Fantasy Baseball Today - 06/14 Fantasy Baseball Podcast: McCutchen, Faria, Tue. Recap

Episode Date: June 14, 2017

Perhaps one of our busiest - and hopefully most informative - shows of the year as we recap Tuesday's action and discuss Jacob Faria (2:00), Andrew McCutchen (6:38), Jason Vargas (22:46) and so much more ... Are we concerned about Marco Estrada (25:00)? Is Yasiel Puig overowned (30:00)? Who is benefiting from being moved around in their lineups? ... We're grading your trades at the end of the show! But first we talk about fringy starting pitchers (46:55) ... 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

Charlie Blackman, Sunny Gray, Matt, Harvey, Robbie Ray, Match you maker, match you munker, Joe, Diageo. He heart hit, Ray, ADP, Southpaw slits, pine-armids, will quedo throw a no-no. Hey, welcome to the Wednesday show. It's going to sound better than the Tuesday show. It is June 14th, Adam Azer, Scott White, Chris Towers. You know what my goal is for today, guys? What, Adam? What's your goal?

Let me tell you my goal. I want people to come away from this show being like, holy cow, they cover. So much stuff on Wednesday's show. They're going to call their friends. They're going to say, hey, Pierre, did you hear the show today? Fantasy baseball today. They covered everything. It's so comprehensive.

You have to listen. Tell your friend. That's today's show, okay? Tell your friend Pierre. Pierre and all your friends, yes. Okay. Yes, thank you. I don't know it, Pierre.

Make a friend, Chris, for God's sake. Hello, Chris and Scott. How you doing? Doing well. Doing well, doing extra well in the leagues where I picked up Jacob Ferria. Oh, really? What about the one where you made us start Chris Davensky over Jacob Ferria? You just had to pick Devensky's worst week.

Our record, that's a Categories League. We have an 8-1-1 lead, so, you know, let's not get ahead of ourselves, Adam. Okay, okay, sorry. We benched Faria out of an abundance of caution because I thought we could win anyway. Maybe we can. Maybe we can. All right. So Faria is definitely going to be on the show today.

Andrew McCutcheon, yeah, I'm not going to shy away from it. Bring it on, people. That's cool. We can talk about McCutcheon. Angelton Simmons stole two more bases. We had a lot of very interesting pitchers go yesterday. We had Marco Estrada be terrible again. I want to talk about Eric Thames.

I want to talk about Yassio Pueg. I want to talk about Yassil Pugge. I want to talk about the tweet of the day, which is from at CBS Scott White. I am Faria King Out. Faria dash king out Chris should have done Faria dash K dashing out Because of all strikeouts he's getting

Faria K See that's this is what Like this isn't a great pun I'll be the first to say But you and Heath sometimes You take them too far You add one too many layers And it just ruins the whole thing

Yeah the worse a pun is the better I don't think that's true at all It's 100% It's not a bad point It's not a bad point But yeah we should be Furia King out here First of all Jacob

Free is all we 32% owned? What? Well, that's about doubled. He should be more than 32% owned. For sure. I don't think there's any question about that. He's going to be the lead of the Waverwire column today when I write in. You have to be very impressed by what he's done so far.

Let me ask this. Yeah, I'm especially impressed by the efficiency because it didn't look like he would profile as that the season he had a AAA. Great strikeout rate. suspect walk rate though we've talked before about how walk rates always seem kind of high for minor league pitchers

but he's just he's been so efficient and then he's had the strikeouts too now not as many swinging strikes in this start 9 as the last start 16 but I feel like that's nitpicking especially when the guy's 32% out

right so let me ask this I don't have any 10 team leagues but even if I did I still think I'd want to add Jacob Faria, are there any leagues that you could think of that you wouldn't be making sure Jacob Ferrea is owned? And if you were unknown, you'd be putting in a claim. And then follow-up question, did you, by any chance, search some of your leagues last night and get mad at me because I own Faria in so many of them? Well, I've got a 10-teen league where I currently have Samarja, Shoemaker, Mats, and Pomerans on my bench.

I guess I'd drop Shoemaker for him, but I'm not 100% sure on it. That's the only one. Not Pomerance? Yeah, that's about, that seems like the appropriate cutoff. So we're talking like a borderline top 50 for me. Yeah, yeah. So, like, if it's a 10-team league and you have a really good team, I could see how your worst player might not be good enough to drop for Ferea,

but somebody in your league needs Ferea. Yeah. All right. Even if it's not you. All right. So exciting. Pick him up, and obviously he's going to give up eight runs next time out. And speaking of that, my worst pitcher might actually be Joe Ross.

Oh. Yeah, I'd make Joe Ross for him. I'd make that swap. I'd make that swap. Now, not after his last start. I said it. Did you listen to you? I know you listen to the podcast.

Not after the next start when he strikes out 14. I know you listen to the podcast when you're not on, Chris, which I do appreciate. Did you listen to yesterday's podcast? I did. Okay, good. I finally got something right. I said that I wasn't buying Joe Ross after the last start. I thought it had more to do with the Orioles than Joe Ross.

And I watched his start yesterday, and I'm not really – Look, the velocity thing, there was a drop-off. I don't know if it was a huge one. He was throwing like 91, 92-ish in the middle innings. And I just didn't really see a great pitcher out there. And he's going to struggle against lefties, it appears. He got hit hard. Even when they were making outs, they were hard outs.

So it seems like Joe Ross. is pretty replaceable at the moment. Yeah, there's a certain breaking ball he's had issues with that's supposed to help him against left-handers, so that it just seems like that continues to be inconsistent for him. I don't remember it's a splitter or slider, but one of those ends. I mean, I don't know. I mean, certainly the fact that the Orioles didn't start any of their best hitters

helped last time out, but like with him and with Masahiro Tanaka, I don't think you can just entirely credit the matchup for him looking like a world beater double-digit K's guy versus him getting completely rocked. Like, there's not that much difference between any major league lineup. And there are bad lineups out there every day. Yeah. Teams are going against the angels every single day and not striking out 12 batters. No. So it's like, that's a variable in this equation, but I can't just put it all on that.

No, it was more like the Orioles just didn't want to be there. They were complaining about it. It was a makeup for a doubleheader or for a rainout. And look, I didn't drop Joe Ross. I just didn't start him. And I still haven't dropped him. I would drop him for Faria, but like I said, I already own Faria in that league. So, all right, let's get to something else here.

Tuesday standouts and Andrew McCutcheon. You know, sometimes you move a guy to a different spot in the order, and it really helps. And the guy I've always, I keep comparing McCutcheon to is Adam Jones. And last year, Adam Jones got moved to lead off. He hit well for an extended period of time. Right now, McCutcheon got two days off when they were in Atlanta. He collected his thoughts. He adjusted his swing.

And he got moved down to sixth in the order. And he's batting 397 with five home runs, including two yesterday, in 17 games. Well, Adam. Yeah. You know what it is. Regression? What is it? He was due.

He had to have. I know. He hadn't been good before. So he had to do this to make up for it. I agree. I even said he was going to have a hot streak. The question is, you know, how good is Andrew McCutcheon? Is this just a hot streak or how much do you believe in him?

I believe in him because there's a clear mechanical adjustment he's cited. And he cited it before this started, like immediately before it started. Like the correlation is so strong that I see it as more of an explanation than a coincidence. And it was, he's in one of those cases who we do. We didn't really understand what was wrong with him. We didn't? It just seemed like it seemed like premature aging for a 30-year-old, right? I mean, what other explanation was there?

No, but it did seem like clear aging because he became a terrible center fielder. He stopped stealing bases. So whether or not like premature, yeah, it didn't make sense. He's only 30. I get that. But it was happening and it was obvious. And they wanted to trade him. I mean, they were trying to, they were putting him on the market.

So it just seemed to me like... Well, they should do it again. I think he's back. I guess so. I just... Sure, the mechanical adjustment, maybe that's helped. And I'm sure there's something there.

But even when he was at his worst, he was striking out below 20% of the time. So above average strikeout rate, he was walking a bunch. He was, his isolated power or isolated slugging percentage was still like 180, 170, so still pretty good. And he just had a really low babbit.

and that's what Heath and I kept saying was just like he's not a, Andrew McCutcheon is not a superstar. Like looking forward, I don't expect, you know, over his last 28 games, he's hitting 308 with a 937 OPS. I'm not even sure I expect that much. But he's, he's the number 23, like with the cold start, with him being only a 250 hitter overall, he's the number 23 outfielder in points leagues.

Yeah, and I always said, I always said, even from the beginning that he was going to be better in points leagues and he's going to be better in OBP leagues, Andrew McCutcheon. get that but if you don't get credit for walks which is i would say his best skill then you're not talking about he's not a top 30 outfielder in those formats he's like 40th uh yeah i don't know that i agree with that well i'm telling you what i mean right now i don't know what we're if we're classifying like you seem to be classifying what your expectations one way chris used the term superstar i don't know what exactly we mean by superstar player i don't think he can be a top 10

outfielder again. There's just too much bulk at that position. But I have him 23rd right now and trending up. I mean, some of the names I have ahead of him, Yonis Cespitez, Jose Ramirez, Marcel Ozuna, even Corey Dickerson, I can't say for sure that they're great.

They certainly look, particularly Ozuna and Dickerson, they certainly look great this season, but there's big questions for all of them. So it's conceivable to me, McCutcheon could sneak back into the top 20. And I'm not 100% sure where he ranks among outfielders right now, but he's a top 75 overall player in Roto right now. He's 32nd. I was wrong. When I said top 40, I didn't mean what I expected rest of season. I meant what he is right now. And I was wrong. I was just looking at the list and

ballparking it. McCutcheon's 32nd. And that's still with only like a 277 Babbitt. Now, I don't think he's going to be a 350 kind of Babbitt guy like he was at his peak because he has lost to step both in the field and, you know, his bat's slowed down a bit, but there's probably another 20 or 30 points of batting average regression. Like, I think he's a 290 hitter moving ball. All right, and I would say that I'll give him credit for one thing. He's got six steals, which is, you know, he's what, probably 16 steel pace or something? And that's pretty solid. I thought it would, you know, keep getting lower. But it's not, it's nothing to sneeze. That's not great, but good for him. I still don't like him, but I understand that right now I look like an idiot,

and I'm not going to run away from that, no problem. Let me give one more standout here. Angelton Simmons, 62% owned. Another guy I dumped on the other day. It's going to be hard for me to buy into Simmons as a hitter. I know he's had a great month, but he does have 10 steals, and he had eight steals after the All-Star break last year. He had five steals in September last year.

So he's got 10 steals, Angelston Simmons, right now. That matches a career high, which he's set last year. But again, now it's like All-Star break to one month before the All-Star break 18 total steals, almost the full season's worth of games like, well, not even. So that's pretty cool. And Scott mentioned that in his Waverwire column about Angelton Simmons, who is 62% owned.

So there you go. All right. Yeah, he's actually in my top 12 shortstops now, Not because I'm super confident that what he's done so far this year is legit, but just because there's actually some reason for hope for him, and there's not 12 other short stops who I could say that about. I guess it's kind of borderline him and Eduardo Nunez. They're kind of competing for the 12 and 13th spots for me.

It seems like Simmons has a little more home run potential and a little more walk potential. So I'm giving him the edge. Oh, wow. What a horror story this is that you have Andrewton Simmons seven spots ahead of D.D. Gregorius. Sir, have you lost your mind? Here's the thing that doesn't make sense about Andrewton Simmons. Over the last 365 days, he's played 160 games and he has 20 stolen bases. Nine home runs hitting 293. That might be a top 12 shortstop. He had 16 stolen bases in the first 530 games of him.

his career. So it's just like... Yeah, but that's... No, I just... I look at Cameron Mapen, like, the angels want to run. But it's just, it's just bizarre. It's just bizarre that he's just doing something he's literally never done. Oh, he did it in the minors.

Not at a great, with a great success rate, but this, like, one of the disappointments when he graduated to the majors was why does he not run more? Yeah, and... It's 20 and two on stolen bases, too, so it's like... Yeah, and I think it's one of those things, like, if you don't practice it, you're going to be bad at it.

You can't become a good base dealer unless you try to steal bases more. By the way, D.D. Rigorius, since he came off the D.L. as a top seven, like top eight shortstop. I looked at it yesterday, not this morning. So, yeah, I don't know. It feels a little low in the rankings to me. He has also been a little bit lucky during this 13 or 14 game hitting streak. Andrewton Simmons, by the way, he's a career 678 OPS. So it's a little dicey, but the steals are nice.

Yeah, it's definitely dicey. Okay. There is some history of him running and some history of him hitting for this kind of power in his past. And he's always made contact at a good rate. So that aspect doesn't worry me. I am, okay, what's today's date? The 14th of June. I am so confident that Didi Gorgorius is going to be better than Angelton Simmons.

I will bet anything reasonable. 100 doll hairs. 100 doll hairs. I will find some dolls and I will ante that up. So Scott and I have a fake bet from June 14th on. Chris, what side are you on? Simmons or Dede? Gregorius.

Gregorius. Excellent. What else stood out to you guys yesterday? There was a lot that happened on Tuesday, Adam. I feel like Brad Peacock's start was interesting for a number of reasons. Gave me some pause about potentially dropping him after Rocky outing last time, 10 strikeouts in four and two-thirds innings. That's eight plus strikeouts now and four of five starts.

But only one of them went the minimum five innings required for a win, which is kind of the minimum expectation for a fantasy caliber pitcher. But that being said, Peacock was going on three days' rest. So there was a lot of weird stuff happening here. I just was pleased that he bounced back with another big strikeout effort and should remain on our radar. All right, I'm going to give you guys five pitchers. And I want you to tell me your two favorites.

Brad Peacock, Jacob Ferrier, Sean Newcomb, Buck Farmer, got roughed up yesterday, Denelson Lemette Peacock, Faria, Nukem, Buck Farmer, Denelson Lamet. I think did I ask for two favorites? Give me your three favorites. Oh, yeah, because the two were pretty obvious.

Newcomb and Faria and then probably Peacock. Yep, I agree. In that order. 18 swinging strikes last night. Nukam 11 with 20 strikes in less than five innings. I did walk forward.

And he threw 96 pitches in five innings. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, control is not, he's not completely past that. But I do see him as probably a higher, like a guy with more upside than Alex Meyer, who we've talked about as interesting with the strikeouts, but also having control issues. I don't think Peacock's control issues are that extreme. And it looks like he might have thrown his hardest fastball with his last fastball,

and his velocity sustained pretty well late into the start. And I think that's a good sign for someone who's, who's been moving out of the bullpen. That's Brad Peacock. Okay. So again, you'd go Nukem, then Faria, then Peacock, right? Yeah. I might give a little priority to Faria over Newcomb now after the second start.

Just because he's done it twice and Newcomb's done it once. But, you know, they both need to be owned. Well, I think Newcomb pitches today, right? So I can ask you tomorrow? Yes. I might switch him back. I think he pitches today. I'm not sure.

All right. I don't know, actually, either. But it's going to be soon. We'll take a look. I know there's a one-star pitcher this week. I'll take a look right now. I'm very curious. It is Julio Taran.

I am an idiot. I am sorry. So, let's take a little. Chris, any standouts for you? And then we'll get into the stock market a little bit. We'll talk stocks. Chris? Lance Lynn had a very good start.

Kind of a Brad Peacock-ish start. But he's such an interesting case because his, I believe, his ERA is still two-point-two runs high or lower. Yeah, lower than his FIPP for the season. And it just, I'm wondering which one's going to correct for him. Well, but he's always had a pretty low Lance Lynn. Let me look it up. Like, he's been a low 3 ZRA guy before Tommy John, right? And right now his ERA is 269.

Yeah. And he's always been... Right, but he hasn't had a fifth this high. Well, why is the fit high? I know the walks are high, 3.7, but he's usually at like 3.3 per 9. So he's not a... Yeah, home run rate is like double what it usually is for him. which may be

well there may be a few reasons for that a hitters all over the place are hitting more home runs now B let me look at his ground ball rate and see it's similar pretty much where it's always been yeah it's never like he's never been this like super

high ground ball guy kind of kind of average he leans a little toward ground he's kind of average he's kind of average in everything yeah right like a little below average walk rate maybe a little above average strikeout rate so my takeaway is Yeah, the home run rate should probably be higher for him. Maybe not as high as it's been so far.

In this landscape, it makes sense that it'd be more of like an even one home run per nine-inning guy. It's been 1.5 so far. So, you know, probably some correction on both ends, the ERA and the whip. Okay, so that's Lance Lynn we're talking about, who only went five innings. He walked four, but he struck out eight Brewers and only three hits. And five and three with a 269 ERA, about a strikeout per inning. And four starts in a row of five or five in a third. So he's in a little bit of a slump, I guess.

But still, is there anything to say about Lance Lynn right now other than just start him every time out? If I could include him as a piece in a trade, I would definitely be looking to do that. Like Lynn and another decent pitcher for a really good pitcher. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't see his, in the meantime, I don't see him as must start in mixed league. Yeah. Like he's how many, he keeps going five innings.

he's not even giving you quality starts. Yeah, that's sort of a new thing. Well, four starts. Four starts in a row? I guess it's almost, yeah. It's just, you have to have a lot of guts to sit Lance Lynn. Well, I don't know about that. Let me just see what his start percentage was.

I can't imagine I'm sitting Lance Lynn, and he was started in 85% of leagues. Might be a two-star pitcher, so that would probably have something to do with it. All right. I see him as, you know, like, would you ever sit Matt Shoemaker? I think they're pretty similar in terms of startability. And yeah, I've definitely sat Matt Shoemaker. Me too. Okay.

Well, I don't think based on ownership rate, start percentage, you know, and how it is fluctuated throughout the season, I don't think fantasy owners have thought of Matt Shoemaker and Lance Lynn the same way. Probably not, which is why, to Chris's point, might be worth shopping him because it's not as good as he's perceived to be. So I'm going to give you some pitchers. You tell me if their stock is up after yesterday or if, you know, whatever. Garrett Cole, seven innings, one run on three hits.

Three walks, three strikeouts, only six swinging strikes against the Colorado Rockies. But it was a good start, one run in seven innings for Garrett Cole. Stock up or the same? It was good to see him staunch the bleeding a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I would say up just because I may have over-corrected taking a lot. him down after his last start, four miserable ones in a row. And even though he didn't, you know, he wasn't a dominant bat misser in this start,

the ground ball, the number of ground balls he got was the highest during the five-start stretch, obviously the first four being terrible. Yeah, terrible. He talked about pitching down in the zone in a way he hadn't been doing recently. So that's, he's always been a good ground ball guy. It's a big key to his success. Right, we did talk about that. That may have been the problem for Garrett Cole, that he,

wasn't getting the downward action on his pitchers, pitches, leaving things up too much. So hopefully took a step in the right direction. He's about 21st in the rankings for all three of our analysts. John Lester, seven innings, one run, ten strikeouts at the Mets. He's a top 10 pitcher. His value never really went down, even though he's not having a great year with a 389 ERA for John Lester.

Stock up at all, or at least maybe in your minds after this pitch, after this outing? I really haven't moved him down at all. And, you know, that's kind of in part of my philosophy. It's just that I'm going, with ace guys, especially, and with elite guys, I'm going to give them a lot of rope. And, you know, stretches like this happen, I think John Lester's going to be fine. All righty.

Next up, Jason Vargas, Jason Vargas, is 53rd for Scott. He is 62nd for Heath. Chris, you want to do a rankings update on Jason Vargas? You have him 90th right now. Yeah, he can move up, I guess. But, like, I'm not, I'm looking at it and like, I don't really see any reason to move him above, I don't know, Jaime Garcia.

Okay, well, that put him 70. That's significant. I just, I don't see any reason to buy it. Okay. Well, and I have an all season. Like, it's besides, like, the results are different, and that's obviously something. But as than that, he looks like the same guy he's always been. He's a flyball pitcher who doesn't get that many strikeouts.

He doesn't walk anyone. Is that guy more valuable in this landscape, though? We were just talking about the merits of sitting Lance Lynn. As of right now, acknowledging that it could change within a couple weeks, but. You know, even I'm at 53rd ranking him at a point where that's still pretty replaceable. I trust him more than Lance Lynn right now. I would have a harder time sitting Jason Vargas with the kind of extended run he's on than Lance Lynn. Okay.

Yeah, he's a 4ERA guy for his career with a lot of innings. And I, yeah, I don't know. I think he's fine Jason Vargas to start, but I, I'm not looking to start him. I haven't been looking to add him at all this season. And I've missed out on some good starts, I guess, but I just, I don't see any real reason to buy it. I don't see an explanation that makes sense for why he's pitching well. So that's our stock up section with Garrett Cole, John Lester, and Jason Vargas with some mixed responses there.

Let's do stock down. Let me give you three pitchers. Tell me if you think their stock is down after yesterday's outings. David Price, Marco Estrada, and Zach Granky. Price, two straight starts with four walks, command a little shaky. Estrada has been terrible lately, and now he has a 454 ERA. And he gave up 12 hits and six runs against the raise yesterday. And Zach Granky, five unearned runs, but less than six innings in three of his last four starts.

Yesterday, not really his fault. Defense let him down on the sixth inning, and he gave up five unurned runs. So Price, Estrada, Z. Zach Ranky, any stock downgrade here for these guys? Not significantly for me. Maybe Estrada is going to have to move down a few spots in my rankings just because, like with Cole, except the other way, I overcorrected it and moved him up too high when he was getting double-digit strikeout efforts early in the year. I like the way the Blue Jays manager, John Gibbons, put it after this stuff. where he said Marcos, I forget the exact word he used, but basically he needs to be spot on with his command,

because this stuff is only marginal. He doesn't throw very hard. It's amazing he gets as many strikeouts as he does. But if he's just a little off, he can get shelled. And I think that's what we've seen with the last three starts. I think it's very correctable. I think it'll correct soon. But knowing that there's always that downside built in,

and it could always pop up at any point, he's probably not a top 30 pitcher in fantasy. And something for him to keep in mind is that he did exceptionally well pitching high in the zone and getting infield pop-ups. That was something that really helped him limit that Babbup, kept it in the 250 to 230 range over the last couple of years. This season, his infield fly ball rate has dropped in half. and his Babbab and his home run rate have gone in the opposite direction as a result.

Now, I don't think he's a 336 Babbat guy because his career is 260, but that's something to keep in mind. He's not been the same kind of pitcher that we've seen be really effective over the last couple of years. All right, this is Marco Estrada we're talking about, and in the last two years, Marco Estrada has given up 6.7 and 6.8 hits per 9. That's unbelievable. This year is giving up 9.6. So you are getting more strikeouts from him, but you're getting a lot more hits too.

And I will also say with Estrada, he had a six-start stretch late last year, August and September with a 753 ERA. He was terrible. And he got it corrected. His last three starts of the regular season after that 753-ERA stretch, 19 innings, two runs. And then he had a 201 ERA and three post-season starts. So he slumped last year and he came out of it and hopefully he can do the same. I am going to keep him in my top 30, by the way, looking at the names. Barely in my top 30.

Outside the top 25. I just moved into 29. Yeah. All right, Marco Estrada. Good job. Thames watch. Eric Thames in his last 27 games is batting only 136. But he has 23 walks and 32 strikeouts in those 27 games.

And based on all the emails we're getting, I got to tell you that people are down on Eric Thames. If you believe in Eric Thames, now is the time. This is a great chance to get. Eric Thames on the cheap. I wonder if I could get him from Heath, who bought in one league when Thames's value was at the highest. That would be interesting. Heath, that would be the worst.

That would be the worst buy-high, buy-high sell low of all time. Heath would not do that. Yeah, I don't think he'll go for it, but I was kind of surprised. I think he just really wanted a share of Thames, too, in case he sustained that crazy level so he could enjoy it. worth noting in that 27 game stretch he's got like an 186 babbip you know he's not hitting for

nearly as much power but you expect the ISO's like 160 in that stretch you expect that to go up with a little better bat at ball luck the strikeouts are high but the walks are high still so I just I do think I can look at it and say okay maybe he's not a top 10 outfield maybe he's not he's almost certainly not the top 10 hitter we thought he might be but you know looking at my rankings I had him 13th, and I'm trying to move him down, but the guys that I have him directly ahead of are Michael Conforto, McGalseno, Andrew McCutcheon, Christian Yelich, Marcelo Zuna, guys that I have very similar doubts or concerns about. So I was going to ask, would you rather have Eric Fames or Andrew McCutcheon?

I would still rather have FAMS. Me too. Okay, good. I don't have to yell. Let's go to our favorite segment. Hey, real quick. Hey, real quick, guys, is Yasil Pueig over-owned at 85%? I think so. Yeah, that's over-owned. He needs to be owned in all five outfielder leagues,

but three outfielder leagues, I mean, just if you're swapping out hot hand off the waiver wire, that's clearly not him right now. And I don't think there's enough hope for this miraculous tournament. round that makes for, you know, his best season in three years or whatever that you just need to stash him. Well, that's probably true. On the other hand, he is on pace for a 25-25 season. Strikeout rate's not alarming. Walk rates up. The batted ball profile is where Yassiel Puege is hurting. 32% hard hit rate, 15% line drive rate. That's the concern. That's terrible. Also, he just heard what you said and he gave you the double middle finger.

I love it You saw that last night? Yeah Double middle, yeah That was intense I got the double middle one time It was one of the It was driving

You know the subway By the On Cypress Creek It's like very jam-packed parking lot Oh like the restaurant Yeah the restaurant The way sandwich Yeah

Yeah Yeah Yeah Jamie and I were at that subway And that parking lot is just dreadful. And one driver did not like what I did, even though it was totally his fault. And he gave me the double bird. And we just started cracking up.

Like, whoa, I've gotten a finger before. But two of them? One hand on the wheel, sir. Yeah, exactly. No, he wasn't driving. You're criticizing someone else's driving by taking your hands off the wheel, both of them? He was stationary. He was stationary because we were in the parking lot.

But still, I didn't deserve the double middle. So we had a nice laugh about it. Yeah, I don't think so. Hey, real quick, Corey Dickerson is batting 342 with a 544 slugging against lefties. And he's the number seven outfielder and points, number five in Roto. What the hell, Cory Dickerson. How are you doing this? Part of it is a 417 bad.

Against lefties. But he's still got a 200-iso. He's still got only like a 20% strikeout rate against them. So there is something here. He's not, he's probably more like a 260. a bad-b-b-up guy against lefties, but... Batting average guy? Batting average guy.

But that's, you know, it's a situation... Like, last season he struck out 31% of the time against lefties and hit for no power. The fact that he's at least... With a guy like him, you're just hoping he holds his own against lefties. Yeah, yeah, he still had... He's more than that. He had an 807 OPS against Ritey's last season with only a 272-Bab. He had 22 home runs.

If he's an 8-50 OPS bat against Ritey's, and he can just keep his head. above water against lefties, you're talking about a must-start outfielder. Oh, yeah. He's going to regress. They're like, kind of like we say with Aaron Judge. He can't sustain this pace, but I'm beyond the point where I'm looking to sell high on Dickerson. He's just a fixture in my lineup, and I'm content with that. Thames or Dickerson?

Oh, Thames. Easily. Well, I wouldn't say easily, but I'll say things. I haven't moved Dickerson up nearly as much as you have. Fair enough. McCutcheon or Dickerson? McCutcheon. I will go Dickerson, but that's pretty close.

Real quick, is Tony Walters too good for Tom Murphy owners to be getting excited about Murphy? Walters, look, he's got like no power, but he's got a 301 batting average, a 403 on base, and the Rockies have been pitching pretty well. So has he just been too good to expect a lot of playing time from Tom Murphy? I don't get that sense from what I've seen written about Tom Murphy by Rocky's beat writers. It seems like there's genuine enthusiasm that he's coming back. He had a big game on his minor league rehab assignment last night. I don't doubt it.

I mean, his final two-thirds of his last minor league season were insane. But I don't think it's going to be a situation where Murphy starts four out of five games. It's probably one will start three games and the other will start two. and then the next time through the other one might start two and the other one will start three. I think it'll be close to a 50-50 split. So it's just,

is Murphy's power production going to be going to stand out by so much that at a position where you can get away with not playing all that regularly and still matter in fantasy, is he going to be that? Adam, you might have brought this up preseason of just like, in a deeper two-catcher league,

just having both of them and starting both. Yeah, it's not bad. Like it's, You're probably not going to get enough counting stats from it to justify it, but like, you might get a 300 batting average out of your catchers, which is pretty good. And your home run total, I suspect, will be good enough just because Murphy's going to carry that completely. We're talking about today forward, obviously. Murphy's. He's also 12 of 23 over his last five games during his Meyer League. Rehab assignment, so I think he's okay. He's got seven hits in his last two.

You see, like, I was scoffed at. Scoffed at in preseason when I said, draft them both. But now, I don't want to... I actually do own them both. Were you scoffed at? I think you're misremembering this. Heath shut it down pretty quickly, but he, you know... Heat scoffs at everything anybody says.

Look, we all love he's. And I don't want to say, like, I don't want to use the word genius lightly, but... Well, anyway, we have a... Reddit and AMA on Reddit today at 2 p.m. Eastern. So please join us. And now I think it's time to, and you can ask us anything. I'm not sure how many of us will be doing it. I will definitely be there, and I will talk to Chris and Scott off the air and find out who is going to be joining me. So that's at 2 p.m. Eastern. Go to Reddit.com. R.D.D.D.I.T. slash R.S. Fantasy baseball. And you will see the post. So let's do the news and notes. It's only been 35 minutes. as Drewa Cabrera is on the DL with a thumb sprained,

but no, no Ahmed Rosario? I mean, you just can't take Jose Reyes' bat out of the lineup. Well, they have been for Lover, Florida. I really don't know what they're waiting for. It's... Money, money, money, money! But that doesn't... Yeah, that's gone.

Is it? I mean, it's... I'm sure teams gauge that differently, and maybe the Mets just want to be extra conscious about Super 2. But, like, I don't think it's ever been... as late as June 14th. Okay. Well...

No, but I know... I know some teams like to wait until late June, just in case. So that might be... That might be all it is. They say he needs more work on something or other. Yes. His, uh, his like strike zone recognition, basically. Really?

Yeah, I think I've read... The strikeout rate isn't crazy low. I think I've read that they don't love his defense, which feels like the default thing that teams say when they don't want to, when they want to justify not calling up a top prospect. You know, I think I saw a match... Because nobody can really prove it. They were saying the same thing about Michael Conforto a couple years ago, and now he

placed center field for them. But they've also jerked around Michael Conforto. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's partially because they had an overloaded outfield. They could clearly use Ahmed Rosario on an everyday basis, even if his dribble career is healthy. He's not good. Okay. Well, let me move us. Let me move us forward here, guys.

He needs to be stashed, even more than he did before this injury. Adrian Gonzalez is going to be out indefinitely with a back issue. Jack Peterson's off the DL. Cody Bellinger is going to play some first base. Cody Bellinger double-donged yesterday. And Chris Taylor will maybe help him stay in the lineup. He stole his fifth base yesterday. Mike Trout thinks he could return before the All-Star break.

Chris Davis is on the DL with an oblique strain. Mild oblique strain. It might be still more than a month. Zach Cozart, day-to-day with quad tightness. We've got a call up, guys. The Astros are calling up outfield prospect Derek Fisher. Derek Fisher, former coach of the New York Knicks. What do you think about Derek Fisher of the Astros?

He's had a really good year at AAA last I looked at it. He seemed like a pretty marginal prospect coming into the year. You can't help but wonder if the PCL inflated those numbers. But 16 home runs, 13 steals was caught 10 times. It looks like three true outcomes, guys. Going to walk a lot, it's going to strike out a lot, going to hit for some power. He doesn't have 16 home runs in his first 60 games this season. Now remember, Josh Reddick's on the DL, so, or I don't know if they put him,

they didn't officially put him on the DL yet, but he's got a concussion. Yeah. And it's not clear that Fisher will just be playing every day while Reddick's out. It might just be, you know, get his feet wet, a little short-term exposure before Reddick comes back. So I'm not that motivated Adam. I mean, there's a million outfielders. Not literally, but there's probably tens of outfielders I'd be looking to add before him in most mixed leagues. Did you say you're not motivated to add him, or did you say you're not motivated, Adam?

You said, like, Adam to Adam? I'll leave it to the audience's interpretation. It's like the ending of inception. Yeah, it is. Yoanna Cesspice returned to the Mets lineup. Michael Conforto sat again. Ben Zobras sat with a wrist issue. We'll talk about the Cubs in a moment.

Kyle Hendrix won't return from his hand injury this weekend. Cesar Hernandez out six weeks with an oblique strain. Devin Travis had knee surgery out for a while. Michael Fulmer has right shoulder brisitis and will have his start push back maybe to this weekend. We shall see. Justin Bore should be back on Friday. C.C. Sabathia likely headed to the D.L. With a hamstring strain.

I have not seen anything about Chance Adams. He's not on the 40-man roster. Yeah, that's a hurdle. It probably is going to depend on the severity of this hamstring injury for Sabathia. I did see that potentially Chad Green could get another start. I don't know how stretched out he is. He didn't last very long the first time. I think the last turn he got to start, right?

Yeah, he had like 30 pitches or something. 40 pitches. I am, like I said with Ahmed Rosario, even if Chance Adams doesn't, literally take the next turn for C.C. Sabathia, I do think his stash ability goes up with this injury because he's that much closer. Okay. And it's a shame, too, because Sabathia was having another good start, and I thought he was in line for a really good two-start week at the Angels and at the A's. Yasio Pui gave the fans a double bird. We knew that. Harardo Paro is going to be out longer than expected with a quad injury. John Gray will make a rehab start tomorrow. James Shields could be back

very soon. And Wilson Ramos, if you don't own him, now is the time. He has moved to AAA in his rehab assignment. So Wilson Ramos getting closer and closer. And by the way, I sold Chad Green Shorty through 53 pitches on June 11th. So I could see him going like 70. I imagine that's my best guest to who replaces Sabathia short term. But yeah, Chance Adams. Chance Adams, Ahmed Rosario, very stashable.

Okay, back to yesterday's action. The twins scored 20 runs. The Cubs went nuts. A couple lineup things here. Matt Carpenter is batting 3993 with three home runs in seven games as a leadoff hitter. Travis Shaw homered off a lefty on the road, and he's got a 798 OPS against lefties hit his second home run. So again, that's just like another guy.

Just hold your own against lefties. Do your damage against righties, and that's good. But it's funny, you know, we're seeing Adam Jones last year. This year, Andrew McCutcheon batting sixth. Matt Carpenter batting leadoff. Even Dexter Fowler's done better batting second, I think. Gary Sanchez batting 6th. This is all very recent, at least the last three I've mentioned.

And last night, Anthony Rizzo leading off, and he homered. And hopefully these lineup moves can... I also think in a lot of these instances, we need like a song, like a drop for regression. I'm thinking like the, like regression. And that's just like when we talk about my carpentry getting better. Was that the Simpsons? Andrew McCut. Yeah.

That was terrible. Thank you. I think we need that drop And that way we don't really need to discuss Yeah, we don't really need to discuss Like Matt Carpenter's obviously an elite hitter We don't really need to discuss the fact that he's hot again Because that's what happens

These guys go through slumps, they get hot But you expect Mc Carpenter to be Matt Carpenter I do, yes I wonder if there's a good movie line that would work for that Like the fooled you? No, we've already decided We're going with the Simpsons Oh, okay

The regression It's tough though He's going to record that. Regression. Oh, man, that's tough. I've got to work that out. I'm going to sit in his room and record him. It's a hard note to hit, right? Or not even just one note.

It's just... I mean, you need like a choir. Yeah. It's just weird. Yeah. Okay, so this category is called Wee Be Cubbin. Our boy, Ice Cube, sang this one. We Be Cubbin.

Kyle Schwerber caught his third appearance at Catcher, so that's cool. Email from Brian, would you trade a struggling Schwerber for Jonathan Lou Croix? Yes. Yeah. Okay, great. And Anthony Rizzo, like I said, let off. And he did that because Ben Zobris was out, but that might stick. I'm not sure how we feel about that.

He homered and Rizzo has reached safely in 21 of his last 36 plate appearances. The first four hitters in the lineup last night all homered. Rizzo, Hap, Grand Slam, Chris Brian, Jason Hayward, they all homered. And Addison Russell doubled. So he's hot and he's 76% owned. Anything about Weeby Coven here? Not really. I mean, it's nice to see Addison Russell heating up.

I think he's owed some regression. Ian Hap, we're still on the fence about whether he's really a mixed league asset or not. So Grand Slam helps with that. But still a ways to go. It's really weird that Jason Hayward only has one steal this season. Chris, do me a favor. Go to the Google and type in Ice Cube, We Be Clubbing. You remember that song, right?

I don't think I know that. We be clubbing. Everybody likes when the girl shakes something. You don't remember that one? Yeah, this comes up on Google. Look at his face. It's the first track from Ice Cube soundtrack, The Players Club. That is like, that is the quintessential Ice Cube face. He is going to kill you.

Look at how mad he is as you look at him. I mean, it's hard to find him menacing after he does like 15 years worth of family-friendly. He's always that. He is fantastic in 21 Jump Street. Oh, he is great at 21 Jump Street. All right, next category. We go from the Cubs to the Twinsies. They won 20 to 7 last night.

And I don't really know that there's anything all that fantasy relevant. Scott, was Max Kepler and your sleeper hitters? He was the number one sleeper hitter for this week. That's right. Good. He went three for five of the home run. So Kepler is a guy you could start against Ritey's? Yes, yes.

He has very good numbers against Ritey's. I want to say he's not, like, embarrassing against lefties either. I think he's probably, like, it's hard to say because Outfield, like, you know, it's such a hard threshold to meet this year. But I would say Kepler's somebody who probably is undervalued kind of overall. He is embarrassing against lefties this year, 444 OPS. But misremembered. Only 10 strikeouts and 52 plate appearances. So there's some positive signs.

He doesn't seem totally overmatched. Well, unfortunately, Kepler is the 48th best outfielder in points, 56th in Roto. So it seems like a five outfielder guy. Brian Dozier, having a strong season. He's been very good lately, and he's got nine steals, which is great. He had 18 last year. He homered yesterday. Are Kenny Vargas at 4% or Eddie Rosario, who had three homers yesterday buried the lead a little bit?

Kenny Vargas and Eddie Rosario, 4%, 7% owned? Are they underowned? No, no. I mean, I do kind of like the skill set for Vargas, although he hasn't done this. Everything that I liked from him last year hasn't carried over into this year. But this was four singles, and he's not playing every day. So it's just not enough to move the needle. I mean, Rosario never showed this kind of power.

So it's, can't take much from that either. So a four-home run game from Scooter Jeanette, a three-home run game for Eddie Rosario. and we just don't really care. That's baseball for you. Okay, guys, light speed is too slow. We have to prepare the ship for ludicrous speed and go through the rest of the notes so we can get to grade the trade and some emails.

Fringy starting pitchers, tell me who you want to own in this group. Zach Wheeler, terrible yesterday, and he has a 146 whip. Jimmy Nelson, not a good star yesterday, but he had been very good before that. Joe Ross, Trevor Bauer, Tyler Chatwood, Derek Holland, Brad Peacock, Buck Farmer, J.C. Ramirez.

I want to own Nelson Wheeler and Peacock. I think Nelson might be far and away my favorite of this group. Beyond that, I'll add Peacock. Wheeler, I think he's a fringy guy. I don't know that I need to see any more from Buck Farmer because the swinging strike rate was so bad in that second. start against the Angels, even though the run prevention, you know, he didn't allow on a run, that I was already beginning to hedge on him, and this start was so awful. It already kind of pushes me over. Yeah, I watched this start from Buck Farmer.

Not bad stuff, but I don't think we're talking, like, great stuff or anything. He was not very good in the miners. No, no. This one, I think we saw coming. We definitely did not get too hyped up about Buck Farmer. We did say add him, but it was probably because of the two starts. I mean, add him because you want to see where it goes, and this is where it went. So move on.

And what was like? Oh, yeah. So you guys have been doing the show with me for years. What am I going to ask now? You said you like Jimmy Nelson the best out of that group. What does Adam Azer, the host, ask now? Jimmy Nelson or dot, dot, dot. Yeah, who?

Foria. Come on. Come on. Oh, right. Nelson. Yeah. Nelson. Okay.

Double Dongs yesterday, Ryan Zimmerman, who had a pretty bad slump in mid-May to late May, but he seems to be out of it. Cody Bellinger, who is terrible against lefties, but he hit one off Andrew Miller yesterday. Rooknett Odor. His second run, Miller's allowed all year. He hit one off another lefty who was the first home run he's given up all season. Paxton? No, it was yesterday. hit both of his home runs off lefties.

Oh, really? I didn't realize. Andrew Miller's ERA nearly doubled in this outing from 0.29 to 0.55. Was it Logan Verrett? Is he on the Indians? Sure. Red. I can dig that.

Boone Logan. First home run he'd given up to a lefty in 50 appearances, I believe. Oh, good old Boone Logan. Logan Verrett, is he, where the heck is he? The Mets still? He's somewhere. Okay. Well, anyway, so Zimmerman double-donged-Dong, Bellinger, Rougnett-Odor, and Jose Martinez.

Anything here, guys? Do we care? Rougnett-Odor, I mean, it might be too late to buy low on him, considering he has four home runs in his last eight games, but there is a lot of correction coming for him. His batted ball profile is almost exactly the same as last year in terms of line drives, to fly balls, to ground balls. even hard contact rate is... A lot of infield club balls for him, though. It is working out of it. Okay. Yeah, but this is...

245, Babb. I see that... I see a lot of growth. Yeah, I fully agree. I have not really moved him in my rankings all year. Well, here's the thing. I own O'Dore in two leagues now, because I just traded Codick Glover for him last week.

Yes. And that was one of the most instantly terrible trades for Will Brinson. Sorry, Will. But I value him very differently in the two leagues. One of them is head-head categories league. Yeah. One of them is head-to-head categories league. points. This is a guy who

might have the biggest difference in head-to-head points versus categories because he's walked once in his last like 22 games. His plate discipline is terrible. And I was wondering if Ian Kinsler is better than O'Dore in a head-to-head points league because of the

plate discipline. Is Dustin Padraea better than O'Dore? You know? I mean, but they've had such bad years too. Yeah, Kinsler might be Padrae's not. But I'm going to have, I'm going to take O'Dore over both. The thing about second base is there's a lot of decent options. There's like the Jonathan Scopes and the Josh Harrisons,

and they're all fine, but there's not a lot of standouts. And I think even in a points league, Rugnett-Odor has the potential to be bad. Okay, let's see what else we got here. We got Billy Hamilton. Billy Hamilton is slumping, and he went one for five. So now he is, let's see,

where the heck are you, Billy? Ten for his last 61, and ten straight games without a steal. This is the kind of guy that can be. make you feel like he's the most valuable player in fantasy when he's hot and so frustrating when he's cold. I don't really know what to say about Billy Hamilton. Is he still just a steel specialist? He's on a pretty good run pace too, isn't he? Oh yeah. Oh yeah, big time. He's got 40 runs and 60 games. I think he's probably a two-category guy, but I don't know. He can win you a category by himself. He's still

on a 70 plus steel pace, and that's slowed down a bit. Because, like you said, he hasn't stolen one in 10 games, but he might get 15 steals in his next 10 games. I think Billy Hamilton is on like 115 run pace, Chris. Is that possible? I think it's a little lower than that. Okay, but more than 100. He's on a 104 run pace.

104? All right. Come on, Adam. Do some math. Let's grade some trades after we talk deep leagues here. I'm going to give you a 5, 6, 6, 7 guys, something like that, and you tell me, there's a slip of the tongue there, you tell me who's under-owned, they're all owned in 16% of leagues or less. Luis Perdomo, who was from yesterday's notes, he's in today's now, Luis Perdomo, Ben Lively,

those are your pitchers, Perdomo and Lively, your hitters are Matt Davidson, Eric Young, Jose Martinez, and Franchi Cordero. Anybody strike you as under-owned? Maybe, I mean, anybody. who's less than 10% owned, you could probably make the argument as underowned if they're playing. But Matt Davidson at 8% ownership, his ownership percentage is less than the number of home runs he has. That seems a little surprising to me. Hit for power in the minors.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, actually was a pretty big prospect back when he was in the Diamondbacks organization and kind of lost some momentum after that. but strikes out way too much, but he also just hits the crap out of the ball. His, his hard contact versus soft contact rate is one of the most extreme differences of any hitter, and he's playing virtually every day at DH mostly,

so must own an AL only. For sure. His strikeout rate is higher than his hard hit rate, though. Yeah, it's a bad strikeout rate, so... 38%. But it's a low BABIP, and he's, Hitting 240. Franchi Cordero should also be more owned in NFL only leagues. That's Matt Davidson, Franchi Cordero.

And look, Eric Young has hit three home runs in 15 games. He has hit 11 home runs in 578 career games. So unexpected power, but he is going to steal bases. Live ball revolution? He's going to steal bases, so Eric Young is 8% owned and he's hot right now. All right. Grade the Trade. This is from Doug in South Jersey.

Andy Redd and Brooks. Yep, I know that one. Yep, that's the Shawshank. Ten team points league. Give up. Stroman and Desmond. Strowman and Desmond. Get Miguel Cabrera and Starlin Marte.

So this is Marcus Strowman and Desmond for Miguel Cabrera and Marte in a 10-team points league. I have enough faith in Miggie still to give that a B. Yeah, I was thinking, hey I mean, Starly Marte is what, 30 games from coming back probably? Yeah, but that's bad. Yeah, that's a long way to go and you can't stick him in a DL. Yeah, but I think Stroman and Desmond for Miggies not bad. 10 team points league, I would imagine Marte is hardly even owned in most of them.

So I see him as having virtually no trade value in this format. But just the idea that Stroman, like the value of a starting pitcher who has, been as reliable as Stroman is kind of skewed compared to Biggie, a first baseman, which are a dime or dozen. But I'll still give it a B. I still want the Biggie side. Tom from Chicago, Polanco, Robbie Ray, and Velasquez. Gregory Polanco, Robbie Ray and Velasquez in a 12-team points league for Justin Upton and Noah Cinderguard.

So you're giving up again. You're giving up Robbie Ray plus Gregory Polanco and. Vince Velasquez, you're getting Justin Upton and Noah Sindregard. I don't like it. I don't think it's terrible, but I think it's probably like a D plus. Yeah, I mean, Robbie Ray's... I don't care about Polanco, I just dropped him in this format. It's basically Robbie Ray.

Rest of season, I'm pretty sure I have Robbie Ray ranked ahead of Noah Cindergarde at this point. Yeah, because Cindergarde's not coming back till after the end. all-star break. So can you go six weeks without an ace-calibre pitcher? And you might not have an ace-calibur is Justin Upton worth that? No, I don't think so. I don't think so either. I'll give it a C-minus.

This is from Jacob. 10-team three outfielder OB-P league. Give up Samarja and Mazara. 10-team-3 Outfielder League, OBP. Give up Samarja and Mazara. Get AJ Pollock.

This gives me a lot of anxiety because Scott White thinks Samarja is headed for the Sayyung, and Pollock is made of glass. P.S. Raisins are decent. Very tepid take there. One more time. Samarja and Mazara for AJ Pollock. No, you got to do that. Yeah. I like Samarja, but Pollock is a clear standout in the outfield, and he's going to be back soon. So, be...

Dude, be higher if Pollock wasn't currently hurt. Yeah. I feel like Chris is not a big raisins fan, by the way. raisins are awful. Well, raisins and Chris Towers have a lot in common then, because you are officially awful for that stupid take. I hate you, Chris Towers. So this is from Mike.

Things got real. This is from Mike. Gray the Trade, 12-team head-to-head categories league. Give up Bundy, get Bregman. Give up Bundy, get Bregman, categories. I would probably have Bregman higher rest of season, but I don't think that's selling high enough. I definitely agree with the impulse to sell high on Bundy,

but I don't think you're getting enough. Yeah, I agree with that, so I'll get the grade of C-minus. Yep. Yeah, okay. And we got more? Yes, we do. We have Jeff and Charleston. Dear Bobby, Hank, Scott, and Warren. I was thinking King of the Hill with the

first two. I don't know after that. Yeah, there's no Scott and Warren that I know of. And King of the Hill. I don't know. I don't know what that is. Bobby... Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, Wait, wait, wait, wait. Bobby Cox, Hank Aaron, Warren Spawn. Scott White.

My number's not retired in Atlanta, though. Oh, I, maybe not yet. Is there a Scott whose numbers retired in Atlanta? Scott Brocious. Give Mike Trout. Get Rizzo and Archer. Get Rizzo and Archer for Trout. Yes.

I think that's a really good trade. That's a B plus. Oh, these are founding members of Marbles. Marbles X-Men. Bobby Drake, Hank, McCoy, Scott Summers, and Warren Worthington. Warren and Hank together, though. Like, what are the odds? There's another Warren-Hank pairing.

Who's Warren in the X-Men? Warren-Worthington the third? I don't know. What the heck knows? That's a good trade, though. What did you give it? B-plus. B-plus.

Sounds good. From Paul, 10-team Roto. Give up Judge Paneda and Neil Walker. Somebody hates New York. Give up Judge Paneda and Neil Walker. Get Daniel Murphy and Lester. Judge Paneda and Walker for Murphy and Lester. I don't see a lot of downside to this.

Because even if Judge is legitimately this good, I mean, Daniel Murphy's about as valuable. It's a clear pitching upgrade. Who cares about Neil Walker. Yeah, Neil Walker's replaceable. I'll give this one a B plus as well. Good. I'm glad you mentioned Neil Walker. Who cares about Neil Walker?

Tomorrow, I tell you why Neil Walker is underrated. That's on Thursday show. Thank you, Chris and Scott. Thank you all for listening. Join us for the Reddit AMA at 2 p.m. Eastern. We're out of here.