Fantasy Baseball Today - Awesome Pitching Performances, Week 4 Sleepers & Two-Start Pitchers (4/22 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 22, 2022

Carlos Carrasco looks like he's back (3:00)! Is the best we've seen from Pablo Lopez? ... Jesus Sanchez is crushing the ball early on (13:25). ... Kevin Gausman still looks like an ace while Joe Ryan is throwing his slider more (17:36). ... Those Oakland A's are pesky (21:15)! Do we add Sean Murphy in one-catcher leagues? What about Paul Blackburn? ... News and notes (28:32): Luis Robert hurt his groin. ... We have Week 4 sleepers and two-start pitchers (37:55). ... Should you hold Anthony DeSclafani and Zack Greinke (47:47)? ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and weekend streamers (51:52). 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 into fantasy baseball today on April 22nd. Frank Stamphle joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we've got some awesome pitching performances to talk about I was there live for one of those. The Oakland A's are playing some good ball. Let's talk about those guys. And week four sleepers and two start pitchers. Before we even get to, oh my goodness gracious, Chris, that mustache is on fire. Yeah, I don't know exactly what's happening with it.

I just know I haven't trimmed it in, I don't know, a couple months now. So this is this is kind of the longest it's ever been. I can curl it. I can curl it even more. Get like a little Raleigh Fingers thing going if I want to. But I think my wife, my friend the other day said that he would buy me some mustache wax. And my wife said, don't encourage him. So I think that would be, that would not be appropriate for me to do.

That's a bad Chris. Yeah, I guess so. gentle way of putting it from your wife. You get you down gently. I mean, it's not practical, you know. It gets in your mouth while you're eating. I had wings on Thursday night for dinner. And it was like just like my mustache was just caked in sauce.

It was, it's a hard time. That's an experience I can't relate to facial hair. I would love to see Scott with a mustache. I've never. It keeps coming up. It keeps coming up on the podcast. organically, too, I might add, that we want to see Scott with a mustache. I just think you need to do it. Keep dreaming. All right. I will. I will dream of that tonight. Anyway, let's get into it.

Oh, my goodness gracious. I also want to apologize another, I guess, sidebar before we get started. Some people say that they heard something different when I played the Hawk Harrelson clip recently. He says, you've got to be bleeping me. So just wanted to clear that up for whatever you thought you heard. Look, Hawk Harrelson would not have been on the air ever again if he said anything else. So it's, you've got to be bleeping me. We won't play it anymore anyway. I mean, the thing about bleepin is it could be anything you want it to be. That is fair. So, go in the bleep any way you want. Don't, don't let your imagination take you too far. Next time we play, we'll do a bleep on top of the bleepen. No, I've, I've been told not to play it anymore. So that is what I am going to do, or not do,

I guess. Anyway, oh my goodness gracious, Scott, we're three and a half minutes in. Let's talk about a baseball player. Who you got? Carlos Carrasco, the cookie monster. He was a monster against the giants of all teams on Thursday. Seven and two thirds innings, four hits, two earned runs, no walks, seven strikeouts. It was a total gym and his second in a row. And he looks great. He looks great.

Nine whiffs on 91 pitches. That's not a great rate overall, but eight combined on the slider and changed. The secondary stuff is back for him, and that's the key, because his fastball isn't very good. And we just didn't see the same bite on those secondary pitches last year. We came to learn in spring training. It's because he had loose bodies in his elbow, wasn't able to straighten his arm completely. Probably shouldn't have been pitching, frankly, but he was. And now he's had those bodies removed, and we see the result.

And there's a lot of things that, I don't know, I'm not trying to pat myself on the back here. I'm just, it's just I am genuinely surprised that so many people are surprised, right? Because they act like, they act like, right, they act like 2020 never happened. Oh, he got leukemia and now in his hamstring and his elbow. and they act like we haven't seen a good Carlos Garasco since 2018, and that's just not true. Yeah, it was a shortened season, but he looked like himself in 2020.

Last season, he never really, like he was hurt in spring training with that quad injury, and he never really had a chance to get going. So, yeah, no, that's why I've been so aggressive in moving him up, just because he looks like himself. And I don't know, there's risk there, but there aren't a lot of pitchers who, don't have risk.

And in that range, I feel better about him than a lot of those guys. So, yeah, I've been more than happy to move him up into the SP3 range. Scott, can we peer pressure you into moving Carlos Carrasco

even higher in your rankings? Because Chris just mentioned he has him at SP 32. I moved him up to SP 35. And you've got him up, you've got him at SP 50. Oh, geez. I don't know.

I just updated my rankings two days ago. I don't know why people are so skeptical of Carlos Carrasco. Oh, man. Maybe they've leapfrogged me. I don't know. Let's see who I can. Okay, so, man, a lot of pitchers I like are ahead of him. It's a fun group.

It's Tyler McGill, Matt Brash, just ahead of him. You know, Nathan Avaldi is solid. There comes a point in the rankings at any position where it's just like, yeah. I'm very open to suggestion. Yeah. If you're not in the top 20, let's say top. Yeah, 25 at starting pitcher. 30 maybe.

Yeah, I could move Carlos Carrasco up, sure. I can't move him up as high as Chris. I can't move him ahead of like Logan Gilbert and Adam Wayne Wright. I still want to have ahead of him, Chris Bassett. I don't know. There's a lot in here that maybe could be moved down. It's tough. You don't want to go overboard.

rearranging your pitcher rankings after every three starts because then there's just no end to it, right? Yeah. But yeah, in a general sense, I think Carlos Carrasco is good. All in all, all three of us like Carlos Carrasco. That is the point. And again, he went seven and two-thirds' endings in this start on Thursday. I was there to watch the game.

It's pretty cold, too. And he pitched very well in this start. It was his longest start since May 4th of 2019. So shout out to Carlos Carrasco. Looks healthy, looks sharp, looks like he is back. Chris, you are up. Oh, my goodness gracious. Yeah, how about Pablo Lopez?

He looked great today against a what has been a very good Cardinals lineup so far. Seven innings, nine strikeouts, 15 swinging strikes, 11 of them with that changeup. The change up, he used as basically his primary pitch today through 37% of the time. He was outstanding. And I don't know, the concern with Pablo Lopez for me, and the reason why I don't have very much Pablo Lopez, has on my team was never that I was concerned he wasn't very good. His changeup has been, you know, a really, really good pitch for him for a while. He throws in the mid-90s with a with decent results on his fastball. There's been a lot to like about him. The concern was just

the shoulder and you can't, that's not a concern that can go away because a guy looks good after three starts. Obviously, that's not really how it works. Yeah, he looks pretty awesome so far here in the early going. He's getting, I got a ton of strikeouts today. And yeah, feeling pretty optimistic about Pablo Lopez, at least as long as he's healthy. Yeah, he's allowed one earned run on the season. Pablo Lopez has 17 strikeouts to three walks. I took a look under the hood. Nothing looks tremendously different for Pablo Lopez. I think the change up has just gotten better. So far in the season, you know, entering his third start, he had a 23% swinging strike rate on that pitch. I noticed the whiff right on stackass is.

way up for the change up as well. So I think he's just kind of perfected that pitch or close to perfected. And so for the results on it had been really good. The results were great last year. He had better ratios pretty much across the board than Sandy Alcantra, who we all considered an ace coming in. Lopez did last year. It's just he made only 20 starts or whatever.

So this has been really good going back to the start of 2020. Oh, yeah. And maybe the changeup's getting better. I mean, obviously, I had a ton of whiffs within this start. And I don't know if that was included in the stack cast data.

Probably not. Not yet. Yeah. Maybe it's getting better. But the point is I don't really think it needs to for him to be an ace. He just needs to, as Chris said, stay healthy. Yeah.

That's the bigger concern with him. It's really the only concern. I think the point, Scott, that I'm trying to make is that if the change up is better, then maybe there's another, step that we haven't seen from Pablo Lopez yet, where he's getting more whiffs and more strikeouts overall. Since the start of 2020, Pablo Lopez 3.12 ERA 1.13 whip. The guy's really good. He just needs to stay on the field. Chris, my follow-up question, and I guess this goes for

Carlos Rodan as well, and Clayton Kirshaw, do you try and capitalize on these guys while they're healthy and maybe sell high while you still can? You don't have to. I think you can definitely make a case for that. That, you know, if someone's willing to treat Pablo Lopez like he doesn't have injury concerns right now, then yeah, you should probably trade him because he still has injury concerns. Carlos Redan still has injury concerns. Clinton Kerchel still has injury concerns. All these guys still like being healthy, as we saw with Jacob de Grom in spring training, being healthy currently doesn't mean you can avoid injuries forever. And when you know someone like Pablo Lopez has his history of shoulder injuries or Clayton

Kershaw with his elbow, Carlos Radon with every joint in his arm pretty much. Like watching them pitch right now is amazing because of how good they look. And if Carlos Rodan or Clayton Kirchall or even Pablo Lopez stays healthy, like any one of those guys could be, I don't know if Pablo Lopez has top 12 upside, but Clinton Kirchal and Carlos Rodan certainly do. Yeah, I got to say, I'd be really hesitant to sell high on Rodan because I don't know.

He just, I'm not sure how high is high enough. He might be the best pitcher in baseball. Yeah, he just looks over. I mean, he threw his fastball 77% of the time. yesterday got what, 17, 17 swinging strikes with it. Only he's one pitched out. Incredible.

So, you know, but the thing is that injury risk hasn't gone away. And if watching him pitch like this has made someone be willing to overlook the injury risk even more, then it's probably not a bad idea to at least consider selling him. But you have to get, I think, blown away to move these guys. Yeah. Again, we have to stress the sell high aspect. Don't just sell because these guys are injury prone. If someone's not blowing you away with an offer, then just reap the rewards as long as these guys are healthy.

Every pitcher has injury risk. Every pitcher is injury prone. Maybe not Max Scherzer. I don't know, but even like Justin Verlander was the model of consistency in health until he wasn't. Every pitcher is going to get hurt at some point. That's just the way it works. And so this is kind of, you know, when you're selling a guy because of injury,

selling him low or not getting full value for him, you might just be better off riding it out with Pablo Lopez if you can't get top 30 starting pitcher value back for him. Yeah, classic buy low, sell high right now. Someone tweeted at me and told me they got offered a crazy trade for Kyle Tucker. This seems obvious, but hey, go out and offer Carlos Rodon for Kyle Tucker right now and just see what happens. I don't know if that person is going to take it.

Probably not, but try it. Yeah, I got to say, I played fantasy baseball a long time. I made a lot of trades. I'm not sure I've ever made a sell, like pulled off a sell high trade like we're talking about. I've sold high on a player who I just didn't think was very good, you know, so it didn't take much for it to be a sell high. I've bought low before, but selling high enough, I don't know. I mean, I play with some pretty sharp people, so maybe. Yeah, selling high on a good player is hard.

Yeah. All right. While we were talking about Pablo Lopez, I did want to mention the Marlins hitters real quick. Chris, you and I spoke about, spoke about, spoke. Did I really just say spoke? Spoke about Hesu Sanchez on yesterday's podcast. He went two for three with his third home run. Scott, I wanted to get your thoughts because we spoke about him recently, you and I, and you were still kind of skeptical on Hesu Sanchez. Have you come around a little bit because he's spraying the ball to all fields? Kind of looks like a different hitter so far. What do you think about Hesu Sanchez? Yeah, I'm more open to the idea. him being good, I think. It's a little too late, at least in CBS sports leagues.

He's too rostered now. But I made a play for him when the last week's run of waivers when he was still available in a couple leagues. The strikeout rate is at a point now where he doesn't have to be some massive power hitter if he can sustain that 22% strikeout rate. But it does appear that he does have

enough power that like there's the issue of him not being able to like he's not going to walk at all so he needs to he needs to have a good batting average or he needs to have like Adam Duval power I think

I think he can have a good batting average it's still a difficult profile but he might he might be able to make it work especially the problem go ahead the problem for him is he doesn't have the ball in the air very often still so he hits these

massive shots. I mean, 428 feet today. But, you know, that's what, his second of the season, third of the season. And I would guess he has a pretty high home run to fly ball ratio now because he's only got a 22% fly ball rate. So it's, it is a narrow line to walk because he has to, like Scott said, he'll probably hit for a pretty good batting average if he keeps his current bad at ball profile. but he probably won't have a ton of power. Unless he has a really high home run to flat ball ratio, but he probably needs to keep the strikeout rate below 24% to really maximize both of those.

And he needs a lot to go right, but right now he looks really good. That home run he hit today, Thursday, was like a missile. It got out so fast. So I don't know what the launch angle was on that, but it probably wasn't helping his half. launch angle as much as a normal home run, Mike.

The first thing... That was a... Yeah, I'm not sure. The first thing I went to look at, Chris, while you were talking about Hazu Sanchez and his home run to fly ball ratio being as high as it is, his average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives.

I've said this countless times about Juan Soto. The reason that he can overcome his high ground ball rate and hit for power is because whenever he puts the ball in the air, he blasted. He hits it really, really hard. And lo and behold, Hazu Sanchez, 96 mile per hour, average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives. That ranks 22nd among qualified batters early on in the season.

Of course, Wansoto ranks fourth. He's always very high on this list. That's probably gone up today because his home run was 114 miles an hour. His hardest hit ball of his career. Yeah. Of his career. Launch angle only 21 degrees, which is fairly shallow for a home run. So, yeah.

I mean, it's the same as like Christian Yalach, pre-breakout, pre-MBP Christian Yalich, he had just run incredibly high home run to fly ball ratios year after year. That's probably what Sanchez needs to do and you're not going to get a lot of speed from him either. So, you know, it's, he needs to hit really, really well. But so far, like, this is what it would look like. The early returns are very encouraging for Hazu Sanchez. Just absolutely crushing the ball when he puts it in the air. I wanted to mention, I don't know if you guys saw the sequence too.

Jazz Chisholm, one of the cooler things I've seen this season. And he goes down to O2 on two pitches that he didn't like. Umpire Phil Cousy is barking at Jazz. Shiz him to get back in the batters box. Jazz is like taking his time. He's like, no, I don't like these pitches. Yeah, he's like, no, no. You wait your turn.

Now I'm going to get back in the batter's box, but I'm ready. Steps back in, launches a bomb. It was awesome. And then he does his Euro step over home plate like he always does. And he just kind of like shows up the umpires. See, what are you doing? It was great. It was honestly one of the cooler things I've seen.

It was also Jazz's first time leading off this season. So they moved Jorge Saler down to three in the order, and Jazz up at leadoff. So if he hits, he's going to lead off. I think it's as easy as that. Oh my goodness gracious for me was going to be Kevin Gosman, but I mentioned there were awesome pitching performances. I'm just going to tie these last two together.

Kevin Gosman and Joe Ryan. Gosman at the Red Sox, eight innings pitched, one run, eight strikeouts to zero walks, 19 swinging strikes. He leads baseball on swinging strike rate. He looks every bit the A-Stat. He's been the past two years, basically, since the start of 2020. And then Joe Ryan, another strong outing, six shot-out endings, five strikeouts to one walk.

Scott, anything that you'd like to add that you saw on Thursday with Kevin Gosman and or Joe Ryan? I'll mention the sliders for both because neither of them is known for their slider. And yet the slider, the 19 whiffs, Gosman got in this start, seven came on the slider more than even on the splitter. and if that's going to be, you know, big F, if that's going to be more of, even more of a weapon for him, if it's going to be more of a weapon for him this year, the slider, then, you know, obviously that raises the ceiling even more. You mentioned he leads the majors in swinging strike rate this year. I would say Gosman has been pitching even better than his numbers so far, so very encouraged by him.

And Joe Ryan, yeah, I mean, the story coming up through the miners is he's dominating just with a weird arm angle on his fastball. and not much else. But in his previous start, he threw the slider even more than his fastball. Then in this start, but still, 29% of the time,

got several of his swinging strikes on it. And if he has a legit second pitch to pair with that fastball, then, yeah, I'm feeling really good anywhere I invested in Joe Ryan right now. I did move Kevin Gosman up to SP8, and that is,

as much a reflection of how well he's pitching as just the lack of faith I have in the Julio Reyes, Robbie Ray, Shane Bieber, Zach Wheeler class, which, you know, it's to say, Aaronola, Lucas Jolito being on the IL as well, you know, I have varying levels of confidence in all of those guys, but I feel more confident in Kevin Gosman right now. Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, they were basically in the same tier. I had Beber, maybe a tier higher, but all those guys whose velocity's been way down in the early going, it makes sense to move them behind somebody like Gosman, who we know has ace potential. Yeah, I'm not bearing any of them. I don't think you are either.

But yeah, I mean, we're just kind of sorting out the ace class. Yeah, I would agree. I have more confidence in Gosman right now. Yeah, I haven't really moved. It's not like I've moved any of those guys down necessarily. but I moved Sandy Alcounter and Kevin Gossman ahead of the mall.

I wonder how much it's going to take for me to do that with Carlos Rodon, who I feel confident is going to be better than probably all of those pitchers when he's on the mound right now. I move Rodon into the top 10. Yeah. Yesterday you kind of stump me, Chris,

and I guess I'll ask you, Scott. He asked me Shane Bieber or Carlos Rodon right now, and I said I would still go with Bieber, but it's getting a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking at my rankings and I have Beaver 8th and Rodon 9th.

But I was, I was wondering that as I was just mentioning, I have Rodon in the top 10. Oh, should I have them behind Bieber still? Yeah. Yeah, I have them at the same price in the trade values column now.

So, yeah. I think they're definitely in the same tier. Very different types, but injury risk with both. Yeah, for sure. Let's take a look at those Oakland A's. The fans are currently boy.

cutting the team. The attendance has been dreadful, and I 100% agree with it. But credit to the players, they're playing hard, and they're 8 and 6 through their first 14 games. So shout out to the Oakland A's. I wanted to run through a few of these hitters here and Paul Blackburn. Sean Murphy, three for four with his third home run of the season. He is crushing the ball early on. Still striking out quite a bit. Lots of fly balls, so he's kind of selling out for power. 68% rostered. Chris, Sean Murphy still might be out there in one catcher leagues. Would you drop someone like Cabert Ruiz, or is it too early to make a move like that? I think it's probably too early, but it's not unreasonable.

I mean, in a two-catcher league, like, is someone going to go pick up a cold Kbert Ruiz right now? I don't necessarily think so. Yeah, in a one catcher league. That's probably not a name that someone's going to see and then say, oh, I have to, you know, break the bank for them. So, you know, it's not unreasonable. Sean Murphy, remember, had a very good debut in 2019.

a very good 2020. And then his 2021, which is the bigger sample size, was not good. But, you know, he's still young enough that perhaps we wrote off the potential for some upside here. Scott, you get a few deeper names here. Tony Kemp went two for four with two runs scored. He has multi-hit games in three of his last five. He also has two steals on the season again. This is Tony Kemp.

He's leading off consistently, 17% rostered. The other name is Sheldon. Noisy. Again, spelled N-E-U-S-E, if you're looking for him. Three for four with a double two RBI. He has eight hits over his last four games, 7% rostered. Scott, any interest in Tony Kemp

or Sheldon Noisy in deeper leagues? In deeper leagues, sure. And I'm not going to totally rule out them having mixed league, like standard mixed league relevance at some point. Noisy has a pretty good minor league track record.

And it looks like he has a pretty firm grasp on the third base job right now. Kevin Smith had to go on the IL and wasn't hitting well even before then. Kemp is fast and he's disciplined.

And he's getting a chance to play every day for the first time and he's batting lead off I think most days. And like in points leagues in points leagues you like that he doesn't strike out much and I could see him being relevant just for that reason

and of course in Categories leagues if he ends up running more than he has historically I think he's up how many stolen bases he have so far two two not two in

two plus weeks I mean if he can sustain that pace it's going to be a useful number of stolen bases so keep an eye on him I've had an eye on both but I think it's best

to FBI what's that? Yeah I've been starting him in TGFBI since the start of the season actually okay Tony I was one of the late round guys

I picked up and they're out there. So far so good. I mean, you're basically hoping for runs batting average and stolen bases. Yes. Yes. With Tony Kemp. And it's worth mentioning that is a 15 team mixed roto league. So it is a deeper league. So something like that. Scott, I know you have him in the dynasty league. That's a 24 team head to head points league. So yeah, I'm loving him there. I think he's been my best hitter so far. He's, he's been pretty good. Let's take a look at who started this game for Oakland. And that's Paul Blackburn, five innings of one.

run ball four strikeouts to zero walks. He only had two swinging strikes on 62 pitches and apparently took a line drive off of his shin, which is why he didn't go deeper into the start, did not come out for the sixth inning. He is 35% rostered. Chris, I was just looking, Blackburn's actually the fourth most added starting pitcher on CBS just because his roster rate was so low. Now some people are starting to add him. Do you think this number should be higher than 35%? I don't think so just because I don't think there's a ton of strikeout potential. So you're kind of hoping that he can just be a, you know, limits hard contact specialist and puts up decent ratios.

But I, he's another guy. I think I added in, I'm pretty sure I added him in TGFBI. And I think I had him in another league this week. So yeah, I think he's interesting enough, but probably still pretty fringy for 12 teams. I was pretty discouraged. I mean, not that I had especially high hopes, but we were commenting earlier on, oh, he's getting some whiffs, his velocity's up. Velocity was back down today.

Two whiffs on 62 pitches against the Orioles. So I am, you know, maybe he turns those trends around in his next start, but the track record for Paul Blackburn suggests otherwise. Okay. So Scott, what do you think about that roster? Do you think it should be higher?

No? Okay. No. Before we get to some news and notes, I want to remind everyone, fantasy baseball today is here to help you dominate your league all season long, but now you can represent your favorite podcast with official Fantasy Baseball Today gear only found on the CBS Sports Store. Discover T-shirts, mugs, sweatpants, laser-engraved pine glasses, hats, one that I'm wearing right now if you're watching us on YouTube, water bottles, and more to remind your

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and we are going to break that down on this Saturday's episode of Fantasy Baseball Today in Five. So make sure to download and follow that podcast wherever you are listening to this podcast. Let's take a break, and when we return, News and Notes here on Fantasy Baseball today. Let's jump into News and notes. Luis Robert has been diagnosed with a minor groin strain

after Thursday's game. Tony Larissa called the injury minor, but acknowledged Robert could require a stint on the IL. sad face. A tear rolls down my cheek. He's missed a... He's had an injury pretty much every year even going back to the miners, which

yeah, that happens, but last year was somewhat serious. We'll see with this one, but, you know, something to keep an eye on. Yeah, he's been, honestly not, I was going to say awesome, and then I realized the batting average is really low. He's running a bunch. His expected numbers are great,

Luis Roberts, so... Hopefully he's all right. Bad news for Chris. He's been crushing the ball, too. Bad news for you, Chris, I'm sorry. George Springer was not in the lineup Thursday after getting hit by a pitch on his forearm on Wednesday night. Good news for Chris. Byron Buxton was back in the lineup as the designated hitter. He finished one for four with a single and more good news. Luis Arias will begin a rehab assignment with the AA affiliate for the Brewers on Saturday.

He is 78% rostered. Might be out there in some shallower leagues. Again, that is Luis Arias. Josh Bell's MRI on his knee came back clean. leaving Wednesday's game early. He was back in the lineup on Thursday. J.D. Martinez was not in the lineup Thursday with a groin injury and is unlikely to play on Friday.

Ronesi Contreras was optioned to AAA after two strong relief outings. And in an article from Alex Stumpf, manager, Derek Shelton confirmed Contreras is being sent down to be stretched out as a starter. Not really sure why they didn't just do that from the start of the season anyway. I mean, maybe they needed a bullpen

arm, but they should have been doing that, and then they could have called them up now to be a starter. I just, I don't really understand the logic, but... I believe he needs roughly 17 days in the minors to get that extra day of that year of extra eligibility, so... Got it. Could possibly be that. You could certainly stretch him out in the majors. Teams have done that before.

Yes, you certainly can do that. Scott, would you look to hold on to Ronesy Contreras if you picked him up? Yeah. If you're in the sort of league where you could have picked him up, it's probably pretty deep. You know, I'm not saying he's must stash or anything, but I do like the upside, and it sounds like there's a timetable for him getting a shot. All right, Bobby Witt, Jr. was dropped to seventh in the Royals lineup on Thursday. He had hit second or third in every other game this season. He finished one for two with a double and a walk, but was also picked off first base.

John Gray was placed back on the IL, this time with a low-grade MCL sprain in his left knee. A.J. Pollack will join the White Sox on Friday in Minnesota. Hopefully that means we won't see Lauri Garcia batting third anymore in the White Sox lineup. What happened on Thursday? I mean... I think that's two days in a row that LaGeyre Garcia has batted third. And then, like, that's got to be one of the worst number three hitters ever. Like not, because I saw somebody tweeting about this and I think they made a good point.

Like not counting like prospects who were bad, but were hitting third or like, but like established guys, like guys who have a track record. That's, that's a pretty bad number three hitter. Laura Garcia is batting 0.07 on the season. Yeah. We kind of know who he is at this point in his career. Gotta get him going, you know? I think that's, I think that's the thought there.

Don't get that one. Trevor Bowers, administrative leave has been extended. through April 29th. He is still 79% rostered. Scott, would you continue to hold Trevor Bauer, I guess, if you waited this long? I don't, I,

maybe my AL and NL only leagues, but I can't think of another league where I am not pressed for roster space. You know, every single league, there are more players I want to add than I can add.

So I am very surprised that so many 79 have managed to hold on to Trevor Bauer. I don't think I would have. I mean, obviously the rewards could be huge, but I mean, presuming he is cleared at some point, which I don't know how likely that is,

but presuming it is, how much longer do you have to hold on to him before he's actually ready to pitch? I mean, I know he probably will need to be rostered if that does come to pass, however long it takes him to pitch. But I don't know. My point is,

just that like it's it's such a huge uncertainty and you're going to miss out on potential breakouts. Maybe you already have at this point. I don't know. Yeah, that was that was my next point, Scott, is if you held on to him, you might have missed out on someone like Nestor Cortez or Andrew Heaney, who I've realized is on IL now or Kyle Wright, someone like that. And there's going to be more that we haven't really spotted yet. I didn't get a chance to talk about Mitch Keller yet, but I was kind of encouraging what he did yesterday, really emphasizing that fastball that he's worked so hard to improve this offseason. And he's available in 71% of CBS sports leagues still.

I think I'd drop Bauer for him just to see where it goes. I'm not sure anybody's going to be dying to pick up Bauer. We've got to make this point a lot. But if you drop him, I'm not sure now is the moment where somebody's going to say, yes, I need to pick him up and stash him. Mitch Keller, by the way, in that most recent start, zero walks, Scott. That's what I love to see. Yeah, well, and like he threw 77% of his pitches for strikes or something like that.

Yep, massive, massive step forward for Mitch Keller. Stephen Dugger was placed on the IL with a left oblique injury. Alex Kierloff is feeling optimistic that he can return in about a week following a cortisone shot in his wrist. It just doesn't seem like this is going to end well, unfortunately, for Kierloff. I hope he proves me wrong, but yeah, this has not been a great situation for him. Just don't know how you can be optimistic about it at this point. Like if the surgery didn't fix it, then it's, that's really frustrating.

For sure. Garrett Whitlock is likely starting Saturday against the Tampa Bay raise unless he's used in relief on Thursday or Friday. I don't think that he pitched on Thursday. I will confirm that. But yeah, if he doesn't pitch in relief on Friday, Garrett Whitlock will start on Saturday. and Chris, the next Red Sox save will go to blank. I don't know. Hansel Robles?

Yes, that's the right answer. Come on. We picked up Hansel Robles everywhere last week. And by we, I mean, I think Scott and me. Scott, did you pick him up? I picked him up in at least one league. Yes. Yeah, it's just, I don't know.

Like, we did get the report yesterday that they want Matt Barnes to be the closer, but, you know, I think he probably needs to show he can. get the job done first in a lower leverage situation at this point. Yeah. I went on a bit of a rant on Twitter yesterday when, uh, when Josh Stamont came in to pitch the eighth inning and Scott, you told, you told everyone to drop.

You told everyone to drop all the closers, Scott. It's crazy. I always love when Scott blew it makes an appearance. Yes, the pitcher Scott blew it is as a, as a way of reprimanding myself on Twitter. I post his screenshot from time to time. But yeah, I mean, like, I am so over-speculating on closers because there's the Royals thing. Like, I thought we had it.

I thought we had it figured out with that second appearance for Stalmont and Barlow and just the way they were used. It's clear Barlow wasn't used in the highest leverage situation in that second save chance for Stammon, and then everything changes the very next day. And I don't know, something came out about the way the giants deployed their hitters last year, because obviously they have a ton of platoons, and it wasn't always a strict lefty-righty thing. And apparently it had to do with the kind of pitcher they were facing in terms of the way the angle that the ball comes out. and certain hitters are better at that and they have all this crazy data that.

Yeah, what manager mentioned that? I saw a manager mention that with regards to the closers. Well, that's what I was wondering. If maybe, I mean, I don't think of the Royals as like this progressive with data organization, like they'd do the Giants, but maybe that's going into the thinking for how Mathini divvies up the saves

between Stallmont and Barlow, in which case we're never going to be able to figure it out because that's internal data. I wouldn't want to doubt Mike Mathini myself, but I feel pretty certain saying, you know, in between games, he's probably not on a computer somewhere or reading whatever. It doesn't have to be him.

Yeah, and that's true. Yeah. Most teams should, or they do, have an analytics department at this point, and that's their job. Let's get into week four, the preview here, scheduling for next week. 12 teams have 7 games. 17 teams have 6 games.

And only one lonely team has 5 games next week. That is your Oakland A's. Oh, no, you got to sit your Oakland A's. Yeah, we just talked about Tony Kemp. Now you can't even pick them up and start them. Anyway, let's talk about the two start pitchers for next week that we're looking to add and throw in our lineup. Scott, who you got?

Okay, well, let's talk about a couple of questionables who may not be. able to add, but do you want to start them? Louis Severino. It's been kind of hit or miss so far, but the matchups are the Orioles and the Royals. So I think it's very likely you'll want to get him in. Nathan Avaldi

has the bipolar matchups at Toronto at Baltimore. I still think that's probably a yes, don't you? Fromm? Yes. Fromber Valdez struggled with control the last two starts at Texas

at Toronto. So kind of a split there with the matchups as well. I'm still thinking probably yes, but I can understand hedging on that if you have a good one-start alternatives. Let me see if there's anyone else interested who's two rostered to pick up. I don't know.

Tristan McKinsey actually is more than 80% rostered on CBS at the Angels at the athletics. I think I lane yes for that second start on him too. I think so, too. Well, less so Marcus Stroman at Atlanta out Milwaukee, Eduardo Rodriguez at Minnesota at the Dodgers. Not the greatest matches for either, and we haven't really seen a good start from either yet.

And yeah, I think in points leagues it's fine because the threshold is the threshold to meet is lower in points league first for a two-star pitcher. But in Roto, I'd probably be protecting my ratios there with Stroman and Eduardo Rodriguez. Okay, now for some you can actually pick up. Merrill Kelly of the Diamondbacks right at the point where I can...

Almost, he's gotten almost two roster for me to recommend him, but he's not there yet. And his velocity was down in his last start, down back to normal, but still that change-up just looks so much better than it has in the past, and his ERA is like 050 right now. So at Milwaukee versus San Diego, I think.

actually versus Milwaukee versus San Diego. Those are, oh, I'm sorry, that's the wrong matchups. Okay, Merrill Kelly's matchups are actually the Dodgers and the Cardinals, which aren't as great.

But, I mean, we've seen him succeed against the Astros already. Yeah, I think I'd start him. Mitch Keller, who I just mentioned earlier, threw his fastball a lot more,

got a lot more strikes, got a lot more whiffs, versus Milwaukee versus San Diego. He's 29% roster. So high, available and I think highly worth starting. Miles Michaelis, off to a good start this year,

versus the Mets versus the Diamondbacks. I think at least in points leagues, that's probably an advisable start. And also in points leagues, a spark peer, Jordan Hicks, who we just saw make his first start on Thursday. And even though he lasted only three and a third innings,

understandably, because it was his first start of the year, actually just three minutes. ever. First start ever. Good point. He threw 46 pitches though. He looked great. Like he's not the kind of pitcher who's going to get a ton of wits. He's very a manual Class A-like.

Like, jiff-worthy stuff, a lot of velocity, but more about ground balls than whiffs, just weak contact. And I think hopefully in the second start and third start, because he's in line for two, he'll be more worth using. Might want to take a shot on him as a relief pitcher in a points league. All right. There was another name here. I don't know if you actually mentioned him or not,

but Hermann Marquez. I feel like he's kind of on that fringe too. He's at the Phillies and he's at home against the Cincinnati Reds. Chris, you have been the Hermann-Marquez Whisperer. Would you start him in those matchups at Philadelphia versus the Reds at home?

I think I would. Definitely in a points league. At Philadelphia is scary just because that's a lineup that could, you know, go deep three times against him and it wouldn't be too surprising. But yeah, I think I would.

All right. Scott, some single-star streamers for next week. One more note about Jordan Hicks, just in case we don't get to him later. He threw 46 pitches in his first career start. Obviously, he's a converted closer, who came up as a really, as a starter,

was converted to closer. His last fastball of the night was 100.1.6 miles per hour. He averaged 100 miles per hour with his fastball, or 99.6, I guess, with his fastball. So that's pretty impressive. And the fact that he was able to maintain that velocity, I mean, obviously not super deep into the start. But 46 pitches is much more than you usually see from a closer. That's a good sign, I think. Yeah.

Move over Hunter Green. Jordan Hicks coming to throw 100 miles per hour as a starter. All right, Scottie. Some single-start streamers for next week. Tony Gonsolin, now that their Dodgers are treating him like a conventional starter. His matchup this week is against the Diamondbacks. Gotta love that. Bailey Ober goes against the Tigers.

That's also a good matchup. He's available in more than half of CBS Sports Leagues, and he's off to a nice start for the twins. The Yankees duo of Jordan Montgomery, who also had a good start Thursday, and Jameson-Tyone. They're going up against the Orioles, who are a distant,

last in runs scored this year. Not even close. And you understand why, given the names in their lineup. So can't ask for a better matchup than those two are going to get this week. And if you need one more, Eliezer Hernandez, he's rarely healthy. But when he's healthy, he's no stranger to good starts with useful strikeout totals. And he's going against a team this week that's been striking out a lot, the Seattle Mariners. So I like

Eliezer Hernandez as a sleeper as well. All right, before we get to Scott's sleeper hitters, I'll give you the best and worst matchups. The best are the Yankees next week and then the Padres, the Astros, the Braves and the Brewers, the worst hitter matchups in week four.

The A's, the Nationals, the Pirates, the Cubs, and the Royals. All right, Scott, some names that are rostered in less than 80% of CBS League's sleeper hitters, that is. So last week I was apologizing for the list. This week it's really good.

Really good. I had to kick five guys out of my top ten for the website that I wanted to have in there. The Padres you mentioned have the second best matchup, and they also have a lot of hitters in rostered in less than 80% of leagues, right, in the perfect range for this. Jerks and ProFar off to a nice start. I think he'll keep it going with those matchups at Cincinnati and at Pittsburgh. Luke Voigt.

I know he's been out of the lineup a little bit more recently as he's gotten off to a slow start, but with those matchups, I'd be willing to gamble. This is the week he's going to turn it around. Getting back in your lineup if you've strayed from him. He's not in my top 10,

but I will mention CJ Abrams here as well because only one of the left, the pitchers on tap is a lefty, so he should be in the lineup a lot, and as I mentioned, good matchups. The Brewers, they're among the teams with the five best matchups as well

and you got Hunter Renfro I think this is the week he turns things around and Andrew McCutchen now three of the seven pitchers the Brewers are going to face this week are left-handers and Renfro and McCutcheon

McCutcheon especially both had favorable splits against lefties last year I think historically they have favorable splits against lefties but just good matchups overall I think you want them in your lineup

a couple guys who are a little more available here. Alec Bome, who seems to be working his way back into the Phillies lineup on a regular basis after defensive lapses' cost him playing time earlier. And he's hitting, he's crushing the ball. He's crushing the ball. Maybe not elevating it as much as we'd like still, but better than last year.

And the strikeout rate is way, way down for last year, more in line with what we were expecting for Bome all along. And I like the Phillies matchups this week. Also, Aaron Hicks. You mentioned the Yankees have the best matchups of any team. Frank. Aaron Hicks is off to a good start. It could provide a little speed, a little bit of power.

I get on base a lot. I think he's a good choice for this week. And then a couple more guys here who are hard to recommend most weeks because they're platoon players. But I think just one. one lefty on the schedule for each of the rays and the giants. And that would be G. Man Choy and Jack Peterson. Done a lot of damage already.

And this week, they should be in the lineup more often than usual. All right. Aaron Hicks, by the way, has led off five straight games for the Yankees. Alec Boem has started four of the last five games for the Phillies. So you're right, Scott, getting back in the lineup there. And we spoke about him yesterday. He's someone that I am encouraged by right now. Again, that is Alec Boehm.

Let's skip back over to the pitcher side of things. Chris, would you hold on to these two pitchers? Anthony Desclofani, not off to the greatest start. Five innings, five runs allowed on Thursday. He's got a 6.08 ERA, a 1.80 whip. Zach Grinky, I mean, he's been fine. He's just not giving you any strikeouts at all. He has three walks to two strikeouts through his first three starts.

He's been okay, but, you know, he's just not giving you strikeouts. Would you continue to hold on to? It's so weird. Would you hold on to Descophani and Zach Grinke? I wouldn't be actively looking to drop either. If I was going to drop one of them, Descophani would probably be the one. They should probably be Granky, right?

I shouldn't just play the results game. Like two strikeouts and three starts or four starts now, right? No, I think this was his third start. I don't know. I almost think Zach Granky's doing it intentionally because the stuff doesn't do that different. it. Yeah, no, I agree. It's weird. I don't think he's going to be averaging. He's not going to have a 5% strikeout rate all season or whatever we're talking about here. But the lack of swinging strikes also doesn't bode super well. So yeah, I think you'd probably want to drop Granky instead of Desclophani. And I would do it for like Mitch Keller, who I think has some long turn upside, although I do have plenty of questions, even though he was good today. I don't think I would necessarily be looking to do it for like a two-start

two-start streamer. Although Merrill Callie would be... Yeah, I mean, he just needs to be rostered. Yeah, he's not a two-star streamer. He should be rostered more than he is based on what we've seen. So, yeah, I would be fine dropping Granky. I would prefer not to drop Discliffe. Yeah, I think with Granky,

you want to hold them in deeper leagues just because he's such a high floor play and he'll give you solid innings, which, you know, it's fine. In a Categories League, I get it. He won't give you strikeouts, but the ERA and Whip should be okay for Granky. I still have a hunch Granky's going to be good this year, but like I'm not, if I need to pick somebody up on off waivers, I'm not going to let Grinky be the reason I don't, you know? Yeah. Quick thoughts on these two pitchers, Scott. Zach Plesack had a strong outing

versus the White Sox on Thursday, six and two thirds, two runs allowed, only three strikeouts. He'll have 13 hard hit balls, though. And Michael Panetta, solid debut against the Yankees, five shotout with only two strikeouts, anything on Pleasack or Paneda. Paneda is widely available to a 17% roster. Yeah. They'll be streamers at times this year, I think, but I just, I don't think there's enough upside for them to be any kind of priority off the waiver wire. See if someone in your league had like a Johnny Appleseeds moment and fell asleep in April of

2021 and see if you can be like, look, Zach, Pleasak, he's carrying it over just like 2020 and try to trade him to that guy. Yeah. Because yeah, I don't, I don't see very much to be optimistic about here. Um, pleaseac is still wave Ross. He's getting really, really hard. Did Johnny Apple seed fall asleep for? Ray, wasn't that the thing? I don't, I mean, I just thought he he planted a lot of apple trees. Who was the guy who slept for a long time? Look, Rip Van Winkle? That sounds right. Who slept for a long time while

Rip Van Wink. Whatever. It was while sleeping in a tree that Johnny Appleseed had his dream one summer night asleep in a big oak tree. Johnny Appleseed dreamed that he could not plant trees. They could plant trees across America from Ohio to the Pacific Ocean.

And his dream came true. Yeah. Yeah, that might be Rip Van Winkle. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Rip Van Winkle did sleep for 20 years, having missed the American Revolution.

I mean, Chris is like an encyclopedia sometimes, so I hesitate to question him, but that sounded a little off to me. No, you're right. I'm sure Johnny Appleseeds slept at some point, all right? Yeah, sure. Some hitting standouts from Thursday. I mentioned Francisco Lindor.

Maybe I didn't mention this. I think it was before we started podcasting. Anyway, he went three for five, hit his fourth home run of the season. He is batting 308 early on. Ty France had two more hits, including his third home run. He is raking early on.

he's batting over 300. Robbie Grossman, three for three with a double and a walk. Now has a modest four-game hitting streak, slowly coming around is Robbie Grossman. Signs of life for some Blue Jays hitters. Bo Bichette went two for four with his first steal of the season, and Matt Chapman went three for four with a double. He now has eight hits over his last five games.

The batting average is up to 273, and the strikeout rate is a very manageable, 26 and a half percent for Matt Chapman. If he keeps it that way, I think good things are going to come for match heaven. Zander Bogartz. It didn't make much for him to fix those numbers, did it? Yeah.

And I think that's a lesson here early on where people are asking us, what do we do with Cotel Marte? Look, three or four good games, it's so early in the season that the overall numbers can change like that on the drop of a dime, drop of a hat. If Cotele Tate hits two home runs in his next game,

his numbers aren't going to look that much different than what you'd expect. You know, like, it's just that, it's that, it's that, kind of, it's that period of the year. Yep. Scott, is it drop of a hat or drop of a dime? I feel like you were laughing at me.

Drop of a hat. Okay. There are other questions. Yeah. Involving dimes. Oh, it's both, Chris. Okay. I think it can be both.

Did I start a whole thing where we're nitpicking everything everybody says now? Yes. I'm very offended. Zander Bogartz is another example of what I just said. He went three for four with a double on Thursday. He now has 11 hits. over his last five games, the batting average is up to 3.54.

Some deep, deep waiver wire corner infielders. Somebody we haven't mentioned yet, Josh Naylor, he has three multi-hit games in the four games he's played thus far. He's 9% rostered. And Dan Vogelbach went one for four with his third home run of the season. He has six games next week, only one lefty on the schedule for the Pirates. Chris, any interest in Josh Naylor or Dan Vogelbach in those deeper mixed leagues?

Yeah, Nailer is somewhat interesting in a deep league context, but not necessarily someone I'm running out to add anywhere outside of maybe a 15 team league. So, you know, he's got good AAA numbers. His overall minor league numbers are pretty middling. But, you know, from some reports we've seen, though the Guardians are optimistic enough about him that he played a role and why they haven't, you know, made big efforts to upgrade their outside. outfield, so, you know, they'll give him a chance. I'm never going to be out on Daniel Vogelbach. I still think there's a good season in there, and he's off to a good start. I came of age in the money ball era. I have an affinity for guys who, at least in theory, should walk a lot and hit a lot of home runs. So, they're not very athletic. Oh, I was going to say, so you're a Yankees fan,

basically. No, Yankees fans hate those guys. Oh, I mean, don't even get me. started. I haven't had like my true Yankee meltdown moment yet on the podcast this year. It's coming though. It is coming because this team let me tell you. Joey Gallo that guy can take a walk because I am done with him. Call to the bullpen. Let's start with the Minnesota Twins. Taking a walk is kind of the only thing he's doing right now. Yes, you are right. He needs to take a long long walk off a short pier. That's what you meant. Yes, that. Call to the bullpen for the Minnesota twins with a one-run lead. We saw Yohan Duran pitch in the seventh inning. Joe Smith pitched in the eighth and who was it? Who got the ninth inning? It was

Emilio Pagan. He pitched the ninth picked up his first save of the season. Tyler Duffy has struggled so far this year. Scott, Emilio Pagan is 24% rostered. Are you interested in the latest on the closer carousel? No. I think this might be the messiest bullpen situation. of all, which of course means Pagan's going to have a string of like nine straight saves here. All righty. For the Oakland A's, Danny Jimenez. He's pitched very

well for them. He pitched a clean ninth with two strikeouts. He picked up his second save of the season, but that is likely due to Lutrovino being on the COVID-I-L. But remember the name Danny Jimenez in case Oakland falls out of it. They look to trade. Lutriveno. Jimenez

is the next moment. I hesitate to speculate, but Lutrovino is not some like lockdown closer. I think it's possible Danny Jimenez could just become the closer. Is he good enough to? And that's a different question.

But point is, Lutrovino is not that good. For the Pirates, David Bednar entered the seventh inning in a one-run game and the tying run was on third base. He struck out Sayas Suzuki and then pitched the eighth inning.

Chris Stratton pitched in the ninth for his first save of the season. Stratton is just 7% rostered. Chris, that makes me, that makes me want to pick up David Bednar if he's available more than Chris Stratton. Okay. Bednar,

I'm pretty sure he's widely rostered last time I checked. He probably is. His ADP was in like the 250 range. Actually, and he got their first save, but he's up to 52% rostered. He might still be out there in some least. He's the better one to have.

He's the better pitcher. And like this usage, that kind, like, I'm not saying that's how you would use a close. necessarily, but like, that's clearly the highest leverage situation. Runner on third, seventh inning, two outs, like, that. I would say in like those 15-team rodeo leagues, those Stratton needs to be rostered because it's, it's what I'm saying about how we're going to have to treat relievers.

Like, you're probably going to need three guys who are at least in a tandem. And I think Stratton, I mean, they said coming into the year, it's a tandem. And yeah, now each of them has a save. Okay, there is a lot going on in this Rangers and Mariners game, which is currently in the ninth inning. Yeah, the second rider just blew not a save, but a tie game in the top of the ninth. He's given up two runs. So that's not a great sign. Okay.

For his chances. Yeah, the Mariners tied the game in the eighth inning. And it was off of Matt Bush. but Joe Barlow came in after and I guess he got out of it. Yeah, but then Steckerrider started the top of the ninth and he gave up two runs. So now the Rangers have to lead again.

I assume that Joe Barlow will come out for the ninth inning. If we get more information before the podcast wraps up, then we will get it to you. For the Cleveland Guardians, Emmanuel Class A picked up his second save in as many days. For the Tigers, Gregory Soto entered in the eighth inning of a one-run game, bases loaded, one out, Got to score, right?

The Yankees, the Bronx Bombers, no. Anthony Rizzo and John Carlos Stanton, they both ground out. Soto also pitched in the ninth, and he picked up his third save of the season. Jordan Romano gave up a hit, a walk, and a run, but converted his seventh save. Velocity has been down a little bit for him, but he's been awesome getting all these saves so far.

Mark Melanson gave up two hits, but picked up his second save of the season. To stream or not stream? Technically, sorry, just to clarify on the ranger situation, technically. Okay, no, Bush did blow the save, sorry. Or not the save, but the hold. He gave up the run.

I saw Barlow came in and walked the first battery he faced, but it wasn't to allow a run. So, sorry. Yes, it was. I got confused as well. Suarez hit an RBI single, then Barlow came in, he walked Crawford and then struck out Tom Murphy

to get out of the jam. Streamers for the weekend. Let's start with Friday. James and Tyone versus the Cleveland Guardians, uh, Drew Smiley versus the Pirates. Michael Waka at the Rays. Bailey Ober versus the White Sox.

Reed Detmer's versus the Orioles. Bruce Zimmerman at the Angels. Brad Keller at the Mariners. And guess who's back, Scottie? 1-800 Glenn Otto. He is at the Oakland A's. He stinks. I would say Tyone and Detmer's are probably the only two

I would really consider starting here. What about? Bailey Ober. I kind of like Ober, too. Yeah. Was Eloid back in the lineup today for the White Sox? He was, but the White Sox are ice cold. They are 29th and weighted on base average against right-handed Pitchin. They're not going to have Louise Robert, most likely tomorrow. Correct. Let's go. So Tyone, Ober, and who do we say? Reed Debtbers. I agree with Reed Debtmers against the Orioles. Tim Anderson was the only player in the lineup for the White Sox today with an OPES over 6. 93.

I did see that Jose Abrae, Stackass page, looks very good right now. So if you need a by-low... Yeah, I mean, I'm not. He had three hard-hit balls today. I'm not worried about him.

And Andrew Vaughn should be in the lineup every day. He's not, but he should be. Yalsamani Grandaal, too. Throw him in that buy-low conversation.

Yeah. Saturday, we've got Alston Gomber at the Tigers, Dylan Bundy versus the White Sox, Adrian Houser at the Phillies, and Eliezer Hernandez at the Brewer. No, that's not true.

At the Braves. I wish Eliezer had a better matchup. I don't hate him as a streamer in a vacuum, but not necessarily in this matchup. I don't really like any of these. I guess Bundy, if I had to choose one. I would prefer not to. Yeah, I ultimately agree with that.

Like, his results have been good so far, but he's throwing 89 miles an hour. He's got a 20% strikeout rate. I think he's going to get bombed. All right, let's skip Saturday. What about Sunday? Chad Kuhl at the Tigers, Rich Hill at the Rays, Bryce Elder versus the Marlins,

Nick Lottolo versus the Cardinals, Justin Steele versus the Pirates, Cole Irvin versus the Rangers, and Madison Baumgarner versus the Mets. Is Josiah Gray too rostered for this exercise? I think that he is right there on the fringe. Let's check. Because he's got the Giants.

I don't necessarily love the matchup, but I like what we've seen from him so far, his slider and curveball. He kind of looks like a poor man's Shane Bieber right now. He is, Josiah Gray is 72% rostered. I usually like to keep it under 70%, but yeah, if he's available, it's not a bad one. Scott, anyone for Sunday? I mean, if you're really this desperate Bryce Elder against the Marlins might turn out.

Oh, come on. Lodolo. No, the Cardinals have been awesome against leftists. Yeah, they've been really good against lefties. You're right. You're right. I overlooked Lodolo. I'd rather start Lodolo than Elder.

I would rather start La Dola than Elder just because I would rather have Lidola than Elder. Oh, Chris, did you see, by the way, that Nolan Aeronado had three more hits on Thursday? No home runs, though. That's a win. So I didn't hear from that one dude who's going to tweet at me every time

Nolan Aronado hits a home run. I love it. All right, let's wrap there. For Scott and Chris, I and Frank, thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again on a Monday. Bye-bye.