Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/01 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: Worryometer, Underowned SPs & More

Episode Date: June 1, 2017

Masahiro Tanaka stunk it up again and you better believe he's on the Worryometer today. We get to Tanaka early, then discuss Matt Carpenter, Rougned Odor and more struggling hitters (33:44) ... Yesterday's fringey SPs were intriguing. We discuss Luis Perdomo, Junior Guerra, Dan Straily, Zack Godley and more (22:20) .... George Springer's dingers (16:30), Steven Souza's streakiness (19:00), plus buy/sell/hold for the aces who pitched yesterday (48:00) ... 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

All right, talking baseball on this Thursday morning, June 1st, two months down in the fantasy baseball season. Welcome to fantasy baseball today. Email us at Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. We're going to talk about some under-owned and over-owned players. James Paxton is back. Masahiro Tanaka, look at the Wariometer out here. Although I'm calling it the Thuriometer because it's Thursday. And that's all I can think of. Worryometer Wednesday, Thuriameter, Thursday. bad, right? Yeah, you shouldn't have done that.

You know what that made me think of? What's that? Furby. Furby. Thurie, I thought, furry. From the black-eyed piece? Furby. You know, the little Furby toys?

Yeah, I remember that. Dines ears and eyes. Yeah, she sang glamorous. Yeah. She made the black eyes piece much better. So let me start with a trivia question here on Thoreometer Thursday. Which must-start player has two walks and 32 strikeouts right now? For the season?

Yeah. Must start player with two walks and 32 strikeouts clearly has suffered an injury and missed a significant portion of time. Correct. I would say about an 11th, 12th round pick in a 12th team league. Okay, so it's not Trevor Story. Eligible at multiple positions. Eligible at multiple positions? Teammates with Trevor Story.

Yeah, he does. It does but it is. Congratulations. So he'll be on the thurometer in a little bit. What's going on, guys? What's on your fantasy baseball mind? Yesterday for CBSports.com, I released the top 250 roto trade short and discussed when, if, and how you should trade Mike Trout.

And what was your conclusion? What I came to, what I came to? do, and I don't know that Scott and Chris completely agree with this, but since it was specifically a Roto trade chart, I am much more likely to trade Trout in Roto, even though he's arguably even more valuable in that format. I just think in a points league, it's really easy. If I'm in first or second or I feel confident about finishing the top six without Trout, I keep him. Because I get to the playoffs, everything starts over. I've got Mike Trout, I'm better than you. And no, you don't have that same, everything starts over point.

So if you get to August 1st and Trout comes back, which is my arbitrary date that I'm using, and you're in sixth or seventh place, in a points league, great, I'll make the playoffs. And Roto, you're probably done. Well, look, he might miss only five weeks. That seems unrealistic. They're saying six to eight, but he had a very similar procedure to what he was. Angleton Simmons had last year, and that was a five-week absence. So it was said yesterday that there's a possibility that Mike Trout only misses five weeks.

I would be a little more concerned about Trout because he hits the ball hard on a regular basis. Like Simmons, I'm not sure that he's going to notice. Oh, come on. I mean, it's the same thing. I mean, you come back from injury, you come back from an injury. I don't care how good you are. But look, we've spent a lot of time talking about Mike Trout yesterday and on Monday. Chris Towers, Tuesday, I guess.

Chris Towers, what's on your fantasy? mind over there other than the NBA finals? I can't wrap my mind around Masahiro Tanaka having a bad start when Andrew O'nine was behind the plate. I thought I thought this was, we fixed it.

I thought we figured out what was wrong with him and what was wrong with him was Gary Sanchez. Chris is in one of those moods today. I mean, I was just I was told that by who? By everyone. No. All we needed to do was have Masahiro Tanaka not throw to Gary Sanchez, just take that bad out of the lineup, and you'll be better.

It's fine. Hey, Heath, what's going out with your buddy over there? Like, what is going out with grief? You know what happened. I sent out a tweet earlier this morning because I was so excited. Check my email first thing. And Anthony Rizzo is now a second baseman. Oh.

Just sports fantasy leagues. Chris hates this. It's really dumb. I love this, partially because Chris hates it so much. I've already moved Rizzo into second base for next week in the league that I own him. And very excited. Yeah, that really, that does stink. Why does it stink?

It's really dumb. Because he's not really playing second base, but. He's done it five times now. It is what it is, as Mariah Carey would say. You know, if we made it a little more arbitrary and had a common sense override to position eligibility, then we could override something like this. Do it. We don't do that.

It's called commissioners. Yeah, commissioner can't do that. Yeah, they can. But yeah, I... Don't. I just... And we'll talk about Master Hurtanaka at some point today anyway,

but it's just, like, this is generally my position is that if there's an explanation that seems too simple, like, he just has to throw to a different catcher, and he'll be totally fine. the explanation is probably not.

I think you're overstating how much people, or at least us, thought that was the issue. I think we sort of dismissed that a little bit, like Tanaka through one great start. I mean, the bigger issue is that he's not facing the A's every day. He struck out 13 A's on Friday. And like I said yesterday, Trevor Bauer struck out 14 A's on Tuesday. So Tanaka, look, he's giving up a lot of home runs more than two per nine. And he's got a 634 ERA, a 1.525 whip. put him on the thuriameter right now.

Let's just call it the worryometer. Zero to ten, how concerned are you about Masahiro Tanaka? I don't think you can continue to see him get to knock it around almost every start and not be worried. I would put him as an eight. Yeah, I'm not really that worried. What do you mean? Like a five. Who does he face next week?

Two starts. I'm not sure I'd start him. Two-star week. Okay, I'm probably starting it. I'm just, I guess what I'm trying to figure out is what is tangibly different about Masa here, Tanaka, right now? That wasn't true, Lash. His command slash control is not good at all. Well, it's probably that, but it's also his slider and his splitter.

He just doesn't have his breaking pitches. It's very weird. What did you say? It's Austin, Roman. I got the wrong Romine. Oh, Boston. It. Boston and Boston.

Baltimore next week, by the way, in a two-star week. So, I mean, there's a tough matchups. Baltimore just knocked him around yesterday. And they insist, the most important thing is they insist that he's healthy. But it just wouldn't surprise me if there were something there like David Price, you know, that they don't know about. We don't find out until later. I guess I'm going to back off on the buy low thing on Tanaka.

Although if it's super low, like, like, you know, got an email yesterday. Somebody dropped Tanaka. Okay, yeah, if it's that low, then you buy. If somebody wants Drew Pomeran's, I would give up Pomerans for Tanaka. even though I think there's a good reason to like Pomerance right now. He's 80% owned. Would you guys do that? I would rather have Tanaka than Pomeranzas, yes.

I would rather have Tanaka than Pomerantz as well. And to be clear, Tannaka's been in a weird situation of being both bad and unlucky. So I don't think he's 6, 3, 4 ERA bad, but he's been more like 5 ERA bad. But that's still, like, much worse than what we expect. And, like, the weird thing is he's still getting a ton of swings and misses on both his slider and his splitter. So when we talk about the breaking balls aren't there, well, they're there sometimes. So I think it's probably just something where it's just a minor thing that needs to click, and I think he'll be fine. Yeah, it is two months now, though, and it is weird.

All right, let's go through yesterday's action. And again, I'll try to save some time at the end of the show for emails at FantasyBaseball at cbsi.com. We'll also try to take a look at Thursday's matchups. Two players that might be under-owned. You tell me if you agree or disagree. Luis Perdomo, he's only 16% owned. He's got a bad ERA, 501 ERA. But, you know, he had a really bad start against Arizona, eight-earned runs in three innings.

Other than that, six quality starts in his last seven. This is Luis Perdomo of the San Diego Padres. 46 strikeouts to 15 walks and 50 in a third. I don't know. 16% seems a little low. I'm not saying he should be 50%. 50%, but obviously we need pitching in deeper leagues. Luis Perdomo, is he better than that?

16%. Here's the thing. I don't know that I could say that I fault fantasy owners for him being 16%. He had a 5-7101 last season. He's got a 501 this season. He's the type of pitcher in that 75 to 90 range of starting pitchers, that if he's coming off of a good start or he has a good matchup or he has two starts that week, he's going to be more highly owned,

maybe closer to 40%, and then he comes off a bad start, or he goes up against the Cubs, and nobody's going to use him, so he gets dropped. He'll go on and off rosters and go between 10 and 30% ownership, probably. He's pretty interesting. Like 66% ground ball rate,

he's got an average strikeout rate, average walk rate, like, you look at all those things, you put them together, that should be a pretty good pitcher. saying he's a star, but I think there's a good amount to like about him, and he's gone pretty deep into games

pretty consistently, on the with the exceptions of the times that he has been hit around. Right, that's Luis Perdomo, and that's just the point I wanted to make that maybe he's a little better than the ERA, because that one start against the Diamondbacks is really dragging it down. Do you think that, would you rather have Scogland or

Perdomo? Perdom. Perdom. Alex Avila, 49% owned. And his last 10 games, he's only 5 for 28. So he's struggling a little bit. Seven walks, 17 strikeouts in 10 games. But he did homery yesterday, and Avila is a catcher, so that's cool.

And he's batting 313 with seven home runs. 49% owned. Is Avila better than a lot of catchers who are, you know, who we consider must own? Like, I don't know. We can't really put him ahead of like a Riamuto, could we? He's been pretty bad since the first week or so. he's in that weird range where Austin Hedges was for quite a while where he should be owned in every two-catcher league and probably zero one-catcher league. So, 49% is probably about right.

So you wouldn't be buying a kind of a breakout because Avila says he's healthy. That's the biggest thing for him. He's been banged up for a while. Now he's healthy. Like, Chris, do you buy that this could be a breakout year for Avila and he should be owned in one catcher leagues? I don't really. I think you could very easily buy that this is going to be a breakout year for Avila, and he still should not be owning one catcher leagues.

Yeah, well, that's why I put the end in there because, yeah. Yeah, I think it may very well be Alex Avila's best year, but I'm not sure that's going to make him a top 12 catcher. Okay. All right, I'm going to give you two pitchers. You tell me if they are over-owned, Chris Towers. I'll start with you. Antonio Sinsettella.

Look, he's had a good year, but 44 strikeouts and 67 innings, pitching at Corse Field. he's 86% owned and Aaron Nola, when do we give up on this guy? He's 84% owned. He has a 506 ERA in 32 innings. Are Antonio Centilla and Aaron Nola overowned? Yes, no. Excuse me, I asked Chris Towers.

He made a point of saying. I didn't hear your name. Chris Towers. I don't know why he'd want to talk to you. I'm smart. He could be a jerk to him. Chris? Yeah.

I would say any Rockies pitcher at 86% who's not John Gray is probably overowned. Was he a two-start? No, he wasn't been a two-start guy this week. So yeah, that just seems too high. It's just, it's too hard to justify those guys as like, 86% owned is like, I'm keeping him even through bad weeks. And that's just not the case with Antonio Sinsettella. Would you start Antonio Sinsatella next week with two starts, Cleveland at home,

and at the Cubs. No way. No chance. Yeah, and to put it in perspective, Senzatella is owned in more leagues than Drew Pomerans. He's own two leagues than Aaron Nola. I would rather have Aaron Nola even with a bad start. Much rather.

What do you think about Aaronola, guys? People are going to want to drop him after this. 84% owned, horrible, like second half last year, but then he got hurt, and then now 506 ERA so far. And the strikeout rate has regressed from last season, which is exactly what I expected. He's probably an average strikeout pitcher.

But he's just, he's a lot better than he's been so far. The second half last year was bad, but we haven't seen the real Aaron Nola yet. Then how do you know what it is? Except maybe his rookie season. I'm just talking about the talent level that I expect moving forward. Okay. Like I don't think the guy he was last season, all these strikeouts with a low swing strike rate was real. I don't think the really bad version of him in the second half last year was real or this version of him so far.

But I think there are better days ahead of it. Can I correct something I said wrong like five minutes ago? Yeah. Alex Avila is probably not going to have his best year ever. And if he does, he will definitely be a top 12 catcher. I totally forgot about his 2011 season when he almost hit 300 with a 900 OPS and 19 home runs. So apologies to Alex Avila. Wow.

Accepted. He accepts. I'm going to find out who stood out to you guys in Wednesday's games after. Oh, yeah, I am so excited to talk about Blue Apron. I am so excited to get my Blue Apron delivery next week. It's been two weeks because I've been out of town since I've been able to cook. And, yeah, just amazing meals, creative meals. Blue Apron is the number one fresh ingredient and recipe delivery service in the country.

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You're going to love Blue Apron people. Get on it right now. Blue Apron.com slash Fantasy Baseball for those three free meals and free shipping. That's Blue Apron, a better way to cook. Blue Apron.com slash fantasy baseball. Wednesday standouts. Chris Towers.

And only Chris Towers, my cousin Vinny reference. Wednesday standout from you, sir. Can we talk about how weird George Springer is? It's just a weird player. He's really hot right now, multiple hits and five of his last six, including reaching base six times yesterday, has the average up to 264. Weren't we just talking about how disappointing?

he's been like a week ago. Yeah. Actually, I have a whole section here called the Awesome Astros, as they got 17 runs on the board at the Twins. They scored 40 runs in a three-game series against the Twins. They just destroyed it. And Springer, I meant to look up, I'm going to look it up now, where he ranks among outfielders.

The Twins averaged 5.3 runs per game in that series, and were outscored by 24. Whoa. Yeah. So now Springer has his best OPS ever at 842, but as weird as he is, like I say this a lot, this is his OPS in four seasons, including this year, 804, 826, 815, 842.

So he's pretty Springer-like at the moment for the season, but no steals, which is not a surprise. But yeah, I mean, he was a top 10 outfielder last year. Is George Springer a top 10 outfielder this year for you? I think I moved him a little bit outside my top 10, but he'll end up there. he's kind of like he's basically just where

Adam Jones was like seven or eight years ago he walks more strikes out more but you know you know you're going to get solid strong numbers at the end of the uh at the end of the season but he's not necessarily going to hit like a superstar

on an everyday basis yep and we'd like to see him steal but none yet in two attempts Heath how about a stand out from you from Wednesday I'll go through Pomerant's It's, what, 25 strikeouts now in his last 17 innings. He's only given up four earned runs in those three starts, and it's nice to see him making up for a very bad start to the season.

The ERA is down to 4.24, so he's got a little bit ways to go, but you have to consider him a must-start option for as long as he stays healthy. Pomeran said he made a mechanical adjustment. He said he was working on his mechanics, and Pomeranz would basically get it fixed. bullpen sessions, and then he would long toss, and he would lose it again. But now he thinks he's got the problem solved, and I think we're seeing it in the results. So 80% owned, I would be checked. I would say a lot of you out there are like, why are you telling me about Drew Pomerantz?

He's 80% owned. But if you need to check your leagues and make sure that he's not available, if he is, go ahead and pick him up. Brandon Mauer guys, has gotten three saves in a row. What the hell? Brad Hand's no longer the closer. It's Brandon Mauer again? Yep. Great.

Awesome. I think it's pretty clear. Okay. Let me tell you about Stephen Sousa. 55% owned. He has homered again. And in his last eight games, he's batting 406 with five home runs. Is this going to be a fool Jew with Sousa, or is this a little bit different? Because, you know, he had that big stretch early. And then next 20 games, he batted 119 with one home run and 30 strikeouts. He finally hit some far. This one yesterday was 423 feet, according to hit tracker online. He now has three home runs. runs over 400 feet. So good for Stephen Susan. It's remarkable how similar his batted ball data looks from 2016 to 2017. I mean, everything is within a percentage point.

He's basically been the same hitter when he's put the bat on the ball. The difference, and we've talked about it a lot this year, is it's easier to be successful with a 28% strikeout rate than a 34% strikeout rate. That's going to be the key for Susan. If he keeps it below 30, I like his chances to have it a pretty decent year. 55% owned, do you feel like people need to get Sousa now in case this is a legit breakout year? I think 55% is a little bit too low. Okay.

I'm not sure he quite to the point to where he deserves to be 100% owned, but... I think you should march to the waiver wire to pick up Sousa. You Sousa, you lose a. Yeah. Right? Mine was a... Yeah. Okay.

And would you rather have Sousa or Avi Garcia? Susan. Okay. Would you rather have James Paxson or David Price? I'm going to go with Price. I'm not even sure if I have it ranked that way. But I don't have any reason to think that David Price is not going to be okay the rest of the season. So any more than I do, Sousa?

Right, that's... Paxton. Paxton, yeah, that's the big thing, is that I don't feel confident in David Price staying healthy, but I feel no more or less confident in James Paxton staying healthy. I have Paxton one spot ahead, so I'll just stick with that. All righty, guys, I did a couple of... First of all, I wanted to say that. I thought yesterday was a pretty interesting day for pitching.

I went and I looked for a number of pitchers off the waiver wire because they are two start guys next week. But Eric Skoglin, look, we talked about it yesterday, modest expectations. But if you have someone on your roster that you know just isn't going to give you much, maybe take a shot on Skoklyn or somebody that Chris and Heath like even better, Luis Perdomo. So I dropped Eddie Butler. I picked up Eric Skoglin. I dropped Chris Tillman.

It's so great to have Chris Tillman on my team because, like, if I wanted someone, I just know immediately the first guy I'm dropping, and it was Chris Tillman. Just leave the roster spot. Yeah. So Tillman out, Junior Gera in. I picked up Junior Gera yesterday who had a good start against the Mets, and he's just been good for a year, and now some starts here in 2017. And Scott Shebler is 76% owned.

I do kind of worry that if he doesn't homer, Sheppler's just going to give you nothing, but he's homering right now. So I picked up Shebler, and I dropped Lowry in a 14-team league. I'll probably be dropping. I'll probably be starting Shebler in utility next week. But I don't know, guys. I thought last night was a pretty cool night,

especially those pictures like Dan Straeli, Junior Gera, Jaime Garcia. It gives you something. I don't know how long it'll last, but did you sort of feel the same way? Like there were some decent, Zach Godley's 71% own. Definitely want to talk about him.

He's just for taking Dan Strelie more seriously, don't we? I don't know. Do we? Two double-digit strikeout games already. Strikeout rates up to 26%. Swinging strike rate is up to 12% career high. we should be taking this guy more seriously. I don't. I don't like this.

I don't feel the same way that you do, Adam. When these pitchers that I don't really believe are going to keep it up have outings like this, it just makes me queasy. Yeah, but, but like Junior Guerra could keep it up, no? I, like, yes, I think Junior Guerra is somebody that should be owned pretty much everywhere. Oh, okay, well, he's 55% owned, so. you've moved Marco Estrada up into your top 30, right? Yes.

Isn't Dan Strelie just Marco Estrada? Well, Estrada's done it for going on three years now. Okay, so it's two for Dan Strelie, but he's got a career 253 Babbitt. He gets a lot of infield fly balls. He's striking out and getting a lot of swinging strikes right now. I don't know. I'm having trouble believing it, but he's a weird pitcher.

He's not doing things that your typical pitcher's doing, but he's 67% owned. He's 67% owned in 20% fewer leagues than Antonio Sanzatella. That should be great. And he's got two double-digit strikeout performances, and we know he's someone who does a good job of suppressing hits on balls and play. And only seven home runs allowed for Strelie, which was his big issue last year. And he'll give up a lot of home runs. Like, that's part of the low BAP is when the ball goes over the wall.

That's not considered a ball in play. And he's an extreme fly ball pitcher, but he induces weak contact. Now, does it matter to you that the two double-digit strikeout games were against San Diego and Philadelphia? You get good matchups throughout the year. He has had, I would guess, and Chris can look this up pretty easily. He's had a fairly easy start to the year, but he pitches in a disadvantage. division that provides quite a few easy matchups. But, yeah, I mean, he's already faced, like, half of his start to have been against very bad offenses.

Yeah, well, right, and he didn't follow up the Padres start with any, with good production. By the way, Padres are the second highest strikeout team in baseball. The Phillies are like middle of the pack, so yesterday's start was impressive for Australia. He should be more than 67% owned, yes. Australia or Gera? Australia. Sure. All right.

Australia or Clevenger, 48% owned. Australia and Gera before Clevenger. Jaime Garcia? Australia. Yeah. Ian Kennedy? Kennedy. Australia.

All right. All right. We'll get to the thuriameter in just a second. A couple of Twitter polls from last night. Justin Boar hits two more home runs. So I said, who's your favorite rest of season? Justin Boer, Gregory Polanco, or Carlos Gonzalez. Justin Boar, Gregory Polanco, Carlos Gonzalez.

Cargo won at 45%. Justin Boar, second at 35%. Gregory Polanco, third, at 20%. But now Justin Borr, I mean, what an enormous May. It's 11 home runs in May. He's just been amazing. And actually, entering yesterday's game was batting 3.43 against lefties. So he had no home runs entering in his career.

entering the season against lefties. He had four going into yesterday. I don't think he homered off a lefty yesterday. But anyway, who's your favorite? Boer, Polanco, or Cargo? Cargo. Cargo still. But Boer versus Polanco is actually really interesting

because they've both had about as many really good months in their career, right? Yeah. Like, Gregory Polanco had two really good months last season. He's been kind of mediocre otherwise. Yeah, I mean, Gregory Polanco is mediocre up until this year.

has always been better than Boers mediocre. Mostly because of steals. Well, yeah, he does, that helps. Yeah, no, that's a big thing. Right. But, like, Boers 2015 wasn't that much worse than Polanco's 2016, with the exception of the stolen bases, which are obviously big and they matter,

but I don't know. Boar's pretty good. Is it going to be a lost season for Gregory Polanco, or is he just, because if not, he's the ultimate bylawful? right now. I mean, nobody wants him right now. I've gotten him off waivers in two different leagues. He's pretty, yeah, I mean, I think a big thing, this is a reality versus perception kind of thing, because he's hitting 274 with a 769 OPS overall.

He had a 258 average and 786 OPS last season, so he hasn't been that much worse than he was a year ago. I just think people expected him to be better than he was a year ago, and so that leads to people overreacting and disappointment. Right. So he's got doubles, right? How many home runs is Polanco have? He's been more of a doubles guy this year, right? He's got 11 doubles. And he missed some time. I'm sorry, how many home runs? Three. Okay. All right, guys. The other Twitter poll I did was, who's your favorite rest of season, Jason Kipnis, Devin Travis, who just finished the month of May as the best second baseman in fantasy. He and Altuve were one two in May. Kipness, Devin, Travis, or DJ LaMayhew? And this

was pretty close. So people still say Kipness, and that's who I would have gone with there. Travis, 41% of the vote for Kipness, 31% of the vote for Travis, and then 28% of the vote for DJ LaMahue. I don't even, we barely ever talk about him. But who would you guys go with? How would you rank Kipness, Travis, LaMahue? Anthony Rizzo number one. No, I would still go Kipness, Travis, LeMahue in that order. Yeah. I don't think I'd put... Travis and LaMahue is really interesting.

LeMayhew hasn't been the guy we expected this season. Like, the skill set's still pretty good. I don't really think anything's really changed all that much with LeMayhew. I would probably still put LeMayhew and Kipness at the top. Well, LeMayhew's not stealing, right? He's got three steals, and he's only hit two home runs. Like, last year he had more power. Yeah, last year had more power than we'd seen.

The year before that, he had more steals than we had seen, and this year he's not really doing either. and he's only batting 281. So, I don't know. But, yeah, he's an interesting case because he's still hitting a lot of line drives. He's still hitting the ball all over the field. So his Babbitt should rise dramatically. This is a guy that I think you expect to hit 300 at a minimum, really.

Yeah. Just given where he plays. But his hard hit rate was a career out. outlier last season, 35%. It's down to 28% this year. That could explain the drop in power. Which is where he was two years ago when he hit 300. I don't think that would really affect his betting average too much.

Well, what's the chances that Devin Travis has a special year? Because, I mean, he homered again yesterday. He's just, he's one of the hottest hitters in baseball. Again, I've talked about this before. If you put together his first two partial seasons, he was an 860 OPS guy. Right. He's got a pretty good chance. Yeah, I take him over LaMayhew then.

I don't really think LaMayhew can give you that. Why are we giving Kipness a free pass? We don't have to. I mean, Kipnis has sort of failed to meet expectations. He's been hitting pretty well lately. But I guess I just like Kipness, but Kipness just seems safer to me. But LeMayhew is almost like the old Kyle Seeger, where you know he'd be good. He'd be worth starting, but never be great at the position.

Then Seeger had his huge year. But it's kind of how I feel about LeMayhew. I'd rather take a chance on somebody who's got greatness potential. Well, LeMayhew did hit 3-48 last season. He was great last year. He was great. But, yeah, I think they're very close, him and Travis especially. All righty.

News and notes. Gregory Polanco did pinch hit yesterday. Bryce Harper's three-game suspension began yesterday. It's only three games now. Justin Upton left with a mild quad strain. James and Tyone will make his second rehab start tomorrow. Oh, Eric Young. He started again, and he homered.

Woo! His first home run since 2014, I believe. Yeah, yeah. So, look, he's not going to be a great hitter, but he looks like he's going to play a lot for the Angels. And Ben Revere sat. Cameron Maibon was out again with sidesoreness. They don't seem to like Revere very much.

Wellington Castillo on the deal with a testicular injury. Adam Jones is back. Greg Bird will start a rehab assignment today. Miguel Sinole could be back soon. He's got an illness. He's sat two straight games. Amir Garrett could be back next week. John Carlos Stanton sat with hamstring cramps.

Matt Andres is on the D.L. with a groin strain. James Shields, or as I put in my notes, James should begin a rehab assignment soon. James Shields beginning a rehab assignment soon. Kyle Seeger is heated up. We just talked about him in his last 11 games. Kyle Seeger is batting 357 with a home run and five doubles. Ian Kinsler is expected back Tuesday And guys, what did you think of Mr. Met

flipping the bird to the fans yesterday? Can you flip a middle finger if you do not have a middle finger? It's a great point. He only has four fingers, Mr. Matt. I'll only have four fingers. He either has three fingers and a thumb or four fingers overall. I think he has four. This is not, you're not making a salient point.

He has no thumb. He has a thumb. Nope. He obviously has a thumb. He obviously has a thumb. If he had a thumb... I don't know. I've never seen him grip anything. You can't go through life with no thumb.

This is the exact argument. Opposite of the argument you were making before the podcast. He has either three fingers and a thumb or four fingers. Either he can't give a middle finger or we can't. You need to make a decision, Heath, you need to take a stand right now. Wait, is a thumb? Why are you acting like a thumb is not a finger? Because he's... It's not a finger.

He's doing a he thing. All right. It's clearly a finger. By the way, as good as DJ the Mayhew was last year, he was. the number eight second basement, which is kind of what I was getting at. Yeah. Number eight in both points and Roto. Let's get that old thuriameter out. Worryometer to Thursday here.

We did Tanaka. Let's go to some first basement, okay? I think you're up around me. What's that? Take your thurometer out around me, man. Should we be thuried about Chris Towers today? The thumb contrasts with each of the other four by being the only digit that is opposable to the other four fingers. It has two flanges, rather three.

Exactly. It is included in the group of fingers. No, it is not a finger. So then you don't give a middle finger. We call it a middle finger. It's a figure of speech. It's not an equation. He has never given a middle finger. So how many fingers do you have, Heath? Four. Okay, so you're a Simpson is what you're telling me.

I have four fingers, one thumb, five digits. Okay, wonderful. I'm just going to, instead of doing the worryometer, just tell me which first baseman you are valuing differently than you did at the beginning of this season. Eric thing. Edwin, no, bad. Edwin Incarnacion, Will Myers, who's number 14 and points, number 11 in Roto, but just kind of been like whatever. Ian Desmond, who, as I mentioned, two walks, 32 strikeouts, and off to a terrible start. with, you know, 274 of averages, whatever, but not a good start.

So Encarnacion, Myers, Desmond, and Matt Carpenter, really struggling. Number 24, first baseman in points, number 29 in Roto. You want to look at second base. He's number 16 in points, number 24 in Roto. Good plate discipline, but bad production. So I'm looking at Encarnacion, Will Myers, Ian Desmond, and Matt Carpenter. Who are you most concerned about there, guys? I have moved Edwin and Carnaccio down a little bit

I've moved some guys up above him and just because of the age I do think you have to be a little concerned about a slow start maybe we were too excited about Ian Desmond I'm giving Ian Desmond a pass still at this point because of the slow start due to the injury if this is going on another three two three four weeks from now then maybe I'll start considering that

The guy that I probably have dropped the most is probably Will Myers. He does have 11 home runs in six deals, you know, and he got his sixth yesterday. So that's really good. Yeah, in Roto, that's huge. Yeah, and he's 11th in Roto. But, yeah, it's just like his plate, this win is still terrible, 16 walks, 65 strikeouts, and pretty bad May. Great April for Will Myers, but two.

When he does hit the ball, he's been pretty elite. 47% hard contact rates. It's a lot of the same thing with Matt Carpenter. He doesn't strike out as much, but when he hits the ball, good things are going to happen moving forward, and you just have to wait it out. So they've moved down because Fames and Zimmerman have been so good. Is Ryan Zimmerman ahead of Will Myers for you?

ahead of any of these guys for me. I have Zimmerman ahead of Will Myers and points. He's ahead of Desmond, but that's the only one for me. All right, but Thames is ahead of Will Myers. I do not have Thames ahead of Will Myers. He might be for me. All right. Is Thames for Chris, is Thames head of Chris, or Matt Carpenter?

No. Not close. Kind of heard something interesting. I haven't moved Matt Carpenter at all. I'm not worried even a little bit about him. Now, I heard something interesting on the broadcast yesterday on ESPN watching Dodger Cardinals game, and Rick Sutcliffe, I think he's a very good broadcaster. He thinks that the Cardinals should move him back to third base or second base.

I don't know what he said, but he didn't think that Carpenter was comfortable playing first base. And if you look at the numbers last year of Carpenter playing first base, pretty bad. 231. Well, 231, 463. So there was some power there, seven home runs and 134 bats, but he only had 231. Unfortunately, he played first base. I don't know you can get anything out of this because Carpenter played first base almost exclusively late in the year last year.

And that was after he came back from the oblique injury. And he struggled after he came back from the oblique. So was it the oblique? Was it first base? I don't know. But I thought that was an interesting theory. And he's played pretty much exclusively first base this year and he's having a bad year. Yeah, he has a 43% hard hit rate.

He's hitting the ball really well. I think he's totally fine. I'm not worried about him in the least. And I think there was a big deal, and I don't remember for sure. I think there was a big deal with Carpenter about him not wanting to play a bunch of different positions again this year and was them just settling him into one spot. So I don't know that changing his position mid-year is necessarily a good idea. Yeah, all right.

As far as Desmond goes, remember, Desmond, last year, first 14 games, he was batting 132 with one extra base. People were dropping Ian Desmond. Then he went on a 75-game tear with a 356 batting average and 15 home runs and 14 steals. He was unbelievable. But then, after the All-Star break, last 67 games, he had 237. Last two months of the season, Desmond hit two home runs in his last two months. And he struggled late in 2015, if I remember. Bad early in 2016, people said, oh, he's done.

and then he had this huge stretch. So do you think any of the guys, Encarnazion, Myers, Desmond, Carpenter are not Bilos? Desmond, I struggle with just because so much of our excitement about him was just Coorsfield. Like, I don't think any of us thinks he's a special player, especially as a first baseman. Like, if he was playing in Tampa, would you have him as a top 20 first baseman, Heath? Probably.

I mean, the 2020 thing in Roto. I think is another part of his appeal. So, yeah, it was coarse, and it was stolen bases at first base. Yeah. And, like, I don't, the strikeout to walk thing is bad, but again,

he got a late start to the season. And when he, another guy, when he's hitting the ball, he's still got a 34% hard contact rate. I mean, it's not like, I'm just not that worried about him yet. Give him another month. Okay.

I'm going to give you guys two more players for the for the Wuriometer section here on this Thursday. But first, I'm going to talk about draft because I won last night against a listener in draft. What I'm not as proud to say is I also lost last night against the listener in draft. I did go one for two. But look, we're doing snake drafts competing for only a dollar. If you want to play against me, Big Cain 2, it's going to be for a dollar or for free. I just can't play that many games because, you know, I'm playing a lot and can't play for that much money. But you play for as much as you want.

Your chances of winning money on draft are almost three times better than your chances of winning on Fandor or Draft Kings. So what you're going to do is you're going to go to the app store and search for draft. The first one that comes up is the app that you want. Download Draft and use our promo code FB Today, Fantasy Baseball Today. FB today. When you download, you're going to get a 100% bonus on up to 600 bucks when you deposit. So again, the promo code is FB Today. You're doing snake drafts.

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So download draft and use that promo code FB Today, a 100% bonus on up to $600 when you deposit. Again, search draft in the app store and use the promo code FB Today. Are you worried about Carlos Gonzalez? Are you worried about Rugnett Odor? No. Are you worried about anyone? No. That's a good question.

Are you worried about anyone? It's fair not to be after two months, but who is a real cause for concern? I have to be consistent. I think you trust your internal decision-making process, and my internal decision-making process is... I think Scott and I are probably on extremes, and Heath is probably somewhere in the middle. I'm extremely patient. Just a reasonable over here. Scott reacts to things a little more quickly,

and I think he is somewhere in the middle. And so I'm going to miss on some stuff. But I think there's also situations where, like, I'm not going to panic sell Rognette O'Dore, and I think he'll probably be totally fine moving forward. I can't find a reason to be worried about Rugnett O'Dore. And he is one of those players, not to start this debate again, but he's...

He's going to have a month where he just erases these struggles. That's what Ruegnet O'Dore has done for... Two seasons. Really, three seasons. This is his fourth year. And he's been a very streaky hitter. It doesn't necessarily have to start on June 1st, because as Chris will tell you, months or artificial construct. But it may just start on June 1st.

And he just goes bananas. Yeah, I would expect him to be Rognetto Dore moving forward. Carlos Rizabeth. Which is really often. some months and really bad months. And Carlos Gonzalez is kind of the same thing. He's already started to heat up a little bit. His May numbers on the whole aren't great,

but I think about midway through the month, he really started to figure things out. Two years ago, Carlos Gonzalez had a 627 OPS and four home runs in his first two months. That's exactly where we are now. Two years ago, just terrible. Four home runs in two months. Last four months, he had a 961 OPS and 36 homers.

That's not going to happen again. but he has been a streaky player. I read on fan side of that Rootnet O'Dore is not seeing as many fastballs this year, and he's struggling against breaking pitches, off speed pitches, stuff like that. Maybe that's a hole in his game. Maybe he's being exploited.

But he's striking out at the same rate, and he's getting hard contact at the same rate. So I don't know where that's, like, how is, how? And he's seeing fastballs at roughly the same rate this season. Oh, he is? All right. That's lower than 2015 and probably, I guess, lower than the major league average. He's about 47%, but he was 48% last year.

All righty. Well, that's the thurriometer here for this Thursday. Hey, how about those Astros? So we talked about George Springer. We haven't really talked about Jose Altuve. He's just having a ho-hum, Jose Al-Tuve year, which is elite second baseman and 319 hitter with the 505 slugging percentage. but seven home runs, 10 steals for him.

That's outstanding. Carlos Correa. I'm going to ask you now, now that Carlos Correa had this mega month of May, OPS over 1,000. Correa or Corey Seeger? I'm sticking with Seeger, but it's really close. Okay.

Marwin Gonzalez, he's, every time he plays, he hits, it seems, about a 308 with a 638 slugging percentage and a 401 on base, and I think with Marvin Gonzalez, who's 75% own, he's got 18 walks and 30 strikeouts. Previous two seasons, he had 38 walks to 192 strikeouts.

So that's really encouraging. Yeah, anything to say about Marwin? 75% own? I think that's about right. I don't expect this to continue, but it's fine to ride it while it's happening. He's eligible everywhere, which is nice. I don't know why he's not just like playing every single day.

Or are you sitting? Uli Gereo. Okay. And then there's Evan Gattis, and we'd like to see him play a little bit more. Since Brian McCann has come back, he's played three of five, I think, three of five games. Season two. What'd you say, Chris? He's been awesome this season two.

Well, the power hasn't really been there, but yeah, he's batting 287. Now he has a 451 slugging percentage after homering yesterday. But by far best-walked strikeout ratio of the career. and Gaddis is the number six catcher in fantasy without playing that much. Can that last? Yeah, probably. I don't really like the odds of it lasting, but I don't think he's going to fall outside of the top ten.

I think I have him ninth for the rest of the year. That's the big thing for me is it's just like the position is such a, like maybe Jonathan LaCore passes him. I would expect so. But beyond that, the position is such a disaster. And Gary Sanchez, I'll pass him. Yeah. So now he's down to eight.

I think he's still a top 10 catcher. He's just, I was hoping he'd be top five this year. He's been close to it so far. I don't really expect that to continue. I think the playing time's just going to go up. I really think they've got to get Carlos Belchon just out of that lineup. Maybe Gurriel as well at some point. I think there are just more DH at bats available for Gaddis.

But the tricky part about that is, because I don't necessarily disagree with you. And if they were in a situation like the Cubs are right now, I think that might be a pressing thing that happens soon. They're just destroying the American League. Yeah, it's just kind of, it's a situation where it's kind of like, why not ride Carlos Beltran and see if you can get him hot. Or just keep playing these guys all on a sporadic basis, so everybody stays fresh. Let's look at some pitching from yesterday now. By the way, Alex Bregman hit another home run. He's got a 909 OPS since hitting his first home run.

All right, there we go. Keep it going, Alex Bragman. Some pitching from yesterday. Jacob de Grom was bad. Do you think this had something to do with throwing 118 pitches last time out? There have been some studies done about pitchers, and the magic number that's been used has been 115. And I don't think there is a magic number.

But I do think you have to be more cautious with starters when they go over that 110, 115 measure, unless there's someone that's just shown the ability to it over and over and over again, I don't know why the Mets would let anybody go over 105 right now. And Jacob de Grom, and the type of guys who show the ability to do that over and over are guys like Bartola Cologne, guys like Levant Hernandez back in the day, Felix Hernandez at his prime, guys that just like, they're not max effort throwers.

And Jacob de Grom, I think it's fair to, assume he's a max effort thrower. This isn't going to make you happy then. Jacob de Grom has thrown 105 or more pitches in seven straight starts. Yeah, and desperation can breed bad decision making, and I think that might be the Mets franchise motto at this point. But there's a little bit of a concern there.

I still have Jacob de Grom as a top 10 starting pitcher. I love the skill set, but the workloads worrying, even if I'm not willing to predict anything with it. Let's do buy-sell holds for everybody in the rotation. Jacob de Grown, buy-sell hold. Hold. Jake Areetta, good start at the Padres yesterday. Buy-sell hold.

Hold. Bye. Yeah, I mean, I guess if the last few starts, he's been good in two of them, if those haven't assaged the concerns of the Jake Arieta owner. That's how you say that word? I don't know. I thought it was a swage. I think that might be the first time I've ever said it.

Asswaged? Asswaged? I think it's right in between. Swatched. Classic heathed. You tell me, Heath. Chris Archer. He wants to be right.

He just wants everybody else to be wrong. Yeah, there you go. Chris Archer has a 3754 ERA, but he's a ton of strikeouts. Buy sell, hold, Chris Archer. Hold. Yeah, hold. And Carlos Martinez. He's pitching pretty darn well lately.

80 R.A and a lot of strikeouts. 80 strikeouts and 73 innings for Carlos Martinez. Buy sell hold. Bye. Yeah. Yeah. The strikeout rate was really the only thing that kept him from being like a really truly elite pitcher. All right. So you guys are buying the strikeouts for Carlos Martinez? For now. Okay. I think it is assuaged, by the way. Sorry, Heath. Sean Manaya 84% own 19 swinging strikes

and a brilliant start at Cleveland buy sell hold Sean Mania Bye Bye I think he's pretty good Yeah this is a riser here Yes Okay

Max Scher By sell hold Bye Oh no I think you gotta sell him This Max Scherger guy is a fluke I know it's been like seven seasons in a row But the other shoes dropping Of course hold him

Max Scherzer's just second the third best pitcher in baseball. Given injury history of Clayton Kirshaw, how crazy would it be to make Max Scherzer your number one starting pitcher? It would be Crazy Town Banana Pants. Okay. He's having a better year, I think. I think it'd be okay.

It's a crazy town of Panthers. Okay. We didn't talk about Zach Godley, who is 71% owned. Every time he pitches well, it makes me look so bad. And he has, because of that, and to no fault of his own, become my least favorite player in baseball. But let's give Zach Gottlie some credit here. He's got a 239 ERA, and he's pitching really well and had a good start at the Pirates yesterday. It wasn't great, but it was good.

I just don't buy it. I actually had a chance to watch this start. It's got a nice curveball, but I just don't buy soft tossing righties. Like, I just, no. Now, Kyle Hendricks would be laughing at me right now. and Mike Leak would be laughing at me right now, I guess. But I don't know, man. 71% for Zach Godley.

He is a two-star pitcher next week. Do you guys think Zach Godley is good? I think he is very similar to Luis Perdoma. I think Luis Perdomo throws like six miles an hour harder or something like that. But the results look very similar. A lot of ground balls, decent strikeout rate. But I think I might believe in Perdomo a little. more.

I don't, like, this is another one of those guys that I think he belongs somewhere in the 70 to 90 range at starting pitcher. I don't believe he's going to keep this up. No, not at all. He's right around a mid-4s-eara pitcher, in my opinion, but he's not pitched like one so far. You know, I'm looking at Brooks baseball, and the velocity is not that bad. Maybe I'm wrong. He didn't seem to be throwing very hard yesterday. You've definitely been wrong.

I have two. Remember when he was a two-star pitcher, and we both just pooh-poohed the hell out of him? Yeah. Except no way. Yeah. We were totally wrong. And he's obviously legit. But I'd rather have Dan Sturley in that same range of ownership.

I'm just saying, am I wrong about him being a soft-tossing riding? I think I might be wrong about that. It didn't look like he was throwing very hard yesterday. And last year, it's because he mostly throws sinkers, right? He doesn't really throw a foreseamer that much. But it looks like Godley's velocity is. up this season. A little...

And he's got the Humidor coming. He's got the Padres as part of his two starts. There's actually a report about the humidor yesterday, by the way, that it's probably about a month away from being finished, and then they'll need two weeks. The baseballs have to be stored in the humidor for two weeks before they can be used. Interesting. I think you can still...

He's got an average fastball velocity of 91 miles an hour. I think you can still call them a soft-taught. That's soft-tausing now. It's a couple miles per hour below average at this point. fellas, I want to read some emails from our listeners, Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Real quick, tell me if you're interested in any of these guys they're owned in less than 10% of leagues. Astros pitcher David Paulino, Reds pitcher Tim Adelman, White Sox pitcher Mike Pelfrey, and Oakland A's hitter, Chad Pinder.

Paulino Adelman Pelfry Pinder. Pinder and a deep rhodo is middle impelter, yes. None of those pitchers? Nope. All righty. Let's create a trade from Kyle. Hey, Mooky, Jackie, and Andrew. We know them.

Give Dylan Bundy, get Joey Gallo. D. C. All right. Give Bundy, get Gallo. Best you're getting is a C there, Kyle. This is from Aaron. Dear Rolf, Beaker, Stattler, and Waldorf.

Fantastic. I have a pitching problem. 10 team head-to-head points league. I can only have seven starting pitchers. Need to drop one of these guys with Paxton coming off to D.L. Sunny Gray, Burios, Bundy, Mania. Gray. Oh, man.

I... Chris? We need an answer. We're big believers in the predictive value of peripherals. Yes. The one of that group with the worst peripherals is Dylan Bundy. Yeah He's got a 4-7 fit

He can be used as an RP though Keep that in mind But you can only have seven starting pitcher eligible pitchers That is true but he can still Yeah like he counts as one of the seven But he doesn't Well Aaron said he doesn't really want to drop Bundy Because he can use him as an RP

Um I guess it's gray I would drop gray even if even if Wendy was only eligible to start. From Tim, would you guys trade Baez and David Price? Baez and David Price for Zach Granky? Yep. No. Why not, Chris?

I mean, I think Granky and Price are probably going to be pretty similar pitchers this season. I don't know how much I should value Hobby Baez anyway, but... You don't. You don't, like, he's not somebody you want to start anywhere. Sure, but then at that point, it gets to the... you're trading for two very similar pitchers at a position, and it gets to the... But we think that David Price is a bigger injury risk than Zack Grinky right now.

And Grinky's in currently better form. Yeah. I just, like, I would much, I would rather have Zach Grinky and David Price, and I don't have much use for Hobby Baez in most leagues. That's fine. Yeah, come on. Yeah, there you go. I agree.

All right, from Andy, Aaron Altair, Adam Frazier, Max Kepler and Bradley Zimmer are all available in my league. Are any or all of them worth picking up? Aaron Altair, Adam Frazier, Max Kepler, Bradley Zimmer. I'd be dropping. Worth, Ian Hap, Insiarte, or Aaron Hicks is a batting average league, no OBP. I know a lot of names there. You need me read it again?

All right, tell me about, this is what I'd do. You tell me if you agree or disagree. I would keep Ian Hap. I would drop Worth, NCRte and Aaron Hicks and I would add Altair, Zimmer

and Kepler. And who are you leaving out? Frazier. I might hang on to the thing about this one being a batting average league, Adam Fraser could be really valuable because I do think he's a high batting average player.

I would probably hang on to Hicks over Zimmer. I think I'd rather have Zimmer than Hicks. I would. Ellsbury should be back very soon, so we'll see what happens with Hicks. All right. Here's Gris from Alameda. Hey, Francis, Claire, and Doug.

House of Carts. Oh. I need your help ranking the following potential stud pitchers who are about to return from injury. Rank these four. Stephen Mats, Taiwan Walker, Carlos Rodon, and Jameson. Tyone. Stephen Matt's Taiwan Walker, Rodon, Tyone. I think Tyone

has to be at the top of the list. He has the best track record of this group and is the only one not coming back from an arm injury, right? Well, Walker has a blister. Oh, yeah. But he has a much better track record than Taiwan Walker. Rodon at the bottom.

No, I'd rather have Rodon than Walker. Walker above Rodon. Matt's and Tyone. I kind of struggle with. I think Matt's a better pitcher. But there's a chance he makes two starts and is done for the year. So I'm going Tyone, Matt, Rodon, Walker.

I think I'm going Tyone, Matt's, Walker, Rodon. So Tyone and Matt's, in some order, are the best. Yes. And Rodon is just, we don't have a timetable for him. He is throwing a simulated game, I believe. So we're getting closer. I've seen speculation that he could actually be back in June. Game 1 predictions?

Warriors win. Yeah, I think the Warriors probably win. I'm really looking forward to it. It's be one of the best finals of our lifetime. Oh, who won the hockey game last night? What? Who won the hockey game? What hockey game?

Come on. This is amazing stuff. It's very fun. I was watching on the plane. Is it the Olympics already? Penguins won. Four to one. It was one to one when I saw.

They won. I'm not sure of the penguins. Wherever Pittsburgh is. For Heath Cummings and Chris Dowers, I'm Adam Azor. We'll talk to you tomorrow. See ya.