Fantasy Baseball Today - Andrew Heaney or Reese Olson? Corey Seager Replacements & Bullpen Updates (4/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

Andrew Heaney is dominating in the year 2025 (2:30). ... Reese Olson had his best start of the season (8:00). ... Pete Crow-Armstrong is off to a torrid start (10:25). ... Oneil Cruz is racking up homers and steals (15:25). ... News (19:00): Corey Seager is on the IL so we need replacements. ... What's the latest with the Guardians, Cubs, Dbacks, Tigers and Giants bullpens (24:22)? ... We get back into the news, picking things up with Grayson Rodriguez (30:50). ... Should you beat the waiver wire for these potential two-start pitchers (39:38)? ... Luke Keaschall is running crazy (49:15). ... Let's Fill in the Blank for Logan Webb, Sandy Alcantara and others (54:21). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:03:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CPTowers @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank Scott and Chris. The year is 2025 and Andrew Heaney is dominating. What is going on?

Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, April 24th. I am Frank Stan. joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, Pete Crow Armstrong and O'Neo Cruz are off to Torrid starts, Andrew Heaney or Reese Olson. I have some fill in the blanks, and unfortunately, we need Corey Seeger replacements. Let's jump in. Unbelievable is how we will describe Andrew Heaney.

Chris, you're up. As in we literally don't believe it. We don't believe it. I don't know. Maybe we do. But I don't want to speak for anyone else. So I will just speak for Chris and say that I don't buy Andrew Heaney. Despite the fact that he had nine strikeouts and six shutout innings today against the Angels,

he has allowed one run or zero runs in four of his five starts. He now has two starts of at least 19 strikeouts. That is all awesome. And I just don't really care, especially because you might say, see he has two starts on the schedule next week. One of them's against the Cubs. The other one's against the Padres. That's not exactly a great matchup.

It's not a terrible one. But you do not see versus Chicago Cubs versus San Diego Padres and say, yes, I am starting my 43% roster pitcher outside of points league. You can probably start him. It's fine there. But in a Roto League, I think there's too much ratio risk.

I know he's been good. I know people get frustrated. when pitchers have good starts and we just, we don't care. But I just don't really care. It's Andrew. He wants us to lie to you. He's got a long track record of mediocrity.

Even with the two big strikeout games, he's got like a 24% strikeout rate on the season, which isn't terrible, but it's not supporting a sub 2 ERA, certainly. The per pitch stuff is like his fastball velocity is down, a mile and a half per hour. He doesn't have a pitch with a whiff rate over 25% unless you count his slow curve, which only has 23 pitches.

So I think we can just not count that. I don't see it. I just don't. I don't say anything that's changed your process-wise for him is the thing, which I think you're getting at too. I try to, I try to, whoa, whoa, whoa. in early visit from Robos God. All right.

So I'll add a little more color. He is, there are some process changes for Andrew Heen. I don't want to make it sound like he's just the same guy. He's always been, he's starting his slider way less. I didn't notice that. He's starting his slider way less this season.

It's been like his number two pitch for the most of his career. this year he's down to 7% usage. The thing is the slider's typically been really good for him. Certainly it's been his best swing and miss pitch for a long time. So that's a change that I don't actually think I want to get excited about either way. Yeah, I noticed the same thing is that he, Andrew Heaney's just mixing in more pitches this season. You know, this slow curve that he's throwing a little bit more.

He's not really using it that much, but he's mixing in the change up and the curve. ball more and it's working so far. The control has been awesome too. He's not really walking anybody. Maybe mixing in this many pitches has kept hitters off balance more because the quality of contact is much better. The barrel rate is down. So it's working for now. Will it last? I mean, I think I agree with you guys that it most likely won't, but I don't know. We've talked about a few of these pitchers that I feel like we've had similar takes about so far and I don't know. I kind of come away with the same thing like ride at Wally's hot type thing but i mean you bring up a good point

the matchups next week are a little bit scary it's the cubs and the podres for andrew yeah so i'm i think androhine is one of those pictures like there are other pitchers we'll talk about tonight who are widely available who i actually think are pretty interesting and jerhini just feels like he's as good as what his next matchup is and his next matchup next matchup the cubs are the best offense in baseball right now i don't think the cubs are the best offense in baseball but they are right now and it's worth noting a officially 10% of the starts where a starting pitcher has had at least nine strikeouts this season have come against the angels. There have been 69 strikeout starts this season.

Six of them are against the angels. And it's even worse than it sounds because five of them have come in their last nine starts. Five pitchers have had at least nine strikeouts in the last nine games against the angels. They are just whiffing at everything. So I think this is more about the matchup. And, you know, he needs pitching well. I don't want to take that away from him. I just don't think it's.

I disagree. I don't even think he's pitching that well. I think you guys are giving him too much credit. He entered this start with a 9% swinging strike rate on the year. Like there's, he had a great start. Like 24 swinging strikes. That's the most he's had. He hasn't even had 20 in a start since 2020.

It's the fakesest thing I've ever seen. The FIP is 223. The X-PIP is 306 for Andrew. The X-TRA was 319 coming into the start. It's going to go down to. I think you are giving him too little credit, but moving forward, I think it's functionally the same thing.

What about? I already dread having to rank him as one of the 10 sleeper pitchers for next week, but I have to come up with 10, so I'm sure he'll be among them. The other standout waiver wire pitching performance from Wednesday was Reese Olson, who isn't available in that many leagues.

He's 65% rostered, but this was his best start of the season, and it was up against the team that does not strike out very much. Granted, they are missing a lot of their players right now. The Padres, but seven and a third, shutout innings, two hits, one walks, seven strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 85 pitches for Reese Olson,

nine on the change-up, eight on the slider. He is doing exactly what we wanted him to do this season. He is throwing his four-scene fastball less. He is relying more. on these secondary pitches. He's throwing his sinker a little bit more this season as well.

This is the first real standout start for Reese Olson, but his start before this was pretty good as well. He's down to a 329 ERA. Obviously, this was a pitcher we had much more interesting than Andrew Heaney coming into the season.

So, I mean, if it's just like a heads-up scenario, I think we're all pretty easily taking Reese Olson over Andrew Heaney, right? Yeah. Yep. All right. Anything else to add on this Reese Olson start? No, this is his best one?

Two good ones in a row. Didn't give his length the last time, gave us length this time, trending up. Looks good. I just think he's so funny because it's how good can a pitcher be with two really good secondaries and two horrible fastballs. Like, I don't know if there's another pitcher that has a wider gulf between how good their secondaries are and how bad their fastballs are. And I think during the sinker, more than the four seemer makes sense just because the damage he's going to give up will be fewer home runs and more singles. So I think that's a good change. I do wonder how he wasn't really getting strikeouts before this.

You know, like that's the concern is that I just don't know, despite the good swing and miss secondaries, if the strikeouts are ever going to be there consistently. Fair on Reese Olson. He looks like he might be a two-star pitcher at the Astros and at the Angels next week. So Astros lineup definitely off to a slow start. Angels, as Chris pointed out, are striking out a ton. So I have a feeling that if he is legitimately a two-star pitcher, he will rank somewhere on that sleeper pitcher list tomorrow for you, Scott. But we will find out then.

Let's go over to you for your player of the night. We spoke a lot about Pete Crow Armstrong yesterday, but, Scott, you were not here, and he just had another awesome game. Yeah, he did three for four, a home run, two steals in his last 13 games now. He's batting 396 with five home runs and six steals. So Pete Crowe Armstrong, very hot. He still doesn't hit the ball especially hard. I mean, even the home run here today.

It was a 1 in 30 type of home run. Like literally he hit it. The spot he hit it, he happened to hit it in the one park where it would have gone out. His average exit velocity, 39th percentile, max exit velocity is right around 50. So he's in the lower half of the league in terms of how hard he impacts the ball. And of course, we already know that about Pete Crow Armstrong. That's one of the big knocks on him. The reason why it might work is 48% fly ball rate, 43% pull rate.

Those are very good. And that elevating to your pool side, that's how we see hitters who don't impact the ball especially hard. That's how we see them overcome that. But it's a narrow margin for error. It's by the skin of your teeth kind of power that Pete Crowe Armstrong is delivering here. And I think part of the reason, one reason you could maybe be more optimistic about it is that he was. so productive in the miners. So there's, we've, we've seen it work before, albeit against a much lower level of competition. And so maybe it'll continue to work. I mean, obviously good signs here.

It could just be that he's really hot. I remember the way, the way things went for Pete Crowe Armstrong in the second half last season. He went from having a 933 OPS in August with just a 14% strikeout. 933, 14% in August. And then it was 677 with a 30% strikeout rate in September. So we might just be seeing some of the best of Pete Crow Armstrong here as opposed to the new baseline. But he's young enough that it could be a new baseline. So I'm keeping an open mind. Pete Crow Armstrong is, I have him 36th.

I could maybe push him up near 30. I'd probably take him over. I'd probably take him over like Riley Green at this point. In Rodo, right? Yeah, I guess. If the power and speed remains, if he's a 25-30 guy, I don't know that the format matters that much.

That's going to add up to a lot of points too. I think 30 is really underselling him. And I think 25 is probably over-selling him. I'm writing about him for tomorrow's newsletter. 2040, let's say. Whatever numbers you want to put there. A lot of home runs and a lot of stolen pace. I'm writing about him for tomorrow.

The play discipline is still really bad. He still makes a lot of bad swing decisions. There's a stat on pitcher list called Process Plus that basically puts together swing decisions, contact skills, and power skills. And it's still a really small sample size. But that has him over. his past 100 pitches faced right around like a 95 out of 100 it's scaled to 100 being average so a below average hitter but if peak arm's just a slightly below average hitter there will be

some power there's going to be a lot of speed there and i i'm certainly ready to say that i don't think he's going to be a bust. I'm not sure I'm ready to say he's going to be like a huge difference maker, certainly not like the, he's got like a 900 OPS right now. I don't think that's for real. I think 750-ish is probably more like where I put it. But because of the speed in Roto leagues, I think he's going to still be a must-start player, even if he's just a below-average hitter.

And it's worth pointing out four batter balls over 100 miles per hour today. That's not nothing. I think it's happened 21 times this season. Most of them have been done by superstars. Aaron Judge did it. Francisco Lindor did it. Pete Alonzo did it. Austin Wynn had five on Sunday.

I think two of them were against position players, but still. And a couple of other pretty lousy hitters have had four batting balls over 100 miles per hour in the same game. So it's not proof that you're great, but it's a good sign. Again, that was Pete Crow Armstrong, and while we're talking about power and speed, I just do want to mention O'Neill Cruz, who is just off to this great start.

Two for five with a sock into shoe, his sixth home run, his 11th steal. That's the fourth time he has had a home run and a steal in the same game this season, and it is only April 24th. So the batting average, only 247, but walking more, a 355 on base percentage. The six homers, 11 steals, 874 OPS, and it kind of feels like it, It might be happening, guys, for O'Neill Cruz. Yeah, maybe. A lot more fly balls helps.

And the reduction in strikeout rate is so slight that I don't know that we can really count on it to continue a three percentage point drop and strikeout rate. So I don't know about that. Every little point helps, I suppose. But it's just, we got a long way to go. And so is he going to maintain that three percent? percentage point drop that. That's really hard to say at this point. The fact he's running so much,

I think that's the biggest thing for O'Neill Cruz. And again, it can't say for sure that it's sustainable, but it would help a lot to raise both the floor and the ceiling for Cruz. Yeah, a lot's going right for him. We've known he has a lot of upside. I was looking at somebody else's rankings the other day, and they had O'Neill Cruz as a top 20 overall player now. I don't think I want to do that.

that. I think I want to play it a little more cautiously, but it goes to show that there is there's definite enthusiasm for him right now. All right. 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 right now, you can scan the QR code that will take you right to FBT, the FBT feed on Spotify. And big thanks to those watching us live. Apologies, we started a little bit later today. But 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 be back right after this quick commercial break. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. News and notes.

Corey Seeger was placed on the aisle with a right hamstring strain. Nick Ahmed started at shortstop Wednesday for the Rangers against a left-handed pitcher. I would imagine Josh Smith will probably start against most righties while Corey Seeger is out. And if we are looking for shortstop replacements, good luck. It's rough. Because they have It is not great right now. This is the toughest position. I write that waiver wire article every week with top options at every position. And shortstop is the toughest position every week.

It's just there are superstars and then there's a bunch of not great stuff going on. Let's hope that it's just a short stay on the IL. But man, it's frustrating because Seeger has dealt with these hamstring injuries over and over and recurring. So although I think this is the first IL stint for a right. hamstring injury. I was looking that up last night. It's mostly been left hamstrings the previous times. All right, so if we are looking for shortstop replacements, the best names I could find under 70%

rostered, brace yourself. Dylan Moore, 69%, Jeremy Payne is 65%, Sedan, Raphael is 61%, Mason win 57%. Any interest? Who do you take? I mean, these aren't terrible options. Yeah, Probably between Pena and Wynn.

Pena is hotter right now. Yeah. So I guess I'd just go with that. Hopefully it's not a long absence for Seeger. They were speculating minimal length. We'll see. Some names in deeper leagues. How many times have I mentioned this name already this season?

I don't know why, but Isaiah Kiner Folefa, 28% rostered. Again, these are deep. I love them. I love them. Deeper League names. Luis Anhele Cunia. Shortstop eligible. Jeff McNeil's coming back.

I don't know how much he's going to play, but he's stealing some bases. Brooks Lee 20%, J.P. Crawford, 13%. I realize these are not good names, but, you know, in 12-team Roto Leagues are deeper, where you need a middle infield spotter or something like that, these might be the best names available. Didn't, um, did I imagine that the Mets are going to try Jeff McNeil in centerfield? I hope you'd imagine that because I can't imagine it going very well. I think I saw that

yeah that's a thing there's no way he's played center field on his rehab assignment and they are going to experiment with that in the hopes of potentially you know maybe keeping Luis San Helacuna in the lineup

wouldn't you rather try a kunia in center field I feel like he's played him played that position in the minors at least yeah I guess they don't trust nimmo's foot in centerfield because he's actually played a lot of center field. But Nimmo hasn't been playing center field this year. I think that just won't have. I know. I'm just saying, like, rather than force McNeil out there. Yeah, I think it's been a lot of like Tyrone Taylor.

Yeah, it's been mostly Tyrone Taylor. But that's something to keep in mind if you're looking to add Acuna, I think he's probably the most interesting of this group, but I just, I don't know if I trust the playing time. I think note to self, if you play in a league, like a roto league with a middle, infield spot. Not that it should be your top priority, but be a little cognizant of this next year.

If all things being equal, you'd rather fill that middle infield spot with a shortstop, because it's much easier to find a replacement second basement off the waiver wire than shortstop. Yeah, this is shortstop is much deeper in impact players. Second base is much deeper in useful guys.

Yeah. I mean, we're seeing that with like Luke Key. will get called up and he's doing his thing and you know Caleb Durbin has a little bit of upside there as well and and there's a few other names that we've talked about all season like Otto Lopez doing some things and I think it's probably just that there's more guys eligible at second base yeah shortstop has the highest defensive threshold short of catcher so there's there's only so many players who are going to get eligibility there yeah well second base it's second base and first base are kind of the biggest catchalls

yeah yeah I'll field too I guess. Horace Polanco is another name there too. If you just need a middle infieler, that could make some sense as well. Blake Snell experienced a setback after playing catch on Tuesday and will be shut down from throwing for the foreseeable future. Not great, obviously there with Blake Snell. Philly's manager, Rob Thompson, said Christopher Sanchez, who left his start early on Tuesday with forearm soreness,

will play catch on Friday and that there are no plans for him to undergo an MRI. I'm not sure that I buy it but okay okay I guess we'll see on Friday are they are they on the road they are on the road and I think teams might be like less inclined to do MRIs when they're on the road than when they are at home but um just get an MRI I don't understand why teams do this the the the risk way there's no reward not getting the MRI. There's no risk. Just do it. I don't understand it. Maybe they don't want to know what's going on with the arm.

Apparently, Emmanuel Class A experienced some shoulder discomfort after his latest appearance on Sunday. And that was Class A third day pitching in a row. I believe he threw 30 pitches in that appearance. And it explains why Kate Smith got the saves on both Monday and Tuesday.

I think, look, in those deeper leagues where we're speculating on saves, Kate Smith might already be rostered, but pick them up just in case. If you have Class A on your team in a Roto League, you might want to make sure that you have Kate Smith as well, just in case. There was a lot of reliever news today. Yeah. Like four potential speculative save sources because of three of them with pitchers dealing with injuries, one with just a guy struggling, which we'll get to right now. Frank, tell them about it.

Let's see. Well, next up, Ryan Presley, is that the one that we were talking about? Ryan Presley and Justin Martinez both dealing with relatively minor issues, but worth noting if you're looking to speculate. Ryan Presley dealing with a knee injury, apparently. He had it drained recently. And I was watching that Cubs and Dodgers game, and it's a one-run game, ninth inning, and Porter Hodge comes out for the save. So I was a bit confused. I have Presley in a few spots.

I just traded him in a Roto league where I need saves, so didn't feel great about that. And Porter Hodge closed it down real quick, and he struck out one. So he looked good there. Yeah, I mean, they're hoping that Presley is available Friday, but obviously there's no guarantee.

And then the other news that you mentioned there was Justin Martinez, who apparently is dealing with shoulder fatigue. He did pitch here on Wednesday. Yeah, and that one seems less serious and also, I don't even know who the next guy up would be. Because now they had, they opened the season with three potential closers. And two of them are on the IL already with Kevin Ginkle dealing with shoulder issues and AJ Puck with the elbow. Yeah.

I would guess Shelby Miller. Yeah. Whose look great. His fastball's been up a mile per hour. I think he's allowed just one or two hits all year. So that would be my guess. But hopefully it's not a big deal. They're acting like it's not a big deal.

and I hope it's not a big deal because Justin Martinez could. He has top five closer potential with AJ puck out of the picture. While we're talking about bullpents, I did want to get to a few of these, I would call them

interesting situations right now. So for the Tigers, Tommy Canley entered with one out in the eighth inning on Wednesday. Two runners on, a four-run lead facing 7, 8, and 9 in the Padres lineup, recorded both outs.

This is kind of interesting usage, and then the Tigers tacked on two more runs. Will Vest came on for the ninth inning. I believe that's like three straight games that Will Vest has closed out the ninth inning. So... See my vest. See my vest.

Just another Simpson song reference. He's looked really good this year. Like he has a straighter, harder change up. I'm sorry, slider. That has, it's verging on a 60% whiff rate. It's like three miles per hour up from preview. for Will Vest. And I just wonder.

I just wonder if AJ Hinch's resolve is weakening there with Tommy Cainley because Will Vest's last three appearances have come in the ninth, twice following Cainly. It's not like Cainley's done anything wrong, but Vest might just, he may have just decided Vest is the better choice. Or he may keep going back and forth because he's A.J. Hinch, and that's what he does.

Yeah. And then for the Giants, Ryan Walker entered the ninth inning With a four-run lead, the dreaded non-save situation, he allowed two runs on three hits. He only recorded one out, and he was relieved by Camilo Doval, who got the final two outs for his fourth save. Ryan Walker now has a 727 ERA and a 138 whip. Doval, 245 ERA, 0.82 whip,

but he only has eight strikeouts in 11 innings, 6.6K per 9. I mean, the walks are better this season. There's no doubt about that for Doval. He has closing experience. It's just, man, I don't know. I feel like this maybe could get flipped on its head a little bit real quick in the Giants bullpen. What do you guys think?

Yeah, I mean, two bad outings in a row. That's shaky ground for a closer. It doesn't, like one bad week can cost a closer's job. It was a non-save situation here this time. And Walker had looked great. to the first of the two bad outings in a row. So I'm guessing he has some more leash to work with here. And they're not just going to pull the plug after these two bad appearances.

But it's something that has to be discussed now, especially since Doval has a history of closing. If we're talking about all these situations, Cade Smith, Porter Hodge, Shelby Miller, Will Vest, Camila Doval. Who do you like most there is just like speculative kind of? kind of reliever at right now. So Smith's the best of the bunch as a pitcher. So I would think he's at the highest end.

But the thing is, there's no way Emmanuel Class A loses his job anytime soon. If it's just performance. If he's not healthy, then he's not healthy. Yeah. But if he's not the way it's going to happen is if Class A goes in the aisle, that's the only one. Yeah. That's the thing. Like who has the most potential as a closer if he were to become.

come the closer. I think it's Smith. It's probably Smith. Devald's not that far behind. Who of them would I predict gets the most saves rest of season? It would actually be Will Vest. Now, will it be a particularly high saves total?

Or will A.J. Hinch constantly be reshuffling him and that put a serious limit on the upside for Vest. I think that latter scenario is most likely. But I'm saying that's, these others seem like short-term fill-ins in the most likely scenario, well, Vest could become part of a long-term committee. All right. Well, I kind of derailed us there with some bullpen talk, but I thought it was, you know, pretty important right now with everything that's going on.

Back to the news, Grayson Rodriguez has been diagnosed with a mild right-latt strain, and he originally went on the aisle due to right elbow inflammation. It's, I mean, I guess this is what we know what's happening right now, but between the lat strain, the shoulder, the elbow, It's just the entire arm. I mean, there's clearly something not right with Grace and Rodriguez. I mean, even beyond just the something not right, this is the third time in four seasons. He's had a lad injury.

Now, that's not like a hugely debilitating issue, but it keeps happening. Like this was two of them were season ending injuries in 2022. 2022. Yeah, 2022 when he was in the minors, he had a season ending lad injury. last year season ending lad injury missed like the last what month and a half two months of the season yeah um and now it's a third time in four years this is there is something going on here and it's concerning for sure you know it doesn't necessarily mean he's done or or that it's time to panic but he's he's not right and it's a recurring injury that's held him back

three the last four years now that's that's concerning some other reliever news edwin d s left his relief appearance early on Wednesday due to a left hip cramp so doesn't sound too serious but let's pay attention Pablo Lopez is on track to return this weekend against the Angels the Rockies activated Brenton Doyle from the bereavement list and option Zach Vien backed AAA Vien was four for 34 with a 38% strikeout rate 30% rostered are you holding Zach Veen in any redraft leagues right now no no no didn't go well and there's not going to be nearly as much enthusiasm,

nearly as much competition for him on the waiver wire when he returns. So you can probably free up that roster spot, even if you like him, even if you believe in him. You're just like the bloom is off the rose. All right. Next up, we have. It is also worth noting fantasy analysts have liked Zach Veen a lot more. especially this one.

I've been banging the drum for Vien for years. But it wasn't just you. He gained a lot of hype in fantasy circles that was not shared by the prospect community writ large. I kept putting in my top 100 list and not seeing him in anybody else's. I don't know why I'm sticking up as the guy. Like, I'm the Zach Veen believer when it just went poorly. But I guess I'm still a Zach Veen believer as much as I can believe in any. You're a Rockies.

You're a Zach Fiend. There you go. There you go. Say Suzuki was scratched Wednesday due to right wrist discomfort, and he sat out three games recently with the same issue. Will Smith was out of the lineup after sustaining a left wrist injury on Tuesday night. Royce Lewis expected to begin a rehab assignment later this week. He's missed the start of the season with a left hamstring strain.

Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil are both expected to make their season debuts for the Mets on Friday. Alvarez, 53% rostered. Jeff McNeil, 18% rostered. Any interest in those two? More in Alvarez, but even that's probably limited to two catcher leagues for now because they think we can come up with 12 catchers.

We like more. But there's upside there, particularly in the power department. We'll see if he finally makes good on it. Nobody wants to believe me, but Jeff McNeil was good in the second half last year. That's all I'm going to say. No, we don't believe you.

I think he's, an interesting metal-in-field option. Too bad he can't play shortstop. Would you guys rather Francisco Alvarez or Augustin Ramirez right now? Augustine. Yeah. Zach Eflin is scheduled to throw a side session on Friday or Saturday. Nick Kurtz made his debut batting seventh.

Tyler Sodershrim started in left field, so could gain outfield eligibility pretty soon. That's fun. Why not stick Rooker there? Why go with Soderstrum? I don't know. I'm not managing the A's. But that's what happened.

And that would reduce the first base clutter itself. If Soderstrom picks up outfield eligibility and you had him and Ben Rice, oh, what do I do? You might get a solution here unexpectedly. Sotomayorstrom's a better athlete than Rucker for what it's worth. Nick Kurtz, by the way, in his debut, went one for four with an RBI. And the single that he hit 112 miles per hour off the bat. So pretty good.

It's right into the ground. It was less impressive. than that makes it sound, but yes. Hey, we'd rather the eggs of velocities than not. Yeah, sure. Remember this guy, Jared Jones is scheduled to undergo a follow-up MRI later this week. He's on the aisle with a UCL sprain in his right elbow. Cardinals pitching prospect, Quinn Matthews, will resume a throwing program this week.

He was placed in the aisle last week with left shoulder soreness, and Lucas Gilito is scheduled for his season debut on May 1st. It will also be his Red Sox debut. We have not seen Giulito pitch in a regular. regular season game since 23. He's 34% rostered.

Any interest in Lucas Geolito? Yeah, some. I mean, slim pickins on the waiver wire at starting pitcher,

surprisingly, for this early in the season. I wrote in my recent rankings movers article about how Landon Rup is

for their being so if Houston pitching options on the waiver wire, he's being supremely overlooked. So I wouldn't,

I want to be picking up Gialito if Rup was still out there. And I could probably come up with a couple other names with some availability who I'd take over Gialito. But if you're looking to maximize pitching depth, you know, it wasn't, for most of Gialito's career, he has been a must roster type of pitcher.

And it's been a couple years since he pitched. And that last year he pitched was horrible. Last two years. Last two years was really bad. Okay. But he's, He's had his elbow operated on since then. So there may be different outcomes.

It's not a high probability play. I'm just, but there is some upside there. I think the way to look at it is if you've got an IL spot to play with, why not at him and just see what happened? Because you're not going to have to activate him until if he starts next Thursday, you won't have to activate him until after he starts. You're going to get a free look at him.

I think that's the best way to look at it. It's just if you've got the IL spot to play with or if you've just got a free bench spot, just add him and see what happens. It's probably going to go bad. His velocity is not back to like 2021 levels when he was good or when he was better. But see what happens if you've got the roster about to play it with.

Sure. Man, I have almost zero faith in Lucas Julito. I'd rather take a shot on Andrew Heaney, to be honest. Which might sound crazy, but I actually think that's perfectly reasonable. Yeah, it's reasonable. All right. Let's take our final break. When we return, we'll talk about some waiver wire options.

A little fill in the blank. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. Waiverwire pitchers from Wednesday's action. We spoke about Andrew Heaney. We spoke about Reese Olson. This is kind of a, you know, beat the waiver wire. They look like two-star pitchers.

We'll find out more tomorrow with Scott's Weekly preview. But a couple of their names who look like they line up for two starts. David Peterson, who was okay against the Phillies. Looks like he might get the debacks and at the Cardinals next week. J.P. Sears, solid outing against the Rangers, and it looks like he will be at the Rangers and at Miami next week. And then Tomoyuki Sugano has turned in back-to-back seven-inning quality starts. He also has nine strikeouts in 28 innings pitch this season.

2.9K per 9. He might get the Yankees and Royals next week. So do you guys want to beat the waiver wire for any of these potential two-star pitchers? like you you can't get me excited about starting any of them i i'm not saying they won't be on the list because again i have to come up with ten options when the waiver wire has been picked clean of of of what i consider to be interesting starting pitchers but um who did you say suganos matchups for again yankees and royals yeah i feel like he's the least interesting of the three i don't even coming off back-to-back seven innings starts there's just

nothing here. There's nothing. Four swinging strikes on 94 pitches, in addition to having just a one strikeout. None of his individual pitches is like a swing and miss pitch by any degree. Average exit velocity 90 miles per hour, so it's not like he's giving up a bunch of weak contact. Not a high ground ball rate. I guess he throws a lot of strikes,

but I don't think that's going to take him very far. I just, I don't see anything here for Sugano. And I think if, if you can get out in a deep league where you want to just drop them, then you should. David Peterson is just so confusing to me because he's maintained this low-ish ERA for almost a calendar year now. I mean, it's a 329 ERA, but it's also a 143 whip. The underlying numbers like it a lot. It's over a strikeout per inning. It's a really good ground ball rate.

but just gives up a lot of hard contact. You just look at the individual pitch characteristics here. I just, I don't know. I cannot get excited about David Peterson while acknowledging he has been pretty good for almost the past year. I think J.P. Sears among these guys, I don't think there's a ton of long-term potential there,

but specifically for the two-star week next week. And this is not counting Reese Olson, who I think is much more interesting. and even I think he even with the bad matchups is probably more interesting but Sears he gets Texas

their offense showing some signs of life the last couple of days White Lang for being back certainly helps but that doesn't look like a terrible matchup right now and obviously at Miami's a great matchup

so I think if you have to pick one of these Sears is the most interesting instead of asking you guys if we can drop Kumar Rocker I'm just going to going to tell you guys that we can drop Kumar Rocker. Is that okay? Yeah, it's fine. Hopefully nobody started him after he finally delivered a good one last time. I think there was talk of picking him up again, but it was more of a pick him up to see if the next one goes well too, not pick him up to start him because it's just too volatile. We haven't heard the last of Kumar Rocker, I'm sure.

It'll take a lot to regain trust in him. Where are you guys at on David Festa, who obviously is a name that has some prospect pedigree, and he's been called up, and overall he's been okay, but he's just not going deep into starts. A bit of a letdown here against the White Sox, four plus innings, four hits, two runs, three walks, five strikeouts. He actually came out for the fifth inning. He allowed a walk in a hit, and then he was pulled with 84 pitches at the time. So Rocco Baldelli actually let him go a little bit deeper in terms of pitch count, at least here. a 28% roster.

He's not highly rostered or anything, but this is a player that I think we have, that has some upside. It's just, he doesn't go deep enough to really see that upside, I guess. Yeah, no, I think that's exactly it. It's just,

it's not like he's in a bad situation in terms of the team or even the defense behind him necessarily. It's just, they're just so careful with their pitchers. And the first sign of danger after, the first two times through the order, they're going to yank you. And so you've got to be super efficient and run into no problem or else you're going to max out of five innings.

And I think he's an upside play who may not have upside, which is a tough place to be. I don't want to make it seem like what's happening in April is going to happen for May, June, July, August, and September, though. If Festa pitches well enough that there's never a threat to his rotation spot, at some point he's going to have to go deeper into games because he's going to kill the bullpen if he's just four innings every time. And so they're going to have to let him do that some in the future. Again, if he's pitching well. So, I mean, keep talking about how not a lot of starting pitchers are interesting on the waiver wire,

at least in CBS sports leagues where pitchers tend to be rocked. roster more in general. I don't know. It may be different in your Yahoo League or whatever. But I'm not seeing a lot to like out there and Festa is near the top of the list. Yep. it just doesn't seem like he's that startable. So I guess it's more like if you're looking to get as much starting pitcher on your roster, which I think is usually the case in head-to-head points leagues specifically, then maybe it makes sense to roster him just because of an absence of quality alternatives.

But we're not really at the point where you can start Festa yet. A couple names in the deepest of leagues. Emerson Hancock had a strong start at the Red Sox six innings two runs, seven strikeouts, 12 whiffs on at 92 pitches. Ryan Gusto, who pitches for the Astros, had a nice start up against Toronto, five and two thirds, one run, six strikeouts, 12 whiffs on 80 pitches. And then Miles Michaelis and Bryce Elder. I don't know.

Anything here with some of these names, deeper leagues? Your reaction to Bryce Elder and Miles Michaelis is correct. I mean, Michaelis is going to have stretches where he's useful. It's just going to be impossible to predict. And when it goes wrong. Yeah. Hancock gets the Angels next week. I don't think he's very good, but he has some prospect pedigree from like four years ago.

I think there was a point where he was the best of the Mariners pitching prospects, if I'm remembering correctly. I believe he was the fifth overall pick in his draft. And I think he was like ranked ahead of. George Kirby and Logan Gobert at one point and then those guys developed and he really didn't but he's got a good matchup. I think that's probably the only

one. I don't know what's Gusto's matchups next week. Do we have that? I can pull that up while you talk about him. I don't want to say he's totally uninteresting but he's also like not that young. He was 26. His minor league track record is not that good.

Home against Detroit. that's okay i i think i'd probably rather have that than hancock but i don't know yeah i i because there's a little more of a mystery box of appeal there for for gusto i think i prefer him to hancock if hancock's going to succeed it's as like a ground ball specialist and there's only so much upside there and i i think there's still a lot of downside for hancock so i don't even think it's worth pursuing. And I'm not saying Gusto, Ryan Gusto, has a lot of upside, but

his approach to pitching is an interesting one, because it's a lot of fastballs, high-induced vertical brake, 19 inches there, and he's getting whiffs on that fastball, throwing a lot. Five offerings apart from that fastball, but none of them,

like, it's sort of like how Bryce Miller was pitching last year, where he tried to develop a bunch of secondaries at once and wasn't really using any that often until finally I think the splitter emerged as as something he could depend on wasn't it the splitter? Curveball? Curveball.

The splitter was early and then the curveball was late. Okay. So, and I don't know that anything will emerge for Gusto. I want to call him gusto. Much gusto. No, it's Ryan Gusto. I don't know that any one pitch will emerge for him, but like if that fastball is good enough that if you could just keep hitters guessing otherwise, it might work.

It's dangerous and it's not particularly high ceiling, but if you're desperate, I think Ryan Gusto is more interesting than a lot of the guys we've talked about. It sounds like you were saying he was throwing the fastball with gusto. All right, we can move on. Oh, yes, let's definitely move on. Some waiver wire hitters, how many days in a row can we talk about Luke Keishel, who went one for three with a double, a walk, and two more steals?

Did see him make a pretty costly error. at second base though. So maybe he's back to DH for a couple of games. But six for 17 so far, 500 on base percentage, five steals, 1029 OPS. 31% rostered.

It's creeping up there. I feel like this number should be a lot higher. I think I saw a stat like he's the... Yeah, it's an MLB record for most steals in the first five games. Yeah, five steals in five games. That's... Never would have guessed that.

He had 23, I think, in 102 games. in the minors last year. So it's not like he's got no speed, but he's not Chandler Simpson. That's like 35 steel pace, right? Right, but he's not Chandler Simpson, you know? Sure. But I mean, look, it's, I think you can count on Keishel to be a base dealer.

Clearly. More than anything. On base guy, presumably he was great at that in the miners too. It's just a question of, is he going to, is the back going to be dangerous enough that major league pitchers continue to throw him balls on occasion. He doesn't hit the ball especially hard. He did hit his hardest ball yet in this game.

It was 104 miles per hour, which is still not very hard for a hard hit ball. And his AAA high was like 106 something. So we don't have 106.9, so basically 107, a AAA. And we don't have data from lower in the minors. But that's what the scouting report says, too, that the exit velocity readings aren't impressive. for Luke Kishel, but he gets to power anyway

because of how he's the angle the ball takes off the bat. So it's sort of like Pete Crow Armstrong, right? It could work for Kishel too. Kishel has much better plate discipline than Crowe Armstrong in theory and might be close to his good of a base dealer. So I think, you know, given that Pete Crow Armstrong, the consensus on him is way up here, like through the ceiling. And Keishel, it's still very, you know, kind of waistline level.

I have an easier time getting excited about Keishel, relatively speaking. And it's also worth noting similar prospect pedigree. Keishel did not have the defensive value propping his value up. So like prospect people thought Keishel was a better hitter, relatively speaking, than PCA. Yeah, and not nearly the... One is it with the twins, like, developing these... These interesting bats, interesting patient bats who they kind of hide at second base, but they're not actually good enough to play there.

Well, I mean, even Jenkins and Rodriguez, their two remaining top prospects are very similar. They're not second basemen. They're outfielders, but very similar profiles, super, super patient hitters. That just seems to be an organizational approach there. Four other names, I think in just deeper leagues, even deeper than 12-team rotos, we're probably looking at like 15-teamers or deeper than that. Mervis, Matt Mervis, Andy Pahez,

Ben Williamson of the Mariners, not sure if there's anything there, and I think a name to watch in deeper leagues is Zach DeZenzo, who had three hits on Wednesday. He had two hits on Monday. He started two of the past three games, and there was a report that the Astros might try Cam Smith in center field,

which sounds to me like they're trying to find ways, to get Zach DeZenzo in the lineup. So they're trying it. Like he's been working out there. I don't know if it's going to happen in games, but they are, they're looking at it for sure, which is amazing because Cam Smith had never played the outfield

until a month ago. And now they're just going to throw him out in center field with Jose Altuve next to him and left. Sure. Hey, Jackson Merrill did it? Let's try it. Yeah. Why not?

That guy must be cool as a cucumber. It's like the amount of stress they're putting on him. It's wild. He's barely out of college. I mean, that's that's one of those things, though, that like, they love him. Like, clearly this is like a smart organization telling us that like, I know Cam Smith has not been a superstar yet, but the Astros love everything about him. That's an important data point. Even though it's not going to show up on Stackass with a little red lollipop.

That is something to keep in mind moving forward. Astros Outfield is really going to be Jose Altuve, Cam Smith, Zach Desenzo. A second basement, a third basement, and Zenzel was like a first basement in the miners, right? He started at third, but he wasn't good enough to stay there. So he moved to first by the end. Yeah. Who cares? Yeah.

I do like Moneyball era A's. Let's do it. I do like DeZenzo as a hitter for what it's worth, not in a immediately pick him up in all leagues, kind of way, but in a, I could see him turning into something kind of way. All right. Let's do this little fill in the blank. I kind of ran out of time. I don't think I'm very good at fill in the blank.

So I think I got to talk to Adam Azer to like come up with some kind of creative fill in the blank. So we'll just do a little rankings edition here. But Logan Webb turned in another strong outing, six in a third shotout, six strikeouts here. Fill in the blank. Logan Webb is a top blank starting pitcher rest of season. Man, I think this might be the best version of Logan Webb we've ever seen. Might be.

That sweeper looks good, man. In the past, he's just been sinker change up primarily. And now he's a legit five pitch pitcher. He can throw the sweeper a bunch like he did today. If he needs to, it's getting great results. The changeup feel looks to be back. It wasn't there on this one, but entering this start,

the whiff rate on the changeup was like 49%. The four seamer has been getting whiffs. The cutter looks great. I don't know, man. It seems like the struggles that he had mid-season last year have really helped him take a big step forward. And I'm going to say top 20 starting pitch of the rest of the season. I also say top 20, but I actually have him 15th in head-to-head points leagues. Sure.

All right. Again, that was Logan Webb. What about Sandy Alcancera? Sandy Alcantara. Nope. Sandy. I don't have it loaded up. But Scott, if you want to, there you go.

You just help me out. First quality start of the season for Sandy. He was up against the Reds, six innings, three runs, four strikeouts. 16 whiffs on 102 pitches. Again, same fill in the blank. Sandy is a top blank starting pitch of rest of the season. 40? I'm more inclined to say like 50.

I just think it's going to be hard to come by wins. And like he just hasn't really looked like himself so far coming back from the injury. Like, I think the second half of the, the season can be much better once like he gets his like arm back in shape and like gets on a better team he's on a better team yeah like i don't know i think if you want to buy sandy like thinking for the future now it's probably the time to do it once he's on oh yeah hubs it's gonna take off you know what that is that is that is just like a match made they have so many prospects that when casey kate horton for sandy alcounter let's go kevin an alcantra for alcounter it's right let's

do it yeah yeah spicy yeah scott what he's Cubs would need to get on more, but... I'm saying top 50, Chris says top 40. What do you think? I haven't ranked the lowest of the three of us at 45. So I guess I'm with you, Frank, top 50. All right. What about Carlos Rodon?

He makes two strong starts in a row. Seven innings, one unearned run, eight strikeouts, 17 whiffs here on 90 pitches. This is kind of like, you know, the up and down of Rodon, early on some rough starts. But now he looks to be getting back on track, also getting a lot more ground balls this season,

where you guys out on Rodon, top blank starting pitch of rest of season. I have them one spot ahead of Alcantra. So, we'll say top 45. Yeah, I was saying top 40, top 45. Yeah. Anything else? I think he's going to be frustrating.

I think the ERA is going to end up pretty high, but the strikeouts will keep you coming back for more. He's another one who has been forced to expand his arsenal. And I think, relative to where he'd be without it, I think it's worked out. Like the curb bond change up and occasional sinkers are useful pitches.

He's never going to be the guy he used to be. I think that's clear. The command is not good. He'll occasionally just throw a change up that bounces like 20 feet in front of the plate. It's just, it's clear his feel for pitching has probably never been great, but he used to be able to get away with it

when he had a dominant fastball. And now I think it's going to be frustrating. All his secondary pitches look so good, but that fastball just still gets crushed for Carl Swardon. It was up a mile per hour in this stuff, though. I think that might have been the biggest difference. It was back to last year's velocity. All right. Time to eat.

That means we've got to wrap this thing up. Brady Singer looked good up against the Marlin six innings, two runs, eight strikeouts to zero walks. How about this? I want Brady Singer as my SP blank rest of season. So like on your team as your SP4, SP5, bench starting pitcher? What are you guys? Nine? SP 9.

Okay. I'm surprised you're saying as high as 5. I think he's okay. I don't think he's great, but like the 60th best pitcher in fantasy, that sounds right for Brady Singer. Scott buried him. SP 9. That's like a. Well, I have him 1 15th and Chris has him 1 14th.

So I'm crying fraud here. Brady Singer. I think I have him. You have him 68th. Yeah. What's going on with you guys, man? Why do you guys hate Brady Singer? so much.

He hasn't been good. And I think even when he's been good, it's been in a really boring kind of way. Now, I will point out, he threw his four-seamer the most he has this season. And I guess it would be the most he has ever, because it's a new pitch for him, the four-seamer to go with the two-seamer and slider. He threw his four-seamer the most yet, and he got some of his best results. 22% of the time in this one, he basically ditched it the past couple starts. First two starts, he threw the four-seamer

about 13% of the time. And those were pretty good too. So his three best starts were the starts where he threw his four-seamer the most is probably the most efficient way of saying it. And I don't think the four-seamor is a great pitch, but does it keep hitters honest with the sinker and will it help to make Brady's singer more consistent

if he's willing to stick with it? I'd like to see more of that because, like I said, his worst two starts were the starts where he hardly threw the four seamer. Let's talk about Bauden Francis, who was at the Astros, four and two thirds, three runs allowed, two strikeouts. He seems like such a confusing pitcher to me. I was willing to take the shot coming into the season, and overall the numbers look okay. But he relies so heavily on this fastball. The secondary pitches don't look great for him. The underlying numbers definitely not buying.

buying Bowden Francis right now. So the fill in the blank, Bouton Francis should be the blank spark rest of season. Like what number spark are you guys ranking him as? Gotta think through. Yeah, I gotta think of all the sparks.

I'll hope you guys out. I have Scott's updated RP rankings here. And so you have Boobich. Clay Holmes. Clay Holmes, Rasmussen. Yep. And then Grant Holmes. Landon Rup and Grant Holmes.

Yeah, I think those five for sure ahead of him. Yeah, so that would make him the sixth for now. Yeah, I think that's the right range. Yeah, I think that's right. Rather have him than Nick Martinez right now. Rather have him. Wesniew and Matt Liberator are my next two. So I would still take Brances over that.

Those guys are similarly mildly interesting, I guess, is the nice way to put it. But I don't have a ton of comedy. I think the guy, the five guys ahead of him, are clearly ahead of him. And then it's, they're all just kind of. Yeah. Got to get that walk right down.

Yeah. Francis. I can, I mean, I can believe he's a unicorn if he's throwing, if he has an elite walk, right? I can,

because we saw it last year, obviously a small sample, but I, I'm willing to, to entertain that possibility that it's just a unicorn that the data can't explain. as long as he has really good control

and he hasn't had that so far this year. I mean, the thing is, the data explained why he was good last year. He limited hard contact at an exceptional level and never gave up walks. And now the walk rates almost double what it was last year and he's become, it's five starts, but he's getting absolutely crushed

when he gives up contact and he's not getting strikeouts to make up for it. His expected well-bond contact is 482. It was 337 last year. And the thing about that is, He gave up weak contact in this start, to be fair, 79.8. So it's gone down. Even though the results weren't good in this start, he gave up weak contact.

But my point is just that that is one of those stats that takes a really long time. Like, you probably prefer to have multiple seasons before you know how good a pitcher is at limiting hard contact. And we had 80 innings last year for 103 innings for Bowden Francis. So it's just The fact that it hasn't carried over doesn't mean it won't, but it's very, very good reason to be skeptical that it will be back.

Quickly hit some leftovers before we wrap up and three more hits for Paul Goldschmidt who is batting 383 on the season. Only one homer, only one steal. Strikeout rate is down, hitting a lot of line dries. I feel like this is a conscious decision where he might just kind of sacrifice

power this year to hit for better batting average. So it might just be a different version of Paul Goldschmidt than we're used to at this point. James Wood hit a home run to the pull side. How about that? One for three with a walk and his eighth home run. He has let off five in a row and it kind of feels like James Wood is settling in as the leadoff hitter for the nationals. Corby and Carol, two for five with a double dong, three RBI, now up to nine homers on the season.

And Wyatt Langford, one for three with a walk and his sixth home run when he's, He's been healthy. He has looked every bit of the breakout we were expecting this season. You are slightly underselling James Wood. Yes, it was his first home run to the pull side. It was his first batted ball in the air to the pull side this season. All he has to do is face Tomoyuki Sagano every time out. Exactly, exactly.

Yeah, I'm looking, you shared this tweet with us about the stance change for Casas. Man, that is subtle. There's no way I would have picked that up. Yeah, it's not a dramatic change. Yeah. But there's something there. The bat is more diagonal now. Yeah, the biggest change.

And then the stance is slightly more open, I guess. But it's the same, it's the exact same crouch. And without the side-by-side comparison, I never would have noticed. All right, one pitching left over. Zach Wheeler, strong start, six innings, two runs, nine strikeouts, 18 whiffs on 107 pitches. Velocity up across the board in this one. Zach Wheeler is awesome.

Analysis. Call to the bullpen for the... We spoke about the Tigers. Phillies. Jose Alvarado pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings with the game tied against the Mets. Phillies took a one-run lead in the 10th inning. Jordan Romano came on for the save.

He gave up two runs on a walk and two hits. took his second blown safe first loss and I kind of just looks like Jordan Romano's done I mean they basically gave I guess not Hoffman got a multi-year deal right a similar average but Hoffman

got a multi-year I don't think it was similar though I think it was three for 45 for Hoffman and it was like one for eight for Romano oh I thought Romano's was like 15 maybe maybe you're right that looks like a bad move that looks like a down grade. Oh yes, big time. For the

Nationals, Kyle Finnegan gave up two hits, but struck out one for his ninth save. For the Mariners, Andres Munoz struck out one for his eighth. For the twins, Yohan, Duran, unavailable, lefty, Danny Kulom, struck out one for his first save.

For the pirates, David Bednar pitched the seventh inning with a two-run lead. He threw a perfect inning, struck out two. Dennis Santana later got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a hit, and that struck out one for his third save. Do you guys think that Santana has to struggle for Bednar to regain the closer roll?

Or if Bednar just does this for like five appearances, do they just put them back in the closer rule? I can only guess they have not tipped their hand at all. It's very rare that teams pull guys from the closer role when they're succeeding. I know the Tigers maybe have done it with Tommy Canley, but it's very rare that that. happens. Guys usually have to lose it. It's very rare that a team has a two-time all-star closer among those they could switch to.

So I could see it going either way. The bottom line is I don't think Dennis Santana is good enough to hold on the job with or without Bednar there. So yeah, if Bednar is pitching well, I think it is just a matter of time. And then for the athletics, Mason Miller gave up a hit, but he struck out three for his seventh save of the season. And I think I saw a tweet somewhere that his FIPP is currently negative for the season.

So Mason Miller, also really good. To stream or not to stream on Thursday. Some options here. Shane Smith at the Twins, Chase Dolander at the Royals. Linden Roup is facing the Brewers. Tyler Anderson home against the Pirates. J.T. Ginn home against

the Rangers. I love Root. I think I got to put him number one here. Shane Smith with the Twins matchup, I think, is fine. And... I'd go Dahlinder ahead of Smith. Okay. Yeah.

And Dallander hasn't shown much, but it at least is a road start. Royals. His one road start was good. Royals lineup has been bad. Yeah, they have not. Their outfield is horrendous right now. I am okay with that. Well, shout out to Drew Waters.

He's actually doing some things for them right now. Very deep league name. I would actually put Tyler Anderson second on this list. I know he's Tyler Anderson, but he's pitched well this year. Pirates lineup is coming. around a little bit, but overall, they haven't been good this season. Pirates are about to get a taste of their own medicine with, like, Tyler Anderson and Andrew Heaney, they feel like, they feel like twin brothers to me.

No, they're on the Angels and Pirates, actually. I mean, you could be twin brothers on separate teams, though, Chris. I was making a joke about the Minnesota Twins baseball team. Oh, yes, that one. Right over the head. What about Friday? We've got Hayden Wisniewski at the Royals, Chad Pets. Patrick is at the Cardinals, Matthew

Libertor, home against the Brewers, Andrew Abbott at the Rockies. I don't really like any of these. Luis Severino home against the White Sox. There's just a bunch of... There's a bunch of TBDs right now for Friday, so I just, there's all I had. These are a lot of, like,

I am non-committal on these pitchers, but they're showing interesting signs. West Neskey, Chad Patrick, Matthew Libertor, and Andrew Abbott. They all fall in that group. hard to man are we going to get another

eight inning one strikeout game from louis severina i think he said two of those you got you have to go against the white yeah i guess you have to get saverino just because it's the whites i don't think he's good anymore but the white socks i'm not even sure their lineup is as good as the typical triple a lineup

not if louise roberts going to keep hitting like this or west nesky i guess would be number two since it's the royals and we've talked about I've said before, I'm just not that scared of Coors Field right now. And I think it's supposed to be... Famous last words. Well, yeah, I mean, eventually there will be a Coorsfield game.

I understand, but you could get a lot of good starts in the meantime. I don't know. I could see doing that, but I could see it. If you're a risk taker, what was that, what was that, what do we use, that name we used to have for that pick that was like Boomer Buzz? when we were talking about sleeper pictures it was uh oh man i'm forgetting it now i can't remember it was like that matt damon thing well i don't remember what it was oh there's the fortune favors the bold there you go yeah yeah fortune favors yeah on friday fortune favors the brave i think it was

yeah he said brave in the commercial but i have always heard the quills that's never that's never been the same that was that was i mean you know beyond everything else about that commercial that was the silliest thing about that come on. Yeah. They did a South Park segment too. It was so good. Let's go with that. The fortune favors the brave and or bold. Andrew Abbott at the Rockies on Friday. We are going to wrap there for Scott and 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.