Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/13: Trade Talk, Replacement Closers, Regulators (Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 13, 2019

Jordan Yamamoto and Ramon Laureano stood out yesterday and we start the show with those guys plus the amazing, ageless Justin Verlander. But we've got so much more to talk about today. Are we buying Lance Lynn, Zach Eflin and Joey Lucchesi (7:03)? What should Chris Paddack owners do (10:10)? Should you buy low on Matt Carpenter and Miles Mikolas (18:30)? And who are Chris' Buy Low guys (24:40) ... Fantasy Regulators Part One (26:20)! Then we tell you some setup men who could become closers before the MLB trade deadline (29:10) and we look at the Most Traded list (35:00) which is headlined by Austin Riley, Jose Ramirez and Aaron Nola ... Start, Sit or Drop (41:00) with Josh Donaldson, Gregory Polanco and more. We also give you some deep league guys (46:15), fringy SPs (53:00) and answer your questions and do more Regulating (58:50) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the fantasy baseball today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email fantasy baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. With fantasy! Now here's Adam, Scott Heath, and Chris. Jordan Yamamoto in his major league debut. Pitches very, very brilliantly.

Let's see if we're interested in him. He's only 10% own. Welcome to fantasy baseball today. Chris, how about those barlins? Break up the Marlins, baby. Yes. They recently lost six games in a row. But they won yesterday.

That's right. Things are looking up. No, it was exciting. There were some Marlins guys who did things yesterday, who I have liked for a while. So, yeah, fun times in Miami. Why don't you own Yamamoto yet in that league where you own every Marlins pitcher, right? You're the Stallions guy.

I would assume that he's only going to make one, maybe two more starts before Caleb Smith and Jose Orania come back from the IL. But this was a promising start for a guy who has had very good minor league numbers. And, you know, he kind of looked like what you expected from him. You know, the seven scoreless innings isn't exactly what I was thinking. That is exactly what I expected from him. But good command, not overwhelming stuff, but he dialed the fastball up to 94 when he needed it. Slider looked decent.

I think there's Tanner Roark upside there if he gets a chance to stick in the rotation. All right. Well, Jordan Yamamoto, 10% owed. Not in a rush to Adam for the reasons Chris just laid out, but someone to keep on your radar for the reasons Chris just laid out. Welcome to the show, everybody. Are we buying it with Lance Linus? and Zach Eflin and Joey Lucchasey.

They've been really good. More lately for Lucchasey. Are we buying low on Matt Carpenter or the guy who opposed Yamamoto yesterday, Miles Michaelis? Are we ready to regulate your league issues? Even though I don't have the music queued up, yes, I can assure you we are ready to do some fantasy regulating. And gosh, what is wrong with my internet on this stinking iPad? Yes, we are do, do, do, do, do, do. do we are going to do some really like pull it up on my phone or something definitely not you

tried that one just hold it up on my mic it was such bad audio um it was bad idea uh also replacement closers what happens if a closer gets traded between now and the deadline who are some guys that could step into the role we're going to look at the most traded list we're going to play start sit or drop chris we have a crazy number of segments that's so lot that's that's not that's like 60% of it so let's talk about your jordan yamamoto a little more no let's talk about remote I know that's a standout you want to talk about. Grand Slam yesterday. Over the last 21 days, he is the number 16 outfielder in points, number 12 in Roto,

during which Luriano is batting 319 with four homers and five steals. He hit a Grand Slam and stole two bases yesterday, so I'd say he's clearly a standout. Yeah, and I think he has a very interesting fantasy profile. You look at what he's done in 116 games over. the last two seasons. It's a 270 batting average, 13 homers, 13 steals, projects out to about 18 homers, 18 steals over a full season. And that's about what he's on pace for right now. So there's definitely reasons to be interested in a profile like that. I'm not sure he's necessarily someone that you need to go out and add right now because like Malick Smith is still owned in less

than 60% of lead. And Kevin Kiermeyer's probably in around the same range. And I think those guys are a little more proven and might have a little more upside. But yeah, Ramon Luriano is definitely an interesting fantasy option. Okay. All right.

Yeah. I mean, a guy who was like so bad before, even his numbers now aren't very good. So it's a hot streak, but last year was pretty good. 37% on, I think you said it well. It depends on your league size, I suppose. Any other standouts? Justin Verlander. I mean, I know we don't usually talk about the must start, no doubt about it, guys. But he's the number one starting pitcher in fantasy. He's got like a 0.7 something whip. He's giving up less than five hits per inning, which is, which by the way, he gave up four and a half per nine, yeah. He gave up four and a half hits per nine in 2017 when he got traded to the Astros. And now it's like 4.9. Yeah, he's amazing. 15 strikeouts against the Brewers yesterday. What's actually kind of interesting is he's been the number one pitcher in fantasy,

and I believe before yesterday's start. Yesterday's start corrected it a little bit, but he had, I believe, the largest gap between his ERA and his FIP of anyone in baseball. He had actually had like a 3-8 FIP coming into yesterday's start, and it dropped to 3.54, but he still has a run difference. Now, I would guess the FIP returns closer to the ERA than vice versa moving forward because he's just, we know he's better than a 354 FIP. And, you know, part of it is a 171 Babbitt. Part of it is he's giving up a little too, a little, a few too many home runs that he probably won't moving forward.

So I think you can look at it and say he's going to end up being, you know, a high twos, mid-2s ERA guy moving forward, which shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. That's interesting, though, about the FIP. Makes me hate to it. Yeah, yeah, I noticed yesterday, and I don't think it means that much. The Sierra is, like, 308. So, you know, I think he's going to end up being one of the best pitchers in baseball.

Don't worry too much about a mid-3s FIPP. I think he'll be just fine. Remember Fergalicious, that song? I do. Yeah, what if we did the team, like way back, like 10 years ago or probably closer like 12, working on my fitness. Working on my fitness. Yeah, we wouldn't do that.

Speak for yourself. Today's sponsors are Fergie and ZipRecruiter, if you need to hire or if you're looking for a job, make sure you listen to our ZipRecruiter ad, give you more information on that. And Omaha Steaks, Father's Day right around the corner, so you got to act now. go to Omaha Steaks.com, type FBT in the search bar, FBT in the search bar on Omaha stakes.com for a great offer. More on that later. All right, Chris, I'm going to give you three pitchers. Tell me if you're buying it. Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn, he has a 440 ERA, but he has been so good lately. 2.97 ERA in his last six starts with 49 strikeouts in 39 and a third and a 12% swinging strike rate.

Lance Lynn, Zach Eflin. Great star yesterday. Eight innings, nine runs. This guy goes deep into games. Eflin has a 281 ERA and 66 strikeouts in 80 innings, which would be kind of a red flag. And Joey Lucchese, are you buying it with Lucasey? He has four quality starts in his last five starts. I'm not really buying it because four of those four quality starts.

Three of them were against arguably the three worst offenses in baseball, and the other was last night against Pittsburgh. But yeah, what do you think in general about Lynn, Eflin, and Lucchese? I don't want to dismiss them all across the board because it's fantasy baseball. Everybody needs pitching and these guys look viable right now. And I think, you know, for the most part, I think they can all be various forms of viable. But no, I don't buy Lynn and Eflin for sure as sub three ERA guys. moving forward.

I think they'll be closer to the high three mark. What's interesting about Eflin is his velocity was down early in the season, but I think it's starting to get back to where it was last season when his stuff really took a jump, and he started getting a lot more strikeouts. The strikeouts haven't been there this season, but if they do follow, then, yeah, he gets a little more interesting. He's up to 94.8 miles per hour with his fastball in June.

That's pretty much where he was last year. That does make him a little more interesting. And we saw him get nine strikeouts last night or nine or eight. Eight. Nine, nine, nine. So that's a good sign. I would say I have more faith in him than Lance Lynn, just because I don't really have a good explanation for why Lance Lynn has been good.

It's not like he's really changed his pitch mix up very much. He's throwing his sinker less, but his four seamer more. That can lead to more whiffs, but it's not the kind of thing that I would say would make a guy like Lance Lynn take a step forward. And I think Joe Lucey is always interesting. And he's getting a ton of strikeouts right now, more than one per inning. He was at 10 last year. But he's getting more ground balls this year. And so the FIP has actually dropped to 375 from 431 last year.

So I think that does make him someone that is more interesting and probably deserves a little more love from the fantasy community. So how would you rank Lance Lynn, Eflin, and Lucchasey? I know you like Eflin more than Lynn, but rank all three of them. I think I would go Eflin, Lucasey, Litt. And that might be unfair to Lynn. Like maybe I just have a mental block because he's been so mediocre. And even his pretty good 2017 season had really bad peripherals.

So I would put him last. And, you know, if I end up being wrong about it, I can live with that. Flyn and Lucchasey Lynn. Okay, so would you trade any or all of them for the recently demoted Chris Paddock? Yeah. You would take that. Because he's not, it's a fake demote. Right.

It's an innings management thing. Yeah, I'd be shocked. I would say I'd be shocked if he threw, if he pitched in a game at all in single A, I would be stunned if he pitches more than two-aing. Okay, right. All right, so that is our headline. We go to the news and notes. San Diego did send Chris Paddock to the minors.

That's not good, but actually I'm okay with it because, you know, they have to manage his innings. I think he could probably use a little bit of a breather now, and he should be back soon. So don't drop Chris Paddock. Matt Strom is going to start today at Colorado. So I think it's worth, you know, adding Matt Strom, as I mentioned yesterday. It's definitely not worth starting Matt Strom.

He will be on my bench at Colorado. today. Paddock, by the way, has only thrown, he threw 90 innings last year, he's only season with more than 50 innings, and so far he's at 65 and 2 thirds. So, I don't know, he might be halfway done,

but you give him, they're at, like, basically teams who play like 67 games. So if Paddock has thrown half of his innings, let's say roughly, and he's down for two weeks, that's basically spacing him out through the end of the season.

Yeah, he'll need another... He'll probably need another, you know, phantom IL trip or you get into like the service time questions with him because you only lose your year of service time after 20 days in the minors. And you have to keep someone down for 10 days once you send them down unless there's an IL trip. So what I would expect is he gets sent down and sometime in the next 10 days someone will go on the IL. they'll call him up before the 10 days, and that will give them leeway to put him back down in the miners, maybe at some point in August. So it's something to keep in mind,

but I would bet that they're going to try to have him active through the end of the season. That's a sneaky little call. So he goes down now, before 10 days are up, he comes back up because of an IL stint, and then they send him back down. That's a great call. Let's see if Chris Towers is right about Chris Paddock.

Meanwhile, Mike Clevenger's going to start on Monday. No one Eratado left with him. Yeah. No one Aronado left with the bone contusion. He hit 99 in his rehab start the other day, so that's a great sign. No one Aronado left with a bone contusion because people like to throw at people, and it's getting annoying already. Ken Giles is on the IL with elbow inflammation. He could miss just the minimum of 10 days, but Joe be a genie tonight is going to be the fill-in-closer, which is great.

Is he? Yeah, which is great because now... It's the eighth yesterday. Now, they won yesterday in extras. Yeah. Okay, so let's take a look at the box. No, they won in nine innings. They won in nine?

Yeah, and Daniel Hudson had to come in and rescue him out of that. And he came into a tough situation. It looked like the kind of situation that you'd go to your best reliever for. But yeah, he needed some help, and it was Daniel Hudson who actually got the save last night. So just something to keep in mind. Okay. All right. Well, look, that's actually, like, short-term, Giles might be back in 10 days.

But Giles also is likely to get... Good chance to get traded. I won't say likely, but, you know, it's a bullpen worth monitoring. John DuPontier is on the IL with shoulder inflammation. Joey Votto left with back-sniffness. He doesn't think it's a big deal. I think I said sniffness, but it's stiffness. Willie Calhoun's going to begin a rehab assignment today.

Two Oakland pitching prospects made their season debuts in, Class A. Jesus Lazzardo and A.J. Puck. And they were both throwing gas. Yeah, it sounds like Puck was hitting 99, 98 in his first inning back from Tommy John's surgery. That dude, the numbers aren't great, but that's a guy with like a Tyler Glassnow type of upside.

You know, he struck out a ton of people. I think it was like 185 and 130 innings in his most recent minor league season. And of course, but he had like a four year. Yeah. Jay Puck, you know, it's got to remind you, like it reminds me of Puck from Glee. No, it doesn't remind me of that. But every time I write about him, I have to do a Control H and make sure that I spelled it Puck and not Puk. Sure.

Because I did that three times writing about him yesterday. Not thinking about Glee, right? Okay, Bryce Harper. That's weird, by the way. Why would you spell it puk? Bryce Harper, I mentioned him in the Wuriometer yesterday. What I didn't mention. what I didn't realize is that over his last 23 games,

Bryce Harpers actually batting 301, but he does have 27 strikeouts. 873 OPS. Just wanted to bring that up. Philadelphia relief pitcher Pat Nyshek could return this weekend. I doubt he takes any saves from Hector Nairus, but it had happened in the past. Jordan Yamamoto, who he already talked about,

he's from Hawaii, and he wore number 50. Hawaii 50. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. Texas moved Drew Smiley to the bullpen. Hunter Dozier could be back soon. Three more hits, including $2,000. and a steal from Alex Smith.

Pick him up. Whitmerfield's solo base. Hooray. And yesterday against Justin Verlander and a great Houston bullpen, Lorenzo Kane and Travis Shaw, both went 0 for 6 with four strikeouts. 0 for 6 with four strikeouts for both Kane and Shaw, bad nights at the ballpark.

When we come back, quick bullpen updates, then, by low or heck no, some regulating, replacement closers, the most traded list. I'm telling you, lot of segments today. We'll be right back. Going to be keeping a close eye on the Braves bullpen. Luke Jackson didn't blow a save, but he did give up a run in the ninth inning.

A.J. Minter pitched a scoreless eighth, but he did walk two. Blake Parker was bad against Seattle. Taylor Rogers, the better guy to own there, I'd say. Anthony Bass blew a save for Seattle at Minnesota, and Rowena Salyas got the save in extra innings for Seattle. I don't want anything to do with that bullpen, Chris Towers. Yeah, I don't see much reason. and too want to have anything to do with that bullpen. Yeah. Maybe someone else steps up.

But right now, nobody's really been good in that bullpen. That's been the problem is that there's not, like in Toronto, like we're mentioning, you can look at Joe Be Ageny and say, well, he could be a very good closer. I don't know if the Mariners, like, Brandon Brennan, maybe, but no, it's a pretty gross list. You're grossless. So, buy low or heck no. All right. I want to see if you still are defending Matt Carpenter.

Matt Carpenter is 97% only 78% started. He is batting 219 with nine home runs. Terrible year. Do you still think, by the way, when I said, are you still defending Matt Carpenter? I probably am too. What do we think? What do we think? would buy low on Matt Carpenter or heck no?

Yeah, yeah, you buy low. I mean, I will say it's not quite as obvious as it looked this time last season. His batted ball numbers mostly back up what he's doing right now. You know, he has a 318 Wobah, 329X Wobah. He's just not hitting the ball as hard as often. He had a 45% hard hit rate. Last season per baseball savant down to 34% this year. So last year, it was.

was an obvious, yes, glaring sign of bylaw. Right now, it's mostly just, it's not betting on what he's doing right now. It's betting on him turning it around based on the track record, which is very, very good. It is very good. It's, so this is like, okay, looking at his hard contact rate on fan graphs, it's still good, but it's not what it was last year, as you just we're talking about. But what I'm going to add is that it's very similar to 2016 and 17, and here were his numbers in those years. 2016, 271 batting average, 505 slugging. Always a good OBP, but 271 with 21 homers and 129 games. So let's say like 271 with 25 homers. 2017, 241 with 23 homers and 145 games. Like if you're telling me he's, he's, he's,

he's a 260 hitter on a 25 homer pace, and that's really Matt Carpenter, that doesn't quite move the needle for me. But... I mean, that's a starting caliber player who's eligible at multiple positions. Yeah, it's not great, but it's fine. No, but the nice thing about him is,

you know, there are some guys who are like better in... So his... I'm trying to find the right way to word it, But basically for me, he's better in points where there's fewer roster spots, but he's multi-eligible, so you'll find a spot for him. You know, you'll have four options of where to put him in your lineup in a Roto league. So I think in either way, he's a starting caliber player. If he does become a 260, 25 homer guy, if that's all he becomes,

and I would say that's not on the higher end of what you could expect, you're still going to find a spot in your lineup for him. and, you know, I would think at this point. He is only first and third base eligible. Right, right. But in Roto, that means you can play him at first, you can play him in third, you can play him at corner infield,

you can play him in utility. All right. So you're going to have somewhere to play him. So, like, I'm in a 15 team league where I'm starting rowdy to less. I would love to have Matt Carpenter. Yeah, but here, okay, but here's what I was going to say.

Like, Matt Carpenter is currently hitting 219. If I think he's a 260 hitter, it's a little late maybe to get the batting average all the way up. But if I'm buying low on Matt Carpenter, I know you don't, you don't, this philosophy. I'm thinking he hits 260, 270 moving forward. Yeah, and I think that if I believe in Matt Carpenter,

that I've got to feel like there's a stretch where he, for three weeks, whatever it is, he goes crazy. Like, there's got to be a major hot streak in there to get that batting average up. So I don't know that he's going to hit like 3.30, but I'd hope that he could at least hit 290 rest of season or something like that to make up for some of the best. I wouldn't expect it. I think if you're expecting that, you're going to set yourself up for disappointment.

But it's not impossible. It wouldn't shock me. I would just say I would expect something more like 280, maybe. Miles Michaelis. Buy a lower heck no on Miles Michaelis. Five innings, eight hits, five runs at the Marlins. You know, he actually said last year I got pretty lucky. This year I'm not getting any luck, something like that. But yeah, you did get lucky last year, Miles Michaelis. Buy lower, heck no. Yeah, he does have a 20% home run to fly ball ratio, which is. is more than double what it was last season. So yeah, you can say there's some bad luck, but he's also getting about half as many infield fly balls.

So, you know, the skills seem to have taken at least a little bit of a step back. And his peripherals are worse than last year, even once you normalize for the home run rate. And the thing that makes me not want to buy low on him is, okay, so we acknowledge he got lucky last year. he probably more of, he probably should have been more of a mid-3s ERA guy. If he's pitching worse, maybe he's more of a high-3s ERA guy. I just don't know how much upside there is.

And if I'm trying to buy low, I'm trying to buy low for some upside. Now, the home run that Garry Cooper hit yesterday was a good pitch. It was six inches on the inside of the plane. Garer Cooper somehow managed to hit that for a home run. So that was a little bit of bad. luck. He did not make a bad pitch there. But, yeah, there are other guys

I would rather buy low on at starting pitch. Such as? Well, I wrote a whole column about yesterday, so you'd think I have some on my head. Well, it was about, was it about Corbyn and Bauer? Yeah, it was about higher end guys.

But yeah, if you give me like 30 seconds, I can do that. probably find some good names. I can do that. We're going to look at the most traded list in a little bit. Austin Riley, I think, is number one on that list. Start, sit, drop.

Got some crazy numbers. Here's a preview of crazy numbers for you. Kevin Bigio has five more walks than he has hits. Bigio has 11 walks in 14 games. Meanwhile, fellow rookie Josh Naylor of the Padres has zero walks in 17 games. Those are some of the wacky numbers we're going to talk about. I also want to talk about Chance Sisy. PANIC at Chance Cisco. He is 10% owned. He DHs last night for the Orioles. He's a catcher.

And off to a good start. Did I give you enough time? Yes. I've got some guys now. Thank you, Adam. That was, you're a professional. By low time with Chris Towers, ladies and gentlemen. Here we go. So guys, and it's guys I would rather buy law on the Miles Michaelis. I'd rather buy law on Eduardo Rodriguez, who has a 5-ERA, but should be pitching better than that. His control's been good, lots of strikeouts. Never going to be someone who pitches deep into games, but if Miles Michaelis keeps pitching like this, he won't either. Zach Wheeler, another guy, almost a five ERA, but the peripherals largely look very similar to where they were last season.

Can you buy low on Pablo Lopez? He's someone that I would, because I think he's better than his peripherals, but he's on a little heater right now. It might be a buy high situation, because I do think he'll just be a pretty solid pitcher. I think he'll be better than Michael moving forward. And I would go out and buy low on Joe Musgrove. I know it's been a tough stretch right now, but I think he's a talented pitcher, someone who I would rather have the Michael.

I don't think he's that good of a pitcher, but that's just like, like I said, it's just somebody that I've never really had a ton of faith in. Like last year he got off to such a good start, Joe Musgrove, and I was watching, like, why? What is it that is making Joe Musgrove good and that it completely fell apart? Same thing should happen this year.

He's a good command. guy and he does have a pretty deceptive fastball. That was kind of the story on him coming up out of the minors. Now, the one thing that I would prefer to see is more strikeouts because that's what he did when he was doing, when he was going well. We haven't seen that from him yet, but I think he's better than Michaelis. He couldn't even get out of the first inning against the Braves, Chris. He got ejected.

It was a good point. Yeah. Hey, Chris, guess what? Hey. It's time to regulate. All right, this is part one. This is from Jason in a small western Massachusetts town. He says, hey, Gator, Jim, and Carl.

I have no idea. Yeah, me either. I offered a trade in a 10-team's categories league, and uh-uh. The trade was my Bauer and Chris Paddock for Verlander. It was accepted by the owner. Then it got vetoed during the two long. trade process and I found out that the owner that accepted it also vetoed it because of the news of Paddock being sent down this news came after the trade

was accepted I don't expect the Commission to make the trade go through I'm not even gonna ask him but can you guys call these guys out for bad form yeah don't have a veto process don't have a voting process for vetoes that's ridiculous the commissioner should be empowered to be able to veto trades if they are blatantly unfair, but this, like, I think that trade's too good for the guy I'm playing against this week. So, like, that's nonsense. That's a, that's baby stuff. Grow up.

Like, if you want to make a good trade, make a good trade. Don't force other people to not be able to make good trades just because you can't do it. I don't agree with you. I don't agree with you. For objectively bad trades, and this was not one. I agree. But, you know, what, oh, what bothers me? me about some of these leagues with like the two to three day.

Hey, a trade went through. Now you, the rest of the league, you have two, three days to bitch about it and try to get it overturn. Yeah. Like that is terrible. By the way, I googled Gator, Jim, and Carl. And the first result is a Miami Herald article from May 6th. Florida woman pulls Gator from her pants during traffic stop.

When a Florida deputy asked the woman if she had anything else on her during a routine traffic stop, he wasn't expecting. what she did next, she, quote, proceeded to pull an alligator out of her yoga pants and placed it into the bed of the truck, end quote. So the thing, alligators are cold-blooded creatures, and they need to stay warm. You know, they're very sedentary. They like to warm themselves in the sun. And so she was just keeping the alligator warm. I don't see the problem. I don't either. I just, I was bringing up the article because that's such a, such a responsible thing to do. Let's talk about replacement closers.

If your closer gets traded and becomes a setup, man, who should you pick up? Well, I looked at, let's see, seven situations. I'm sure I missed some. This doesn't have to be the last time. We had a piece on CBSSports.com about this earlier this week. We did? Yeah. A fantasy piece?

Yes, we did. Oh, you're kidding me. No. No, I'm not kidding you. But it's fine because it wasn't someone on the show. It was one of our freelance guys. so it's fine for you to ignore them. Crap.

I feel really bad now. And, Ann, you know what? We're promoting it right now. Go read it. It's from Palm Amino. It's still on fantasy, stash, baseball. Oh, I see it. Home page.

I see it. He goes through every division. tries to find the best replacement options and tells you who might get traded. It's perfect timing. This would have saved me a lot of time. All right. So Toronto, Joe Be a Jeannie.

Detroit, they have a terrible bullpen. Joe Jimenez has been terrible this year, but I presume he would be the guy replacing Shane Green if Green gets traded. The best situation slash worst situation might be San Francisco because Will Smith, I can't imagine he doesn't get moved. And Sam Dyson, Mark Balancen, and Tony Watson are all having good years. I think Dyson would probably be the guy. Why did I just hear my voice in the background. I haven't, I got a new computer. I haven't quite configured it to mute my tabs when I

open them. So, that one's on me. To have to hear me all the time. I'm sorry. Same. Yeah, like I'm in your browser. Sam Dyson, Mlanson, Watson. Watson's a lefty. I think, you know what? Let me check last night because I think Will Smith got the same.

I think Dyson usually pitches the eighth. So that would be my pick in San Francisco. Kansas City Brad Boxburger's been awful but if they trade in Kennedy maybe Boxburger Pittsburgh's interesting Kyle Crick is good

and he and Liriano also by the way Francisco Liriano yes he's been very good this year but I think Kyle Crick would probably get the saves if Vasquez is moved so former top prospect I would also throw in Scott Barlow

from Kansas City by the way He's had a bit of a rough stretch lately, but he's been pretty good this season. Last, it was it was Watson who set up Smith. Dyson pitched the seventh. Watson pitched the eighth. That could be a mess in San Francisco. Kelvin Herrera would make sense to replace Colome, if Colomé gets moved. But Calvin Herrera has been terrible.

684 ERA. Aaron Bummer is having a good year for them, but he's a lefty. So that could be a bad one. Evan Marshall. too. Evan Marshall, all right, in Chicago for the White Sox. If the nationals decide to start selling and Doolittle goes, Tanner Rainey has had a good year.

Wander Swero usually pitches the eighth inning, but he has a 618 ERA. So I don't know. The ones I identified, like maybe Jimenez could just be better than what he's been because he's a really good strikeout pitcher in Detroit. And then whoever it is in San Francisco, and I think Kyle Crick might be the best. stash right now, but I'm not sure that the pirates move Vasquez. Am I missing anyone big? Anyone obvious?

Bryce L'Glacius is under contract, but it wouldn't shock me if they moved him, given his, you know, grumbling earlier in the season. They've had some really good guys in their bullpen. Amir Garrett has, you know, former top prospect who has really just been lights out in the bullpen, has been unhittable. And Robert Stevenson, actually, another top prospect. They've both been pretty good so far. I think Garrett, he's already thrown 26 innings, so it's not like he's being used as a lefty specialist, and he's had a ton of strikeouts so far this season. So I think those are two guys who, you know, if Iglesias does get moved, that could be an option. We're going to take a look at the most traded list after a quick break on fantasy baseball today.

Austin Riley homered again yesterday. Should you trade them or just hang on? We'll be right back. Adam and Chris back here on Fantasy Baseball Today. By the way, watch our Sunday show. Fantasy Baseball today. The video version, it's strictly video. It's from 3 to 6 p.m. Eastern on CBS Sports H.Q. It's really fun. Okay, if you want to see the most traded list, just find the roster trends,

either on CBSports.com slash fantasy or in one of your leagues, and you can go to Most Traded, and you should sort team status by all, or you can look at just free agents. Actually, that doesn't exist. Oh, no, it does for most traded. But most added, most dropped, most owned, very useful lists when you're making your waiver

claims. Now, Austin Riley is the most traded player. Jose Ramirez is number two. Mani Machado is number three. DeGrom is four. Goldschmidt is five. There's a mix of underachievers and overachievers and deGrom

who I think it's just been like, I mean, the overall numbers aren't great, but he's basically been to Grom lately. Okay, who would you rather have rest of the season? Austin Riley or Jose Ramirez? I considered running out of the room rather than answering that question. I think it's got to be Austin Riley at this point. Like, we're going.

And that's more about my concern for Ramirez than it is that I think Austin Riley is just a superstar now. I think Austin Riley's probably 10 to 12 range of third base moving forward. We did just see a big slowdown from him before this home run. So I think, yeah, I would take him over Jose Ramirez and I don't feel good about it. He was two for 22 with nine strikeouts before homering yesterday, going three for five with a home run yesterday. what on earth would you do as a Jose Ramirez owner right now? Who's going to give you anything for him? So I have been offered a couple of Jose Ramirez trades in one of my two Jose Ramirez leagues.

And what I... Let me see if I can get them, find them in my text messages. So, okay, I would give up Tatis Ramirez and Tyler Malley. Man. Oh, no, this is what I proposed. I'm sorry, Chris. Oh, it's okay. Oh, no, okay.

This is it. I would give up Fernando Tatis, Jose Ramirez, and Tyler Malley. I would get Charlie Morton, Brandon, Woodruff, and Tommy Lestella. Okay, one more time? Yeah, I'd give up Tatis, Jose Ramirez, and Malley. I need pitching. I would get Morton, Woodruff, and Lestella. I think that's fine.

Yeah, it's not bad. I think Morton and Woodruff are probably top 20, 25 starting pitchers. So it's really nice to get two of those guys. You know, I do like Malley. Obviously, I think Fernando Tatease is very good, but he plays the deepest position in fantasy. And Jose Ramirez has been the victim of a little bit of bad luck. It is worth noting. He hasn't been good, but the bad ball data does suggest he should be hitting more like 240, 250,

you know, maybe with a couple more home runs. it's not anything to write home about. He's been bad by any measure, but he probably should be a little better than he has been. So, 198 batting average for Ramirez. But what I said about Ramirez is that I don't, I'm so hesitant to trade him because we have gone almost 70 games now.

If you trade Jose Ramirez after 70 terrible games, and then he becomes one of the best players in baseball, again. I will not be able to play fantasy ever again. I won't be able to live with it. I'm done. It would be such. It would kill me. So that's the, I think that's the gambler's fallacy. No, I don't know. People use this gambler's fallacy thing to talk about basically the batting average thing that I was talking about Matt Carpenter earlier. This is just the like, I'm afraid to sell. That's a sun cost fallacy. Sorry. Yeah, come on. Oh, there you go. That makes sense. I, I'm afraid to sell low on the guy because

he could win you the league if he gets back to normal. Yeah. Yeah. But there just aren't very many signs that he'll get back to normal. It's basically taking it on faith that whatever's broken

is fixable. Because he's been arguably the worst hitter in baseball. Jeff Mathis has played, so I guess he hasn't been the worst. He does have I think 16 steals. Yeah.

No, for fantasy, he's been better than that, but he still hasn't been good. He still has good play discipline. So, what do you make of the rest of the list? Like Goldschmidt, Paddock, Bumgarner, Cinderguard, and Nola? Goldschmidt is a... Is he still a bylaw?

Has he turned things around? No, really. He was struggling for a long time. He's still a bylaw. Yeah, I think he's still going to be very good moving forward. I think Chris Paddock's a pretty good bylaw right now. You know, this data probably

comes mostly from before when he was sent down, but you might get someone in your league that's panicking about his slow start and him getting sent down and doesn't quite read all the news updates or listen to Fantasy Baseball today. And you might be able to snag him for a fairly cheap cost. I think he'll be very good moving forward. Noah, Cindergarde, Aaron Nola, I think both are obvious by lows. Cindergarde probably a little more obvious than Nola just because, you know,

I wrote this piece yesterday about last year's breakouts and what's gone wrong for them so far. there's a lot of last year's best pitchers that have just been real disappointments, and he's been one of the biggest. Who? And with Nola. And I don't know, it's hard to identify exactly what's gone wrong. Like the stuff mostly looks the same. His curveball's moving a little differently.

So I wonder if it's maybe a release point thing. I wonder if he's tipping his pitches. But because the velocity's still there, because the stuff is still there, you know, his biggest issue is hitters aren't really swinging against him right now. And so that's caused a drop in strikeouts, and a rise and walks. But I just, the track record for him is so good.

I think he'll get back on track because there aren't super glaring signs. Who would you rather have, Cinderguard or Nola? Nola. Okay. I think. Who would you rather have,

Manny Machado or Aaronola? Nola. Chris, let's play Start, sit, or drop. Here we go. Let's do it. Start, sit, or drop. Funnels. game. Pretty self-explanatory.

But Chris, you're going to tell me if you'd start the guy, sit the guy or drop the guy. Hold on. Hold on. Slow down. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's give it a shot. Josh Donaldson, 91% own, 70% started. Pretty bad numbers. He's been bad for like six weeks now, but he is still hitting the ball really, really hard. So there's that. Josh Donaldson, start, sit or drop. Yeah, he's in the top 2% in average exit velocity this season. So there are still good signs. I think you sit him. until he starts to turn it around.

You know, the strikeouts are a bit of a problem, but I don't think he'll continue to struggle against lefties, and that'll start to give him a boost. Donaldson or Jose Ramirez rest of season? Are you there? Yeah, yeah, no, I haven't left yet. You're not answering that? Ramirez.

All right. Start, sit, or drop, Fran Mill Reyes. Framil Reyes is 19 home runs, but he is the number 58 outfielder in points, number 39 in Roto, 83% own, and 71% start. at Fram O'Reyes. He has a, like, really low Babbat, right?

It's got to be because he hits the ball well. He doesn't really strike out very much. Yeah, he has a 244 Babbup, and he profiles as someone who should be a pretty good Babbup guy. Highline drive rate hits the ball really hard. I'll take it back. He is striking out 27% of the time, so that's up from what I thought it was.

But yeah, I think at the very worst you sit. You don't drop for Enmel race. There's just too much potential here. There is so much potential. He needs to be a little more consistent, but he also doesn't play every day. If the Padres make a trade or something like that and free up more playing time for him, that would be great. Gregory Polanco, 69% own, 45% started, start, sit or drop, Gregory Polanco. I still want him on my team.

I'll sit him. He's coming back from that shoulder injury. They're giving him days off. He hasn't been great, but he hasn't been terrible so far. And I just, I still really like the potential. I think there's, you know, we saw last year Michael Conforto took a little while to get going, but he was really good in the second half.

I think the same could happen for Polanco. Yandi Diaz, 65% own, start, sit or drop Diaz. He has three home runs since April 27th. I think I'm okay with dropping him. I don't think he's terrible, but I think he's kind of, of return to just a guy territory. We were very excited about the possibility of him taking this big leap forward as a power hitter.

And, I mean, that's happened. But what he was doing early, I don't think, was sustainable. So, you know, if you need to drop him, I'm not necessarily saying everybody should, but it's not the worst idea in the world. So this Yandi Diaz are talking about. So who's more dropable to you, Diaz or Polanco? Diaz.

Two more here. Matt Olson, 74. Since he came off the IL on May 7th, he's the number 12, first baseman and points, number 14 in Roto. Only Pete Alonzo has more home runs among first base eligible players since May 7th. Only Michael Chavis has struck out more than Matt Olson. So he is a three true outcomes guy and starts it or drop Matt Olson, 74% own. I think you start him. I think he's shown that the Hammett injury wasn't, uh,

wasn't a problem. So yeah, I'll keep him in my lineup. Four home runs in his last six games. He's going to be a pretty annoying player. And then how about Derek Dietrich? 77% owned since the three homer game, not including yesterday when he went one for four with a double a run and a strikeout.

Dietrich is batting 194 in 11 games since the three homer game with a double three walks and 10 strikeouts. And he's 77% own. Was this fool's gold start, sit or drop Derek Dietrich? start I think you know especially in a Roto league

I think he's someone that you can definitely keep in there as either a second baseman or middle infielder all right let me tell you Derek Dietrich's matchups next week because

I mean sure yeah if he has a bunch of lefties coming up then you sit him because he's just not going to be anything more than you're hoping he's just bad against lefty he's probably not going to play against lefties

unless Votto is you know Vado's got the back issue. Next week for the Reds, they have they have seven Ritees but... Yeah, you start Derek Dajer. They are Peacock, Verlander, Cole, Nelson,

Chase Anderson, Peralta, and Woodruff. So not the easiest matchups, but he'll get a lot of time. You start him against seven Ritey's. He's been good against Rite's his whole career. All right. All right. Especially within the context of a second base.

Let's see what else we got. Let me get to the deep league guys. See who you're interested in here. Chan Sisko, 10% own. So he's a Baltimore catcher who just got called up recently, batting 278 with a home run in six games. And he did DH yesterday with Renato Nunez sitting. I expect Nunez to D.H. against lefties, and they'll probably mix it around against righties. So that's Chan Cisco. Garrett Cooper, 28% own.

Sean Anderson, that's a giant starting pitcher, 9% own. and Tommy Malone, who is a Minnesota, Seattle pitcher, who's been used with an opener his last two times out, and he's actually been pretty good. So all these guys are like 10% own, Cisco, Anderson, and Malone, except for Garrett Cooper is 28% on. It's a big difference. I guess I think really Chance Cisco is the interesting one here.

Yeah. You know, because Cooper's an ownership percentage. I think Garrett Cooper is an interesting player, but he's not going to hit for a ton of power with how many ground balls he hits. So you're looking for a batting average. It's not that he can't be helpful, but I think 28% might be a little low,

but it's not terribly low. So Chan Sisko is the one that I look at. Former really big prospect hasn't quite lived up to it in the high miners, but 914 OPS. He was incredible in spring training. It was kind of a travesty that the Orioles didn't. call him up to start the season. And, you know, I think there's probably some service time chicanery going on there.

But, yeah, I think he can be a starting caliber second catcher. Okay. Chance Sisko, not on a lot of radars. Chance Sisko or the guy I talk about every day, Carson Kelly. Kelly. You should, you, by the way, are very close to having a great call on Carson Kelly if he continues to play. He's, like, it was weird that nobody was interested. Like, everybody freaked out about Danny Jansen coming in, and I get it. But their profiles weren't that dissimilar.

Carson Kelly was a top prospect. He just kind of got buried in St. Louis because he's behind, you know, the greatest St. Louis Cardinal of all time. And so there was nowhere for him to play, and people just kind of forgot about him. That's not true. He continued to hit in AAA. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, no, it was just that there was a three-way competition and all three guys were going to play. but that's kind of sorting itself out now.

I told you about those crazy numbers. I'm just going to do this segment quickly here, so I want to read some emails and do some regulating. So the crazy numbers, Rafael Devers has eight steals, and he got caught stealing last night, going for his ninth. Eight steals for Devers. He had eight steals in 179 games in his first two seasons.

Carlos Santana has a 936 OPS. He has a career 811 OPS. Santana is having his best year, batting 286 with four. 14 home run so far. David Dahl has a 430 Babbitt, and Cavan Bigio. Kevin Bigio has been, like, terrible.

He has one extra base hit in 14 games, but he also has a 21.2% walk rate, which is, like, ridiculous. He has five more walks than hits. He's having a strange start to his season. I think it's encouraging that he's walking so much, but, you know, you got to hit a little bit. So this was the concern that a lot of

had with him. You look back even before the 2018 breakout. He had pretty decent numbers across his minor league career. And then he really broke out. He was awesome in AAA this season. But one of the things that a lot of scouts were concerned about was that his walk rate was more a result of passivity rather than like he has a good eye, but he lets a lot of pitches go, gets deep into accounts. And it puts him in not great situations. That was one of the one of the knocks on him coming up, that the scouts didn't like him quite as much as the numbers. And so I do wonder if that's what we're seeing right now. That is interesting. Yeah, I just dropped him in a fairly deep league. And I think it's not an OBP league. So, you know, I was talking to my co-owner.

I was like, he's walking all the time. And the guy's like, well, we don't get points. We don't get any credit for that. It's true. So I dropped him. The other one I think that we should talk about is doll. His babb had been forced in three seasons. And, In all three seasons, it hasn't been a lot of games. No more than 77 games. But 404, 311, and 430. So I know 430 is high, but do you think David Dahl could lead baseball in Babbip? Is he going to always be a high Babbip guys?

Two out of three seasons with a Babbip over 400. He's a 744 played appearances with a 380 career BAPIP. That's really good. Playing in course field helps. He hits a lot of line drives. That helps. I don't know how to feel about him. I don't know how to feel.

I just don't know how to feel about him. Like, only 10 strikeouts in his last 21 games. That was a huge problem early. But the dude has six home runs in 58 games and two steals. So here's, you know, Marlins catcher, I can't think. Jorge Alfaro is another guy who has had incredible Babbat success through his first, you know, three partial seasons. Very similar to this. even if David Dahl leads baseball,

like is the highest true Babbat guy in baseball, I don't think anybody has more than a thousand plate appearances in baseball among active players right now with a Babbup above 355 or 360. So that still would suggest 70 points of regression coming for David Dahl if you think he is, you know, 99th percentile. And so that's what's tough.

he's hitting for enough power but it's mostly it's more like doubles power right now. Right, yes, it's a lot of doubles. Those got to turn in a home runs. You'd want to see more home runs and I think you could

expect that. You know, he hits the ball reasonably hard. He plays in a great park. 13% home run to fly ball rate. That's a little below the league average right now which is about 15%, which is wild. So I would think he's someone that you would expect a couple more home runs

from and that can help sort it out, but he's not going to hit 300, I would guess. I think you're probably looking at more of a 275-280 hitter, even with Cores, based on his current skill set. I want to dedicate the rest of the show to our emailers. So let me just ask you about these fringy starting pitchers, and if you're interested in them.

Zach Plyzac, 70% own, had his worst start. Danny Duffy had a pretty good start. Very good start against Detroit. Merrill Kelly, last six starts. He's been very good. And he's three straight starts of seven or more innings than zero or one run for Merrill Kelly. And let's see if I had anyone.

Brett Anderson. So, Zach, Plyzak, Duffy, Kelly, and Anderson. I'm not interested in Brett Anderson. I'm somewhat interested in Danny Duffy. 30% rostered rate. Seems a little low. Could go a little higher than that. Merrill Kelly, probably the same.

He's at 38%. I think he probably should be owned more. I don't think there's a ton of upside. there because he doesn't strike anyone out really, but he's probably going to be like a high 3 ZRA guy on a decent team, so that deserves to be owned in more mixed leagues. And Pleasak, I think he's way over-owned at 70%. I just don't think the skill sits there to support.

I think he could be similar to Merrill Kelly, maybe with a few more strikeouts, but certainly don't think there should be a 32% difference. how many leagues they're rostered. Kelly has Colorado and San Francisco at home next week. So those are pretty good matchups. And Pizak is at Texas and then home against Detroit. So one good, one bad.

Fantasy Baseball at cbsi.com. This is from Dave and Burbank. Have you ever seen a player go from first rounder to 30th rounder as quickly as Jose Ramirez? Is it time to rename the Mendoza line, the Ramirez line? That's mean. He's trying his best. Yeah, but honestly, like I can. can't think of a bigger bust.

I cannot think of a guy who's a first round pick who was this bad. Can you? For 70 games, I think we probably could find someone. But no, this is one of the bigger busts in recent memory, for sure. There's just, there's very little redeeming. I mean, we talked about him earlier. There's just not a lot to say. He's been awful.

This is from Scott, dear Howie, Trey, Adam, and Anthony. Nationals? They are. I was reminded of one of my biggest fantasy pet peeves today when I received a trade offer in which the other manager went on and on listing all the reasons the player he's trying to send me is fantastic and for real. If he's that incredible, why are you trying to get rid of him? How do you respond to trade offers like that?

What are some of your biggest fantasy pet peeves? That is definitely one of them. I play in a league with a bunch of my college buddies. It's a 14-team football league, and we've been playing for about a decade. and I think four of the people in the league actually work at CBS now. And one of them is Igor Mello, a baseball editor. Love him. Lovely person.

We hang out all the time. Great guy. But he is the guy who will send you the trade offers and then hit you up on a message and say, oh, the guy I'm giving up is so good. Look how good he's been. You know, he's going to take this role. And the guy I'm trading for, like he sucks. He's worthless.

Oh, yeah. You have to do this trade. And it's annoying for anyone to do that to, anyone, but like, this is my job. Why are you trying to talk me into the trade? Exactly. Yeah, no, don't do that. That's just obnoxious. That's an instant callout in the group chat or the or the Slack channel that we have for our league. Yeah, don't, don't do that. All right, here's a tweet from Andrew. Matt Chapman is one for 27 with 13 strikeouts. Can you bring this up on the pod? Yes, I can. Matt Chapman is one for 27 with 13 strikeouts.

He is the number 12 third baseman in points, number 15 in Roto, batting 249 with 16 home runs. He's had a streaky season so far. He's actually four for 37 in his last nine games. He's surprisingly been much better at home than on the road. He's been abysmal on the road, which is a reverse from last year. Yeah, I think the plate discipline strides that we saw at the beginning of the season, they're gone, Chris. But what do you think overall about Matt Chapman? I think he's probably underperforming a little bit actually.

You know, 249 batting average is with a 259 Babbup. He had a 338 and 20 Babbat the previous two seasons. So, you know, I think there's a lot of Babbat progression coming, probably 40 to 50 points. So I think you're probably going to see him hit right around 275, 280 like he did last season. I think he's a very good third baseman. I really don't have any concerns. And from Jay.

Subject line. Oh, this was sent yesterday at 2.46 p.m. Subject line, Blues win the Stanley Cup. I'm sending this to you because I did this before Game 4 and the Blues won that night. Tonight it's game 7. I've wanted this so insanely bad my entire life. And I'm going to the watch party at Bush Stadium tonight. How cool is that?

To be with thousands and thousands of people downtown to watch the boys hoist the cup. I'm getting Misty just thinking about it and I'll definitely cry tomorrow if you read this on the pod. Let's go Blues. and he was right, it worked. Congratulations. It's pretty cool, man. First championship in 50 or 51 years of existence. Like, that's really cool.

Congratulations to the Blues. And as much as I was into hockey, I fell asleep in the second period last night, so I apologize. But the first period, the first period was all I needed to see. Oh, my God, you called me out on Twitter. Yeah, yeah.

I was tired. Even watch the game, Adam. I watched two-nothing. That's all I needed. It's all I needed. What a... Yeah. Unbelievable.

I know. It's true. Okay. I think we could squeeze in a regulators here. Let's do it. Let's see what we got. Squeeze. Okay. Here we go.

Which one do I want to read? Oh, this one. Subject bum owner, regulator ask. Stop doing that. I thought this was about Madison Bumgarner, by the way, but it's about a bum owner. I'm in a 13... I've had a 13 team 6x 6x Roto Keeper League

where owners can trade future picks as part of trade packages. We have a perennial seller-dweller owner who refuses to make trades because he says he watches a lot of baseball. What's so funny? He refuses to make trades because he says he watches a lot of baseball.

I don't get that either. though, he's relatively active on waivers and has spent $2 in Fab. His lack of willingness to make any deal drives me insane. To prove a point, I offered him my 22nd round pick for his 23rd round pick, and he refused. He refused that trade. Does this demonstrate he's not trying to win now or in the future? Am I being totally irrational to want him out of the league so we can either free up players or get a more engaged owner?

This is from Tom. I love that. You offered him a 22nd round pick for a 23rd round pick, and he refused that. Like, why would anybody do that? That's, like, if he's setting his lineup and he's making roster moves, I, he's just not very good at fantasy baseball, it sounds like, and, you know, take his money. Take it. Right?

Yeah's money. Tomah's problems. All right, that's fantasy regulators. That's fantasy baseball. God, it's gross when you do it. that's fantasy baseball today we'll talk to you tomorrow and it'll be a christen heath tomorrow

enjoyed everybody to see you then