Fantasy Baseball Today - 10 Pitchers Flying Up Draft Boards w/ Nick Pollack! (3/11 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

Welcome back to the show, Nick Pollack from Pitcher List! Well, it's confirmed that Gerrit Cole needs Tommy John surgery (4:10). ... Let's get into spring training risers, starting with Gavin Williams (9:34). ... Robbie Ray learned a new changeup from Tarik Skubal (20:15). ... Cristopher Sanchez is throwing a lot harder (24:05). ... Jacob deGrom is throwing with less velocity on purpose (27:06). ... Ryan Weathers and Max Meyer are doing interesting things (32:28)! ... News (41:17): Gunnar Henderson is progressing but is still uncertain for Opening Day. ... Who were the Statcast standouts from Monday (44:33)? ... Jackson Jobe, Walker Buehler and Kris Bubic are rising (50:14). ... Quinn Mathews and Jack Leiter are stash candidates (55:26). ... We wrap up with some names to remember in deep leagues (1:00:20). 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, @CPTowers @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 league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, March 11th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Chris Towers and a special guest.

Friend of the show, Nepal. Nick, what's up, man? Where are you podcasting from? I think I'm lost somewhere in Florida, some man's house. I don't know. I don't know if you guys recognize any of the stuff here.

I don't know where I am, but I guess I'm talking to you guys. Hey, what is happening? It's awesome to be back here at CBS. This is a ton of fun. You guys must be talking about hitters or catchers or something like that. Yeah, we actually wanted to talk to you about

the nine straight hitters that you picked today in your mockraft. Oh, that's the way to do it, guys. 12 teamers, just go straight hitters, and then you get great pitchers because I got Justin Steele, Robbie, Rays, Indiana, Kuntar, Christopher Sanchez. Oh, so many good pitchers after going nine straight hitters. And a lot of those pitchers we are going to talk about today because we are talking about pictures who are doing interesting things this spring and many of them are rising up draft boards. For those listening to the podcast and not watching, Nick is currently broadcasting from Scott

White's house, or at least it appears to be so. So just to give everybody a little bit of a background on what's happening here on the live. It's like that show, the rehearsal. He built a replica of Scott White's house in his own. I'm just being prepared to go meet Scott White and not tell him I'm coming and just surprise him. Because you know what? I just want to meet the guy in person just once. Everybody.

Don't worry. We're trying to make it happen for first pitch Arizona, but we are being met with resistance. Make sure to follow Nick on X at PitcherList and on Blue Sky at Nick Pollock.PitcherList.com. And check out his awesome site, pitcherlist.com. Nick, what else do you have going on nowadays? Oh, man, we have a live draft assistant web app now that looks gorgeous. And it has all our PLV projections. We also have a fantasy dashboard that we're making for league sync in season that will be releasing shortly in season.

So cannot wait for that. I'll have all your stackass data and stuff. It's wild. Come on, buy the pitcher list. We got you guys. Well, before we get to those pitchers that we want to talk about, we do have some unfortunate news to get out of the way. And news that we pretty much saw coming on yesterday's podcast as well, we did get confirmation that Garrett Cole does indeed need Tommy John surgery. That means he is out for all of this season and probably the first half of next season as well. He'll be 35 years old in September. So no guarantee he returns to form, though we've seen other pitchers.

return at that age or later and still be pretty good. So we shall see what the rehab will bring for Garakull. It's a big blow for those who have them in Dynasty and Keeper Leagues. It's also a huge blow for the Yankees who are also down Luis Heel for the next three months of the season. I have to think that they're going to make some kind of move, whether it's a veteran like Lance Lynn or Kyle Gibson or trying for something bigger, a trade of Sandy Alcansra, sunny gray.

the Dillon C stuff does not sound like it's happening. There have been reports that the Padres are not trading C's or Michael King now, so I don't think that's going to be it. In the meantime, they're updated rotation. Max Fried, Carlos Rodon, Clark Schmidt, Marcus Stroman, and my guess is Will Warren, although they also have Carlos Carrasco in camp.

Nick, I know Will Warren is someone that you were excited to talk about. He actually made another start here on Monday. Three and two-thirds innings, two runs. He only had one strikeout. sits 93 to 94 on the fastball. He's got a sweeper that has big spin rates, a change-up that had good with-wif rates on a small sample size.

Last season, he's also added a cutter this spring. Nick, what are your thoughts here on Will Warren? Is he worth a late-round pick in fantasy? Well, of course, I just won't let you guys know. I have Garrett Caller like 57 for my 2026 pitcher rankings. No, I'm just kidding. I think that Will Warren isn't someone you really need to focus on in 12-teamers right now. he is more of a mold of Clark Schmidt

before Clark Schmidt really got into rhythm. It's a typical one for the Yankees. Michael King was like this as well of being more of a sinker, slider, change up focus than overpowering with your fastball like your Luis Heel, your Lee Severino of bold. And I actually do believe

the Yankees would go with Carlos Carrasco first. I know that sounds terrible. 90 mile per hour fastball, not 93 on Carasco's heater, but the slider and the changeup got whiffs. And the real situation, here is that if Carrasco is not with the team, he has to be released. He can't, he's not going to stick around.

He's not going to go to the miners or anything like that, and not a chance. So the Yankees have no depth after Will Warren. There really is just nothing. And you have to think if you're the Yankees, you say, well, we have this option of Carrasco now, just for maybe like a couple of weeks, we can see how this goes. And then eventually then put in Will Warren. Because if we put in Will Warren now, then if, if, something else goes wrong, we don't have that backup.

And I know, it's ridiculous. The fact that Marcus Stroman and Carlos Carrasco might be the Yankees 4 and 5 is not what the Yankees envisioned. But really, Will Warren, when he does get that opportunity, which he will, he can kind of hold out in 12-teamers for the most part. I'm not saying he won't necessarily help, but I have to think there's more clear upside targets to go for. Yeah, and Will Warren does have MLB options available as well.

So it does make some sense if they wanted to go that route. Again, I still think that they have to make a move at some point. Will it be now? Will it be later in the season? That remains to be seen. There have been 26 NFBC drafts since Saturday. So the news on Garicold broke Friday. So since Saturday, Will Warren's ADP is 394, Chris.

So that's extremely late. That's really just a deep league option. Do you have any interest here in Will Warren? More so than like Emerson Hancock, who looks like he's going to open the season in the Mariners rotation, but not a ton. It's, there's been some decent minor league numbers,

but the stuff just looks okay. And so it definitely feels like one that we have to see before we buy in. And he hasn't been like so overwhelming this spring that, that I will, I'll overlook like, you know, the, the flashes that Tristan McKenzie has shown or,

uh, you know, Max Meyer and the, the, the, the velocity increase that he's shown, like there are certainly reason to be skeptical about those guys as well, but I think they're showing some more interesting skills this spring than

Warren is. Yeah, one of those names going right next to Warren is Max Meyer. Dustin May is the other one. We're going to talk about both of those guys later on. Nick, would you take both ahead of Will Warren, Dustin May and Max Meyer? Absolutely. I mean, really, it's all about like in 15 teamers,

I have some consideration for Will Warren, just because the win chance say better than you're Marlins, Chris, of course. But when it comes to a 12th team where the ceiling of those other two, Meyer and Dust. I mean, Dustin May easily above both. Yeah, easily.

I'm not going to pass on them for Will Warren. Yeah, and we actually just got confirmation that Dustin May will open the season as the Dodgers fifth starter. Apparently, Tony Gonslin has had some kind of hiccup in his back because something weightlifting related. So Dustin May in the rotation for the Dodgers. We'll talk about that a little bit later on.

Let's get into some pitchers doing interesting things this spring. Lots of names that we've talked about, but Nick is a lot smarter than us. So we're going to ask his opinion and find out what's going on with these pitchers here. Gavin Williams is first up. He has looked awesome so far. He has a revant slider, eight innings, one run, 16 strikeouts. He's racking up an insane amount of wiffs on his fastball. Nick, are you in on Gavin Williams? Well, last time we talked, I was very much in on Gavin Williams. And it's kind of weird because he's having all the success, but he's not doing it in a unique new way. Because Gavin Williams has always had this fastball.

That's always been his best asset. And he's collected a ton of whiffs. We're talking 24 whiffs in about 75 pitches in his last two starts with that fastball. But actually it was down to like 95.3 and not 97 in his last outing. And the other pitches have not come. come through development as why I thought they would. The slider is not the harder cutter, and the curveball is still present and not getting strikes.

He's just overwhelming spring batters with heaters. And that's always been what Gavin Williams does. So what's strange right now is that I'm exactly at the same place I was with Gavin Williams back in December. Then after this, because I needed to see that cutter become a reliable, strike pitch for him or the slider that he's leaning into because there is no cutter anymore, I guess.

That's to be that pitch. And you only through seven is last start. I know, it's so weird, right? Like, he seems to just decide that like, he can either throw a soft slider, which he did in 2023 and it was a good pitch for him. Or last year, he threw both the 92 mile per hour cutter and like an 89 mile an hour slider. And it's like, you can theoretically do. I mean, there might be.

something about the grip or the arm motion where he can't replicate all of them and he has to choose. But yeah, it feels like it would, the whole arsenal would make a little more sense if it was like 96 mile an hour fastball, 91 mile an hour cutter, 85 mile an hour slider and then the curveball for whiffs. Like that, that, it seems like it would bring the whole thing together. But what he's showing right now is more what he showed as a rookie, except he doesn't even have, he hasn't had the show me change up that he threw that year with. It's probably fine because it wasn't a very good pitch. But it's it does, you look at it.

And it's like with this approach, is he going to be able to consistently get lefties out? That's my biggest concern. Well, the four sewers should be good against them. But it's more that, I mean, it's a spring. You know, when we say like, hey, we shouldn't care about springing numbers. There are certain things that do matter in others that don't. And I think this is actually a case of someone looking too good in the spring because he's just overwhelming with a foresemer. And that's like, that's fine.

that's not what you're supposed to work on. You know, it's like you're playing guitar and you keep practicing the same barcord. It's that's great. But now you got to actually do your hammer-ons and pull-offs. Like, let's go. You're not getting any better at that. And that's how you're going to be a bunch of better guitarist for those who are musicians listening. So that's a little concerned with Gavin Williams.

At the same time, he's still not going super high. And I just did this mock draft today. And I felt like I could have even way longer. But I'm at 192. And I was like, sure, it's a 12th team. Like, that's my seventh starter or actually my sixth one. If you're not taking a starter until round 10, yeah, I'll do that all day and just see how this goes.

And hopefully that slider becomes a bigger deal. But I'm just surprised that we really haven't seen anything else outside of fastball. And really, I mean, more curves than sliders. I'm like, what are you doing? That's not it. So it's just really weird. Hammer-ons and pull-offs. That reminds me of my guitar hero days back in high school,

in my prime, playing guitar hero in the mom's basement. good old days. Gavin Williams mentioned going pretty late in drafts. The NFBC ADP in March 213.7. He's going right around Clay Holmes who's also looked really good this spring? Nick, who would you rather have Gavin Williams or Clay Holmes? Oh, this is so annoying because I've become

a huge fan of Clay Holmes now. That change-up is working super well. He's sitting 95, so it's not really as big of the velocity drop as we thought we might see to 92-93 even. And he has the same amount of drop on that sinker, if not more, slightly. Larger breadth of Arsenal now, too.

We're seeing a cutter in the mix there, which is super cool to see, too, with Clay Holmes, otherwise known as the Adobe, because, of course, Clay Holmes. And we have also the two big whiff pitches that he had before as well. I don't think that Clay Holmes is the greatest command guy. So I'm a little torn because you have a sinker baller who should normally be efficient, but then also a guy that, yeah, he had three walks in his last spring's training Starge's a little erratic with that sinker around the zone.

And that might lead to more frustrating games. I think it's, I think the ceiling is better for Williams because I can believe in, hey, you click with that number two pitch at some point and you're just soaring. While Clay Holmes is going to be a little more volatile, but as far as where they are currently are, I think what Clay Holmes is providing across six pitches is a really good scenario

with the Mets right now. And, I'm still going to go, Williams. I'm still just going to do that. I'm so sorry. I'm not even worried about the whole reliever to starter thing for Clay Holmes because he pitched his in really the entire season. It's not like he didn't get worked out at all. That's fine. It's a lot of stamina. It's hard to do that. We've seen a lot of guys make this transition and still be full for a year. So yeah, I'm going to lean Gavin Williams, though, over Clay Holmes just slightly. Chris, who do you like

more, Gavin Williams or Clay Holmes? Holmes. I think it'll be like Raynaldo Lopez, if anything, with the innings where there will be some in-season limitations, you know, skip him or push him back a day when the schedule allows for it, just to try to keep the innings to like 160, 170-ish. But I think the other thing you have to keep in mind is Gavin Williams did miss half of last season almost with an elbow spray. It ended up being more or less a non-issue last year. But that is one where one of my theories about why he wasn't throwing the slower slider was

maybe he just didn't feel comfortable with it. Coming back from the elbow, you could look at that and say, well, he's back to it now. He feels good, but it's, it's one of those things where it's like, yeah, you miss three months with an elbow injury. And I think he had like a setback at one point with it as well. That we shouldn't forget about it, even though it's been mostly fine since, you know, June of last year, whenever he came back. If you are trying to just project Clay Holmes as innings this season, I know it's, an impossible task. But I spoke to Jeff Zimmerman a couple weeks ago and he said Seth Lugo has kind of, you know, he kind of set the precedent for relievers turn starters. And he got

up to 145 innings his first season as a starter with the Padres a couple of years ago. So he kind of used that as like the max that we can get from Clay Holmes this year. So that 140 to 150 range could be a fair projection for him. I do want to mention that where you're drafting these guys, you should be thrilled at that. Yeah. I think. I think it's a really big point of 12 teamers versus 15s, that you're drafting these guys as your SP 5, 6, 7, or something along those lines. You should not expect a full season on your roster of quality

in the first place for those guys. So if your hesitation at any point is the potential innings down the road due to injury or something, that's great. If I have them for two months and I love it, that's a win. Yeah. Because if you look back at your 12 teamers after pick 170, count how many guys are still on your team.

by June. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not really too concerned about that when I'm debating between those two. All right. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already, it's YouTube.com slash fantasy baseball today. 30K by opening day.

We are trying to get there. Programming updates for the week on Tuesday night, live 12 team roto auction right here on YouTube 7.30 p.m. Eastern Time. And this Thursday afternoon, we are having our first ever mock draft mega stream. That'll start at 2.30 p.m. Eastern time. We are going to do five drafts in a row. This was Chris's idea. And it's going to be a little crazy. You and Frank, man, you and Scott can blame me. I mean, hey, it's, I think it's going to be fun, but it's also going to be crazy, man. Five drafts in a row. It's going to be a long day of mock drafting. But first up, we will have

a CBS head to head points league, a Yahoo head to head categories, then ESPN head to head points, NFBC Online Championship that'll be at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and then we'll end the night with an underdog bestball draft around 9.30 or 10 o'clock. So if you want in on any of the CBS Yahoo or ESPN mock drafts,

tweet me at Roto underscore Frank and let me know which. Make sure that you can be there because I don't want to, I don't want any auto drafters and I will not be able to track people down in the moment. Should be fun if it works.

Hopefully it's an annual thing moving forward. Yeah, sure. Why not? Let's take a break. We'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Pitchers doing interesting things this spring. Robbie Ray apparently has picked up a change-up from Terrick Scoobl who throws the best change-up in all of baseball.

And Robbie Ray has looked great so far. Five shutout innings with nine strikeouts. Robbie Ray only made seven starts last year, but the velocity was up and he posted an elite swinging strike rate. Nick, you have Robbie Ray inside of your top 40 starting pitchers. SP 37. Sounds like you are in. Oh, yeah.

I'm actually going to have them inside my top 30. I'm redoing my top 100 on Wednesday. I'm going to be live streaming that at Playback. dot TV slash picture list. Robbie Ray is so underrated this year. There are a couple guys that I've really started to target because there's this large glob, of course, where you have like SP 15 to 45 even.

And I'm starting to realize that there are certain ones that have just as good of a skill set as those guys around 20 or so. And Robbie Ray was a stud for multiple years, and then he had Tommy John. And they came back and had maybe one or two bad starts. And then otherwise I was like, yeah, I'm a 30% strikeout rate guy. This is fine. I can have like a 115 whip.

This is all right. And now he's just going to go every five days for the Giants with that strikeout rate with a new weapon that he never had. The problem with Robbie Ray all these years and he would have this home run rate is because guys would sit on the fastball. And sometimes the slider wouldn't be there for. strikes against righties or have just been in the middle of the plate. The change-up is everything there. Against lefties no problem. The slider just destroys them.

It's all good. It's just about righties not being able to hunt for a heater. And I watch this. It's fantastic. I mean, he's so ready to be a stud. I would even be tempted to say that my dark horse NL. Cy Young winner is Robbie Ray this year. Spice.

Because he has that potential in him. And I just think he's going to be. underdrafted right now. Is there that big of a difference in skill set between Robbie Ray and Blake Snow? Like Blake Snow is awesome. I love it, but it's pretty similar, like really inconsistent within season. Blake's now has, I think Robbie Ray is one of the few pitchers you can say over the past few years. Blake's now has been more reliable in terms of health, but I don't know. I'm expecting high 20s to 30% strikeout rate, Ray might actually have better control.

I don't know. I don't think it's that big of a difference. Well, I can actually answer this really easily. With Robbie Ray versus Snell, they actually have the same one, except that Snell has the right tool set against a right-hander, which is a change-up that is really effective. So you take Robbie Ray and you give him a change-up

that is actually effective. There you go. That actually makes him into a Blake-Snell type, absolutely. I would even argue that, he has more, he has more a foundation of health, of just being able to grind it out through seasons. Because, yes, I know Robbie Ray just got Tommy John, fine. But Blake Snell is not a perfect example of going 160 innings.

He's done it twice in 19. Yeah. So I actually, it's a little bit different. But yeah, you give him a change. I totally see what you're saying, Chris. So you guys are in the Tout Wars, Hedgehead Points auction together on Sunday. Chris, you know to nominate early on. Robbie Ray.

First nomination. There you go. You'll get value on them. You'll get value on them. So that's fine with me, Chris. The NFBC ADP in March for Robbie Ray is 158.1. Who would you guys rather have Robbie Ray or Christopher Sanchez? Robbie Ray.

Right. All right. Well, that is a segue because we are talking about Christopher Sanchez. His velocity is way up this spring. He last pitched on Friday. He averaged 97 miles per hour on his sinker. That was 94.5 miles per hour last year. And through three starts, seven and two thirds, two runs,

12 strikeouts to one walk. And I just mentioned the ADP in that 150 to 160-ish range for Christopher Sanchez. Nick, what have you seen here from Sanchez in spring? I mean, yeah, he's sitting 96-97. And if you remember last year, Christopher Sanchez jumped two ticks up to 94.5. the conversation was, oh, is this going to make him worse because he has less time to act in the movement of the sinker and the change him? No, it made him better.

And entering this year, Christopher Sanchez's biggest problem was that he allowed too many hits. He had a nine hit or nine last year. That is really the big ding on him, a 123 whip. It's not because of the walk right, because that's great. He throws tons of strikes, but he throws sinkers over the plate that are super hitable by right-handers. That's legitimately it. So what is Christopher Sanchez doing? Two things, actually.

He has a cutter that he's experimenting with and not using as much as a. I want him to. He was only four like three times in a game. And that should be something going inside a right-handers. But he's throwing harder. And I don't care what you're going to tell me about the movement. If you're throwing 96-97, you should be allowing fewer hits on that sinker to right-handers, especially when you have that change-up to set up to. It's just going to make it even tougher for guys to handle the change-up when you have to

prepare for a higher velocity. So I see a great situation for Sanchez. You're on the Phillies. You're going to go every five days. You go deep into games as one of the most efficient pitchers in baseball. And you're going to get lots of wins. You're going to have a solid ERA. The whip is going to be the biggest question because it was 123 last year.

Hopefully we get that hit per nine down. And hopefully the strikeout rate can be won an inning. That's all I'm looking for. I don't need 25% 26. If you're going six innings of start, then 23 is good. That's roughly 6Ks of start. I'll take that all day. I love Christopher Sanchez this year.

Just not the same. kind of ceiling is Robbie Ray, but I'm a huge fan. My only concern here, and it's something that we sounded last year when his velocity made the first jump was, can he do that while keeping the walk rate low? Because he had really high walk rates throughout his minor league career. And then 2023, something clicked in the last two seasons, he's been just excellent control. And so far this spring, it hasn't been an issue. It wasn't an issue for the most part last season.

It was in April, but then it really settled down. He ended up with a very good walk rate. He's been toying with that cutter for a couple of off seasons in a row. He started throwing it last spring as well. It did not make the transition to the regular season with him. He has talked about it multiple times, both this spring and last spring. It's a point of emphasis for him. It's just not clear he has the feel for it.

Yeah. Yeah, I wish he did, though. That'd be cool. So you're the cutter guys. Let's talk about Jacob de Grom, who is throwing with less velocity on purpose, we think, because we spoke about this on yesterday's podcast, and he made a spring debut on Saturday. He threw two perfect innings with three strikeouts.

He averaged 97 miles per hour on his fastball. And Nick, you have DeGrom, or at least had, as your SP6. He's actually been dropping an ADP. In March, he's down to SP11. So there could be a buying opportunity if you are in. Is that the case? SP5. Oh.

Yeah. I just got to, I don't know. Maybe I'm just, I'm the crazy one and that's fine. But I think there's this concept of Jacob deGrom and we get really, really pinned on this idea that a guy is a guy. And then what happens every year is, you know, he is until he isn't. Look at Chris Sale last year. We had him. ADP, I think it was like 42nd.

starting pitcher or so. And my, my co-host, Eric Simolski on on the corner, was like, he's put him at 28 or so he was really on him. What do you know? He just wanted to have a young season because he was injury prone and we didn't know what was going to be and all this kind of stuff, right? But then there he is. And now Chris Dale's in a top 10

of starters and I don't want him there. And Jacob de Grom, well, the history is he had a precursor to Tommy John that messed him up in 2021. And 2022, he just kind of had like a kind of slew of random little things but delayed a season and then 2023 of course led to Tommy John so two of those three seasons

were really just Tommy John and before 2021 Jacob de Grom was a workhorse like he was just a proven workhorse like definitive number one best pitcher that's what it is and all I see now is a guy who came back in September pitched just like he did before is being smart about it now at 97 as supposed to 100, so he's not max efforting. And the Rangers are just going to be like, yeah, go ahead, do what you want to do. You know, I guarantee everybody listening right now, if you don't draft Jacob de Grom because you think, oh, May he's just going to get her in whatever, it's going to be May 1st and you're going to be saying, why didn't I draft Jacob de Grum?

You know, that's how it's going to feel in season. And I just think he's an absolute stud. And we were so much about his health, forgetting that I think it's, 40% of starters, if not more, go on the IL every year. 40%. It's just random. George Kirby, the stable one, is now, you know, has shoulder inflammation, right? Like, instead of focusing too much on that, go for the guy that we know is just absolute

quality at such a high level when he pitches. And yeah, he could absolutely go 130 plus innings. It's actually a possibility. I know it sounds crazy. Oh, he could, yeah. But he has the healthy elbow now. I'm a huge fan of Jacob de Graham. I think he's just going to soar.

He absolutely, like there is a difference between like, I'll put like Jacob de Grom and Tyler Glass now on one side. And even like Blake Snow, who has only thrown more than 130 innings twice in his career. But like he could. You know, he can throw 160 innings this season. Like if Jacob de Grom doesn't miss a start, he's probably going to get to like 150-ish.

it, you know, there's not a hundred and anings scene. He doesn't miss a start. He's going way past 150. But, well, they're going to, they're going to manage his endings. He's already, you know, they already announced he's only the number five. They're going to like, they're going to find ways to like the Braves did with Chris Sale, where I think he got to 160 something. Like maybe he get, yeah, maybe he gets more than 150.

But like, glass now. If he stays healthy, he's going to get to 170 innings. It's just a question of health. Whereas there are some guys like, Roki Sasaki or yeah that's probably the most high profile Shane McClainahan we're just like they just can't like there's just not going to be a world

in which they get to 160 inks you know like they're right the team is going to prevent it from happening completely and they're going to this is actually a great point I think that you're making that I those clubs are going to stretch them out actually think Glasno is in that too it's not like Glasno is going to go and then just whatever.

What I love about Jacob de Grom is I don't really think, I mean, yes, the Rangers saying, yeah, we're going to make it a little easy at first. We'll make him the fifth starter instead of the first starter. But I really don't think they're going to be skipping him or manipulating his in-games a lot. I think they're just going to let him go. And that means when we talk about the innings projection for Jacob de Grom,

it's not a full season in it ending up being 130 or something. It's going to be him and then stopping. and, ooh, the point I'm making the entire two months or whatever this preseason is that there are so many pitchers on the wire more than ever than I'm seeing going after drafts that we should be embracing the injured guys more that are going to be a hard stop that you replace when you put them on the IL because the replacement value is higher. So give me de Grom plus whatever that guy is on the wire because the wire is so plentiful right now. All right, let's talk about Chris's Marlins, particularly Ryan Weathers and Max Meyer, who are making some noise this spring. I know Lance Bratzowski has been all over Ryan Weathers' breakout.

Apparently, Weathers was sitting 98 miles per hour with his fastball in his first start. Also, Weathers changed his diet this offseason. Best shape of his life, you love to see it. Max Meier's velocity is way up this spring. He is throwing a new sinker and sweeper. It sounds like the velocity being up was a conscious decision. There was a video of him talking about,

lifting weights is off season, trying to build muscle and throw harder on purpose. So, so far that has worked. That has been the case. They both look really good. Chris, what do you think? Are you in? Are you buying in on your two Marlins here?

Ryan, Weathers, and Max Meyer. To a certain extent, yeah. I think there are times when both of those guys can get pushed into like, you know, especially Weathers. He's getting pushed into like the top 300 at times. And I'm not quite on board with that just because we haven't really seen. there was a stretch in May of last year where he had a couple of double-digit starts, double-ditch strikeout starts.

But for the most part, I think it's still late round flyer range for both of these guys. I like weather's more than Meyer. Meyer's always been like even when he's throwing harder, the fastball never really played up well before the injury. He's throwing harder than he ever has before, but still, I'm not sure how great that fastball is going to be the sweeper. he hasn't really thrown all that much. So I don't know if it's like a sea change,

but if you're in both of these cases, I think you're looking for, I mean, really any late round flyer. Like Nick said, I don't care about how things can go wrong for these guys. Because if Max Meyer comes out and has two bad starts to open the season, Max Meyer's out of here and you pick up the next guy who shows something. And there will be many guys in the first couple of weeks of the season who show

flashes of upside. So I love taking late round flyers on these guys. It's just a question of does the price stay low enough to make it easy to let go of them if we get to that point where they're not worth starting. I will also point out whether's I think the data was not quite as good in his second start. I don't know if he wasn't as good or if it was like a hot gun the first game, whatever, but both the shape and velocity on the four seamer were not quite as impressive in the second outing. So that's worth keeping in mind as well. Yeah, the ADP for both of these guys in March,

still outside the top 300, but I have seen Weathers creep up there a little bit. And in my TGFBI League, he was a top 300 pick. Weather's at 326.8 and Max Meyer at 388.8. So Nick, I know you do a lot of work for 12 team leagues. I mean, at that point, top 300, like outside the top 300, those are more like 15 teamers. So we're talking like deep league.

picks right here. What do you think about both Weathers and Max Meyer? Well, to be fair, those are post-300 picks in 15 teamers, but a lot of times those are the kind of guys that actually leap-frog a lot of the players game picked in the 200s because there's no reason to go for the kind of Toby boring guys

in the 200s. Might as well go for the upside flyer of Weathers and Meyer in those 12 teamers. And every day of the spring, I've done a daily article on pitcher list and a podcast going over the data of every single spring that we can get.

I'm reviewing every single picture that is relevant. And so I've been monitoring this whole Weather's and Meyer thing. And you're absolutely right, Chris, about weather's being a little, at times like he showcases these flashes and then it goes away. He even did last spring where there was,

hey, oh my gosh, he demolished the Yankees one game. Is this different? And it does look like it's a different version of Ryan Weathers this time around a little bit more. Yeah, well, Lance put out, he was able to get the data on both starts. right. It was a worse fastball the second time. Still impressive though, still a better one.

And a larger leap than he made this time last year, too. I actually talked to him about him losing 20 pounds. And it's, you know, best shape of your life, you can absolutely say that. But I am a huge believer in just mental framework and your mental health, how that can actually change you as an athlete. And I was a little bit sold with talking to him about it. that did seem like he was focused on the right things. And we are seeing that with his approach, too. We're seeing a really good change up from him to right handers, which is a paramount, I think, for him.

But honestly, the biggest difference maker of Ryan Weathers is if he can throw a sweeper for strikes against the lefties, that was a 51% strike rate against the left-handers last year, which is horrific. When you think about strike rate on a single pitch, it needs to be at least flirting with 60%. If you're throwing it over 30% of the time, it has to be over 60% or you're going to walk everybody or you're just going to be forced to throw

these meatball fastballs for strikes and when guys are sitting on it. So I don't know yet if Weathers has done that. The data we've got has been more about his fastball and I would love to know that he has a slider he can throw for strikes. He can't have been really cool. Overall, though, I do like it.

I think this is a better Ryan Weathers. I just don't know how much better. and it's on the Marlins again. Yeah. Which is too bad. With Max Meyer, it's a little different because I have more data on what he's been doing. And first and foremost, Max Meyer had this lower arm angle in college and then raise it up in the majors. And now it's back down.

This is his natural arm slot. He's throwing harder, two ticks harder, not just on that fastball, but also on the slider, which is now at 90 or 89.5 in the last one, but not. 88 and that's a legitimate slider it's pretty much the same movement of the one from last year but then he also carved out this new sweeper too uh at 85 which is great that's so cool and the four seamer has much better movement than it did before it's a better attack angle because it's lower so that means it's going to be better up in the zone and i've considered max myer as just like a slider guy and like well that's that breaks what i call the wasker rule you can't just have a good slider

and nothing else i thought he was i thought he was just like a close a future closer Oh, interesting. When I watched it, John Gray should be a closer. But, right, it's the same idea. Good slider and not enough to support it. But now with this fastball, okay, this is actually a good fastball now.

And then you have the sweeper to also help you against right handers. Nice. I do want to see a little bit more of his attack against left handers because if it's a slider in the foursimmer, you can certainly do that. It's nice to see something else. and that's the last little box I need checked for Max Meyer, but he has held that forcing for velocity,

and that is 96 now, not 94. And that's very encouraging. So I like taking a chance of Max Meyer. This looks like a new pitcher. All right. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll hit some quick news and notes and then back into the pitchers right after this.

Welcome back in news and notes. Not really much going on. Thankfully, after this weekend, we got enough news. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said Gunner Henderson is progressing well but remains unsure for opening day, which is not exactly what we want to hear, but I guess it's better than bad news. Brandon Nimmo resumed baseball activities Monday. He's dealing with right knee soreness and plantar fasciitis in his left foot. The Dodgers signed Dave Roberts to a four-year extension worth $32.4 million. That makes him the highest paid manager on a per-year basis in the sport. Speaking of the Dodgers, and I mentioned this already, Dave Roberts said Dustin May makes a lot of sense as the fifth starter,

and apparently Tony Gonsland had a little hiccup with his back while lifting weights, and Nick, now's your chance. You told everyone to draft Dustin May everywhere. Why is that? Because Dustin May is dope. It makes us feel dope. No, look, you want pitchers who pitch for the Dodgers. I know that sounds weird because they might go to the sixth man and all this stuff.

But when they are starting, it's really good. You have a good defense. You have an amazing offense. You're going to go five innings and get a win. And Dustin May has a skill set that actually speaks to getting outs. And not yet for strikeouts. It should, but he just hasn't had that time to lay down the foundation of getting outs with this sinker inside at 95 plus with a ton of horizontal run,

this hard cutter in the 90s, and then a curveball. It's really like a sweeper, but we're going to call it a curveball. He also has a really flat four-seamer that if he throws upstairs, he would be very effective with. But it just takes time. He's only made most 10 starts in a single season so far because of injury. And this looks like the season for Dustin Mae to actually get his feet wet and get a groove and actually develop. You know, you have to bake in that time for guys to get their MLB innings in and be able to build upon their foundation.

So I think this is it for Dustin May. I'm so excited for him, and he's just going to be a steal in drafts. His ADP in March 382.5 for Dustin May. I will say, I think in a points league or quality starts leagues, right, Nick? Like, those are probably going to be hard to come by for Dustin May. But if you play in a league where wins matter,

like, yeah, maybe he'll give you five and okay ratios and things like that. But I feel like, are we going to get many six-innings starts from him? I don't honestly, I don't see why not because Dustin May to me speaks to an efficient pitcher. If you are a synchrably going inside a right hander's, that means you're going to get outs before you get too deep into counts. And the Dodgers are, you know, we talk about them limiting their starters all the time and whatnot. You can't do that every time because the bullpen will suffer. And the Dodgers don't have Dustin May in their plans for their playoff run. He's not part of that equation.

They already have too many aces for that. So they're going to utilize Dustin May and get as much out of him as he possibly can. I very much see that he can go six innings. I mean, might take a moment for him to really get there, but he should be a regular start every five days going past 85 pitches in his appearances. All right. We do have some stat cast standouts from Monday's action.

Bo Bouchet, three hard hit balls, including a home run. With a 109.5 exit velocity, he is having a strong spring so far 10 for 29 with two home runs. This was one of those like moon shots that he pulled to the left side. It looked like he hit it like 480 feet. It was probably like 380. I think it helps that there's not. He hit it out of the stadium.

But, you know, it's a pretty small stadium. So, but it was, it was, it was, he got a lot of it. Hey. Is there reverse Samson? Like, he's no longer Flobichet. He's doing the, he's doing the Vlad Jr. Frank's on top of this. Nick, last year with Flannier,

he cut his hair, he cut his hair, he took off last year. Same thing's going to happen with Boba Chette, so there you go. Hashtag analysis. Kevin Gosman, two and a third innings, three runs, four strikeouts, his velocity up one mile per hour

on each of his fastball and splitter. The slider was up 2.6 compared to last year. It's a new pitch. And he had six whiffs on 53 pitches. Yeah, he talked about, I hadn't seen any talk about this. but for the first time after this start, he said,

I was happy with the slider. You know, anytime you're working with a new pitch, it's important to get those reps in. So this is an intentional decision to throw a different slider. I don't know how I feel about the Kevin Gosman spring data so far. It's good. It seems like a good sign that the velocity's back. The splitter looks way different than it has in years past,

way less drop than we're used to, I think like four or five. inches less drop than he had. So I get how much he relies on the splitter. I'm a little worried. For those listening, Nick just gave us the thumbs down on Kevin Gosman. He's Kevin God. I mean, look, it's really hard to be a two-pitch pitcher with your second pitch being a splitter. Kevin Gosman was able to do for ages because he had the most consistent splitter in the majors. And as Chris just said, splitter is not the same. It wasn't last year. And it doesn't look like it is this year. I don't, he's not a feel for spin guy. That slider is not going to save him.

Yep. Some other stack has standouts here. Mitchell Parker, four innings, two runs, four strikeouts. He had 11 whiffs on 48 pitches. Show to Imanaga, four and a third, four runs allowed, two homers allowed. Velocity was down quite a bit here. Fastball down 2.6 miles per hour. The splitter down 1.8. The sweeper down 3.1. Trista McKenzie, 3 and 2 thirds. innings, seven hits, two runs, three strikeouts. His velocity remains way up, but the results have been very inconsistent this spring. Yamamoto, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts. He was up to 75 pitches. He had 12 whiffs on those 75. Seven of those came on the splitter. Hunter Green, four innings, one run, five strikeouts, zero walks. He had nine wifts. He looked ridiculous. Forty-nine

pitches. He averaged 99.3 miles per hour on the fastball. I'm not sure we want more velocity. from Hunter Green, but he did look really good. Logan Webb, four and two-thirds, two runs, five strikeouts. He had 10 whiffs on 64 pitches, including four on that cutter that he introduced late last season, and he actually threw the cutter 20% of the time in this outing. I am a little intrigued by that cutter for Logan Webb. Griffin Canning, three-and-two-thirds shutout with five strikeouts.

He had 11 whiffs on 55 pitches. Felix Bottista gave up two earned runs on three hits. He struck out two. His velocity was up from his previous outing. He averaged 97 on his sinker. It was 95.5 in his previous outing. So I feel like this was, although it wasn't a great result, I felt like this was a step in the right direction for Felix Batista.

Any names you guys want to touch on here because I just throw a lot out there. You got me so excited about Mitchell Parker for a second because as I did my ridiculous top 400, I reviewed Mitchell Parker and I thought, man, he really should be throwing the slider more to Ritees because I think this is a really good pitch and he needs it. And yeah, he'll throw his it for lefty. And he's saying like, oh, he's got five whiffs.

I'm like, oh, my gosh. So I went on our spring training app and looked at the data. And yeah, he just threw them against lefties. I'm so disappointed right now. But it is weird to see Logan Webb just throw 14% changeups. I'm not quite used to it yet. And I'm still weirded out by that. But at least he's trying the cutter and the sweeper and all of those things.

so that's fine. And yeah, Hunter Greens up 1.5 ticks. That's dumb. You should not be doing that. Any concern with Imanaga here, whose velocity was down quite a bit and he gave up two homers in this outing? Yeah, not really, honestly.

I think he's not going to be good for the Japan series. I'll tell you that. You shouldn't expect anything out of those starters we saw it last year, where that's like a spring training game. The velocity was at 89, absolutely down 2.6 ticks in total.

16 to 17 inches of her is actually something that we saw on a four seamer from Minaga last year. It is interesting to see him throw seven different pitches, though. Oh. That's not usual at all. He was pretty much just a two-pitched guy for each side,

spliters against righties, sweepers against lefties. I'm thinking of this as just kind of him getting into the groove, honestly, as much. And he was able to locate the fourssemer really well, to right handers and down with sploters to the right hands as well. So I'm not freaking out right now. All right, let's wrap up with some little rapid fire here,

some spring training pitchers. Jackson Job has added some new pitches, but the whiffs haven't been there this spring. Nick, what have you seen from Jackson Job? Obviously, big name prospect, but again, we are still waiting to see more whiffs, I guess, at the Major League level. Yeah, I think it'll come in time, honestly.

He has too good of a curbball and too good of a cutter. It's just kind of one of those things. I think it's more because of the extensions really bad. Is that six feet as opposed to like seven feet of the elites? But Jackson Job, to me, if the tigers might slow play him and piggyback him with Keeter Montaro or something initially, he should be a stud this year. So I'm a huge fan of drafting him.

He's someone I'm going to give more than two starts. You know, like I want to be patient with him in season because it does feel like he's still figuring out the right approach, the right way to attack hitters, but I think once he figures it out, the stuff should play. It didn't really last year in the minors, only a 25% strikeout rate,

while I think maxing out at AA hasn't gotten the strikeouts of this spring either, but he passes all the stuff metric tests. He passes the eye test. I think it'll be there at some point. Yes, and Jackson Job does have RP eligibility for those who play on head-to-head points leagues on CBS. So, Sparp there, a little bit of a cheat code.

Would you guys rather have, the ADP for Job is 247 in March. Would you rather have Job or Bowden-Francis? Joe. Jackson-Jope. All right. I guess specifically. Boutt in Francis, everyone.

Specifically as a spark. I'd rather have Bates. Specifically as a spark, I guess, Francis is more projectable for the workload. The quality starts. But yeah, I think in a roto league, I'd rather have Job for the strikeout upside. I'm leaning into this too much, but like Bowden Francis, a 12 teamer just move on from that. I think he's just going to be an absolute headache. So if you drafted him, just drop him, array.

Yeah, just go pick up someone else. I know there's going to be someone else on your waiver. Don't worry about it. Would you rather Jackson Job or Nicola Dolo? Joe. I still have La Dolo ahead. What about Job or Walker Bueller? Job.

It's Job. With Ladolo, it's like he's going to be back and forth. He won't be able to make a good decision with him. Bueller is still too much of a wealth card without the same upside as Joe. Well, let's talk about Walker Bueller because he's looked pretty good in two starts so far, five innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Don't think we've had any stack cast data yet. Correct me if I'm wrong, Nick, but what have you seen or read about Walker Bueller? I don't know.

I just hope for the best at this point. That's really it. Yeah, the lack of data is so fresh. Like, don't they have a nice park? Like, isn't it new? Like, how? They have money. Of the stadium.

They show it in the park randomly. That's dumb. Yes. All right. So just send someone to, I don't know, whatever small town in Florida they play in and have someone just write it down every time. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, Bueller is a tough one. He had the brutal season last year coming back from the second Tommy John. And he did pitch much better in the postseason. he's on a one really only two starts though it was also post season two which is also like it's a different environment you really can't expect that for this and he talked about like i think he talked about after winning the world series like i reached a point where i was just like screwed if i'm going to get hurt in the world series i'm going to get hurt in the world series but i'm going to stop like holding back and i don't know if you can expect that in the regular season yep

let's talk about chris boobitch who is a name both scott and chris like as a sleeper this season He is a SPARP on CBS as well, which makes him pretty interesting in that format. And he made another spring start here on Monday. Three innings, two runs, one walk, zero strikeouts. Velocity looked fine. Only four whiffs on 39 pitches. He threw more sinkers and cutters in this outing. Nick, do you like Chris Bubbage?

Well, I mean, only four whiffs on 39 pitches as well, like a 10, 11% swing strike rate. That's fine. But, yeah, I do. 93 mile per hour fastball. It's the velocity that he had as a reliever is carrying over to being a starter. The big thing I am weirded out about, though, is, is it good enough for me to care in a 12-teamer? Is he that good? Or is it just kind of like, oh, you have those hints of those moments?

I can't put my finger on it quite yet. So he's one of those guys I haven't been able to quite pull the trigger on in 12-teamers because I've been getting Dustin May or I've been getting Max Meyer or Lucas Giolyto instead. but I might just be missing out on him and you might have a good year. So definitely keep an eye out for my love for 15 teamers. Yeah, Bubich last year as the reliever was amazing. 267 ERA 102 whip, nearly a 15% swinging strike rate, 11.6K per 9. It's just how translatable is that over, you know, five or six innings as a starter, you know,

continuously throughout the season? That is the big question right now with Chris Bubich. Two pitching prospects of note Quinn Matthews and Jack Leiter Matthews only made one start but he looked good two shutout innings with three strikeouts one of those came against Vlad Jr. He made him look pretty foolish.

Also Quinn Matthews took on a huge workload last year. For me it's just a matter of when. The Cardinals have a lot of pitching depth entering the season but you know stuff happens. People get hurt maybe they trade one of those guys to the Yankees, who knows. And then Jack Leiter you know

I hope he figures it out. I'm rooting for the kid. I mean, being an early round pick and it just hasn't worked out to this point. But his velocity has been way up. He's added a sinker and one of these new kick changeups that everyone's talking about. Nick,

when are you, when are you expecting to get anything out of either of these two? Because right now, Jack Lighter's on the outside looking in for the Rangers as well. Well, it's an interesting situation for both of them. You have with the Cardinals, Audrey Palante, who is two ticks down right now and

looking bad, right? The velocity is lower. Also, the cut fastball has less cut action, which is what made it so good. And they might want to replace him before even the season starts. They have Michael McGrady. They also have Matthew Libertor who's throwing one at one point higher right now, which is pretty interesting too. He's looking like his best self. And the Cardinals might be aggressive there. But then you might kind of get this revolving door. And Quinn Matthews should come up pretty soon. I would have imagine by May, it's possible they push it until June or so. But the second that Quinn Matthews does appear, I'm a big fan of what he does.

Watching him this spring, I don't like talking about it this way, but there are times when you watch a pitcher and subconsciously, you just know that he's going to throw a strike and it's going to be effective, right? You don't expect the batter to succeed. You expect the pitcher to succeed. And he was very much in control of the inning, changeups and sliders and fastballs. It just all looked very good. With Jack Leiter, I wasn't on Kumar Rocker who's been rocked, and Lighter's been much better. And even throwing a sinker to help with that four seam,

which is awesome to see that from Lighter's throwing harder as well, up to 98, unbelievable. And the situation in Texas is weird, because you get Tyler Malley, who is looking terrible. Oh, move on to seem like in 94 or so. He had diminished velocity last year, but then Mallet is only now at 91 or 90 miles per hour. Yes, he survived four innings of one earned run or whatever it was.

But are they really going to lean into Tyler Malley and try and get the most out of him? Or are they going to move him to the pen? Are they just going to flat or release him? I don't know. And then who steps in? It could be Adrian Houser who's throwing two-past-hour harder. He's at 95. He's not at 93.

And Houser has pitched innings before, right? He was on the Mets last year. So you might see it. You might see that happen. And lighter has to wait. but it does feel like the Rangers want him to get major league hitters out. They don't want him to be pitching

against the minor leagues anymore here. They want him to get those reps. So you might see a lighter quickly. And like Quinn Matthews, the second that Jack Lighter is starting, I want him on my 12 teamers. This is a massive impact guy. One of the best rated four seamers by PLV, our pitching side of pitcher list. It is insanely good. Yeah, I'm circling both of these guys

to make sure I jump on them. have a stash spot open. I'm going to grab them. Chris, I know you like Quinn Matthews, but I haven't gotten your thoughts on Jack Lighter. What do you think here? Yeah, just for tomorrow's fantasy baseball today newsletter, I wrote a deep sleeper for every team, just guys outside of the top 450 in ADP. And he's my choice for the Rangers. I think there's a chance he has jumped Kumar Rocker in the pecking order for them. You know, it probably requires an injury or someone going really wrong early in the season. but I think if an opportunity arises early on,

I think Jack Leiter might be more likely to get that chance than Kumar Rocker. Both seem like they're still not finished products, but the work lighter did to add the change up, add the sinker, you know, really rounds out his arsenal in a way that, I mean, I was pretty excited when he got the call last year. His triple I numbers were massive. He was pretty terrible. He couldn't throw strikes.

I think that might always be an issue. and he is someone that when we talk about like, hey, who should the Rangers closer be? There is a part of my mind that goes, maybe it should be Jack Lighter and just let him air it out in the, but I'd rather see him start first. So, you know. Or I guess Kumar Rocker in that same vein, right?

Like there was a lot of reliever risk coming out of college, right? And, you know, maybe that's where he ultimately winds up at the back end of the bullpen there. Nick, you also sent me some deeper league names. or maybe just names for dynasty leagues or names to know for later on in the season. Chase Petty with the Reds, Noah Cameron with the Royals, Richard Fitz, with the Red Sox,

and you wrote all of the White Sox, parentheses, Shane Smith, Grant Taylor. So I don't think you actually mean like Martin Perez, but, you know, all the White Sox. These are all names for this year, believe it or not. Chase Petty is looking great. There are a lot of these guys with the Reds. There's Chase Burns.

Chase Burns looked. He's not on sign. He looked so good. He hasn't pitched any professional ball. I know. You know, he's not going to be up this year at all, but he looked insanely good. Yeah. You have Connor Phillips, who does not.

He actually almost replicated the 12 pitches, three walks get pulled from the game in the spring, in one of his spring starts already. And, but you have Chase Petty, who's this, he's become a pitcher. He used to be a flame throwing like 99 to 100. Then he actually brought it down to like almost. say low to mid-90s, and now he's closer to mid-to-upper 90s, with better command of full arsenal, I wouldn't be surprised if the Reds found themselves

in some trouble in May and said, you want to let's just bring up Chase Petty. He's looking great, and he's clearly better than a lot of these other things that we would do to pass a time like a Lion Richardson. You like a more than Red Louder? Ret Louder, right? Who he's delayed, of course, right?

He would obviously go up before Chase Petty because, of course, of last year. Still, it's just one of those cases of Chase Petty's clearly ready. And he's exciting and should be picked up the second that happens. Noah Cameron with the Royals was throwing 92 last year in AAA. And I knew him as a crafty lefty with a really good changeup, curveball, but just needed more velocity. And what you know, he's been 94 plus this spring. Was it 95? Brought down to 94 and is stuck there with a cutter as well. And he's a command guy. And this is really good, much better than Daniel Lynch to the 4th. So if Michael Lorenzi,

isn't doing well. Like if there's, I just haven't heard anything about Michael Lorenzen, really, just assumed here he is at the fourth. Maybe, you know, Alchemarsh too, of course, being involved there,

but Noah Cameron seems like the Royals have really pushed him into starting a lot of these spring games and give him a lot of opportunity. And it seems to me that he's going to get that chance really quickly and I would be very interested there. Richard Fitz might be the fifth starter for the Red Sox. You have Brian Beaux, he's delayed.

And you have Cutter Crawford, who's delayed. And we were talking about this being a six man, and both those guys are gone. So it's between Fitz and Quinn Priester. And Fitz showed up out of nowhere. This was like, I was like 94 with a cut four seamer and maybe a good breaking ball last year. All of a sudden, it's throwing like 97 plus 98. And with a ridiculous breaking ball, it was insane. And guess what?

The second game, we didn't get data. I think him and Prester. Priester and Fitz both their velocity is up this spring. But, yeah, Fitz is on my. deep sleepers list. I think there's some interesting stuff going on there. I mean, Fitz was off the charts. Like, if that actually stuck, he looked like a top 25 starter. That's how good that data was. So we're just like, show us more. And we got to wait like another week. And maybe we'll get it. What about the White Sox, all of them? Yeah. Look, Hagan Smith exists and Noah Schultz exists.

And those guys are great. And the second that they come up, you want them. They're not going to come up right away. Noah Schultz might in like June, July or something like that. But the White Sox got this guy, Shane Smith, from the Milwaukee Brewers in the Rule 5 draft. And he is like killing it. It's like 97 mile per hour fastballs that are great. And he's up like three ticks from last year. He was mostly reliever than they moved him to a starter. And the thing is, the White Sox either are going to use him or they have to send him back.

Yep. So yeah, they're going to use them. And I won't be surprised if he actually happens to beat out Bryce Wilson for the fifth spot because they're just like, oh, well, this thing works. We're just going to do that. Or they put him in relief at first, but they've been using him as a starter. So there's a name that just came out of nowhere. I'm shocked. The Brewers didn't protect him.

His numbers last year were pretty good. I think like he just showed out with this new velocity over the winter. And then there's Grant Taylor. Oh my gosh. Have you guys actually watch Grant Taylor? I have not. I haven't. No.

Okay, this is what I do. Every day, guys, I tell you, I look over every single pitching line. I just have it produced and I delete the ones that I just know were irrelevant. But then Grant Taylor, I see this. It's two innings. Zero hits, zero earned runs, one walk, six strikeouts. And I go, okay, what happened? How did this happen?

Grant Taylor was this high draft pick and everything. He would have been the ace, if not for Paul Skell. at LSU. And he had an injury and all this. And finally, we see him. He's throwing 98, touching 100, with absurd extension, or like 97th percentile, 98th extension, like Logan Gilbert almost, with a flat attack angle, which makes it really hard to hit when it's upstairs.

But here's the thing. He couldn't even throw that for strikes. It was two for nine fasts for strikes. He threw absurd cutters at 92, 93 in curveball. at 85 on this complete vertical plane. He looked like a better version of Tyler Glasnow because Tyler Glasnow has a hitable fastball and he doesn't have a hitable fastball.

It's insane. He has probably not going to start. He's probably going to relieve if he does show up this year. Yeah, he only through like 19 innings last year, I think. He's so good. Who cares? So, yeah, but like the White Sox weirdly have a lot of interesting pitch we could see at the major league level this year.

No, Schultz is one of the top pitching prospects in baseball. I like Shane Smith. Really, somebody drafted him in my AL-only Labor League. I couldn't believe that. Yeah. I want to know who drafted him because I need to follow that person's work more because I had no idea who this was.

And then I saw a clip of him striking out the side against the Dodgers. And I was like, all right, I'm sold. He looks pretty good. Like, let's do it. Yeah, like you strike out. I think it was Shohatani, Freddie Freeman, and Will Smith all in a row. It's like, yeah, I'll put you on my sleepers list.

Yeah. Yeah, that's all I needed to see. Nick, do you have anything on Sean Burke also in the White Sox or projected in the White Sox rotation? I've seen some pretty smart people in the industry bring them up as like a deeper sleeper as well. Yeah. So last year, actually, he had three starts and I was streaming him because after the first one, he was showing 96 mile per hour fastballs that were, you know, looking like whiffable fastballs. With two breaking balls there that got whiffs, the slider in the curve.

And I was like, what? okay, no idea about this. And he had two good matchups afterwards, and I ran him for both and it was great. And I was really excited about this. Now, in the spring, instead of 96 plus, it's at 94 in that fastball. And that makes me a little more tepid.

And again, these are White Sox pitchers. Not the best scenario. It's good for volume, because the White Sox don't really care, but for wins, not so much. So for me to be in on a guy like Sean Burke, they need to be exceptional in such a degree. And I'm not quite sold on Sean Burke.

It was a smaller sample in September, lower velocity now in the spring. And he's going to be the price of free. So I'm not really touching it until he showcases they can be 96 plus and throw strikes with all three again. Again, that was Sean Burke. And he is Nick Pollock. You know him, you love him from Pitcherless. It would be nice if I could say your name while you're here on the podcast. but he is Nick Pollock.

Nick, what else do you have going on? Just promote again before we head out here. Yeah, we have our ultimate draft guy coming out on Friday. I have my top 100 on Wednesday at pitcher list. It got to have a list of pitchers at pitcher list. But really, we have amazing tools. The stuff I'm talking about with all this data, you can have it too. It's for PL Pro members.

We also have the best baseball discord on the internet. It is only for our users, which means that we actually moderate it. and it's not toxic, it's not brotastic, all that stuff. Like, people just want to talk about baseball and not hate each other. I'm in there. Exactly. Chris Towers talks all the time because he's like, oh, man, this is where I want to hang out. These are smart, cool people.

So go sign up for PL Plus or PL Pro today. All right. We are going to wrap there for Chris and Nick Pollack. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a 5-star rating on Apple or Spotify. And we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

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