Fantasy Baseball Today - Add Christian Walker, Buy-Low Hitters & Drop-O-Meter! (5/18 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 18, 2022

What happened to Nathan Eovaldi on Tuesday (2:45)? Logan Gilbert had one of his best starts yet. ... Should you add Christian Walker (1!:36)? ... Which hitters should you look to buy-low on (15:00)? ... News and notes (30:01): Ronald Acuña was back in the lineup, Salvador Perez went on the IL and more. ... Should Steven Kwan and Merrill Kelly be dropped (37:05)? ... Alek Thomas needs to be added in more leagues (45:55). ... Where would you draft Aaron Judge now (51:15)? ... What's up with Vlad Jr. (54:05)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (56:40). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection 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/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday 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

Hey, everybody. Just wanted to give you a heads-up that we spoke glowingly about Royce Lewis on today's podcast. And then right after we finished, he was optioned back to AAA. Carlos Correa is returning on Wednesday, and it sounds like they want to get Lewis' defensive reps at other positions. It's unfortunate because he was playing so well. But anyway, just wanted to give you guys a heads up. Enjoy the podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question?

Email Fantasy Baseball at C. BSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. I guess it's heating up because it feels like offense was way up again on Tuesday. Just ask Nathan Avaldi. Yikes. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Wednesday, May 18th. Frank Sample joined by Scott White and Chris Towers, who was currently doing the podcast from Parts Unknown with nothing but a bed behind him.

What's going on, Chris? located. The parts are known. It's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Actually, I'm staying with my family for a few weeks to help out my, my family members. So, you know, I'm in what might have been my dad's room. I'm in one of those, like, old northeastern houses that's just, like, as a child was, like the most terrifying place in the world. Like, it's got a basement, which is just horrifying. And, like, it's, It's on a big dark hill. And so like there it's yeah, it's very like it feels very different from Brooklyn.

I can tell you that. So hopefully none of the ghosts come out and get me. No basements in Brooklyn. We can confirm that. Or in in Florida. Like this is like like 99% of my time in basements has just been in the terrifying basement in my grandmother's house that like I refuse to go into at night even today. All right. Now I just want to.

point out that I am often accused of broadcasting from my grandparents' house. I don't know what that says about the decor in my home, but that's what I often get that accusation. Chris actually is. I'm actually, yeah, I'm actually in my... He actually is. So feel free to direct those insinuations at him, henceforth. Fair enough. Today on the show, 18 games on the schedule will recap all of it, almost all of it. I hope we can. One hitter to buy low. on from each of us and much, much more, but let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious. The Astros hit five home runs in one inning on Tuesday, the eighth time that's been done in MLB history. And with that, Scott, why don't you kick us off with your oh my goodness gracious

player of the night? Yeah, it's got to be nasty, Nate. I like how I just make up a name for every player that nobody knows who I'm referring to. It's Nate, it's Nathan of all the yes, you as you mentioned, five home runs against the Astros. But what's even more notable is that brings him to 14 home runs allowed this season as compared to 15 all of last season, one home run less in this economy. I don't even really understand that. The ground ball rate is actually slightly up for Nathan Avaldi. It certainly isn't having trouble missing bats.

I think it's just kind of a freak thing. And it's worth pointing out, he had been very successful in spite of those home runs. His ERA climbed to 432 with this awful start, but it was 315 before then. So I'm not really freaking out about it. Obviously, the home run pace needs to slow or he's going to have more awful starts, but I think it will because I don't think there's much to it. The one thing that stood out for me when looking into of all these numbers is the hard contact is back up this year. So last year he did a great job and the expected ERA according to Stackcast really

backed that up last season. This year it's been a little bit higher and a little bit closer to where the rest of his career has been at. So something to monitor with him. We'll see how he bounces back. Scott, I notice you. There's no way you're not going to have hard contact numbers against you if you've given up 14 home runs already. There's just no way that was, you're going to look at his Stackass page and that's not going to be the case. I don't even think his Stackass page. I don't even think his Stackass page has been updated yet for what he did on Tuesday. So it's probably only going to go up. I was going to say, Scott, I noticed you lowered him in your rankings. Scott updated the rankings. You could check them out on the site. I have updated my infield rankings. I'm going to hit

outfield and starting pitcher on Wednesday afternoon. But down to SP 43 is Nathan Evaldi. One spot behind the real nasty. That's nasty Nestor Cortez. Let's move over. Oh my goodness gracious from Chris. Who you got? Logan Gilbert, who I think this might have been the most promising start of his career. And it's been a pretty promising start to his career. You know, we've been very excited about a lot of what he's done this season. But his velocity was way up in this start, 96.7 miles per hour. That's the highest that's ever been.

It's actually the second start in a row where he's had the highest velocity of his career. He averaged 96.1 in his most recent start before this one. and he also you know I mean he got a 10 swinging strikes on 52 fastballs that's a nearly 20% swinging strike rate not even whiff rate a 20% whiff rate for a fastball is pretty good and that's whiffs divided by swings this is just whiffs divided by pitches so that pitch was outstanding today

but what might be even more intriguing about this start is the fact that his fastball usage was actually down he was at 51% fastball usage. He's been sitting close to 60% this season. And so, you know, he threw the slider 36% of the time, had five swings and misses on that one. 33% CSW had a 27% CSW on 11 curveballs. That's not great,

but it's a pitch that he hasn't thrown all that much. And, you know, I just, I think this is, you know, potentially closer to the high-end form of Logan Gilbert. then we've even seen so far. So I thought this was a very promising start. Did you mention his velocity was up like 1.3 miles per hour on everything? Yeah.

Yeah. And I had been, oh, you did mention that. Okay. Good for me for listening. I had been a little skeptical of Gilbert's success to this point this season. He entered with just a 10% swinging strike rate, which is bad. But, you know, he got plenty of whiffs with the velocity and the different pitch mix in this start.

And if you can continue to do that, then I can get behind the idea of it being a breakthrough season. Isn't it weird that the number of high-end pitchers, I say their swinging strike rate is way down and just not good, not just in comparison to their past, but just in a vacuum. They have a bad swinging strike rate. I've actually looked in to see if the league-wide swinging strike rate is down,

and it is a little bit, but not enough to explain why so many high-end pitchers stand out for having unusually bad swinging strike rates at this point in the season. I don't really understand what's going on there. It is weird, Scott. I feel like there's more halves and have-nots. Maybe it was just because I was looking into Dylan Seas

and Shane McClanahan earlier, who both had two more great starts on Tuesday, and their swinging strike rates are massive. But I think it also could be in conjunction with no more sticky stuff. And I think pitchers might be trying to pitch to contact more now that the ball is dead and that's just a theory that I have. But so far, it seems like it might be the case this year. I want to talk about the pitcher on the other side in the start, Jose Berrios, who bounced back and he needed it in a big way, seven shutout innings, six hits, two walks, four strikeouts, but just

four swinging strikes again on 91 pitches. The swinging strike rate has been down. So far this year, it was down last year, lots of hard contact so far for Jose Berrios. So overall, I think this is an encouraging start because obviously goes seven shutout. But Scott, I still don't feel great about Barrios even after this start. I know he has a long track record, but I think based on this start and if you could sell him on his name value and get top 30 starting pitcher value for him, I think it's something I would look into doing. Why are you so convinced something's wrong with them? Well, just for the reasons I mentioned, the swinging strike rate being down two years in a row and hard contact being up, those two things together seem not great. I mean, again, I don't really want to overrate the quality of contact stuff.

It would be more encouraging, I guess, if he had a bad ERA, but good quality of contact numbers. But at the same time, I mean, just because he's allowed bad contact to this point doesn't mean that's just his new baseline now. I think he's just pitched poorly and it showed, but I don't think he's a worse pitcher. I think he's a good pitcher who's pitched poorly so far. So I would consider Jose Barrios more of a buy low. I mean, we've seen him go through really rough stretches in his career,

but the year-to-year numbers have been very stable. Chris, I guess break the tie. Are you looking to buy or sell Jose Brrios? Jose Brrios is rarely a player that I'm looking to buy just because I don't, I don't know, he doesn't have a ton of upside, generally speaking. I know last year he was really good, and that kind of pushed him into the top 20 starting pitchers, but for the most part, I think he's kind of settled in as a guy who doesn't really help or hurt you in ERA for the most part.

He's kind of inconsistent, and you just kind of ride the highs and lows as they come. There are some things to keep an eye on with him. The movement profile and his curveball has changed. since last season he's getting less vertical movement with it. So, you know, that could explain it. And he's the, the spin rate on it is down. It's only about 70 RPMs from last season as a whole.

But, you know, it's possible. Maybe there's, there's some lingering sticky stuff's side effects going on there. But I think, like Scott said, it's probably just that he's just not pitching well right now. And, you know, I've made the Luis Castillo comp with, there was another pitcher I made it with last week. And like, I think that's probably what we're seeing

is that it's just a similar thing where he's just not pitching well and that'll be reflected. And I think Jose Brios' track record is long enough that you probably want to have faith that he'll figure it out. All right. I wanted to mention this for Nathan Avaldi just before, but the five home runs

that the Astros hit, Yerdon Alvarez, his 12th, Kyle Tucker hit one in that inning and then added another one later on, a grand slam. So now he's up to seven home runs. You like to see that. Jeremy Payne returned today. He hit one of those home runs. Michael Brantley, Yuli Guriel,

added their third home run each against Nathan Avaldi. For me, oh my goodness gracious, Christian Walker, who had quite the game here on... Games, rather, double-heder against the Dodgers, and he had three hits combined, two home runs across the double-header. He now has five home runs.

May, he's batting over 300. And the underlying numbers, which we've mentioned multiple times already this year for Christian Walker, are very encouraging. The barrel rate is up. He's hitting the ball very hard. Strikeout rate is down a little bit for him from his career mark. His walk rate is up a little bit. So things are very encouraging for Christian Walker in a time where we really do need offense. So Scott, what do you think about Walker? He is only 27% rostered on CBS right now. Yeah, I think it's interesting. I, I, I, wonder, you know, because he puts the ball in the air so often, if there's much hope for him to deliver a respectable batting average, but hitting it that hard and putting in the air that

often, I mean, that's usually, that's, at least in recent history, been a promising combination combination. So I think he does need to be on the mixed league radar. I don't know that I'd call a must add, but like I'd add Yuleiguriel over him. You mentioned he homered again and has been hot recently and obviously was much more valuable last year. I'd add him over Walker.

The roster rate is pretty far apart for the two of them, but if they happen to both be available, that is somebody I prioritize over Walker. But there are some promising signs there for Walker, sure. Here's the problem with trying to add Christian Walker right now is that there's actually been a lot of viable

first baseman this year and a lot of waiver wire first baseman that have emerged. So Josh Naler, Guriel, you just mentioned. Wanya Pez has first base and either just gained outfield eligibility or is close. Trey Mancini is having a big May as well. Even like Dan Vogelbach has had a decent season. Yeah, true. We haven't talked about him much, but he's been Rowdy-Tales-esque.

Why did you choose Rowdy-Telz for Dan Vogelbach, huh, Chris? Why'd you do that? Because they're big, beefy baseball. That's right. That's exactly what they are. I would, this might be a bit of a take. I would drop Spencer Torkelson for Christian Walker. What do you think, Chris?

I wouldn't, I'm not going to move Christian Walker ahead of Spencer Torkelson in the ranks, but I get it. Like, I think that makes sense. I actually did end up starting Christian Walker in the Memorial Magazine League this week. I think he had been on my bench before that. I started him over Nico Horner, or not Nico Horner. Matt Chapman, who has been. Big difference.

Pretty awful. But yeah, Walker having that extra double header game. That was the reason. So, yeah, sometimes you get a little lucky. But yeah, I think he's a perfectly viable corner infielder in a 12-team Roto League. I don't think there's much value in head-to-head points leagues. But, yeah, I mean, you look at his batted ball profile, and it's like the outfield is where things go to die for him. It either leaves the part completely or just is nothing.

And so, you know, that's a little concerning given the offensive environment. Yep. All right. Let's move into some hitters that we are each looking to target via trade right now, some buy-low options. And there's a lot of them out there and ones that we've mentioned multiple times over. Scott, we'll start with you. The top by-low hitter for you right now, middle of May.

Well, I was planning to say Salvador Perez, who I still have. have total faith in. He just went on to IEL and I could see how the person who, you know, invested this really high pick in a catcher and hasn't got what he expected so far and how he's on the IAL just, you know, to heck with it. Like somebody take him off my hands. I could see that being the response, but I want to find out what the actual timetable for this brain thumb is for Perez first. I could see that, you know, maybe being a ligament surgical issue. I'm not saying there's any signs of that. We just don't know the extent of it yet. So it doesn't, I'd hate to say, yeah, buy up Salvador Perez everywhere you can now. And then we find out

tomorrow he's having surgery. That's just, it's not a good plan for me as an analyst. So, I am going to say Jose Abraeu instead, who has, he's in the 98th percentile for average exit velocity, as good as it gets how he's impacting the ball. He has one of the lowest strikeout rates of his career, 17.7% entering Tuesday's action. So it doesn't, you know, those two indicators independently, certainly together, would indicate this is not a case of a 35-year-old running out of steam. I know it's been a bad environment for offense and we don't know exactly how how this batted ball data is going to play in the long run.

We don't have the expected stats haven't been recalculated for the new environment, so they're all very misleading. But if you're hitting the ball on average 94.1 miles per hour, and you're not striking out. I don't care what the environment is. You're not going to be a 211 hitter with a 328 slugging percentage. And obviously there's the track record of Bray who has going for him. So that seems like a pretty easy call. All right.

I'll give you a few pitchers, Scott. Would you flip these? Because I think that's what we're going to see right now. A lot of people who are trying to acquire hitters probably have a wealth of pitching. Would you give up Zach Gallen, who's pitched very well for Jose Abrae right now? I believe I would, yes.

I definitely would. Would you do it for the breakout hopefuls, Eric Lauer and Kyle Wright? I would do it for both. Yeah, that might be a needs thing for me, but presuming, like you said, somebody needs hitting a lot more than pitching. Yeah, I think I'd do it.

Jose Ibrahim, by the way, and I've mentioned this before, he's someone who usually heats up with the weather throughout the season. So his batting average by month throughout his career, 256 in April, then 271, 278, 285, 335 in the month of August, and then dips back down to 292 in September. So I would expect as the weather heats up, Jose Abraeu will do that as well. Chris, a hitter you're looking to buy low on right now. Corey Seeger, which I feel like is on brand for the fantasy baseball today podcast. We're big Corey Seeger fans when things are going well. We're big Corey Seeger fans when things aren't going well. And right now, you know, it's a little bit of a mixed bag.

I think the power has actually been really nice, eight home runs in, what is he at, 35 games now. So that's really solid. That puts him on a career best pace. And there's a reason to think that, you know, the way he's hitting the ball right now, he's hitting the ball in the air a little more than he has in the past. you know, should, you know, that should continue to be the case for him if he does continue to hit the ball well.

And you might think, well, he's hitting the ball in the air more that might sacrifice some batting average, but he's actually still got a 26% line drive rate. And he's still only striking out 17% of the time. You know, he's traded some ground balls for fly balls and you might expect to lose a few hits over the course of the season trading ground balls for fly balls. but generally speaking, the batting average on those two batted ball types is not so far that you would think that that's going to make a difference either way. For someone like Corey Seeger who hits the ball hard and shouldn't have trouble putting it over the fence with regularity. So, you know, the batting average 244 expected batting average 289, even in the context of a league where the ball's not, you know, traveling as far, you would think that that batting average should be closer to the 289 figure than the 244 figure, especially,

because Corey Seeger is actually not struggling to hit the ball out of the park, unlike a lot of hitters right now with those eight home runs. So that shouldn't be depressing his batting average too much. So I think the skills are all mostly still there for Corey Seeger to be a legitimate, significant impact player. And, you know, we've seen him go on stretches where he's hit like a, as close to a first rounder as you can get when you only steal one base a year. He's been that Freddie Freeman type player

the past couple of seasons, and I think he's going to be that guy moving forward. So I'm not worried about Corey Seeger at all. I agree completely with what you said about the fly ball rate being up, and people might look at that and think, all right, well, that's conducive to a lower batting average. He's got a 235 bathe up right now,

that's 331 for his career. So even with the increase in fly ball rate, I wouldn't expect it to impact him that much. And based on the expected batting average, which you mentioned 289, we're still trying to calibrate, you know, what the expected stats mean right now. But I think much better days are coming for Corey Seeger.

So 100% with you there. Looking to buy Corey Seeger. And I kind of feel like he was in a similar price range as Jose Abraeu coming into the season. So I don't know, similar pitchers, Chris, would you give up guys like Gavisger? in Kyle Wright, Eric Lauer to get Seeger. Absolutely. Absolutely would.

Yeah, that seems like an easier call to me. I guess I may have had Corey Seeger higher than the consensus. Yeah. I think I had Corey Seeger like 20-ish spots ahead of Jose Obreu. Yeah. And I haven't moved him down at all so far. So even with it being a disappointing start, you know, I think even like, this is always a difficult way to phrase this, but I was thinking of someone like Shane McClain-Han,

who I'm sure we'll talk about more, and who I'm sure like. I mean, there's a lot to like there. I would still rather have Corey Seeger for the rest of the season. If I was going to trade for McLanahan, or if I was going to trade McClanhan, I would probably ask for more just because that's smart. But like, I think Corey Seeger is going to provide more value than Shane McClanahan rest of season. I think he's a better bet to provide more value. Maybe McClanian has more upside. but I don't know. Like, Corey Seeger has a significant amount of upside on his own. So that is, that's one where, you know, Corey Seeger plus, you know, Chris Sale or something like that. It would be pretty interesting. Yeah, there must be something going on in the air there in Pittsburgh because, I mean, come on, Chris.

We're not giving up Shane McClanahan. Who's doing that right now? No, I agree that if you can, if you can. can get Seeger Plus, I think that makes more sense to do it straight up for Shane Omec. I've been having that trouble with the rankings too, specifically shortstop and second base especially. I mean, second base just looks upside down right now. You got Colton Wong, you got Gene Seguero way up there in actual production, and

then you got like Ozzy Aldi. But the thing is like. Mark of Stuyer and Colton Wong, like Gene Segarra's had like a good 10 days. which mostly just goes to show you how bad second base has been this season. Or how little it takes to... Yeah. Because I noticed Willie Adama's barely hitting 200, and yet I think he's the number two or three shortstop in fantasy.

And he kind of only had like a really, really great five days. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I've been resistant to, you know, moving down. I have concerns in this environment about Marcus. Simeon and Max Muncie and even at all but I've been resistant to moving them down and I know people are probably annoyed with that at this point but you know the rest of season rankings you can't

get the numbers already banked we're talking about today forward do you honestly think do you honestly think that I don't know TIE France well that's a harder one because I do think there's a good chance tie with Ty France is just a really good player but but somebody like Gene Seguro. Do you honestly think Gene Segaro is better than Trevor's story now? I mean, you're crazy. No. Not like I've moved Simeon down. Um, he's my number eight shortstop now, or number eight second baseman. It wouldn't take much to move Jazz Chisholm ahead of him at this point. And they're in a similar range overall. I'm still doing my overall rankings for the trade chart. And I had Simeon 57th last week, Jazz Chisholm 66th. Swapping those guys would be

fairly easy. Although jazz has... And who was the other one? And Simeon. Simian, yeah, I was debating that, those two specific, those two among others, you know, exactly how high do I move of jazz chisholm who continues to produce while these

much more highly regarded players coming into the year don't. And it kind of split the difference. Like I moved him ahead of Jorge Polanco. Yeah. And... Yeah, jazz is up to nine for me. I moved him up to Javier about, up, up above Javier Baez.

But, you know. Yeah, Baez. I moved him ahead of Baez too. But he's still not. He's still at a place that might annoy people if they go look at my rankings. I did something crazy. I mean, I went full jazz chisholm on Tuesday.

I moved him ahead of Trevor Story, Cotell Marte, Jorge Polanco, Whitmeryfield. So I just kind of trust it. I feel like pitchers have been adjusting to him and all jazz is done in May. is lower his strikeout rate. It was 16% in the month of May entering Tuesday's action.

And he's hitting the ball harder. So I'm just really encouraged by everything we've seen from Jazz Chisholm. That is very encouraging. I think it's more just like, Marcus Simeon was a 4015 guy last year. You know, how long do you give him before you say I'm willing to trade him for Jazz Chisholm

who, you know, has had a good six weeks, but obviously isn't nearly as proven. and I'm not quite there yet. I want through the end of May. I think through the end of May, if these guys are showing no signs of life, you might see me start to make some more drastic changes. So we're about two weeks from that.

All right, the hitter that I'm looking to trade for right now, Anthony Rendon, and I swear it has nothing to do with him hitting his fifth home run of the season on Tuesday. He's still batting just 230, but what I noticed, I hadn't really looked at him all season. I don't have many shares. I think maybe I have one Anthony Rendon.

He's actually hitting the ball hard this year. 91.6 mile per hour average exit velocity for Rendon. That represents a career high, a career that's been pretty damn good too. His 8.2% barrel rate is not great compared to other sluggers in the game, but it's Anthony Rendon's best since 2019 when he had that career season with the Washington National. So the bat is lower right now for Rendon, 255.

It's 310 for his career. Maybe he doesn't get back to his career mark because he's not the player that he once was, but I would bank on that Babbat being closer to 300 rest of season. So that will come with more batting average, and it's just a fantastic lineup, right? He's hitting right in the middle behind Trout and Otani and right around Jared Walsh and all these guys.

So I'd be looking to buy right now. I'd be looking to get shares of Anthony Rendon. Chris, do you share the same optimism? Yeah, I think so. The one thing that I wanted to look at, yeah, the one place that he's really hasn't seen as much success, as he has at his best is he's really not hitting the ball the other way very often. His pull rate is 39.2%.

That's not the highest of his career. But his opposite field rate is 19.6%. That is the lowest of his career. And if you look at the spray chart for hits, there's very little off to the right side of the field. You know, 2020, he didn't hit it for a ton of power to the right side of the field, but he was spraying singles. that direction. In 2019, you know, when he was at his best, his spray chart was all over the place.

So that's the one place where if I'm looking for a reason why Anthony Rendon may be less helpful on batting average than I would hope. That's the thing I would look at is it just, you know, as a player gets older, it becomes easier and easier, especially for a right-handed hitter to play deep and to, you know, rob an extra. extra infield hit or an extra, you know, single down the line, you know, every week or so, you know, every other week, however, whatever, the rate comes out to. Yeah. No, I think that's fair. And I'm not expecting really anything close to the batting average of old, but can we get 270 out of Rendon with, you know, modest power and lots of RBI's in that great lineup? Yeah, I think that's possible. So I would be looking to buy Anthony Rendon as well. Let's take a quick break. And when we return, we'll get to the news and notes here on Fantasy. baseball today. The news and notes. Ronald de Cunia returned to the lineup as the DH after

missing five straight games with a groin issue. You'll love to see it. Jacob de Grom's most recent MRI revealed continued healing in his scapula, but I'm not sure how much it means. There was a recent report that said he might not return until after the All-Star break, so I don't know. It's some good news, some bad news for Jacob de Grom. Bryce Harper was out of the lineup for a second straight game after receiving a PRP injection in his elbow this weekend. Salvador Perez was removed from Tuesday's game and then later placed on the IL with a sprained left thumb. We're waiting to find out more about the timetable for Salvador Perez.

But Scott, if you need a catcher and you lost Salvador Perez, how about just adding MJ Melendez who hit his first home run of the season on Tuesday? He's 30% rostered. Seems like he should play more now. Yeah, no, I'm leading tomorrow's waiver wire. column with him because it won't take much for a player to move into the top 10 at catcher. And the playing time has been sporadic for Melendez, but he has hit the ball very hard. I think over 92 miles per hours is average exit velocity.

The walk rate is great. The strikeout rate is great. Everything you want to see in the underlying numbers looks good, small though the sample is. But you're talking about a guy who led all the miners in home runs last year. and he's a catcher, and now he's got an open door to play close to every day. So yeah, why not? Would you take Melendez over Alejandro Kirk, Elias Diaz, and Jonah Heim? He's right there with Kirk for me, well ahead of the others. All right. I agree, by the way. I've watched a few at-bats this season so far for Melendez,

and he just, he looks good up there, confident. He's, you know, taking close pitches. He just, he looks like he's ready, so very encouraged. arrive in Perez's absence, you know, maybe it's only a week and a half Perez misses. It's a minimum time. They could just have the two split-catcher in DH, which, you know, Melendez has gotten some time at DH already, but if you know, if he proves himself an instrumental part of the lineup, that'll only increase and they could both be must-start options. And I'll point out, you know, with Alejandro Kirk, you know, we, we, I think we would all take Kirk over Melendez, but I

I think that's the right range just because, like, if you have potential as a catcher, you kind of, you're in the top 15. Like, if you have potential and you're playing, like, you're probably going to be in the top 15 in the rankings just because there's nobody there. And so Kirk is like a low end catcher one, high end catcher two for me in the rankings. But since he hit his first extra base hit of the season, which is very much arbitrary end points, uh, that was on May 3rd, he has started, I believe,

11 of 13 games for the Blue Jays, and he's hitting over 300. You know, so the underlying numbers aren't quite as impressive as they looked last season necessarily, but I still think there's a lot to like for Kirk who continues to not strike out, continues to hit the ball pretty well.

So I think there's a big stretch coming where he can still be a difference maker. All right, Starling Marte was placed on the bereavement list Monday and will miss at least three days. Cotel Marte was scratched in game two with a sore left hand. Brendan Nimmo left Tuesday's game with a bruise right quad. He is day-to-day. J.P. Crawford left with an ankle injury but said after that he was fine.

Carl's Correa did not return on Tuesday, which meant another start at shortstop for Royce Lewis, more on him in a little bit. Willie Adomis isn't expected to return before Saturday with that sprained left ankle. Saturday is far away too. It kind of seems like he might land on the aisle. Brandon Lau was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his lower back and will be shut down for at least three weeks. It turns out Clayton Kirshall...

Yeah, I didn't see that one. I mentioned jazz Chisholm was number eight at second base. That'll be enough to move Jazz Chisholm up to... Or he was number nine at second base. That'll be enough to move him up to number eight. Top five, Chris. Top five for Jazz. Let's do it.

Not yet. Not yet. All right. It turns out Clayton Kirchall will not throw a bullpen session Wednesday as he continues to experience discomfew. in his right SI joint. Lucas Gilito

will start on Wednesday against the Royals, so make sure to get him in your daily lineup leagues. Jordan Romano remains day to day with a

non-COVID illness. Adam Simber picked up another save on Tuesday back-to-back days with a save for him. Nick Lodolo will

not throw for the next week. He is on the aisle with a back injury, which he recently suffered a setback on Alex Faito,

Scott, your boy. He's staying in the rotation for now. We'll pitch on Saturday against Cleveland, 6% rostered, and has looked pretty good. So, deeper leagues, I would say go out and add Alex Fayetteau. Spencer Shrider will likely handle more higher leverage relief work late in games with Tyler Matzick on the IL, which, you know, it's probably good for the Braves, but not great for fantasy because we want Shrider to start,

obviously, so that stinks. Jake Oterese was placed on the IL with lower leg discomfort. Andrew McCutcheon, likely to return this weekend. He's been on the COVID-IL the past few weeks. Mitch Keller has been demoted to the Pirates bullpen. I'm really, really happy that I didn't end up succumbing to my gut to overreact to Mitch Keller, throwing harder. I very well could have ended up with him as like a top 200 player. And I'm glad I watched him in spring training and saw that.

Yeah, he was still doing Mitch Keller things. Yeah. No, it was a great call by you, Chris. Scott, Ronesy Contreras, what are we thinking? Is it about to happen? Can we get him in the rotation? It might be. I mean, it's the openings tomorrow, right?

And his turn lines up to start that game. So his last two appearances in the majors, both three innings, five strikeouts. The spin rates on everything are incredible. A lot of swing and miss potential here. Some control issues down in the minors, the little bit he's pitched. but yeah, I mean, there's a lot of upside there.

And I guess you can redirect your enthusiasm for Spencer Strider to Rulanzi Contreras, of court. Or, yeah, I don't know. I lost my train of thought there exactly how I was phrasing that sentence. Someone threw a penny on the track. Yeah. I don't know. I just started saying random words. It happens to the best of us.

Contreras instead of strider. All right. One last note here. Reds prospect, Jose Barrero, is nearing a rehab assignment, and he's just somebody to watch for now and might be worth stashing in deeper leagues. Let's fire up the dropometer here on a Wednesday, and this edition is for hitters and pitchers that got off to great starts, but maybe they're kind of coming back down to Earth right now. Stephen Kwan went 0 for 4 again on Tuesday.

He is betting 194 over his last 16 games. is 77% rostered. Chris, what is the dropometer for Stephen Kwan? So how are we how are we calibrating it like just a roster percentage? No, but that would be. Yeah, I guess that would be the opposite. So 10 is this player does not need to be on any rosters. You can drop him even in deeper leagues You know, one obviously you're you're holding everywhere five Yeah, probably dropping him in like three outfielder points leagues. Let's I guess calibrate it that way I don't think he's worth rostering in anything shallower than a five outfielder 12 team league so that would I would say that's like a six or a seven on the drop one yeah yeah I just

it looks to be about as empty a batting at well like I don't know I guess in theory like he he could score a decent number of runs he's got 19 pretty heavily weighted towards early on in the season. He's got 12 runs in his last 21 games, which I guess that's a 90-run pace. So he's a two-category guy. I just, I don't think he gives you anything outside of those two categories. Well, you do have to consider points leagues. I'm still starting Kwan in a couple points leagues because I haven't found anybody better. And so what did he miss? He had like a hamstring injury or something. He missed a stretch there at the end of April. and basically done nothing since then, right?

Yeah. Hit 231 since returning April 30th. And yet, despite that, he's still tied for 38th among outfielders during that stretch, not overall, during that stretch where he's hit 230. He's tied for 38th among outfielder's in points leagues, which goes to show you how. Outfielder is terrible. Well, Elfield's terrible. But, yeah, if you don't strike out, you don't necessarily need to be hit. that well to be a usable points league player and yeah and and Kwan's gonna hit better

during stretches than he has during this stretch obviously that's fair it's it's always tough when a guy's best that best format as a points league though because like though the guys who are like better in points leagues you still have to be really really good and I just don't know if Stephen Kwan's ever gonna be really really good but now that's a fair point like a 12 team points league he's not not unrosterable. But I think the quality of contact is just going to continue to be so bad

that I just, I'm starting to think 10 homers and 10 steals might be close to the ceiling. All right. Let's move over to a pitcher Merrill Kelly. It was fun while lasted, I guess. Destroyed at the Dodgers on Tuesday. He gave up eight runs on five hits, four walks. He still 92% rostered.

Scott, the drop-o meter on Merrill Kelly. So I'd go six on Kwan 2 for what it's worth. For Merrill Kelly, uh, three and a half. I, you know, he was,

he was due for some regression. This game brought his ERA up to the low three still. You find it exactly. Uh, man, I've not done how to get done. It is 3.27. Yeah,

navigating this notepad has not gone well for me the past whole days. Yeah, three point two seven, which is actually, still better than both his ex-fip than his ex-E-R-A. But, you know, he's... The problem... He's okay.

The problem is, after he had the strikeouts early on, and in spring training, and we thought, you know, maybe this is a new sign, he's got 16, he had 16 over 20 and 2-thirds innings in his previous three starts, and that was with an eight-strikeout game. So, even though the results had still been pretty good, he started to look more like Merrill Kelly,

and then let's not, let's not, you know, right off Merrill Kelly entirely. He's been a useful player and someone that, you know, has value for sure. But yeah, this is one that I did buy into the hot start and I kind of... Well, once he stopped getting the whiffs on the channel, like you said, it was pretty clear. Yeah, this is not... This is more of a back-end guy in fantasy. And I think he remains so.

I don't think you need to hurry and drop them based on this start, but he's, you shouldn't shoot him like a must-star pitcher either. He's in the 50-ish range for me. Awesome. I think that's probably where I'll end up keeping him. Scott, would you drop Merrill Kelly for either

Martin Perez or Yusay Kakucci? They are the two most added starting pitchers on CBS right now. No. All right. Let's move to Owen Miller, Stephen Kwan's teammate. He went one for four with his fourth home run on Tuesday,

but he is batting. just 188 in May. He's 71% Ross here. Chris, the dropometer on Owen Miller. Yeah, I would think probably six or seven, but he is at least first and second base eligible, right? Is he eligible anywhere else? So that does make it a little tougher.

But yeah, he's come pretty hard back down to Earth, so I think he's pretty droppable, yeah. I would say six or seven. Yeah, he's first. second base eligible, I would drop him for Christian Walker if you just need a first baseman or corner infielder or whatever it might be. I don't want to drop this player, but I've got to ask because I'm sure someone's thinking it right now. Alex Cobb got destroyed at Corse Field. Look, it's Corse Field. It's going to happen. He gives up seven runs on 10 hits, one walk. The ERA now up to 5.61. He's still

86% rostered. Scott, where are you out on Alex Cobb, the drovometer? I'm not sure I'm totally with you guys on Owen Miller, but Alex Cobb on the drop ometors about it. One, I have no interest in dropping him. I think he's good. Yep. All right. Remember, he was really good the previous

two starts before this. It's course field. Okay, let's move over to Hazu Sanchez, who hit his fourth home run on Tuesday. He actually did not start that game, and that would have made two games in a row where he did not start. It seems production related, because in the 19 games before Tuesday,

Hazu Sanchez was batting under 100. Chris, where is he on the dropometer? Yeah, I mean, he's, I wouldn't say he's entirely lost his job to Brian Dale-Cruz, but Brian De La Cruz has been playing and hitting a lot better than him lately. So, yeah, I think Hazer Sanchez, there's another guy that I, you know, kind of aggressively moved into the top 50 at outfield, but never really much higher than that. It just seems like there might be too much swing and miss in his game. So, yeah, I think he's probably.

like a five. A five. I was expecting to hear higher. Yeah, me too. I'll go eight. Maybe five or six. So who would you, if you had to drop one, Chris,

would you rather drop Kwan or Sanchez? I, yeah, I guess Sanchez should probably be a six or a seven then because that's a tough call. I think Sanchez has more upside, but Kwan is probably more usable just because he's not losing playing time right now.

All right. The last one here, Scott, and I got to give it to you, unfortunately. It's all unwinding for our guy, Josh Winder. He pitched in relief on Tuesday following Dylan Bundy, and he was not good. Where are we at on Josh Winder? That was some fine wordplay there from you. Thank you, sir.

Yeah, I don't know what the twins are doing here. Yeah, I had him as one of my top sleeper pitchers for this week, and now I don't even know if he's going to make a start. So I want more information. before I pull the plug, but I'll call him like a 4.5 on the dropometer based on what I know now. Okay.

Would you drop him for Kukuchi? I think I would make that swap. Again, I want more information before I follow through with that. But if it sounds like he's not sticking around, not going to keep a rotation spot, then yeah, that's an easy swap to make at that point. I will point out Dylan Bundy is still 45% roster. so for, you guys, you folks, uh, drop, drop him.

Yes, please. For whoever, yeah, whatever you say Kukuchi or whoever you want to add, just drop him. Yes, please do that. A few waiver wire hitters. If we're dropping players, that means we could add somebody. And Ali Thomas went one for four, hit his second home run. I've noticed he is hitting a lot of ground balls early on. It's over 60% ground ball rate, but when he's getting the chance to put the ball in the air,

He's barreling it quite well. Thomas, a big prospect. He's still only 67% rostered, which surprises me. I've been doing my part, Frank. Almost every day. He's in waiver wire. He's going to be tomorrow as well. You know what it is?

He hasn't stolen a base yet. I feel like that's probably what it is. I don't... The overall number is 917 OPS. There's nothing to complain about here. And he's one of the only prospects that came up and actually hit. I mean, shout out one.

Pes, but he's cartoon-proof. Chris, did you just punch yourself with a microphone? Those are the sounds of Pittsburgh, right? Yeah, my microphone, I've got it off to the side. I'm going to need to redo this because I've got the arm off to the side instead of in the back like I normally do. And yeah, I don't have a lot of range of movement here. And so if I lift my arm too quickly, yeah, that that'll be, that'll be a problem. Alex Thomas is hitting like everything to the left to the to the opposite side or at least all of his hits have come to the opposite side which is interesting

not today's home run yeah his home run all of Sandy Alcantara went to the opposite field which I was very impressed like over 400 feet to the opposite field yeah that was impressive no there's um I think there's a lot to like about his skill set and I think he's gonna start running at some point he's 94th percent on sprint speeds so yeah I think Alex Thomas, I would rather have him than Hazer Sanchez, Stephen Kwan. I would make that swap easily. I agree with that. And by the way, I'm thinking Royce Lewis clinched his stay when Carlos Correa comes back later this week. Because he had a big game himself here against the A's. He went two for four. with a double and a home run, his second home run.

His strikeout rate has been low, his exit velocity has been high. We've seen him play basically all over the field in the minors. So I'm going to guess he sticks around. Maybe Jose Miranda gets sent down instead. Yeah, I mean, the twins are kind of getting nothing out of left field, third base and center field right now. I mean, you know, one of those will change when Correa comes back, I guess,

assuming. But yeah, Lewis, I think he needs to be in there because Jose Miranda's been really bad. Nick Gordon, I don't think there's much there. So whether it's left field or third base or wherever, I think Royce Lewis deserves to stick.

Yeah, he's only 52% rostered. I notice his max exit velocity 1 14 miles per hour. That is just awesome to see for Royce Lewis. I would drop. The sprint speed is not so good. Which is surprising. 72nd percentile.

I mean, it's pretty good. It's enough to steal bases. He was stealing in the minors. Yeah. I would drop Gavin Lux for him. Is that right? Oh, yeah. Okay.

Yeah, Gavin Lux. His quality of contact numbers have collapsed. So, yeah, I think that's okay. All right. Are you interested in any of these Giants hitters who enjoyed Corsefield quite a bit on Tuesday? Mike Yistremski, Darren Ruff. Scott, Darren Ruff actually started a game.

You love to see it. And then Tommy Lestella, who led off the game with a home run. Any interest there, Scott, Yaz, Ruff, Lestella? Some interest in all three. Lestella homered twice on his rehab assignment in only nine games. And I mean, we've seen him be a productive player before. I don't know that the Giants will ever let him bat against Ritey, so that limits his upside.

But I'm at least going to keep a watch on him. Against the lefty. probably the home run came against the lefty. No, no, no, that he won't bat against the lefty. Okay. Probably the one that I'd be most inclined to pick up right now is Yistremski, who I didn't notice until he had this big game at Coorsfield. 96th percentile average exit velocity so far this year.

He's been playing against both lefties and righties. He's one of the few players the Giants haven't been platooning. his walk rate and especially the strikeout rate are both improved from last year and of course in 2020 he was basically a must-star player in fantasy so we've seen him do damage before I think if you need an extra outfielder

if you're looking to replace somebody like Jesus he Stremski deserves a look all right in category leagues just a name to pay attention to right now probably deeper ones Jonathan VR went two for three with a walk a sock and a shoe his first home run and his second stolen base. He hasn't been great so far,

241 batting average, but he's actually been playing. So just a name to watch for now, Jonathan V.R. Let's run through some stuff. I've had a few fun things planned. Aaron Judge is this all to a ridiculous start? He's all over the New York media right now. He didn't sign this contract.

He wants to get paid, whatever. Four for five with a double dong. He now leads MLB with 14 home runs. He's batting 321. He's got an OPS over 1,000. He's even got two steals. he's first in baseball in average exit velocity barrel rate hard hit rate expected slugging percentage if you guys were redrafting today where would you take aaron judge round two

Chris what you think probably toward the end of round two maybe earlier than that yeah right around the last pick of round two what is like I'm looking at it and like I've got him 11th at outfielder I could move him above starling martay but then that's in rhodo but you know Marta obviously the stolen bases make it tough and then I've got Buxton and Springer and bets ahead of him and I think Buxton I think Buxton you can make a case for just because it sounds like he's going to be sitting regularly enough that it's going to be hard for him to live up to his potential

after that I think that's probably like that's probably it like Springer maybe but I still I still like the line up in the spot he's in. But yeah, I think he's in that range. That's more restraint than I have. I think of the ones you mentioned, Betz is the only one I'm still ranking ahead of Judge, and I was second-guessing that with my update today.

What keeps me from moving Judge into my top five and maybe talking about him as a first rounder if we were redrafting is just the health history. Yeah, that's exactly. He's still have to guard against that. Yeah, for sure. Moogie Betts, by the way, he's on fire. He homers in three of his last.

last four games entering the night game. And in May, he's batting 317, five homers, and a 987 OPS. So, Mooka bets. I believe he scored three times in the second game of the double header. I'm not sure about the first, but I, yeah, he had, he's on, he's on like a 155 run pace right now. Oh my. Is he? And he hasn't been that good. Yeah, that is, let's see, he has 35 run scored in 34 games. That is insane. Yeah, so like 165 run pace.

Oof. Wow. Yeah, Mookie Betts. He is awesome. The only outfathers... And also, his OPS is above 800 now, I think. So he's also... His numbers look quite all right already.

846. Excuse me. He's up to an 846 OPS now. Yeah, Mookie Betz is fine. While we're talking about studs, by the way, Mike Trout added three more hits, his 10th he'll run. He's awesome.

is Vlad Jr. still awesome? I've just got to ask. We haven't talked about him all season long. He's been fine. He just hasn't been, you know, top five pick great so far this season. He's batting 282. He's got an 837 OPS.

You know, ground ball rate is up a little bit and hard contact. Still looks fine. Chris, is there anything to worry about here with Vlad? No, I don't think so. The expected contact numbers, the expected Wobah on contact is actually identical to last season.

Obviously, we would expect worse overall production if the expected numbers were the same as last year. But that tells me quite a bit. His average launch angle is down to 4.5 degrees from 9.4 degrees last season. That's more in the 2020 range. It's actually right around where he was in 2020. But he's barreling the ball a lot more than he did in 2020. So I don't know how much to take away from that.

I don't see much reason to be concerned. I think he's still awesome. I'm going to have another three homer game tomorrow. And the, you'll feel bad for asking, Frank. I guess it is like a reminder that the margin for error with the non-steels guys is relatively slim. And so, you know, he needs to be a real outlier as a hitter

to justify being a top five pick. But I think he'll, I think he's still awesome. and I think he still will be very, very good moving forward. I mentioned Mookie Betts turning it around in May. A few others I wanted to mention. Catelle Marte, I know he didn't play the second game with Soarhand, but in May he's betting 375, one homer, one steel, 1089 OPS.

Paul Goldschmidt picked up four hits between the two games against the Mets, and he is batting over 350 in the month of May, four homers, one steel, and 1166 OPS. And Julio Rodriguez, we've talked a lot about recently, but he went two for three with his league leading 11th steel on Tuesday. He is batting over 300, two homers, two steals, an 850 OPS, and a strikeout rate around 25% in the month of May. He's awesome, and he's an outfieler that's hitting.

I might just move him into the top 24 tomorrow when I do my update. Chris, remember. Go ahead. We haven't mentioned yet. Yep. Eight in game hitting streak for J.D. Martinez. Nice. 3, 7 with four home runs during that stretch.

All right, yeah. Definitely could use that. The Red Sox can use that too. It's been such a weird start for them. Raphael Devers, he's another one. He's red hot right now too. I wanted to mention a few waiver wire pitchers. We'll wrap up with these who were pretty interesting on Tuesday.

Zach Eflin made his return from the COVID-IL, six innings, one run, five strikeouts. Adrian Howser posts a quality start against the Braves. I was shocked to see his ERA is 3.22. It feels like every time he pitches, he gets rocked. I don't even know how this is possible. James Caprillion gave up two runs over five and a third. He had six strikeouts.

And Tyler Anderson with a great bounceback against the Diamondback. Seven innings, two runs, seven strikeouts. Scott, any interest in Anderson, Caprillion, Hauser, Zach Eflin? Not a ton of interest. I think they're all streamable. They're all going to show up on my sleeper pitchers list from time to time based on matchups, but I don't think any of them have enough upside that I'm, you know, you need to rush out and add them.

All right. Go ahead, Chris. We haven't mentioned Brady Singer yet, have we? No, he was, uh, I have a few deep league names. Okay, yeah. That I was going to throw out next. But yeah, he is one of them, uh, actually a pitcher's duel in that game. Game two, Brady Singer, seven shutout endings with nine strikeouts against the White Sox.

On the other side, I wrote down David, Mark. But I think his name is Davis Martin. Davis Martin, yes. I knew a kid named Martin Davis, went to school with him, and he was pretty good at baseball, but I'm pretty sure this isn't him because he would be in his late 30s right now like I am. Davis Martin, he's 25, Scott, so I guess we could rule that one out. I did not know him before the start, and he was pretty good.

Five innings, one run, seven strikeouts. And there were a few other just random names out here on Tuesday night. Tucker Davidson, five shutout innings for the Braves, Keegan Thompson, five shutout for the Cubs. Cody Poteet, four and two-thirds shutout with four strikeouts. Connor Overton, I'm not really sure how he's doing it, but four straight, solid starts. Seven and two-thirds innings of two-run ball. Chris, anything you'd like to add on these names.

Overton, Potit, Thompson, Davidson, Singer, and Davis Martin, quite a few names. I think Singer is the most interesting of the group. he had nine strikeouts today he had 18 swinging strikes 16 of them with his slider so you can kind of tell what the main event there was

and he threw his slider 42% of the time he's basically switched to being a fastball a sinker slider guy and you know the velocity's up a little bit but the slider has been you know

quite a good swing and miss pitch for him even coming into today. So I think it's worth keeping an eye on Brady Singer. He was an interesting pitching prospect. God, I feel like he hasn't been around that long. Did he make his debut in 2020? Yeah, he did.

Okay. So, you know, I don't want to, you know, write him off entirely. I think he's the most interesting of this group. I am interested in Davis Martin. I'm sure he's getting sent down right away. But he has a, deep pitch mix and was getting whiffs on

like he got nine swinging strikes on 18 sliders that popped off the page yeah but he got four on the fastball three on the change up and uh was was doing really well in the minors too so if if you know next time he gets called up if somebody gets hurt or whatever keep an eye on old davis martin not martin davis i will um

point out with cody pate not so much him, but you know, we were hoping that Max Meyer would get the call for that start. This was the way it lined up and Max Meyer didn't get the start. And he was bad today. Had his

worst start of the season, eight earned runs, four walks, one strikeout and three and a third. So... Meyer? Yeah, Max Meyer. That was today for AAA Jacksonville. So he wasn't great in his previous start either. So I think

we can probably pump the brakes on the Max Meyer hype train, at least for now. I think it doesn't sound like the Marlins were on the verge of calling him up despite what we wanted anyway. And I would guess this doesn't give them any more reason to do that. So that's worth noting. Of course. Yeah, that is unfortunate for our guy, Max Meyer. A few other pitching standouts worth mentioning, Dylan Cease, five and two-thirds, shutout innings with nine strikeouts.

He has seven or more strikeouts. in seven of eight starts. He leads baseball with 67 strikeouts. That is Dylan Cise. Shane McClanahan is second to cease with 65 strikeouts in all of baseball. Uh, back-to-back seven inning performances for Shane McClan. So they are letting him go right now. And he has looked amazing. Mike Clevenger also looked pretty good on Tuesday night. Five shutout innings, one hit, zero walks, five strikeouts. And he was followed by McKenzie Gore, who threw three shutout endings himself with four. strikeouts. Scott, any quick thoughts? Cease, McLeanahan, Clevenger, Gore. I'm about as skeptical of

Clevenger as I am of Cinderguard. The velocity hasn't been the same. He had only three swinging strikes on 75 pitches in this one. So it may take another good start before I could call him a cell high, really, but I have some skepticism there. All right, the call to the bullpen. Liam Hendricks picked up his 11th save in game one of that double header. Craig Kimball give up a run, but he struck out the side for his seventh save. Edwin Diaz struck out the side for his ninth save. His ERA is down to 1.69. For the Reds, Art Warren came in for the save in a two-run game.

He gave up a game tying home run. Alexis Diaz, who I've mentioned a few times now. He picked up the save in extras, and he struck out the side. He did walk two batterers, so I think they should give him the next shot, but there's a reason why I'm not managing the Cincinnati Reds. Nobody wants to be the Reds closure for the second year in a row. Yeah, it's funny how that works, huh? For the Marlins, Anthony Bender, he pitched in the fifth inning of a tie game.

Anthony Bass, who we've all speculated on recently. He pitched in the seventh inning. The game was 3-0 at the time. And then Coles Solcer was the one who pitched in the ninth with a 5-1 lead. So I don't really know with the Marlins right now. It's kind of tough to figure out. I feel like Dillon Flores just got to give them a reason to be the closer. and they're going to go with it.

Yeah, he's got to put together a few strong outings because he's looked quite bad. For the Padres, Taylor Rogers, picked up his 14th save tying Josh Hader for the league lead. A roll with Chapman gave up three hits and a run, but picked up his ninth save. Kenley Jansen struck out two for his ninth save. Josh Stallmont picked up his third save

after Scott Barlow worked back-to-back days. And then for the Giants, Camillo DeVal got his seventh save. And for Oakland, Danny Jimenez got the final five outs of that game for his seventh save of this season. To stream or not to stream, we'll go to Wednesday, Marco Gonzalez,

at the Blue Jays, Jordan Hicks at the Mets, Drew Smiley versus the Pirates, Dane Dunning versus the Angels. I just completely removed Nick Povetta from this list after I saw what happened to Nathan Avaldi on Tuesday. I don't like any of them. Yuck.

Jordan Hicks is probably my favorite, but. Don't like it. Yeah, if Dunning had a better matchup, but not against the Angels. Well, I'll tell you what, guys. Thursday's not a lot better. Bruce Zimmerman versus the Yankees, Dakota Hudson at the Mets, Vince Velasquez at the Royals,

and Carlos Hernandez versus the White Sox. Dakota Hudson is good enough at limiting damage that if you really wanted to squeeze in an extra start, he might be okay. It's not my style of playing. point, you know? Well, fair enough, but what's the point of this whole segment? Like, in a points league, sure, he might give you positive points, but like, in a Roto League, you're what, you're hoping for five, five innings, two runs allowed, like

four strikeouts, like... You're trying to... Yeah, like that... Scott hates... Mets are the better team. Scott hates the segment to stream or not to stream. I want everyone who plays in daily lineup leagues who appreciates the segment to tweet at Scott White over the next couple of days.

at CBS Scott White and let them know how much you love this segment. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I have Frank. Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.