Fantasy Baseball Today - Add Tyler Mahle, Ranking Soderstrom & WORRY-O-METER! (4/16 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 16, 2025

Tyler Mahle is off to a great start (3:27)! ... Tyler Soderstrom keeps crushing homers (10:47). ... Shea Langeliers and Alex Bregman both had big games (15:36). ... News (19:48): Matt Shaw was optioned, Bobby Miller will start Wednesday and Logan Henderson was recalled by the Brewers. ... Geraldo Perdomo is off to a hot start (31:54). ... Any interest in Quinn Priester (42:45)? ... Let's fire up the Worry-O-Meter for these eight struggling hitters (44:37). ... What do we make of these confusing pitchers (53:36)? ... These pitchers had rough starts on Tuesday (57:53). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:02:30). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Just how high is too high to rank Tyler Soder Show. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, April 16th.

I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Chris Towers. Today on the show, we had some big performances from the Tyler's, Malley, and Soderstrom. Matt Shaw was optioned back to AAA, have some confusing pitchers to talk about, and it's time for our first Worryometer of the season. Before we get started, I forgot to mention this last night, but it was Jackie Robinson Day across baseball. Always great to honor Jackie, who he was as a player, and even more so as a person, what he did both in baseball and in,

society, obviously, paving the way for so many great players and people who came after him. So always great to see the 42s across baseball, hear the great stories. And obviously, like, watching a Dodger game now. Watching a Dodger game now. Yeah, they're rocking the Brooklyn Dodgers hat, too. So it's always a great day and happy that they do that across baseball. If you ever get a chance, if you're ever in New York City, the Jagger Robinson Museum is in lower Manhattan.

and it's near like Little Illy in Chinatown over by the Holland Tunnel. Really nice way to spend a couple of hours if you're a baseball fan, learn a lot about what made him such a special and important person. All right. With that, let's get into it. Oh, my goodness. Holy cow, do you believe it? All right, Chris, you are up first.

Which Tyler do you want to talk about? I'll take Malley. I'll take Tyler Malley, who. it's one of those things where it's like, I want to ask how he's getting away with this, except that's not even the right question, because how is he dominating like this? And it's really just with the fastball.

He had 11 of his 18 swinging strikes in a nine strikeout game with his four seamer, which averages 92 miles per hour. That's weird because usually like, it's not that weird to see a pitcher with a low 90s fastball still be really good, right? Shodi Minaga and Sean Manaya last year and Bailey Ober and like that there are very good, Aaron Nola, very good pitchers who throw average 92 miles per hour at their fastballs. But think of all those guys.

Shodya Managa's got the splitter. Sean Minas got the slider. Aaron Nola's got his curve ball. Bailey Ober's change up. Like these guys all have. other really good pitches. And in Tyler Malley's case, at least so far, it's just the four seamer, which has a, let me make sure I get this number correct, 41% swinging strike rate, 41% whiff rate.

So whiffs divided by swings, 41% whiff rate with his four seamer this season. There was only one pitcher who threw at least 100 pitches last season, who had a higher whiff rate on their four seamer last year. And that was Mason Montgomery, who threw nine and two-thirds innings and average 97 miles per hour with his four seamer. Everyone else, like there was a couple guys in like the 37%, 38% range. Tyler Malley's like blowing the field away. And it's got good shape, you know, 19 inches of induced vertical break. That's really good. He throws from a relatively low slot. Like he's got the movement profile and it's been a good pitch for him in the past. 28% whiff rate last season.

It's not a bad pitch by any means, but this dominant when he was 121st in four seamer velocity entering today, I just, I don't want to say it's a fluke, but I don't really buy it either. And part of that is just the injury history, right? I just, Malley has been, I don't think he's throwing more than 125 innings since 2021 or 2019, whenever that really good year was. And so I'm having trouble buying in, but he's 57% rostered right now. So it doesn't really matter if I'm skeptical.

You know, we had a handful of really impressive pitching performances from low roster rate guys early on. and it's kind of slowed down a little bit, right? Like the last week or so, there haven't really been a ton of, wow, I have to add that guy at starting pitcher. And I think Tyler Malley is someone that you should add in all leagues after these last couple of showings. I'm not sure he's going to be a must start guy moving forward.

But I'll say must roster right now. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's very well said. 57% rostered for Tyler Malley. The last three starts for him, 18 innings pitched, six hits allowed, one run, five walks, 18 strikeouts for Tyler Malley. And I will fully admit, last week when Scott brought him up as a player of the night, I'm like, what are we doing talking about Tyler Malley?

I didn't say that out loud, but I thought it in my head. Maybe Scott was right. I don't know. Like Tyler Malley would. No, I had the same. Because it was like four strikeouts and seven innings last time around. Yeah. I mean, it was a seven inning performance.

But yeah, the strikeouts weren't great. This one was much different. I mean, nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs, 11 of the. those on the fastball and I pulled up his profile on pitcherless.com just to kind of see what's going on here. The fastball does have some good characteristics for sure, 79th percentile in induced horizontal break, 81st percentile and induced vertical break, 85th percentile in vertical approach angles. So those are

things that would contribute to a good shape on a fastball. So we know that about Tyler Malley. I don't know exactly how we get to the point on these other pitches, but PLV is an all encompassing metric that they use on pitcher list. Tyler Malley Splitter ranks 94th percentile. His slider ranks 94th percentile.

Yeah, I do want to... His cutter ranks 99th percentiles. I focused on the four seamer, but the splitter in particular has been a very good pitch for him. I don't know about the cutter and slider. It's also a really small sample size. Yeah, small sample sizes.

I don't buy those being great pitches, but the splitter, you know, I think it was like a 28% whiff rate last season. And it was good. It was good in this start too. Yeah. So yeah, he got five whiffs with it in this start as well. So I don't want to make it seem like it's just the four seamer, but the four seamer is the biggest reason why Tyler Malley's finding success right now. I don't know.

Like last year among starting pitchers who average 91 to 93 miles per hour with their four seamer, there were 11 of them. Lance Lynn had the highest whiff rate. his four seamer at 28%. So, you know, this could be a really good pitch for him. I'm still not sure it's going to be anything like what we've seen so far. I would bet against certainly a 40% whiff rate on that pitch moving forward. That is, I think Ryan Pepio might have had the highest among starters last year at like 34%. It's just really hard to live in that range consistently.

Yeah. And even if you don't completely buy it, which I'm kind of there with you. This is someone that you just pick up in case. In case this is real and you figure it out later. Like, okay, if it all falls apart or you get hurt, all right, you drop him. But it turns out that, all right, this is just who Tyler Malley is all of a sudden, then all right, you might have a breakout pitcher on your hand. So some pitchers who are rostered in more leagues than Mally that I would drop him for,

I would drop like a, let's see, Luis Severino, 60%, Michael Walker. 70% Charlie Morton, I believe, is still 57% rostered. At least he was entering today. Him and Malley had the same roster rate. One, I think Tyler Malley should be closer to 100. Yeah. Two, I think Charlie Morton should be closer to 0% rostered. Yeah, agreed.

So Morton, Severino, Waka. Yeah, easy drop on all those guys. Yeah. Like Justin Verlander, another bad star. I would drop Walker Bueller for him. Yeah, I agree with that. I think Tanner. Hauk is still 78% roster.

Absolutely dropped Tanner Halk for him, yeah. Yeah, just kind of scrolling up and down, trying to find more names. And we get into, actually, yeah, let's leave it off there for now. But yeah, like Walker Bueller's 82% Ross. Mitch Keller's 82%. Yeah, like I would drop all those guys for Tyler Malley

and let's see what happens here. Let's talk about Tyler Soderstrom, who crushed the White Sox here. Actually, the A's altogether crushed the White Sox. 12 runs on 13 hits. but Sotershom did a lot of that damage. Three for five with a double dong, six RBI in this game.

Leads baseball with eight home runs early on in the season, batting 328 with an 1137 OPS. Play discipline looks really good so far. It's eight walks to 13 strikeouts. That's an 18% strikeout rate, hitting the ball really hard. It was a 92.8 average exit velocity, 17% barrel rate entering this game.

So those two numbers are only going to go up. And we saw a little bit of this last year where the plate discipline wasn't terrible for Soderstrom. It has prospect pedigree. He hit the ball hard last year. Now he just really needed an opportunity to play every day. He has that and he's running with it. So off to a great start.

One of the biggest surprises so far this season. The question is how high can we get Tyler Soderstrom in the rankings? I had somebody tweet at me earlier. and say Scott moved him up to 10th in his first base ranking. So, here's my question. Does he have like Salvador Perez and Wilson Contreras ahead of him? Sal Perez, yes. I don't think he added Wilson Contreras to first base yet.

Okay, because I moved to Tyler Sotomaylorerstrom up to 14th. That does include Salvador Perez and Wilson Contreras. You can throw them out and he's the 12th catcher or first baseman. I still have Tristan Casas and Vinny Pasquantino ahead, but like I don't have a ton to go off there, right? Like the Casas one, I think is harder to defend. Well, not that Vinny P has great upside, but he had a very good season last year. But we have seen a better stretch from Tristan Casas than we ever have from Vinny Pasquantan. Tristan Casa's second half of 2023.

I think it's better than anything Vinny Pasquantino's done. It's certainly more sustained success. than Tyler Soderstrom's current production. It is also a year plus ago, and Tristan Kosses hasn't shown any kind of upside since then. So I'm open to just, I'm too high on Tristan Kossis and Vinny Pasquantino. Then I'm giving them too much of the benefit of the doubt for, you know, Casas being, you know, pretty far removed from his upside.

and pass Guantino just maybe not having that much upside. I would still, like, I wouldn't drop either of those guys. I wouldn't trade them for Tyler Sotom, but I'd rather have Sotom in my lineup right now. Yeah, 100%. Here's the thing. Like you mentioned, he was up last season. He didn't play a full season or anything close to it, but he did have a 344 expected Wobah at the major league level, which is a far cry from what he's doing right now.

he entered today with a 444 Woba. I'm going to guess that's going up quite a bit after a two homer game. Yeah. But a 348 expected Woba last season. You look at last season, and that is right around where Pete Alonzo is. In terms of expected Wobah, it's right around where, say, Suzuki, Teoska Hernandez, like those feel like reasonable comps. you know, like Sey Suzuki obviously a little more athletic,

but the combination of play discipline and power for Teosker Hernandez and and Sea Suzuki and even Pete Alonzo in like a down year, I can see that being the case for Tyler Sotom. And that's assuming a lot of regression from where he's at right now. You know, I'm looking, I'm still looking at the rankings here trying to figure out where I'm going to slot him in. I think probably at 12 right behind Vinnie P. and Kossis, but like you said, You absolutely should be starting him ahead of those names right now and probably should be starting him ahead of Christian Walker

and Cody Bellinger and those guys too. Those names... Those names are much more proven. Look, we're three weeks into the season almost. Anything can happen. It could turn out, okay, Soderstrom is like the next metals and Piedelonzo type and, you know, that's how we'll be ranking him this time next year or whatever it might be.

But it's still so early that we can't say that definitively. So I'm going to probably push him up closer to the top 12 at first base, but I'm not going to go overboard moving too high just yet. If you have Sotomayorstrom on your team, obviously you should feel great about that right now. I want to talk about one of his teammates real quick, Shea Lang Lears, who also had a big game here, three for five with his fourth home run, three hard hits in this game. He hit a double 11.5 miles per hour off the bat,

and he's hitting 250. He's got four home runs, 862 OPS early on. the plate discipline for Shea Langaleers eight strikeouts eight walks to seven strikeouts so far more walks to strikeouts an 11% strikeout rate whereas in his career it's 28%.

So I don't think that's going to last but it's kind of intriguing early on that the plate discipline is so improved for Shea Langaleers still hitting the ball really hard his ground ball rate is way too high right now so I do think some of those things will kind of even out here

maybe strikeouts go up, fly balls go up, and that'll affect his batting average. But I think one thing we know about Langalears, the power is absolutely legit for him. Wanted to also just give a, oh my goodness gracious shout out to Alex Bregman, who posted the first five-hit game of his career, five for five with a double dung,

four RBI in this one. How about this, Chris? Both home runs to the opposite field. For Alex Bregman, who is this guy, right? Like, that's something we never see. well, you know, maybe playing in George Steinbrenner Field helped out a little bit, right? That kind of short porch.

Although he hit it more to like the power alleys. So I don't know. I think just impressive home runs here. Yeah, let's see. Alex Bregman, who is. Neither was 100 mile an hour. Yeah. One of them would only have been out at Yankee Stadium and Steinbrenner.

Okay. The other one was 18 of 30 parks. So can't say they were both total flukes. But yeah, yeah, that sounds about right. I wanted to mention the average exit velocity for Bregman entering this game, 93.4 miles per hour. So he is locked in early on. And despite hitting the home runs to the opposite field,

had a career high 55% pull rate entering this game. So he got the memo. What he needs to be doing playing in Fenway Park is pulling the ball, hitting it hard. And I think really good things can happen this upcoming season. for Alex Bregman. Before we hit our first break, just a reminder that you can listen to FBT

and FBT Express on Spotify. If you're watching on YouTube, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to the FBT feed on Spotify. And if you're watching us live, make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already.

Let's take a break and we'll hit the news and notes right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Let's talk some news and notes and we got some big news here on Tuesday. Matt Shaw, optioned back to AAA after hitting 172 with one homer over his first 18 games of the season.

Plate discipline actually was very solid early on, but he is just not squaring the ball up at all. The quality of contact was terrible. 76% rostered for Matt Shaw. Chris, is this an auto drop? Do you hold in certain leagues? What do you think? I lean towards dropping pretty much everywhere.

It wouldn't surprise me if he's back up sometime in May, maybe even early May, you know, if he gets off to a good start at AAA. But yeah, I think like you said, the play discipline wasn't terrible. I feel like that was probably more about him just not swinging very much and just being passive, which is a, I think a sign of a player who's probably a little overmatched. Um, yeah, 59.5% zone swing rate. That's well below average. It's about eight percentage points below average. Chase rate right around average. So not even necessarily making great swing decisions.

He was just not swinging very much at all. Um, I still think he's a super talented player. I still think there's plenty of upside. And if he hadn't gotten hurt, I would probably still be holding on to Matt Shaw. But because he's gotten, gotten sent to. down now, I think it's totally fine to drop him in most 12 team leagues. I think that's fair. 12 team points leagues for sure. It's just like the waiver wire in those leagues. You can find some really great hitters. 12 team roto or deeper, I might try to hold on there for a little bit

if you know you need the bench spot at some point. I totally get it in some of those deeper leagues. 15 team roto and only obviously I do think he's a hold in leagues that deep. And, you know, if he hits well in AAA, then could be back. And obviously, it's a really good lineup with the Cubs and there's power and there's speed. So this kind of just checks out with everything we've said about prospects the past couple years is like the first go-around,

there usually is struggles that takes some time. Even with some of the biggest names in baseball, like last year it took Churio two months to get going. And then he became one of the-line for five months. Yeah. And then Churio became one of the best hitters in baseball. I mean, same thing with Jackson, Maryland. You know, it took him two months

to kind of find that power. stroke as well. So I wouldn't surprise me if Matt Shaw makes an impact at some point this season. It just won't be right now. The Cubs started Gage Workman at third base on Tuesday against a right-handed pitcher. Looks like Justin Turner will stay in that short side platoon role. Workman last year in AA hit 280 with 18 home runs, 30 steals, and 843 OPS. NL only, I think he's a name you look at, Gage Workman, anything shallower, probably not. Bobby Miller is expected to be called up to start Wednesday against the Rockies. He has made three appearances at AAA, a 225 ERA, but a 142 whip, 11 strikeouts to 11 walks over 12 innings. I just have no idea,

Chris. This is such a far cry from the pitcher we saw two years ago. I don't know what to expect, but if you're in a deep league and you have a roster spot to mess with, I think there are worse things you can do, then take a fly here on Bobby Miller. I mean, this was the breakout pitcher last year. Oh, he was a top top, top 100 pick, top 30 starting pitcher in everyone's rankings, um, was off the charts on every stuff model. And the stuff model still liked him, um, even after the shoulder injury. I, part of me thinks he's just not healthy.

And that's why he was so bad last year and has 11 walks and 12. anything. This is total blind faith. But blind faith can pay off at times. And look, this is, is this the third straight spot starter for the Dodgers? No, fourth, right? Wasn't it NAC? I'm completely blanking on that. I'm thinking of the Pirates guy, but it's not him. It's like they've, Justin Robleski was in there. Yeah, Robleski was one of them. And there was another one, right?

before Rebleski? There might have been. So yeah, there's room in the Dodgers rotation if someone wants to take it. My guess is Bobby Miller will be bad and we'll see Gavin Stone in probably a week or two, maybe eight days because then he pitched a couple days ago. Tony Gonson, you mean?

Tony Gonsolin. That's- Gavin Stone's out for the year. Yeah, Gavin Stone is out for the year. The Dodgers have too many pitchers, man. Yeah, Clay Marshall is back pitching in AAA this week. I don't know how we keep all these together. But yeah, Gonslin's who I meant.

He looked good in his most recent start. He only pitched like 50 pitches. So he probably still needs another start or two. But there's an opportunity for someone to step up for the Dodgers because this happens every year with the Dodgers. Every year, it's like, oh, the Dodgers have so many pitchers. The Dodgers have too many pitchers. What's going to happen when everyone's healthy?

It's like they're not all going to be healthy at the same time. This is just what happens with the Dodgers. The Brewers recalled Logan Henderson from AAA. Sounds like he'll join their rotation at some point soon. 19 starts in the minors last year. 332 ERA.91 whip 11.5K per 9 with a 15% swinging strike rate. I think this is a pretty interesting prospect as well. Who would you rather, you know, deeply expect at Logan Henderson or Bobby Miller?

Henderson. Miller is just, I mean, look, Henderson has had, I think, six walks per nine in his first three starts. So control has not been there for him at AAA either, but that's better than 8.4 or whatever Bobby Miller's walks per nine is. But Henderson is a legitimately interesting prospect. He's a top 100 guy for fan graphs. I think the other prospect lists have him outside of the top 100. I know baseball perspective has had him like 14th for the Brewers.

But he's got a really good fastball, kind of that. a lot of what we were talking about with Tyler Malley, where he throws it from a low slot, and he gets good IVB on it, and change up is supposed to be really, really good. He added a curveball this spring to go along with a cutter that fills out his arsenal. I'm pretty interested to see what Logan Henderson can do here

if he does get a start. All right, we got a Ronald Acuna update. He was cleared to ramp up activity and begin progressing towards a rehab assignment. Sounds like he still could be ready to go by mid-May. Kattel Marte took live batting practice Tuesday. He's on the IL with that hamstring strain.

Wyatt Langford swung a bat Tuesday for the first time since being placed in the IL last week. He's currently out with a right oblique strain. The Reds activated Matt McLean, Austin Hayes, and Alexis Diaz on Tuesday. Terry Francona said Emilio Pagan will continue to serve as the team's primary closer for now. Nelvi Marte was returned to AAA. Alexis Diaz actually made an appearance Tuesday. He entered in the sixth inning. Unsurprisingly, he walked two batters,

but he also recorded two outs in his first appearance. Carlos Correa was removed Tuesday night with left wrist soreness. Thankfully, no foot or ankle injury, so that's, I guess, the good news. Zach Eflin's right last train is very mild, and his return is measured more in weeks than months. Tyler Stevenson could begin a rehab assignment in one week. he's on the IL with a left oblique strain.

Ryan Weathers threw a bullpen on Tuesday. He's on the IL with that flexor strain. Trevor McGill was available to pitch on Tuesday, despite the concerns about his knee. It was a save opportunity up until like the sixth or seventh inning, and then they tacked on a few more runs, so Trevor McGill was not needed. Sayas Suzuki has now missed three straight with a right wrist issue.

Brenton Doyle has missed five in a row with a sore left quad, and they did not place him on the IL. Lane Thomas has missed six straight with a bruised right wrist. George Springer has missed two in a row with a wrist injury as well. Andy Rodriguez placed in the IL with a right index finger laceration. Such a specific injury. Joey Bart is also banged up, which opens up some playing time here for Henry Davis. Griffin Canning was scratched from Wednesday start due to an illness.

And one other note on Tyler Soderstrom. Apparently... This is interesting. Could get reps at third base as a way to clear a spot for Nick Kurtz. And Brent Rooker also got his second game in the outfield here on Tuesday. So stop what you're doing. Go make sure Nick Kurtz is not available in your league because you need to be stashing him. They are trying to find any way possible that they can get him up on the roster.

I think we probably see him before the end of April, Chris. At this point, I mean, there is. a little bit of smoke here, uh, mostly because there was the MLB.com story today that said that they are open to playing Brent Rooker more in the outfield. They are open to trying Tyler Soderstrom at third base entirely because they want to get Nick Kurtz in the lineup to find ways to get him in so that when they call him up,

he just plays every day either at first base or DH. When Rooker made his first. appearance in the outfield, I think, on Saturday. My initial thought was, this is, this is about Nick Kurtz. Yeah. He's got seven homers in his first 14 games at AAA. He only played 12 games in the minors last season, but he was the number four pick, huge power, big hitting ability.

We have seen a lot of disappointing performances from first base only prospects in recent years. Andrew Vaughn and Spencer Torkelson were both supposed to be, this caliber of prospect. So I don't want to say that Nick Kurtz's can't miss because that's never true. But he is forcing his way into the conversation way earlier than I thought he would. And I mean, to your point here, you know, we were all excited about Matt Shaw coming into the season. He just got options. So I think the most likely thing, I know I was just hyping him up like stash him.

I still think you should stash him. Absolutely stash him. As Scott talks about prospects, like these are lottery tickets right now. And, you know, just because of Matt Shaw doesn't work out, doesn't mean the same thing will happen for Soderstrom. You know, he can come up and hit the ground running. And, yeah, everything he's done since being drafted is just hit at every level. So, and it's like every night at AAA, he's doing something else. Extraordinary.

And to put another point on that, you look at the most added players outside of the first couple of weeks of the season when Tyler Sotom and Ben Rice and, and Spencer Torgeson and even Kairn Paris. Like when those guys really come kind of out of nowhere on the waiver wire, not out of nowhere, but you know what I mean. You look at the other most added players. Zach McKinstree, Wilmer Flores,

Haroldor Podomo, Nick Kurtz is one of the most added players on CBS. He's up to 56% rostered. Jorge Polanco, Sal Freelik, like some pretty uninspiring, like once you really get into the season, the kind of guys we're talking about adding on waivers

are usually retreads who are hot. And I'd much rather take a chance on actual upside with Nick Kurtz than Wilmer Flores. You know? Well, let's talk about some of those players, Chris. You just poo-poohed Geraldo Perdomo. Why don't we talk about him? He continues to impress one for five with his third home run,

three RBI. He is betting 321. 16 RBI early in the season, two steals, a 949 OPS. He's got 13 walks to four strikeouts, which is just insane. Lots of line drives, hitting the ball harder. I think the most likely thing is this doesn't continue. But if you need a shortstop or middle infield help right now, he is one of the hottest to start the season.

And there's only, I say only, but 75% rostered. So still out there in some leagues. It's one of these things where, like, he's hot. Yes, right now. Pardoma has 1,500 career-play appearances at the major league level and a 670 OPS. So the likeliest outcome is Heraldo Podamo is just the low 700s OPS bad. He's been the previous couple years. He doesn't hit for much power.

He doesn't steal many bases either. And so it's he kind of needs a really high batting average. And we saw he made an All-Star game, I think last year. And he had a really high batting average halfway through the season. then kind of fell apart. I think that's likelier to happen than not here. But yeah, I guess if you need someone right now, sure. Herald of Pardomo.

Yeah. I think it was 2023. He did make, I'm not making that up, right? He made an All-Star game at some point. That sounds right. But I don't know for certain off the top of my head. Geraldo Pardomo, yes, was an All-Star in 2023. There you go.

You are correct. 75% roster, I mean, that's, do we add him into points league. Those are probably the only leagues where he's left. Have there been any, like, big shortstop injuries that I'm not thinking of? I don't think so. Well, Matt McLean is back now. Yeah, McLean's back now. I don't think he's really worth a look in.

I mean, I know the play discipline's been exceptional so far this year. So, her older Podomo is probably. Yeah, they actually have. have been. CJ Abrams and... Abrams, yeah, that's a good one. Mason win is kind of more like a middle infielder, but yeah, like if you lost those guys, sure. Like, Perdomo obviously makes a lot of sense.

I'm not, you know, I'm not going to go ahead and drop a struggling, like Zander Bogarts or something like that. Yeah, like I'm not sitting Corey Seeger or Carlos Correa. Like maybe you could sit Carlos Correa for him, but I'm not dropping Carlos Carras for Geraldo Perdomo. Let's talk about Jonathan Aranda, although we did a lot yesterday. I mean, he had another nice game here, two for three with a walk and his third home run

over his last four games. He's got eight hits, two homers, seven RBI. The batting average is now up to four-13 for Jonathan Aranda. An early look at next week, many things can change, but six games on the schedule, only one lefty as of now. So that does bode well. Jonathan Aranda, 50% rostered.

Would you rather add Aranda right now or Stash Nick Kurtz? Kind of depends on what league you're talking about, right? I think Aranda is unlikely to ever be a must-start player in a points league because I don't think he's going to play every day. Kurtz should play every day. And when you're talking about a points league, especially because it's a shallower format, you'd rather just bet on upside. So I do think Kurtz has more upside because of that. Any interest in Dylan Moore as a kind of utility player

that you can bounce around three for five with a double dong four RBI. He's only started two of the past four games, but he let off here against the lefty. He's batting 306. He's He's got a little bit of pop, a little bit of speed. OPS is over 1,000 early in the season, 34% rostered with second base, third base, shortstop outfield eligibility. Any interest in Dylan Moore? He actually had his lowest average exit velocity ever entering today.

I assume it went up after hitting two home runs. But yeah, I, he is double or triple eligible. He's eligible in a bunch of places. So I could see in a deeper Roto League, Dylan Moore having some utility just from the ability to put him anywhere in your lineup. But no, I don't think he's a particularly useful option outside of that. Let's talk about a few deep league outfielders. I believe all of these names are 20% rostered or less. So we're talking deep leagues, five outfielders, things like that.

Nice debut for Austin Hayes with the Reds, two for four with his first home run. batting fifth in their lineup. Gavin Lux, 4 for 4 with a run and 2 RBI. Jake Myers, 3 for 4 with his sixth stolen base of the season. So he's got the green light early on here. Alan Rodin launched his first career home run and it came off of Spencer Schwellenbach, so how about that? Two for three with his first home run

and batting 277 with a 744 OPS. And Anheil Martinez of the Guardians. He is racking up some hits early on here. Three for four with a triple in his first steal. He's got eight hits in his first four games with the Guardians and some okay numbers across the minor league levels for him. Chris, deep league outfielders here, but Anhelle Martinez, Alan Rodin, Jake Myers, Gavin Lux, and Austin Hayes. Do you like any of those? Lux, I have some interest in.

I know he hasn't been great so far this season, but I still think there's some upside there. but I think Austin Hayes is by far the most interesting here. And I think he's way under rostered at 17%. Because I do expect him to play a lot for the Reds. It's a great ballpark after he spent the previous three years or most of the previous three years in a pretty bad ballpark for a right-handed hitter. He still had 22 homers in 131 games back in 2021. But the other thing I want to point out here is Austin Hayes had a kidney infection last.

year, I think. That he lost a bunch of weight. He wasn't healthy at all. It kind of went undiagnosed for a little while. And so I think that explains why he had a really poor season. But if you look at like his park adjusted stats from 2021 to 2023, 106, 107, 112 weighted runs created plus. He was a solidly above average hitter.

And now he's playing in by far the best offensive environment of his career. So I think Austin Hayes is someone we could be talking about in, in a week or two as like 75% rostered kind of player. Yeah, he's grossly undervalued right now. 17% rostered for Austin Hayes. And it looks like he's in line for six road games next week. Three of those coming in Cores Field. So that's helpful.

Yeah, definitely should be looking to add Austin Hayes in some of those five outfieler leagues right now. Can I? Did you? Yeah. All right. You don't have him in the rundown. So I'll mention another deep league option who's worth considering.

and you can call me a homer if you want. Griffin Conine, did you know that Griffin Conine now has the hardest hit ball in the majors this season? Did not know that. You had 117.4 mile per hour double on Tuesday. It's the hardest hit ball of the season. And he only has a 25% strikeout rate so far. And the thing about Griffin Conine is 70, maybe 80 grade raw power. he is a big dude who hits the ball really hard.

It's just that he was running like 35, 38% strikeout rates a lot in AAA and in the high minors. If he's going to be a sub 30% strikeout rate guy, and I don't think he actually will. I think eventually he'll regress. But right now, he's showing more upside than I think I expected. So yeah, Griffin Conine, worth a look in deeper league. Yeah. I had to be like a five outfielder 15 team league, but he's got a 344 expected Wobah. When you drop that raw power grade, I went to Fangrass real quick to look at it up. Yeah, they give him an 80. They have met 80 raw power. No, he hits tanks.

That's, yeah. You know, there was a, I think there might have been a PD suspension in there at some point in his minor league career. Whatever, the home runs still count. Yeah, he's got like multiple 30 homer season. I think. So the striker rate's always been too high, and I don't think the sub 30% striker rate is likely to sustain. But if it does, I think there's something more interesting than nothing there. Is that the best way to put it?

Like, he could be a Hazu-Sanchez type. Yeah. And in a deeper five outfielder league, that could have some value. Let's take our final break when we return. We'll quickly mention some other waiver wire pitchers. and then we'll fire up the Wurometer right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. We already spoke about the top waiver wire pitcher.

That is Tyler Malley. We had some other names here, much less interesting, but they did pitch well. Eric Fetty, six innings, one run, five strikeouts against the Astros. Jake Irvin threw a gem at the Pirates seven shutout with six strikeouts. Logan Allen, with a strong start at the Orioles, five and two-thirds shutout with six strikeouts. and Quinn Priester has looked good in each of his first two starts with the Brewers.

He was home against the Tigers where he threw five shutout with four strikeouts. Chris, do you have any interest in Quinn Priester, Logan, Allen, Jake Irvin, or Eric Fetty? I think Quinn Priester might be my most interesting of this group. And I don't think he's particularly interesting, but it looks like he's going to be a two-star pitcher next week. He's got a decent minor league track record. he had a velocity jump this spring as well. So I think he'll be someone that we can add in some head-to-head points leagues next week for the for the double dip. Not really.

Like, you know, Fetty is what he is and he'll have stretches where he's pretty useful, but he's never. There's a whole class of pitcher. I think Fettie's in there. I think like Miles Michaelis and Merrill Kelly and guys like that where like they'll have stretches where they're useful. I also think you'll almost never regret not having them. Did I say that right? Yeah.

I think you just play the match with pitches like that. Like Merrill Kelly had a great start against the Marlins, you know? Yeah, the Marlins are bad. So that, that works out. Yeah.

Yeah. But, although Fettie had a great start here against the Astros. Yes. And no one started. They've been pretty bad, but yeah, I,

but like Jake Irvin's kind of in that same role. And look, I'm not saying Quinn Priesters much better than that. I think the best case scenario is probably he just moves into that range. But at least there's a little bit of a mystery box element to him, but not much. No. All right, Chris, let's fire up the first Worryometer of the season. Now, I realize that you're probably going to have very low numbers on a lot of these players.

But let's just quickly mention why they're struggling, whether or not you would buy low on a lot of these names. All of them, eight hitters that I have here, all under a 525 OPS. So it's been a pretty rough go for each of them. And let's keep it moving, Chris. Alec Bome is batting 162 with zero homers, two extra base hits, and a 365 OPS. Where is he on the Wuriometer once 10? Three, two. I think it'd be a zero if not for how bad he was in the second half last season.

But I think Alex, but he's still hitting the ball really hard. Still a solid skill set. I don't really have any concerns here. Yeah, the ground ball rate is slightly elevated for him, but crushing the ball, he has a 204 Babbup. It's 314 for his career. So deeper league, I think you can absolutely buy low for Alec Bome on Alec Bome. Shallower League. I don't really think he's a difference maker, so you probably don't want to go after someone like that.

But yeah, like a deeper roto league, I think that's fine. Marcus Simeon, 117 batting average with one homer, zero steals, a 365 OPS. This comes after a down season. he's 34 years old. So there was a little bit of concern coming in, Chris, where you add on Simeon 1 to 10 on the Wariometer? It could be the end. I, you know, like I'm open to the possibility that Marcus Simeon's just done.

I just, I, he was so good for so long with very similar underlying numbers that I'm inclined to still give him the benefit of the doubt. But I understand if you're frustrated and you don't want to, I'm not dropping him. I would probably not be trying to trade him. right now. So, like, I can't say it's a zero. It's probably like a three or a four because he is older and because we, he is coming off that down season. That whole Rangers lineup hasn't really hit yet.

No. I still think that's going to be one of the best lineups of baseball. So I'm not really too concerned there just because everyone is struggling on that lineup right now. Let's talk about Yiner Diaz, who's betting 120 with one homer and a three, 70 OPS strikeout rate a little bit elevated. Badded ball stuff is kind of out of whack right now.

We're at on Yiner Diaz. Zero. This is a clear zero for me. Now, if you're talking about like his value relative to what you might have paid for him because he was the number two catcher in a lot of leagues, there is

some concern just because like assuming Christian Walker gets going and he's not just the new Jose Abraeu, there are not going to be as many opportunities for yiner ds to play as there were last year and so you know he just isn't likely to live up to what he did overall last season but in terms of what he's going to do when he's on the field i have zero concerned about yard ds so he's a pretty clear by low for you right now absolutely mark vienzos is hitting 145 with zero homers and a 464 ops and i think we were all

on board with vientoes as a bust this season The weirdest part about this is that his plate is the plane is actually much improved, yet he's still struggling. So where are you at on Vientos? Yeah, and it's not necessarily that he's just being more passive because his own swing rate is basically what it was last year. It's two points lower. His own contact rate way up, his chase rate way down. So the swing decisions look better.

It's just a question of is he sacrificing some bat speed and some power to make better swing decisions? You know, you look into it and average bat speed was 71.8 miles per hour last season. It's down to 70.3. His fast swing rate down from 21% last year to 7% this season. So there could be something there. I don't, it's still too early to say. And I expect him to be a streaky hitter. And we haven't seen a hot streak yet.

So I don't want to judge him until we see what I think will inevitably, be a hot streak from him. Luis Robert is batting 154 with one homer, six deals, and a 481 OPS. His plate discipline actually looks a little bit improved here. The quality of contact is very bad early on. Where are you at 1 to 10 on Luis Robert? I'm inclined to say a 1 or a 2,

except that he was so terrible last season that I can't say that. maybe he's just not as good as he was in 2023. And maybe the fact that he's still stuck on an absolutely miserable team is still affecting him. We have no idea. I'm inclined to not be too concerned, but he was pretty awful last year. So yeah, it's not a zero. What about Jake Berger? He's hitting 151, two homers, one walk to 15 strikeouts with a 484 OPS, his quality of contact down.

He really didn't wake up until late June of last season as well. And we know this is kind of part of who Jake Berger is. Where is he on the Worryometer right now? Yeah, I mean, this is kind of the problem with a player like Jake Berger who he's a one-trick pony. Right? And he like he does nothing but hit home runs. And when he's not locked in a groove, he's going to look pretty bad because he just has nothing to fall back on. There's no there's no other skill set here besides hitting.

bombs. I think he'll be fine. He had a 6.07 OPS in April last year, a 501 in May and a 632 in June and then went on to have 900 OPSs in July and August. So I I'm sitting Jake Berger. I'm not dropping him. What about Christian Walker? 164 with one homer and a 512 OPS and he really didn't have a spring training

because of that oblique injury. He's also 34 years old. I hope this is not Jose Ibrahimbray you all over again because I do have a few shares of Christian Walker myself. Where is he on the Wuriameter? Very low. I would say a one and that's only a one because of the age. He is still hitting the ball really well.

Barrel rate is high, average exit velocity is high. Max Exavilo 113 miles per hour. it's mostly coming down to the plate discipline you know 29% strikeout rate that's not going to work but I would bet that gets down to 25% before long and he looks more or less like what we've always thought of Christian Walker as especially when like you look at the plate discipline the chase rates up five points that's not ideal but it's not so alarming the zone contact rate. It's down a couple of points, but it's kind of just the wrong direction in everything a little bit, but not in a huge way. And last name here is one we mentioned already, but Tristan Koss is hitting

180 with one homer and a 521 OPS. He still is hitting a lot of line drives. The quality of contact is way down so far this season. He was also dropped down to seventh in the Red Sox lineup. What worries me a little bit about this is that if the struggles continue, Do they move Devers to first base, open up a spot for Roman Anthony, you know, something like that? It's not impossible. So where is Tristan Kossis on the Wariometer? I would say like a three or four. So one of the higher ones here just because we saw that strikeout rate go back up last year.

And this was even before the rib injury. You know, you can't necessarily explain, blame that one on the rib injury. He's up to a 29% strikeout rate right now. He's not hitting the ball. hard. He's not hitting for power the way we think he will. I think that'll come. But if he is like a 29 to 30 percent strikeout rate guy, then it kind of doesn't matter how hard he hits the ball because the batting average is going to be really bad. And it's still, I think, an open question whether he can hit lefties. His only home run so far this season did come off a lefty, but, you know,

there have been some issues there. It's a tough home park for left-handed power hitters. So, yeah, I still believe in Tristan Koss's talent, but it's not with a huge degree of certainty anymore. So I know a lot of people want to hear about struggling hitters, and there are a lot of other ones, but we'll have more time over the next couple of days and weeks to talk about all of those players. Let's move back over to pitchers here, Chris,

and not exactly sure what to make of these four. So I wanted to ask you, maybe you know what's going on with these guys. Walker Bueller, solid outing at the raise, five innings, two runs, three strikeouts, but the whiffs are just not there. Kevin Gosman, another quality start, six innings, two runs, six strikeouts,

14 whiffs. A lot of those on the fastball once again, kind of a confusing pitcher so far. Bailey Ober, six in a third innings, three runs, five strikeouts, two homers allowed against the Mets. Overall, an okay start, a quality start here. Something just feels off.

I don't know, the vibes are kind of, kind of weird with Bailey Ober right now. And Jeffrey Springs, who had that great first start against the Mariners, and then has just been pretty mid in his next three starts. He was at the White Sox, so I was expecting a good start here. And it was just okay for Jeffrey Springs. So what do you make of these four pitchers right now? They seem confusing, at least to me.

All right, let's take them one at a time. I think Walker Bueller's just a guy at this point. I really don't think there's anything to, get excited about. He's just a, I think he's just a junk baller. Like, he's throwing like six or seven different pitches, but I don't know if any of them are any good. I don't know. He got like, four whiffs, three whiffs in this game. I think it was worth drafting Walker Bueller. And I did in one league. I got him for like two bucks or three bucks. It was worth just to see if that little bit of upside he hinted at at the end of the postseason could turn into something sustainable.

But it hasn't. So I'm fully on board with dropping Walker Buehler for Tyler Malley. Or frankly, any pitcher who has like a 15 whiff game, just like anyone with a hint of upside because I don't think Walker Buehler has any. I am leaning in that direction with Jeffrey Springs as well. I think he's just a one-pitch pitcher. and if his change-up is not absolutely dominant, I think he's going to be pretty mediocre. That's what we've seen so far this season.

So I'm leaning towards him, Jeffrey Springs being pretty expendable. Gosman, I think he's a sell high. I know the splitter was better, five whiffs, 29% whiff rate. Best it's looked of the season, but still not the same movement profile, not the same results. Even the best it's been to that this season was still. much worse than last year, let alone when Kevin Gosman was an ace. So I'll take the last two starts and try to build and build a trade offer around Kevin

Gosman where I get a pitcher I feel a little better about because I just, I don't really believe in him. And then Bailey Ober, I agree. Things just seem a little off. His changeup remains really, really good. I'm not sure about the rest of it, especially with the velocity down. I think he'll probably be fine. I think the whip especially should be pretty good.

I do think he might be more like a four ERA pitcher the rest of the way, though. So I'm a little concerned about Bailey Ober just in terms of living up to expectations. Yeah, the walks and hard contact, both up for Bailey Ober so far. The walks, I think you expect to come down. But, you know, pitching with lower velocity, fly ball pitcher. He might give up a lot of hard contact. It might just, you know, that might be a thing for Bailey Ober. this season and his pitch is thrown so far in four starts 77 84 73 77 it's just

Rocco Belli is not letting anyone go deep into games except I guess Joe Ryan did throw 101 pitches yesterday he just only got through five innings with them but he's had a quick hook with basically everyone yeah like even last year Obert he was much more efficient but he still average 87 pitches per start he's he's barely getting to 80 pitches right now so it's just It's hard to have that much value in fantasy. Here he got the quality start. He was pretty efficient, but I don't know. Yeah, it's been a little bit weird here for Bailey Ober so far this season.

We had some rough outings from pitchers that are expected to be pretty good. Luis Castillo, a rough homecoming in Cincinnati, four and a third inning, six runs, four walks to three strikeouts. Nick Ladolo had his first rough outing of the season. Four and two-thirds, four runs loud. Did have six strikeouts in this one. but gave up two homers. Spencer Schwellenbach, he's human after all.

Four and two thirds, six runs allowed, two homers allowed, and Ryan Pepio got hit hard by the Red Sox, six innings, six runs, did have eight strikeouts and 17 whiffs, but man, 12 hard hits in this game just got clobbered by the Red Sox. Chris, any thoughts here on good pitchers who got rocked? Pepio, Schwellenbach, Ladolo, and Luis Castillo. Yeah, I mean, Pepio, we're starting. seeing a little bit of the concern that we had coming in, right?

Six homers allowed in his last three starts. The previous two starts, I think they had all been one-run homers, and in this one, they were not. And he got rocked as a result of it. I don't know, man. His fastball especially has not been nearly as effective as it was last season. I'm not sure, like, the velocity is fine. But one thing we talked to.

about is Tropicanna field has this, I'm not sure what it is. What the, like, I haven't seen a good explanation for why Tropicanna field has this effect, but pitches move differently at Tropicanna field than they do any other park in baseball. And specifically fastball's rise more at Tropicalan field than they do anywhere else. And Ryan Pepio's fastball was his best pitch last year. It was one of the best pitches in baseball. He had like a 31% whiff rate. I think it was the second highest among all.

starting pitchers behind Garrick Crochet. And it's like 17% this season. It's getting crushed. So that's a concern that just he just can't be that same guy pitching in a worse environment. I will also point out Luis Castillo first start away from Seattle this year. And he's pretty bad. That's a concern because this is a guy who also has relied heavily on his foreseemer

in recent years for his whiffs. He's been like a 30% whiff rate guy at his best with his foreseamer. And he keeps losing just a little bit of velocity down to 94.6. It's down about a half mile per hour, a little more than that from last year. And that change up. Like he used to have this elite change up and it just isn't, he hasn't been turning to it. It isn't as effective as it used to be. So I think Castillo's fine.

but maybe it's more like he's the 40th best starting pitcher in fantasy rather than the top 20 guy he used to be. And then I have no concerns about Spencer Schwellenbach. I guess it's a little bit notable that he's really only had strikeouts against the Marlins. He had 10 and 8 innings, but I think I had the number earlier. It's like 12 and 16 and 2 thirds otherwise. So that's not great, but I don't think there's anything there. He average 97 miles per hour.

with his fastball on this one. So I do want to highlight Nick Ladolo, though. He's getting about a half foot less horizontal break on his curveball. And this has been consistent all season long. His curveball has not been the same swing and miss pitch for him this season. It was pretty good today, 33% whiff rate. That was only four whiffs on 12 swings. But my theory is that the reason the curveball hasn't been as effective is because he's not getting as much sweep on it.

his curveball has kind of been more of a sweeper throughout his career and this year it's getting a lot less sweep and I don't know if I trust Nick Ladolo to be a good fantasy option without a killer curveball and right now he doesn't have that so I kind of think

Nick Ladolo is one of the more obvious so high candidates right now and his velocity has been down so far too last season it was 94.2 miles per hour on the fastball for Nick Ladolo entering this start it was 93.1 and then in this start it was 92.7. So that's down 1.5 miles per hour

from where he was last season and that's pretty notable. So yeah, I think I probably would agree with selling high on Ladolo. He also has an extensive injury history too. So I do think that makes some sense. I want to mention some hitters who are off tonight starts

and had some big games here. Corbyn Carroll, Stephen Kwan, the power there for Kwan. early on he's already got three home runs Cedric Mullins, Pete Alonzo and Austin Riley. Any thoughts on those five, Chris? They're all off to good starts this season.

Yeah, Corbyn Carroll is swinging harder this year than he has in the past. His quality of contact is insane early on. Yeah, I'm looking at there was a piece on MLB.com two, three days ago where his average

swing speed was 73.2 miles per hour, 73.7 the last two seasons. 75.2 so far this season. That's a pretty big jump. So, yeah, the power could be legit for Corbyn Carroll. I don't think he's like a 35 or 40 home run guy, but, you know, we talked about it last week, 25 to 30. That seems pretty reasonable.

Yeah, I think, you know, pushing closer to 30. I don't really have anything else to say on any of. of these guys. All right. Hitters who are kind of off to slow starts and had good games. J.T. Real Muto hit his first home run. He's only got a 694 OPS early on. Jaron Duran, one for three with a sock and a shoe. Only has a 640 OPS. Anthony Santander hit his second home run. He's only at 629 for the OPS. And Juan Soto, back-to-back days with a home run. We're not worried about Juan Soto, but he is off to a slow start for his standards. You know, at least based on the good start he got off to last year with the Yankees.

I didn't think any of these warranted being in the Wuriometer because they haven't been that bad, but any concerns at all? No, if anything, the fact that Jeteru Romuta is running for stolen bases in the early going, that seems like a good sign. Because, you know, he was always a pretty good hitter who then added, you know, 10 to 20 stolen bases to kind of push him up.

But he was never like the standout hitter at the catcher position. It was always the overall impact. And the fact that we can seemingly count on him to steal bases this season makes me feel pretty good about him. Everyone else, zero thoughts about Jaron, Anthony Santander, Juan Soto. I think they're, this is just very, very normal variance for all of these guys. All right. Some quick pitching leftovers. Max Fried is 3-0 to begin his Yankees career, turned in a quality start against the Royals.

Hunter Brown is now 4-4-4-in-quality starts this season. You say Kukuchi, a strong start at the Rangers, six innings one-run, six strikeouts there. And Merrill Kelly looked very good at the Marlins, six-innings, one-run, nine strikeouts. I did want to specifically ask you about Kukuchi, because I know you mentioned the arm-angle being down at his last start. What did you see here from Kikuchi? So that's one of those things I don't know how to start. search or find on a per start basis. I can only look.

They have it for the season. And for the season, his arm angle was 42 degrees last year. It's dropped to 33 degrees so far this season. So that's one of those things that's neither good nor bad, right? Like it's arm slot is not necessarily. It's like, you know, that's the stuff we were talking about early in the season with like the batting stance

tracking that they have now where it's like it's not good or bad that a player moved up or back or whatever in the box it's not a good or bad thing that a player dropped their arm slot unless it's a sign of injury I don't necessarily think it's a sign of injury with Kikuchi but his velocity is down that's not great I also wanted to just mention with Jesus Lazardo who was a little bit more pedestrian here he still had 15 whiffs only four strikeouts against the giants but the fastball velocity 95.8, and that's the first time he was below 96th the season, and he wasn't as effective. So just something to watch the velocity there on Jesus Lazzardo. The call to the bullpen for the Nationals, Kyle Finnegan struck out two for his sixth save.

For the Phillies, Jose Alvarado got the eighth inning with a three-run lead, facing the top of the Giants lineup. He gave up one run on three hits. It was Matt Strom who got the ninth inning. He struck out one for his first save of the season. Orion Kirkring worked in the sixth and Jordan Romano in the seventh. So that's why they were not used for the save. For the Guardians, Emmanuel Clausset gave up a hit, but struck out one for his second save. For the Red Sox of Oldest Chapman got the final out of the game for his fourth save.

For the Yankees, Devin Williams picked up his third save for the twins. Yohan Duran finally on the board picked up his first save. And for the Astros, Josh Hader struck out one for his fourth save. of the season. To stream or not to stream on Wednesday, we did lose Griffin Canning. He is out with an illness, but we still have Festa against the Mets,

Reese Olson. No, he is now pitching on Thursday. So we lost him too. Jose Cantana up against the Tigers, Matthew Boyd at the Padres, Mitchell Parker at the Pirates, Nick Martinez facing the Mariners, and Osvaldo Bito at the White Sox.

Also, Bobby Miller, if you want to take that chance. Yeah, I don't, I don't really love any of these options. Matthew Boyd, probably the most interesting one, but the Padres just don't strike out very much. So I could see that one being a little disappointing. Yeah, don't love the Wednesday options. Yeah, I think I would go with Boy.

To be clear, I think Clark Schmidt is worth rostering. I just not as a streamer. I would actually rather sit him, even though I think it's worth adding him. Yeah, like Fess is interesting, but against the Mets, I'd rather not do that. He's probably going to get a quick hook. Yeah, I think Boyd, Jose Cantana,

and Bito at the White Sox. Yeah, I guess. Mitchell Parker at the Pirates wouldn't surprise me if he has a good start as well. And then on Thursday we have Eduardo Rodriguez at the Marlins. Andrew Heaney is facing the Nationals, J.P. Sears at the White Sox.

Tomoyuki Sugano facing the Guardians and Reese Olson, home against the... Royals. I wanted to say Chiefs so bad. I don't know why. Eduardo Rodriguez, I think, is by far the best option here at Miami. It's a great matchup. He's looked good so far. And then Sears at the White Sox, I think it's probably

second. I don't really have a lot of interest in the other guys. Rees Olson, I like the talent. And I don't hate using him versus Kansas City. It's not a great matchup, but it's not terrible one either. I know that their lineup is, I think, off to a pretty slow start. Yes. Yeah, they have not been great so far.

They are dead last in Wobah against right-handed pitching so far. There you go. So, yeah, maybe Reese Olson keeps that going. But, yeah, I think Eduardo Rodriguez is by far the top option here. All right, we're going to wrap there for Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning into 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.