd rather just set the whole lineup for the week and be done with it. No. No.

That's what we do in daily leagues. No, that's not what we do in daily leagues. That's not what I do in daily leagues. I'd check it every day, Scott White. All right, that's a look at your most added list. We've got a lot more to talk about when we come back on fantasy baseball today. And we're back. Here we go.

Your headline of the day. Yankees are the best story in MLB. Heath, what a great headline. Don't boo. That's CBS Sports.com, my friend. Don't you be booing. I think the bros of that story. And you.

The Braves are definitely not the best story. The Yankees are in first place. All right, more importantly, hitters to talk about. Peter Alonzo, homered twice on Friday. Chris Bryant, Homer three times on Friday. Josh Bell, homered twice on Saturday. It's like MVP good.

Jonathan Scope is interesting. He's 72% own. He had a two-homer game on Saturday at Seattle. Jonathan Scope is having a nice year. 273 batting average, eight home runs. Five walks to 33 strikeouts. Not unusual for him. But he's only the number of 15 second baseman in points and in Roto.

But Scope is doing well. We talked about C.J. Crone. Freddie Freeman's... Freddie Freeman is homered in four straight games. His OPS has gone up from 817 to 989. So it's a good week to own Freddie Freeman. And those are your noteworthy homers. Also Ryan McMahon homered twice.

Trying to pick guys that we didn't talk. about. All right, I'm going to give you some names. Tell me how you feel about him. Pittsburgh Outfield are Brian Reynolds, 4% owned. Should be more than 4% owned. Not sure that he should be owned. I'm not sure he should be owned,

kind of like the Leplow discussion, Looplo. But he should be owned in more than 4% leagues for sure. Looplo or Reynolds? Reynolds. Reynolds. I think there's more upside to Luplo.

And, you know, Melki Cabrera is actually having a nice start to the year too. and could present a challenge for Reynolds. Already steals the bets from him some of the time. Okay, more hitters. Scott Kingery is back. He's really only in 25% of leagues?

That might be a little outdated. We'll see. And he started in center field on Sunday. How interested are you in Scott Kingery? Not very. Like, I think he's probably closer to, like, the Logan Forsyth range of hitters I'd be pursuing. versus somebody like Tommy Lestella.

Okay. How about Danny Jansen is homeward in two straight games. He's 34% own. It's about time. He's a catcher, so any glimmer of hope from a guy that we thought was going to be a top 10 catcher is something to pay attention to. But I have one league where I just have left him as my starting catcher,

and it's been painful. I wouldn't be surprised if he's a top 10. catch her the rest of the year. Okay. Christian Vasquez or Danny Jansen, excuse me. I would go Vasquez. I'll go Jansen.

Dan Vogelbach, 68% owned. And by the way, Kingery is only 26% owned. But Vogelbach is crushing it. So here's been the streak so far for Vogelbach. First 10 games, he had a 1646 OPS. 400 batting average and six home runs.

Next 25 games, he batted 184 with a 675 OPS. and then Vogelbach in his last five games has four home runs and a 1429 OPS. Does anybody think that they can rely on Daniel Vogelbach at 68% own rest of season? Not in a standard 12th team league. I would be reluctant to just put him in my lineup and leave them there. But I still think good Daniel Vogelbach could be true Daniel Vogelbach. and, you know, in a league, like a 12-team roto league

where you have all those lineup spots to fill, he needs to be owned, especially if it's an OPP league, because that's the one thing he definitively does well. He definitively gets on base. I think we've seen enough of the power to think that's going to be there too. It's really a question of, A, how much he plays,

and B, what kind of batting averages he going to provide? And I think those are still, I think those are still open questions that hopefully in the next few weeks we'll have clearer answers to. Okay, that's Dan Vogelbach, and then let's keep an eye on what goes on in the Nationals lineup now with Trey Turner back in healthy.

Victor Robles batted ninth on Sunday against the Cubs, and obviously we want him batting higher in the order if we own Victor Robles. I mean, I think it's time to get Adam Eaton down to the nine spot and let Robles hit second. Bullpen stuff. Did we learn anything in the bullpen? Did we learn anything about Jose Alvarado?

I mean, he was used as the closer twice against the Yankees. He blew the save on Friday. He got the save on Saturday. So you know what? Let's do this. Alvarado. Hector Nerris, who's back apparently as the closer. He got saves on Friday and Saturday.

Steve Seishik. Hansel Robles, Matt Barnes. Alvarado, Naris, Seishik, Robles, and Barnes. Heath, your read on that group. Like who are the best ones there? I think Naris is going to be the best one of that group. But mostly my read on that group is we know nothing. We are going to know nothing.

And we must just deal with that. It's if you own this group of closers, you've kind of got a couple of choices. You can either try to chase whoever got last week's save and hope they get this week's saves. Or you can just own two or three of them that you think are actually good pitchers and will help you in ratios

and wait for them to get saves again in two to three weeks. but I don't really feel like there's a lot of set closure situations. Hectoranera's got up to his seventh save. So he's basically on pace for 20. Is that right? I don't know that he gets, that's probably where I'd set the expectation. Okay.

It's discouraging. I mean, Matt Barnes, to me, is the closer. They brought him in in the eighth inning on Sunday to face four, five, and six in the Houston order. So even if Barnes is the closer for the renter, I mean, it's obvious he's ahead of Brazier. They're still going to use him in high-leveraged situations, and sometimes he won't pitch in the ninth inning.

So workmen got the save on Sunday, and Barnes didn't. But I feel good about Barnes's role. I feel pretty good about Nass's role. I think if I was ranking, that Barnes might be at the top for me. It would be between him and Narris. Robles might actually have the clearest path to saves, but it might be a temporary situation,

so he'd be third. But yeah, the Barnes is probably the best pitcher of this group because he's elite in terms of both strikeouts and avoiding home runs. I mean, Alvarado is up there too in terms of just pure ability, but it's a three-horse race there as opposed to just two in the Red Sox bullpen. And I think it's clear Barnes is in the driver's seat now than necessarily Alvarado. And I'm not necessarily trying to disagree on the Barnes. but just looking at, he's made six appearances in May.

One of those was a save. Two of them were in the eighth inning. One of them was in the seventh inning. Yeah, I don't know why we feel as confident. He only has three saves on the whole year. Yeah, they haven't had a lot of safe chances lately. But compare how he's been used recently to how Brazier's been used recently. And obviously Brazier hasn't pitched that well in May.

Right. And I would think Barnes is ahead. But yeah, I mean, it's not a pure traditional closer role, and I'm not sure it will be. And then finally, what about Luke Jackson? How would Luke Jackson compare to the others? He might be top of the list now. Yeah, he's just not as good of a pitcher as Nerris or Barnes or Alvarado. But it does seem like Luke Jackson has the best chance to get the higher percentage of team saves.

Like, he might get close to 100% of their. saves, at least in the near term, in the, yeah, like the near term, the short term, short, yeah, good, well said. Okay, to the starting pitchers from the weekend. How about some studs being studs? Aranola was dealing on Saturday, I believe it was, against Colorado. 12 strikeouts in six innings. Definitely seemed like the velocity was up from Aranola.

And in fact, I think Bud Black had mentioned that in the post-game quote. It's Junjun Riu has like more than 30 scoreless in a row or around 30. He's been amazing. Jack Flaherty had a pretty good start at Texas. Walker Bueller's been good lately. Shane Bieber, complete game shutout with 15 strikeouts. Studs being studs part one. Nola Riu, Flaherty, Bueller, and Bieber.

Heath, what do you think about this group? Anything jump out at you? It's a bad job by us to go 40 minutes into the show before we talk about the best pitching performance of the entire season. Shane Bieber was remarkable. And I don't care that it's the Orioles. Their offense has been bad, but it's not been terrible. This was not just a match-up thing.

He had everything working. And may just be the second best pitcher on the Indians. May he just be the second. Maybe he's the best. No, I don't think so. I mean, he really, this was a great start for him. The previous start was terrible. You never seem to want to talk about Shane Bieber

when he has his bad starts, Heath? Maybe you're just not on those shows. I don't put the notes together. He's in the notes when he has a bad start. Maybe those are just days that I'm not on the show. Would you prefer Bieber to Nola, Riu, Flaherty, or Bueller? I do have him a couple spots ahead of Riu, but it's really silly. It's only because I just expect that Yon Jyn Riu has the...

It's got to be his turn on that is able to us again soon, right? the injured list. I'm sorry. Yeah. Okay. So you think you're going to make that change? I may have Bieber ahead of Bueller as well. Okay.

Actually, I'm going to now correct myself. I think Bieber's second on this list. Oh, wow. I have Bieber fourth on this list. He's only ahead of clarity for me. But they're all in that range. He's in the discussion. Nola, I think, has the best chance of pulling away

if he starts to have more starts like this one. And the velocity has been up in the past couple starts, but I think more the curveball looked really good in this start, and hopefully that's beginning to come around for him. Studs being Studs Part 2. These guys are really good. They're owned in more than 80% of leagues, but they are not quite in that must-start group.

You say Kikuchi, I sat him against Minnesota on Sunday. He threw a terrific game, and he's been pretty good this year. He's got a 108 whip. Brandon Woodruff, man. This guy is coming on strong. Pitching like a must-start guy, eight innings, two runs at Atlanta.

Rich Hill struck out 10. Said he simplified his arsenal a little bit. He struck out 10 in six scoreless innings at Cincinnati. Rich Hill. Rick Porcelo had a pretty good start. Seven innings, two runs. Three strikeouts, but the Astros don't strike out very much. Max Freed continues to be very good.

He has a 286 ERA. He had a good start against the Brewers on Friday. Max Fried. Martin Perez. He walked four at Seattle, but it ended up being a good start. One run, seven strikeouts, and six and two thirds. And Frankie Montas. Wow.

Eight innings, two runs, ten strikeouts at Detroit, 18 swinging strikes. Now, that is a great, great matchup, but Montas has been really good. And he basically, if you look at all of his starts, Montas has been good against good matchups. And three non-quality starts this year at Houston, home against Texas, and at Boston. So he's only had one good start against the good team, in my opinion. That was against Houston earlier in the year. He's at Cleveland this week.

That's Frankie Montas. All right, Scott, you get the first word on this group of Kikuchi, Woodruff, Rich Hill, Porcelo, Max Fried, Martin Perez, Frankie Montas, big group there, so pick your favorites. Yeah. So it's interesting the way you broke down Montas' game log because the way I break it down is four of his past five starts have been his best swinging strike starts of the season,

all of them 11 or higher, 16 in this moment. recent one. And I've completely turned around on him after being the biggest skeptic early on. And that splitter really has turned into a swing and miss pitch for him. And it seems like he's getting better and better every time out. Woodruff also seems like he's getting better and better every time out. And I think there were clear signs that he was trending that direction. He has several pitches that he gets whiffs on.

and the Brewers, like, what was holding it back early was he wasn't pitching deep into games, but if you looked at how many pitches he was throwing, like they were being so conservative in how, it's like he was being efficient. It wasn't a case of him pitching inefficiently and not going deep into games. They were just being really careful with him. And, you know, he did get one of two 100 pitch efforts recently, Woodruff did. but it's still like he's he's still not having particularly

high pitch counts it's just he's been even more efficient and is getting a lot of swings and misses this was I think he only threw 93 pitches in this start and went eight innings so there's definitely good signs here for Woodruff yeah okay and are we buying Max Fried are we buying Max Fried he's at San Francisco this week so that's wonderful I think we bought do we definitely buy him enough to start him

against San Francisco. I was always in the beginning when he was really good without the strikeouts, I was a little bit skeptical. And then he had a couple of games where he started to look like maybe he was as good as you thought he was at him.

But I think he's more of a number three, number four starter and fantasy, but you're going to start him most of the time. Yeah. And just go back to Frankie Montauss, when I bring up the schedule stuff, I mean, I still think he's a must-star guy. I think he's a must-own guy.

I think the jury's still out on whether or not Montas can face the best lineups in baseball and do well. But how many times are going to face them? I mean, it's a pretty small problem to have. So at Cleveland this week, he should be great again. And the more I've thought about it, in the American League, I think the AL-West pitchers are probably going to have the toughest schedules. I mean, I just think the AOS has better lineups than the AL-Central and AAL-East, obviously the Central. But even if a guy is not great against the best teams He's already faced Houston twice

He's faced Boston. He may not face Boston again. I don't know how many more real tough matchups that are out there. So am I going to start Frankie Montas against like Seattle? Yeah, I am. You know, even though that's a pretty good lineup. Okay. Studs being Duds, part one. Big names here.

Jacob de Grom. Got a 3908 ERA got lit up at the Marlins. Very surprising. Jose Berrios, two bad starts in a row, and now the ERA is 339. Miles Michaelis, seven runs in an inning in a third. Chris Sale.

Yeah, I mean, 10 strikeouts against Houston, but three runs in five and a third and five walks. And Charlie Morton was bad at the Yankees. Do we have any concerns about the Grom, Burrios, Sayle, Michaelis, or Morton Heath? I am a little, like the only one that I would say I'm legitimately concerned about is Miles Michaelis,

just because throughout the entire year, he's been a worse version of what he was last year and as it was good he didn't have any walks in this game but seven runs over an inning and a third in one start if you had been what you had been last year wouldn't be something you could just ignore I have a harder time ignoring it with the struggles he's had just continually throughout the year

so yeah hasn't okay hasn't been good enough as good at preventing home runs and that was such a fine you know, that was such a tight rope walk. He walked last year to have the numbers he had, despite some of his shortcomings. Yeah, so I agree with that. And that's really, I agreed that that's really the only one I'm worried about here,

except I will raise some concerns for Jose Burrios, who hasn't dominated in typical fashion, like we expect a pitcher two in 2019. He actually has less than a strikeout per inning, and his swinging strike rate, which wasn't that great last year, it was even worse this year. He's mainly succeeded by throwing a lot of strikes,

by avoiding walks. And I'm not sure the skills back up the production to this point, which isn't to say he's a bad option, but some regression like this may have been necessary for him. Jose Barrios, the one they're concerned about is Miles Michaelis, and is everybody still in on Jacob de Grom as a worst top five pitcher? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, for now, I don't think he's going to, I'm not worried about him in like a must-start.

He's must-start. It's just possible that last year was the outlier for his career, and he'll never have a year that good again. And so he's going to have bad starts occasionally, but the previous three were great. All right, Studs being Duds part two. So tell me if any of these guys are dropable, in your opinion. John Gray, is he dropable? No.

Okay. I mean, it depends. He did get dropped in a league I'm in this weekend, and I added him. So that maybe says more than in a hypothetical sense, is he dropable? I think you could justify dropping him if, you know, the right option came along. Just curious. Would you rather have John Gray or, let's say, Brandon Woodruff, Max, freed Frankie Montas.

I'd rank gray last of that group. I'm not sure that I'm there yet. I think I'd rather still have gray. I expect him to be good this week at Pittsburgh. How about Robbie Ray? Robbie Ray, is he dropable? I think in a points league, definitely. You could think about dropping him.

Not must drop or anything, but you could think about it because he's been so inefficient. I think he has two six-inning starts all year, and that's his high. but he's still really good at getting strikeouts and he could still go on a run that makes him suddenly must start again, I think. Does anybody know what Robbie Ray's current ERA is? Of course, it's 325. And his FIP is also 325?

But look at the whip. Yeah, the whip is 135. And you talk about the run that Robbie Ray could go on. It's his argument I may, like last year, at the end of last year, he sort of went on the run. and Robbie Ray struggled on Sunday against San Francisco. His matchup this week is also at San Francisco. His previous five starts, Robbie Ray was 3-0 with a 190-8 ERA. And in that stretch, he had one quality start.

So I do think that if you don't play with wins and you just have quality starts, be aware that Robbie Ray is a 325 ERA this year and one quality start all season. So just keep in mind in that particular format, quality starts instead of wins. same thing that he did at the end of last season. ERA was good, results look good, quality starts weren't there. He just pretty much never gets through six innings. So I think he's somewhat of format specific, and he does hurt you in WIP, but he's great in strikeouts, and he might be good in ERA.

I'm not convinced that he is 325 ERA kind of guy. No, maybe not, but he's been between 289 and 399 to the last three years. so I'm not dropping him. How about Marco Gonzalez? Would you drop Marco Gonzalez? I could see you dropping it, yeah. Yeah, we may be headed that way. He got off to such a quick start that I don't know that I'm there yet,

but kind of like Miles Michaelis. It was, he had to hit all the right notes to have the year he did last year being not such a big bat misser. and kind of like Miles Michael is he's not getting ground balls like he did last year. And the strikeout rate is actually down too. So, yeah, this may not have a happy ending. Yeah, Marco Gonzalez actually has had a tough, tough schedule. His last four opponents, Cubs at the Yankees, at the Red Sox, home against the twins.

And unfortunately, he's got the Rangers on the road this week. So that is not someone that I trust in tough matchups, and that has certainly played itself out. All right, we're somewhat running at a time. I got some stuff that I can leave for tomorrow's show, like the fringey starting pitchers. We did talk about a lot of guys that we really want to add, so I don't think we missed that many players that we need to talk about.

I'll throw out some more names. I mean, like Griffin Canning, yeah, I mean, Kevin Gosman, if you want someone this week. How about Stephen Matts? He's 73% owned. Would you be making a run on Stephen Matts? No, thank. 73 sounds right.

How about Joey Lucasey at 66%? own with his best start of the season. First quality start, seven innings, two runs. I'm going to need to see more. Yeah. How do you feel about Ronaldo Lopez? Forty-nine percent owned. You're right that it has been a nice run for him, despite one bad start during that stretch. But the strikeouts have been all over the place. So I'm not really, I'm not really close to trusting him yet. Yeah, I was skeptical on Friday, and he did have a good outing in terms of what he allowed.

but I'm not going to change my mind based on one strikeout over six innings against the Blue Jays. So it seems to me that the starting pitchers that might be available that pitched over the weekend and we're most interested in, in some order, Griffin Canning, Tyler Malley, who else did we say, I'm sorry, maybe Jordan Liles. What about Caleb Martin? Wait, we talked about him earlier.

71%. Caleb Martin? His name is... Corbin Martin? Corbyn Martin. Thank you. All right. I added him in a league

and I'm interested. Okay, yeah, because we've talked about him too. We didn't talk about Caleb Martin yet, though. I would add Pablo Lopez to the list as well. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was a nice...

That was a nice turnaround for him. Yeah, he's wondering why I didn't add him or talk about him yet because he's in this deep league section with Merrill Kelly and Trent Thornton and Sandy O'Cantara, complete game shutout again. the Mets, Chase Anderson, Adam Plutco, Dakota Hudson, Daniel Magnin, Pablo Lopez, Cole Irvin, only 18% owned, and Dylan. Pablo stands out to me from that list for sure.

Yeah, Pablo, okay. I think Cole Irvin's a little underowned at 18%. I do not. Yeah, even in the minors, he wasn't a strikeout guy, so I'm going to be highly skeptical of him for a long time based on that. But you don't have to be a strikeout guy to be good. I mean, if C.C. Sabathia is owned in 38% of leagues, Cole Irvin should be owned in more than 8, 20, he's now 22% leagues.

I mean, what is C.C. Sabathia's strikeout rate? Like, I think it's, you pull it up here. It's a five-inning pitcher. It's decent. He's a five-inning picture. No, I understand. I understand he has other issues, but it's, and it's only 6.7 per 9. It was better last year. Okay, so C.C. Bathia hasn't been either.

Yeah. But, no, it's kind of what we were saying, like, Miles, you can be good. as a non-strikeout guy, but it's rare, and it usually means you have extreme tendencies elsewhere. Like Gonzalez and Miles Michaelis were both great ground ball pitchers with great control last year. And there are a few examples beyond them of non-bat messers who we liked in fantasy, and look what's happening to them. But I'm not asking him to be 70%-0. And I'm not asking Cole Irvin to be Miles Michaelis. I'm saying when you're in a league that deep

and the pitching options are Dakota Hudson and Trent Thornton. Cole Orvin seems like he could be a guy that gives you, you know, a nice outing here and there, two out of three times, you know? Gives you quality start. I mean, maybe he could be Mike Lee, right? Sure.

Sure. Okay. Thank you, everybody. Thank you for listening to Fantasy Baseball today. We'll come back tomorrow and recap the Tuesday games. Actually, you know what? Let's go along today and do starter sit for the Tuesday games. The people want it.

So here we go. Starting today, Blue Jays, Red Sox, David Price at Edwin Jackson. Start Price. Yep. Brett Anderson at Carlos Carrasco. Start Carasco. Jay Hap at Andrew Cashner. Start Hap.

Yep. Patrick Corbin against Drew Gagnon. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Jake Arrieta at U. Darvish. Oh, finally an interesting one. Yeah, finally. Finally.

I would be inclined to start neither, but it'd be more likely to start Darvish, I think. I will agree with that sentiment. Mike Leak at Mike Minor. The Mike's. White Sox? I would start minor. I'm not sure what he said. He's starting leak, obviously.

I said minor. I'm not starting leak in a... I assume when we do this exercise, it's for just one game decision. Correct. And no. Okay, okay. We got White Sox at Astros. It's Jordan Guerrero at Brad Peacock.

I'd start Peacock. We got the Braves at the Giants. We've got at Andrew Suarez. Start Soroka. Jake Oteresee at Felix Pena. Oh, that's an interesting one, too. I'd really not. Yeah, I think I'd roll the dice on Oterizzi.

And we are going to start both Luke Weaver and Chris Paddock. And now we're going to call it a day. Thank you, everybody. For Heath and for Scott, I'm Adam. We'll talk to you tomorrow on Fantasy Baseball today.