Fantasy Baseball Today - 05/29: Who to Add, Bullpens, Prospects (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 29, 2018

Plenty to discuss from the last four days of baseball and we'll get started with some of the standouts from over the weekend (3:05) including Joe Musgrove and Matt Carpenter. We'll spend some time on the Most Added list (6:02) debating SPs like Ross Stripling and Daniel Mengden. And does Mitch Moreland have staying power (9:50)? ... Should you add Brandon Nimmo (22:31)? What's going on in some of the bullpens (24:02), particularly TB and TOR? And which hitters (30:05) and SPs (35:24) have been particularly impressive lately? The list includes Christian Yelich, Gorkys Hernandez and Walker Buehler ... Prospect updates (38:10) as CLE gets ready to call up an SP with an awesome name, a discussion of the Anthony Rizzo slide (40:26), a recap of yesterday's pitching performances (47:41) including who to add and drop, Team Name Tuesday (52:05), today's matchups (53:40) and more ... 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

I care about statistical scarcity more than positional scarcity. Have I killed fun? Yes. Podcast is going off the rails already. They're pop-ups. They're not infield fly balls. These guys told you look at Fifth, not E-R-A. So wait for Glover's sale, but pass on Robbie Ray.

Hey, real quick, Scott's bummed about the humidor. And take your milk for breakfast cereal, Mount Rushmore. They'll be there for a change. Hope you are all rested and ready to go. Fantasy baseball today is back. It's Tuesday. It is May 29th. Happy birthday, Mom.

Also, welcome back from your Memorial Day weekend. Hope it was great. I'm Adam Azer, and as you can tell by my voice, I did have a great Memorial Day weekend. And Heath and Chris, Kreeh. Oh, it's Kreeh versus Scam in the For the People League this week. No kidding. We're playing you guys.

You didn't know this? No. Yeah, we sure are. And good for you guys. We don't look at who's on the schedule. This is a big week for you, a chance to knock off first place team. And you know what?

You might laugh at where we are in the standings. We feel pretty good about our team. We're off to a good start, so watch out for scam. How you guys do? How was your three-day weekend? It was nice. It was a nice weekend, except it's South Florida, so it hasn't stopped raining for about three weeks,

so it rained the entire weekend, pretty much. I went on a brewery tour on Friday night to Pointe Beach and toured three different breweries. And then it did stop raining for a couple of hours last night. And I went to a free concert in the park. It was a really delightful weekend. I had my first taste of whiskey this past weekend. What? Yeah, yeah.

That is so exciting. We could do a whole show on this. I thought fire was going to shoot out of my ears. It was awful. Oh, my God. God, it was Johnny Walker Black, and I had a sip, and I was in pain. How do you people do this? That is adorable, Adam.

Well, I was at my best friend's wedding. We had a great time, and let's get to, let's get to Fantasy Baseball. So the truth is, I did go through all the box scores, and I read all the recaps and all that stuff. But I'm going to lean on you guys today for sure, as I always do, but even more so, because I'm sure there was a lot that I missed over the weekend. I see that Austin Meadows is still around. That's really interesting.

I see that Alex Calabay is no longer a closer. And we'll talk about that situation. In fact, a lot of bullpen stuff to talk about. Ryan Tepera is only 16% owned. You might want to get him. He's got the last two saves for the Blue Jays. Let's start with some standouts, guys. Hit me up with some weekend or Monday standouts.

I've got one. How about Joe Musgrove? Oh, yeah. Seven innings of shutout ball against the Cardinals on Friday. He needed 67 pitch. pitches to do it. You know, Joe Maskerv was someone when, you know, when he got called up by the Astros, when the pirates traded for him. He's always profiled as more of a back of the rotation guy. Great control, but throws in the low 90s, doesn't get a lot of swinging strikes. And then he had

a shoulder injury to start the season. And then he comes out in his first start of the season. He's averaging like 95.7 miles per hour with his fastball. The last start he made. He made. He's a made last season he averaged 92.8. That's a massive jump. We saw him be incredibly effective in a relief role, you know, kind of a swingman long relief role for the Astros last season. He was throwing 95 out of the bullpen. If he's doing that as a starter, it makes him much more interesting than I think we gave him credit for. And he was already someone who needed to be must-owned in points leagues because of the spark eligible. Right. RP eligible Joe Musgrove. All right. If you saw Joe Musgrove and Zach Godley on the Waver Wire.

Who would you go for? Godly. Yeah, still godly. And this is the problem we've run into with a lot of starting pitchers. There's just, there's a ton of interesting starting pitchers available this year. How about Joe Musgrove versus Marco Gonzalez? Musgrove. In points, definitely Musgrove. Because of the RP.

Is Martin Gonzalez RP? No, he's not. I don't think so. Okay, so, Heath, how about you? Standouts. Matt Carpenter, the hot streak we've all been waiting for seven hits in his last four games. He's been pretty hot since May 16th, but two home runs, two doubles, it's happening. What's happening?

He's getting the results that his batted ball data suggests that he should. And how good at this point do you think Matt Carpenter can be? A top 10 first baseman, a top seven second baseman, a top nine third baseman. Okay. You guys been active on the waiver wire? Not particularly. Now? Who would you rather have?

Mac Carpenter or Scrut a Gannett? Wait, wait, wait. We said Gennett in the mic check. I thought we were joking around. Oh, no, I was. I just wanted to continue the joke. Oh, okay. Well, it's not a very good job.

Out of context. Jeanette. Just makes you sound like you don't know. I don't say this name. Yeah, Jeanette, yeah, great weekend, Siri. He's been really good for a while, but they were at Corse Field. He was great. He's hitting well.

So what was the answer, Carpenter versus Scooter Jeanette? I'm still taking Carpenter. Chris? I would go with Jeanette. He was better last season. He's been better this season. I think Scooter Jeanette's just really good. Would you like to get more standouts, or should we take a look at the most added list?

I think the most added list would be intriguing. Let's do it. So it's a lot of two-star pitchers. obviously. Like Adam Plutko, Adam Plutgo is 52% owned. That did not work out. I would say that most, many of the two-star streaming options did work out yesterday, but not Adam Plutco. He gave up five runs in five innings against the White Sox. So you can drop him now? Yeah, he might not even end up being a two-star pitcher this week because the Indians are moving

their rotation back and calling up a really interesting pitching prospect, Shane Bieber, who I think at least has a chance to, to emerge as the number five pitcher. And be the team named Tuesday superstar. Like, are you getting me? Shane Bieber? Oh, yeah. You're right.

So he does actually, and Mike Montgomery also made a start yesterday, and he's, I think, has a chance to be the Cubs fifth starter. But Bieber will come up. Bieber's numbers, I'll give them in a minute. We're going to talk about prospects. They're crazy. I mean, the strikeout total isn't, but the walk total is completely crazy in a good way.

All right, so Plutco 1. Ross Stripling. Hey, how about Ross Stripling? I didn't get to take my on-air bow for that one. He had a great start against the Padres, which wasn't a shock. But he's 66%-owned. Stripling has 50 strikeouts to nine walks in 41 and a third, and he has a 174 ERA. He has given up about a hit per inning.

It's a little high. But is anybody buying into Ross Stripling, 66% own? I'm not sure. He's not really doing anything different with his profile, so that's what's causing me some pause, I guess. on him, but like he's been pretty good in the past too. But that's the thing. He has been. He just hasn't been

a starter. Yeah, so I think if he gets a chance he's worth looking at it's just there's other guys on the most added list who I like probably even more. That's the problem I'm running into. Okay, so who do you like more than Ross Stripling?

I like Marco Gonzalez more than him. I probably like Joe Musker of more than him. I think I might like Daniel Mengden. more than him. Daniel Mangdon is kind of, it's not quite the same profile as Miles Michaelis, because Michaelis does get a lot more ground balls, but very similar in the way that they, you know, work in the strike zone, don't get a ton of strikeouts, but they also limit free passes to, in such a way that they, it's working for Michaelis, it's working for Mengdon so far.

I worked for him last year in seven starts. And, you know, at this point he's got like 18 starts going back to last season with a 295 ERA. Pete, why don't you weigh in on all these pitchers here? Because, yeah, there are some good ones, okay? So, so striplings out there, Mengdon's out there, Marco Gonzalez, Joe Musgrove. Now, if you're playing a deep league, they're probably all gone. They're 48% owner more.

But I'm going to guess in most of your leagues, at least one of these guys, Stripling, Mengden, Marco Gonzalez, Joe Musgrove, they're available. What's your take? I don't really know what to make of Mengden yet. It has been extremely encouraging, especially what he's done. recently, but I would still put him at the bottom of the list. I would organize those.

Musgrove would definitely be number one in a points league. I will go, I'll go Stripling 2, Marco 3, and then Mangdon 4th, but there's not a lot of separation between the four of them. Stripling start over the weekend is a great start. It was against the Padres. That was one of the main reasons I was starting him. But the start before that, six innings, one run, nine strikeouts at Washington. also very encouraging.

So this week, Ross Stripling has Philadelphia. Yeah. And then he might have two starts the following week. I think he will be a two-star pitcher the following week. Is there a total must-ad player right now? Is it Mitch Morland? He's 67% owned. I don't think it's Mitch Morland,

just because we have enough of a track record that he can be solid, but he's one of those guys who's probably not going to hit enough against lefties to be a must-start. And he would be must start if he wasn't already 67% owned. But at that ownership, I think he's owned every league where he should be. And like Justin Bore, I think, has pretty much the same ownership. I wrote about him in yesterday's Waverwire. He's been a top 12 first baseman since like he got off to like a miserable start the first 10 games.

But ever since then, he's been like the number 10 first baseman. So it's hard to justify adding Mitch Moreland when Justin Bore is available. All right. So I guess this is for shallower leagues. But how would you rank these three? they're all owned in about 65 to 71% of leagues. Greg Bird, Justin Boor, Mitch Morland. Boer, Morland, Bird.

Moore, Bird. And let's throw Jesus Aguilar in there. Yes. Why don't we do that? He's 76% owned. Is he? I think him and Bor are right next to each other. Aguilar.

Aguilar is gone from being a lefty master, just being a guy that you need to be starting right now, and he's 76% owned. And I think he homered twice over the weekend. And Ryan Braun said, Aguilar is hitting so well. Keep him third and bat me fifth. And it worked out for both of them yesterday. I actually worked out for Braun yesterday.

I think Aguilar went off for yesterday. Wow. What? Sandbagged his own team. How about Austin Meadows? The 69% own. He's on the most added list. You know what, guys?

I think that Gregory Polanco could be the odd man out against lefties. They barely ever faced lefties, but they did yesterday and Polanco sat. All three of those guys, Marte is probably going to start every day, right? But the other three are Dickerson, Meadows, Polanco. They're all left-handed, and the one who's been the absolute worst against lefties is Polanco. Yeah, I just... Austin Meadows has been red-hot, and we can't entirely write that off. But he also had a long track record of being pretty mediocre in AAA.

And, you know, the scouting reports all still liked the... tools and maybe he's just putting it all together now or maybe he's just had a good 10 games and eventually it'll settle in and you know maybe it's just none of them play every day that's possible other than marty right yeah yeah i meant dickerson polanco and meadows he if you feel like you need to pick up awesome meadows just in case he he lives up to the pedigree and becomes great this year or you i mean he's again it's kind of a similar situation i in a five outfielder league i i was picking him up a week or two ago. I thought he could be a decent source of steals while he was up.

He's shown more power than we expected. But I don't, like, I think there is a chance that he stays on the roster and he plays four or five times a week. I don't think there's much of a chance that he just is out of this world all year and is just playing every day

and takes Polanco's job. So I'm, I'm not adding him in a three-off the other league. The other angle here is that Cory Dickerson in his last 16 games is batting 262 with no homers. He's got a 658 OPS. You know, maybe long-term, it's Dickerson that loses.

Yeah, I mean, he could get dealt. Polanco's been just as mediocre, so. Yeah, yeah. But I think the underlying skill set for Polanco is still better than both Meadows and Dickerson. So it's just a question of whether he can get going. You know, he's got a 750-ish OPS with, It's like a 2.30 babbitt. So, I mean, it feels like if I kind of...

I didn't make any ad drops over the weekend, unfortunately. I just didn't have time. It feels like I picked a good weekend to not make that many ad drops. There's not like a... Holy cow. It actually was pretty... I mean, the Ozuna trade and the Hanley DFA is very interesting. But we don't have...

The Osama trade? Sorry, I was thinking of bullpen. You did that in the notes, too. I did? Yeah, we were just waiting for you to see. say it before we're going to do. Oh, wow. What's wrong with me? Because I was thinking of Ryan's Calamate trade. The Eric's Colomé trade. Yeah, no, I mean, I actually think that Tepera is more interesting than anybody in the race bullpen, guys. What do you think?

Yeah, right now, I would say that's true. Yeah, I mean, we just don't know who it's going to be. Like, Johnny Venters got the most recent save for the raise, right? He got a one-out save yesterday. Yeah, he's probably just going to be a lefty specialist, especially given his three and a half times having Tommy John's surgery. So there's no obvious. I think Jose Alvarado is that the name of the really hard throwing lefty in their bullpen? That's the guy. That's the guy that everybody's picking up.

He's on the most out of this, Jose Alvarado. He's 32% own now. And there's Sergio Romo who's going to lead the league in starts, but could, in theory, be moved to the back of the bullpen? I think he pitched in, like, the seventh inning yesterday. That's a thing, right? So it's like Mitch Morland has been great. But as Chris said, we have a track record of Mitch Morland just really not being that good of a hitter.

It's mostly because he can't hit lefties. And we don't have a clear-cut guy in the Ray's bullpen. So we didn't – those two very, very interesting news items didn't exactly open up a must-own, must-start fantasy option. At least in our opinion. No, not yet. Yeah. We'll see how the Moreland thing plays out. All right, let's do some news and notes.

But first, seat geek. I got in a little bit late yesterday. I wanted to go to the Yankees game. I'm glad I didn't. I mean, Verlander, Erman, there wasn't a very good chance of a happy ending for Yankees fans there. But if I had gone to the game, I would have used the promo code today,

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You won't regret it. It's a great app. You will love it for sports, for comedy, for concerts, and for theater. All right, Reese Hoskins left after fouling a ball off his face. Should be fine. Josh Donaldson says his calf injury is minor. Yeah. Right?

Yeah. Can we go back to the whole Travis Shaw versus Josh Donaldson debate? I still think it's difficult. Just, you know why? Just seeing what Donaldson did last year when he was being somewhat written off. Did he end up hitting 40 homers last year? Came close. Do you feel like if Josh Donaldson reaches his accident?

absolute best, still better than the best of Travis Shaw? Yes. If he reaches his absolute best from the past, it would be. Not from the past. I mean, like, what the best could be this year. I don't know. He had 33 home runs last year, but it was in 113 games, so it was like a over 40 pace. All right, fine.

Shaw is it almost a 900 OPS with a 262 Babib still? Hey, I am cool with it. Heath? I'm cool with it. Mookie Betts has missed two straight games with side tightness. That doesn't seem to be too serious. Ronald Acuna dodged a serious injury as an MCL sprain. They're thinking maybe two weeks for Acuna.

Meanwhile, they played a doubleheader yesterday. Ender and Ciarte led off both games against the Mets. Matt Davidson is on the DL. The White Sox called up Matt Skoll, who homered yesterday. We don't care about him, right? No. Carlos Martinez could be back next week. Alex Reyes going to start tomorrow at Milwaukee.

Very excited to watch that. Shohei Otani could start tomorrow at Detroit. A couple of batting order notes. Glaver Torres batted fifth against Houston yesterday. They moved Didi down in the lineup. I did say that Ryan Braun moved to fifth. Aguilar stayed at third, and Trey Mancini's been struggling. He was dropped a sixth in the order.

Chris, Gene Cigaro is expected back today. What can you tell me about Gene Cigura? Gene Cigura is the number nine hitter in rotissory fantasy baseball leagues this season, which I don't think. I'm not sure the name Gene Seguer has been uttered since the shortstop preview episode. Exactly. And that's not like, he's just kind of doing Gene Seguera stuff. Like, this is who he is now.

He's just really good. He had a big game. Did he have like a four-steel game? No, something crazy. He did something. Oh, yeah, he did. He had a four-steel game on May 15th. That was probably the last time we said his name.

But yeah, he's a little dinged up. He avoided a concussion, and it's Betts, Trout, J.D. Martinez, Albies, Jose Ramirez, Machado, Freeman, Judge, Segaro. That's good company. Sounds about right. Yep. Batting 324 with 12 steals. Daniel Murphy's on a rehab assignment. Greg Bird's back.

He started three straight games. Miguel Sinoa's back. He's two for 15 with a home run. It's coming off the DL. Sinoa's been started in 50% of leagues as of right now. He's had a miserable start to the season. Even when he's been on the field, he's missed a bunch of time, but he's striking out like 40% of the time still. Yep, yeah, and seven strikeouts and 15 at bats, like 18 played appearances.

This is coming off the DL. Franchi Cordero is on the DL. Hunter Renfro is back. Carlos Rodon is making his third rehab start, and Irvin Santana is making his second rehab start. Rodon is 44% owned. Santana's 53% owned. Who would you rather own? Rodon.

Yeah, there's more upside there. Jose Altuve had 10 hits in a row. 10 hits over 10 played appearances or maybe 10 at bats over the weekend. He's on fire. What do you guys think about Mike Montgomery? Five and two-thirds, scoreless innings, two hits, five strikeouts at Pittsburgh yesterday. Josh Tomlin has been a mess. Do you think Montgomery's worth owning in a deeper league?

He's obviously RP eligible. He's 4% owned. Deeper league, yes. I am not very excited about him in a standard league. I don't. I just don't think that. there's any upside there. All right. Montgomery last year is a starting pitcher.

I had a 415 ERA. 21 walks. Chris is stumped. I've got a look of just complete and utter confusion. Sorry, you met Tyler Chatwood, not Josh Tomlin, right? Can we just start the show over? No, I'm not criticizing you. No, you should.

Wait, did Mike Montgomery get cut? You should. Okay, no, no. Okay. You should criticize me. You should criticize me. You should criticize me. I was miserable.

Yeah, okay. Yes. So the. I was confused. So here are the two stupid things I've done. I keep confusing Roberto Ozuna and Alex Colome. And I apparently just confused Tyler Chatwood with Josh Tomlin because Josh Tomlin could leave the Cleveland rotation for the Bebs. For Justin Bieber.

That's not his real name. I know that. Who's going to pitch tomorrow? Did you have that first taste of whiskey right before the fucking? But, yeah, no, Tyler Chatwood has been a disaster. this season. He's been like the ERA is still under four, I think, but

effectively wild. He might have more walks than strikeouts now. After his most recent start, yeah, he's been he's been real bad. He might have more walks than innings. That's how bad he's been. It's like seven or eight per nine right now. 8.38. He does have more walks than strikeouts,

but still more innings than walks. Oh, good for you. Tyler Chadwood. Okay, and Russell Martin, this is just kind of interesting, doesn't matter. He's played shortstop. in left field in their last three days, three games. And D. Gordon could be back on Thursday. There's one hitter that I wanted to mention that's not getting quite as much buzz. He's only 32% owned, but he's got 20 walks to 30 strikeouts and 42 games.

He's got five home runs and three steals. He's batting lead off. He is Brandon Nimmo, and he's 32% owned for the Mets. He homered yesterday in the second game of the doubleheader. Brandon Nimmo, this one I did get right. He does play on the Mets. I got all those stats correct, and he is 32% own. How do you feel about Brandon Nimmo?

I think he's pretty good. The problem is he's... We run into this quite a bit where a guy's best format is probably points, and I think that's probably true for Brandon Nimmo. And it's going to be really,

really hard to get him into your lineup in a point league. Yeah, I don't think a month from now you're going to have any problem finding Nemo on the Waver Wire. One thing I do like... I get it, finding Nemo. One thing I do like,

19 runs scored, in 23 games as a leadoff hitter. So you want some runs. You always want plate appearances. We have him in our OVP League, right? I thought so. I don't think so. Chris hasn't visited that page.

It's the last time we've mentioned Jets. Girol. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I made an ad drop in that league yesterday. Is that why we have no-mo? No, I don't think so. I wish. But no, like, that would be the format, a five outfielder OBP League, because he does have great plate discipline.

But he's probably not going to hit more than 15 homers. All right, let's look at the bullpen now. Tampa Bay traded Roberto Ozuna for Alex Colome. And then they traded Alex Colomé and Dernard Span to Seattle. So I guess if there's one guy, would it be Jose Alvarado if you were going to pick up somebody? I guess. He's had walk concerns. He doesn't strike as many guys out as you would think.

And it's not necessarily a team that's going to give him a ton of save opportunities. So, you know, we've already seen other save opportunities go to, you know, other guys on the team. We've got Luis Garcia who got a save for the Phillies and Ryan Tepera for the Blue Jays. Heath, want to you chime in on the Phillies and the Blue Jays. I think Tepara, there was a little bit of talk when we got excited about O and then when Clippert got the job that he was actually the best reliever. And it looks like he's going to get his shot. I think he's the most likely to hold on to it.

I still think they should give someone a shot again. but Tepera would be the one that I'm most interested in. I'm sorry, I was busy looking up Kyle Crick's stats, because it looks like that's who Chris added to our team. And I thought clearly we should talk about Kyle Crick and what he's been doing. Should we? I don't know what Kyle Crick's been doing. I don't have any idea why Chris added him.

I wrote about him in the Waverwire column yesterday. Oh, that was in reaction to Felipe Vasquez's forearm injury yesterday, but it sounds like he's going to be okay. But if he's not, I think Kyle Crick is the guy to own in the Pittsburgh bullpen. Right. So Felipe Vasquez has forearmed discomfort, but they're downplaying it. Ken Giles did pitch a scoreless ninth and a 5-1 win yesterday. He was terrible on Sunday, gave up three runs on three hits.

Now, Will Harris actually let some of the runners in, and I think the inning started two days ago on Sunday with Ken Giles and Jose Ramirez in a 17 pitch at bat. So that just completely wore him down. They had to take him out early. Ryssel Iglesias could be back on Wednesday and the good news for Jacob de Grom is that he pitched so

brilliantly yesterday thank you Adam for talking and Jaris Familia did not blow a save for him and ruin a win for DeGrom instead Seth Lugo did it so it is really annoying to be a DeGrom owner he's been a he's does he has like a 1-4-5 ERA

I think he does he has like a 1-4-5 ERA and the Mets are like 6 and 5 in his starts it's amazing He just cannot get a win these days. All right, would you rather have, did I ask you this? Would you rather have Blake Parker or Ryan Tepera? Parker. To para.

I think I might go make that move as we speak in one of my categories leagues. I'm not sure you can do anything else while you speak this morning. I can't even speak, so. Just focus on speaking. Weddings are fun. And even for a guy who doesn't drink, like I had just a great time. Do you dance? Are you a dancer? Oh, yes. Okay, good.

Are you? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you like wedding music? Because you like such, like, such indie music. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. Like when timber comes on. Yeah, they played, they did that. Oh, yeah, that is. When that, I'm racing to the dance floor when Timela. Once I hear that harmonica, I just bowling grannies over so I can get to the dance floor.

Yeah, I'm going to be the outsider here and say that one of the best parts about moving to South Florida, away from everyone that I knew is that I didn't have to go to any more weddings. I mean, I can understand being over weddings, because I think I'm kind of over them now. We had a nice little run. Yeah, we had... They're fun. We went to like 12 over the span of two years.

They're not fun. No, they're very fun. Oh, they're extremely fun. Hey, guys, you want to have some fun in just a few weeks, less than a month? Father's Day, Heath, you're the only one that's going to really enjoy that. I've got a great idea for you. For Father's Day, are you ready? Yes. Okay, good. How about an absolutely amazing package from Omaha Stakes? This is an amazing sponsorship. Right now, go to Omaha Steaks.com. And there's no promo code, but what you do when you go to Omaha Steaks.com is type FBT in the search bar. And then you will see the Omaha Stakes Father's Day package. And I will tell you what it includes. But this is a really awesome way to, look, if it's Father's

If you just want to have, if you just want to grill out, if you just want to have some amazing food, go to Omaha steaks.com and type an FBT in the search bar. And it's really convenient. You're going to get it delivered right to your door in an Omaha Steaks cooler. There's a lot of variety. The quality is just all beef. It's USDA inspected for quality and age for 21 days to unlock the full flavor and the tenderness of the cuts. Here's what you're getting. Two filet mignon's. Two top. sirloins. Four chicken fried steaks. Two boneless pork chops. Four all beef Omaha steak burgers. Four gourmet jumbo francs. Twelve ounces of all beef meatballs. One pound of steakhouse fries. Four caramel apple tartlets. One Omaha steaks seasoning packets. And four more grill ready Omaha steaks burgers free with your purchase. Did you hear all that stuff I said? That's incredible.

and that's all for 4999. You can feed so many people for 4999. Go to Omaha steaks.com slash FBT. I got the package and I took a look at the filet mignon's and I was like, yes, let's do this. Do we have to wait for Father's Day? I'm going to get probably another one before then, just so we can grill out before Father's Day. But this is amazing Father's Day package. Go to Omaha Steaks.com and just type in FBT into the search bar.

So Omaha Steaks.com type in FBT, all that. Amazing meat. I've been waiting for this sponsorship for a long time. This is really going to resonate with our listeners. Get on it. FBT in the search bar, $49.99 for enough to feed like 15 people or more. All right, here we go. Top 10 hitters and pitchers over the last four days since we last spoke to you. Well, the top 10 hitters is a lot of high-end guys, so we might do more than 10. But Jose Al-Tuve, Christian Yewich had a big game yesterday.

Homer, he stole two bases. And Yelich right now is the number. 19 outfielder in points leagues. No, I think it's 19th in Roto and 27th in points. Why? Because he's missed some time. He's played... I have the notes here somewhere. He's played like 13

fewer games than the Brewers have played. It doesn't matter. Yeah, I was just having a nice season, guys, but it's an interesting season. Because he has six home runs. He's not exactly going on that power binge that maybe we... I don't want to say that. Maybe we thought

that the home field would do a little bit more for his home run total. He's got six home runs right now and six deals and seven attempts. Yelich. Well, so he played 156 games last year, 155 the year before. So if we take his six home runs and put them on a 155 game pace, I think it's, yeah, he would be on pace for about 28 homers. Oh, really?

So, and, and, you know, this, he does have an 18% homer at a flyball rate, which is right in line with his career rate, which is 16%. Given the change in park, you'd expect that to go up. But he has also continued to reduce his ground ball rate. In 2015, it was 63%. Last year, it was 55% this year. It's 49.6%. It's the first time he's been under 55% ground ball rate for a season.

So he is making some of the adjustments that we hoped. It hasn't been extreme, but the power breakout, I think, is somewhat there. 33 runs and 43 games for Christian Yowich. That's pretty good. All right, other great hitters from the last four days. Altuva Yelich, Ben Intendi. He's been really good lately.

Tim Anderson. So Tim Anderson has four home runs in his last four games. Heath, he's 72% own. The 21 games before that, Tim Anderson batted 157 with three homers and three steals in 21 games. He does have more walks this year than he had all of last year. Give me a quick thought on Tim Anderson.

He's kind of having a little bit of a Rubnet-O-Dor type year, except O'Dore this year is just all bad. But he was incredible for, what, three weeks a month and then just absolutely unplayable for almost as long, and now he's good again? I would expect he's going to be somewhere in the middle over the rest of the year. I still don't think I have much interest in him in a points league. And the problem is he's not running as much as he was to start the season, and that's why we were really interested in him. Those two kind of come in wave sometimes, but it is definitely worth noting. Tim Anderson had eight steals in his first 15 games.

He has three steals in his last 35 games. Mike Trout, Edwin Encarnacion, Evan Gattis. I got to say, I'm really happy. I was able to pick up Evan Gattis. If you dropped Evan Gattis, shame on you. And he's only 81% owned. Evan Gattis should be 100% own. Or as owned as any catcher that's not Gary Sanchez, basically, right?

I'm not saying he's the number two catcher, but any must-start catcher should be 100% owned or close to it. I can't think of a league where he shouldn't be owned. Right, exactly. Anthony Rendon Gorkes Hernandez guys this kind of came out of nowhere over the weekend he was 9 for 18 with two home runs

and he's on a 10 game hitting streak with 17 hits and four home runs this is Gorkes Hernandez Giants outfielder Yeah and only one of those home runs came at Coors Field I don't like you said this came out of nowhere like past nowhere we have no reason

to believe that Gorky's Hernandez was a good baseball player he's 13th 30 years old. He's not a prospect. I'm going to pass. Yeah, I mean, he is hitting the ball harder, but he's also straying out 30% of the time. So that screams selling out for power and not in a way that I'm necessarily excited for. All right, I'll throw, I won't go in order. I'll just throw out some more interesting names who are in the top 20 in fantasy points over the last four days.

Yonder Alonzo, Michael Conforto, Javier Baez, Jesus Aguilar, John Jay, N. Dick Ahmed, Jamer Candelario. Anyone really jump out of your? Candelario is only 55% owned. Yeah, Candelario, another guy, kind of like Nimmo, that his best format is going to be a points league, and he might not be worth starting in that format, but I don't know, I think he's used,

like he's going to hit for a high average. I think he can be, I think he can continue to be kind of what Uli Gurriel was last year, and that's a useful player even in Roto. Okay. I like Conforto, you know, I'm happy that he's hitting the ball pretty well right now. Yeah, and Javier Bayez just, it's hard to say because the plate discipline is just so bad. He hasn't, I don't think he's walked since like the middle of April. It's been like 130 plate appearances in a row or something crazy like that. I just don't know if you can, like he's got a ton of RBI.

He's hitting his overall numbers are still good, but he was really cold before this. Yeah. All right, that's Javier Baez. Top 10, or we'll probably do more, starting pitchers over the last four days. Maybe there's somebody that we missed. Well, we talked about Mengden, we talked about Paxson. Guys, Walker Bueller, seven innings in his last start, and he did that with, did he even throw 90 pitches? He's been very efficient. I think that's what's really surprised me.

Walker Bueller's not walking anyone. Two straight starts of seven innings. without a walk. And this is a guy who had major walk issues. So what you're saying is his name should be urbular? The whole major walk issues thing is interesting. He doesn't have a very long track record in the minor leagues at all. And so he did, when he came up and pitched in relief last year,

walk a lot of batters. In AAA in 2017, he had 4.2 walks per nine, but that was over 23 innings. The rest of the time it's right around 2.7, I don't think we know enough about Walker Bueller to know that he was going to be a walk problem. So after 41 innings in the major leagues now, I'm kind of ready to say he's not.

The bigger issue with Walker Bueller is still, he didn't even reach 100 innings last year. He's already up to 54 this year. I would guess you've got to look at him as if he has 100 innings left. My hope is the Dodgers just start him until he reaches that mark and shuts him down. My concern would be we get to July.

He's got 30 innings, 25 innings left on his arm. They have healthy starting pitchers, and he's in the bullpen. Yeah. Bueller has thrown between 89 and 97 pitches in all of his starts. And that was five innings, five innings, six, six, five, seven and seven innings. He's just been outstanding. He's at course this week, so yuck. Yeah.

One of his good starts recently was against the Rockies, but it was at home. Mike Leak, Joe Musgrove, Kyle Hendricks, Ross Tripp, Patrick Corbyn. That was nice to see. Seven innings, seven strikeouts, no runs, four hits. I don't think any runs. Yeah, I think one run. Sorry.

Mike Fultenevich. How about Mike Fultenevich really good at Fenway? And how about Sean Nukum pretty bad at Fenway? What do you think about that? I didn't start Nukam, so I just don't want to start any left-handed starting pitcher at Fenway against that lineup. It's just a disaster waiting to happen. And one guy you kind of glossed over that didn't strike anybody out over the last week, but did have a very nice two-start week.

That's Mike Leak. He gave up two earned runs in 14-and-two-thirds innings. I don't think he's a bad guy in a points league to keep on your roster and just start him against good matchups. All right. And we've got to talk about Caleb Smith and Trevor Cahill. They pitched yesterday. I had a – let's see – one other prospect that I wanted to talk about, maybe two.

Nick Kingham is going to start today. Kingham with Devon Nova on the DL, Kingham is 40% owned. Do you want to pick him up? Would you rather pick up Kingham or Shane Bieber? Let's start with that. Probably Kingham, because there's a... I would say a better chance that he's more

immediately thrown into the role that you would hope to see him in. Bieber has to prove himself. And, you know, he doesn't have... So we didn't really talk about him. He has three walks in... 63 innings, I think, this season. He had 10 in 173 last season. He's a fourth-round pick. Not a big prospect. Wasn't in Scott's top 100 fantasy prospects coming into the season.

Wasn't a top 100 prospect anywhere. I think baseball perspective had him as the Indians number five prospect. So it's going to be interesting if he can do the Daniel Mangdon Miles Michaelis thing and just not walk anyone get enough strikeouts. and limit hard context. The same thing Shamanai is doing this season. Okay, so Shane Bieber, yeah, 110 ERA, three walks, and 61 strikeouts, and 65 in a third so far this year. One other guy, Colorado called up Ryan McMahon. He's playing second base, and LeMayhew is on the mend, so I'm guessing we're not rushing to pick up Ryan McMahon.

No, he needs to have a big week. Okay. They're home all week. We'll see what happens. I forgot to mention one thing in the bullpen. Don Maddally did express some concern about Brad Ziegler. It was just awful last time out. Weird.

You think Brad Ziegler might not be good, Don? He's been a disaster all season. I don't know. I don't know what they're waiting for beyond. Just like someone to offer us the 29th best relief pitcher in your organization. Well, who would you pick up in the Marlins bullpen? Bearclaw? Probably.

The problem is they have three guys who are basically the same. Bearclaw, Drew Steckenrider, and Tyron Gerell. I would guess Barraclaw just because he's been there longer. Okay. I wanted to read some emails since we haven't spoken to the people in a long time. See if we have time for Team Name Tuesday today. We should. This is from Kennesaw Mountain Landis.

I don't remember the guy's real name, but he wants to be an old school commissioner. So he says, Dear Happy Peter, Fay, and Bud. I don't know who Happy is, but he must be a commissioner. He was a commissioner. I never heard of him. This Anthony Rizzo play needs to be re-evaluated. I think Rizzo should be suspended and fined. And I think Joe Madden is obnoxious and owes Little League, Pony League, U.S.S.A, and all of youth baseball, a formal apology for saying,

that's what's wrong with the game is the fans don't know the rules and that kids should be taught to slide that way. Really, Joe? Ha, ha, ha, ha. I'm glad you're not coaching my son. No, that's not what we teach, nor should an MLB manager. I think it's him that doesn't know the rules. Absolutely terrible and the ignorance of the most overrated manager in the game. So this was reviewed.

Yeah, it was reviewed. I don't know how. Like, it seems to be plainly against the rules. I don't know how they... I thought the rule... Maybe I don't know the rule. I thought the rule was that you had to touch the base. You could not slide so far to the baseline

that you could not touch the base. I think it was within the rules. I think you're right here. I don't know. If it is, it's an awful rule. Like, that's plainly dangerous and against the spirit of whatever. Like, there's no reason that should be legal. and what happened to Buster Posey isn't.

Here's the thing. That slide has been taught in baseball for decades. It's not, it may be against the new spirit of the rule or the new spirit of the game. Historically, it's well within the history of the game. It is what has been taught for 100 years. I get that that's what we do at second base, but I don't think catchers are ready for that. I mean, I never liked the, I never liked the break up the double play thing. I always thought it was a dangerous, stupid, antiquated rule.

I'm glad they got rid of it. If you don't want to ground into a double play, don't ground into a double play. I never got the concept of, oh, all right, well, now we can just take out a fielder to break up the double play, whether that happened at second base or in this case home plate. But it was within the rules. He didn't really go out of the way. It was dangerous and it is stupid and it probably should be treated the same way second base is treated.

But I didn't really like what Madden said. I kind of agree with Kennesaw Mountain Landis about Madden's tone. I'm not going to go as far as to say that he's the most overrated manager in the game, and he's ignorant on that. He's defending his guy. Exactly. That's what you're supposed to do as a manager. He can't come out and say, no, Rizzo was dirty.

I'm going to bench him for it. No, but you don't have to say that the problem with the game is that the fans don't understand that this is, or whatever he said, which is to the effect of what I'm saying, that the fans don't understand that this is the way it's supposed to be played. I think he probably took it a little bit too far, unless he really feels that way, in which case I would have to disagree. Well, yeah, I think he's an old baseball guy. There are more and more rules that are being changed to get away from old baseball stuff.

I wouldn't be surprised if he feels that way at all. Yeah. All right, this is from Antoine. While DeYoung is on my D.L. I have Cozart. He's been kind of met. Would you rather have Cozart or Scott Kingery? I'll take Cozart. All right.

I think Kingery probably has more upside if you're looking for that. Kingery is doing nothing. Yeah. Nothing. Like we, we, I still like the skill set eventually, but, you know, he's getting a lot of singles. Yeah. This is from Taylor. Best long-term potential to hold their job.

Alvarado, Tepera, Naris, or Dominguez? Tepera. Not Nairis? Not Neres, guys. No, there's a lot of competition there. I think Nairus will hold his job. I just don't think his job involves getting every save. Okay.

How about a question from Joe in South Louisiana? Dear Bruce Arnold and Sylvester. Who's your favorite? If you're going to watch a Bruce Arnold or Sylvester, yeah, I can't speak. Who's your favorite? Bruce, for sure. I have no idea what this is. Bruce Willis Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester, Sirone.

Oh, I was thinking Sylvester the cat. Oh, my God. Could you lose your man card anymore? Bruce. It's definitely Bruce. Bruce is the only one that's actually an actor. Yeah, but I like Arnold movies better. No, sorry. Sly Stallone.

He has the best movie. I agree. Slice Stallone has the best movie, and 30 years ago, Slice Stallone was an actor. I think Bruce is the only one that still is. Sly was good in Creed, man. Yeah, yeah. It might have been the best acting performance of his career. I don't know that Terminator 2 is not better than Rocky.

Is that controversial take? No, they're different. They are. Okay, here's the question. I own Delano to Shields. Would you rather have De Shields or Malick Smith? Delino. Deschildes.

DeShilds. Toledo Deschilds. It wasn't even me this time. That's awesome. This is from somebody with no name. Rank the following Braves, Young Guns. Sean Newcombe,

Louise Gohara, Mike Sarotoka, and we can just do anything we want with Fultenevich. But Nukum-Gohara. Yeah, Fultenevich. You just did. Nukam-Gohara, Syroka, Fulte. Oh, that order.

Yep. Okay. From that, I just watched Brockmeier. I need another suggestion. I suggest trial and error. It's even better than Brockmire. The Marvelous Miss Maisel. Marvelous Miss Vasil is very good.

From Nick. Would you rather have Brian Dozier or Cody Bellinger in a Categories League? Dozier? In a Categories League. Yeah. Second base is enough. I still think first base will be good, even though it's been awful. All right.

A couple more emails. Chris says, hey, Peralta, Boyle, and Holt. I know that one. Yeah, it's Brooklyn 9-9. Forget Paul Goldschman. Can we talk about Byron Bucson? is one of the biggest busts of this year? Should Buxton be dropped, or is he just to hold and wait at this point?

I'm holding, but you know what's coming in the second half. It's bad. It's tough to hold him, but... Buckson has been so bad. And this is from Matt from the Great White North. Which is the Better Dynasty duo? Betts and Acuna, or Harper and Vlad Jr.? Betts and Acuna?

Or Harper and Vlad? You like that side? Yep. Okay. Who's going to win the finals? The Warriors. The Warriors are. Hopefully it's as compelling as the conference finals were.

That's a good game. That was a great game last night. I love Steph Curry. I love watching Durant, but I prefer Curry. Yes. I think most of America does. Yeah, it was fun to watch him win that game. All right.

I think we'll come back to Team Name Tuesday. Let's talk about yesterday's pitchers. The three-man rotation. David Price struggled. Coming off of two great starts in a row. Do you trust David Price at Houston this weekend? Also, there is a spider on my laptop right now, and I am terrified. I hate spiders.

I would prefer not to trust David Price at Houston this week, but I do trust him rest of season. I don't even know what to do right now. Like, I can't kill it. Why, just kill it? Everybody's going to hate me. I can't kill it. Of course you should kill it. Go away.

They eat mosquitoes and various household pets. Kill it. Luke Weaver, I cannot say today. You had some whiskey this weekend. Man up. Kill the spider. Not killing it. Luke Weaver went four innings, gave up four runs at Milwaukee.

You know, you got to be good, Luke Weaver. There's a rotation surplus here. Any thoughts on him? He's got the pirates this weekend. Big, big start for him. I'm not going to hold a start at Miller Parker against him. somebody. I'm just not so sure he's that good. He might be their sixth best starter.

Disappointing at this point. Yeah, Jack Flaherty had a great start last time. Was that over the weekend? I don't know if we talked about that. Maybe before that. Jack Flaherty is last year's Luke Weaver. Right. And I'm going to tell us Skaggs right into a big fat loss this weekend because he was terrible yesterday. He'll be home against Texas this weekend. I think he's been better at home than on the road. But overall, good year from Skaggs, what did you make of his struggles yesterday at Detroit? I don't think there's much to it. I haven't dug into it, but that just happens sometimes. Right.

He's not the type of pitcher to where this type of start is an outlier. Like, when you regularly pitch five and two-thirds or six innings, you're going to have some stinkers. Would you rather have Ross Stripling or Tower Skaggs? Skaggs. Skaggs. Joe Musgrover, Skaggs. Skaggs. Skaggs and Roto, West Grover, points.

All right, some fringy starting pitchers. Part one. So these guys are 52 to 78% on. We've basically talked about most, if not all of them. Not really, actually. I'm not sure why this first guy is a fringe starting pitcher. I agree. If I see Vince Velasquez in any league, I'm adding him.

Scott and I said that last week. Did you have a no-hitter going into the 6th yesterday? Yeah, I'm not sure Tyler Skaggs is bad. better than him. He's not. The ownership percentage is pretty similar. Skaggs is 86, Velasquez 78. That's a huge difference. Yeah, but, you know,

Velasquez doesn't go deep into games, well, neither is Tyler Skaggs, but Velasquez is the better strikeout pitcher. He's been really, really good. Basically, he's had two bad starts this season. It's been the Braves. The Braves have killed him. Everything else has been fine, I think. Yeah, he's allowed 10 earned runs in

13 earn runs and three starts against the Braves. Well, he had one good start against them. Okay, guys. So, rank these four. Velasquez, Caleb Smith, Trevor Cahill, Marco Gonzalez. Velasquez, Caleb Smith, Trevor Cahill, Marco Gonzalez. I think you did. I think I'd probably go Gonzalez over Cahill,

but I don't feel terribly strongly about it either way. Do you feel like you want to add any of these guys who pitched yesterday? Brandon McCarthy, Matt Boyd, Lance Lynn, or Chad Kool? Brandon McCarthy, Matt Boyd, Lance Lynn, Chad Cool. I think McCarthy is better than he's pitched, but I think there's a chance he just loses his job soon. Yeah, Boyd, I've come around on to the point of I'm willing to add him when he has two starts or when he has a decent matchup. I don't dislike his matchup against Toronto this weekend. He would be my favorite of the group.

How about in deeper leagues? These guys are owned in less than 30% of leagues. It's Domingo Hermann, Brent Suter, and Alex Cobb. I mean, Hermann as a spark is definitely still usable. I don't really know what to make of Souter. I've gotten interested and given up on him multiple times already this year. I don't think there's a ton of upside there, but he could be someone that, again, kind of like Boyd,

like this week he's at the White Sox. I wouldn't feel terrible about running him out there. Who's that Souter? Yes. Okay. We're going to look at today's matchups. I think we've got some time for Team Name Tuesday. Oh, that was really awkward.

Sorry, guys. How about Soto Popinski? Sure. Excellent. Yeah, that's a really good one. I am supposed to sing this Team Name Tuesday to the beginning, to the chanting at the beginning of the Lion King's Circle of Life. I think it's...

Shamanaya, Hyenjin, Somenaya. That's good. That's good. Can I go with a, with a Disney one? Yeah. For Domingo Erman. Somehow I'll make hermann out of you. What is that from?

Milan? No. I never saw it. You don't know. You offended. Shut up, Delano to Childs. Dave. Shut up.

Every name on this podcast. Dave has Panic at the Frisco and Patances with Wolves. Dave, those are funny, but they are not original. You're going to step it up, my man. We've got, let's see. That's the one I cannot read. It is a terrible one. Finding Nemo.

And it's tearing up my heart when I'm with you, with Julio Taran and U Darvish's name in there. That's from Samir. He did want me to sing it. I cannot sing today. Thank you for Team Name. Tuesday, everybody. It's time to look at today's matchups. And we've got a busy week, by the way. Every team in action yesterday.

We actually had 16 games yesterday. So another busy day today, beginning at 6.10 p.m. Eastern with the White Sox and the Indians. Lucas G. Alito at Mike Clevenger. Start Clevenger. Charlie Morton at C.C. Sabatia. Morton. Yes. John Lester at Nick Kingham. I'll start Lester. Yeah, I will too. What about Kingham?

I'd rather not. Jeremy Helixen at Dylan Bundy. It's a tough matchup for Bundy. He's been much better. He's coming off the 14th strikeout game? Yeah, he was late. He has been last time. It's going to be hard to bench him, but it's going to be hard to trust him against the nationals, too.

I'm going to say something that I'll start reading tweets about 9.30 tonight about, but I don't think it's a terrible idea to start Helixen. No, I mean, yeah. The Orioles have terrible play discipline, and they're not hitting very well. They've been awful. If you need a quality start, you're probably not going to get it from Helixen. I mean, he very rarely, I think once he's pitched six innings, and he throws like 80 pitches.

He's gotten up to 93 once, but 75 pitches. You gave up one running through 75 pitches last time out. But yeah, what's his ERA, Jeremy Hallexon? He's really been very good. Nick Chopiano at Michael Fulmer. I'll start both. Yeah. Marco Estrada at Rick Porcelo.

Rick Porcello's got to pull out of this. I'm starting Porcelo nervously. Stephen Mats at Aaron Sanchez. Anibal Sanchez. Nope. No. No, I mean, Annabel Sanchez I was using as a spark, but beyond that. Michael Wacha at Zach Davies.

Would prefer not to start Waka at Miller Park, but in a point to league. It's not the end of the world. Twins at Royals. Kyle Gibson's at Danny Duffy. No. I'll start Kyle Gibson. Okay.

Jeff Samarja at Kyle Freeland now. You know, Samarja, Samarja has like a crazy good history at Corr's Field, doesn't he? It doesn't matter? I remember something like that, but he's been, he just hasn't had it this year since coming back from the injury. Under no circumstances, are we starting Jeff Samarja, but just for fun, since you all love baseball and love useless stats. Let's go ahead and look up Jeff Samarge's career numbers at Corsefield.

And while I do that, let me read. Reds at Diamondbacks. Luis Castillo at Zach Godley. I'm not giving up on Godley yet. Start them both. Okay, all right. I like it. Raise at A's.

Blake Snell at Daniel Gossett. Blake Snell? Yes. Dan Strelie at Tyson Ross. Start him both. Yeah. You are facing Dan Strelie in the Four the People League. Scott picked him up.

and we're starting him at the Padres. Austin Bebens-Durks at Felix Hernandez. I'm starting Felix. Okay, and one more game. Jake Arrieta at Kenta Maeda. I'll start both. Career at... Yeah, good.

We were wrong. About what? I think Jay Garita might have been, or Jeff Samarja might have been good at Coorsfield last year, but he has a 487 ERA there. That's good. That's not that bad. Actually, you know what I think it is? No, he had an 1191 here last year.

Right. I think he was great before last year. What were we thinking? He was great before last year at Coros Field. Last year, not so much. And we're not starting some Arja anyway. Okay, that's it, guys. Anything else? I made it. I hope you can deliver an outro appropriate for the level of this show. Well, I don't know how I'm going to pronounce either of your name's wrong. I believe in you.

For Scott, Dave, and Jamie, I'm Nick Costos, and we'll talk to you tomorrow on the Sportsline DFS podcast. See ya.