Fantasy Baseball Today - Bobby Miller's Debut, Buy Seiya Suzuki & Pitchers Slowing Down (5/24 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Bobby Miller had an impressive debut against the Braves (2:30). ... Where should Nathan Eovaldi be ranked after another complete game (9:30)? ... Is Seiya Suzuki a buy-high candidate (16:37)? ... Is it possible to sell-high on Harrison Bader (18:42)? ... Christopher Morel homered again (22:38)! ... The Blue Jays clobbered the Rays (27:25). ... Brayan Bello or Bobby Miller (32:05)? ... Should Lane Thomas and Matt McLain be rostered in more leagues (36:40)? ... News (43:38): Jacob deGrom will throw another bullpen Friday. ... Gerrit Cole is coming back down to earth in May (48:15). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpen updates and streamers (54:20). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  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/ 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Hey there, welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Wednesday, May 24th. I am Frank Stanfield, joined by Scott White and the returning.

Chris P. Towers. Today on the show, we are going to get into Bobby Miller's pretty interesting, pretty good debut, I would say. One hitter to buy, one hitter to sell, pitchers coming back down to Earth, and much more. Before we get started, please like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. If you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. Thank you very much. Chris, you are back. How is the wedding life?

I feel like I've been the returning Chris Towers. like four different times this season already. And I've got one more trip. I apologize for how much I've been off the show. Just a lot of people getting married. You know, I thought I was past this. Now I'm in my mid-30s, but it's a wedding season again. But I'm back.

And sorry, what was the question? Just how was the wedding life? Is that a new hat? Yeah. I found it. I was in South Florida. I found it at a Marshall's. Apparently, Marlins' hats are on

clearance in Miami. So, you know, had to grab this one. Ten bucks. I love to see it. You always find the coolest stuff on clearance when you're in Florida. That's what I do, man. I go to South Florida and I just, I hit up the marshals and the Pembroke Lakes Mall and I'm just finding deals, baby.

All the local spots. Yeah, shouts to the Lids store in Pembroke Pines. Gosh, you know, I was actually over there when I met up with Scotty. We had some dinner together and I didn't know to look around or else. You gotta, ask me next time you're down there. I'll give you the details, the deets. Yeah. Speaking of local Florida teams, man, I know the heat loss,

but them and the Florida Panthers, it's a pretty, pretty interesting time there in South Florida. Anywho, let's jump in. Oh, my goodness gracious. Let's start with Scott. Who you got? All right, well, let's begin with Bobo, old Bobby Miller, young Bobby Miller, I should say, making his major league debut

against a very good lineup, the Braves lineup. He delivered some very good results. He lasted five innings, only one run loud, struck out five, walked, just one. And that's, you know, for a major league debut, especially compared to what we've seen from his teammate Gavin Stone, what we've seen from Brandon Fought, to pitching prospects who were rated similarly,

by most rank lists, this was better. This was better than what they've delivered. It was a fine, fine debut, especially given, again, the strength of his competition. Now, you dig a little deeper in the numbers, and they're more just kind of okay rather than really, really impressive. So he had 10 swinging strikes on 95 pitches.

That's okay. The average exit velocity he allowed was 93.4 miles per hour. So that's less than okay. That's some really hard contact Bobby Miller was giving up. Again, facing a lineup that generally makes really hard contact. So maybe you give him a pass for that. I think the most interesting thing Bobby Miller did here was throw his fastball just 31% of the time.

He featured both his slider and change up nearly as often as his fastball. And that's pretty good for a young pitcher, especially one who throws 100 miles per hour. He wasn't just trying to rifle in 100-mile-per-hour fastballs and thinking that would work. So that's maybe reason to be encouraged beyond just the stat line. I think of nothing else

we can say with this performance from Bobby Miller that he's probably surpassed Gavin Stone now in the Dodgers pecking order. Of course, Stone got the first chance and he was the one when Dustin May went down, okay, Gavin Stone's going to replace him. And then Julio Reyes also went down, Okay, I guess we got to pull the lid off Bobby Miller too.

But when Areas returns and it sounds like it'll be in fairly short order, I would guess Stone would be the one shipped out rather than Miller. And so if you want to take a flyer on Miller, I think there's more justification to do so now. I still don't think it's a must. I still think in most leagues there's probably at least one other pitcher who I could, I would be more interested in adding than Miller. But there is definite upside here. I hear you're saying, Scott, with the average negative velocity against some hard contact here.

Ten swinging strikes on 95 pitches, that's an okay number. But averaging 99 on the fastball and a diverse pitch mix, too. I mean, he threw five different pitches between 7 and 31% of the time, had that slider that he used 26%, change up 24%. He's 51% rostered. It looks like if he does stick in the rotation, which I'm pretty sure he will. He lines up for the nationals and the Yankees next. week as a two-star pitcher.

I don't know, I was a little bit more, I guess, impressed by what I saw here from Bobby Miller in this start, trying to figure out where he ranks among all the rookie starting pitchers. And this is just my ranking, and then Chris, I'll throw it over to you, get your thoughts. Tanner, Bibi, Bryce Miller, Yuri Perez, and Taj. Tage Bradley. I have those four still ahead of Bobby Miller after this debut. But I would put Bobby Miller ahead of Logan Allen, Matthew Libertor, Gavin Stone, and Brendan Fought. what do you think about where I've kind of sandwiched Bobby Miller in that mix?

That's perfectly reasonable. I think like Bryce Miller's a few more starts into his career. So I think it's reasonable to side with him. Although I have a lot of questions about how sustainable what Bryce Miller's doing. So I, yeah, I think right in the middle of that range makes a lot of sense for Bobby Miller. And someone who should be added, I think in pretty much all leagues, if he hasn't been, he's what, 41% rostered, something like that. Bobby Miller?

He's up to 51%. Yeah. So should be near universal just because let's see what happens. Anytime you see a pitcher with, you know, a 99 mile per hour average fastball velocity, it's just like, we'll just add him and see what happens, especially one with, you know, good secondaries like he showed. It wasn't like an overwhelmingly dominant start, you know, given the quality of the stuff and the fact that it's the first time hitters are seeing him. You would hope for more whiffs than this, but I think that's a little nitpicky. So I'm pretty impressed by what we saw. Scott, the two names that I keep bringing up the past couple days,

whenever we bring up WaverWire pitchers, are James Paxton and Michael Kopeck. I think I would take Paxton ahead of Bobby Miller. I don't think I would take Kopeck, though. Yeah, I mean, so when we're putting actual names to this, I mean, I didn't mean to sound like discouraged by Hiller's debut here. that wasn't necessarily the tone I was going for. I agree with that assessment. Paxton was actually who I was thinking of

when I said there might still be a pitcher. I like more than Bobby Miller on the waiver wire. I would take Paxton over Miller. I would take Miller over Kopec just like you. And I think the four rookies that you rank Miller ahead of, I'm right with you. The four that you put him behind, I might put those in a slightly different order.

But the point is Miller's right in the middle of those nine rookie people. pitchers. All right. I don't think there's any question. I'd take Bobby Miller for Michael Copac. I don't know. Maybe you guys are more optimistic about him.

I know, we all said the same thing. No, no, no. I don't know what you guys said about Michael Copac coming off his last start. I know it was very good,

but I, that one's not even close for me. It wasn't even, it wasn't just very good, Chris. I mean, it was, that was an amazing stuff.

It was a really, really good start. We'll go with two reallyes to describe his most reason start. I don't think Michael Cupbeck's good at all. You might be right. Yeah, I mean, we'll see how he follows up after that, but obviously someone who had some pedigree himself, and, you know, I don't want to ignore an amazing star like that. Another name I had written down here was Graham Ashcraft. Another bad start. I just want to get this out of the way. We're okay dropping him for like any of these names that we're talking about, right?

If you hadn't done it already, then drop him for JP France. Oh, wow. All right, Chris is completely out. I mean, I guess it's fine. Like, that's not actually to say I think J.P. France is better than Graham Ashcraft. It's to say, drop him for the next interesting looking pitcher who's available at this point. Ashcraft is up to a 5.57 ERA and a 1.48 whip on the season. Still 63% roster.

I think some people might have held on for the two star week. And if you did so, A, I'm sorry. And B, you could drop Graham Ashcraft. Chris, oh my goodness gracious for you. Yeah. I'm going with Nathan Avaldi who was that his second or third complete game? Second. It's been absolutely incredible.

And not a lot of whiffs in this one, which I think is a little disappointing given or not a lot of strikeouts given what we've seen lately. But you can't exactly argue with a complete game one run outing. He is still throwing his splitter more often. that's been a big key for him, 31% usage. It was basically tied with his fastball for his most used pitch. It's been a very, very good pitch for him. He's generating a lot of weak contact with it.

He is generating a 36% swing and miss rate. You know, the thing with Avaldi, God, I mean, going back a decade at this point, has always been, he's one of those guys that looks like he should be a lot better than he is. And he's been pretty good at times, but especially when it comes to the strikeout, the stuff always looks better than the results. And maybe the splitter is helping the results catch up to the stuff. Last season, he had a 39% whiff rate with it, throwing it 20% of the time. This season, he's up to about 30% of the time and still getting a bunch of wifts with it,

you know, very healthy 36% whiff rate. So I don't want to say for sure that this is real from Nathan Avaldi and certainly the, you know, 110 ERA over the course of the month of May. and even better than that, including the last start of April. Certainly not going to sustain that, but feel very confident Nathan Avaldi being a good pitcher moving forward. Yeah, I'd agree with that too. He's gone eight plus innings in four of his last five starts,

a 2.60 ERA.97 whip right around a strike helper ending so far and immaculate controls so far this season for Nathan Avaldi as well. Two years removed from finishing top four in Syung Award voting. It's not crazy that we've seen really, really good production from Nathan Evaldi in the past as well. Can he stay healthy? I think that's a different conversation. Scott, I see that you updated your rankings

two hours ago when we're recording this. You have Nathan Avaldi up at SP38. Did you make that ranking change while he was pitching after? Did you see this performance before you updated these ranks? I was unaware of today's performance. Okay. And I moved him up to 30.

So, yeah, it's an interesting case, right? Because, okay, you say he's pitched well before. He was fourth in Cy Young voting in 2021. That was, yeah, that was shocking. Because he had a 375 ERA that year. And his career best ERA is 372, which was in 2020. So he's been at his best a high 3SERA guy, and now here he is sitting with a 260 ERA.

And by the way, I mean, most of the ERA estimators back it up, he entered today with a 289 XERA, a 246 FIP, 324XFIP. Chris mentioned the splitter use. He's also thrown his cutter a lot more this year. So he has a lot of hard pitches, and he may have just found the right pitch mix to optimize his entire arsenal here at age 33. And that's the other thing.

Like this is a guy at the tail end of his career and we're asking him to do things he's never done before. It would be a very Lance Lynn like breakout. So like it's not unprecedented. It was the same sort of thing. Lance Lynn has a few pitches, all of them hard. But, you know, just finding the right mix of them helped to bring out this potential he didn't show before.

He went from being a pretty good pitcher to a great pitcher for a few years there. and so we're asking Nathan Avaldi to do the same. It's possible. He also has a pretty extensive injury history. So how much do we factor that in when we're just thinking, okay, maybe is this a cell high candidate? Like, I'm not going to call him a cell high candidate in the same way I called, you know, Graham Ashcraft to sell high candidate a few weeks ago or Anthony Deslafani, Bryce. Bryce Elder sell high candidates a couple weeks ago. Because I do think, like, if you stick with Avaldi, you know, I think there's a reasonable chance he could be really good for you.

But he's probably not an ace in the long run. So if you can get an ace return for him in a pitching starved environment, I'd consider it. It's how I feel kind of about Bryce Miller, where, like, I believe in the skill set to a certain extent. I just, I don't think it's a superstar skill set. I think it's a good skill set. The underlying numbers kind of say that Nathan Avaldi is pitching like a, I guess a superstar pitcher. I mostly agree with everything that you said, Scott.

If I'm looking to flip him, it has to be, you know, entering Tuesday. He was the SP 10 and head to head points and SP 13 and Roto. So you need to get like top 15, top 20 SP return for to trade Nathan Avaldi right now. And if not, I'm just holding on and seeing how long this. And I haven't updated the rankings yet, but I think I'm going to get him closer to like the top 30 in that Logan Webb, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby. I'm going to move Chris Sale up a little bit. So I think he's going to be in like the back half of that range. And that feels right, just based on how how well Nathan Avaldi has pitched this season. Would you give up Nathan Avaldi for Luis Severino?

I, they're kind of similar. Right with the injury history? Would you give him up for Tyler Glass now who's coming back? I don't think I would. I don't think so. I don't think so. I I think I just hold Avaldi over both of those guys. But I think they're all going to be ranked in the same range, like that 25 to 30 SP. Right. I have them just behind them now. And I think I'm with you, Frank, that I'm going to move him up with this latest start. I'm doing the same thing. Right ahead of them to, you know, to the very early 30s in my starting pitcher rankings.

And for those watching on YouTube, I'm wearing a Texas Rangers hat, but I can assure you, I'm not some kind of Texas Rangers homer. I just really like what I've seen from Nathan Avaldi. So now I just want to ask you, like, Nathan Avaldi or the mayor. Mariner's duo, Kirby and Gilbert. I think it's kind of a wash, right? Like, why would you make that move? They all seem just really good, you know?

I mean, I'm going to rank the Mariners duo ahead of them. I think so, too. If you're holding my feet to the fire, then I guess I would trade a vault. I am. I am holding your feet to the fire. That's not my idea of a sell high trade with the Valdi. Yeah. I guess a sell high would be like if you could turn him into Arindola, something like that.

Or Sandy Alcantor. cease. We'll talk about cease in a little bit. Time to update those rankings then. I think it would have to be cease and another piece if I'm trading away Nathan Evaldi right now. Speaking of trading, I wanted to bring up a potential buy high hitter. And it's Sayas Suzuki.

It's not anything that he did in this game that made me say, oh my goodness gracious. But what he's done recently, over his last 11 games, he is betting 350 with five homers, a steel, and a 94 mile per hour average. velocity. Obviously it's a little fun with small sample sizes so far. But if you look at just the season long numbers, he started the season a little bit later because he was dealing with an injury, but the walks are up. The strikeouts are, they're up a tad. They're close to the same as they were last year. A lot more line drives. The hard contact is up. And I really like the way that Seia Suzuki ended last season. And Chris, I know before the injury, you and I were both excited about

Sayas Suzuki this year. I think I had him ranked as a top 30 outfielder before he got hurt. And the way that he's playing right now, the way that that Cubs lineup, frankly, is playing so far this season, I would be looking to buy high on say, Suzuki. I can make an argument that, you know, when I do my outfield ranks tomorrow, I think I'm going to get him close to,

if not inside of my top 30 or maybe even top 25 outfielers right now. Yeah, he was already top 30 for me. It's more a question of, I'll move him ahead of Anthony Santander, Chris Bryant, Christian Yalich, I think I can move him ahead of. then I've got like Byron Buxton, Corbyn Carroll, Taoscar Hernandez, Starling Marte, right around 20. And it's like, that's tougher to do.

I really like Suzuki. I think he's got a decent ceiling, but certainly don't think he has a higher ceiling than any of those four. So yeah, I think, I think the highest I can move him is right around 25. Yeah, no, I think that makes sense too. And it's funny you bring up that group of outfielders. Scott and I were just talking about that same exact group last night. and how they're pretty hard to rank right now, right?

It's Kyle Schwaburber and Starling Marte, and these are guys that have proven track records, but they're off to slow starts. So it's, you know, I don't really want to be too aggressive in moving them down yet. But, yeah, I think I'm going to move Sey Suzuki inside my top 30 outfielders, and he's someone that I would be looking to buy high on right now. I think someone you might want to sell high on, Scott.

I know it feels like none of us are actually believers in this player, but he's off to a great start. It's Harrison Bader, who went two for four with his fifth home run in just 20 games so far. Since returning from the IL, he's batting 290. He also has three steals. He has an 880 OPS, a career best 10% strikeout rate. He's putting the ball in the air a ton so far this season.

55% fly ball rate. His career mark is 41%, so we're up like 14 percentage points compared to his career. And the problem here is that the quality of contact is still really, really poor. I mean, 83.4 mile per hour, average exit velocity, 22% hard hit rate. I think it's,

obviously, it's nice what he's done so far, but I don't think it's sustainable. What do you think, Scott? Yeah, I would agree with that. I mean, if, obviously he's a light hitter in terms of he doesn't make especially hard contact.

He is doing the things that a light hitter can do to overcome that and still provide power by elevating and pulling the ball as much as he is. And, you know, It's something that started for him. Well, I haven't actually looked at what the poll rates and the fly ball rates are. But since joining the Yankees last year, we've seen this uptick in power from Bader, of course, famously, most famously in the playoffs last year. So, you know, maybe there is something to it.

But I'd be more inclined to say he's not going to sustain this pace. The problem with calling him a cell high is I think it'd have to be a pretty deep level. league for you to pull it off. This is the point I brought up yesterday with guys like Jaron Duran and like, I don't know, Taylor Walls. Like it's easy to say,

okay, they're not going to sustain these numbers, but their roster rate, like beta right now is at 76%. Like he's still he's, he's, not everybody's come around to the idea of even rostering him. So how are you going to trade him? Right. You know, and I think Christopher Morel just got

over that hurdle. He barely's gotten to a point where he's not, he's gone from, okay, must add to sell high, question mark. And generally people aren't inclined to trade for players that they could have just picked up yesterday. So I think it's a hard case to, to make that you're actually going to get that great of a return for Harrison Bader. Doesn't hurt to try, though. I'm going to, I'm going to steal a Scott White bit. He can't keep getting it. He can't keep getting away with it. That's how I feel about Harrison Bader. I, I don't know, maybe playing a Yankee Stadium and the swing changes he's made can

sustain themselves, but I don't know. I think if he keeps swinging like this, he's probably more like a 230 hitter than a 290 hitter. And I don't think he's going to hit for enough power to make it worth having a 230 hitter. He gives me strong Cabin Bigio vibes, but I've been wrong many times before. I did read an article earlier in the season that he's using a new bat this season. It's like one of those axe handle bats that.

Oh, yeah. Apparently. I do like that. That worked like the first handle bat. Apparently. My softball teammates uses, has one. I like it. Oh, no, I tried.

I didn't like it, man. I don't. It was kind of weird. Maybe I got to give it another chance. But yeah, in the article, it said that Harrison Bader picked this bat up from Pete Alonzo, because they went to college together, University of Florida. And yeah, I don't know. this is the completely the reason for the power breakout,

but it could be something. It's clearly a change. Scott, you mentioned... I went down that rabbit hole with Brendan Donovan earlier this year. Need I remind you? It's gone well. Yeah. It hasn't gone well.

No, it has been. I don't know if you detect the sarcasm. It has not. You mentioned the name Christopher Morel. I think it's just... I think we should mention. I mean, he's done it again. It's now nine home runs in 12 games so far.

And, you know, we were begging you. to pick him up. And obviously the roster rate is up now. And, you know, if you lost Jazz Chisholm, we kind of pumped him up as like the perfect replacement. And look, he's not going to hit whatever 80 home runs this year. But he is impacting the ball really hard. And when he connects, it's going a long way right now. So yeah. So like he has graduated from the point where we're, we're just like, Adam, Adam, Adam, to now should you trade him? Should you capitalize on this unsustainable pace by cashing in or cashing out? they both sort of mean the same thing, cash in cash out.

On it, by swinging a deal, and I actually wrote 1,400 words on the subject yesterday, so you can go read all about that. It's a really interesting case, because, of course, we've talked about how Christopher Morel, in addition to hitting all these home runs, he's striking out a crap load, as he has throughout his career last year in the majors,

even in the minors when he was crushing it, he was striking out more than 30% of the time. But the strikeout rate he has right now only one player who had minimum 300 plate appearances last year. Only one player had a strikeout rate as high as Morel's right now. It was Joey Gallo who hit 160. The list of players who are productive with the strikeout rate, even over 30, which it would take a lot of improvement from Morel to get that point,

is very short. The way he impacts the ball, it's possible he could overcome that and settle in as maybe like a 260 hitter. And if he does that, the power of speed is enough to make him a genuine standout. And fantasy is a 260 hitter, you know, maybe like a, I don't know, like a Byron Buxton type, something like that. Okay, so I'll sum it up this way. The way I view Christopher Morel right now is he's a lottery ticket who five of the numbers have already come up. So that sixth number, you know, we're waiting to see if that comes up.

comes up and he's the real deal, the odds are still against it happening. Yeah. But at this point, it might be worth it just to see how it plays out, knowing the odds are against it, but you have a really nice prize if the numbers do turn up. I've made the Javier bias comp a few times since Morel got called up. And it's actually, if you look at the spray charts, it's very Javier bias-esque. It's home runs a lot to the power alleys. It's not just like pulled balls.

He's crushing them to deep parts of the field. And it's not 2018 MVP candidate, Javier Baez. It's not going to be that kind of player. But, you know, you look at Javier Baez and like, he struck out 33% of the time in 2021. He hit 31 homers, stole 18 bases, hit 265. I'm not saying he's going to do that. That would be asking a lot. But that kind of outcome is, I think, within the realm of possibility.

you know, maybe it's more like a 240 hitter. Maybe it's more like 25 homers or 25 homer pace the rest of the way. You might get to 25 homers at this pace just without being a good power hitter the way he's playing. But, you know, that kind of performer, a very, very good shortstop slash second baseman slash outfielder. Because he's eligible at all of those, right? Just second in outfield, I believe. Just second in outfield. Okay. I'm updating my rankings now as we're talking.

and I'm moving him ahead of Cody Bellinger. I'm moving him ahead of Yoshita Verdugo Nemo just because those guys are all boring high floor guys. Yoshita's been really good. You're moving Morella up higher than I am. Okay.

I mean, he's in the top 36 for me right now. I'm going to get him inside of the top 36 as well. But maybe I just have Yoshita around like 25. So I've moved him up like a bunch. Yeah, he's not that high for me. I think getting more all inside the top 40 outfielders at least. All right, let's take our first break. And when we return, I've got a crazy game from the Blue Jays.

They put up 20 runs in that one. I've got some waiver wire pitchers. We'll do all of that right after this. Quick reminder to sign up for our fantasy baseball today newsletter. Dan Schneier does a great job with it. You can head over to CBSports.com slash newsletters, punch in your email address and press sign up. It's easy as that.

free and you get the latest news and articles delivered right to your inbox. If you're watching live on YouTube, you can scan the QR code. That will also take you to the website where you can sign up again for the FBT newsletter. The Blue Jays put up 20 runs on 27 hits on Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays. They did do some damage against some position players who were pitching in that one. George Springer went four for five with a triple and his seventh home run. He is coming around over the past two weeks or so. Vlad Jr. went three for six with his eighth home run. He added six RBI.

Matt Chapman, two for five with his seventh homer, 114 miles per hour off the bat, added three RBI as well. Danny Jansen went three for six with his sixth home run. And while we're on Jansson, no all A hundred Kirk in this game, Kirk has now sat out six of the last 11 games for the Blue Jays. He's batting 234, which is two home runs. And Scott, I know we spoke about him recently. we said that we drop them for Francisco Alvarez.

I still kind of have my reservations because I don't trust the Mets to do the right thing. But yeah, if you play in a one-catcher league, this is getting pretty ugly for Alejandro Kirk. Yeah, I don't think there's any reason to have in a one-catcher league at this point, unless it's like a 16-team, one-catcher league. Yeah, something like that.

Who pitched in this slug fest? Jose Brios was great, again, at Tampa Bay. Seven innings, one-run, five strikeouts, only had six swinging strikes, but did a great job limiting the hard contact. And over his last eight starts, Berrios has a 2.88 ERA and a 1.10 whip right around a strikeout per inning,

keeping the walks and the hard contact down. It's been a key for Jose Burrios this year. Taz Bradley on the other side, kind of a mixed outing here. Only goes four innings. He allows nine hits, four earned runs. Obviously, that line so far is bad. Seven strikeouts to zero walks,

again, and only four innings pitched, 14 swinging strikes on 80 pitches, and the cutter was up 1.2 miles per hour in this start. The ERA is up to 4.44, but the underlying numbers still look really, really good. Chris, anything you'd like to add here on Berrios, who's been pitching very well, and kind of a mixed bag performance from Todge Bradley.

You are muted, sir. I have less to say about Burrios, just because he's just kind of bewildering in a lot of respects. and just like there doesn't seem to be like a super obvious explanation for why he was so horrible last season, there doesn't really seem to be a super obvious explanation for why he's been so good lately.

So I'm not 100% sure what to make of that. Bradley, you know, we talked about the rookie pitchers earlier, and I think like you put him in that Bobby Miller range, and I certainly wouldn't drop Bradley for Bobby Miller, but it's hard for me to say, say with any degree of confidence whether I'd rather, that I would rather have Bradley than Miller right now just because those first three starts were so good when he first got called up, then he gets sent down and everything just becomes a mess. And it's been a little messy

since he's gotten recalled. And now we've got, you know, Tyler Glass now potentially coming back as potentially as soon as this weekend. And so is Tage Bradley going to stay in the rotation? They've had a lot of injuries, and Tyler Glass now certainly has a history of injuries of his own, but it wouldn't surprise me if Bradley got sent down. So I want to hang on to Todge Bradley. I certainly don't want to drop him, but my degree of confidence in him has certainly been shaken. They did say, Kevin Cash, the manager did say, after this last Bradley call up. Well, I don't remember exactly what he said, but he gave the impression it was for the long haul this time.

like they wanted him to settle in. And they also sent down Yanni Chorinos that same day. Chorinos was one of the pitchers who was, when they sent Bradley down the first time, was getting a turn in his place. So I think they'll keep him up with Glass now coming back. Obviously can't guarantee it. But I share some of your concerns in terms of I have less confidence in Bradley now than I when he got sent down in the first place.

Looking at the Ray's roster resource page on Fangraphs, they have Tyler Glassdown, slot it in for his spot in the rotation, but that also still includes Bradley, Josh Fleming, Zach Eflin, and Shane McClanhan. So I think Todge is going to stick around. You can never know for sure with Tampa Bay,

but just given all the injuries that they have, I think he's probably going to remain in the Ray's rotation. A few Waverwire pitchers to talk about from Tuesday, Brian Beow, another strong start at the Angel, seven innings, two runs, six strikeouts to zero walks. He had 12 swinging strikes on 98 pitches, and over his last five starts, a 257 ERA and a 125 whip. Griffin Canning was on the other side there.

He got back on track, seven shutout innings with five strikeouts. Marco Gonzalez turned in a quality start against the Oakland A's, six innings, two runs, four strikeouts, and J.P. France, who Chris would drop Graham Ashcraft for, at a solid start at the Brewers 5 and 2 thirds, 2 runs 1 earned, 8 strikeouts to 1 walk

Scott, what do you think about this group here? Bayo, Canning, Marco Gonzalez, and J.P. France. I think the only one that's really interesting is Bayo. Agreed. I mean, you mentioned the numbers and his last 5 starts,

the 257 ERA. He does like two of the best things, a pitcher can do. His swinging strike rate entering this start was 12.2%. And that's about what it was in this start, too. So I guess it's still there.

His ground ball rate 61.9% entering this start. That's like Framber Valdez levels. So an elite ground ball pitcher who also misses bats at a pretty good rate, I mean, that kind of sounds like Framber Valdez, doesn't it? We don't see that combination very often?

and Bayo does have some issues throwing strikes. That's why the whip is so high. During that five-star stretch, I believe he had a start where he walked five. His strike percentage on the year is only 63, which is below average. So that is something that's holding Bayo back. But he's a young pitcher who appears to be trending the right direction, and there's a lot to like about him. We were talking up Tanner Halk yesterday after he had a good start.

And I do, I don't know, it's a close call between the two. Huck doesn't have the extreme groundball rate, Bayo does, but he's a pretty ground, but good groundball pitcher himself and has been an even better bat misser than Bayo. Say that five times fast. I think I have a slight preference for Halk, but they're both rostered in less than 50% of CBS Sports Leagues,

and I could see that changing in short order. We should probably mention, France here because he did have a good start and he's really only had one bad start since getting called up. It was an awful start his last time out. I don't see a lot to get excited about. You know, he he doesn't get a lot of swinging strikes and doesn't get a lot of ground balls. It's just the opposite of Bayo. He's gotten burned by home runs. And I just, I don't see enough upside here to justify the downside with JP France. Chris, who would you rather have, Brian Beio, who's 43% rostered or Bobby Miller, who's 51% rastered? Or Bobby Miller, who's 51%

percent. I think I'd rather have Bobby Miller. I guess there's less certainty about the role long term. You know, Bayo, the, the Red Sox did just move Nick Povetta back into the bullpen, which, you know, say what you want about Nick Povetta, but he was adamant that he didn't want to be pitching out of the bullpen. So they're, they're accepting some friction from that, in that regard in order to make that move. So, you know, there's that that's at least somewhat of a commitment to How can Beyo. So I think you can make that case. I just think Miller's probably the more talented pitcher.

I think it's close. I really like Brian Beow. And he had some prospect pedigree too last year. And he got called up. And he throws hard and he's got a change up in a slider and worked out with Pedro Martinez in the offseason and stuff. So I don't know. It's clear.

I'll put it this way. If you're deciding between Miller and Beahoe on the waiver wire, all the buzz is with Miller right now. Yeah. I was looking at most viewed pitchers, starting pitchers. I was isolating just the pitchers, not most viewed players. Bayo didn't even appear. He wasn't on the two columns that show on the roster trends page.

Nobody's looking at Bayo right now. They're sleeping. Yeah, well, sure, he's a genuine sleeper right now. But you can take advantage of everybody sleeping if you're having to figure out how to make use of very few roster spots and go Miller instead. Stakes are lower. Yep.

And passing on Bayo. That is fair. Let's talk about a few waiver wire hitters here. Two outfielders that stood out to me. Michael Conforto stays hot. He went two for five with his 10th home run, two runs, and two RBI. And now in the month of May, he's only batting 235, but that comes with six homers and an 858 OPS. He's got the strikeouts down in April.

It was 33% strikeout rate. It's now right around 20% in the month of May. Again, that's Michael Conforto. Lane Thomas, who we've talked about a lot recently. He went two for four with his seventh home run, and it just feels like he should be rostered in more than 50% of leagues. Scott, what do you think? Lane Thomas versus Conforto, if you're looking for an outfielder.

It's probably a shallow league. Yeah, I mean, Comforto has more upside, I would say, and he's been showing it recently with this nice home run binge she's been on. Obviously, missed a lot of time with injury prior to this year, so you could understand him being slow to come around. I think Lane Thomas, this utility is pretty limited outside of five outfielder leagues, and five outfielder leagues probably covers the 50% that he's rostered in.

Let's see, average points per game. If we're thinking like a points league context, 2.78, that's pretty good. It's not must roster territory, but it puts them in the same range as... And worth pointing out, I think we probably... all agree he's probably playing a little over his head at this point. Lane Thomas, yeah. Yeah, like averaging 278, 278 points per game while playing probably better than he likely will moving forward.

Yeah, I mean, the fact he's hitting almost 300. And that's 250, XBA. But there, there is a, there is a power speed combo there that he hasn't sustained for long stretch. He's had these little burst the last two seasons that make you wonder if there's more. So I'm not sure we've seen Lane Thomas have his career year yet, and maybe this is it. But the point is it's a low ceiling player. So I don't think you're missing out on much if you just don't have room for him. All right.

Matt McLean went one for three with a walk and hit his first career home run. He is just 51% rostered. Chris, do you think that number should be higher? Because, you know, if Matt McLean comes anywhere close to the upside that he showed in the minor, then he should be a contributor regardless of format, head to headpoints and in any type of roto or categories league. And the thing he has going for him in both formats is, I believe, seven straight games batting second for the Reds. I don't know if he's batted second at every game, but he's been up there. And that's a big deal.

You know, that means an extra plate appearance per game, you know, over batting at the bottom in the lineup more or less. So I do think that's, yeah, was he at 51% roster? That should definitely be higher. I think he's worth rostering in pretty much any format, less so, you know, certainly not a must roster player in points leagues, but I think he's, you know, worth having a round for sure. Worth pointing out that he has a 41% strikeout rate in seven games, small sample size. But, you know, 13 strikeouts and 32 plate appearances.

Obviously, that's very high. But again, pretty massive upside there for Matt McLean. Scott, in one catcher leagues, let's say we're looking to drop Alejandro Kirk. You're just done with him. Who would you rather have? Alias Diaz or Gabriel Moreno, who both had good games on Tuesday. We'll point out, Alias Diaz was one of my sleeper hitters for this week. It's not often I include a catcher on that list.

But I did this week, and it's going well. I'm going to say Elias Diaz. Moreno in spite of his home run today has just been completely punchless and you know I don't know how long this is going to last for Alias Diaz but the point is if unless you have a stud in a one catcher league like you can

you can swap out those guys at will until their next road trip I would say is roughly as long as it will last sure in deeper leagues. I see someone here got to my notes and they wrote Mickey Mehniak. Wow. According to Scott does it again when one for three with his fourth home run and the guy's on fire. They sat down Taylor Ward once again to get Moniac in the lineup and Owen Miller is the other name. He went three for four with a sock and a shoe his third homer, his fifth

steel and he's batting 347 with an 893 OPS. The quality of contact looks very poor so I'm not really sure how Owen Miller is pulling this off, but Chris, any thoughts here? Maybe you like meh-niac a little bit more than Scott? I wouldn't say that, but he's, I don't know, you hit four home runs in 10 games and you're a former number one overall pick and you're hitting the ball hard. Like, it's not, not to say there's nothing interesting about him. And we have a couple of these every year, Taylor Ward last year, being one of them, Brandon Drury, last last year, there are probably other ones who don't currently play for the Los Angeles Angels that I could point to. But the point is that guys come out of relatively nowhere to have productive seasons with some regularity.

And that could be what we're seeing with Mickey Moniac. It's not, I don't, I don't think it's likely, certainly less likely than Christopher Morel. But I don't want to write it off entirely. He has had good numbers in the minors the last two years. missed a lot of time with injury, so we're talking small samples in each case. But 308 with a 939 OPS this year, 312 with a 962 OPS last year.

So there may be some legitimacy to it. His plate discipline is awful. Even in the minors, it's been awful. And the fact he's a left-handed hitter, I think the odds are against him emerging as a full-timer, especially since, you know, Taylor Ward is still in the mix. I know Moniac's been playing more than him lately. But that's just lefty yet.

That may just be a hot hand thing. I would be surprised if Moniac cleared the mixed league hurdle. Certainly the three outfield or hurdle, I'd be stunned if he cleared the three outfield league hurdle. I think he remains just kind of an interesting low-end target. All right. Let's take our final break. And when we return, going to run through some news.

I've got pitchers who are slowing down. and much more here on fantasy baseball today. Welcome back and big shout out to the 537 people watching us live right now. Hit that like button if you haven't already and make sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven't done that as well. Some news and notes, Jacob DeGrom threw a 32-pidge bullpen session Monday that apparently went really well. DeGrom is scheduled to throw another bullpen this Friday. Maddie Machado took swings off a T Tuesday. Manager Bob Melvin said he's not sure when Machado will be ready to come.

off the IL. Carlos Correa was scratched from the lineup with a bruised left heel. Carlos Rodon said his back discomfort is gone and that he's hoping to throw off a mound soon. Remains without a timetable, but some good news in a season where we haven't had much from Carl Sorda.

Matthew Liberator was available out of the bullpen again on Tuesday. I didn't see if he actually pitched. I hope not. Scott, what's going on here? And what's going on here is they have six pitchers for five spots. and Liberator earned a spot.

Well, they think they do. Liberator earned a spot on the roster with his first startup for the miners where he was, of course, pitching well. So they're not really sure how to make all the pieces fit. And they just keep making Liberator available in the bullpen. And that's part of the reason why Bobby Miller's at least more attractive than him.

And Matthew Liberator did not pitch on Tuesday night, but yeah, it looks like they're trying to fight any reason not to start Liberator right now. And I have like a mini rant about it yesterday. I'm not going to get back into it. I just exempting Adam Wainwright, who is a legend who will get as many opportunities as he wants for that team for as long as he wants.

They've probably got three guys in the rotation. They could very easily remove for Matthew Liberator if they really want it to. The fact that they don't is somewhat frustrating. I mean, Jordan Montgomery has, look, he's rock solid. He's a high floor pitcher, but. I mean, any of like Jack Flaherty, I get it. You're still trying to squeeze something out of him.

Like, like Flaherty, I think you leave him. He's shown enough upside. Montgomery, okay, he's been pretty good since getting there. The numbers this season, pretty bad. Stephen Matt's got to go. Like, Stephen Matt just his last two starts have been bad. I guess they gave Stephen Matt's a decent amount of money, but like, and even mouse.

Matt's can go. Matt's can go. Yeah, like it kind of feels like the management is they don't want to like own up to the mistake they made by signing mats. An unsurious organization right now, the St. Louis Cardinals. That is my opinion. They will figure it out. They are a professional ball club with a good track record. They've earned the benefit of it out. The last month or so has been a clown show in St. Louis. They have turned it around for whatever it's worth, Chris. I'm not talking about the results on the field. We're talking process here.

Yes. That I think we could all agree with. Ty France was removed after getting hit by a pitch on his wrist. Brandon Lau was scratched from the lineup due to a stiff neck. Kent Maida threw another bullpen session Tuesday and is closing in on a rehab assignment. And when he returns, the twins will either have to go with a six-man rotation or one of Bailey Ober or Louis Varland

will likely get the boot, unfortunately. Dustin May was transferred to the 60-day IL which ensures he'll be out through the All-Star break. Kyle Muller was optioned to AAA and Trevor May was activated from the IL. Mickey Moniac, which we mentioned earlier, started again on Tuesday as Taylor Ward remained on the bench. T.J. Friedel was activated by the Reds

and was leading off on Tuesday, which meant Jonathan India was batting third in the lineup. So perhaps more RBI opportunities for India moving forward, if they stick with that alignment, maybe a few less deals if he's hitting in the middle of the lineup. Kodi Senga had his start moved from Tuesday to Wednesday to prevent him from pitching on normal rules. rest at Coors Field this weekend.

Domingo Hermann is slated to rejoin the Yankees rotation on Monday in Seattle, which will likely make him a two-star pitcher. Jake Berger took grounders at second base, and it's possible he plays there once Eloy Jimenez returns. The other piece of the puzzle, however, is that Elvis Andrews will start a rehab assignment next week, so I don't know. Yeah. I don't know that he needs to play, but maybe.

No. The other other piece to that puzzle is Jake Berger did have a. Golden sombrero tonight. Ooh. I got five strikeouts. That's worse than the golden sombrero. Platinum. Oh, we got platinum sombrer.

Sorry. Platinum. My gosh. Matt Mervis was dropped to ninth in the lineup and responded by going two for three with a walk and hit his second home run. Trevor Larnick was placed on the IL while he recovers from pneumonia. And Denelson Lamett could potentially join the Rocky starting rotation later this week. Pitchers who are coming back down to Earth in the month of May.

Scott, we had this conversation about Corbyn's, yesterday. I think it's only fair to have a similar one about Garik Cole, who was going up against the Orioles. He went five innings, he allowed five runs. He had more walks than strikeouts. Three walks to two strikeouts, ten hard hits allowed in this game. Garikol did not allow a home run in the first seven starts this season. He has now allowed six homers over his last four starts. You dig a little bit deeper, Scott, and

a lot of the numbers look a lot, like very similar to Corbyn Burns, except Garik Cole, perhaps. has gotten a little bit lucky, while Corbyn Burns has gotten unlucky. What do you think? Well, yeah, I mean, especially with the home runs there. A guy allowed 33 last year, and then he had four up until today's game where he allowed to. And that's even with, as I pointed out yesterday, we're kind of forecast at this start for Garrett Cole yesterday. Reacting to Burns, Garrett Cole's K-per-9 rate is down about two.

Swinging strike rate is down more than that, more percentage points than two, like three or four. very similar to Corbyn Burns in those same two areas. And also, like we talked about yesterday, you pointing out, Frank, the elite class of starting pitchers as a whole has seemed less dominant this year. There was, you know, one of the points I kept driving home preseason and why I was fading pitching is because it seemed like there was a robust middle class returning

as the as the juice ball went away and the overall environment became more favorable to pitchers. Pitching is still driven by the middle class now but for a different reason than I thought it's just that there's no upper class anymore or at least not a well-defined one,

not a very deep one. And you know, the middle class may not go as far into the position as I thought but the position is still mostly defined by its middle class because there are a few standouts. All right, a few other pitchers here that are coming back down to Earth a little bit. Eduardo Rodriguez has allowed four runs in each of his past two starts. Did have 16 swinging strikes in this one at the Royals.

Sunny Gray in the month of May, he's made four starts, 372 ERA with a 145 whip, and McKenzie Gore had a rough outing against his former team. no revenge game unfortunately he allowed 10 hard hits in this one four and two thirds

seven hits three runs four walks two homers allowed and now in the month of May 488 ERA a 179 whip Chris any thoughts here on

Gore Sonny Gray and Erod well I guess there was a little bit of a revenge game the guy who he was traded for got a little revenge

Juan Soto had a three hit game but yeah baby Yeah, he's OPS back above 900 now. Adding 260, Juan Soto all of a sudden. I mean, it's not where we hope he'd be, but it's pretty good. What does Juan Soto evolve into, Chris, after Wantson? No, he just goes back to Wants. It was Wonsuco, Wonso, Wonso, now he's Wonsoto again.

He's earned that right. Love it. Yeah, like, I don't know. Sunny Gray, 372 ERA, 25Ks over 1980. in four starts in May. It kind of sounds like Sunny Gray, right? Like, I don't know about you guys, but I didn't think there was like an all-new Sunny Gray.

He's always had these really impressive stretches and then these really frustrating stretches. And I think the end result will be a pitcher who doesn't go deep into games, gets a lot of strikeouts, and is more or less fine when it comes to the ratio stats. So that's not surprising to me. McKenzie or what's that? It counts for a lot more now than it. used to since it's harder to find that. Yeah.

Since there aren't as many high end pitchers anymore. I'll say McKenzie Gore still really looks like a sell high to me. Even the shine has come off a little bit with May. And I think May is probably a little more indicative of what we're going to see from him moving forward. Maybe not quite as bad as a 480.80. And certainly not a 179 whip. A 179 whip would be a trip back to AAA at some point. So I don't think that'll be as bad.

But I think McKenzie Gore is probably still a below average pitcher. He just, I just don't think you can thrive being as fastball heavy as he is. Even with a deceptive delivery and good velocity from a lefty, like, I think the fastball is a good pitch. But he's still, you know, throwing at 65% of the time. I just, I don't think it's a viable approach for him. And I don't know if he has the, the secondaries, particularly, you know, that the pitch to get righties out. You know, I don't know if he has it.

With McKenzie Gore, worth pointing out in this start, he did, he more than doubled his slider usage. He used it 34% and it had seven whiffs and a 49% CSW, but I guess nothing else was really working for him because he still had four walks and allowed a lot of hard contact. And I think beforehand, Scott,

we were talking and you kind of comp him to Blake Snell. And that makes a lot of sense to me. for McKenzie Gore. I think we can get some big strikeout games, but probably a very high point as well. Nalacious. It's malicious right now, Frank. I do want to go back and just,

he's been awful against lefties this year, which is really weird. For a guy that throws lefty from a weird arm slot, 1195 OPS allowed against lefties and 41 plate of parents. It's 6.09 against Wrighty. So did want to correct the record on that one at least. All right. So maybe he'll actually get.

get a little bit better if he can find a way to get lefties out. Pitching leftovers, let's talk about Dylan Cease. He's turned in three quality starts in a row. This one at Cleveland, six innings, two runs, three strikeouts, but only five swinging strikes on 88 pitches. And he has, that's back-to-back starts with single-digit swinging strikes for Dylan Sees.

That both of them were against the Cleveland Guardians who typically do make a lot of contact. Spencer Strider was the opposite. He had 22 swinging strikes, six innings, four runs, two earned with 11 strikeouts up against the Dodgers, and Alex Cobb, another quality start at the twins, seven innings, three runs,

eight strikeouts to one walk. Scott, any thoughts here on Cobb, Strider, and Dylan Seas? Well, it was interesting Stryder's change-up use in this start. You had a good stat about that, Chris, before the show. Yeah. His very first major league start, he threw his change in about 22, percent of the time.

Since then, that last May 30th, his first major league start. Yeah. Since then, he hadn't thrown 10% changeups at all in any start until last start. And now he's done it two starts in a row.

It's 12% today. And he threw one change up in his first 41 pitches, which was the first two innings, as you pointed out. After that, it was like a 20% usage. I think he used it 11 times on his final 60 pitches. I don't think the math on that is 20%.

But whatever it comes. comes out to 15%. Yeah. So this, I saw real growth here from Strider in this start against a tough Dodgers lineup. They came out and they were just keyed in on the fastball. They were attacking it early in the count. And all four of his runs, two unearned, but four runs in the first two innings.

And it looked like it might be a short night for Strider. And then he broke out this change up to keep them off the fastball and ended up with an 11K outing in six innings. Very typical strider. start. So, like, it's, he develops that extra weapon. He learns that he has that he can turn to when when other things aren't working for him. Then maybe Spencer Strider gets even better. I do think we have to talk about cease a little here too. Because even though he's been getting better results lately, you mentioned Frank, not getting a lot of whiffs. And I stand by what I said after his last

start, I believe it was, where if Dylan sees, you know, the control hasn't really improved, he's still one of the, he still allows as many walks as anybody. And to survive that, he needs to be one of the top badmissers in the game. And he's just, he hasn't been that this year, not since that first start against the Astros. He had at least six strikeouts in 20 of his 32 starts last season. He hasn't had, sorry, he had more than six strikeouts. So seven or more in 20 of 32 starts last season. He hasn't had more than six strikeouts in a start since his second of the season. So April 5th, that is what nine starts in a row, 10 starts in nine starts in a row now with six or fewer strikeouts after he had at least seven in 20 of 32 last year.

I don't know what the explanation is here. Slider with the whiff rate on every pitch is down like just a little bit. and it could be that just everything is less effective than it was last season for some reason. But it's, yeah, it's been, it's certainly concerning, especially because he has not been able to sustain the improvements on hard contact he made last season, where he was 383 expected Wobon contact in 2021, 313 last year, one of the best marks for any starting pitcher, back up to 389 this year. So, you know, we're dealing with small sample sizes, even over a full season. when it comes to quality of contact for a pitcher, but certainly looks like last year was the outlier, and he hasn't doing anything to make up for it.

Again, that is Dylan Cease. Let's get into a few hitting leftovers. Josh Young went two for four with his 11th home run, added three RBI. Paul Gulchmidt, two for four with a double dong. He's up to nine. Tommy Edmund continues his hot month. He went two for three with a double,

a triple, and three RBI. All of a sudden has, he's up to a 285 batting average, 827 OPS. Corby Carroll stays hot, went 3 for 4 with two doubles and an RBI. Juan Soto. We mentioned it 3 for 4 with a sock and a shoe in his return to Washington, his 9th homer, and his 5th steel.

Now in the month of May, he's betting 3.43 with 4 homers, 4 steals, and 1116 OPS. Zander Bogart snapped an 18-game homelist streak. He went 2 for 5 with his 7th homer. Gunner Henderson, baby steps. He went 2 for 4 with his 5th homer. came off of Garretel and his last 10 games. He's banding 294

with two doubles, two homers still does have a 37% strikeout rate during that time. Aaron Judge went one for four with a clutch game tying homer off of Felix Bautista in the ninth. He's got eight home runs in 13 games since returning from the IL.

I thought it was pretty crazy that his barrel rate and expected slugging percentage are both better this year than they were last year a season when he hit 62 home runs. so it's crazy, and it's only going to go up after this game too. Vintage J.D. Martinez added once again went one for five with his ninth home run.

He's got five homers in 11 games since coming back from the IL. Pete Alonzo hit his league leading 18th homer. Byron Buxton went two for four with a sock and a shoe, his 10th homer and his fifth steal. All five steals coming in the month of May. And that number one sleeper hitter for Scott White. Jorge Saler went two for five with a double and his 13th, home run of the season. A few bullpen updates for the

White Sox. Kendall Graveman allowed a hit and a walk but picked up his fourth save. For the Cardinals, Ryan Helsley allowed a hit in two walks, but escaped with his sixth save for the Diamondbacks. One day it's this, one day it's that. And today, it was Miguel

Castro who got the save. It was his fifth of the season. Andrew Chafin got two outs in the eighth before being relieved by Scott McGuff, who got the final out of that inning. For the Orioles, Yaneer Canoe, through two more scoreless innings with two strikeouts. I mentioned earlier, Felix Bautista gave up a game

tying home run, but did strikeout three. For the Yankees, Michael King pitched a ninth with the Yankees down one at the time, and then he pitched the 10th with the game tied. Did not allow that automatic runner, ghost runner. I think someone tweeted at me today, Scott, and called it a Manfred Man. Yeah, the Manford Man, I think is my favorite.

I don't know if you, that's, this is, Yeah, given how you guys are on team name Tuesdays, I don't know if you actually get that reference. The Manfred Man and his earth band. What is that? Their number one hit from like 1970 something, blinded by the light. Ah, I know that's...

I mean, I thought it was clever even without a musical time. But it's got levels. Yeah, it's got layers. Like an onion. Love it. Layers, Jerry. Sweet smelling onion. Speaking of those Yankees, though,

I still believe that my... Michael King is their best reliever. It's just will we get to a point that they can use him on back-to-back days? For the Royals, Scott Barlow was unavailable. Our oldest Chapman picked up his second save. For the Padres, Josh Hader picked up his 12th. For the Giants, Camilo Duval struck out the side

for his 13th save. Ten of those coming in May. For the Rockies, Pierce Johnson, came in with a two-run lead. He gave up one run, but did escape with his 10th save. And Paul Seawald picked up his 10th save as well. To stream or not to stream, We'll start with Wednesday.

And looking up and down the list, we mentioned James Paxton yesterday at the Angels. I think Cal Quantrell, no, not Cal Quantrel. He's okay. Quantrel against the White Sox is fine. I said, I said I don't think Copac's good, but I think you can use him in this one against the Cleveland. Yeah, I agree with that as well. If you're really desperate, I think Zach Grinke against the Tigers is okay. And James Paxton probably doesn't belong in the streaming conversation,

but as long as he's there. Exactly. On Thursday, it's a smaller slate of games. Braxton Garrett is pitching well, but he's in Corrus Field. Yeah. I don't really like that. JP Sears at the Mariners, I think, is okay. It's the best you're going to do.

Yeah. Like, he's almost certainly not going to get you a win, and that's the most valuable pitching stat of all. But he may give you some strikeouts. Sure. Yeah. And I know he recently threw, I think it was six shutout innings

against the Mariners, so at least he has that. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks as always for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. We'll be back again tomorrow.

Bye-bye.