Fantasy Baseball Today - Astros Promote Joey Loperfido! Waiver Wire Adds & Carlos Rodon Hope (4/29 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 29, 2024

Jo Adell is off to a nice start this year (2:38)! Add Adell or Astros prospect Joey Loperfido who's expected to be called up? ... There's hope for Carlos Rodon and his slider (12:42)! ... Erick Fedde has looked great two starts in a row (17:22). ... News (24:50): Jesus Luzardo was placed on the IL with an elbow injury. ... Add Fedde or Reese Olson (33:53)? ... Both the Red Sox and Yankees lineups went off this weekend (40:35). ... Should Jonathan India be rostered in more leagues (46:45)? ... Are we sure Shōta Imanaga is a sell-high (56:34)? ... Start or sit Framber Valdez (1:00:55)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (1:07:10). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: https://sptfy.com/QiKv Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi Follow FBT on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1 Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Well, fantasy! Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Sometimes you just have to stick with the players you love. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Monday.

April 29th, I am Frank Stamphill, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, another wild and wacky weekend. Who are the top WaverWire ads? The Astros are promoting Joey Loperfito and much more. But let's just get right into it. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right. Welcome back, guys.

Scott, you are up. Player of the Weekend. My Player of the Weekend is, I know a player Chris Towers loved a lot in recent years. It wasn't that long ago everybody loved him. It's Joe Adele because it wasn't that long ago everybody considered Joe Adele a top five prospect overall. He got called up in 2020. It was clearly rushed. It went horribly.

And then ever since then, every chance he's gotten in the majors has gone horribly. And he was in between the majors and minors. He'd kill it at AAA. And then he'd get called up and perform horribly. and a lot of this had to do with problems with striking out and not making consistent enough contact against major league caliber pitchers. And so finally, the Angels put Joe Adele on their opening day roster because they have no other choice.

They literally had to. Yeah, it's either let him go or let him figure his way out into the lineup. And that's why, you know, even though he was on the roster and, you know, all the past failures, there wasn't much reason to be interested in Joe Adele, even though he had a roster spot. But now, all of a sudden, he started six straight games. Huh. And the reason he started six straight games is because he's performing well. And in fact, it caught my attention just how well Joe Adele is performing because of his game Saturday, where he went three for four with a home run, his third home run, to go along with five stolen bases for a guy who, again, is now playing every day.

But of course, he strikes out too much, right? He's striking out 21% of the time. has he just figured it out? It's been so many years now that everybody's given up on that possibility, but he is only 25. It used to be very common for prospects, even high-end prospects,

to take three or four years to figure things out. And maybe that's what Joe Adele's doing. I was putting in some big bids for him in all my 15-team Roto leagues, obviously on the deeper end of the special end of the spectrum and five outfielder spots. So I'm not saying everyone everywhere needs to pick them up. But I don't know why you give Joey Loporffito priority over Joe Adele necessarily.

Joey Loprfito himself, he's doing things really well, hitting the ball very hard in the minors, but he's also striking out a third of the time against minor league pitchers. And isn't his playing time, I don't think, is totally assured. And we're kind of getting into the Joey Loporffito talk here early, I guess. Sorry about that. His playing time isn't totally assured. And he has the strikeout issues. And we haven't seen him succeed in the majors yet.

So at the very least, I think they're on equal footing, Joey Loporfito and Joe Adele in terms of you prioritize if you need help in five outfielder leagues, three outfielder leagues. Let's say leagues less than, we're fewer than 300 players are rostered. I'd be a little less decisive about it. But anything deeper than that, I think you've got to make a play for him. Pop quiz. Go ahead.

Who is younger? Joe Adele or Joey Loporffito? Well, the very fact you're asking would lead me to suggest Joe Adele. No. He is like one month older. Trick question. Joey Lopoito turns 25 in about 14 days. And Joe Adele just recently turned 25, 21 days ago.

So it was a trick question, but the point is they're the same age. And Joe Adele has the better track record at the minors. Because Lopafito did get to AAA last year and was not very good at AAA, if I'm remembering correctly. So his overall AAA mark is a 907 OPS, 18 homers, 82 strikeouts, and 260 plate appearances. That's pretty much what Joe Adele has done. at AAA. He might actually have even a lower strikeout rate. So while if I only have room for one of them,

I think I would have to make Adele the priority just because, or sorry, Lopafito the priority just because he's the big name. He's going to be right, right, right, right. Yeah, I, I agree. Like, he's going to get more attention on the waiver wire tomorrow. He's already more rostered than Joe Adel.

Yeah. but I don't have a strong lean towards one or the other in a vacuum. And my assumption is that Joe Adele is the more talented player, certainly. So, you know, like there's a lot of really cool underlying stat cast stuff for Joe Ler Profito. He hit the hardest hit ball of his career is like 113.9 miles per hour. By six miles per, well, it was the hardest hit ball. Track. Yeah, compared to his time at AAA.

last year, both his average exit velocity and his max exit velocity are like 5 to 6 miles per hour. Joey Loporfito we're talking about. So it's not, I don't think it's fair to say well, he's just beating up on, he's a 25-year-old beating up on AAA. Like there has been actual skill improvement

for Joey Lopafido that I think makes him a much higher-end prospects legitimately than we would have said a month ago. So I'm not, I don't mean to cast dispersions on Joe and Roberto by looping him into this discussion. You are saying you like Joe Adele. Yes. I am comparing him to Joe Adele to kind of open people's eyes to Joe Adele again. And look, maybe Joe Adele strikes out 20 times next week.

And we never have reason to think about him again. But considering we've always recognized the talent and he just couldn't keep the strikeouts down. And now he is, you know, 25 is not too young for a breakout. Yeah. And based on his... I mean, too old for a breakout. Based on his stat cast data, the zone contact rate for Joe Adele, I think that's the key thing to watch. It was 71% coming into the season.

It's up to 80% so far. His out-of-zone contact rate is also up about five points. And so he's just making a lot more contact right now. He's not really changing. which pitches he's swinging at in terms of in zone out zone but he's making more contact without necessarily sacrificing quality of contact

the underlying stats are all quite good for Joe Adele he has been caught stealing four times which is problematic if they want him to stop but I don't know if they want him to stop I mean his sprint speed is very high and Ron Washington is pushing the whole stolen base thing so I would guess they don't want him to stop but I think there's quite a lot to like there yeah

Yeah. Yeah, and I like both of these players as well. Joe Adele and Joey Loperfito, I think both are in consideration for five outfielder leagues. Worth reading off the stat line for Joey Loprfito in the minors this season, hitting 287 with 13 homers, 31 runs, 27 RBI, 5 steals, and an 11.06 OPS. He did all of that in 25 games. So just putting up ridiculous video game type numbers in the minors right now. It's a 92.3 average exit velocity. 113.9 max exit velocity.

He's 26% rostered on CBS. This is Joey Loperfito. And I think based on his defensive versatility, he's played games in center field, in left field, and first basis season, I think the Astros are going to find a way to get his bat in the lineup consistently. What he does with those at bats,

I'm not entirely sure yet, but I think he's going to play a lot. I think they need him. They're losing a lot of games right now. Their record is shocking. And I don't think it'll continue. I think it's just one of those early season fluke kind of things. But they have, they're, they're close, they're more in contention with the white socks than,

than the best teams. They are behind the A's. Yeah. And the angels. Yeah. Just unheard of. So I'm sure they're looking for a bolt of lightning here. The strikeout rate is concerning.

The strikeout rate may undermine everything. And low perfeito may. not stick around that long because of it. But he now impacts the ball hard enough that you could see him striking out a third of the time and still being a successful player. And you're right. I mean, Jose Ibrahim, they owe him a lot of money. And he recovered from a horrible start last year to put a pretty good number. So they may not want to give up on him completely.

But low perfeito can also play left field where Chas McCormick is doing nothing. Center field where Jake Myers is doing nothing. or they could move McCormick to center field. So they have a few options. He has a left-handed bat, Loperfito, right? He's not a switch hitter. He's a left-ie. So that, I think, initially, you got to think a platoon situation,

but performance will drive how much playing time he gets. Last question on Loporfito, if you're put in fad bids, how much are you looking to throw on him? I did one where I put in like $2.20, but I had a lot left. Okay. That's a 15 team. 220 out of a thousand. Out of a thousand.

Okay. So that was like 22%. I put in, in the 12 teamers I was putting in more like 8%. Yeah, I think that's probably about right. Okay. Again, that is Joey Lopofito getting called up by the Astros. Scott's player of the weekend was Joe Adele.

Chris, let's go over to you. Who would you like to highlight? Carlos Rodon, who I feel like I've been like extra critical of so far this season. And so it was not. as much as me. Yeah, it was funny.

You can out critique me. To look at the rankings and see that I'm actually the high guy in Rodon by like 18 spots. Well, good for you. And I feel better about that after this week's start because this was the closest. Like, it's actually been a decent season for him in terms of results. But this was the first time I felt like Carlos Rodon looked like Carlos Rodon. And the big thing there was it was mostly slider and

fast while he threw those two pitches 80% of the time. It was 93% between those two pitches in 2022, but only like 75% this season before that. And the biggest thing was he traded mostly cutters for sliders and the slider played really well. And he got seven whiffs with the slider. If I'm looking at the numbers correctly, raised his usage rate from 17% entering the start to 27%. The loss of the slider has been, my. biggest concern with Carlos Rodon. And it's not even that the cutter has been a bad pitch for him in a vacuum necessarily. It's just I have this nagging concern that the cutter has been impacting the

slider. And the fact that he traded cutters for sliders and had his best start of the year certainly makes me feel better about his chances moving forward. He he's not, I don't think ever going to rediscover that 2022 form when he was just arguably the best pitcher in baseball on a purrining basis, frankly. But I do feel pretty good about keeping him inside of my top 45 after this start.

And while I'm not necessarily raising him, I'm not actively trying to get rid of him anymore. There's hope. There's hope for the first time this year with the slider getting so many whiffs that he's just rediscovered it because if he's rediscovered that, to change like I think he's nothing without it and he could be great with it. And so, you know, now I, last week I was willing to drop him for most anyone.

And now if I haven't dropped them yet and there's one league where I have, and it's the only league where I had him to begin with. But now, now I'm inclined to wait. And in fact, decided to drop Gavin Williams instead. And just watching the start, the slider looked better too. I mean, it was the best I've seen the slider probably since he's been in Yankees uniform. So it looked great. The numbers were there on the slider.

Obviously, it was a great star for Rodon, six innings, one run, eight strikeouts to one walk. Chris, you'll enjoy this. I had a segment later on in the podcast. You sure about that? You sure about that? Inspired by, of course, Tim Robinson from I think you should leave. And the question was going to be, are we sure that we want to sell high on Carlos Rodon? So after this start, your answer would be...

I mean, like what's his ERA down to? It's like 240. Yeah. So like, yeah. If someone looks at Carlos Rodon, sees a 248 ERA, sees a 109 whip, I think, 119 whip, and thinks Carlos Rodon, he's 2020. He's going to win a Cy Young this year. I would trade Carlos Rodon to that guy. Okay.

There probably aren't many of them, but if they're out there, sure. All right. Would you guys start Rodon? at the Orioles this week. They are third in Wobah against left-handed pitching this season. Rather not. I think so.

I agree with you. I think I would rather not do that. As great as they looked in this. There are a lot of iffy pitchers right now who you went into the season. Like, we'll get to it, but Zach Allen and Tyler Glassnow

are kind of entering this week as question marks because of very minor injuries, hopefully. But, you know, obviously we lost Jesus Lazzardo, um, Michael King looks pretty rotten. So I just, I don't know who's got the,

the bandwidth to sit Carlos Rodon. Yeah, you might, that was probably the wrong word, but yeah. You might be able to get away with it in a points league just because those are so shallow and you might have solid pitching depth, but yeah, I mean, in a 15 teamer, it's probably going to be pretty hard to,

to pull that off benching Carl Sorda after the start. My player of the weekend, and it was inspired, obviously up top. Sometimes you've got to stick with the players you love. Chris has loved Joe Adele over the years. And Scott loved Eric Fetty way back in February. And look at Eric Fetty now. Two awesome starts in a row. He was up against the Tampa Bay Rays. This weekend, it was eight and a third innings, two runs, nine strikeouts to zero walks, had 14 swinging strikes on 108 pitches. And he did it much differently in this start than he did in his previous ones.

I think this is actually, I think this is actually a really positive sign. I agree with you. So in his previous start, it was the splitter that he had working. And his sweeper had been getting crushed all season. He only threw five of them in that start. It was the opposite in this start. He threw his sweeper 48% of the time. It was his most used pitch.

And obviously, it helped him dominate. It had seven of his 14 whiffs in this outing. And, you know, I would. argue that he didn't have his best pitch. Statistically, the splitter looks like it's been his best pitch this year. And he almost drew a complete game with nine strikeouts. So, yeah, I am pretty interested in what Eric Fetty has done so far. He's 42% rostered.

He's at the Cardinals this week. I think that's a good matchup. Yeah. How are you guys feeling about Eric Fetty? Yeah, I mean, I moved on. He was my 10th sleeper pitcher for next week going into the weekend. And then we see this start and he's moved up to like fourth or fifth in my sleeper pitchers for next week with that Cardinals matchup.

up, but, you know, the whiffs being way up. The sweeper, as you said, he threw it 48% of the time in this one that was compared to 5% in his last start. So he went from just basically giving up on it to, I guess, rediscovering it. And this is what I, this is how the last two starts are more how I imagined it going when I was hyping up. Eric Fetty, who again, if you weren't. Imagine 20 strikeouts in 14 innings? Yeah. Look at a strikeout rate in Korea last year.

He had an ERA barely over two. I thought he could be an ace Because I mean It's a different league Obviously a lower league The KBO But it's We've seen how good Merrill Kelly

Has been since reinventing himself There and he wasn't nearly as good in the KBO as Eric Fetty was last year And It wasn't just that But Fetty went to drive line And completely changed his arsenal Before going to South Korea

So those were the first results From the new and improved Eric Fetty And mainly the two pitches that were being hyped up were the splitter, or some people call it a change-up, it's kind of a split change. And the sweeper here, the sweeper was the big bat misser for him,

and he hadn't had it. There were no miss bats all spring training in his first four starts. There weren't a lot of miss bats, and the ground ball rate wasn't that impressive either. I had like a 70% ground ball rate in South Korea, and it wasn't that impressive. So I was not seeing a lot of signs, here for Eric Fetty.

But the last two starts, it's everything has come together. I wonder, do they use the tacky ball in South Korea? I know they do in Japan. That I don't know. I'm not sure either. It stands to reason there's probably something a little different about the baseball there. And maybe Fettie just had to get a different feel for it.

But now I think we're to the point where, I think it should be rostered in all leagues. Pretty much. I mean, he's 40% right now. The white socks stinks, but if I'm going to say that about Garrett Crochet, I think I got to say it for Eric Fetty at this point, too. So like Reese Olson is 48% rostered. Who would you rather have? I think Reese Olson is really interesting too.

He's more likely to win games. More likely to win games, strikeouts have not, even going back to the end of last season, outside of a couple of starts, strikeouts have not been as good. Though the whiff rate is still very good on both his slider and change up. and I think Rees Olson's had one bad start this year. It was a really bad start, but the rest have all been great, including I was to start this weekend. Seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts, 13 swinging strikes.

He's allowed two and runs or fewer in four of five starts. Yeah. I think I would take Olson over Feddy. I'm going to say Fetty, but like that's, I think what we're getting to is Olson is extremely underval. because I know he's widely, he's pretty widely available too. The five most added starting pitchers on CBS right now are Mitchell Parker, Bryce Elder, Bailey, Fowler, James and Tion, Keaton, Wynn.

I would take Fettie over all of those guys. I would take Todge Bradley over all of those guys. He's working his way back. That was a pretty uninspiring list of names you just read. The most added pitchers this week will be much more impressive. Yeah, I think so. I understand picking up Bailey Fulter for the two starts. the A's and Rockies.

But long term, like if given me the choice, streamer play or rest of season play, particularly in late April, yeah, I'm going to take the rest of season play. But one thing I can't stop thinking about is like someone out there added Eric Fetty for like their first ever to start streamer. And they're just going to be forever spoiled. They're just going to have the wrong expectations for two start streamers because he just had 14 to third innings, 20 strikeouts and three. runs allowed.

That was a pretty nice week from Eric. I'm not sure the city of New York likes that take, Chris. They're coming to get you out. Like, dude, it's 1 a.m. What is going on outside? And where do you live? Like Bushwick? Yeah, it's a busy neighborhood, you know? A lot going on.

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The News and Notes right after this. Welcome back in the News and Notes. Chris, I am sorry when it rains it pours. Jesus Lazzardo was scratched for Friday's start and placed on the IEL with left elbow tightness, retroactive to April 23rd. And Lazzardo has dealt with other, you know, forearm elbow-ish type injuries. So I don't know where this is going to go, but obviously the first place your mind goes is that it's not going to end very well.

We'll see with Jesus Lazzardo. Zach Gallin was pulled from his star Friday due to right hamstring spasms. And knowing what we know right now, do you start him against the Dodgers this week? Yeah, I mean, this is the tough thing about both him and Glass now who left with what looked like relatively minor injuries is they've got the Dodgers and Braves respectively this week. So Gallin, I think, is more. a concern than Glass now, although he did say he expects to make his next start. I still kind of view him a little askew right now. So I definitely think if there's an opportunity to sell Gallen, take it, but I'd probably start him.

I think it comes down to the, are you playing in a 15 team, Roto League, or are you playing in a 12 team head to head points league? 12 team head to head points leagues, I imagine there's someone else you can stream over Gallin. I'm starting Glass now either way. And as we mentioned already, Tyler Glassnell was removed from his start Saturday due to cramping in his right hand. And again, he is going up against the Braves. I agree. I think I'm still leaving Tyler Glassnoy.

Kyle Bradish is returning to the Orioles rotation. And if he stays on schedule, he could return Wednesday at home against the Yankees. My guess is let's play it's safe and not start Bradish his first time out, right? Yes. That would be my approach. Yeah, I might start him in a 15 team, Roto. And I don't want that to become a thing where we have to make that distinction every time. I feel like if you're in the kind of league where you have to start Kyle Bradish, you know it.

So it's just if you're in the kind of league where you can afford to give him a turn, go ahead and do that. Jackson Holiday was optioned back to AAA on Friday. He was two for 34 with 18 strikeouts, a 50% strikeout rate on the nose. He's still 89% rostered. What are you guys doing with Jackson Holiday? I get dropping them in a shallower league. I think if you're in anything where 350 plus players are rostered, let me put it this way. If you're in any sort of league where any prospect is worth stashing,

if you're in the sort of league where Junior Cominero is worth stashing, then you should probably keep stashing Jackson Holiday because I think he's, I think he's the top prospect to stash. I don't think he'll be sent down for long. I think part of this was, okay, well, he's not going to compete for rookie of the year and we're not going to get that extra draft pick, so let's preserve the extra year of service time instead. And one thing they mentioned specifically was that they do have a bunch of lefties coming up, that they just basically said they probably weren't going to start him against,

so they'd rather him be playing every day than sitting. So, yeah. I would assume it's like a Jordan Walker where he's back like early June. I think the timing is probably pretty similar. It could be sooner. I'm not, yeah, absolutely.

You know, part of the reason why I say it's okay to drop him in certain leagues anyway is because, well, we have less confidence in how he performs when he gets back. And there's not going to be nearly the fervor when he gets called up again that there was the first time around. By the way, I want to go back to Kyle Braddish,

Braddish for a second. He did start on Friday at Norfolk. They have the stat cast cameras there. Average 92.5 miles per hour with his velocity that is two miles per hour down. From where he was last season, it's essentially spring training, but for a guy coming back from elbow surgery, no, elbow injury. Or elbow injury. Sorry.

Yeah. Didn't have surgery. Does make me. Does make me. Yeah. I mean, I kind of. Yeah. I certainly still have that fear. I would definitely try to avoid him if I could. Last point on holiday. Scott, if you, if you're looking to get ahead of the curve here,

would you pick up and stash Kobe Mayo on the off chance that he gets called up to play third base and they slide Jordan Westberg over to second? I haven't checked in probably about a week, but Kobe Mayo's strikeout rate is horrible at AAA this year, right? I just have his minor league baseball page up. That's gone better. It's gone better. Yeah, 28%.

That's still pretty high, yeah. It was better last year. He'd gotten an under 25%. And so it was up over 30% early this year. It's gotten better. And so maybe that actually foretells his promotion. But I would still guess they'd call up holiday again before going to Mayo. Okay.

Paul Seawald will have his rehab slowed a bit due to soreness. Josh Lowe was expected to be activated Saturday. And then he wasn't. He's now dealing with hamstring tightness and we'll have an MRI done on Monday. Just two worst injuries you could possibly have to hamstring and oblique. Gosh, nightmare start to 2024 for Josh Lowe. Justin Steele will begin a rehab assignment at AAA on Wednesday. And that's it.

I saw this. The Cubs sideline reporter was talking during one of the games. And the plan is currently for him to just make one rehab start and come back. So, right. He, Justin Steele should be back. If all goes according to.

to plan next week, which I guess it makes sense because he's been able to throw even when he's not been like pitching, you know, because it was a hamstring injury. So his arm should be okay. All right. Kodi Senga threw an up and down bullpen session on Thursday and is slated to face hitters on Monday. Craig Kimbril was removed Sunday due to upper back tightness. Luis Robert could be back in mid-May. He's on the I.L with a grade two right hip flexor strain. Tristan Kossis was transferred to the 60-day IL, which means he'll be. out until at least June 21st. The Red Sox acquired Garrett Cooper,

who I imagine will get to play a decent amount at first base. Any interest in Garrett Cooper in Deaver Leagues? Certainly, I'll only. Yeah. I think since our last podcast, it's also been clarified that Kossis has cartilage damage in his ribs as opposed to a fracture, which has a wider range of outcomes.

So very up in the air. Kossis' status. I will say Cooper was playing pretty well for the Cubs. He's generally been a decent hitter. And I had actually just added him in Tau Wars last week. And then he got caught on Monday afternoon. I couldn't take him out of my lineup. So that's a 15-team league.

It's an OBP league. But I could see him mattering. I want to see how much he plays first. But it's a good park. Yeah. No, I think it's a sneaky play for sure in deeper leagues. Yandy Diaz left Friday after getting hit by a pitch on his hand. X-rays came back negative.

He was back in the lineup on Sunday. Jordan Hicks said he experienced a bit of side tightness during his start on Saturday. And he was still really good. He had a career high nine strikeouts. Do you start or sit Jordan Hicks in Philly this week? This was by far the most interesting start of Jordan Hicks season, I think. Nine strikeouts, no walks. Through the splitter, like 40% of the time.

And it was awesome for him. So it's been awesome all along. And I think just throwing it more, leaning on it more. You kind of call it Kevin Gosman this week. 11 of his 15 whiffs came on that splitter, which is a new pitch for him. He didn't have it in working in relief. So that's part of the reason I've been so fascinated by Hicks, very high ground ball rate with all that splitter use too.

And I guess he's always had a high ground ball rate. But would I start him against Philly? From what I read, the side tightness was late in the start. And he came out for the start of the seventh and didn't last very long. So I don't know that he's totally in the clear here. Yeah. Again, it comes down to who your alternatives are and how deep your league is. All right.

Nick Povetta is pencil to make a rehab start on Thursday. He threw 50 pitches in a live batting practice on Saturday. Vaughn Grissom could be activated on Tuesday. He's 39% rostered if you're looking for a middle infielder. Wade Miley was diagnosed with a torn UCL and will undergo Tommy John surgery. Jonathan Ironda joined AAA on Friday to begin a rehab assignment. He's 13% rostered if you're looking for a corner infielder in a deeper league. And a few other names to the IL this weekend.

Joey Gallo with a sprained AC joint in his left shoulder. And Jordan Wicks with a strained left forearm. Let's get into the Waver Wire pitchers from this weekend. and we will start with the first group, which includes Brandon Fott, set a new career high with 11 strikeouts at the Mariners. It was six innings, two runs, 11 strikeouts to zero walks, 17 swinging strikes,

and he changed up the pitch mix in this start. He led with the sweeper through it 40% of the time. He's 72% rostered and home against the Padres this week. Eric Fetty, who we spoke about earlier, Reese Olson was great against the Royals, seven innings, one run, eight strikeouts. He is 48% rostered, home against the Cardinals, week and Gavin Stone pitched well at the Blue Jays seven innings one run allowed two walks to two

strikeouts only four swinging strikes he is 53% rostered and at the debacks this week Scott how are you ranking this first group Stone Olson Fetty and Brandon Fott well we already covered Fetty Olson and I think those two are the ones who I would absolutely make sure to roster I dropped Gavin Stone for Eric Fetty. Sinking like a stone. Yeah. I've been real underwhelmed by him. I have hope for Stone still, and I know, didn't he only get like four whiffs in this start, even though it was a good start?

But the whiff rate has been very high overall, like over 14. It probably dropped under 14% with that start, but it had been high. It was high last year. And I just, I think the Dodgers are going to straighten them. out. They're going to figure out what works best for him and set him on the right path because we've seen them do it time and time again with less talented pitchers than Gavin Stone.

So I would like to hold on to him. And in fact, I think I'd prefer him to fought who was a good, I still think he's a matchups play just because aside from the sweeper, which was responsible for nine of the 17 whiffs, he's like

he's the fast, he gets hits so hard. It feels like he's always going to be vulnerable to blowouts. Blow up starts, I guess would be the better way to say. Blow up starts. And, yeah, yeah, I'll say Stone Overfought. All right. I'm okay with that.

Waiver Wire Pitchers Part 2. Jose Cantana had a great start Sunday against the Cardinals. It was eight innings, one run, three strikeouts in that one. Keaton win has turned in three straight quality starts. He was up against the pirates where he went six innings. He allowed one run with five strikeouts. Dane Denning. Dane Dunning pitched well against the Reds.

It was five and a third. Two runs allowed, 10 strikeouts with 18 swinging strikes. Martine Perez turned in a quality start at the Giants. Six innings, one unearned run with four strikeouts. And Graham Ashcraft turned in a quality start at the Rangers. Six and a third, one run, three strikeouts in that one. Chris, who are your three favorites? This is a group of five Ashcraft, Perez, Dane Dunning,

at Keaton Wynne and Jose Cantana. It's win, I think, by a lot, then probably Dunning, then Ashcraft, but my interest level drops off pretty precipitously after win. I can't say my interest level in Wynn is super high anyway. Those four guys we mentioned before, all, I prefer him to all of them. I prefer Tage Bradley, like I mentioned earlier,

coming back from that pectoral injury to him. So I can't say I'm super excited about any. of them. Dunning, he had a three-start stretch last year where he got, I believe, 10 and 11 strikeouts. And then his next nine starts, he had a 540 ERA and a 21% strikeout rate. I think we know what Dane Dunning is. And I don't think it's particularly interesting. All right, four names in deeper leagues. Trevor Williams has allowed three earned runs or fewer in all five of his starts. He was at the Marlins where he allowed one run over five innings. Quinn Priester turned in a solid start at the Giants.

It was six shutout innings with six strikeouts and 14 swinging strikes. Cole Irvin has turned in back-to-back scoreless starts. He was up against the Oakland A's, where he threw seven shutout innings with five strikeouts. And Slade Sacconi of the D-backs. He is now two-for-two in quality starts. He was at the Mariners. He threw six innings, one run, eight strikeouts with 11 swinging strikes. It's got any interest here in deeper league.

Slade Cicconi, Cole Irvin, Quinn Priester, and Trevor Williams. I kind of looked at Cole Irvin in my 15 team leagues where it's hard to find any pitching help on the waiver wire, back-to-back scoreless outings. One was in Kansas City. One was in Baltimore. Two venues that help him keep the ball in the park. And if you're going to be very strict with when you use him,

he may, he may deliver. you a positive result. It just feels like you're playing with fire with him. And I don't like to manage my pitching staff that way, particularly in rhodo leagues where one bad start could stick with you for a long, long time, if not forever, because that's how rhodor scoring works. So ultimately, I decided not to put in a bit on Cole Irvin. I do think Irvin's going to keep his job over Albert Suarez, by the way,

with Kyle Bradish coming back. So sorry Albert Twaras. It was fun. You'll be back probably. And a couple of things to add on Colervin. He has RP eligible. So at least in head-to-head points leagues, when there's two starts, I think he's useful.

But he only has one start this week. He was also someone who came out early in spring and had a huge velocity increase. I think his first spring start, he averaged to higher fastball velocity than he had ever thrown at the major league level. It's completely disdain. disappeared and he's back to basically where he was last year. So it doesn't seem to be anything there. A quick comment on Quinn Priester too, because this was like his first good major league start and he was up for 50 innings last year. So I want to call myself an optimist. But Quinn Priester was at this time last year considered a high end prospect.

And he threw his slider 33% of the time. That was compared to like 6% in his first. startup this year. It was his best with pitch by far last year during the time we saw him. So maybe if he sticks with that heavy slider usage, Quinn Priester could turn into something. But we're a long way from that. Let's transition over to the hitters from the weekend. And we had some huge performances from specific teams. The Red Sox crushed the Cubs on Saturday. 17 Zip on 21 hits. Tyler O'Neill, three for five with his ninth home run. He also home on Friday. He is back. He still looks like he is re-breaking out. It's been an awesome start to the season for O'Neill. Williara Brayu, two for six with an RBI and two runs scored. We've talked about him a lot recently.

He's up to 53% rostered. Not sure he needs to be rostered in three outfielder leagues yet, but if he continues to hit well, I think he's trending in that direction. And say Don Raphaela had the game of his career so far. Four for four with a sock and a shoe, his second home run, his fourth. stolen base, two doubles, seven RBI just in this game. He's 42% rostered. Chris, while this was an amazing performance, I personally was not looking to as Saddam and Raphael, how do you feel about him after this massive game? Yeah, I feel pretty much the same. And as for Willie Arbrayhew, he just, he doesn't play against lefties.

So I think that's going to limit his appeal, even though he's playing really well. So it was good to see signs of life from Raphaela especially, but the red flags are still too glaring, I think, to overcome right now. I want to say for Tyler O'Neill, for him to come back from the concussion and just like right back to mashing. Yep. I worried that was going to slow his momentum, and we're going to see old Tyler O'Neill again,

but it hasn't gone that way. And his strikeout rate, it's still way down, right? It's down to 22.5%. So a little down from last year now. It was lower than that before. It's come up a little bit. But it's not even really about the strikeout rate for Tyler O'Neill, given what we saw from him in 2021.

I think this might be legit, a legit resurgence for Tyler O'Neill. And another one of those times where Chris, you and I were both very excited about Tyler O'Neil coming into the season. I didn't get him on a single team. I'm not sure I have him anywhere. How did that happen? What are we doing? Just listen to yourself. Take your own advice. And I didn't do it again.

The Yankees bats woke up this weekend as well. They put up 15 runs on both Saturday and Sunday. Aaron Judge went two for four with his fifth home run on Saturday. He had another one on Sunday. Alex Verdugo moved up to the cleanup spot. He went three for five with his fourth home run on Saturday at four RBI. Anthony Rizzo, 3 for 4 with his fourth home run. Signs of Life from Glaber Torres,

who win 3 for 6 with a double and 3 RBI. On Sunday, I mentioned they also had 15 runs in this game. Anthony Volpe on his 23rd birthday, 2 for 4 with his sock and a shoe, his third home run, his 7th stolen base. Scott, got to give you credit. I know Anthony Rizzo was one of your sleeper hitters this week, and my goodness. Alex Verdugo was one too.

There you go. I mean, gosh, Anthony Rizzo on Sunday, 4 for 4 with his fifth home run he added two doubles and all of a sudden he's up to a 277 batting average 5 homers 787 OPS It was a really slow start but this week just corrected everything Rizzo could be out there in some shallower leagues He's 75% rostered

The names that are just ahead of him in a roster percentage Jamer Candelario and Ryan Mountcastle Scott would you take Rizzo over either of those names I mean for the confidence For the kind of shallow leagues we're talking about, I think you could swap Jamer Candelario out for him pretty easily, though who's going to have the better season? I'm kind of torn between that,

but Candelari has done basically nothing so far. Malthasaw had a pretty good week himself, right? Yeah, and he's been great since the beginning, so I'd be more hesitant to make that swap. I'd be fine with it if you just preferred Rizzo. I did coming into the year. but myself, I'd probably stick with Mountcastle over Rizzo. All right, let's take our final break when we return.

More waiver wire hitters. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back in. Let's continue on with waiver wire hitters. And in shallower leagues, Bryson Stott had his breakout game of the season on Sunday. He went two for three with two socks and a shoe. That's two home runs and one stolen base.

He is down to 77% rostered. It's weird that he's been sitting against, lefties when he was actually really good against lefties last year. He hit 282. So I know it's been a slow start for him, but just kind of find it weird. They're not, I don't know, having more confidence in Bryson Stott early in the season. Jonathan India had himself a breakout weekend. He went four for four with his fourth home run. He added four RBI in that game. I'm seeing a bunch of question marks here. You put four home runs. You said added four home runs as well, wait a minute. That doesn't I mean, that would have been.

That would be a breakout weekend, right? Absolutely. Jonathan India also had multiple hits on both Friday and Sunday as well. The stat cast numbers actually look pretty good in terms of the expected stats for Jonathan India. Michael Garcia really picking things back up. He had five hits this weekend. He added four RBI and a stolen base over his last seven games.

He's batting 3.85 with one homer and three steals. J.D. Martinez made his Mets debut on Friday, two for four with an RBI. He was in the cleanup spot on Saturday. He is 60% rostered. Chris in Head Dead Points Leagues, some of the shallower formats, would you be particularly motivated to make sure you add any of these names? A Bryson Stod in India, Michael Garcia or J.D. Martinez? India seems under-roastered at 54%.

I know he slid down the lineup as his cold start has gotten on. But remember, he was opening the season hitting primarily at the top. and I think he could get back there more consistently. I think he's a lot better than he's played so far this season. Expected stats back that up. So I think India at 54% is definitely under-ristered. Everyone else I think is probably okay. Stott, 77% rostered for a guy who's not playing against lefties.

That seems fine. Honestly, maybe even a little high. And then my Congress, 20 RBI is wild for a lead-off hitter. Yeah. That is really weird for a guy who like, we've talked a lot about him, but he actually actually been that good. And so the fact that he's got 20 RBI is kind of wild. I think I expect him to be better than he has been.

It's a 660 OPS, but it's mostly just a really low batting average. He is hitting for more power. So I think Michael Garcia, like if you see him out there and you want to take a chance, I still think there's some upside there. Ryan Jeffers continues his nice start, two for four, with his fifth home run on Saturday. He added three more hits on Sunday. He is 60% rostered. So, Scott, for those in one-catcher leagues, last week, the flavor of the week was Travis Darno.

How do you feel this week? Would you stick with Travis Darno or maybe go with Jeffers in a one-catchel league? I think my preference would still be Darno, though Jeffers and the twins, they have the better matchups. So may I make the case for Jeffers? Sure. He's hitting second. He is playing DH a lot for the twins.

I think he's DH like three of the last six and five of the last 12. He started 21 of their first 27 games. He's playing pretty close to every day. Now, partially that's he has like a 950 OPS and he's not going to sustain that. But I don't know. Anytime you see a catcher getting. significant DH opportunities, I kind of think it makes them

like a must roster and close to must-start player, certainly in any two catcher leagues. Yeah. Just because of the edge it gives you. And we have talked about Jeffers a lot. If you're asking me rest of season, just by virtue of, okay, Sean Murphy's going to be back at some point.

I would prefer Jeffers. But, you know, one catcher league, I'm not sure you're marrying yourself to either of these guys anyway. Absolutely. in a three outfielder league who would you prefer Alex Verdugo who as I mentioned had a big weekend and he's now batting clean up I think at least against right-handed pitching for the Yankees

or Andy Paix who added five more hits this weekend he has started all 11 games since being called up he is 51% rostered Verdugo or Paez Paez every single time so I had a choice between the two and a points league and went with Verdugo because the strikeout disparity, I think, is going to be significant enough to overcome the power disparity there. But if you're talking to Categories League, yeah, Pahas. And Pahas probably has more upside regardless of the format.

Just is he going to meet that fully? He hasn't walked yet, which isn't so great for points leagues. Overall, though, I'm pretty encouraged by what I've seen from Pahas. I just don't know that we're going to get a lot of points league use out of him yet. Three names in five outfielder leagues. Pete Crow Armstrong is off to a nice start with the Cubs. In four games since being called up, he has five hits, one homer, four RBI. 34% roster.

He has seven games this week, only one lefty on the schedule. Joe Adele, who we spoke about, Willie Castro has third-based shortstop and outfield eligibility. Over his last five games, he has 11 hits, one homer, five runs, six RBI. Let's throw Joey Loperfito in this mix as well. How would you guys rank Crow Armstrong, Adele, Lopofito, Willie Castro. Low Perfito, slight edge over Adele, as we talked about at the top of the show. And I don't know that I care that much about the others, too.

You know, it's kind of a big chasm there between the two groups of two. But I will give, I will say Crow Armstrong, third, Castro four. I agree with that order. Deep League infielders. Trey Lipscomb had a strong weekend for the Nats. He had eight hits, five runs scored, and a steal. He has five steals in 19 games. played the season. Joey Ortiz's playing time is picking up for the Brewers. He went two for four

with his first career home run on Friday. He added four RBI. He's 10% rostered. Ben Rortfit could be a thing. I guess in two catcher leagues, he went three for three with a stolen base on Saturday. He's betting 378 early on. It's a pretty small sample size. Carlos Santana heating up for the twins. He's homered in three straight games from Thursday through Saturday. Josh Rojas was moved up to lead off against right-handed pitching. He hit a solo homer on both Friday and Sunday. Nick Sanzel had a big game on Sunday, two for six with a double dong.

Tyler Nevin, who is the son of Phil Nevin, has quietly hit well with the Oakland A's. He went two for five with a home run on Sunday. Lots of names here. Lots of names here. Any interest in these guys in deeper leagues? Nevin, Senzel, Josh Rojas, Santana, Ben Roartvitt, Joey Ortiz, Tray Lipscomb. Just Fortiz.

That's what he's known as on CBS. I think is pretty interesting for deeper leagues. He's like 10% rostered. Four for nine, four walks against the Yankees this weekend. Hasn't been much power or speed, but he did a little bit of both last year at AAA. So I think there's some appeal there. And then...

Hasn't been playing every day either. I actually dropped Ortiz in the 15 teamers where I had them because of that. Hopefully it'll change. Yeah, I think that's... It's been slowly changing, yeah. And then, I don't know, a lot of these guys have been around for a pretty long time without much interesting. Like, if you're in the type of league where you're considering adding a 2% roster Ben RoartVet, then he probably matters. But that's a very, very small percentage of-

Jake Rogers for him. But that tells you the kind of league it is. I added Joey Bart in one league where. both were available. I'd rather have him. Agree. A little worried that Henry Davis might be the one who gets sent down when Osmani Grandaal is ready, which might

be soon. Deep League outfielders. Tommy Fam was in the White Sox lineup Friday, started all three games. He had five hits this weekend. He batted second in each of those. Jacob Young had a huge weekend for the Nationals, seven hits, six runs, four RBI, and four steals.

He is somebody who had 39 steals in the minors last year. He had 52 the year before. Richie Palacios had a huge game on Saturday, three for three with a sock and two shoes. That's a home run and two steals. Signs of life from Andrew Benintendi, three for five with a double dong,

six RBI on Saturday. And Mike Talkman stayed hot, two for four with a three-run homer on Sunday. Scott, do any of these outfielers matter in deeper leagues? Talkman, Benintendi, Pulasios, Jacob Young, and Tommy Pham. Well, first of all, Tommy Pham for MVP, because the white...

He won all three games this weekend. They scored, they had a back-to-back. They scored 17 runs in a two-game span and pretty much closed the gap on at the athletics for the lowest scoring offense. So he's unstoppable. They're unstoppable. And he's probably the preferred choice of this group.

I am interested in what Richie Palacios and, and Mike Talkman are doing. But it would have to be a pretty desperate situation for me to turn to them now. And the leagues where I was even considering it, I found options I preferred to them. All right, let's get into the rest of the leftovers from this weekend.

And segment I mentioned earlier, you sure about that? Are we sure that we want to sell high on Shota Imanaga, who continues to mow teams down? He was at the Red Sox this weekend, six and a third innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 14 swinging strikes on 88 pitches. And he did lower his fastball usage in this start. He threw a lot more splitters,

38% usage. And that splitter has looked great so far for Imanaga. It's a 0.98 ERA, a 0.80 whip, 13.5% swinging strike rate. Are we sure that we want to sell high on Shota Imanaga? Um, do we want to sell high on Joe Ryan? Because I think they might just be mirror images of one another. But that means we probably should move Imanaga inside of our top 30 starting pitchers, right? I believe in my most recent update, I had him 34th or 33rd, so I'm not far from there.

Yeah. Yeah, I'd have to move him up. He's like he's not going to have a 098 ERA. And of course, everybody knows that. It comes down to what you're selling them for. You know? Are you selling them for Kevin Gossman? Heck yeah, I'd do that.

What about Hunter Green? No, no, no, no. No, I'd take him out. Although Hunter Green had a great start. Yeah, there's some positive signs. What about Carlos Rodon? No. What about Tanner Bybee?

Those don't seem like selling high to me. Well, the next two... Well, they were all, for the most part, 20 spots in the pitcher ADP ahead of Showdame and I. Showdowne Managa before the season. I don't think anybody's thinking it. Like, I don't think anybody drafted Carlos Rodan saying, I got a sure thing here.

You know? The other two. Yeah, Rodon was, yeah. The other two names in this segment I was going to do is, are we sure that we want to buy low on these pitchers? Which brings us to Joe Musgrove, who got crushed against the Phillies. It was three and two-thirds.

Seven runs allowed. Four home runs allowed in the start. He still had 15 swinging strikes. It has been a struggle for Joe Musgrove. Chris Bassett, I don't know. You kind of give him a ball again. It's up against the Dodgers.

Two and two-thirds inning, seven runs. He gave up two home runs in this start. Would you try and flip Chotea I'm anaga for either of these two names? Yeah, I don't think it's high enough. I don't think so either. I'd rank them ahead of them. Am I, do I want to buy low on Musgrove and Bassett in general?

Yeah, in general. Like, again, you've got to present me with what the actual offer is. I'm moving them down in my rankings with, certainly Musgrove because of how last season ended with the shoulder issue and the velocity is down a little this year. So I'm more concerned about his ability to bounce back than Bassett. I feel like we go through this with Bassett every year where he just gets throttle a time or two and we're like, is it all over for Chris Bassett? And then he puts it together and goes on a long run of sustained run of success. And we wonder the next year why we ever worried about him.

And Joe Musgrove is kind of the same way. So, you know, if you can find somebody who's on the verge of dropping Ambassador Musgrove and based on the comments I get on Twitter, I think a lot of people are, then you could buy really low on them. And I'd be happy to do that. But like, no, it shouldn't be like a combined buy, low, sell high situation. Yeah, Musgrove has four seam, curveball, and cutter all have an expected Wobha over four. 400 right now. For some context, Yandi Diaz was seventh in the majors in Wobah last season at 402.

Those are Joe Musker's foremost used pitches and almost always are. So I want to say sell high. What I really want is to be more confident or buy low. I love. Yeah. I want to be more confident that you can buy low and Joe Musker more than I want to say he's by low. So I'm, yeah, I can't say I'm not at all worried, certainly. He's 57% started this week, home against the Reds this week. If I could get away from using Joe Musker, like, I think you'd have to. I think I would try my best because it's, it's just been a rough go. Start or sit these starting pitchers, Framber Valdez returned with a solid start against the Rockies in Mexico City,

five innings to run six strikeouts with 13 swinging strikes on 71 pitches. He is 43% started. do you start Valdez against the Mariners this week? Oh, yeah. That matchup is, you know, we were so worried about what was going to happen to Mexico City to the Astros pitchers. And both Framber Valdez and Ronel Blanca were great. Yep. And for what it's worth, though, just to prove that our concerns were valid,

Jose Altuva hit his longest home run in like more than two years. They're 438 foot home run. Kyle Harrison had a great start against the Pirates this weekend. Six shot out innings with seven strikeouts. Did lower the fastball usage through more changeups and slurves than he normally does. And he's still 84% rostered. He's 44% started. He's at the Red Sox this week.

What do you guys think? So this is, I think, the most interesting Kyle Harrison has looked all season, kind of like Carlos Rod on because Kyle Harrison's been throwing his forcing fastball like 70% of the time. And this time around it was like 40. or 55% of the time. That seems more sustainable. The slurve was, it was really weird

because I think, if I'm remembering correctly, he threw the slurve like 80% in the strike zone. And then the changeup was all out of the strike zone. So I think the biggest takeaway is just that he has those pitches and he can throw them. He's allowed to. I'm not sure if he knew that he was before that.

I was close to dropping Kyle Harrison before this. So I still lean sit, but now I'm hopefully less inclined to drop him. Next name up here is Hunter Green, who had his best start of the season at the Rangers, seven shutout innings, one hit, one walk, six strikeouts, only six swinging strikes. He leaned all the way into the fastball in this one,

72% usage. Maybe just the case of throw your best pitch more, That's what he did. And that's what worked here for Hunter Green. Not that he got a lot of whiffs. Do you start him against the Orioles this week? They are sixth in Wobah against Rites. If you're in the kind of league where you have to start him,

I think you have to start him. If you're in the kind of league where you have a choice, I'd rather not. Yeah, I tried to find some explanation for what's going on with Hunter Green because his expected Wobon contact is down to 292. Entering this, entering this season, it was 381. So he's gone from extremely bad to extremely, extremely good in a place that is really hard to improve that quickly. And I tried to figure out, like, his fastball's playing much better on contact.

He's throwing it in the middle of the strike zone more than he ever did before. So I don't know if that's a good explanation. So I want to believe in Hunter Green. I don't have good reason to yet. I think he's just having, I think he's always been volatile, and he's been volatile again this year. And I don't know, like, okay, he had his best start of the season. But what happened the time before?

He gave up four and runs. It's been kind of one-on, one-off for him all year, and his whole career's been like that. Michael King, it's not really working right now. He was up against the Phillies this weekend, five in a third inning, six runs allowed. He gave up three homers, three more walks. as well, he's given up some hard contact. The control has been a problem. He's allowed four plus

earned runs in three of his last four starts. The ERA is up to five on the season now. Still 93% rostered. Definitely don't want to play him at the D-backs this week. The next question is- All right, so here's the problem. You don't want to start him at the D-backs, right? What about versus the Dodgers? Nah. What about at the Braves? No. What about versus the Yankees? Probably not. That's looking like the next four starts for Michael King.

I mean, I'm kind of... I think you just drop him. Right. I'm to the point with Michael King where I was Carlos Rodon prior to this star, which I guess means he's going to go have his best start as easy next time now. But you just like if that eight start stretch with the Yankees didn't happen. And by the way, only two of those eight starts were really started.

his length. And we're just assessing Michael King as a newcomer to the rotation here. There's not a lot I'm seeing to get excited. His over five walks per nine innings, his ERA estimators are all crazy high.

Eight home runs allowed in his last four starts. There's nothing here. And you can't hang your hat on track record, like I said, because he's basically a newcomer to the rotation. So it's not a Chris Bassett situation. The sample size this year is about as big as it was for him as a starter last year.

Probably more innings, right? Yeah, I think it's pretty close now, yeah. Yeah. So you guys would drop Michael King for either Fetty or Reese Holson, if you could? Yes. I'm hanging on to Michael King where I have him as a spark, but I, like, I had one league where I had Edward Cabrera and Michael King, and like Edward Cabrera hasn't given us a ton to be optimistic about, although I still like him.

Mm-hmm. I dropped King. Mm-hmm. I have more optimism about Edward Cabrera. Who's the third best starting pitcher to pick up after those, after Olson and Fetty? In the Waverware piece I wrote on Sunday, it was Tosh Bradley. Yeah, I'd stick with King over him. I'd stick with King over him.

You can make the argument for like Gavin Stone or Keaton Win, I guess. Yeah, if it's just to sit on my bench, I'd stick with King over them. just in case, just in case he figures it out. But my confidence is at an all-time low. Kings 8 starts, by the way, were 38 and a third innings. He's thrown 36 this season. So almost there. Yep.

That's baseball, Susan. Two pitchers off to inconsistent starts who had their best starts against tough lineups this weekend. Tanner Bybee was at the Atlanta Braves where he threw seven shutout innings, two hits, zero walks, nine strikeouts with 16 swinging strikes. he did throw his slider more in the start. And obviously it was a great one. It was just his second start with zero walks the season.

And Kevin Gosman was up against the Dodgers, seven innings, one run, five strikeouts. Only eight swinging strikes on 93 pitches. Velocity remained down. What did you guys think of Tanner Bybee and Kevin Gosman this weekend? So I wrote about Bybee in Friday's newsletter. I do a part where I write about, like 20 pitchers for the upcoming weekend to write to watch.

And he was under the heading. Just give us a reason to be optimistic. And he really did that in this one. And the thing I noted was when he gets to two strike counts, his strikeout rate is 44%, which is 35th out of 68 qualifying starters since the start of last season. So despite having a pretty good fastball and three really good secondary pitches that he can get swings and misses with, Bibi has struggled to put hitters away,

and that wasn't an issue in this one. So it's just one start. You know, we'll see, but it was a really promising start. He did change his pitch mix a little, went with the breaker more and the change-up last. They both have good whiff rates. And he walked nobody, which was, he walked nobody in the minors

and has kind of had an issue with walks in the majors. So I think that's part of it, too. A couple of their pitching leftovers. bad job by me. I mean, we're getting to George Kirby we're past an hour. I mean, it was an amazing start, but there's not really anything actionable.

We're just going to tell you, hey, George Kirby's really good. But he struck out a career high, 12 against the debacks, seven shot-outnings with those 12 strikeouts, 23 swinging strikes, 18 on the fastball. Just ridiculous stuff from George Kirby.

I have a bunch of other names. I think the only other one I really want to mention is Ranger Suarez, who just... Yeah, people are going to, yell at us. We keep waiting until like an hour in to talk about Ranger Suarez every time out. And people are furious. Next time we got to lead to show at Ranger Suarez. I mean, eight innings, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks. He's got seven plus

innings and three straight. He's got a 132 ERA. So control has been immaculate. The thing is, yeah, I think he's just executing incredibly well right now. Yeah. And he's a decent pitcher who when he executes really well, like, we saw in 2021 can go on runs like this. And if the expectation the rest of the season is what he did in 2022, 365 ERA, I think one three whip, maybe a little better than that. But like if that's the expectation the rest of the way, I'm on board with Ranger Swars. I think he's going to be a useful pitcher the rest of the way.

I don't see any reason to think he's an ace all of a sudden, you know? Yeah, I basically would have the same thing to say. So we wait a long time to talk about Ranger Swar. and then just call him a sell high basically. One of my sort of guiding principles, and I don't think I'm different from you guys in this regard, is everything regresses to the mean. And so when you hear us talk about a player who's performing well saying,

oh, this is a good time to sell on him or a player that's performing poorly, oh, stick with him. It probably drives you a little crazy. Because how could you say that? Well, I think everything regresses to the mean. And usually it happens within that season. Sometimes it takes a little longer and carries over to the next season. But eventually it regresses to the mean.

The exceptions would be if there's a substantive change, like an underlying change that you pick up in some of the... You could usually tell by the data if there's been a skill change for the player or if there's been an approach change, a process change for the player, then he becomes a new player and you don't know what the mean is anymore. So that would be one reason why I would say,

okay, well, this is different. He may not necessarily regress to the mean, or if it's a young player and he just kind of learns how to polish everything, but I don't think Ranger Suarez fits into either category. I'm not seeing substantive change here. So I think he's going to regress to the mean, ultimately.

It doesn't mean he's not worth rostering and starting in fantasy, but I don't see him being like a Siong candidate, as Chris said. I see a lot more to be excited about with Tanner Halk, who had a really good start that we are running out of time to talk about or Jordan Hicks, who had a really good start. But, yeah, Ranger Suarez absolutely is and should be rostered in all leagues moving forward. A couple hitting leftovers.

Mookie Betts is running more this season. He has three steals since Thursday. He has eight stolen bases overall. and that's in 30 games. He had 14 and 152 games total last season. So I could see a pretty big steel number from Mookie Betts this season. Bouncing around here, I wanted to mention to Stephen Kwan. He's off to a really nice start.

He added another home run. He's up to three homers already, and he hit five home runs in 158 games last year. Coming into the season, we heard that the Guardians and in particular, Stephen Kwan wanted to try and hit for more power. And so far he's doing exactly that. The expected stats look great for Stephen Kwan as well. Francisco Lindor coming around.

He had a huge game on Sunday, one for three with a sock and two shoes. And over his last 15 games, he is batting 293 with four homers, three seals, and a 921 OPS. Some bullpen updates from the weekend for the Orioles on Friday. Craig Kimball got the ninth with a one-run lead. He gave up a double, a walk, a double, a walk, and a walk. And then he was taken out of the game. He took his second blown save. And on Sunday, Kimball got the ninth with a one-run lead.

He gave up two runs, took his third blown save and his first loss. Dealing with injury, we'll have to learn more about it. But if that is a longer-term thing, my guess is Yaneer Canoe is the next man up for the one has to be Yaneer Canoe, right? Yep. For the Oakland A's on Friday, Mason Miller pitched a perfect ninth. He struck out two for his seventh save. That was his first time working on Back to Man.

back days all season. He now has RP eligibility. Give me a thought. A look into the crystal ball. Where might Mason Miller rank in your relief pitcher rankings later this week? I need to get him into the top 12. I don't have him there yet, but I probably need to.

I'll probably have him around 15th. Okay. For the Pirates on Friday, well, we thought David Bednar was back. He got the ninth with the game tied. He gave up a walk-off three-run home. Homer and then on Saturday, Bednar got the 10th inning with a three run lead. He gave up two runs but picked up his fifth save. Is there anything in particular you're seeing with Bednar?

I know he had the lat injury in spring training. Yeah. I don't see anything beyond the results, but the results are ultimately what counts for closers, especially. And I wonder if they're close to pulling the plug, at least temporary. rarely. What helps is that Oroldus Chapman hasn't exactly been sharp either. Yeah. His curveball whiff rate is way down is the biggest thing, but it mostly seems like the fastball is just getting hit hard. So I don't, I don't have anything specific there,

but my sense is that I wouldn't be concerned personally. All right. For the Mariners on Saturday, Andrus Munoz got the ninth with a two-run lead. He struck out one for his fourth save. for the White Sox on Sunday. Jordan Leisure entered with one out in the ninth, a runner on second with a two-run lead. He got the final two outs for his first save. Michael Kopeck had worked Friday and Saturday, but has also struggled a bit recently.

Do you think Leisure could get save opportunities moving forward, or just Kopeck needed a day off? I think just Kopec needed a day off. All right. And then for the Phillies on Sunday, Jose Alvarado was back in the ninth inning. He struck out two for his fifth. save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Monday, I guess we can look at Bailey

Falter at the Oakland A's. Maybe Yario Rodriguez against the Royals, Jake Irvin at the Marlins. Yeah, Jake Irvin and Trevor Rogers, both sides of that game. I could see being good. Okay. Don't love any of them. Yeah, not super excited, but yeah. Yeah. On Tuesday, we have Spencer Turnbull at the Angels. Oh, he's still getting starts. According to MLB.com, as of now. Okay, good.

I thought that was notable for him. My one Walker was not good in his return. No, he was not. Simeon Woods Richardson at the White Sox maybe could work, although Tommy Fam, MVP. Yeah. Ryan Feltoner at the Marlins. It could work.

Yeah, no, actually, I think that one's fine. Yeah. I think you have a lot more. You have a lot more. faith in the Marlins than I do. I would rather Kyle Gibson at Detroit. John Gray against the Nats, maybe? Oh, yeah, yeah. That's the best one.

Yeah. On Gray, the best one of the next two days. Tuesday, on the whole, better than Monday. All right, we're 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.