Fantasy Baseball Today - April vs. May Stats, Week 10 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (6/3 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

Graham Ashcraft looks pretty good (1:05)! Jameson Taillon took a perfect game into the eighth inning. Should you look to sell-high on him? ... Who were the biggest OPS risers and fallers from April to May (11:03)? Is Randy Arozarena back? ... Who were the biggest ERA risers and fallers from April to May (23:31)? Frankie Montas looks legit! ... News and notes (33:59): Francisco Lindor hurt his finger in a hotel door! Grayson Rodriguez is set to miss extended time. ... What is the schedule for Week 10 (44:10)? Which two-start pitchers can you trust? ... Which sleeper hitters have the best matchups (51:30)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers for the weekend (56:16). Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Get 20% off Fantasy Baseball Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-baseball-today?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-baseball-collection Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

And welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on June 3rd. Frank Stample joined by Scott White. Today on the show, players who either improved or declined from April to May. I've got some OPS and ERA jumpers, both of those categories, and we'll get you ready for week 10 with sleepers, two-star pitchers, and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Scottie, who do you have from Thursday?

have Graham Ashcraft of the Reds, a guy who's rostered in only 7% of CBS Sports leagues. He made his third start on Thursday, and it was his best one yet, wandering run in seven innings, struck out five, not a ton of strikeouts, but pretty good whiff rate, 11 whiffs on 92 pitches, including six on the slider. All three starts have been pretty good. The first couple were on the shorter side, but now he goes seven innings in this one. And I think there's more strikeout potential there than he's shown so far. But part of the reason he's been successful in spite of that is he's got a ground ball rate

right around 60% so far. That's elite. That's elite if he can keep that going. And start to look pretty interesting. Plus, he is in line for two starts this upcoming week at the raise. I'm sorry, it's the wrong person, against the diamond backs and at the Cardinals.

So one pretty good matchup, one not as good matchup, but two starts. Again, only 7% rostered is Graham Ashcraft. And I think he might be especially in points league, somebody you could consider

thrown in there for the two-star week. He's not especially high in my two-star pitcher rankings, but he is ranked to be relevant, I would say. And widely available, as you mentioned, 7% rostered. I was checking out a few of my deeper leagues, 15 teamers earlier today, and he's available in basically all of them.

So if you needed a two-star pitcher in one of those leagues, yes, God, I agree with you. I mean, the swinging strike rates in the minors, they were okay. I mean, there were some spots where, yeah, it actually was a pretty good swinging strike rate, but consistently lots of ground balls mentioned last week, Ashcraft throws this cutter 98 miles per hour on average.

Slider Velo was up here on Thursday. And then the fastball variation that he throws is a sinker. So obviously that's what helps him get those ground balls. He had 10.5K per 9 in the miners last year. It was less than an inning. It was a little less than one per inning in the seven starts he made for AAA Louisville this year. But 10.5K per nine last year. He throws three pitches, but the first one.

all hard. The slider is in the 80s, but you mentioned the cutter and the fastball, the velocity is similar. So it doesn't have that, it doesn't have like a really good change of pace pitch, which might be holding up, which might be preventing him from getting more strikeouts. But, you know, obviously other pitchers have made good on similar velocity ranges. So I think, I think there's a chance Graham Ashcroft could get even better from here. Obviously, there's a chance it gets worse, too. I'm sorry, Ashcraft, not Ashcroft. Ashcroft, another aristocrat we have on our hands here.

Yeah, well. Look, I think the ground ball rate definitely helps pitching in Cincinnati, Scott. So at least he doesn't put the ball in the air. You know, it's something I worry about constantly with guys like Tyler Malley and Hunter Green. So that's something that at least is on the side of Ashcraft. Oh, my goodness gracious, for me, I feel like such a homer. I didn't want to choose him. But, like, all the time, there's something interesting going on with the Yankees.

And James and Tyone, I feel like we haven't really talked about him very much. And he goes out and has this ridiculously awesome start. So I was like, all right, I guess we got to talk about Jameson, who took a perfect game into the eighth inning against the Angels. And he goes exactly eight, gives up two hits, one run, five strikeouts to zero walks, put up a season high, 14 swinging strikes on 101 pitches. and his arsenal this year is very deep. He's basically just mixing it up.

He's got six different pitches that he throws between 8 and 34% of the time. And he has this cutter, which he kind of started throwing last year, but not very much. And he's now throwing at a career high 13.7%. So just another offering to help Jameson Tion. He's going deep into his start, Scott. Seven plus innings, three starts in a row now for James and Tion, lowers the ERA to 2.30, and the lack of walks, I mean, the control has really stood out here.

He's got five walks total in 10 starts. Now, I don't think that's sustainable over the course of the entire season, but he was once a very, very good pitcher, Scott, and now he's one year further removed from surgery. And I kind of think it's similar to, like, Miles Michaelis, who's getting back on track this year. It's, you know, one year further removed.

These guys look like they're kind of getting back on track. I'm pretty skeptical of James and Tyone. We have talked about him before. That's generally how it's gone. I mean, this is two starts in a row, eight innings, two hits in each of those two eight innings starts. So it's one thing to say, yeah, he's only walked five guys all year.

That's why he's performing so well. But how is he preventing hits like he has? And like that, I'm not sure he really has it in him. I mean, he's not missing bats at nearly the rate he did even last year. It is one of the lowest strikeout rates of his career. It's not like he has the amazing groundball tendencies that we've seen from like a Martin Perez. Maybe amazing is overstating it for Martine Perez, but really good groundball tendencies Martin Perez has shown this year.

And like he does have more of a history, more of a track record of weak contact. You could see how the Arsenal for Martin Perez, You know, we've expressed skepticism for him, myself included, but I can see it a little more for him than I can for Tyone. I think it's a similar situation where a lot of the underlying stats don't really back up the extent to which the pitcher is dominating. I don't have to squint as hard to make it make sense with Martine Perez as I do with James and Tyone. So that makes me pretty skeptical.

You mentioned he has this really diverse arsenal, and maybe he's just doing a really good job of keeping hitters off balance. with that. But that's not a formula that we see work very often. And so, you know, I'd be, I'd be looking to sell Tyone if I could, sell high on him. Yeah, I think it makes sense for all those same reasons. Scott. I mean, he's doing a good job suppressing hard contact, but that only goes so far. And eventually, I think he is going to walk more batters. And his bab-up is pretty low right now at 253 for James and Tyone. And strand rate is a little bit higher than his career mark of, yeah, 75% for his career right now.

It's 81%. So, you know, some of these things are going to regress. And, you know, maybe he kind of winds up as like a mid to high 3s ERA, which is still a serviceable pitcher, but just not nearly as good as he's looked so far. So if you got some Yankee fans in your league, if someone wants to pay the tax and they like what they've seen and they're buying into the name, you know, James and Tyone was once a top 20 starting pitcher drafted. So look to sell high and maybe turn him into another.

hitter or a pitcher that is underperforming. Like, would you, this is obvious, right? Like, we would try and sell James and Tyone for Charlie Morton if we can make it happen, obviously. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. What about Trevor Rogers, would you do that? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, they're, I don't have a lot of faith in Trevor Rogers at this point. And I noticed, actually, his roster rates dropped to 78% in CBS sports leagues, where pitchers tend to be more rostered than most other sites. So that was interesting But yeah I have In the long run I think James and Tyone's going to be fringy

And you can at least hope for a little more Than that from Trevor Rogers Alright Honorable mention from Thursday Travis Darno had I believe he finished with three hits He had three hits the last time I looked And two of those were home run

So he finishes with a double dong And one was a grand slam He had six RBIs total in that game Yeah he went three for five two homers, six RBI, four Travis Darnow. But he had really slowed down recently. His previous 14 games before this, he was batting just 164 with a 480 OPS

and way too many ground balls during that time. 57% ground ball rate. And I think this is kind of who Travis Darno is, Scott. I mean, there's inconsistencies, but when he gets hot, he can kind of have games like this, plus he was in Cores Field. So I think he's worth rostering, but, you know, probably not as good as we saw earlier in the season.

Yeah, I mean, It's kind of between him and the other Braves catcher, William Contreras, for who rounds out that top 12 for me in the catcher rankings. And I think either one is going to be a fine starter in one catcher leagues. I would prefer William Contreras if he gets back to playing more consistently, but it seems like with Michael Harris getting called up, and obviously Acuna is having to move to DH still a fair amount of the time

that that makes it harder for the brace to get Treras in the lineup and if Travis Darno is going to go out and have two home more games then that that makes the path that catcher not as open for him either. Yeah. I have Travis Darno ranked higher than Contreras right now.

I think they trust him more as a catcher. I think Catreras is the better hitter right now but I just, I don't know how he's going to work in unless someone gets hurt. which, look, Travis Darno is no stranger to injury. That can definitely happen. But for now, I think I would lean with Travis Darno for the playing time.

Let's take a look at some of those big ERA. Actually, no, let's start with OPS. We'll start with the biggest jumps in OPS from April to May. I teased this on yesterday's podcast. And some players who people might not have realized have really taken a big step from the first month to the second month.

Yes, we are starting to see a little bit more offense, thankfully because we needed it after that crazy April. So let's take a look. Paul Goldschmidt was the biggest riser from a 728 OPS to 1288. And then we've got Cattel Marte on this list. Mookie Betts. We know how it had an awesome May.

Christian Walker, the same there. Nelson Cruz, 479 OPS in April, 838 in May. So not as good as we've seen in the past, but he's slowly coming along here. Raphael Devers was amazing last month. Randy Rosa. Rana got back on track. Jorge Salare, we talked about him recently. Darren Ruff has been solid, although I believe he's on the bereavement list right now. Bobichette 535 OPS in April, 876 in May,

which is a lot closer to what we were expecting. Scott, we were talking beforehand, and Randy Roserena was someone that stood out to you. And I know that you and Chris were very skeptical of him coming into the season, but then he did get back on track. What did you see from Randy Rosarena and May. Yeah. As you said, he got back on track and it was right at the point where I was close to riding him off completely

thinking, okay, I guess everything I suspected about this guy was right. The overall numbers are still suboptimal, but the home run, he has five home runs, he has eight solo and bases, that combination will obviously play in fantasy, just if he

sustains that pace. But it could be a situation where, you know, April was just a disastrous month for him and he performs closer to to the version we saw in May moving forward, in which case, you know, that's going to, that's going to keep a Randy or Rosarena among the high-end, high-end outfielders. And we need them. I was doing the, I was updating my outfield ranks on Thursday, Scott. It's, once you get past the top 20, it really, I, really, I. I mean, like the top 22, it's, you get into like the Schwabber range, and like Brian Reynolds is coming around, which is good to see.

But then Bellinger has been an absolute mess recently. And, you know, I kind of moved Randy Rosarena, just back up at that mix, you know, top 30, top 25-ish outfielder. And, you know, look, when Randy gets in trouble, it's because he's hitting the ball on the ground too much, which is exactly what he did in April. A 66% ground ball rate, he lowered that tremendously in May,

started hitting for more power, hitting the ball harder as well, lowered the strikeout rate, so lots of good signs there for Randy Orozarena. And I was just making the point that, you know, April may have just been a disastrous month. We saw it be a disastrous month for a large number of hitters around the league last year.

And you look at the league-wide improvement from April to May this year. I was just pulling it up. and it's been a while since we've done this. I remember you looked at it after a week of May. Was it that different from April? After two weeks, it wasn't that different from April. Well, now we have a full month of May, obviously, to compare to the full month of April.

And the improvement was considerable. So strikeout rate for hitters went from 23% to 21.8%. At 21.8.8%. When's the last time we saw a league-wide strikeout rate that low? It's been a couple years. Babbip, league-wide babbip, went from 282 in April to 291 in May. Batting average went from 231 in April to 245 in May. That's a big jump.

Yeah. From one month to the next. And remember, this was still with a lot of cold temperatures for the first half of May. So it's really backloaded the improvement that we saw for the course of the month. And then if I could pull up, let's see, if I can pull up home run to fly ball rate from April to May. So that went from 10 and even 10 was the home run to fly ball rate in April, just much, much worse than we're used to seeing. 11.5 in May. So still worse than we're used to seeing, but definitely better than 10.

The name I wanted to highlight here, Scott, Cotel Marte, got off to a brutal start. and, you know, it's, it's rough because, you know, obviously people are paying attention to baseball more than ever in the first month of the season. And that's when we're getting all these questions got about, what is going on with Catel Marte and Whitmerry Field and all these other hitters that got off to just brutal starts and then they just get back on track.

And it was so weird that it was just as bad as it was. But yeah, two years in a row. Well, well, what's weird about Catea is it's the improvement you're given OPS numbers. The improvement is basically on the batting average. He homered once in April. He homered once in May. But he hit so well

that he still ended up with an OPS over 900 for the month of May, 964. And I mean, I do expect him to hit for average. I do think that's his best skill. Two of the past three years, he's hit over 315. So we know Cotel Marte can hit for average. I think there is still a question of how much power is he going to generate in this power-reduced environment. And I think that's still very much an open question.

But I think he showed in May that he's worth starting. I mean, that the power outage is applied to some degree across the board. So, you know, maybe we don't need Catea to be a source of 20-plus homers to be a must-start player anymore, just because there's more of a divergence between the power hitters and the non-power hitters, making some of the non-power hitters again viable.

It would help if he elevated a little more, but he's never been great at that. So I don't know. It's hard for me to say I'm totally confident in who could tell Marte is moving forward, but I do think he's going to be a worthwhile player moving forward.

I think he's someone. someone that might stand out more in points leagues moving forward too because he did have 11 doubles in the month and yeah I mean obviously we don't have to depend on power as much but he makes a lot of contact and the walk rate was 11% and he was hitting the ball much harder nearly 92 mile per hour average exit velocity for kattel martay so maybe he's um this is gonna sound so bad, but like a glorified version of Luis Arise, which, you know, look, in today's game, you

mentioned the league batting average in May was 245. He had 366. That's still very helpful regardless of format, but maybe just a little bit more helpful in points leagues. Let's take a look at those fallers, the big fallers in OPS from April to May. Anthony Rizzo, oh, we love the Riz, right?

Three Homer game, 1067 OPS in April, 580 in May. Some other dropers here. Nolan Aronado, Sheldon Noisy, Eric Hosmer. Hosmer went from 1054. Remember the good old day, Scott, where I was asking you guys about Hosmer every single day. Well, now.

Yeah, that fell apart pretty decisively doing it. 634 OPS in May. Can we comfortably drop Eric Hosmer? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we've been there for a while now. All right. J.P. Crawford, Wander Franco, Josh Bell. The Josh Bell won.

a little surprising, but, uh, Hesu Sanchez, someone we told you, you know, you could drop this guy for a while now. Robbie Grossman, Randall Gritchuk,

you don't love to see that. A few others, uh, jazz Chisham, Loris Grisle, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Scott, anyone you wanted to highlight here from this list of OPS followers

from one month to the next? Well, I think J.P. Crawford fits into that same category as Eric Cosmer. Yeah. Where, yeah, he was piling up a bunch of hits

at the beginning of the season. And then he got to the point where he was universally rostered. I think people were probably playing him over some of the studs shortstubs who were off to slow starts. But he was who he thought he was in the long run. His average, okay, so percentile for average exit velocity. He's second percentile, two. 98 percent of the players in baseball are a better source of exit velocity than J.P. Crawford.

and he's never been 10% percentile for his career. So he's never been a useful fantasy player, right? And I think that's especially true in this environment. So, yeah, I think we can pretty safely move on from J.P. Crawford. Jesus Sanchez was a player who, we believe, to have some pretty good upside offensively. But he doesn't elevate the ball enough. He doesn't make enough contact And he certainly doesn't walk enough

So it's it's just There are just too many Parts of his game that have to improve still I think for him to be a reliable A reliable producer in fantasy Is he gonna get hot at some point And hit a bunch of homers in a short span of time? Probably

But Yeah I just don't think he's gonna be that reliable this year in his May, his drop-off in May underscores that. Randall Gritchick was disappointing playing half his games at Coorsfield. You know, he got off to such a good start. You could tell he was

batting over 300 early on, and it was mostly a BABIP thing, which, you know, we would normally say is unsustainable, but that's the whole thing about Coors Field is it inflates the players' Babbip, and they get hits. They wouldn't have gotten elsewhere. But, yeah, May was pretty disastrous for him. I still have more confidence in him than some of the other players we've mentioned here,

Hosmer and Crawford and Jesus Sanchez. Even all the other stops he's made in his career, Gritchick has been useful from time to time in fantasy. And Corsefield can only help. But, yeah, it's certainly, that may perform it certainly, you know, kind of did away with the idea that he's going to be this must-start player all season long, I think. Josh Bell, Scott, you know, one that stands out to me here. He is making so much contact this season. His K percentage is 10.8%. And for his career, that's been 18%.

So he's making a lot of contact. And from one month to the next, he actually lowered his ground ball rate, started hitting the ball in the air more, just wasn't hitting it very hard. And that's kind of a skill that I trust with Josh Bell because he's consistently hit it hard. If he's going to put the ball in the air more,

I'm going to trust that good things are going to happen, especially as much contact as he's making. So if anyone in your league... He just had a homer on Thursday, so maybe that's the start of it. Yeah. Yeah, I haven't really lost faith in Bell either. I didn't quite notice that breakdown

that you just outlined. And I agree. Like, his problem in the past has been elevating, but he's always made contact at a high rate. He's always hit the ball hard. You know, it's kind of similar to what we said about Eric Cosmer, except I think it's even easier to see

how that could turn into massive production from Bell. And, you know, for that, what season was it? 2019? I guess the season where everybody was a monster. Bell was especially. I mean, Bell performed like a first rounder, at least for the first half of that season. And, yeah, I still treat Josh Bell like a must-start player,

even if the production was down a bit in May. Yeah. I've been receiving some questions about him recently. You know, people kind of worried about the production, so I would be looking to buy if anyone in your league was worried about Josh Bell. Let's move over to the pitching side of things. The biggest jumps in ERA from April to May, the risers. And I think you'll notice a very clear theme on this list here, Scott.

Merrill Kelly, Carlos Rodon, we've talked about Rodon recently. Madison Bumgarner, Zach Grinkey, Chad Kuhl, Brad Keller, Logan Gilbert. Logan Gilbert, by the way, he went from 0.4 ERA in April to 3.44, so he's still been very good. Austin Gomber, Jose Barrios, Kyle Wright. It's got a lot of pitchers on this list. Do not get a lot of whiffs. They pitch to contact. And it so happens that hitters were very bad in April. And we kind of just saw them all regress in May. Like, we kind of were expecting. Yeah, no, it's a good observation. Merrill Kelly, I think, is the one on this list

whose May changed my opinion on him the most because remember early on, we were kind of enthusiastic about Merrill Kelly. He was getting a lot more whiffs. He had done, you talked about putting in a lot of work on his change up in the offseason and that pitch especially was playing up for him. But even before the performance started to drop off,

that began to change. And, you know, my confidence quickly began to run out on him. And now I think he's just basically back to being the Merrill Kelly we've seen the past few years where he'll get hot at times. He'll generally pitch deep into games. But in the long run, he's more of a matchups play

than somebody you're going to rely on week after week. And anything, 12 teams are shallower, it's perfectly acceptable to drop him. If you're looking to free up a roster spot, I think it'll be useful. but I don't think he's somebody you need to cling to. Some of the fallers in ERA, so pitchers that got better from one month to the next.

J.T. Brewbaker from a 6.20 ERA to 2.63 in May. Terrick Scouble, Martine Perez, Adam Wainwright, Wayne Wright went from a four ERA to 1.69 last month. Frankie Montas went from 4.25 to 2.31 on the ERA. My man, Shane O. Mac. Here comes the money. Here we go.

money talk here comes the money Luis Garcia Jordan Liles and Tyler Malley Tyler Malley by the way from 6.45 to 4.88 he's still not great

either way you look at it J.T. Brubaker Scott I think is the one that stands out to me here he's widely available and from one month to the next I think the biggest difference was obviously the walks in April up over five walks per nine in May it was still 3.6

but consistently over a strikeout per inning. We've seen him have stretches in the past where he can generate whiffs and get strikeouts. He's not going to get a lot of wins. I get it. But I think in deeper leagues, J.T. Brubaker is someone we should have on our radar for strikeouts. Yeah, I kind of feel like we did this with him last year. And last year he had a 12% swinging strike rate, which is pretty good. This year, it's 11.3, which is still better than you'd expect for somebody with J.T. Brubaker. Lack of Stature, but he pitches for the Pirates. He has control issues.

He is a little bit vulnerable to home runs. He's managed to keep them down this year, but he got crushed by them last year. And I just don't think, particularly given the team context, I just don't think there's enough here for Brubaker to really get enthusiastic about him. Is he going to be worth streaming at times? Yeah. But yeah, I don't

I don't put much stock in him having a 263 ERA in May. Well, if you want to stream him, now has the time to do so because on Friday he's going up against the Diamondbacks and next week he is scheduled to face the Tigers.

So two pretty strong matchups in a row there for J.T. Brewbaker. Scott, we were talking beforehand. Frankie Montas is someone that you and I have pretty aggressively moved up the rankings and rightfully so. I know you liked him a lot coming into the season.

Oh, yeah. He's done nothing but live up to expectations. And, you know, he's SP14 for you. He's SP16 for me. Splitter looks like a phenomenal pitch for him this year. And we've seen, you know, when he actually has it working, he can be one of the, you know, 20 best starting pitchers in baseball.

Yeah. No, I feel validated in my, I think I was one of the, had him ranked among the highest in the industry coming into the season. I had him on my breakout list, even though he obviously had a good year already. I just saw over, I believe it was over his final 15 starts.

He went from throwing the splitter as his fourth most used pitch to his most used pitched, and everything just took off. And, you know, he hasn't sustained quite that pace, but it does seem like he's taken another step forward from last year. His swinging strike rate is 13.5, which I pretty sure puts him in the top five among qualifiers. And yeah, he's been great. He's been great in every way.

And I would like to get him in my top 12 rest of season. You mentioned I have him 14th. He's 2 and 5. As good as he's been, he has a 2 and 5 record because he pitches for the A's. So hopefully he gets traded and we don't have to worry about that anymore. But as things stand, he still has a AAA lineup backing him up. Yeah. So entering Thursday's action,

13 and a half percent swinging, swinging strike rate for Montas, ranked ninth among qualified starting pitchers. Top 10, not top five. Yeah. My bad. No, it's all good. And he does, look,

everything you want to see from a pitcher, strikeouts, limiting walks, getting ground balls. He is doing all of it right now. Again, that is Frankie Montas. Anyone else here on this list, Scott? You wanted to highlight? Your boy, Shane O'Mack, the actual Shane McLeanahan.

I should say, is, like, I think he's legit. I think you could make the case he deserves to be in the top 12. I may have actually moved him in the top 12. Do you have my rankings up? You did. What do I have? You have him at 11. Yeah.

Actually, we both do. We both have him at 11, Scott. Okay. And like, I'd be willing to go like top six with him, I think, if not for the fact he's a second-year pitcher who is a reason. to assume the rays are going to be pretty careful with his innings. Especially once we get into August. So you have to guard against that. But I think he's the real deal.

And so, you know, if his performance in May underline that, that works for me. I've also been pretty impressed this year with Luis Garcia. Obviously not to the same extent. but I was not really sure what to make of Luis Garcia last year. And he got off to kind of a shaky start in April at a time when offense was down around the league. But now his numbers are basically back in line with where they were last year. And so I feel like there's a lot of legitimacy there too. And obviously he has a great team context pitching for the Astros.

So that's somebody I feel much more confident in now than I did a month ago. And the velocity is up this year for Luis Garcia. 94.4 miles per hour on the fastball last year. That was 93.3. So maybe it's something that could fade as the season goes along. But right now, the V-Lo up for Luis Garcia. And in fact, the underlying numbers are actually better this year than they even were last year for Garcia.

So you love to see it. I have zero shares, man. I don't know. I was with, you know, I just, I didn't really know how to feel about him. I thought there were some breakout ability, but I just, and then wind up with any Louise Garcia, unfortunately. Before we hit the break, fantasy baseball today is here to help you dominate your league all season long,

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That's Fantasy Baseball 20, and it's only available to our listeners. Head over to store.cbsports.com slash collections slash fantasy baseball today and shop now. It's a very long link, which you can find in the episode, description, both on the podcast and the YouTube side. if you want to hear the latest on top prospects, unfortunately what's going on with Grace and Rodriguez, you can listen to our Saturday episode of Fantasy Baseball today in five. It's our five-minute podcast,

which you can download and follow wherever you listen to this podcast. We'll take a break, and we'll be back right after this. The news and notes. Let's start with Francisco Indore, who was not in the lineup on Thursday, after accidentally shutting his hotel door

on his right middle finger. So the legend of baseball injuries grows, Scott, with this one closing the door on your own finger. And for some reason, Met's owner, Steve Cohen. Those hotel doors are heavy too. Yeah. But Lindori's, you know, strong guy, professional athlete. Your finger, I mean, when's the last time you shut your finger in a door, Frank?

I don't know. It's been a couple decades probably for me, but my gosh, does that, that is some severe pain. I feel like I did it recently. Yeah. Yeah. You ever shut it in a car door? No, no, not yet. That sounds bad.

Got purple there for a while. You know, in my older age, Scott, I've just found that my older age, right? Like, I'm 30 years old, but I feel it. I feel things happening where, like, my. spatial awareness is just not nearly as good as it once was. And I don't know, does it have to do anything with age? Probably, but I just, I feel myself like just bumping into things that I used to never bump into. And I don't know, I assume it's because I'm getting older, so I don't know.

I don't know, Frank. You're still in the prime of your life there, buddy. Don't know that that should be happening yet. I think the cognitive decline should be in full effect yet. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I got to go to a doctor. Anyway, Metz owner, Steve Cohen.

He thought it was funny to tweet this out. I just thought it was so ridiculous. He tweeted, quote, Lynn Doer just got hurt by a door. Ironic. Just, it's not even funny. It's just like a bad dad joke. What is Steve Cohen doing?

I just, I don't get it. Anyway, Orioles pitching prospect, I just mentioned, Grayson Rodriguez has been shut down from throwing after being diagnosed with a strained right lap muscle. that on yesterday's podcast, but they did add a new wrinkle. He's expected to miss, quote, a decent amount of time.

So, Scott, I think that would probably take him out of the stash category, right, in redraft leagues? Yes, I would, well, I don't know. I don't want to give it a flat yes yet, because we still don't know what a decent amount of time is. They still haven't revealed the extent of the last strain. Somebody asked me if now was a good time to buy Grayson Rodriguez in a dynasty league. and I think so, but I would approach it as if you're not going to get anything from this season. Because if it's of any severity at all, I kind of feel like that's how the Orioles should play.

And I know we're always mad at the organizations for not calling up their top prospects. But like this is, this lat strain is the kind that can be hard to move past. it's not it's obviously not as bad as like a torn shoulder capsule or there are many worse injuries but it's just it's hard to feel confident that it's completely gone and so I think if

I'm rooting for them to to give Rodriguez more time to recover rather than less particularly for we're talking about a dynasty context yeah thank the heavens it doesn't say you know forearm strain or something in his elbows because yeah that's that obviously would be worse as well um from a dynasty perspective i agree scott i mean if there's any situation obviously it has to be you know it's league

dependent it's team dependent but if there was a competing team that had grace and rodriguez in a dynasty league and was maybe depending on him to give an extra push later on in the season that i think that's like the perfect place to to jump jump in and try and acquire grace and rodriguez if you can hunter renfro won't return from the I.L. When first eligible on Friday, he's made good progress with the hamstring, but isn't ready just yet. Nolan Gorman has missed three straight

due to lower back tightness. Nick Lodolo through approximately 30 to 35 pitches in a bullpen session on Wednesday. He's on the IL with a lower back train, which he suffered a setback on... It feels like a month ago at this point, but yeah, I'm still excited for Lidolo. We don't really have a timetable yet.

Mike Clevenger is in line, to return from the IL and start on Sunday against the Brewers. He was on the aisle with a right tricep strain. Sonny Gray was finally placed on the IL with a right pectoral strain retroactive to May 30th. Heungin Ryu placed on the IL with left forearm inflammation for the second time this season.

I think we can confidently drop Ryu, right Scott? If we have no aisle spots, obviously. Yeah, I didn't have much confidence in him to begin with. Robinson Canoe elected free agency after being optioned by the Padres. And speaking of those Padres, they selected Nomar Mizarra's contract, who was starting in right field on Thursday. I believe he picked up a hit.

I know it's Nomar Mazzara. It's probably nothing. But I'll just point out that he was crushing it at AAA. 367 batting average, seven homers, a 1095 OPS. And I believe he's a Nando guy. He's a Nando dafino favorite. So I saw people tweeting about the wizardry of Nando. must have been talking about him somewhere recently and

Omar Mazar is up. So in deeper leagues, just a name to watch. Omar Nirvayas was placed on the COVID-IL and it was a big day for rehab assignments. Max Muncie will begin a rehab assignment at AAA over the weekend. Clayton Kershaw will do so

on Sunday at Single A. He's expected to throw just four innings of rehab before rejoining the Dodgers rotation. Jack Flaherty will report to AA next week to start his rehab. Tyler O'Neill will report to AAA on Friday, and Dylan Carlson will also begin a rehab assignment

at AA on Friday. All right, Scott. I got an expert's opinion on this cookies and milk situation. Oh, an expert's opinion. An expert's opinion. And, you know, it kind of picked up some steam on Thursday, little social media action, our buddy, Mike Giannella, put out a poll, people, you know, asking,

do you dip your cookies in milk all the time? know or depends on the cookie. And I got this expert opinion. Quote, it's delicious, but not a fan if it gets too soggy. Oreos are the obvious best choice for cookies and milk. Would you like to guess who said that? Who the expert is? Yep. I don't know. I'm afraid to guess who is it. The man who used to host this very podcast, Adam Azer. Oh, come on. He's an expert and nothing he's an expert in getting mad at the Yankees he actually about it he actually was at the game on Thursday night

I was texting him about how bad Joey Gallo is so that was fun see it gets soggy immediately when it goes into milk I saw some of these takes too like oh you have to find the right amount of time to dip it in it can't be too long it can't be too short the moment it goes in and takes on that moisture

it becomes mushy No, not the moment. No, if you dip an Oreo in milk for one second, Scott, it doesn't become mushy. Now, if you leave it in there for like 15 seconds, you've got a problem. But I think like the, you know, five to seven second range,

you just let it soak up some milk. It's really good. Have you ever done it, Scott? Have you ever done it? Of course I've done it. Oh, all right. I just thought maybe you were judging it without doing it. No, come on.

No, I mean, the, like, I am totally, like, I think the milk, like, helps wash down the cookie well. Like, that's a good combination. Like, I totally with everybody on that, especially when it's any, like, especially, like, I think of like a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie, right? You got them, the chocolate chips are all kind of milty. Yeah. You got that butter and sugar, perfect browning together.

and like just the milk washes that down perfectly. But you take a minute to enjoy the cookie in your mouth first, and then you wash down with the milk. That's how you do it. You don't compromise the integrity of the cookie by dipping it first. I don't think. And I also want to point out, like, I'm not sure. Like, do you, how?

I'm skeptical. I'm skeptical. All these people are really dipping their cookies in milk, unless they're doing it very secretively in shame, you know, because I have been at gatherings with people eating cookies many times in my life, from childhood to adulthood. Nobody's pulling out the milk and passing around the cups to start dipping, you know? I don't think it's like a social thing, though.

Exactly. You do it in shame alone if you're doing it. Yeah. I don't think it's in shame. I don't know what the right word would be. It's not shame. It's shame. Maybe it is.

It's uncouth. I wouldn't. So look, you mentioned like freshly baked cookies. I'm, look, I'm not dipping any freshly baked cookies in milk. Like, that is not happening. But if you're talking about just like chips, hoi, chocolate chip cookies, which are, you know, they're a little bit harder. They're in the package for a while, whatever. Sure.

I think you could dip those in some milk. Oreos, same thing, you know. It's not freshly baked. Sure, dip it in some milk. But freshly baked cookies, yeah, those are off limits, Scott. There's no way where we're dipping those in milk. That's not happening. Okay.

That's why I think it's some cookies, and that was my response to the poll. Anyway, let's get people ready for week 10. And let's take a look at the schedule. Pretty standard schedule, actually, for next week. We don't have any eight game, nine game weeks. We have two teams with five games. That includes the Cubs and the Tigers. We have 20 teams that have six games.

I'm not going to read all those off. And then we have eight teams that have seven games next week. The D-backs, the Red Sox, the Reds, the Reds, the Guardians, the Rockies, the Royals, Angels, and Padres. Before we get into the two-star pitchers to add and stream, let's take a look at some fringy options. And Scott, you just tell me, do we start them everywhere, Points League, not at all. And we'll start with Cal Quantrell, who's going up against the Rangers and the Oakland A's. So I have him in the points league only section of my two-star pitcher rankings, but those matchups are so good, and he has been,

he's been racking up quality starts. I can see doing it in the categories league too. I just don't really trust the skills for Cal Quantrol, so I don't want to, I really want to attach my name to that. Points League only. He's kind of like Dakota Hudson just without the ground balls. It doesn't get a lot of strikeouts,

too many. Good at suppressing hard contact, but I would agree. Matchups are good, but a little bit scary in a Categories League. Trevor Rogers, oh, Trevor Rogers, up against the Nationals and at the Astros. Yikes. So I do have them in the points league only section of the two-star pitcher rankings, but I don't really want to start them. I want some assurances from Trevor Rogers, I think, before I get him back in my lineup, particularly when he risk doing twice the damage. And one of those matchups, as you mentioned, is the Astros. The other one, Nationals, it's a good matchup.

So that kind of makes it a little easier to do in a points league where the penalties for a bad start aren't is severe. But yeah, it's not something I hope to do. Ranger Suarez is at the Brewers and at home against the Diamondbacks next week. Points league only. Noah Cindergarde is up against the Red Sox

and has a revenge game start against the New York Mets. I would say points league only for him too. It's rare that we get a two-star week from an angel's pitcher, but I pretty confident's going to happen for him. All right. And then we've got Billy Ober

who is still widely available, but some tougher matchups against the Yankees and the Reyes. Yeah, I want to do it. I want to do it. I've been, I know I've spoken in praise of Bailey Ober at times. And there are some things he's good at, but I just, I don't think there's enough there when you look at the complete package, especially given how much they limit his innings. He puts the ball in the air a ton.

So, you know, the matchups aren't good enough. enough to justify it. All right. Let's move into some two-star pitchers you can add and stream for next week. We've already talked about Graham Ashcraft, who are some other names you like, Scottie. So, Jeffrey Springs somehow still rostered in less than 50% of leagues. Jeez. I mean, he might be the top sleeper pitcher, even if he was making one start.

He happens to be making two against the Cardinals and at the twins. Not the greatest matchups, but whatever. He's been dominating everybody. Five innings at a time. but you know still a lot of strikeouts a lot of swingy strikes and the R a area below too so what's not to like Garrett Whitlock gets the Angels and the Mariners both of them on the road so I think you got to use him John Gray coming off that 12 strikeout effort at Cleveland at the White Sox two good matchups I

don't really trust what we saw on that 12 strikeout effort I think he has a lot more to prove to to gain my trust but With those matchups, I think it's reasonable to consider him a sleeper pitcher for this upcoming week. Hunter Green, you know, he's been hit or miss, but good strikeout potential. He gets the Diamondbacks and the Cardinals in a two-star week, so I'd be okay with that. Another deep sleeper here is Connor Pilkington, who we talked about yesterday. He has those same matchups Calquantral has against the Rangers, against the athletics. He's only 4% rostered

and doesn't sound like Aaron Savale is going to bump him out of the rotation before he gets a chance to make the two starts. Now, could he be so bad in that Ranger starts that he doesn't get a chance to make the second start against the A's? That's possible. But he showed a lot of promise in his previous start. Velocities were up, got a ton of swinging strikes. So I think there may be something there with Connor Pilkington,

at least in a points league. if I could justify the roster spot on him, I might toss them in there. Might do it. All right. And then, yeah, we mentioned Graham Ashcraft, 7% roster.

But it's notable, like if you're choosing between Ashcraft and Pilkington, I think at least for this week, I'd rather go Pilkington. Ashcraft has a better chance of sticking. But I like Pilkington's matchups more. Fortune favors the brave, two-star pitcher of the week for next week.

If this is the first time you're hearing this segment, you shouldn't use this pitcher, but unless you are desperate and you're feeling bold and brave and you just need someone to throw in the line. We're cowards. But a lot of people out there listening are braver than us. That's true.

So, you know, we don't mind throwing them a bone. I'm looking at a name here, Scott, that you have on this list. And I was trying to figure out, is he even a starter? And then I remembered, there was an injury to his rotation. And I am going with somebody who has been on this very podcast. Ross Stripling at the Royals and at the Tigers next week.

I don't know how many endings this guy is going to throw. He might not even qualify for a win. But those are fantastic matchups. He's brave enough. He's actually pitched kind of well this year. So I'm going to go with Ross Stripling. Fortune favors the brave, Scotty. Let's see.

rostered is this guy. I have him in the no-thanks section of the two-star pitcher ranking, so I'm not recommending him, and I always try to choose my fortune favors the brave pick from that group. Okay, he's only 25% rostered. I wasn't sure because he has a 232 ERA. And that's someone is Jose Cantana, who gets the Tigers that terrible, like the Tigers are a distant last and run scored. Their offense, they're distant last and run score, their last in home runs. like they are the premium matchup. So Jose Cantana just for that matchup, his second matchups against the Braves,

which isn't as favorable of the matchup, but I think they lead the majors in strikeouts. So you could still see it going well for Jose Cantana. All right. Single-star streamers, Scott, I'm just going to run through these names real quick, so we can get to hitters and some other leftovers here. My bad, you know, Oreos and Steve Cohen,

I wasted too much time. Anyway, single-star stream. Spencer Strider up against the Pirates, Josiah Gray at the Marlins, Yusay Kikuchi at the Royals, and 1-800, Glenn Otto, who is pitching very well recently, at the Chicago White Sox. They do struggle against right-handed pitching. I wanted to throw one other name in there, Alex Fayetteau, who pitched pretty well on Thursday. It looks like he lines up for the Pirates next week, and he is 13% rostered, so I do like him quite a bit myself.

The best hitter matchups for next week, we've got the Royals, the Reds, the Orioles, made sure I said that right, the Blue Jays and the Braves, and the worst hitter matchups, the Pirates, the Rangers, the Cubs, Tigers, and Rockies. All right, Scott, sleeper hitters for Week 10.

Yes, so you mentioned that the top three matchups there for hitters were the Royals, Reds, and Orioles. Those are bad teams with players who are highly available. So most of this list is comprised of players from those three teams, including from the Royals, Andrew Benintendi and M.J. Melendez, who's a catcher who's been getting regular bats, even with Salvador Perez back. Ben Intendi's hitting like 3.30. It's a lot of singles.

So the production, you know, it's kind of a hollow batting average, but the matchups are good enough that I'm willing to recommend him this week. For the Reds, Joey Votto, he's slightly over the 80% threshold, so I can't put him on the sleeper hitter list. but he homered again on Thursday and since returning from COVID he's batting 289 with three home runs eight walks to nine strikeouts and 12 games

so I think Joey Votto's back I know the eggs of velocity readings have been good during that time too and like I said the Reds have good matchups so it doesn't quite qualify but you know if he's out there in your league he would be top of the list here but I like Tommy fan for this week he just came back

from his suspension and then I think he was dealing with a nagging injury too. He just got back. He walked twice in his first game back. But yeah, we've liked the data on him for a while now. So hopefully he can take advantage to the good matchups. For the Orioles, the whole starting outfield I like this week. Trey Mancini, Anthony Santander, Austin Hayes.

Mancini is the one I want to highlight because he's the most available. and I think he's I think he's the most impressive of the three two that the things he had like 360 in May you know he worried about the new dimensions in Baltimore crushing his power and that's kind of played out but he's he's changed his profile

to compensate for it his strikeout rates way down his line drive rates way up he's hitting the ball to all fields it's kind of the Thai France formula for success and while his numbers aren't as good as Thai frances, and I don't think it will be, it's, I don't know, Tray Mancine is kind of a poor man's tie france

and has good matchups this week. So I wanted to mention him. My top two sleeper hitters for this week, though, are actually not on those three teams. It's Alejandro Kirk. You mentioned the Blue Jays having good matchups. It's Christian Walker, who is on a Diamondbacks team.

Their matchups are middle of the road, but they're one of just, oh, eight teams, it looks like, playing seven games this week. Yep. And I just think, I just think Christian Walker, unless the matchups are bad, he probably needs to be starting at this point. He's only 61% rostered. Yeah.

Four of the games are at Cincinnati. Oh, another three are Philadelphia. So, you know, good venues, even if the matchups are middle of the road. Kyle Farmer, did you mention Kyle Farmer, Scott? I did not, but he is on the list. Yeah. So in deeper leagues, he went two for, four with a sock and a shoe on Thursday.

His fifth homer, his third steal, and over his last seven games, he's hitting 458 with four home runs. So I think he's an interesting name. A few others that I noticed. Luke Voigt plays seven games next week, and he's been better recently. Last 18 games, he's betting 284 with four homers,

and Michael Harris went three for five with a double on Thursday. He is 43% rostered, and I noticed he's fifth. The Braves are fifth in terms of hitter matchups next week. So just wanted to give Michael Harris a shout out as well. Yep. All right, Scott, let's wrap up some other things that happened here on Thursday, quickly. Pitching standouts, part one.

Sandy Alconter makes it five, seven-plus inning quality starts in a row. He had eight strikeouts in this game. Alec Manoa now has nine quality starts in 10 tries this season. Seven and two-thirds, give up three runs, five strikeouts. Nester Cortez, seven more shutout innings, lowers his ERA to 1.50, and I finally gave in, moved him way up the rankings. I think he's, you know, SP 31 or something like that, and rightfully so. Anything, Scott, that stood out for you?

Sandy, wait, Sandy, Manoa or Nestor Cortez? Not really. I mean, Nestor Cortez, we keep waiting for his performance to drop off. I'm more of a believer than Chris is, but, you know, I'm not believing he, He's going to be a 150 ERA guy all year. And he just continues to deliver. Pitching sandouts part two. Sean Mania now has eight quality starts in 10 tries this season. He goes six innings, one run, eight strikeouts in that one.

Cooley Cluber now has five quality starts in his last seven outings. He goes six innings, one run, four strikeouts at the Rangers. And then Tony Gonsland, four quality starts in a row for him. and that was after only going six innings once in his first six starts. So now we're starting to get a little bit more length and Gonselin has looked very good. So anything here, Scott, Gonselin, Kluber, and Sean Mania.

Yeah, I mean, you said it on Gonsolin. It's been really impressive. Another guy who still, a third of the way through the season, has an ERA below two. You mentioned Nestor just a minute ago and a few others as well, Martin Perez. Several pitchers do. Sean Manai is kind of interesting,

the breakdown of his numbers, because under the hood, everything looks as good as it's ever been. Top-tone, swinging strike rate, actually right there with Frankie Montas, and he's getting strikeouts, and it looks good. But the ERA's high.

The ERA is 377. And when you look at the game log, you know, it's quality start after quality start, but a lot of, like, three earn runs and six innings. Like a start where you look at the game log, you look at the final stat line and you're like, okay, you had a good start.

But they all, like there's not those like one earn run outings to keep the ERA, to get the ERA back to the level you want to see it. So I don't know what that means. I guess I'm saying Sean Minai is even better than his, his ERA would suggest. And hopefully he can have some starts that'll bring that ERA down and not just be barely quality.

starts, you know. Yeah, this is now two years in a row where the swinging strike rate and the strikeouts in general are both up for Sean Mania. I mean, pretty considerably compared to the rest of his career. So that was part of the reason why I really liked him coming into the season. His walks per nine are up over three. And for his career, it's like 2.2. So if the control improves and gets closer to where he's been at, I think, you know, better days are coming for Sean Mania, so I would be looking to buy if he's available anywhere in your leaks. The call to the bullpen. We'll start with the Tigers.

Gregory Soto picked up his 10th save for the twins. Yohan Duran pitched in the sixth and the seventh innings with a two one lead. And then Emilio Paghan gave up two runs in the eighth inning and he took the loss. For Tampa Bay, Ryan Thompson picked up his third save and each of the last four saves for the Tampa Bay raise have gone to different relievers, which sounds a lot like Tampa Bay. For the Giants, Camillo DeVall, this was interesting, Scott. Came on to pitch in the sixth inning down one zip,

proceeded to give up two runs, and now has given up a run in five of his last six appearances, though some of those have been unearned runs. I'm sure it's, you know, extra innings with the ghost runner on base. But he has been given up some runs. I don't know, this was just weird. Did you see anything on Camillo DeVall? No, I didn't.

And let's see. So only one other time this year, and it was his second appearance of the year, did he enter before the eighth inning? So it's, yeah, it's unusual. I imagine it was just a leverage thing, it being a one-nothing game. and you know,

Gabe Kapler was not adhering to roles, as he has been known to do throughout his managerial career, not adhering to roles. It's been more unusual the way he has treated Doval this year. I don't know. The saves opportunities have been less frequent for Doval than I think we would have expected, given the Giants record this year.

So I've been a little frustrated with that. But he has generally been used like a true closer. Yeah, that's why I just, I found it so weird. But, all right. Yeah, I don't really watch it. Yeah, we'll just, we'll keep an eye on it. For the Marlins, Tanner Scott picked up his second save, each of Dylan Floro, Anthony Bass, and Cole Solcer pitched on Wednesday.

For the Padres, Taylor Rogers entered with a 4-1 lead. He gave up two hits, two hit by pitch, four-runs, four runs and he took the, I don't think, I think someone came in after him and gave up the final hit. So he took the blown save, but didn't get the loss. Taylor Rogers has been used a lot this season, so it's going to be interesting to see,

you know, does he kind of wear down more as the season goes along? Craig Kimbrel came in in the ninth inning and he pitched a clean inning for his 11th save of the season. Look at that. I guess the mechanics are back on track for Craig Kimball. To stream, to stream,

are not to stream for the weekend. Let's start with Friday. Zach Ethlin versus the Angels, J.T. Brubaker versus the Diamondbacks, Dane Dunning versus the Mariners, James Caprillion versus the Red Sox, and Usay Kakucci versus the Twins. I don't like any of them. Yuck. I guess Brewbaker against the Diamondbacks if you have to pick one. For Saturday, Rwanzi Contreras versus the Diamondbacks, Tyler Wells versus the Guardians, Glenn Otto, versus the Mariners. I don't know.

It's not looking great. Contreras against the Diamondbacks. I guess we'll just keep picking on them. I do like him more than Brubaker. And on Sunday we have Zach Thompson versus the Diamondbacks. Lots of Pirates pitchers this weekend. Jake Junis at the Marlins,

Ryan Feltoner versus the Braves, and Rich Hill Revenge at the Oakland A's. Junice, I guess. Of the weekend choices that I picked from each day, rank them Rolanzi Contreras, Jake Junis, J.T. Brubaker. And I agree with you completely, Scott. We're going to wrap there. For Scott, I am Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on Monday. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.