Fantasy Baseball Today - 2025 Starting Pitcher Tiers! Ryan Pressly Traded to the Cubs! (1/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Let's get right into Scott's starting pitcher tiers, beginning with the First Rounders tier (2:30)! ... The Also Elite tier has a bunch of pitchers with a range of outcomes (7:58). ... What separates��the Near Elite tier from the Good Glob (18:36)? ... The start of the Good Glob has 14 names (27:10). Can you wait to get our SP1 in the Glob? ... News (38:47): Ryan Pressly was traded over to the Chicago Cubs! Will he be their closer? ... Back to starting pitcher tiers, with the End of the Good Glob (46:42)! ... Names in the Fallback Options tier are basically free in drafts (54:58). ... There are some SPARPs in the Last Resorts tier (58:57). ... Any names to know in the Leftovers tier (1:01:54)? 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 league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hello, welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, January 28th. I am Frank Sample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, the last of our... Tears Podcasts. And we are talking about starting pitcher tiers today. Plus we did get some news over the weekend. Ryan Presley traded over to the Cubs. So we will find out where he moved up to in the rankings. Is he there closer?

Probably, but we'll talk about it. Let's jump in. There's lots to get to. And get into starting pitcher tiers. The first rounders includes three names. Terrick Scoobel, Zach Wheeler, and Paul Skeen. All three finished as top four starting pitchers.

in Roto and head to head points per game last season. Chris Sale was the other of the fourth that we do not have in this tier. And, you know, Scott, based on ADP, Zach Wheeler going a little bit lower than the rest of these guys. Skeen, Scoobel, you know, one, two turn, early second round picks.

Zach Wheeler down at 22.8 in NFBC ADP. Why do you think he's more of a two-three turn pick rather than one-two turn like those other guys? Because he's not sexy. It's in his mid-30s. You know, you kind of age out of sexiness at that point. But he's the most established of them. And I actually do rank him ahead of Skeens personally.

So obviously, I'm going to put him in the same tier. I'm not going to tier him lower than Skeens if I haven't ranked ahead of Skeens. But, yeah, I think that's the only reason why. And he has proven his durability over the years, which is funny because it's kind of of funny because that's not the way his career started. He was an injury prone guy at the start of his career. But he eventually figured it out. And you can pencil him in for 190 to 210 innings every year.

And if I'm going to invest a first or second round picking a pitcher, which I'm not. But if I'm going to, I want to make sure he gives me that ace workload. So scuba, he gave it to us last year. Can he bounce back from that and do it again until a pitcher does it? and I'm not totally sure. I'll give him the slight edge over Wheeler. But Skeens, we haven't even seen him do it once yet. And in the year 2025, I'm not just going to assume any pitcher can do it.

So that's why I'm going to put Wheeler in that same tier and rank him slightly ahead of Skeens, which means the most likely one that I would draft from this group is probably Wheeler since he is going later, as you point out. Yeah, I think it comes down to strikeout. upside right like you know skeins and scoble are elite strikeout rate guys wheeler very very good but it's more 10 than 11k per nine he's been top five in strikeouts i think two straight years he's been 200 plus three of the last four i i think this is a exactly what scott said you can talk yourself into oo scubel and ooh skeins especially oh you're sexy noise chris That's the sexy noise, yeah.

And like, yeah, Wheeler's just going to get 210 to 230 strikeouts. He has a 250 strikeout season, technically 247, but we're rounding up. And I feel like it's just he's old so he doesn't have upside. And I think this is always a mistake that people make, that they assume that just because someone's established, they have a narrow range of outcomes. but Wheeler, we've seen stretches from him, including the second half of last season, where he pitched every bit as well, as completely dominantly,

as Paul Skeens and Terrick's Gubel at their best. So I, Wheeler's my number two starting pitcher. I think you can make an easy case for number one if you want to. Yeah, look at these ERAs from Zach Wheeler since joining the Phillies. 292, 278, 282, 361, 257. He also has 190.

92 plus innings in three of the past four years. So about as proven established a workhorse as you can get amazing ratios yet. It kind of just feels like a perceived lack of upside, but that's probably not fair to Zach Wheeler. Scott, you already answered this question. Chris, I guess just a yes or no, are you likely to draft any of these three at cost? Again, the ADPs are Skeens at 12.7, Scouble 15.5, and Wheeler at 22.8. I believe in the mock draft we did last week, I took two of them. at the two three turn.

I believe I took Scoobel and Wheeler. Was that the two three or the one two? It was the two three. Yeah, it was like 10th. Yeah, they had slipped. Yeah, I think that was the one where I picked third overall and I came back and got, I think that. All three of them slipped. And I actually went out against my own rankings and took Cattel Marte and Raphael Devers there,

I think over Wheeler. So, and you got the other one, Frank. So Chris took two. You took one, Frank. but that was a draft where everybody was kind of passing up the pitchers early. Did you like the way your team turned out, Chris? I was trying to look at it, but yeah, I did it do the thing? Sorry, I was trying to look for it just now.

But yeah, I think on the whole, I'm happy with how that team came out. Yeah, sorry, I took Scoobel with the 10th pick of the second round, so I went Judge Scoobel, Wheeler, and then just focused on hitting for the next, you know, eight rounds. and I think that's a viable approach. I'm not saying you should do it or have to, but if those guys are going to fall out of the second round especially, yeah, I think they're worth taking. Yeah, and a reminder that ADP is exactly that it's an average.

Not every draft will go exactly the way that we just said. They won't go as first round picks in a lot of drafts either. So it's, you know, every draft is different. Things will vary, but sometimes player slip. So be ready in case that does happen. The also elite tier includes Corbin Burns, Chris Sale, Logan Gilbert, Cole Regans, Garrett Crochet, Dillon Sees, and Blake Snell. So this is a mix of old and new. All have SP1 potential. And things to know about this here.

Corbyn Burns signed with the D-backs this offseason. Garrett Crochet traded over to the Red Sox. And Blake Snell signed with the Dodgers. The ADP for this group spans round three through five. You have Logan Gilbert at the high end at pick 20, 80p of 28.3. And Snell on the bottom at 51.5. Scott, we know you're unlikely to draft from the first round tier. Are you likely to draft anybody from this tier? Still unlikely, but it's possible. It's happened a couple times in our mocks. Usually it's Snell since he is the last to go. Though I will note, and you don't have the most updated version yet, Frank, because I just decided this over the weekend. Snell is going to be a tier lower in points league.

because we did a points league mock recently. And when the tiers said I should take them, I was like, but I really don't want to, not in a points league. I mean, he's going to be, this is a guy who's thrown 130 innings twice in his career, has never averaged six innings per start, and is almost certainly going to be pitching in a six-man rotation. I'm not sure he's a top 24 starter in a head to points league. And his biggest appeal is strikeouts,

and the effect of those are, they're nerfed. As the kids would say, do the kids say that anymore? The kids even know what Nerf is? It's a video game term now. They've nerfed. I've heard it in games. Yeah. Hawkeye was recently nerfed in Marvel Rivals.

My buddy was very upset. So they don't go out and play with actual Nerf. They just stay inside and make references to it. Exactly. That's such an old man comment. I'm sorry. I like video games too. Yeah.

So, no, probably not going to draft from this group. I've come close to drafting sale because he's dropped to like round five but I'm basically not drafting a pitcher until round five I think and I'm not dead set on doing it then so it would probably have to be one from this group

one of these also elite for me to do it in round five. Yeah some of these pitchers do come close to round five Blake Snell is in round five Dylan C's at 51.2 Cole Reagan's 49.8 so there is a chance some of these names could slip to the end of round four early round five

so keep that of mind Blake Snell has double-digit wins twice in his career. And Blake Snell's third highest win total in his whole career is eight. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the two years that he's thrown more than 130 innings, the two years that he's had double-digit wins are the two years he's won Syung Awards. I mean, he's unstoppable when he does it. Every four years, Blake Snell is a monster. Yeah.

I mean, particularly the shallower. the league you play in, there's something to per game production, per start production in this case, since we're talking about starting pitchers. The quality of the replacement has to be fairly high, which is why I emphasize shallow leagues. But Blake Snell, from the time he came back from his groin issues, was just an absolute monster last year. And I'm sure carried a number of people to championships. So that's why in certain contexts, I'm willing to, to overlook that. If we take a look at the range of outcomes

of pitchers within this tier, I would say Corbyn Burns and Logan Gilbert feel the safest, as safe as a starting pitcher could be, I guess. The rest, I think, have pretty wide range of outcomes. If you look at Chris Sale, there is still injury risk.

He ended the season with a back injury. Cole Regans has only done it for one full season. Garrett Crochet hasn't even showed that he can handle an ACE workload, but clearly has Ace stuff. Dylan Cease's yearly production has been up and down throughout his career.

And then Blake Snell, as we've already mentioned multiple times, I mean, he might be the best pitcher in baseball when he's on, but he's streaky. And again, he's only thrown 130 innings, you know, once in his last five full seasons. So, you know, Chris, while the upside is apparent within this tier, I think there's a pretty wide range of outcomes for a lot of these names. I'm less likely to draft from this tier than I think the first tier,

even though there are more names in this one. because if I'm trying to get, if I'm taking an early round pitcher, it's got to be an anchor. And I don't think you can call most of these guys an anchor. Like Gilbert, he's got a good clean bill of health. Corbyn Burns,

extremely long track record of health. I think you have to go back to like the 2020 season to find him going on the aisle, maybe 2021. And it was like an oblique or a lat or something. So yeah, I'm not concerned about those. too, but, and Dylan Cs, obviously doesn't have, he's, he's, he's one of those I've looked,

and I don't think he's ever missed to start as a professional. He's a workhorse. He's just as inconsistent as any pitcher in baseball on a year-to-year basis. And so I don't love drafting any of these guys as my anchor. Corbyn Burns is the one I probably will draft the most, because he is, my number, my number four in both formats. And this is another one where it's the quote unquote boring veteran guy, but he was the sexy one not too many years ago. I mean, like two years ago, Corbyn Burns was the big upside. And the strikeout rate has diminished. And ultimately when we talk about upside, we're talking about strikeout rate or strikeout total really is mostly of what the fantasy community is talking about there.

And Burns only struck out 181 last year. But it was three straight years, 200 before that. Andy was pitching. He rediscovered his cutter at the end of last season and his strikeout rate was like 26% in the final month. That's not what it was at his best, but it's what it was when he had 200 strikeouts in 2023. So I think Corbyn's got a actually better situation backing him up,

I think in Arizona. I think Corbyn Burns is kind of the clear number four SP for me. I like the cost too. 39.6 is the ADP for Corbyn Burns. proven, established. Yes, the strikeout rate has been down, but you're getting him in the early fourth round. I do like that. And he has addressed recently the lack of strikeouts the past couple of years. He was doing an interview on MLB Network with Brian Kenney and he said, quote, yeah, so the main goal this year was to fill up the strikes on more. We thought we had a lot more

room to grow in first pitch strikes and overall strike percentage. By doing that, we got a lot of early contact, which allowed us to pitch deeper into games and keep the pitch count down. We kind of made that adjustment in September, focusing on getting the swing and miss stuff back, and increasing strikeouts again. Knowing that I can do both is great, and I think it will help me prolong my career and give me different avenues to get outs. Overall, I think it was a good year and a productive one. So he's addressed it.

He understands it. I don't know that he'll ever get back to the, can he be a strikeout per inning over 200 innings? I think easily. I think easily, because I think he pitched most of this past season without his best pitch, the cutter. And it was remarkable how well he did. It eventually came back to bite.

in August, which is why he buckled down and tried to get to the bottom of what was going on with the cutter. And that article from the Baltimore banner last year, he goes into great detail about the whole process. The cutter, he was throwing it too hard. It had too much spin. It wasn't really cutting like it was supposed to. And his other pitches were good enough that he was surviving without it. But he needed to get it back and he got it back in September, the number show.

So I think Corbyn Burns, I'm with Chris. He's, yeah, I tier the top three separately. but to me, Burns is the obvious number four, and I get more confused. That's like the point in the rankings where I get confused once Burns is ranked. Yeah, I do have Logan Gilbert one spot ahead, but Corbyn's top five starting pitcher for me,

top four for the rest of these guys. Burns is going off the board 10 picks after Garrett Crochet in January and NFBC. Crochet has overall SP1 upside, and maybe Burns still does too, but just such a lot. lack of track record and... I mean, one season in his entire career

dating back to college where he stayed healthy. Yeah. So, yeah. Especially a wide range of outcomes there for Garrett Crochet moving over to the Red Sox as well. Big thanks to everyone for hanging out and watching us live on YouTube. Please hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

We are on the quest to 30,000 YouTube subscribers. We actually just crossed 28K. So we do appreciate everyone who's subscribed already. But if you If you haven't and you're watching this, please make sure to subscribe. Let's take our first break when we return back into starting pitcher tiers right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today.

Starting pitcher tiers, we are up to the near elite. Garrett Cole, George Kirby, Framber Valdez, and Michael King. So a smaller tier here, all pretty established with the exception of Michael King, who's only done it once in his career as a starting pitcher. The ADP for this group spans rounds five and six. So it's a pretty close range. And with George Kirby on the high end at pick 49, Franber Valdez on the low end at pick 70.

Scott, what separates the players in this tier from the much larger tier that is just below them? Is it that you just trust these guys to be borderline SP ones at the end of the day? Or end of the season, I guess. I guess these guys have a, a pretty good chance of being aces. Well, what follows the very large group of pitchers that follow,

I think either they're going to fall short of ace status in terms of volume or they're going to fall short of ace status in terms of like ratios. They're going to be just a little shy of ACE standing one way or the other. But Garrett Cole, George Kirby, Framber Valdez, Michael King. You know, it's not as much as the previous group, how likely they are to be aces. but I think they have a pretty good chance of functioning like aces. So it's a small group though.

It's here we are at the biggest position starting pitcher, three tiers in. They've all been pretty teeny tiny tiers so far. While we're on this here, Scott, I think most people listening will hear the name Garrett Cole and they'll perk up and say, why isn't Garrett Cole in a higher tier? I mean, he's been one of the most reliable pitchers

for, I don't know, the past decade or so. Is it injury risk, A combination of both? What do you think? Not much age, maybe a little, because even prior to the elbow stuff this year, there were some small signs of decline with the strikeouts. But he won the Cy Young that year. It wasn't a huge concern. It really goes back to that elbow injury that cost him the first half, 24.

And the fact that when he came back from it, he didn't really have his best pitch. the slider wasn't working like we're used to seeing it in the past and he had to he kind of stopped using it as much had to work in other pitches and he's such a talented pitcher sort of like urban burns we saw this year making do without his best pitch Garrett Cole was able to manage without it he wasn't as good but he was good enough to be a must start pitcher and fantasy but what's going on with that because it was kind of a strange elbow injury that he suffered and if it took away his slider, is he still dealing with it?

Is he going to get that slider back? If he gets that slider back, maybe he could still be a standout ace, but I think there's also a chance we hear more about this elbow that ends up costing him a lot of time again. So I would say Garrett Cole is the single hardest pitcher to rank for this year.

And so I tried to find the middle ground where if he's just who he was last year, I could live with taking him here. If he becomes a super ace again, I could live with missing out on him at the price he costs. If he suffers a injury that costs him most or all the season, all of the season. Well, that can happen to anyone.

Yeah, but I wanted to guard against some of that risk. Yeah, so this is where I came out. I'm not totally comfortable taking him with my ace, I'd be more inclined to drop him further down the rankings than move him up. But it's a tough one. Yeah, I mean, he's 11 for me. And I don't know. Maybe just don't play him against the Red Sox and the Mets.

Well, like, here's, here's the thing. Are we overthinking this? Or is this a 34-year-old starting pitcher who lost a mile per hour in fastball velocity from 2022 to 2023? and then lost another 0.8. So basically two miles per hour off his fastball over the past two seasons. Like, is this really the profile we want to bet on getting better?

Like I think what he did last year, I think you'd be okay with that over 32 starts. 341-ERA 13-1-13 whip, more than a strikeout per inning. Like that's a, that's a Corbyn-Berns 2020. kind of season. Yeah.

I don't know how likely it is he gets back to the, to the world beating potential. Look, we've seen Max Scherzer and especially Justin Verlander make that mid-career turnaround when we thought it was starting to be over. And no, they still had second gears left.

I just don't know how likely it is that Garrett Cole can do the same thing just because the two other Hall of Famers before him did it. Because like Clayton Carshall didn't do it, you know? Yeah. And I'm trying to muster up the courage to just lower some of these pitchers. I know I'm not going to draft at ADP. Chris Sale is one of them and Garrick Cole is the other.

I'm almost a complete fade on Garrick Cole. It's just coming back from the elbow last year, velocity dipping down. As you mentioned, Chris, skills starting to decline. Is he going to throw his slider? There are a lot of questions here for someone who has a lot of wear and tear on that arm. So I know he's done it for a long time, but I'm almost a full fade on Garrickleck. You know what the problem with moving him down is, though? I think he's only like F. P. 15 in ADP.

He's 65th overall. So it's like, I'm with you on like, yeah, I don't know if I want to be the one to take Garrett Cole. But if that price sticks, there are going to be plenty of situations where he's the top pitcher left in my queue by far. And so I will probably end up drafting Garrett Cole at some point. Yeah. Within this tier, guys, the near elite tiered, names we've mentioned, Cole. Kirby, Valdez, Michael King, all the previous names. Do you think you need to have a starting pitcher by the end of this tier?

Do you need at least one? Because I think I am more open to waiting on pitching this year, maybe than any of the past handful of years. But I think I need at least one pitcher by the end of this tier. Like round five or six, I think I need to have at least one by then. I think it depends on what the values that you get with your first four hitter picks look like. Because if this is a tier that runs through pick 70-ish, that's what, your first five or six picks.

You know, if you've got five dominant hitters already, I kind of want to keep running with that and keep building around that strength. It just depends on who falls. If Terrick Scruple falls to the end of the second round like he did in that draft we did last week, okay, yeah, I'll take an ace. If Zach Wheeler falls to the beginning of the third, yeah, okay, I'll take two aces. it does give you a much wider margin for error when you've got those two guys who can anchor your rotation, you know the ratios are going to be great,

you know you're going to get a ton of strikeouts. It's not so much I have to have one of X. It's if I take that starting pitcher early, I know I need to be disciplined and not take starting pitchers for a while because I don't want to overload early because there's so much depth at the position. The thing is I hate putting all my eggs

in one basket like that at starting pitcher just because starting pitchers are as liable as any other position to just blow up in your face. And then if you've put it all on that one guy, your season's kind of just over at that point. So I'm going to go hard at starting pitcher once I think all the stud hitters are gone, which is usually in the round five area. And so if I can take a Michael King there, Michael King being in this tier, great. I've mentioned before Chris Sale has sometimes fallen that far, Blake's now. So we're going to a previous tier now. If I can do that in round five, great. But I'm not going to force it. If we're, if we're past this tier and I don't have one yet in round five, I'm probably not going to reach for the top name in the next tier. I'm probably just going to see if there's another hitter worth taking. And then if there's not, maybe I'll take a pitcher. But I would not say that I feel like I have to get one of this near elite tier, Cole Kirby, Framber Valdez, and Michael King. All right, on to the next, the start of the good glob. The glob is back, but this one's good.

14 names, Shota Imanaga, Tyler Glassnow, Yoshinobu, Yamamoto, Pablo Lopez, Luis Castillo, Aranola, Logan Webb, Max Fried, Bryce Miller, Hunter Green, Bailey Ober, Spencer Shreder, Shoehoyotani, and Jacob de Grom. I do apologize because reading that many names off on a podcast is not the most ideal, but, you know, I do want to make sure you hear them and know who are. talking about. But if you want, you could pull up Scott's article and just follow along as we go along so you can see which names are in the tier and just remind yourself along the way. Before we get into anything else, Scott, explain what you mean by, quote, the start of the good

glob, just so people understand. Yeah. So this is obviously a reference to the glob last year, which was a very large range of starting pitchers that I thought we're not going to be particularly helpful in fantasy. That the position was defined by just this unenticing, uninspiring group that were almost like random number generators. You had no idea what they were going to give you on a given day. And it was just you wanted to avoid building your pitching staff from the glob as much as possible.

That was last year. But now there's this year. And it's a good glob. It's still a very large range of start. I've referred to it before as 15 to 50 in my rankings where I'm really not sure at all what order to rank them in. They're all pretty enticing. Probably not aces, but pretty enticing, like I said. And I'm going to be building the majority of my pitching staff from this.

I have divided it into two tiers start of good glob, end of good glob. There's probably a justification for making it a true glob of just one giant tier. but I was I tried to find a point of distinction and spread it into two tiers instead of just one. Yeah, if we combine these next two tiers, that would have been 33 names

in one massive globy tier. This is where things really start to open up as well. We have mostly veterans, some boring guys that I mentioned, some injury risk as well. Things to know about this tier. Tyler Glassnow's season ended with a sprained right elbow, supposedly healthy entering spring training.

Max Fried signed with the Yankees. Spencer Shrider is returning from internal brace surgery and will not be ready for opening day. Shohay Otani is returning from elbow surgery and also will not be ready for opening day as a pitcher. He should be good to go as a hitter. This ADP for this tier ranges from rounds 4 through 13 with Jacob de Grom on the high end at pick 47.

Spencer Shrider on the bottom at pick 145. I know in the previous tier you mentioned, you know, it really comes down to the values within the draft, and it's kind of a feeling out process. But ideally, by the time we get to this tier of 14 names, do you want these guys as like your SP2, your SP3, or if you wait, can you live with like E. Monago or Jacob deGrom being your SP1?

Maybe not DeGrom because he's a unique example, you know? Among this cohort, Imanaga and Bryce Miller might be the ones that if I was going to take one of them as an SP1, and they're not SP ones, to be clear. But if they were going to be the SP1 on my team, I think I would be most likely to do with Imanaga and Miller because they seem like, and we can throw Bailey Ober in here as well. Those guys give you a clear, clear edge at the,

hardest and frankly most overlooked category and fantasy to make up. And that is whip. Bryce Miller baseball in whip last season. I don't expect him to be a point nine whip a guy again, but should be very, very good with his elite control, Bailey Ober and Imanaga, kind of the same thing.

The problem with all three of these guys, and especially Ober and Imanaga, they're going to give up a lot of home runs. And as we saw last year, Ober was a victim of some bad clustering and it led to a really inflated ER. but even with that, did he have a sub one whip? I don't think it was sub one, but it was right at one.

It was really good. Like that's really good and it's also the easiest. This is one of the things I've tried to get better at over the past couple years is like, I can almost just forget that whip is a thing. It was one whip on the nose. Yeah. So like it's hard to, it's really hard to make up ground and whip. And these late round pitchers that we love,

a Spencer Araggetti. I think there's a lot to like about Spencer Arrogati. And he is one of my favorite sleepers. And I can't believe his price is still outside of the top 280p. Also, he had a 141 whip last year. And so that's the thing is these streaming types that everyone's like, oh, you can find those guys.

You might be able to find some guys who can run a 36 ERA and get you a bunch of strikeouts and bunches. It's really, really hard to find those guys who can also not kill you in whip. And so if you were going to punt the position and wait, I think WIP has to be a part of your active strategy. Yeah. In a way that if you do take one of the aces or two of the, you know, top three tiers that we just talked about, you can be a little less deliberate about it.

You can take more of those late round flyers because you've got that 370 inning elite ratio base to build off. If you're not going to pay that and you're going to wait until the fifth or sixth round to get your starter, I think you have to be really conscious about what you're doing to your whip. And that's where, I mean, look, if DeGrom is DeGrom, he's going to help your whip, too. I just don't think he's going to be DeGrom for 150 innings. Or, yeah, maybe he hasn't even been it for a hundred. Yeah, I mean. Since 2019.

So that's, he's clearly the most overdrafted pitcher. And that's why, obviously, he has a subside, but that's why I tier him with the, non-Aces because I don't think he'll give you the workload for it. But I'm glad you made the comparison with those three pitchers in particular, Imanaga, Bryce Miller, and Bailey Ober. Because I was writing about Bailey Ober and my breakouts 1.0, which is going to be out Tuesday. And I did the same thing.

I mean, of the three, Bailey Ober had by far the highest ERA. It was approaching four. but he had the second best whip and he had the best strikeout rate of the three. And I think the profile, they do it with different pitches, but I think the profile is essentially the same. They're elite control guys who put the ball in the air a lot

and strikeout batters at a decent to above average rate. And so you're going to get like a low whip is almost guaranteed with that profile because you're getting a lot of outs on contact with the fly balls, and obviously you're limiting the walks. But you are prone to home runs. So there's a chance of ERA inflation. We saw it with Ober last year. I mean Imanaga managed to avoid it.

Doesn't mean I'm going to avoid it again, though. I think that a lot of that was just happenstance. And that's why, if you're wondering, oh, why does he have I'managa in the same tier with these other guys? He was amazing last year. Shouldn't he be up there with Michael King in the previous tier? That's why. I think a mid-threes, maybe even high-threes ERA

is within the realm of possibility for Emanaga. Last year was the best case scenarios as far as ERA goes. I also, I know we don't want to get too into every player, but I do worry with Eamaga in particular that he took the league by surprise in a way that might be hard to replicate. And this is not like, I think he's talented, I think he's good. I'm not saying last year as a fluke, but there, are no pitchers like Shoda Imanaga in baseball.

I think the last pitcher before him, who was a lefty and threw a splitter more than like 10% of the time as a starter, I believe it was Jorge de la Rosa. Remember that name? The Rockies. He was actually pretty good. But like, and then you just look at, well, how many lefties are effective starting pitchers while topping out at 91 miles an hour? Max Fried. There's not a lot of those guys. How many of those guys are under six feet tall?

Like Imanaga is just there are so many things about him that you just, you do not see as a major league hitter. And one thing that we know is that hitters perform better, the more they see individual pitchers. And I think that's probably also true just of a pitch type or a pitcher type that you don't see often. You're going to do better when you've seen it. There's going to be tape out there. They're going to be able to, you know, they've got these crazy pitcher machines that can replicate everyone's release point and movement.

Like, I think there is a little bit of chance that Imanaga sees some big regression this year just because the league's a little more comfortable against him. And I do realize that there are 14 very important names in this tier and we're not breaking down every single one of them. Our position preview podcasts are starting up next week. And in February six hours of SP previews coming up. We're going to have three starting pitchers. previews. So those will be the podcast where we do deep dives on as many pitchers as humanly possible. And so we will talk more in depth about individual pitchers on those podcasts. Let's take a quick break, our final break. When we return, we'll hit the news and notes quickly and then back into starting

pitcher tiers. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. The news and notes, reliever Ryan Presley waived his no trade clause and has been traded to the Chicago Go Cubs. Shout out to Bob Nightingale, who was the first one on it. I give Bob Nightingale a lot of crap on this podcast, but he was all over this trade and it eventually did happen. Ryan Presley, 36 years old and comes with closer experience. He had 26 or more saves each season from 2021 through 2023, but the velocity and the skills are slowly declining. Scott, two questions. Will Ryan Presley be the Cubs closer? And where did you wind up putting? him in your reliever rankings? So I'm not sure yet, and I haven't adjusted the rankings because I'm not sure yet. I think he had to waive the no trade clause, so did they make him some kind of assurances that he would at least get a look in that role? I think it had to be that pretty likely.

Yeah. How, you know, I've seen different takes. I've seen, and they've all been just kind of. casual throwaway mentions. And I don't think anybody really knows yet, but I've seen people say, it'll probably still be Porter Hodge. I've seen people say,

well, obviously it's going to be Ryan Presley to start out. I'm not confident. Ryan Presley's going to hold on to the role. I guess I wouldn't be totally confident Porter Hodge would either. He was a rookie last year. He had some walk issues.

There's a chance he just won't follow up on that season. So it's not like he's a sure thing. But you're just looking at last year's numbers. He was far more dominant than Presley. Everything was down, as you mentioned, for Presley, with the velocity and the strike rate and the swinging strike rate, et cetera. He's had a lot of injuries over the years. I think he's, I kind of feel like he's past his closing days.

So even if he got the job to start out, if Hodge returns and is doing what he was doing as a rookie, it would eventually be him. so my ranking, if we do get some clarity that it looks like they're at least leaning toward Presley to start out, my ranking of him will be fairly modest, probably behind like Peter, Pete Fairbanks and Alexis Diaz. Yeah, he's 20th for me. But I will say, you just look at Porter Hodges' minor league track record. I know he was dominant for 43 innings last year.

They had to get someone else. like Porter Hodge may end up being just an awesome, awesome pitcher moving forward, but his minor league track record for the most part, especially in the high minors, is really bad. And that's like, okay, he was a starter.

They moved him to the bullpen in 2023. He was still bad. So maybe he figured it out. I'm not saying it's impossible, but like I'm treating this as if Ryan Presley's definitely opening the season as the closer. And he's not a dominant guy anymore, but if he's the same mid-3s guy,

he's been the past couple of years, I think he's probably good enough to hang on to it. And it gives them a little more flexibility to use Porter Hodge as a fireman. I think they'd be happy with that. But the reporting I've seen indicated that Ryan Presley didn't want to leave the Astros, his family was happy there. And reading between the lines, it sounds like he had to get some assurances to agree to the no trade clause.

So when the trade was announced or reported initially, my first thought was, if he agrees to the trade, it has to be that they agreed to make him the closer. That's what I'm treating it as. Yeah, that's kind of how I ranked him too. And I have Ryan Presley as my RP17, maybe a little bit too aggressive.

I don't really want to be the high guy on Ryan Presley, but just kind of assuming that he's going to be the closer, but I guess we'll wait to learn more there regarding the Cubs bullpen. Metz owner Steve Cohen indicated that while the door remains open, for Pete Alonzo to return to the Mets. Talks aren't progressing at the moment. There were some rumors that the Mets have showed interest in Spencer Torkelson, so we wait.

Joe Ryan had an MRI in November that showed a, quote, complete resolution of the shoulder strain that ended his 2024 season. He's thrown three bullpens this winter so far. Joe Ryan's teammate, Carlos Correa, declared himself ready for spring training after spending the offseason rehabbing the plantar fasciitis in his right foot. some not so great injury news. Brendan Nimmo is still battling plantar fasciitis in his left foot but said he plans on being ready for the start of the season. So, you know, not as positive as someone like Correa. Look, this plantar fasciitis doesn't really go away.

But I think it affected Nimmo, obviously, last season. In the second half, he hit 190 with a 595 OPS. So how much will it affect him this year? I don't know. The weird thing is he ran even more in the second half. Like his production cratered, he had a 277 OBP after the All Star break. He still ran attempted seven steals on, I don't know, he got on base like 76 times or something,

which is a much higher pace than we're normally seeing from Brandon Nimmo. So I don't know. Hopefully that's a good sign that he can keep that up at least. Yeah, it's a tough one, plantar fasciitis. because it never goes away, like you say. And a lot of times when we hear it affecting a player one year, we just kind of stop hearing about it after that, unless it's still affecting them,

unless it's still costing a playing time, which it didn't so much for a NIMO last year. We're just kind of guessing that had to do with this statistical downturn. Bad of ball metrics were great. I don't know. I'm still pretty bullish on NIMO this year, in spite of this report, which to me, yeah, he's still dealing with plantar fasciitis.

Doesn't go away. John Gray would be open to serving as the Rangers closer, apparently. They have a clear opening as of now. They signed Chris Martin this offseason. They traded for lefty Robert Garcia. John Gray does not have experience as a closer, but he is basically a two-pitch pitcher, and the Rangers have depth.

They have Jacob deGrom, Nathan Avaldi. They have the aforementioned Gray, Tyler Malley, Cody, Bradford, Kumar Rocker, Jack Lighter, Dane Dunning, Emiliano, Toyota. So if they want to go this route, it's a possibility. I think he could be really good at it. This is a guy who basically only has two pitches.

He's like 85% foreseamer and slider. Those are clearly his best two pitches. I think the four seamer probably would play up in the bullpen. The slider could be a really effective weapon. Last year of his contract, I kind of think this would make sense for everyone involved. I'm kind of rooting for it now. Yeah.

Some prospect updates. Cardinals pitching prospect Tink Hens will enter spring training without limitations. After dealing with back and right lat discomfort last season, he was limited to just 79 and two-thirds innings in the minors. And Astros prospect, Zach DeZenzo will play left field a lot during spring training. The Astros are clearly looking for answers in their outfield. DeZenzo is an infielder by trade. He did play some outfield this winter in the Puerto Rican Winter League. And he's an interesting prospect.

He's got power. He's got some speed. 24 years old. Seems like he's ready to play. So a deeper name to pay attention to in the spring, Zach DeZenzo. And lastly, sticking with the Astros, they do remain interested in a reunion with Alex Breggman.

They have also shown interests in Jorge Polanco, apparently. So some moving parts here for the Houston Astros. Let's get back into the starting pitcher tiers. and the end of the good glob. 19 names, I swear, this is the last tier that I'll read off because 19 names is a lot,

but you gotta know these names. Take a deep breath. Okay. Sunny Gray, Justin Steele, Spencer Schwellenbach, Hunter Brown, Zach Gallen, Jack Flaherty, Grayson Rodriguez, Joe Ryan, Kodai Senga,

Freddie Peralta, Roki Sasaki, Brian Wu, Tanner Bybee, Shane McClanaganagan, Carlos Roton, Rinaldo Lopez, Seth Lugo, Sean Mania, and Jared Jones. So, big tier here, some proven vets, some young guys with upside, injury risks, aren't they all?

Things to know about this tier, Jack Flerty remains a free agent, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go. Money talks. Here comes the money. That's Shane McClanahan. He is returning from his second Tommy John surgery

and Sean Mania resigned with the New York Mets. The ADP range for this tier, very wide. round seven through 16 Roki Sasaki at the top Sean Manaya all the way at the bottom Scott lots of names here are you looking I feel like this is where you're looking to load up

but what are you looking at these names as Scott your SP3 4 5 what do you think all of the above all the above pretty much yeah no if if I'm basically considering this tier to be a near equal to the previous

tier and possibly just one big tier then it stands to reason I'm going to have more from the second half of the good glob the end of the good glob than the start of the good glob so by the time we're here and we're looking and I'm looking at sunny gray Justin Steele, Spencer Schwellenbach I probably have two pitchers already and then I'm basically going to fill or come as close to filling the rest of my pitching staff from this group so I'm probably just four or five straight rounds drafting from this group so I'm going to have a lot it and it's definitely not going to be one of those tiers where I wait until the very end to

draft somebody. Some of the talent here is pretty impressive that we're this deep in and we've still got Justin Steele who two years ago was looking like the NL. Sy Young favorite right down to the wire and you look at his numbers last year, he missed some time. His win-loss record kind of suffered, but you look at the numbers that really matter pretty much look like the exact same pitcher. So I think Justin Steele is somebody who's being overlooked.

Spencer Schoenbach has a lot of breakout hype. Zach Gowan. I have concerns about Zach Gallen, but one of them is not the price. The price is great for a guy who's been near the top of the starting pitcher rankings for years and years. He's this far down now. Yeah, I mean, Freddie Peralta, same thing.

used to be a mainstay at the top of the pitching rankings, at least in like the top 15, and now he's much lower. A lot of really good pitching talent here. Yeah, and this is part of that depth at starting pitcher that we're talking about. And a lot of these names are ones that have performed at a very high level in previous years.

I mean, as recently as like a year or two ago, right? I mean, Sunny Gray, Justin Steele, Zach Gallen, Jack Flaherty, Kodi Isanga, two years ago, awesome. Freddie Peralta, Shane McClain, Carlos Rodon, even Seth Lugo say what you want about the guy he just finished second in Sanyang Award voting and you know he's part of this tier

and he's going pretty late in ADP too so yeah yeah very interesting tier I think Seth Lugo is like when I talk about why it's harder to play fantasy baseball than it ever has been in the past I think Seth Lugo is the clear example of why that is and it's because

there was a time 10 years ago even where Seth Lugo puts up the season he just had and he led the league in innings pitched had a sub three ERA I might be underselling him on the sub three it might have been sub two six it was a three ERA on the news three area on the nose he's probably drafted as a top 15 starting pitcher a decade ago and he shouldn't have been and we're smart that we are skeptical of it but like guys aren't obviously misvalued that often anymore. And it makes it really like I'm working on my bus column.

And it makes it really hard to do that when there aren't that many guys. But I think one thing you can see here is like, I agree with Scott, Justin Steele, undervalued. I don't know what it is. Like he's just super super super solid. Maybe not ace upside. And then I think there are a few guys who are probably overvalued in draft. and we've talked a decent amount about it, but I think Roki Sasaki is probably overvalued.

And I just wonder where I have him. Not where I have him. But by ADP, he is. He's going in the seventh round, pick 82. Yeah, I think he's SP20 right now in ADP. And I think this is, we've pretty much moved through most of the fantasy relevant Dodgers pitchers now. And I think it is just worth mentioning that this is going to be a team that's using a six-man rotation pretty much the whole season, I'm imagining,

because Shohayotani's there. And the angels in Shohay Otani's three seasons where he was a full-time starter. They had three examples of someone getting to 28 starts. And only one had more than 150 innings that was Otani himself. Now, yeah, okay, the year Patrick Sand, the year Tyler Anderson had a 543RA.

Okay, yeah, he didn't throw 150 innings because he wasn't good. So like that, you know, the Dodgers pitchers should be more efficient, but this is a real issue, especially in head-to-head points leagues, because Dodgers pitchers are almost never going to have two start weeks. Dodgers pitchers are going to be limited in the total points that they're able to accrue. And I think you can make a case that they kind of all should be avoided in your fantasy leagues. And Roki Sasaki, I think he's awesome.

I'm really excited about the long-term potential here. But the guy we watched in the World Baseball Classic a couple years, the guy he was last year, his velocity was down about two miles per hour. And I think there was a really interesting story from the athletic about his free agency process where he, he pitched every team that he met with and said, I want you to tell me why my velocity was down last year. And clearly he heard what he wanted to from the Dodgers and maybe they can get him back. but like we're talking about him sitting 96 now instead of 98.

Well, that's that's a pretty big difference at the major league level. He's never proven at the major league level. He's never thrown 130 innings in a season. I just where you have him ranked, I think you're actually even lower than I am, Scott. You have him 39th overall. I've got him like 35th. I can't draft him at his cost though.

Again, that's Rokie Sasaki we're talking about. Yeah, not to turn this to a Roki Sasaki pod because we, said a lot of this during the reaction pod when he signed, but that fastball shape is suboptimal. It was at 96, at 101, nobody's hitting it because it's 101. At 96, it got hit pretty regularly last year. Now, he has the best splitter in the world, and to make up for some of that diminished fastball velocity,

he started to work on a slider that's at least decent. So I think, I don't necessarily think he needs to have an elite fastball to be a really good pitcher. To me, it's just, there are durability issues here. He's only 23, so there's an experience issue here, and the Dodgers are obviously going to

want to preserve his innings because they're getting to the playoffs if he doesn't throw a single pitch. And they have so many good alternatives, so they're going to play it safe with them, I would imagine. On to the fallback options tier, 17 names. I'm not going to read them off.

Please follow along with the article if you can. These feel like the sleeper breakout picks at starting pitcher. They're going later on in drafts. Things to know about this tier, Usake Kukuchi signed with the Angels. Sandy Al-Consora is returning from Tommy John surgery. Brandon Woodruff is returning from shoulder surgery. Might not be ready for opening day.

All three of Ryan Pepio, Tage Bradley, Shane Bosz, will be pitching outdoors in George Steinbrenner Field, which is expected to be bad for starting pitchers, or at least worse than Tropicana. And Nathan Avaldi, you resigned with the Rangers. Jesus Lazzardo was traded over to the Phillies. I mentioned I think some of these guys are sleeper breakout picks, and a lot of them are free.

You know, they're going really late in drafts, Scott. You know, Lazzardo at pick 259. I mean, just last year, his ADP was inside the top 100. Ronelle Blanco was a breakout pitcher for the Astros last year. Even if you don't buy it, the ADP is 245. Jose Barrios just won, what, 16 games, and he was basically Jose Burrios, and his ADP is 236.

So a lot of these names are just free, Scott. Yeah, I find I'm drafting Jose Burrios late in drafts a lot just because there are inconsistencies end season. We know all about those. But year to year, apart from that one year, what was it, 2021, 2021, 2022, where he just got Shalak. Apart from that, he's been pretty much the same guy,

and it's a valuable guy. He's pretty much must start. Yeah, he used to be like a top 60 pick, and he was the same guy he is now. The strikeout rate has gone down some last year, dropped a little bit, but not in a way that makes me think he can't get it back. So I, yeah, I mean,

I don't want to turn this into a Jose Barrios thing, but I find in this tier with all these other names, he stands out as somebody who lasts shockingly late, And so I end up drafting them late in the tier. But ultimately, this, I think, again, the fallback options is appropriately named at this position. Because I hope not to have to need any of these guys. There's some I like. I have Spencer Araggetti as a sleeper like Chris does.

And you can read all about it. Actually, I think he's in my breakouts. I think he got pushed out of sleepers into breakouts just because I had more. Clean sweep, guys. I have them in breakouts 1.0 as well. Okay. So you're going to read about my breakouts 1.0 on two. Us day, to Ouse Day.

So I like Spencer Argetti. Bowden Francis did some amazing things down the stretch last year. Looked unhittable for like a four-start stretch. Literally. Yeah, literally. He took a no-hitter into the ninth inning twice in a three-week stretch. There's some guys I don't like. I have Ryan Pepio's a bus this year.

Todge Bradley. I think he's in my bust also. For the same reason, fly ball guys in a park that I think. think is just going to serve up so many home runs this year. Brandon Woodruff, I'm worried about the health. There's guys I don't like. And then there's just boring guys like U. Darvish and Jose Arias, who we mentioned,

who will probably be perfectly serviceable, but you're probably not going to mistake them for Aces either. So if I, to the degree I still need to fill out spots in my pitching staff, that's probably the sort of guy I'm going to do it with. If I can't get a Spencer Araggetti at a value I like, then I'm going to go for a boring U. Darvish or Jose Barrios type, just to kind of round everything out in a way that feels fairly safe. And worth mentioning that, I believe it's Bowdoin, Francis,

with the Blue Jays is the first SPARP that we've mentioned today, right? Chris, is he your highest-ranked spark for this upcoming season? I would have, man. I haven't done like a full SPARP breakdown yet. That'll happen next week sometime, but... Yeah, you have Matt, you have them at RP 13, and then Nick Martinez right behind him. So yeah.

Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. All right. Well, let's move on to the last resorts tier. 24 names in this tier and lots of names and new places. We have Jeffrey Springs traded over to the athletics. Nestor Cortez to the Brewers. Clay Holmes signed with the Mets.

Nick Martinez went back to the Reds. Nick Povetta is still a free agent. Luis Severino signed with the athletics. And Walker Bueller on a one-year deal to the Red Sox. lots of Sparps in the Last Resorts tier. We have Drew Rasmussen, Jackson Job, Clay Holmes, Nick Martinez, Chris Bubich. Chris, back to you on this. In Hedgehead Points Leagues, are all of those names worth drafting in case they hit at RP.

Rasmussen, Job, Clay Holmes, Nick Martinez, Chris Bubich. Anyone who is SPARP eligible is worth drafting in a head-to-head points league if they're going to be in a rotation, because sometimes you catch lightning in a bottle and you get a Raynalda Lopez or even like a Cody Bradford last year who was super useful for stretches shouts to Chris. So like Mike Soroka's in the next tier, I think he's going to be in the Nationals rotation. He did some interesting things. I think he's worth drafting in a points league. Anybody who's SPARP eligible use your last pick on just in case they figured out. But this year's SPARP class is significantly worse than last years.

And that was even without Raynaldo Lopez breaking out. I mean, we had Cole Reagan's as a spark and, and Gary Crochet last year. Last year was a historically great spark season. This one probably won't be that good, but these names are all varying degrees of interesting. I think like Martinez doesn't have a lot of upside. I think Bubbage probably has pretty limited upside. But like, Scott, I was going to ask, does Job jump up at least a tier the second he's locked into a rotation spot? At least a tier.

Hmm. I'm a little concerned about him from a performance perspective. Yeah, no, his minor league numbers weren't as good as perception last year. Right. And I have him a little, he's still a top ten prospect for me, but I have like Andrew Bailey ahead of him in my prospect rankings, for instance. Andrew Painter. Andrew Bailey.

What a name. Red Sox pitching coach? I think so. Yeah, I think so. So does he jump up a tier? I don't know. There are some pitchers I kind of like in this tier. Michael Waukes just feels very boringly reliable.

He's at the top of this tier. Tanner Hauk, such a good ground ball pitcher. And there are signs there that he's good. He can be good enough with control and he can be good enough with strikeouts that I think he's worth drafting. Would I move Job ahead of them? I guess I'd probably have to,

at least in shallower leagues, in pursuit of the upside. So yeah, I'll move him up a tier if he gets locked into the tiger's rotation, but I don't know that I'll move him up enough that I'll be able to draft him. And lastly, we have the leftovers tier, which is every other starting pitcher

that you can imagine, which, again, I'm not going to read those. Some other Sparps worth mentioning, Mike Soroka signed with the Nationals, and it sounds like he'll be given a chance to be in their opening the rotation. And Tyler Holton, who kind of filled a,

like a swing man role for the tigers. He would make some starts. He would close some games. He would... He got some saves. Yeah, he was an interesting pitcher, but could potentially be a spark this upcoming season.

Anybody that you guys want to mention in the leftovers here, which includes, like, I don't know, 100 names. In a standard-sized leagues, I'm probably not drafting any of these guys. There's just no need to go that deep into the starting pitcher pool.

But there are some I kind of like. Sure, Jose Sorriam. I think is underrated. A good ground ball guy throws very hard. Angels ace, if only by default. I think Kumar Rocker, he's another guy. If we find out he's in the Rangers rotation to begin the year, it seems kind of doubtful he will be.

But if he is, then he's going to shoot way up the rankings. He might have the best slider in the world. Not sure there's anything else to go with it. But it's a really good pitch. and Andrew Painter. If you're looking for this, Andrew Painter and not Andrew Bailey. If you're looking for this year's Paul Skeens,

he won't be there until June. I think Skeens came up in May, but I think he's definitely going to be up in June. That's just he returned from Tommy John surgery to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, and they've just worked out this timeline where, okay, June, he's going to be ready to go. He could be dominant the rest of the way

if he is fully back to form after that Tommy John surgery. So it'll be a draft and stash, but it'll be one that could potentially pay off. Two names that I'll bring up as deeper sleepers, David Festa and Ryan Weathers. I actually wrote them up in Sleepers 1.0. I don't know why. I went into some really deep sleepers in that article. And I also included Grant Holmes, who's another just really deep name there. But yeah, all three just kind of intriguing skills and like what they did last year and could have an opportunity.

at some point this year. Also wanted to mention just some other prospects here. Bubba Chandler, if he shows out in spring, could be in the Pirates rotation. Quinn Matthews. That's the one I'm getting

increasingly excited about. He was amazing last year and he was a workhorse too. That's worth mentioning. He threw, I don't have it exactly off the top of it, but it was like six plus innings in like two thirds of his starts.

And I think it was like 160 innings total. He was the only minor league pitcher to get to 200 in, 200 strikeouts. I believe he was also the only one to get to 190 strikeouts and the only one to get to 180 strikeouts if I have that number correct. So he racked up some huge work totals at Stanford, I believe in college, backed it up, but also added four miles per hour to his fastball when he got to the pros. It's not 100% clear if he's got a rotation spot and he did struggle when he got to AAA last year. So this is one that I could see starting the season at AAA, but.

I'm fully expecting Quinn Matthews up before the end of April. And I'm going to be drafting him a lot. I'm really excited about him. I like what he did, Chris. The only thing I worry about is the Cardinals, low key, have a lot of pitching depth. I'm not saying it's good pitching depth, but there are names, you know, Sunny Gray, Eric Fetty, Miles Michaelis. There was a lot of talk early in the offseason about them making trades and then nothing came from it.

But I still think Sunny Gray is an obvious trade candidate. Eric Fetty, obviously, and Michaelis. could all be traded. They sell at Palante. They have Stephen Mats, Matthew Liberator, Michael McGreevy, Tink, Hentz. I mean, I hope Quinn Matthews gets a shot. I think Quinn Matthews is definitely ahead of Hentz. That's the one I feel confident.

Yeah, I would agree. The only thing is that both a chance. In performance and in just health. I think Hens is on the 40-man roster, though. I'm not sure if Quinn Matthews is. Yeah. He carved up every level. I mean, like every level.

He went through the Cardinals' whole system. Quinn Matthews last year. until he got the AAA. Sort of like Brandon Sproat with the Mets. And so I wonder if they're going to want to see him pitch well at AAA first. But I am very high on him as being a pitching prospect, Quinn Matthews. Yeah. So, yeah, if there's buzz this spring about him making the team, he's going to move up the rankings quite a bit.

Both Tink Hentz and Michael McGreevy are on the 40-man roster for the Cardinals, but Quinn Matthews is not. I also just want to throw out a little bit of trivia here because you mentioned Tyler Holton. Top 30 SP last year in fantasy. That's a true fact because he got eight saves and seven wins and had a 212 ERA. Gosh, how many people do you think just started Tyler Holton in the second half of the season?

It had to be 15 team leagues or deeper, right? There are dozens of us. Yeah. All right, well, there you go. Fun fact from Chris Day on. Tyler Holden. We are going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to 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. Paramount Podcasts.