Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/08 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: New SPs to Add! Plus Upton and Odubel Debates

Episode Date: June 8, 2017

We've got Jacob Faria, Buck Farmer, Alex Meyer and Sean Newcomb on the Waiver Wire. Who should you prioritize? We begin the show with plenty of pitching talk ... We're talking deep leagues (13:30) and then getting fired up as we debate Justin Upton (37:15) and Odubel Herrera (43:23). We also discuss CC Sabathia (9:35), Rick Porcello (31:30), Jimmy Nelson (51:00), multi-homer games and more ... We've got bullpen updates (18:45) and our thoughts on a hot Andrew McCutchen (47:10) and a cold Bryce Harper (48:25) ... Email us at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the show. Plenty to talk about, including some pictures who are widely available. You might want to pick them up right now. Are you hiring with ZipRecruiter.com? You can post your job to 100 plus job sites, including social media networks, like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. Try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. Hey, remember that Heath Cummings guy.

He's back. Oh, did you want me to say something after that? That was your intro? I didn't know that was an intro. I thought you were going to maybe praise me a little bit, talk about how good it is to have me back, how much you missed me, how bad the podcast. No, the podcast was great without me. I listened to it. You guys did a phenomenal job.

I did listen to it. I did not listen to it. You did not listen to it. I got a lot of tweets about raisins. Oh, yeah. And I don't, I didn't know what that was about. Okay. I'll update you real quick on the raisins because we have a lot of tweets about raisins coming up at the end of the show in a new.

An even newer segment called Raisin the Roof. Everybody loves raisins. I said that raisins go with everything. Some people yesterday said, no, raisins don't go with Mexican food. I've got the proof that you are wrong, whoever said that that's coming up at the end of the show. But we have more important things to talk about,

like Jacob Ferrea and Buck Farmer. And I want to focus a little bit on Deep Leagues today. Always good to do that. Talk about guys who are owned in less than 20% of leagues. Some of them owned in less than 10% of leagues. and you guys tell me deep leagues or shallow leagues. Hi, Scott. How are you?

I'm good. You're telling us deep leagues or shallow leagues. What does that mean? Should they be owned in only deep leagues? Are they okay in shallow leagues? Okay. All right. Yep.

All right. We also have a new segment called This Just In, which is not what you think. I'm excited for This Just In. But tell me this, buy or sell. Fantasy owners should drop a 38-year-old pitcher with an ERA over five. For a 23-year-old pitcher with a 23-year-old pitcher with a an ERA under two. Yeah.

Yeah. How many innings has the 23-year-old pitcher's throne? Six and a third. Then it's questionable. I'm assuming the 38-year-old

is John Lackey? Correct. Correct. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm not... I don't think Lackey is undropable.

He's kind of like the raisins of fantasy baseball. Like, I kind of... I'd like to think that I've got better options, but I guess if I'm like starving, I could have some. Okay.

You're obviously not a raisins guy, which is just another reason. I don't have a problem with raisins. I just don't know why somebody would choose to eat them with all the delicious choices we have available to us today. Because we already determined their nature's candy, but the more important guy here is the 23-year-old, and that's Jacob Ferrea, who made his Major League debut for the raise, gave up a run in the first inning. On an infield single, a stolen base, and then an RBI single. And he had 16 swinging strikes. He had five strikeouts, one run on three hits, two walks against the White Sox.

And I watched the start. He looked really good. And he actually, Scott, he threw harder than I thought. You know, based on the video I saw of him pitching in the minor leagues, I thought he was kind of like a 90-mile-per-hour guy, but he isn't. Friah's got more velocity than that. It'll average around 91, 92, I guess. It's probably what he'll average. I saw him peak at 93 a few times, right?

I saw, I think I saw at least two 94s, but you'd never know. I mean... He was at 92.6 yesterday, according to what I'm looking at. All right, so he's not a soft toss. He's not a flamethrower, but he's not like a finesse guy. Right. Just almost exactly average. Okay, good.

So Faria and Buck Farmer. Let's just talk about both these guys. They're both 10, 11% owned. I picked up Faria in two leagues, and that is with the expectation that he might get sent down. But I don't think he'll be down for long. No. Because they're around 500. They're solid.

They need it. He's good. Let's do it. Matt Andres is coming back, but, I mean, it's not like Erasmil Ramirez needs to be in the rotation. There's room for him if the race want to make room for him. And it was the more impressive performance between the two. 16 swinging strikes in the game. Buck Farmer obviously had a great outing.

And, you know, after that 11 strikeout effort against the White Sox a couple weeks ago, it was the kind of encore performance he needed to stick around and to really get a great out. excited in fantasy, but, you know, he was facing the Mike Troutless Angels, and even though he didn't give up an earned run in the contest, and it was good in that sense, he wasn't as dominant as he was in that start against the White Sox, and not that five strikeouts and six and a third's innings are bad, but the clearer difference between the two for me was the number of swinging strikes. he got Buck Farmer, only got seven swinging strikes

after getting 18 in that game against the White Sox, his velocity his velocity was even was pretty average too. It was lower than it wasn't that White Sox start and it was lower than Faria's. He also threw only I think 57 of his 100 pitches for strikes and considering he has a pretty

middling, minuses, league track record considering the opponent in this particular start. Look, he's probably worth a flyer if you don't mind losing the guy you're dropping. But, you know, if that guy is John Lackey or, you know, I know there's some leagues of mine where just the bottom player is somebody I would have a really hard time dropping. And I don't think I'm ready to swap that guy out for Farmer just yet. There's still cause for skepticism here. I think the biggest thing with Farmer was that Elite 11 strikeout performance, we didn't have any real evidence before that to say that he had any chance of being a good strikeout pitcher. And he's not been a good strikeout pitcher in the minors since 2014 in ABLE.

So this was a good performance, probably a little bit fortunate against a bad lineup. up, he could be, I mean, he might be a top 60s starting pitcher, but that's like what you're hoping for. All right, that's Buck Farmer, but what about Jacob Faria? Would you drop John Lackey for Faria? Well, I was saying on Twitter last night that I would probably be more likely to pick up Farmer than Faria just because it's clear he has a job. But I've had a little more time to think about it and just, you know, what Faria is? This start for Faria was more impressive than farmers, and the minor league numbers, at least this year at AAA,

were more impressive for Faria. I had a great strikeout rate down there. And I think there's... The race sound enthusiastic enough, and there's enough opportunity there that... Like you were saying, if he can sit down, I don't think it'll be for long. So I'm leaning toward picking up Faria instead of Farmer now.

When he got called up, I think you might have made the comment that he could be like to Nelson Lemette. And we saw what happened with Denelson Lamett's third start. I just dropping, and I'm not a John Lockheed fan, I've probably been, but dropping somebody that you know somebody else is likely to pick up for a guy that is just as likely to blow up two starts from now as he is to be as good as John Lackey. Well, as good as John Lackey theoretically is. But, you know, I wasn't trying to suggest I dropped Lackey for Faria either. I was just contrasting Faria and Farmer.

I would guess most people listening don't have to drop somebody as high-end as lackey. I don't think, but I think a lot of people are not viewing Lackey as high-end anymore. Well, let's just throw another name out there. Why don't I tell you the two guys I dropped for-In-Kennedy? I'll tell you the two guys I dropped for Faria last night. Okay. I dropped Liriano and I dropped Scogland. I'm good with both of those for sure.

Who are you going to say, Scott? Ian Kennedy, I think I heard. Yeah, Ian Kennedy is somebody I dropped for either. Adam Wainwright, who when we checked in yesterday, was 94% owned, I'd be happy to drop him for either of these two. You know, because he's been bad dating back to last year, not just this year like Lackey. And without the good peripherals, Lackey has. Like, I don't think I'd be ready to drop Waka yet,

though he is starting to get scary. No, no, I can't do that. We're right around the, like, Chase Anderson. I'd keep Chase Anderson. over both of these two, I'd keep Jimmy Nelson over both of these two. Would you drop to Nelson Lemette? I would probably not drop to Nelson Lemette. I want to

see one more start from Denelson Lamet because the first two were so good. I understand the third one was so bad that his ERA looks terrible now, but you know, it was an isolated bad start. So no, not him. I cough, he can go. Forget Icoff. Sabathia?

Yeah, I'd rather have these two in Sabathia, though, I mean, Sabathia's value is, it should be on the rise. Heath, what do you think about Sabathia right now? Sabathia, with eight scoreless innings and five strikeouts against the Red Sox, he is five and O with a 11-ERA in his last five starts, and is 69% owned. Sabathia is another raisin. I don't really. He was great at one, he was great slash grape at one point, and now he's just old.

Now, like what he's doing is some, it's impressive, but I don't expect it to last. No, me either. So, yeah, I would drop him. I don't own him anywhere. I haven't been moved to pick him up anywhere. Sabathia is, he did this last year. In May and June, he had a seven-star stretch that was excellent, and then he was terrible for the next two months. So he's going to be hot and cold, and he's not getting a lot of swinging strikes even in this 11-E-R-A stretch.

He pitched great last night, though. I just thought, you know, it was refreshing that. There are pictures that we can talk about today that people might want to pick up. Yeah, definitely. I mean, if they're both 10% owned like you have here in the notes, that needs to change pretty drastically. I'd rather own both than Bauer. I'd rather own both than Tyler Anderson, Kevin Gosman, Joe Ross. What about Alex Meyer?

Because he was pretty good again last night, too. Sure. I think I'd rather own Meyer than Farmer or Faria. Oh, but the walks. He's so many walks. But every piece of evidence we have says Faria is going to have problems with the walk. too. He only walked two last night, and that's great. But he said walk problems throughout the minors. Okay. I'm glad you all brought that up, because I always look, now I look at minor league numbers, and a lot of guys have walk issues in the minors.

I don't know what is an alarming walk rate in the minors. How many guys in the minors have, like, great control? You know, like Blake Snell took it to another level. He's not Blake Snell problems with walks. Because I was just looking at Chance Adams, and Chance Adams is walking guys, too. but I don't know what the number is when you evaluate minor league numbers. How many walks is too many walks? I thought like Faria walked guys, but it didn't seem like a number that was so high that I thought, oh, he's going to be a big problem.

It does seem like walk rates tend to improve in the majors. I feel like normally you'd say anything above three per nine is bad, but I feel like it's more like anything above 3.5 or maybe even above 4 in the minors is bad. I, that, yeah, like, I notice it if it's above three, I would say. Yeah, it's not going to make me, like, just ignore a guy. But, like, Alex Myers walk problems. They're proven at the major league level, and they're extreme. They're, like, they're like Snell level.

So, I don't know. He'd be third on this list for me. I could understand picking him up over Farmer because the dominance numbers seem to be better. He got 13 swings in this is on his curveball alone in this most recent start against the tiger, straight up against Farmer. And the last couple starts, which have both been good, walk problems, but they've been good. He's focused on throwing his curveball more. So he's like, I think there's enough failure attached to him right now that you can probably afford to wait on him in a way, maybe you can't these two others.

It may be just a perception thing that's driving how I prioritize them off the waiver wire. But I do think there's some reason for enthusiasm with Meyer. So let's get going here. We gave you three pitchers who are owned in about 10 or 11 percent of leagues. Jacob Ferreia, Buck Farmer, and Alex Meyer. If you're in deeper leagues, certainly you want to be looking at them. If you're in shallower leagues, it's not a bad idea depending on who your worst player is. Real quick here, Heath, what about Luis Perdomo?

You know, at one point we liked him. He's other than two terrible starts against Arizona, he hasn't been that bad. But Pardomo is 17% own. Would you leave Pardomo for deeper leagues, or is there a case to be made in shallower leagues? Yeah, I would leave him for deeper leagues right now. And he's a guy that I might get excited about it again another week or two if he's got two starts. He's probably two starts next week, doesn't he? I would imagine.

Let's check it out. Because that, like, I'm not going to get excited at Pardombo to the point to where I think I'm going to pick him out. going to own him for the rest of the year. But I don't, like you said, he's mostly had good starts. Yeah, he's got Cincinnati at home and Milwaukee on the road. Miller Park. And the Reds, Scooter Jeanette.

Like, I would, I think I'd probably rather start Peromo next week than Buck Farmer. How about some hitters that are owned in less than 20% of leagues? I'm going to tell you a name, you tell me, should we leave him, keep them in the deeper leagues or start thinking about picking them up in shallower formats. Mike Zanino, since coming back since being recalled, Zanino's batting 326 with four home runs and a wonderful three walks to 22 strikeouts in 13 games. But, you know, they say he retooled his swing and he homered again yesterday. So Zanito, 19%.

Deeper leagues or think about him in shallower leagues. Just two catcher. Zanino. Okay. Look, in a roto league where you don't get penalized from strikeouts, I definitely would want him as a number two catcher. Sure, he's probably going to hit 190 still. He's going to hurt your batting average. Yeah, but he's a catcher, so he won't have as many at bat, so it won't hurt quite as much.

Yeah, that's fair. But he would be pretty low on my list of second catchers still. I was going to drop Francisco Sorvelli for him, and Trevelli, well, I was going to DL Sorvelli for him, but Zanino apparently is already owned by an owner who is not making any roster moves, so that's a little bit of it. That jerk. Ben Gamble, 14% owned, 10-game hitting streak. He's batting 319 with two home runs in 37 games. Does struggle against lefties, but Ben Gamble, 14% owned.

Shallow, Deep Leagues only, or are you thinking about Gamble? Deep only. Wilmer Flores, 10% owned, and great against lefties, as always, but actually hitting pretty well against right, he's batting 302, only a 4-48 slugging. Wilmer Flores is batting 317 with five home runs, 10% owned, you tell me. Deep, deep, deep. You know, the threshold for a hitter to get our attention these days is so much higher than for a pitcher. It's not even funny.

Yeah, like, Flores probably needs to be owned in slightly more than 10% of leagues, but not a whole lot more. Okay, Kansas City promoted Ramon Torres, who played second base last night, and he is shortstop eligible. Ramon Torres. Yeah, I'm not getting excited about him. I like this look that Scott made about Ramon Torres, and it was the same look when I saw his name in the lineup last night. Yeah, I know. You know what that look meant?

I have no idea who this guy. Royals Homer Heath has no idea who this guy. He did really well at, I think, AAA. Yeah. Yeah, PCL. He did, I mean, really well, 794. OPS. Okay, I thought it was better. High batting average, right?

He didn't hit a lick there last year. Okay. All right. No Ramon Torres. You can't spell Ramon without no, except it's really on. So he won't be on your roster. You can't spell Ramon. Okay. J.T. Riddle, 5% owned. Riddle me this. Why would anybody want J.T. Riddle. All right. Wonderful. And then these two outfielders, Eric Young, 6% owned. batting 286 with three steals and four walks and seven runs in nine games. Eric Young, 6% own.

Delano to Shields, 15% own. I'd rather have Deshields than Young. You just won't give up your little young fetish here. What? That was a strange combination of words. Yeah, a little bit. That was great, though. Loved it.

Um, the Shields, like he had a Shields fetish too. I did, yeah. Yeah, but I think that's a little more appropriate. Well, but you know what my favorite TV show of all time is. It's The Shield. So Delano DeShields, of course, is the Vic Mackey of Fantasy. Now, Delano Shields really hasn't done anything, but he let off yesterday. If Adrian Beltrae's hurt, I think it would probably help his playing time.

I don't know. I actually don't know about that, but it wouldn't hurt. And, yeah, I don't know. Do you see any reason for Shields or Young to be more like 25% owned? The Shields should be more like 25% owned, yes, because in any type of deep Roto League, he should be owned. All right, he is 16, 15% owned. Okay, a lot to get to today. Let's get to a couple of closer items real quick.

Clint Hurdle is sticking with Tony Watson, who has blown four of his last five save chances. But of course, we do recommend picking up Felipe Rivera. Oh yeah, that's happening now. I was surprised it didn't happen yesterday, like going into yesterday's game, but yeah, there's no excuse to send Watson out for the next save. But he said he's going to. After yesterday's game, I know he said that before yesterday's game. Oh, did I misinterpret that? After what I read is that he said, yeah, they're going to reexamine it.

Okay. Maybe I am wrong. But either way, even if it doesn't say it today. It gets confusing when a guy blows the save on back-to-back days. Yeah, it sure does. And Pat Nysheck is the Phillies closer. So there you go. Hooray.

Email the day, fantasy baseball at cbsi.com. John wants to know which top 50 pitchers will have innings limits this year. He suggests McCullors, DeGrom, Paxton, Price, anybody that you could see having an innings limit this year. Well, the only one of those that I thought was a possibility was McCullors, because between the majors and minors last year, he didn't even quite reach 90 innings. And obviously, he's a big part of the Asteros future. I can't imagine they would do like the Nationals did with Strasbourg a few years ago and just left him out of the playoffs. But they're going to have to figure something out with him.

But there are others who, the emailer, forget his name, sorry. Who he didn't mention. And, like, Louis Severino, I think, is one that seems likely. Dylan Bundy is another. Well, are you going to trade these guys? Am I going to trade them? trying to trade Dylan Bundy for like a month now. I'm the only one who has.

Right. We have. And, uh, man. I, like, I would, I wonder, like, Severino wasn't terrible last year. Like, it seems like he could probably get 190, but if the Yankees are headed to the playoffs, then they wouldn't want to use all those up during the regular season. I wonder about Manaya. Yeah, no, I just, I just spotted his name in my rankings here too. Yeah, that's a good.

Again, it's not like a McCuller situation. McCuller's the one like giant red flags. Holy cow, what are they going to do with this guy? He threw 90 innings last year. And they planned to pitch till November. They plan to be in the hunt till November. So that's clearly an issue. Manaya had 145 in the majors last year rounding up.

He had 165 overall. Yeah, so he's probably good for bringing up. He's already spent time on the D.L. I think there's some debate, too, whether they're worried about how many McCullors pitched last year or what his career maxes. But his career max isn't very high either. Yeah, I mean, 157, so eight less than Manaya through last year. You know what I've kind of been saying about Jacob de Grom that I wouldn't mind swapping him for a pitcher of equal caliber that I felt was a little safer. Okay.

Do you feel that way about... Who's of equal keys? of equal caliber. Well, you know, like you Darvish. Something like that. Okay. Yeah, somebody's willing to go for that today. Probably not.

I guess I shouldn't have picked a guy. I should have not have picked a guy coming off Tommy Jam surgery, but anyway. No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to, what was your point? Do you feel the same way about Lance McCullors? Not just because of an inning's limit, because his extensive injury history, his delivery is one that concerns people. He throws across his body.

Do you feel that way about McCullors? Maybe you just trade to get equal value and somebody less risky? I mean, it depends what you mean by equal value. I think I have him 16th, 17th in my starting pitcher rankings. So, you know, obviously I trade him for anyone I have ranked higher than that. And that includes several pitchers who have not performed nearly as well as McCullors this year, like Johnny Quato, Justin Verlander, DeGrom, Jake Gerietta. But in terms of...

Do I feel like I need to just try and get face value for McCullors? Because I fear something's going to change for the worst. I'm not there yet. It still feels a little early for that. Maybe as we enter July, I'd start thinking about that. But he's such a valuable part of my team. And it's so hard to trade for pitching. Like would I trade him straight up for a Carlos Martinez or a David Price?

Right, exactly. That's... Yes. Or Robbie Ray. No. But yes on the first two. Yes, on the first two. Price...

I mean, like... Yeah, I could see doing it on the first two. You train up for Price, but that's not exactly the theory because Price is obviously pretty risky himself. But sure. Right. It's not the theory, but you don't have to worry about the Red Sox just pulling the rug out from under Price. No. Well, and, like, there's a decent chance that McCullors get shut down after the, like, pretty

late in the season. Yeah. only need to limit one or two starts. That's why I wouldn't want to do it too early, unless I'm just probably not even doing it. I'm probably just rolling with him. All right, roll with McCullors, or, you know, get David Price for McCullors. Mani Machado was a pretty bad cut on his hand after he got spiked by Andrew McCutcheon. X-rays were negative, but Machado may need an MRI. Great, I just traded for him. Miguel Cabrera was hit in the face by Nick Castiano's helmet. Castellanos got really angry about being taken out of the game. He

threw his helmet, it ricocheted, it bounced and hit Cabrera right in the face, but he's fine. First thing Cassiano's did all year. Justin Verlander could start this weekend. Dallas Keikl was scratched with an illness. Great. So much for 18 and 0. That's working out pretty well for you, actually, because I've got Machado and Nelson Cruz, who are probably going to both miss the rest of the week, so.

Okay. Well, that's good. Jacoby Ellsbury still has headaches. Aaron Hicks, 79% own. He batted second yesterday. They moved Gary Sanchez down to sixth. A roll of this Chapman could be back next week. Here's something that only a Yankees fan would want to tell you.

Chris Carter nearly hit two home runs yesterday. He had one taken away from him at the wall, and he's been kind of lacing the ball lately. And, you know, he's been terrible, but we know Chris Carter can heat up. So just saying. Adrian Beltra sat with an ankle injury. Still don't know if he's going to go on the DL. Camber Trojan had a minor setback. He had some groin soreness and won't pitch for a few days.

the Marlins top prospect Braxton Garrett made need Tommy John surgery to deplete one of the worst farm systems in baseball. Scott Shebler returned, he homered. Ian Hap returned to the lineup. He homered. Kyle Seger is homered in two straight games. We like that. We hope he's getting hot. Adonis Garcia is back on the DL for the Braves.

Salvador Perez is day-to-day. Justin Turner will be back tomorrow. Edwin Encarnassion's got a sore hip. He's going to DH when they get back to the AAL Park, which will be today or tomorrow. Mike Clevenger was sent to AAA, but he will be back. Francisco Cerville on the concussion DL. Ivan Nova could avoid the DL. Oh, Sean Newcomb is going to pitch this weekend for the Braves.

Are we picking up Sean Newcomb for the Braves? He's actually even a higher priority than Faria and Farmer, I think. Now, he does have, at least this year in the minors, he did have like a walk rate of over five. And he's struggled with walks throughout his minor league career, but he's considered the best prospect of the three of them. And I think it's worth, you'd rather him, you'd rather be the one who has him on your roster if he, you know, really impressive right out of the gate.

Team Creas went and grabbed him in the For the People League. All right. Sean Nukum. Was that a, that was a Heath move or a Chris move? It was a Heath move. Okay, Creith. Jorge Polanco is on the bereavement list for the twins. They called up Ken. Oh, Kenny's or Kenny?

Kenny. Kenny Vargas. Brad Miller back on the deal with a groin strain, and Brian Johnson will replace Eduardo Rodriguez in the Red Sox rotation. Wednesday standouts, guys. What stood out to you other than the pitchers that we've already talked about? What stood out to you? Well, I will tell you who stood out to me,

and who stood out to me was most certainly, how are you feeling at him about dropping scott shebler now oh for the for domingo santana who's been even better lately i'm feeling just fine about it sir okay fair enough wow wow i was i was encouraged that scott shebler after what looked like a really bad shoulder injury he was back just a couple days later and went three for three with a homer uh i still think he's pretty close to must start except when there's a bunch of lefties unfortunately they are facing a bunch of lefties unfortunately they are facing a bunch of left he's to close out this week. But he's among the league leaders in home runs and deserves to be universally owned. So, you know, whoever is in that league

where he picked up Santana, I'm sure somebody could use Shevler. Yeah. No, look, he's, Shevler should be owned, especially in a 14-team league. But when you're 18 and O, Scott, like, you're obviously amazing.

You've got to make some tough decisions. We had to let Scott Shebler go. I don't know what to say. People need to trade more. I'm so tired of, proposing trades and them getting no counteroffer or even worse, they just sit there. No response whatsoever. They sit there for days.

It's clear. It's clear I'm just wasting my time. Yeah, that is very frustrating, actually. But trading outfielders is extremely difficult. For what it's worth, Domingo Santana is better this year in fantasy than Scott Shebler. And they have the same amount of it bats, not the same amount of plate appearance. but not too far apart. I know Shevler just missed a few games.

But Santana's batting 279 with 11 home runs and five steals. He scored 35 runs. So, you know, we talk about Shevler a lot, but Santana is crushing it right now. When I had you? To me, yeah. I got to get the old theme song back. People keep asking for it. It will be played at some point.

Heath, who stood out to you? Let's just talk about me being wrong about Brian McCannigan, because of it. It looks like he's heating back up, hit a home run for his second game in a row. Four hits yesterday. And he's not playing as much as I would necessarily like for my catcher to play, but he's been so much better than I thought he was going to be this year. Okay, how crazy is this? Brian McCann, top four catcher rest of season?

Four is probably a spot or two higher than I would go, but I wasn't sure he was going to be a top 10 catcher this year. So, yeah, he's definitely that. Okay, he's gotten a little less pull happy this year. He went from 50% pull percentage to 43% this year. And I know that was something that he wanted to work on. So he's going up the middle a little bit more, Brian McCann. Would you rather have Brian McCann or Salvador Perez?

Salvi. Yep. But you know what's about to happen to Salvador Perez. Like, you know it. It's a fact. Well, it's not going to happen for at least another month. It's already happening. What do you mean?

It's already happening. He's cold as ice, except like two days ago, he had a good game. He's as cold as ice. Yeah, I'm willing to sacrifice Salvador Perez for some foreigner. Get it? Because foreigner sings that song, cold as ice. Yeah. I don't.

You don't get that? So you're willing in a league where you have Salvador Perez to deal him for Brian McCann. I was more willing to make the foreigner pun and not really talk fantasy baseball there, but... Oh, and stupid Justin Smoke at two more homines. Oh, yeah. Okay. We got to play this just in, by the way.

Okay. Would I trade Salvador Perez for Brian McCann? Roto, yes. Points, no, because I think the plate appearances will be the difference there. All right. Rick Porcelo, real quick. Rick Porcelo, 446 CRA. Sucks.

Rick Porbio or Rick Porcelo, guys? What do you think? Rick Por never owned him. Just from the Babbip and how it's so high, I don't know if it's tops in the majors, it's got to be close. I feel like he's a buy, but I also feel like it's unreasonable to expect him to regain Syong form this year. So buy, with the caveat that is the person you're buying him from is just frustrated with him and looking to dump him on anyone. Okay, would you rather have Rick Porcelo or Drew Pomerant's? Porcelo.

Yeah, Porcelo. Porcelo or Panetta? Probably still Porcelo. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's right in the range. It's still, like, my confidence level with Panetta is still pretty shaky. Yeah. All right. And I know a lot of people had questions about Matt Carpenter. He homered yesterday in his previous 23 games. He had a 453 OPS, batted 141 with two home runs.

I looked at the batted ball profile, that kind of stuff. Peripherally, it doesn't seem like there's anything that wrong with Matt Carpenter. He's still hitting the ball as hard as he did last year, a little bit more soft contact, but just a bad year so far. A lot of walks, but a 210 batting average. Are you concerned about Matt Carpenter? Do you think he's basically Matt Carpenter? I think this late in the year, it's fair to be concerned. I haven't really moved him down my rankings at all because I've seen him slump enough and overcome it that I'm not freaking out yet. And like you said, there's no major red flags in the bat of ball profile. So I still see him as a top 10 player at any of the three position where he's eligible,

maybe kind of on the fringes at first base, but the other two for sure. And he's a buy for me. I will say the thing that has changed, and it changed last year, but it's gone to more of an extreme this year, is he's up to a 50% fly ball rate. And he's still hitting the crap out of the ball,

42% hard contact rate, so there should be even more home runs coming. But you look at his babip and you see 227, and he's a career 323 guy, I don't think with this profile he's a 323 babbip guy. He may be more of a 250-2-60 hitter if he's hitting half of his batted balls in the air. But I have to believe he's got some positive power regression coming as well.

All right, that's Matt Carpenter we're talking about. You want to get a guy like Matt Carpenter on your team because you need a good roster. And that's basically the same philosophy if you are an employer. You're looking for talent. You're looking for the best talent out there. You want to go to ZipRecruiter. And the URL that we have for you is ZipRecruiter.com slash strike. You can't find the best candidates by posting your job on just one site.

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Oh, big time team name failed for me yesterday. So I, or two days ago, I came up with sexual Healy, and I sang Ryan Healy's name. Right. And I got an email from Victor, and he says, you came up with another song? Come on, man. Throw me a raisin over here. I sent you sexual Healy months ago. and he attached the email and he did he told me about it and I so I guess subconsciously

stole it from you. I just kind of always assumed that all of your team name ideas were actually stolen from listeners. I don't know that they're all stolen. I think there are many, first of all there are many originals. I never steal but there definitely are times when I didn't remember

that it had already been like because this is not the first time of something like this has happened. Somebody will say a team name, I'll look it over we get so many of them and then Oh, two months later. Oh, yeah, I got this great idea, but it was, you know, already planted. I mean, it's kind of like all jokes are shared in this social media age. Like, a big event happens and you want to make a joke about it on Twitter.

But then you see, you know, 18 people just showing up when you, when you search whatever that event is, have already made the same joke. And it's like, oh, okay, well, I can't. Like, what's an original joke is my point, you know? What's original? I think truly original. I think most of my bad puns on the podcast are original. They're pretty bad. Yeah, exactly.

But they're also great. I made up a joke that was really funny, but I can't tell it on the air because it's very inappropriate. But it was very funny. You would have enjoyed it. Now, let's play This Justin. Rank these players. Justin Verlander, Justin Wilson, Justin Upton, Justin Bore, and Justin Smoke. Justin Upton is first.

Ahead of Justin Verlander? Yes. What? What? Just some outfielder who strikes out a ton and runs into a few is better than a potential ace. No. Potential. Wait a second.

Everybody's a potential ace. Like Justin Verlander is a distant first over all of these hitters. In fact, I don't even think I'd put Justin Upton second. Well, we have Justin Wilson in there, too. Let's not sell him short. another Justin. I'm going to put Justin Upton last. Like,

Outfielders are so replaceable, and he's just kind of, like, his, his flaws, I think, uh, in this environment, are a bigger differentiator than the strength.

Everybody strikes out. Yeah. It's not a big deal anymore. Not like Justin Upton. Yeah, but we know, yes. We've got Justin Upton right now during his hot streak, you know. Like, we know what Justin Upton is.

He's, he's like a 250-ish hitter who may approach. 30 homers. Like, yeah, that's not exciting, I think, at this environment. So I'm going to go Justin Verlander, then Justin Bored, Justin Smoke, Justin Wilson, Justin Upton. Yeah, I cannot, I cannot put, like, Justin Bore might be Justin Upton. Justin Smoke might be Justin Upton.

No, they're going to be better than Justin O'clock. I don't know why we would think that. Boar looks like a complete stud, first of all. there's still some question with smoke I guess he could just totally fall off but boar's you know what he does in terms of walk rate strikeout rate hard contact rate he has certainly had a very nice Justin Upton like start to the season you are overrating Justin Upton I agree we're talking about Justin Bore like he's not a 29 like he's about as old as Justin Spoker right but we didn't really know who Justin Bore was until this year

I don't know why we didn't know who Justin Bore was. He's got a thousand career plate appearances. Yeah, but they would never like a full-time role. And plus, like, it was funny. I was noting yesterday that if a, on Twitter, if a baseball fan awoke from a seven-year coma, what he's seeing now from Justin Smoke, Yonder Alonzo, and Logan Morrison is exactly what he would have expected.

Like, it's for some reason, like, we're getting these delayed breakouts from so many hitters. I don't know how much of it is the Flyball Revolution. It doesn't seem like smoke fits into that. The other two, Alonzo and Morrison, due to some degree. Well, Alonzo, certainly. There's been a lot of talk about him and that. But

I don't know. It's causing me to question everything I know about when a breakout should happen and what's a reasonable time to dismiss a player based on track. We can't hold on to bad players for seven years just because we had this weird blip this year.

Yeah, don't, don't, don't. But I mean, historically speaking, it's been more normal. This has been a more normal development pattern. Players don't usually come throughout the course of baseball history and even, you know, going back just 20 years or so, a player wasn't typically great right away. It took several years for him to become everything. Yeah, I think like 26, 27 used to be the now you're coming into your prime. Yeah.

These guys are like towards the end of their prime. Mm-hmm. Don't change your whole philosophy. I agree it's weird, but I'm very happy to have them in the leagues where I have them, you know? So I'll go Upton. I'm glad I didn't just dismiss them because I decided, since I had already decided they were bad, they can't possibly be good now. Upton, Verlander, Wilson, Boar, and Smoke.

Okay, honestly, like, you want to argue about the hitters, whatever. The fact that you have Upton over Verlander, Heath is more newsworthy to me. So explain. We're doing, this is Roto, right? Whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Okay. Like, explain your rationale to me when you know how...

Because in points I would rather have... Like, Justin Verlander's been pretty bad, right? Yeah. He's not a top 12 starting pitcher. You're having some faith that he's going to regain something to put him in your top 20. I just can't imagine that somebody's offering Justin Upton... Justin... Like, somebody goes to Justin...

I don't probably have any teams where I have Justin... Well, I don't have your... Justin Burlander, but where I am trading Justin Verlander for Justin Upton, maybe, but I'm just talking about how valuable there. Yeah. What about versus like Garrett Cole? Would you take Justin Upton or Garrett Cole? I think that's right in the same range. Yeah, I just like to me outfielders are the most dispensable and starting pitchers are the least dispensable.

And I guess you're not. I don't necessarily disagree with that if I have a starting pitcher that I'm really pretty sure is going to be. be good. All right, guys. Let's move on. That was a good segment. Now I just need more people who have the same name. I can make similar segments with those guys.

Oh, Justin. Justin. I get it. Thank you. This Justin. I just got it now, too. Oh, really? It's Justin.

You didn't get it? Yeah. No. Really? Oh, I'm sorry. I failed. I should have explained that better. We were ranking Justin's there.

And, you know, I think. Timberlake, to me, is probably after Verlander and before the hitters. Wow. Yeah. No. Justin Timberlake. No, I'd go Verlander, Boar, Wilson, Timberlake, Smoke, Upton. I think that's what I'd do.

Okay. Some fun facts from yesterday. Clayton Kirshaw has already surpassed last year's walk total. He had 11 last year. He is 14, 14 this year. Wow. He sucks. Oduble Herrera, 64% owned, has tied his doubles total from last season.

He has nine doubles in June, and Odubo Herrera now leads baseball with 21, two baggers. Really? Wow. Nine in June. It's June 8th, by the way. Is he over 65% owned again yet? 64%. He stinks.

Let's do it. You know what? This is what I was thinking the other day. This podcast, we've had a strong year. Like we've had 10 solid weeks. I'm feeling good about it. What we really haven't had is, like, heated debates. And I feel like that's on me because I'm usually, you guys think very similarly a lot of times.

Like, I'm usually the one who gets really animated. I'll start arguing. Let's do this right now. Odubo Herrera is trash. This is a great hot streak from him. I have zero interest in owning him. I know he stole 25 bases last year, but he's not on a 25-so-on-based pace. Well, he can't steal any bases because he's not hitting any single.

Well, he's got like 10 extra-raised hits. in a row. He doesn't walk. That whole month where he walked last year is gone. He doesn't do that anymore. Right. He should not be more than 65% owned. He should be 40% owned. Mr. Delino DeShield to Eric Young Fettish is telling me how bad Oduble Herrera is. I'd rather have Herrera than those guys, but they should not be 40% owed. Thank you. Now, I don't know why you have decided that you hate Odubo Herrera. I'm not saying he's a top 20 outfielder, but I would expect he's He's going to hit pretty close to $2.90 the rest of the season. I would expect he's going to hit somewhere in the neighborhood of 15 to 20 home runs and steal 15 to 20 bases.

I don't know what to dislike about him. Well, you think going forward he's going to hit 15 to 20 with 15 to 20 or end of season numbers? I would guess he's going to finish 15 to 20, 15 to 20. We're a third of the way through the season. Well, he won't finish with the 290 average. It'll probably be 280. Yeah, I don't know. He just doesn't stand out.

out. It's like a rich man's Kevin Kiermeier. No, honestly, in an outfield environment where Justin Upton is so easily dismissed it, like I have a hard time. You're the only one dismissing Justin Upton. No, you're the only one not dismissing. Wait, well, wait, wait, wait. I wouldn't say dismiss Justin Upton.

I just don't think he's not Justin Verlander in terms of value. I'm like, but he's, he's my 37th outfielder, and I'm not so sure he's really better than like my. 45th outfielder, Justin Upton. So that's pretty replaceable. What's Odo O'O Herrera? I'm going to move him up a little, but right now he's 59th. So in five outfielder league, I mean, certainly he needs to be owned,

but he's not really an impact player. I don't think. I just don't think the kind of totals you were mentioning, it'd be great if he could help in batting average, but that would be strictly a roto help because he's so bad at getting on base apart from batting average. Like he's a career 340, 350 on base guy That's not bad

But when you're not like a power hitter It's not enough to really move the needle in points leagues You were the top 30 outfielder last year? Yeah A lot of walks early in the year Right, that's a thing I think after that first month he probably wasn't And yeah he should be owned in five outfield

The leagues for sure I just I'm looking for standouts right now If there's any flexibility at outfield where I can pick up and drop someone like Oduble Herrera or like Domingo Santana or like Scott Shevler. I'm looking for standouts, and yeah, right now he's hot as hell. He's got nine doubles and five games in June or something. I think it's five games.

But he's not a standout to me, and that's why I don't think you have to own Oduble Herrera, unless it's a five outfield league. Okay. But I understand where you're coming from, Heath. Thank you for a nice argument. Andrew McCutcheon. Here's a fun backed.

Andrew McCutcheon has equaled his steals total from last year. He now has six in seven attempts. That's encouraging. Oh, boy. Did you really have Andrew McCutcheon or a doable Herrera? Neither. His last 12 games, McCutcheon's batting 372 with three home run.

He's been tearing it up. He's gotten 1,100 OPS in 12 games. I would rather have McCutcheon. But the question for me would be, would I rather have McCutcheon or Polanco? And I'm probably the only person on Earth that's going to say Polanco. No, I'm sure that there's other people. He's got family members and things like that. No, we expected McCutcheon to have a hot streak like this.

He's had some terrible batted ball luck, and he's still got more positive regression coming. It seems like sitting him down has helped for the second straight year. Last year, they sat McCutcheon for an entire series at Atlanta at the beginning of August, and the rest of the season he batted 284 with a 381 on base, 471 slugging percentage, nine home runs and three steals in two months. that's fine. That's much better in an OBP or a points league. So he got a little bit of a breather earlier like two weeks ago, and he's been great since then. You know, fun fact, Bryce Harper, kind of repeating last year.

Got off to an amazing start, even better this year. But Harper, his last 19 games, he's batting 155 with six walks, four intentional walks, and 20 strikeouts. Any concerns that Harper is going to do what he did last year and fooled you us? No. Okay. All right. I'm trying to conjure some, but I'm having difficulty. Okay.

The only concern would be like emotional scarring. Like I am emotionally scarred from last year's Bryce Harper experience, so I'm naturally afraid it's going to happen again. but there's not like a, you know, a good, more objective reason than that. All righty. Double dongs, Jay Bruce and Trey Mancini. Trey Mancini, 24% owned. He's got a tremendous slash line.

Thoughts on Bruce or Mancini? I would like to see Mancini play more. He starts about 60% of the time. Now he actually didn't start this game and hit two home runs. I believe he hit a game tying. End a game winning home run? Yes, sir. I think that's right.

He's the reason we're talking about Tony Watson today. But at the same time, if he did play every day, would he be more than like a five outfielderly guy? The play discipline's pretty bad. The Babbup is crazy high. Like, no, I think the upside is still a pretty far down the outfield rankings for Mancini. Who is the other one? Jay Bruce. Jay Bruce.

Jay Bruce is fine. He's like... He's like Upton, but not quite as streaky. And he's eligible for his base, which helps a little. But I could take him or leave him. 42 first baseman. Jay Bruce or Justin Smoke? I would say Bruce, but it's close.

All right. Pitchers from yesterday. So these guys are like sort of available. Zach Wheeler or Jimmy Nelson. They're 79% and 77% owned. Do you think they should be more like 90% owned Zach Wheeler and Jimmy Nelson? Yeah, I think people have over-as analyzed or over-wired about the Zach Wheeler getting shut down thing. Like, are you going to leave him on the waiver wire while he continues to perform because you're not going to be able to use him later?

Use him now. Well, the Mets pretty much walked back that the shutdown thing, too. You don't think you're going to shut him down at all now? It probably depends on how they're doing the way they've gone so far. They probably will pull back on the innings. But I think they were talking about a 125 inning limit early in the year, and they've completely, like, said now. Well, I mean, they've seen the evidence that they don't really have to be careful with the judge.

Yeah, exactly. We can trust them to make the right decisions. Jimmy Nelson, you know, he said he didn't have his good stuff, and he battled, and he struck out six giants, gave up three runs and six innings. So 70-7, look, there's no way I'd let him be unowned in one of my leagues. That's all I'm going to say. But then again, I don't play in any 10-team leagues. I mean, the peaks have been higher for Nelson.

And I would rather own Nelson than Wheeler. Wheeler's pitched well, but, you know, high, kind of well in a Gio-Gonzalez kind of way where there's a high-whip. And he's succeeding largely because of being a big ground ball pitcher. He's just, I don't know, even when he, he's kind of, he's kind of, boring, which is not what you were hoping for coming back, you know, after waiting all this time, him having the big fastball and everything, you want a big strikeout totals. He's not giving you those. He's fine, but I'd rather have Nelson. All right. You were talking about Wheeler being kind of boring. Kyle Freeland is 56% owned.

Mike Fultenevich is 57% owned. Who would you rather own, Freeland or Fulte? Fulte. Yeah, yeah, another good start for Fulte, but still not a lot of swings and misses is 98 miles per hour fastball, 98 mile per hour fastball, and he's not getting straight as a string. Yeah. So I don't know. I'm still skeptical of the success, but I'd rather own him than Freeland. You're worried it all about Matt Bush.

Should Matt Bush owners be looking for a contingency plan? He's, I think, three bad outings in a row now. Yeah. Matt Bush. Yeah, I'm a little concerned. It's not like there's somebody beating out the door to take the job. away from him. But it's been

kind of shaky. He hasn't gotten a lot of opportunities, which may contribute to the struggles. Right. Kind of some spotty work. Yeah. Like Wednesday, Matt Bush struggled. He hadn't pitched in five or six days.

But he struggled again yesterday. I'd still rather have him than, like, Justin Wilson. Probably rather have him than Brad Brock at this point because Britain's getting closer to returning. All righty. Well, we're going to talk about today's matchups after we do some raisin the roof. You don't think raisins go well with Mexican food? Well, why don't you listen to our listeners?

From Arthur M. Johnson, the third. My Mexican mother-in-law puts raisins in her tamales. They taste great. Hashtag don't knock until you try it. From Zach, just a heads up, they put golden raisins in a lot of chili rayano, an amazing Mexican dish recipes. Boo-ya. From Whitney, add raisins to your guacamole.

Amazing. Then top on any Mexican dish. From Jason, raisins, tacos, breakfast. Make it all the time. Debate over. From you bella check yourself. Thank you for raisin awareness. You're welcome.

You bell to check yourself. From Jason. Jason Eldred says, Raisin team names Friday. I'm fine with it. You want to give me a raisin? team name? I'm down. Let's see. Oh, this one's more serious, though. I forgot to put this guy's name, but he makes a good point. Really enjoy the raisin discussion on Wednesday. I was a fan of raisins

to the other day when I dropped the raisin and my dog ate it. I had to have the dog vomit the raisin. Raisins are good, but are not worth that. Really love the show. Raisins are bad for dogs, I guess? I guess so. I've always heard grapes were, so it would stand a reason that raisins are, too, I guess. Yeah, so dog owners, no raisins. And Johnny Wilco says, I got yogurt raisins yesterday because of your podcast today. Heath, how do you feel about yogurt raisins? What a lame answer.

Yeah, I just not, I don't have any hot take on raisins other than, eh. You know, like, your thought about raisins, you've named several players and called them raisins. Oduble Herrera is a Heath raisins. He's 25 years old. grape. So raisin just means old, dried up. Justin Verlianner's a raisin now.

Justin Upton's a raisin. He may be a little bit of a raisin. He's only 29. A little pruning happening there. He's awfully hot right now, though. He is. And Just Zeus says, I've had beef empanadas with raisins, was hesitant at first, but was totally delish.

Each bite had an explosion of flavor. Hashtag raisins for life. All right, real quick, Heath. what a terrible shot by Kyrie Irving. Like after Durant hits that three to take the lead. Yep. Go to the rim. You've been going to the rim all game with success or give it up or something.

That was a terrible shot. So disappointing. It was an awful shot. I don't, like, it's strange to me that the first mention of that game is this terrible thing. I don't know why you can't ever just say good things about basketball. It was a tremendous game. I really was rooting for the cabs. I wanted them to win so badly.

For all of us, we all want a great series. I was so let down by the outcome. I was not let down. I did greatly enjoy the game. And I guess the difference and the thing that I'm starting to realize, first off, it's really weird how we have these arguments of the Warriors are ruining basketball because they're too good, but the Warriors are not as good as any of the teams in the 80s and 90s. No, I disagree with that.

Those two things are hard to put together. So dumb. They clearly are. Yeah. I like greatness. Remember all of last year, the first half of last year when I was cheering for the Braves to lose 130 games? I like seeing records broken and seeing the best or worst we've ever seen. So I've enjoyed watching the best basketball team ever.

All right, I get that. Like, I've enjoyed it too. They are amazing to watch. But I still, at the end of the day, I want close competitive games. Now, if we had three games that were as good as game three, okay, fine. But they're 15 and 0 in the playoffs. That's amazing. It is amazing.

But that doesn't make it a good product. Like, it's great to watch. It's great. It better not happen again. Because if it happens... Yeah, go ahead. Let me ask you this. I don't really follow basketball, but I do follow football.

And one of the most fun football seasons I can remember that wasn't my own team, the Falcons, one of the teams I most enjoyed following was the 99 Rams, who blew everybody out. but it was just so much fun to watch. It was a kind of offense we had never seen before. Everybody on the field was just so fast. And Kurt Warner came out of nowhere. Like, great storylines, too.

And they blew everybody out, but it was so entertaining to me. Like, there's no entertainment value in that? There's lots of entertainment value. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy watching the Warriors. I do. I just wish you were a little more competitive. The thing is, I always wanted it to be Cab's Warriors. I'm not complaining about Cavs Warriors.

What I don't like about the NBA is that we knew, from before the season started, we knew it was going to be Cavs Warriors. And it wasn't even close. It wasn't even competitive. That's my bother. I don't like that. I understand that. What was even the point of having the regular season? Or the playoffs for that matter.

Yeah. The NBA playoffs are ridiculously long. Ridiculously long. And they're the most predictable playoffs by far. So why do they need to be so long? I hear you on that. Okay. That's all I'm saying.

And boy, you say anything bad about the NBA on Twitter, and people just free— Don't watch it, then! All right. So I was probably during the second quarter of that game, I'm sure I was the only person watching Brewers' Giants, other than Brewers and Giants fans. Let's look at today's matchups. We'll end the show here. We got Mike Leak and Scott Feldman.

Start Leak, Sit Feldman? I would start Leak and Sit Feldman, yes. Jose Ramirez, Michael Fulmer. Or, no, J.C. Ramirez, Michael Fulmer. Would you start J.C. Ramirez? No. No. Johnny Quedo and Paolo Espino.

Quedo, yes. Espino, no. Espino. Clayton, oh, there's an interesting one. Clayton Richard at Patrick Corbin. Corbin has had two good starts against the Padres. Which start. No? Start him.

No. I never want to start Patrick Corbin again. Start him. He's out of my top 100 starting pitchers. What? Yep. Oh, Matt Harvey's. going to come around any day now.

Alec Asher and Joe Ross, would you start either of these guys, Orioles at Nationals? No. All right. Volquez at Garrett Cole. Would you start these guys, Volquez at Cole? Start Cole. And I would say don't start Volquez. Price and Paneda, start them both.

Yep. Price is pitching today? Yep. I guess they're skipping someone? Yeah. They went four men. I guess they had a day off. Yeah, they were able to, with E-Rod going down.

You guys know how bad David Price does against the Yankees, right? Nope, it's pretty bad. But I'd start them. I'm sure you know. Look it up. I'd be interested to know the numbers. Look it up, Heath. Derek Holland at Jake Oteresee.

Would you start these guys? Holland at Oteresee. I would start Oteresee. Yep. Probably not Holland after the start. He just had. I don't know. I don't think left-handers, the race don't do very well against left-handers, do they?

Well, Dickerson, I know, has been good. I'd rather not chance with Holland. Let's not do him. Phillies at Braves. We have Ben, not as good looking as Blake lively at R.A. Dickey. Would you start Ben, not as good looking as Blake lively? Nope. Blake Lively is very attractive.

Tyler Chatwood at John Lester. Are we starting Chatwood? We're going to start Lester. Are we starting Chatwood? Not really. Not really or not at all? Not really. Okay.

Like, these are always a little bit. bit questionable because at this point in the week, do I have a 5ERA and I'm chasing in K's and wins? Do I have a 2ERA and I don't have to worry about it? So they're all on a sliding scale, so he's not really. All right. Lance McCullors and Jason Hamill will start McCullors. We'll start or sit Hamill. I'm probably sitting Hamill, but I'd rather start him than Chetwood. Kyle Gibson, Christian Bergman. Sit Gibson. Not a chance. All right. No way. David Price's career numbers against the Yankees?

I look them up, yes. He has a four, and 36 appearances, 35 of them starts. It is the team, actually, that he has faced more than any other. And he has a 455-E-R-A-136-WIP 7.7 case per 9. Hey, look at that. His case per 9 went down even though he was facing a lot more batters. Funny how that... Funny how all the league leaders in K-per-9 aren't terrible pitchers. I think it's more of a small sample-sized thing when Chris says that.

But I would let Chris tell you about that when he comes back next week. Thank you all for listening. Thanks for sticking with us. Long show today. We appreciate it for Scott White and Heath Cummings. I'm Adam Azer. See you later. See you.