Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Hot Hitters, Confusing Pitchers & Time to Drop AJ Puk? (4/4 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Logan T. Allen pitched well in Seattle (3:06)! ... George Kirby did not (5:20). ... Alex Kirilloff is a name to watch (9:00). ... News (15:56): it turns out Josh Jung could miss 8-10 weeks. ... Maikel Garcia continues to mash (20:37). Any interest in Taylor Ward or Jeremy Peña? ... Here are five more hitters off to a hot start (30:20). ... Time to drop AJ Puk (37:15)? ... What do we make of Mitch Keller, Carlos Rodon and Cristian Javier (45:55)? ... Cole Ragans and Nathan Eovaldi both pitched really well on Wednesday (54:50). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:05). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." 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 lead. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday. April 4th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, 10 hot hitters early in the season. Three pitchers, I want to take a closer. look at, see what we could find under the hood. Is it time to drop AJ Puck and much more? Let's jump in. Holy cow! How about that? I'm just going to go ahead and take the first player of the night.

I don't know that there was an Olive Garden breadstick. I don't think there was like a huge standout performance, but... Maybe on the bad side. Yes, and we will get to George Kirby in just a little bit. But Logan T. Allen, the person who was opposing George Kirby, look pretty good. At the Mariners, six and two-thirds

shutout innings, four hits, three walks. Six strikeouts in this one, nine swinging strikes on 93 pitches. He threw more sweepers and cutters in this start. That cutter was especially effective

for Logan Allen. Had two whiffs on it, 50% whiff rate, a 60% CSW on that pitch. Last year he was solid. Obviously had some prospect pedigree in the Guardians organization. Again, I don't think this is a high priority,

but he's 34% rostered. He could be out there in some deeper leagues. And he gets the White Sox next week. So we are starting with Logan Allen. Any interest guys? Yeah. I think he's worth, you know, maybe getting to 50% rostered with a matchup against the white socks coming up. I had him in one of my deep sleeper columns.

I can't exactly take a victory lap about that when I read about 40 players and deep sleepers over the course of the spring. But I was a surprise that he was like 400. in ADP or whatever it was because Alan wasn't great as a rookie, but he wasn't terrible. He had some things going for him, a really good change up, a couple of breaking balls that looked pretty good,

and obviously a little bit of prospect pedigree. So, yeah, I think this was a fine outing. And if you missed out on all of the much more interesting pitchers that we've spent the first week of the season talking about, he's like the, I don't know,

11th consolation prize. I don't, I don't, I haven't seen anything from Logan Allen yet this season that would change the opinion I had on him going in. And I do think it was kind of undervalued going in. I mean, he had 381 ERA last year. He deserved to be part of the glob. He wasn't subglob.

But, you know, he still walked three and six innings. That was kind of his problem as a rookie. It's not like he's missing a ton more bats or anything. I think he'll be a streamable pitcher. and beyond that, I don't see any reason to get excited. All right. Well, let's talk about the, I guess, more interesting performance on the other side. George Kirby.

Chris, take it away. Yeah, I think this is probably just a, the wrong approach against the wrong team. Right? Like George Kirby fills up strike zone like no other pitcher in baseball. I think he probably throws. too many strikes. That has been my hot take about George Kirby for some time. I think it holds him back a little bit from being the ace that some people think he is. But if you're going to throw the ball in the strike zone a ton, the guardians might not be the right team to do that with because they're

a team that makes just a ton of contact. They're not going to whiff on pitches in the zone. And so he gave up 20 batted balls. Let me double check. I think five of them were hard hit. We're above 95 miles per hour. Only four hard hits in this game. Only four hard hit balls. One was 94.6 miles per hour. So technically I think we can say I was right. When I said five, average X velocity,

a 45 miles per hour. Some bad defense behind him, some seeing eye singles. Like, my general reaction to this is it's just one of those games. Yeah. But his velocity was down significantly. And that might just be, you know, maybe it was a weather situation, but it was 50 degrees. It was 50s and by significantly you're saying it was 1.7.

Yeah, 1.7 miles. Which early this year, we've seen a lot bigger drops than a lot of different pitchers. But I think you're spot on in terms of your reasoning there because basically George Kirby said the same thing. He said it's tough when you've got a team that really swings a lot and makes good contact. And for me, living in the zone a lot, I run into those types of games. Which like, hey, it's okay to throw pitches out of the strike zone, George. Also, he had trouble landing his splitter, probably because it was 52 degrees. And I think more so this week right now, compared to the weekend, we're seeing a lot of cold temperatures around the league.

And so you kind of have to give pitchers a pass. When they don't have full feeling in their fingers, it stands to reason they're not going to have their full arsenals at their disposal. and I think that's a partial explanation for what happened to Kirby here and maybe what happened to some other pitchers today too. Can we get some pitchers? You remember like, they don't,

I feel like guys, quarterbacks don't really wear those little pouches with the hand warmers in them as much as they used to. But like, can we get, can pitcher, are they allowed to use those? Would that be,

would that be illegal? I have genuinely no idea. But let's just get guys little, little pouches for their bellies that, have little hand warmers in them. I think it's fine. I've seen outfielders wear them before,

but never a pitcher. So my guess is it's, it's probably not allowed, but it's also probably... Yeah, I would guess it'd be pretty easy to, you know, stick some rosen in there and, you know. Or it's probably just a distraction,

a distraction for everybody involved, right? Like, if a hitter is trying to pay attention and that thing is kind of moving around, or it would probably affect a pitcher too, but I get the overall point, Chris. Last thing I wanted to add on George Kirby, a 500 pet up against in this game.

So just kind of adding on where I think there is some bad luck against him and just a little bit of a matchup thing here against the Guardians. His ERA in the start, 19.64, his FIPP 3.09. So perhaps a little bit unlucky here for George Kirby. Scott, let's talk about a hitter. We don't do that often.

This is the first one. The first, oh my goodness gracious hitter, Alex Kiroloff. Guys, oh my goodness gracious. A little respect for me. Mikel Garcia yesterday. Sorry, sorry. You're right.

Short, memories all around. Alex Kierloff had four hits today. Four for four, a double, a triple. A good game. A good game from a player who has spent most of his career hurt

or recovering from injury. And I think it's reasonable to think that we haven't seen him at his best as a major leager yet. least not for a long enough stretch that it impacted the numbers. So that's the positive spin I put on this performance for Alex Kiroloff.

Now the negative spin. Two of the four hits weren't hit all that hard. In fact, the double had an expected batting average of 0.30. And one of the singles had an expected batting average of 230. So there was some luck here in this four hit game for Alex Kiroloff. and amid the injuries, quality of contact has been an issue. So I don't know that this performance should be the reason.

You go snag Alex Kirillov in a standard-sized league, but it's a first step toward what could be a breakout season. I just don't think it's especially definitive either way. Yeah, I hear you on the expected batting averages of those hits got, but three of his bat at balls were still. 98 miles per hour or harder. So I think still pretty impressive. The triple was 103.6.

And entering this game, Kirolov's early season, average exit velocity was 94.5. So he's hitting the ball decently hard early on in the season. Only three strikeouts in his first 20 plate appearances, I believe. So, two.

Yeah, there's some stuff to like here. Yeah. Yeah, he is Alex Kiroloff, 25% rostered his first base and outfield eligibility. Seven games next week. two lefties on the schedule. The twins probably platoon more than any other team in baseball,

so I don't know that Kirloff is going to be an everyday player. But he's still young enough, and he's a name to watch. I don't think he's a must add by any means, but in some deeper leagues, you know, he could maybe make some sense there. Again, that is Alex Kirloff. I wanted to add a bonus. A few bonuses here.

Monster game for Yordaan Alvarez, four for five with a double dong, three RBI, five hard hits in this game. He actually narrowly missed. a three homer game. I think he hit a fly ball to the warning track that was 404 feet.

So that would have, I mean, he hit it to center field. So it's obviously the deepest part of the park. But yeah, the point is, all five of those batte balls over 105 exit velocity. Yoron Alvarez is awesome. Didn't really need me to tell you that.

Oh my goodness gracious from the minors. Can we just talk about the Orios AAA team for a second? 26 runs scored on 29 hits here on Wednesday night. Jackson Holiday, four for six, two walks, five runs scored. Heston Kirstead, five for seven with two homers, 10 RBI in one game.

Kyle Stowers, three homers in this one, seven RBI. Kobe Mayo had five hits, a measly one RBI in this game. Like, come on, Kobe Mayo, step it up. You're not getting to the majors, bud. Gosh, this Orioles. The first four hitters should probably just be in the majors. They're in the wrong organization. It is just so frustrating.

But Jackson Holiday, it feels like it's going to, I think it's made before the end of April. I just, I think it's going to be really soon. Yeah. And, you know, there would still be, if you want to go the conspiratorial route, they could wait until the end of April and still get a benefit out of it. They would get the, they want to get the Super 2 thing, but they would get an extra year of team control. So it's, it's not like they have to wait long to get some kind of benefit out of that. if that's how you're, if that's your suspicion about what the Orioles are doing.

And I would also say that my first prospects report will be out, probably by the time you're listening to this, most of you. And three of those Orioles that you just talked about are featured in it. There were 19, there were 19 batted balls of 100 miles per hour or harder in this game. And it wasn't all, there were, looks like seven by the show. Charlotte team as well who scored 11 runs.

That would have been a fun game to be at. Yes. 33 batted balls over 95 miles per hour in this one. So tough night to be a pitcher. Yeah. In the Charlotte area. On top of that, Jackson Holiday already has two homers and one steal. Like Scott said, like I said, I think it's end of April, early May, whatever it's going to be.

It's unfortunate. I think it probably still should have been opening day, but Jackson Holiday will be here soon. Let's quickly promote a few things. Join our FBT Facebook group if you haven't already. Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. You can interact with other listeners, ask questions, waiver wire, trades, dynasty keeper, whatever you have. Again, that's Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy baseball today. And thanks to everybody watching us live, like this video, and subscribe, YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. Let's take our first break when we return some news and notes, and we'll do that right after this.

Welcome in the news and notes. Turns out Josh Young's timetable is more like 8 to 10 weeks after more extensive damage was found during his wrist surgery. Ezekiel Duran started at 3rd base on Wednesday against the righty Aaron Savali. But Josh Smith was also in the lineup at shortstop and Corey Seeger was at D8. So it might just turn out to be a rotation at third base for the Rangers in the me. meantime, Duran, Josh Smith, Justin Foske, you got called up as well, so it might just be a messy situation for fantasy purposes. Jamer Candelario exited with what looked like in elbow injury.

I don't think we have an official diagnosis yet, but it seems like the last thing the Reds need right now. Obviously, they've dealt with so many injuries, a suspension to Nuelve-Marté, so hopefully he's all right. Walker Bueller will make his second minor league rehab appearance Saturday at AAA, and in his first outing, he allowed four runs. over three and a third innings, and apparently his velocity was clocked

about one mile per hour below his norm. Again, that was Walker Bueller. Justin Verlander will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Sunday. He's expected to throw 70 to 75 pitches. The team's confident Verlander will need just two rehab starts, which would put him on track. I think the date I saw was April 17th,

so around mid-April, we could get Verlander's season debut. Jameson Tyone will also begin a rehab assignment at AA on Sunday. Brandon Lau was removed Wednesday with left side tightness. Ray's manager Kevin Cash said he's confident Lao will be back by Saturday. Matt Manning is set for a spot start Thursday in their double header against the Mets. Brewer's relier Trevor McGill was placed on the seven-day concussion IL. The Dodgers placed Jason Hayward on the IL with lower back tightness.

They claim Taylor Tremel off waivers and he started in left field on Wednesday. night, I believe. I will quickly pull that up. But when I saw the lineups earlier, that's what I think I saw. No, no, it was Chris Taylor. Chris Taylor on the field. Last name Taylor, not first name Taylor. That's right. Yeah, so Taylor in left field, Miguel Rojas at shortstop, Mookie Betts at second. Yeah, I think it was Gavin Lux out of the lineup with a lefty on the mound there against Kyle Harrison. So much for the Mets pitching prospects. They signed Julio Tehran instead, much less exciting. He's likely to debut Monday in Tyler McGill's absence. The Pirates finally faced a right-handed pitcher.

Let's go. O'Neill Cruz moved up to leadoff in that game. And speaking of the pirates, Henry Davis now has catcher eligibility on CBS or any other leagues where you need five games played for position eligibility. Wednesday was his fifth game at catcher. The Marlins are 0 and 7,

and there are already rumors that they could be sellers early on in the season. The Athletic reported that the podcast, Haddre's head interest in Jesus Lazzardo and Luis Arise. O in 7 is 0 and 7, but really? We're talking about sellers the first week of the season. So there were already reports of the Marlins looking to potentially trade Jesus Lazzardo this offseason.

I don't think it would be a bad idea to trade either of those guys, but yeah, it's, I mean, you start out of 7 against the Pirates and Angels. you're probably not a good team. I don't want to overreact here, but yeah, yeah, that's my sense. And they made the playoffs last year with a negative run differential, right? Or close to it?

Yes. By the way, where is Henry Davis going to be in your catcher rankings? That is a great question. I know we all did big catcher rankings updates. Yes, and we should remind everyone that if you ever want to find our rankings, CBSSports.com slash fantasy slash baseball slash rankings.

You can find them on the site. Catcher, I am somewhere in that like 11 to 15 range. Yeah, I think he's going to be top 12 for me in both formats. Might be too aggressive. It's tough because I really like O'Hoppy at 13 and I like Camp Usano who's at 15 for me too. So it's kind of tough. It's a range of the catcher rankings that's difficult to, to, parse because they're all, you see the upside for all of them

and you're just kind of waiting to see who takes off this year. So, yeah, I'm not ready to commit to a single number, but it would be in that like Francisco Alvarez, Logan O'Hoppy range of the rankings. Yeah, I think so too. Let's stick with the hitters and talk about 10 hitters who are off to strong starts. And first we will talk about the waiver wire names.

You're probably tired of hearing about this guy already. but slugger, Michael Garcia, two for five, with a sock and a shoe here on Wednesday. Hit his third home run, his first steal of the season. Like we said, it's hard to steal when all you do is hit home runs. But entering today, the fly ball rate was up for Michael Garcia. The pull rate also up from last year. He's 61% rostered.

Not sure that there's much else to add, but we need help. Like the race got to him. What happened? I do just want to point out that it's offensive. to refer to Michael Garcia as slugger. There is already a slugger in the Royal's organization. His name is slugger. Is that true?

That's their mascot, yeah. Oh. Their mascot's Slugger with two R's. I, okay. I didn't know that. Isn't it like a lion with a crown on his head or something? Probably like slugger. Oh, it's slugger with three R's.

Excuse me. Oh, got it. He appears to be a lion. It's weird. He's got like a beard maybe, but not like a mane. I don't know. Weird guy. Why don't they just make that, didn't they have like a passquatch in the outfield?

They should just make that their mascot. Bring back the pasquatch. Let's do it. Pasquantino. I'm all about it. Anything else to add on Michael Garcia? Obviously, we need help at third base right now. And he's still available in 40% of CBS League.

I have written about him three days in a row in my waiver wire portion of the fantasy baseball today newsletter. Subscribe, CBSSports.com slash newsletters. and I'm writing about him again today. So go at him so I can stop writing about him. All right. Next up is Taylor Ward, who is also off to a nice start, three for five with his third home run here,

and he's eight for 25 so far. He's got eight RBI. He's hitting lots of fly balls, hitting the ball really hard. The average exit velocity was 96.7 miles per hour entering Wednesday's game, and he's only 46% rostered. Scott, do you think that number needs to be higher?

He probably needs to be. rostered in five outfielder leagues. Could he be a hot hand play in three outfielder leagues, I guess? Maybe he'll be, I don't know what the Angels matchups for next week are, but maybe he'll be among my sleeper hitters for next week. But I don't have any reason to believe he's about to explode here and have a much better season than he's ever had before. The ADP last year, and I think you mentioned this yesterday, Chris, for Taylor Ward was 112. So he's being drafted as a top 120 pick last season. I still kind of feel like weird things have happened.

He hasn't stayed on the field. And maybe if he just does that, we can finally get that breakout season for him Taylor Ward. But maybe. I mean, he had a pretty scary injury last year. He got hit in the face. Yeah.

By a pitch. He was out for several weeks, right? The final two months, I think of the season. Yeah, something like that. He got hit by a 92 mile hour fastball. So like, Yeah, that could explain why he struggled. Sure.

Yeah, and actually bringing that up, I find it even more impressive that he's gotten off to the start because sometimes there's kind of a mental hurdle to get over once you get in the face like that. So good for him, off to a nice start. Jeremy Payne also off to a nice start. Two for four with his second home run. He's 10 for 25, 6 RBI early on.

Only three strikeouts in 27 plate appearances. That's an 11% strikeout rate. He's hitting the ball hard early on. but also lots of ground balls, which has been a problem for Jeremy Pena. He's 57% rostered and has seven games next week. Any interest? Jeremy Pena.

I like that the strikeout rate is down. He supposedly changed his whole stance and setup this offseason with the aim of hitting for more power and addressing the launch angle issue. So it hasn't manifested yet, other than in this one home run. Doesn't mean it won't. I'm not changing my ranking based on anything I've seen so far.

I would still rather have Tim Anderson, for instance. And Tim Anderson is pretty widely available himself. This was Pena's second home run for the record. He didn't have any in spring, which was why I think there was zero hype around him. But he was being drafted in that Taylor Ward range this time a year ago, right? If I remember incorrectly, like 120-ish. Let's see. I still have it up. And yeah, 112.

Literally the same ADP. Good call. Yep. All right, that was Jeremy Pena. Charlie Blackman, also off to a nice start. Three for five with a double and two RBI. He had three hard hits in this game. He's 10 for 24.

Three doubles on the season. Five RBI even has a steal, and he's 19% rostered six games next week. What's annoying is we haven't had a full week in Corus Field yet. Actually, they haven't played a single game. there, but we're going to get three games this weekend, and then three games at the start of next week, and then they're back on the road. So we're still searching for that full week of Corse Field, but should Charlie Blackman be rostered in more than 19% of CBS leagues? Again, I don't mean to sound like a broken record.

It's really hard to analyze hitters after less than a full week of action even, because there's just not enough to dig into yet. So, I mean, it comes down to was he undervalued in the first place for me. That's basically, you present the question you present and how my head reinterprets it is, was he undervalued in the first place, Charlie Blackman? Probably not. I mean, I could see him being kind of useful in points leagues, but those tend to be smaller in three outfielder leagues. Probably not. I'm not going to say there's never a time when he's worth playing, but I'm not eager to go

grab them off the waiver watch. So there was a, I'm trying to remember which pitcher we were talking about before the season. It might have been Kyle Hendricks. And something that I said about him that probably applies to Charlie Blackman is these are the type of players that you have no interest in draft season. Because you're you're targeting upside and there's just no upside with Charlie Blackman. Like he had a decent season last year and he had 40 RBI and 96 games. He had eight home runs and four steals. but once the season starts and you look up and Charlie Blackman hit 279 last year

and he was on like a I don't know 90 run pace probably and it's like yeah that there's a there's a reason that guy doesn't get drafted and it's a viable reason but Charlie Blackman is probably going to be more useful than dozens of outfielders who were picked ahead of him who were picked ahead of him because you're hoping they can be more than just a fifth outfielder, where that's probably Charlie Blackman's ceiling. But once the games actually start, you have attrition, you have injuries, and you have guys failing to live up to expectations, I do think it can become a little more interesting to have a Charlie Blackman on your roster,

even though he's not interesting. And to further that point, he had 2.96. This is why I said points league, especially, 2.9. points per game last year. That's like Stephen Kwan. It's more than Stephen Kwan, actually. It's more than Brandon Nemo. I don't think he was particularly...

I want to say he had extreme home splits, as many Rocky Setters do. I would assume so, yeah. There will be times when, as you say, when the attrition kicks in, when players like Blackmen are getting some play in 12 team leagues. He had a 666 OPS away from course last year.

Yeah. So let's go with a streamer for Charlie Blackman. Last name on the waiver wire portion of this list. Blaze Alexander, we mentioned the name a few times with the Diamondbacks. One for two with a walk hit his first career home run. 110.6 exit velocity on the homer. 3% rostered, six games next week. This is one of those, if you're in a pretty deep league

and you just have a bench spot to mess with, I would say pick him up. I think Geraldo Perdomo left with a knee injury today as well. So if that turns into anything, I think there could be a player here. So I'm very interested in just from a deep league perspective, Blaze Alexander. Sure. Yeah, I agree. That was an impressive home run.

He had just in terms of how hard he had it. Not every player is capable of making that kind of impact on the ball, hitting it. What was the exit velocity? It was like 1.10. 1.10. Okay. Not every player, particularly not every middle infielder is capable of impacting the ball like that.

And you wouldn't expect one with Blaze Alexander's lack of pedigree. It wasn't a particularly highly regarded prospect. You wouldn't expect him to meet that threshold. And yet here he did on his first career home run. I see a lot more to like than dislike here. And for those wondering, can he play shortstop in the minors? He's actually played at shortstop more than any other position, 314 games at shortstop.

So, Blaze Alexander, capable if Perdomo's injury is a little bit more serious. It would be pretty annoying if Perdomo missed time after Jordan Lawler's, he's out, what, the first two months of the season? Something like that, yeah. That would be extremely annoying. That would suck. It sure would. Five non-waver wire hitters who are also off to great starts.

And I'll just list off all five. And if you guys want to react, feel free. Salvador Perez, he is, he went three for four with two RBI. He's betting 375. early on with two homers. Jaron Duran, he looks like that dude. Four for four, he's hitting 393. He's got six steals already.

Cotel Marte, two for five with his first home run. The Homer 109, exit velocity, 433 feet. He is hitting 379. Also has a steel so far. Sayas Suzuki, another strong game, three for five with his second home run, added four RBI in that one. And Jackson Trio, Scott, I think he called this one.

didn't take very long. He was moved up to the lead-off spot against a right-handed pitcher. He had been betting ninth against righties before that. He popped his first career home run here on Wednesday. Went one for four. Did have two strikeouts, so we'll have to keep an eye on the strikeouts, but he's hitting 350 early on, one homer, one steel. Anything to add on Chorio, Suzuki, Cotel Marte, Duran, and Salvi Perez. My AL-only labor team would be in a lot of trouble, if not for. for Jaron Duran. I have six stolen bases this season.

Are we winning any category other than steals in the For the People League? Um, I, I don't, I haven't, I haven't looked. Maybe. Uh, but I know we have a lot of steals. Heart. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you're winning heart.

Yes. You have more heart than any other team. Yeah. The guy who said he hasn't, hasn't looked. Team chemistry. What the score is? Look, it's, it's the sixth day of the season. All right.

yeah okay anyway um jackson choreo i want to say this is kind of like a pre preliminary warning i guess a forewarning be forewarned

that gunner henderson last year both Julio Rodriguez and Bobby whip the year before dreadful aprils in fact it even it even went beyond April.

They looked positively useless. So I'm not saying that's, you know, we're five games in for Jackson Chorio, six games in, something like that. I'm not saying that's how it's going to go. He just hit his first home run. Maybe he'll be great this April. But if he isn't,

let the example of those other guys who won rookie of the era came very close to it. It might take a multi- week adjustment before their skills begin to show through. All right. Any interest in these hitters? They are widely available. Michael Bush, someone I know you guys both like coming into the season.

He went three for three with a run and an RBI. 39% rostered, six games next week. Looks like all against Reidy. So that's good news for Michael Bush. Ryan Jeffers, he is on the board. Two for four with his first home run for RBI. He's 28% rostered has started four or five games for the twins. and Miguel Sino, blast from the past,

two for three with two walks and two doubles. He's 2% rostered. He is in the Angels organization, apparently lost 60 pounds this offseason. He was out of baseball all of last year. Three hard hits in this game. One was 112.4, exit velocity, the other, 11.9.

So we always knew Miguel Sano could hit the ball hard. I guess it's nice to see that he still has that skill. Anything, any interest in Sino, Jeffers, Michael Bush. Yeah, I mean, he was one for 11, I think, with six strikeouts before this game. So we don't talk about that. Good. I mean, look, it's a sign of life. And if you're playing in an AL only league, you know, maybe he can matter.

But that's probably the only format in which Miguel Sano is likely to matter. And it might be like he hits 24 home runs and also hits 205. So he might be a right-handed Joey Gallo Sure, yeah It might be But Michael Bush is someone that I I haven't dropped in any of my leagues Where I drafted him yet

I'm giving him time I remain hopeful And yeah And Ryan Jeffers is probably a fine low-in Number 2 catcher If I suspected Jeffers would play as much as he has so far He started four

Of five five games for the twins first five games then I would have I would have been probably pounding him as a breakout candidate and you know they still have Christian Vasquez there pretty high pretty noteworthy backup I will say one of Jeffers games one of the four he's five of the five he's started has come at DH and I don't know that that will always be open to him so maybe Vasquez is going to end up interfering more than I thought but You know, just look at his per game production last year.

It was very impressive. All right, let's take our final break when we return. We'll talk about pitchers. All the pitchers. We'll do that right after this. Time to fire up the first dropometer of the season. One to 10. One is you're holding this player in every single league.

10, he's a drop in every single league. AJ Puck. Let's talk about it. He was bad again up against the Angels four innings, five hits, four runs allowed. Two of those were earned, some bad defense behind him. Three walks, five strikeouts, had ten swinging strikes on 88 pitches. It's not like he gave up a bunch of hard contact.

In fact, he really didn't. He only gave up three hard hits in this game. Velocity was up compared to his first start, but still down compared to last year when he was a reliever. It's really the control that has killed him. Nine walks in his first two starts. that was after four walks in all of spring, which spanned four starts. So where are we at 1 to 10, the dropometer on AJ Puck?

I think this is the first start worth assessing him on, because the first one, my take on that then was that there's really no honest take to be had because he obviously had some kind of external issue going on. Both he and Skip Schumacher mentioned a gripping issue, trouble gripping the ball. velocity was way down control was way uncharacteristically horrible so this this start you know

the velocity so the first start of velocity was down three miles per hour on the fastball to put specifics on it and it was 1.5 in this start 1.5 is what you'd probably expect with a move from the bullpen to the rotation so I think

I think puck was throwing it as what we can expect his velocity to be in this role he did not walk the crazy number of batters but he walked more than you'd like, obviously, in four innings. He threw, I think, 64, 63, 64% of his pitches for strikes, which is below average.

It's not horrible, but it's below average. So there is a concern there. Like, he has to throw more strikes, obviously. But you mentioned it. Quality of contact was low off of him. He does have a lot of bat-missing ability. Ten swinging strikes on 88 pitches is pretty good. I still don't want to drop him.

I'm closer to dropping puck after this start than after the first start, but I'd probably put him at like a five or six on the dropometer. Like if any of Jared Jones or Jared Jones or Garrett Crochet or Jack Flaherty, any of those really high-end emerging ones from the past few days are still out there, then obviously you should drop puck for them. I would have said that in the first place. But I would rather have puck than like Nestor Cortez. Yeah, you're not dropping him for Logan Allen.

And you're dropping those guys instead of Puck if you're, if it comes down to that. So I do have one league where I have Nestor Cortez and AJ Puck. It's a 12-team Roto League where I also have Logan Allen and you say Kukuchi, four pitchers, very much in the same range. I think Jack Flaherty has moved above them. Maybe Cutter Crawford has as well. We'll see. I don't think I'm going to drop any of them because I do have a roster spot to play. play with with Josh Young going on the IL, but

Nest Cortez does get the Marlins and the Guardians next week. And AJ Puck has one start against the Yankees. If I had to drop Nester Cortez or AJ Puck, that alone might be enough of a tiebreaker. It's just Nestor Cortez looks much more useful in week three than A.J. Puck does. But you may not want to use them.

And if you don't want to use them, even with their ne'aps. Like I am generally much more about playing the long game with my roster spots in the short game. There are times to stream. And I don't entirely disagree with you. I guess I'm just giving the opposing perspective on that.

Yeah, I think the biggest thing with Puck is just he hasn't given us. There's really nothing you can point to in the two starts to say. And then something that I remembered reading in spring training, that I found yesterday as I was writing something about him

was he talked about adding a splitter to his arsenal and the reason he hadn't thrown a splitter before this was because he had dropped his arm slot when he was pitching in the bullpen and he's raised it a couple of inches since and that's helped him get the splitter to play. The problem is I think it's made his fastball worse. He's getting less ride on his fastball.

ball, the angle, the, you know, vertical approach angle or whatever smart people say, seems to be worse as well. I know I was talking to Nick Pollock about it, and he's not particularly happy with what he's seen from AJ Puck's fastball so far, just in terms of the physical characteristics, let alone the control and the results. So I do think there might be just something a little broken with A.J. Puck, and I'm not sure who's most likely to move out of the rotation when presumably Edward Cabrera, I think would be the first one ready among the Marlins injured pitchers. I think it's either A.J. Puck

or Max Meyer at this point. Ryan Weathers didn't have a great start either. I think it's just going to be performance based from here on out. Yeah, a lot needs to be sorted out. But I think the thing that helps puck or hurts him, depending on which few you want to take, is he's been really good in the bullpen for the Marlins before. And so that might be one where they just view it as rather than sending Max Meyer down to AAA, move

AJ puck to the bullpen, get that arm back out there who can be a shutdown reliever. I know he had some issues, you know, towards the middle part of last season, but overall I think he was very good. Yeah. That might be what ends up leading that decision.

Yeah. And that's where I would say in like 12 team roto leagues or deeper. I would try to hold on to Puck because I could end up in the closer. I could see that scenario playing out. So in points leagues, you know, there's just so many good players available then all right, maybe. But yeah, in those category leagues, I might look to hold on to AJ Puck. Would you drop? I would say he's a six also. Would you drop him for any of these names? Ronell Blanco, 51% rostered. Yeah, probably. Yeah. Tanner Hauk, 53%. I would. Yes. Luis Heel, 59%.

I don't think so. I think I like heal more than you do because it seems like I like puck more than you do, but I'm closer to doing that than you are. I mean, I think it's probably close to a coin flip. Yeah. I'm going to say I wouldn't do it, but I may regret it when the second start happens.

Garrett Whitlock, 55%. I would. Yeah, I guess I'd have to lean yes on that. And Jordan Hicks, 56%. I would specifically because he's RP eligible and well they both are right puck is yeah yeah right but that's you're replacing one spark with another yeah I feel more confident in starting Hicks right now I think Jordan Hicks is my favorite of all those pictures you mentioned oh okay spicy Scott getting in on the Jordan Hicks action here I think so in head to head points ladies but I probably prefer Halk and roto yeah I think I would just take Tanner Halk but I've also been a how Apologist for years and is how is how is how is not RP eligible right no he's not but Whitlock's the only yeah in the red sox in the red soxed rotation yeah so I'm kind of like wish casting this Paveta yes yes yes I'm wish casting this Tanner Halk thing I'm just kind of like

hoping it happens and obviously he looked great no but there they have thrown by far the fewest fastballs in baseball so far it's been an an organizational edict Andrew Bailey was the Giants pitching coach last season they threw the four the few of the few of fastballs in the league before that. So I think there's a, I wrote about this for CBSSports.com if you want to check it out. And I think there's some interesting things going on

with the Red Sox approach right now. I agree too. I believe they brought in Kyle Bodie as, and I don't even know what you would call it. It's like or pitching coordinator. Like a consultant or something. Yeah. And he worked with drive lines. So like they just have smarter people in the organization now kind of overseeing the pitching.

so I like what we've seen so far from the Red Sox. Let's take a closer look at some other pitchers. And three names in particular, I'm just kind of struggling. I know it's only two starts, so whatever. Like, it's a really long season. But Mitch Keller, another rough outing. This one at the Nationals, five in a third innings, eight hits, five runs allowed, four of them earned, had five strikeouts, gave up some hard contact in this one,

10 hard hits. He's given up 18 hard hits total over his first two starts. And I don't know, like, I don't put two. much stock in the pitch mix because he's always tinkering. He's always changing his pitch mix from start to start. The fastball velocity is down just over one mile per hour in each of his first two outings. What have you guys seen from Mitch Keller here first two starts? So I think the audience probably assumes that Scott's going to be the most optimistic about him. But I want to take a chance to say that the one thing you can be confident of with Mitch Keller is when things are going

wrong for him, he will not remain that pitcher. That is the one thing we've seen consistently for Mitch Keller really over the past three seasons is he puts a lot of work into figuring out what's working and what isn't for him and adjusting his approach. And that's all to say that I don't think Mitch Keller's ever going to be the ace he looked like in the first half of last season again. But I generally think it will pay off to be optimistic about him when things are going poorly. Because I think he will tinker until he figures something out. And that is a reason to buy when the price is low. And it's a reason to certainly not drop him right now.

No, definitely not drop. Yeah, I think he has better starts ahead for sure. And he is a tinkerer, as Chris points out. And that's part of the reason why he's really. really difficult to pin down. But if I had to, if there was one site you could stat for Mitch Keller coming into the season that I would say,

yeah, I don't feel great about it. It was the swinging strike rate. And the swinging strike rate has been good through two starts. So I don't know. I think after two starts like this, where it's not like he gave up eight runs and two innings, like, you know,

it's not like he had a star like George Kirby just had. I don't see any reason to change the thinking on Keller. Whatever your opinion was coming in, maybe you hated him, maybe you think he stinks. Okay, well, he obviously hasn't given you reason to change your opinion.

But if you thought he was good, I don't think he's giving you reason to change your opinion either. Do you start him next week, two-start week against the Tigers and at the Phillies? In points leagues for sure. Yeah. And Roto, I'd weigh my options.

I wouldn't be a flat no. I'd start him ahead of like the Nestor Cortez two-star week we talked about earlier. You would even with how good the matchups are. Okay. Then I guess I have to start him too. Yeah, I mean, just because the Tigers are a pretty good matchup too.

I know the second one. At Philly is a little. Philly's not so much. It's a tough one. But yeah. Let's talk about Carlos Hordaun who was okay at the debacks. Five in a third inning, seven hits, two runs allowed, only three strikeouts, gave up two home runs in the start. only seven swinging strikes, seven hard hits allowed,

faded the slider a little bit in this one through more four-seem fastballs. He also mixed in five change-ups and four curveballs. It's not really something we see Carlos Rodan do often. The velocity looks fine. Something just seems off. I don't know how to quantify it, but just watching him, he's just, he's not as sharp.

He's not as electric as he was two years ago with the Giants. And everyone will say, well, that's, obvious, Frank. He's not putting up these massive stats. I get that. But I like just watching him. It's just something's missing. Something's not there for Carlos Fordon right now. The whiffs for one thing. I don't know what it is. Like what do you guys put into the pitch mix too? Like do you think it's a lack of confidence in the slider or do you maybe look glass half full and say, oh, he's trying new things. This might work. I don't know. Something I noted in the in spring training when Carlos Rodon was working on this cutter. It's is a it's a something.

that a lot of pitchers have struggled with when they try to introduce a cutter is because a cutter is kind of halfway between a fastball and a slider, what some pitchers have happened is the three pitches tend to just blur together.

Or the cutter ends up kind of knee capping the effectiveness of one of the pitches. And I worry that might be what's happening with the slider in particular, which is the velocity on that is, up. It's still way below the cutter, but it's up more than the rest of his pitches. It's up 1.4 miles per hour.

And he's getting less sweep and less vertical brake with the slider, which is to say it is behaving a little bit more like a cutter. There's still very distinct pitches. Three more inches of horizontal brakes, 17 more inches of vertical brake with the slider. They are different pitches. But I do worry that the slider just isn't the same pitch right now that it has been. And that's a real problem for Carlos Radon because he needs his fastball to be incredibly effective and so far it hasn't been. And he needs his slider to be incredibly effective

and he only had two whiffs with it. So I think this is a legitimate concern for Carlos Rodon that maybe someone smarter than me can look into and confirm or disprove my hypothesis. But that is my working theory on Carlos Radon. And I think the lack of effectiveness and lack of trust in the slider is a problem, given how much he has to rely on that pitch. I think that's a fine conspiracy, hypothesis, whatever you want to call it. I kind of just want to see him live and die by his bread and butter.

Yeah. Just throw your foreseam and your slider and let's see what happens, right? Like now that you're healthy and the velocity is there, which, you know, wasn't healthy. last year was not hitting his spots, just go with what works. And let's see if that actually you could be productive doing that. And I don't know if we could just say that about Carlos Rodon right now. Would you guys start him next week against the Miami Marlins one start? Yes. My confidence in Rodon is very low. And if I had a two-start option to start over him, I would prefer to do that. But if if not, then I think you could justify starting him against the

Marlins for sure. Last name on this list, I wanted to take a closer look at Christian Javier, an uneven start against the Blue Jays. Five shutout innings, only one hit. That's great. Five walks to three strikeouts. He had 10 swinging strikes on 97 pitches. This is two starts in a row now. He's gone with this new approach using the fastball changeup and slider almost evenly on all three pitches. Like close to like 30 to 35 percent on each of those three pitches. And the changeup was his best pitch here on Wednesday. He had six whiffs, a 40. 36% whiff rate.

I think it gives Javier another lifeline. When the fastball and the slider are not working, last year we saw there were many times where one or even both of those pitches were off and it just everything crumbled for Christian Javier. So he has that extra lifeline. It's just, I think the production is going to look different. It's going to be differently distributed for Javier

than maybe we've seen in years past when he was good, obviously. Yeah, I have my concerns here. I was more optimistic about Javier than I think most people were coming into the year, but it's kind of, I'm getting kind of that Graham Ashcraft vibe from last year where he gets off to a good start and they should be taking a victory lap.

It's just not the way it should be. His change-up has been his best swing and miss pitch each of the first two starts. So the fastball and slider don't appear to be working. And I'm not sure, since the overall whiff rate is low for Christian Javier, I'm not sure that change-up is enough. to overcome a lack of effectiveness from what were his only two pitches before then.

The results have been good, but I'm a little worried. I might be willing to attach the cell high label to Christian Javier, which isn't to say dump him, but might be worth exploring. If you could turn Christian Javier into Bailey Ober right now, you'd try to make that happen? I would do it. I'd do that. Yeah, I think so too.

All right, let's get into the rest of Wednesday's action and I feel bad. I should have got to Cole Regens earlier. This feels a little bit irresponsible but better late than never, I guess. He's old hat. Come on. Hit it, hit it.

Oh, Reagan's was awesome at the Orioles where it was 46 degrees and drizzling in that one. Six and a third shutout, one hit, two walks, seven strikeouts, 13 swinging trikes on 91 pitches. I'm actually going to just run through a few names here. Nathan Avaldi was awesome at the Tampa Bay raise, seven shutout innings, eight strikeouts, 23 swinging strikes on 103 pitches, and he leaned

all the way into that splitter, 43% usage in this start, and it was amazing for him. Aaron Savali is two for two in quality starts. This one up against the Rangers, obviously a really tough lineup to navigate. Six innings, one run, eight strikeouts for him, and Merrill Kelly pitched very well against the Yankees, seven innings, two runs, four strikeouts in that one, and he didn't throw his slider as much as his first start, but he still used it a lot more than he did last year. I think the slider might be kind of a new and improved weapon here for Merrill Kelly. What do you guys think of Kelly, Savali, Avaldi, and Regens?

I don't like that you included Regens in there because there was a nice rhyming scheme going on that you really messed up. I don't like that. You could have gone with Frankie Montas. and really leaned into it, but that's fine. Core Regens is a stud. He is a superstar. He is the only thing I think that's going to mess him up is injury.

Or the Royal's bullpen. I mean, look, the general context that he's in is not great. And so there are other pitchers with similar talent level, but like he had, I think, four swinging strikes on four pitches in his first start. In this one, it was only, almost all the change-up. He had 10 of us 13 whiffs on this one. That's awesome. This guy has like five swing and miss pitches that he can lean on in any given situation. I think walks are going to be a concern, a problem at times that may keep the ERA over three, maybe in the three-two, three-three range. But I, I think Cole Regens is on a start for start basis going to be one of the 15 best pitchers in baseball this season. And we couldn't see through his pants this time. They were the gray pants because they were on the road.

But it was. So yeah. It's a relief not to be pitching out there in your underwear. When you're home, we see your underwear. When you're on the road, it just looks like you've showered. Because everyone looks so sweaty in the gray uniforms. It's a great thing. As for Nathan Avaldi, I just kind of think we know the deal, right?

He's... When he's healthy and the velocity is there. Yeah, he's really good. He can be great. We were the first half of the season last year. We were ranking him as a top 25 starting pitcher. Like that's how good he was. I think it's probably a situation where he's going to be that good until he's not.

I mean, we've seen this many times with Nathan Avaldi that he just can't sustain the stuff as the season goes on. And he's pitched into the deep into the postseason. I don't know why that word was so tough. several times in the last few years. And I just, I think at some point, he's probably going to crash, but it's going to be really good until he doesn't. Or until he does.

Scott, I kind of feel the same way about Savali that you do about Javier, where I was very high on Savali coming into the year. I still am excited about him, just working with Tampa Bay. They're a really smart organization. But I can't really explain why he's been so good in his first two starts.

It's not like he's getting a bunch of whiffs or has severely changed his pitch mix. So I don't think Savali's just going to continue to be this great. You could try and sell high on him. I don't know that anyone's dying to get Aaron Savali on their team. But I just, I can't really explain it. And I found that a little weird. Yeah, that is a little weird.

I guess my opinion on him hasn't changed, but it's we've gotten as good of an outcome as we could have hoped for as I could have hoped for, I guess, coming in. And I think I have him on so many teams. I think I bench him on every, single one this week because he was going up against Texas and just to get that great start on your bench sucks. Yeah. I mean, Texas offense hasn't been like world beaters so far this season. Athlin had a very good start against them yesterday. So, you know, they're still figuring

things out. Every good lineup's going to have bad games and it won't, it won't even always be against good pitchers. How long until we get the Wyatt Langford tweets? I'm just, I'm waiting for those to come in. It's like any day now, we're waiting. pitching standouts part two. Joe Musgrove turned in his first quality start of the season. Six innings, one run, seven strikeouts against the Cardinals. Frankie Montas, solid again at the Phillies, five and two-thirds, one run aloud. Five strikeouts, 16 swinging strikes on 100 pitches.

The splitter, baby. He had the splitter going and he wasn't leaning so much on that cutter like last time. Yeah. This might have been, this might have been just from like an evaluation standpoint, the most encouraging start of the day, Frankie Montas. The velocity was down a lot worth mentioning, but it was also 46 degrees and I think drizzling in Philadelphia too.

So just everybody's velocity down. Zach Wheeler, it was even colder there. His velocity was down like almost three miles per hour. Yeah. Speaking of Zach Wheeler, it was six innings, three runs, one earned run, 10 strike out, some bad defense behind him. Anything to add on Wheeler, Montas, Musgrove?

So here's what I want to ask you guys about Musgrove because I wrote for the trade value, chart yet tomorrow that like Shane Bieber if you were going to sell high on Shane Bieber what would you need to target and I said Joe Musgrove wouldn't be selling high enough do you you guys agree on that agree I think they're I have Musgrove ranked a little bit higher but I think I have them it's probably like two spots apart yeah it's five spots for me I agree completely I think they're both in that 20 SP 25 to 30 range for now obviously things could change so what about Aflin?

I have Eflin as a top 20 starting pitcher, so I think I'm just higher. I have them at top 20 also. That's right there. That's like right at the line, because I'm looking at everybody I rank below Eflin, and I'm like, eh, I'd probably just stick with Bieber. It's not a clear enough

upgrade. Eflin, so Eflin, I have 18 above him, Framber Valdez, Aaron, Nola, Max, Fried. Like, you're getting into Ace territory there. So I think Eflin's right at the line. That's probably the minimum pitcher I would accept and I hedge on it. Would you do it for Aaronnola who had a terrible first start?

Yeah. Yeah, I do it. Yeah, I think you have to. Well, because like we talked about yesterday with Beaver, it's not just can he keep this performance up. It's also had a forearm injury last year, had a shoulder injury two years ago. So there's three years ago, I guess. There's more than one way things could go wrong for Beaver in a way that's more true than

it is for other pitchers. Okay. I just realized we are, we're kind of. running a little bit long here. So let's get back into some of these other names. Do any of these pitchers matter? They all had solid or, you know, velocity was up for, I think, like Chris Paddock in that case. Patrick Sandoval, Paddock, Ross Stripling, Trevor Williams, Cubs prospect, Ben Brown, he pitched well in relief, four innings, one run, five strikeouts. Do any of those names matter? The most interesting start for me of these was Patrick Sandoval who got 17 swinging strikes on,

well distributed among his pitches. But we've seen him do that before, and so I'm not going to turn cartwheels over it. It's just if it becomes a consistent thing for Sandoval, then maybe he'll finally live up to his upside. It's the Marlins. I think that that's how bad they've looked so far. I can't evaluate any pitcher against them.

Maybe they're just going against all the best pitchers in baseball, though. I don't know. Three other pitchers. team white slump. Three other pitchers we haven't talked about yet. Corbyn Burns, he looked human against the Royals. Five and two thirds innings, two runs, three strikeouts, had 13 swinging strikes. Nick Povetta, solid at the A's, five shutout innings, three strikeouts.

Tyler Glass now, a quality start against the Giants, six innings, three runs, seven strikeouts. I will say, I thought about going with Corbin Burns as my own, my goodness gracious player of the night, and I couldn't justify it because he wasn't actually all that impressive. but I do think that this is the case for why Corbyn Burns was the clear number two starting pitcher. And that is that the first start, he looked like pre-20203 Corbyn Burns. And he had an awesome start. This one, it didn't look all that great. He avoided a loss.

He got really good results. I think that's the thing is that even when he's not great, he's going to be pretty good because he's, He's got a terrific supporting cast and a great ballpark. So I am more confident. I'm exactly as confident in Corbyn Burns being the number two starting pitcher moving forward as I was before this start. All right. Some hitting leftovers. And I can't take credit for this because Chris, you found it.

And it was pretty interesting. Josh Naylor had three RBI without a hit on Wednesday the first time that's happened since 2009. I don't even know how you go about finding that. You can, that's just baseball reference. You can just do a quick search there. But yeah, it's first time since James Loney. I thought that was fun. James Loney, yeah.

There's a blast from the past. Corey Seeger is on the board, two for five with his first homer. Aaron Judge, similarly, also on the board, two for four with his first home run. Otani hit his first. Jose Altuvei hit his third. He's already up to three home runs.

Good for him. And I know people are freaking out about Nolan Jones. he went one for five on Wednesday. He also had three hard hits in that game. Two over 107 exit velocity. So there are signs that he's still doing some good things. And, you know, he hasn't even played a game at Corace Field yet. It's just patience, patience, everybody.

I'm not, I'm not going to, unless there's a really, really obvious reason to worry, like an injury or significant pitch mix or velocity check. or whatever, I'm just, I'm not going to really worry about any top 100 pick until like May. It's just,

I'm just not going to do it. Yeah, no, that's fair. And I might even say, well, worry, I'm not sure I'm going to react

to any top 100 pick until mid-May. Yeah. So like, and especially in Jones case, yeah, he hasn't played a game at course yet. Yeah.

Right. Right. We're so early. Yeah. It's, a player could completely turn his season around in one day. That's how early we are. Gordon Alvarez had like a 200 OPS before today. I think it's up above 800 now.

Yeah, I mean, we even saw it with Bryce Harper. He was kind of off to a slow start and then three homer game. Boom, everything changes. So look, these things, it's a long season. You know, this is baseball. Some quick bullpen notes for the Rangers. David Robertson got the eighth inning in a one-run lead. Gave up two hits, but no runs. Jose Leclerc then got the ninth with a four-run lead. He gave up a run on two hits. I just wonder, you know, if it would have just stayed that one-run lead,

do we get a tie game there? Is it another blown save for Jose LaClerc? So, I don't know. We'll never know. That's an alternate universe. He didn't walk anybody this time, which I think is a big step in the right direction. And so, you know,

I think he'll keep getting chances for the time being, but he's got to turn it around soon, for sure. For the Royals, Will Smith got the ninth again with a one-run lead. He gave up two runs, took the blown save and the loss. And I really do not think this is going to last long. We've talked about the Royals bullpen in the past couple days. I don't know where they go. James MacArthur, that's what I would have thought coming into the season.

But he hasn't looked very good either. I would speculate on John Schreiber in deeper leagues. Will Smith hasn't looked very good in years since he left the Giants, basically. And it keeps finding his way back. into saves and the fact that the royals don't have even an interesting alternative. Yeah. I think Will Smith has a pretty long leash here. His velocity was a lot better in this outing than just the previous one.

Still below what he was last year, but that's true for most closers, it seems like, right now. It's trending up and I think he'll get, I think he'll get the Royals next chance, unless he just need the day off. Yeah, I do agree. I think he'll probably get the Royals next couple of chances. There is a name in their organization, John McMillan, who I believe throws 100 miles per hour, but he's in AAA.

Maybe he finds his way back up to the majors, but I just thought I would mention the name. For the Brewers, Yoel Pyeamps entered in the seventh inning with a two-run lead. He recorded one out. He gave up four earned runs on four hits, got charged with the blown save and the loss there. For the twins, Brock Stewart pitched in the seventh inning,

with a three-run lead, Griffin Jacks pitched in the eighth to face the heart of the Brewers lineup. And then the twins tacked on another run, no longer a safe situation. Lefty Stephen Ocurtt pitched a clean ninth. And it just feels like Rocco Baldelli's gonna mix and match until Yohan Duran is back. Such a mess.

It's not even a two-man race anymore between Griffin Jacks and Brock Stewart. He throws Stephen O'Kert in there. Well, it can be a two-man race if they both finish in last place. If they both finish and... Yeah. Let's just move on.

I'm not sure. I wasn't following that, sorry. For the Red Sox, Kenley Jansen got the ninth with a one-run lead. He walked two, but picked up his second save. Tide zone.

Yeah, there were some questionable calls there. For the D-Bex, Kevin Ginkle got the top of the 10th with the game tied. He gave up a two-run homer, but did not take the loss because the D-backs would tie it in the bottom of the 10th.

And that happened against Clay Holmes. He had a two-run lead. Just some poor defense behind him. He actually looked pretty good. In my opinion, the Yankees took the lead in the 11th. It was Caleb Ferguson, who got the final two outs for his first save. The Padres, Robert Suarez, recorded the final five outs for his third save. For the Reds, Alexis Diaz, pitched a clean ninth for his first save.

For the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan, struck out two for his second. and then for the Cubs, Hector Narris entered in the 8th with one out, bases loaded, and a five-run lead. He would give up three hits, and then the game was tied after that. The Rockies, the

Cubs took the lead in the bottom of the 8th, and then Adbert Alzlai got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He gave up a hit, but he closed it out. Last I saw, they gave him the win. Yeah, it still says that on the box score, and I could

not figure out why Aber Aalai got is credited with win because I have a guess. No, it's not a good guess. Never mind. Well, because like what I thought was did he come in in the top of the eighth and like pick a guy off or something. So he didn't throw a pitch, but that's not. It would still be listed as an inning in a third. Yeah, it does not appear to be the case. So I...

Weird. I'm assuming that that's just... My guess... Someone hit a wrong button. I know there's... I know when the starter doesn't go five innings. Yeah. It's like scorers discretion who gets the win.

And the starter didn't go five innings in this game. The starter only went one. So does that mean... I presumed that meant, you know, if the starter went less than five and was removed with the lead that was then sustained. Then it scores discretion. Or is it always scores discretion?

A pitcher cannot receive a save and a win in the same game. A relief pitcher recording a save must preserve his team's lead while doing one of the following. Enter the game with the lead of no more than three runs and pitch at least one inning. Enter the game with the tying run on the on deck circle. Pitch at least three innings. It has to be a save. That's a save. He got a save.

Right. I'm just saying, do all win rules go out the window if the starter doesn't go won and the score just gives it to whoever he thinks pitched best. What if he didn't want to give it to Hector Nairus, so he gave it to Albert Alzalai. I'm not saying it's a good theory, but that's all I have right now. Yeah, I was going to say, what if Hector Narris was just so bad that he doesn't deserve the win and they just won't give it to? Yeah, I don't know the rule exactly is the problem, so I probably shouldn't be, I probably

shouldn't be citing it. All right, hold on. The official scorer shall credit as the winning pitcher. that pitcher whose team assumes a lead while such pitcher is in the game or during the inning on offense in which such pitcher is removed from the game. It is not relinquish such lead. Unless such pitchers start, I don't know, man. This is, this is annoying. Somebody smarter than us tweet at us on Thursday. All right. The official score shall not credit as the winning pitcher, a relief pitcher who is ineffective in a brief appearance when at least one succeeding relief pitcher pitches effectively

in helping his team maintain its lead. Proceeding pitcher though. But yeah, that, I don't know. Maybe it's just listed wrong. Maybe he did get the save. A win is pretty valuable in fantasy too, but I think we'd all rather have the save. To stream or not to stream, I only wrote down Thursday's pitchers,

so that'll have to do. I'm sorry. On Thursday, we do have a few more pitchers available now. I think Seth Lugo against the White Sox is very clearly the best one. And then Casey Meis at the Mets? Yeah, Casey Mize at the Mets. like that a lot too.

If you're forcing me to pick a third, I'm going to go with who I said yesterday. Ryan Weather's at the Cardinals, though it's a distant third now that we have those additional names added from all the rain. Mize and Manning are the two best, right? Lugo. You said, Lugo's up at the top. Oh, Lugo, yeah, yeah. All right, yeah.

I like all three of those guys. All right. We're going to rat there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in some fantasy baseball today. please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify, and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.