Fantasy Baseball Today - Brendan Rodgers Triple Dong, Edward Cabrera's Awesome Debut & May Leaders (6/2 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: June 2, 2022

Brendan Rodgers hit three homers on Wednesday (1:00)! Edward Cabrera took a no-hitter into the sixth inning in Coors Field. How does he compare to other waiver wire pitchers? ... Drop Trevor Rogers for any (10:38)? ... What about these lesser waiver wire pitchers (13:18)? ... Who were our leaders in each category in May (19:50)? How would we grade Cedric Mullins' season? Triston McKenzie has been solid! ... News and notes (28:32): Bryce Harper is dealing with forearm soreness, Orioles pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez has a strained late and more. ... Nathaniel Lowe or Luke Voit (43:50)? ... We wrap up with hitting standouts, leftovers, bullpens and streamers (43:50)! 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

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your lead. Where fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. Have a day, Brendan Rogers. Welcome in to Fantasy Baseball today on Thursday, June 2nd.

Frank Stample joined by Scott White. Today on the show, Brendan Rogers, Triple Dong, three homers across his double header, Edward Cabrera's awesome season debut. We'll take a closer look at the May leaderboard and much more. But let's jump right in. Oh my goodness gracious! All right, Scott, it's only right that I let you have your boy. Oh my goodness gracious, take it away.

Brendan Rogers. Man, what a day for Brendan Rogers. Against the Marlins. We could really just talk about game two. of the doubleheader. He did play him both, and he continued his hit streak in the first game, but it was really game two that is worth talking about here.

Brendan Rogers homered three times, including a walkoff to win game two of the double header for the Rockies. Interestingly enough, he homered as many times at Coorsfield in this one game as he did all of last season. so much for so much for it being a bad year now graded obviously last year

Rogers did most of his damage on the road which was weird and was part of the reason I was excited about him coming in because how often do you see a Rockies hitter perform on the road but the bottom line is he's been performing better for a while now between the two games here on on Wednesday

Rogers now has a 19 game hitting streak, during which he is batting 3.74, uh, 373. There weren't a lot of extra base hits during the hitting streak until this game. But now suddenly 19 game hitting streak, 373, 4 home runs, 6 doubles. Look it pretty good. If you look at his stat cast page, it still looks pretty awful. But if you isolate it just to May, his average exit velocity in May was 89 miles per hour. his hard hit rate was over 46%.

It was more in line with what we expected from him coming into the year, and I think it's going to be good enough for a guy playing half his games at Coors Field to be a perfectly serviceable starter in fantasy. And of course, he's dual eligible. So Brendan Rogers, I think, is back to being someone to get set up if he's available in your league. and he is 72% rostered, so probably only available in shallower leagues, points leagues, you know, maybe some 10-teamers, 12-teamers out there as well. But something tells me, Scott, that people need second baseman right now

between Muncie getting hurt and Jonathan India, Brandon Lau on the IL, and now Gene Segura is going to be out 10 to 12 weeks. So people need second baseman. There's obviously been a lot of underperformance at that position as well. So Brennan Rogers, someone you can definitely look at. Scott highlighted it perfectly. but basically Rogers was terrible in April and has really picked it up in May

hitting the ball harder, making a lot more contact. He basically cut his strikeout rate in half from April to May. Still hitting too many ground balls, but I think that's kind of just part of his game and as long as he's making contact as much as he is, Scott, I think very good things are going to happen for Brendan Rogers.

Let's talk about another young, exciting player in Edward Cabrera. Someone I know Chris was kind of touting towards the end. end of draft season and he didn't get the opportunity to start the season with the Marlins but made his season debut in Cores Field on Wednesday and he was awesome. He took a no hitter into the sixth inning of that game. Wines up going six shutout, gives up one hit, four walks, nine strikeouts, had 17 swinging

strikes on 94 pitches, 10 of those on the changeup. Apparently the fastest changeup ever recorded. I think it was like 96 miles per hour or it's kind of. Kind of weird because there's not really a big difference between his changeup velocity and his fastball velocity. It's only like four or five miles per hour, but I think it's really the movement profile on that changeup. It kind of moves like a two-scene fastball almost, like a sinker in to right-handed batters. But regardless, he was awesome. And I saw this tweet, Scott, per Marlins communications.

Cabrera is one of nine visiting players in the history of Corse Field to pitch six scoreless innings and allow one hit or less. Nine. Just nine visiting pitchers in the history. So it's a pretty awesome accomplishment. That is hard to believe, actually. It's a long history. I mean, I guess you just think about the history of course field and, you know,

visiting pitchers struggling, going there and kind of the aerodynamics and all, everything that's going on in that stadium. But he is widely available, Scott. So 27% rostered. How aggressive are you in trying to add Edward Cabrera after this season debut? pretty aggressive, not as aggressive as I was for for Aaron Ashby. I almost called him Andy Ashby.

That's a different player from a long time ago. Yeah, not as aggressive as for Aaron Ashby, not as aggressive even as for Spencer Strider. It is worth pointing out that Edward Cabrera, for as much success as he had, he still walked four in six innings. And the walks were terrible during the time we saw him in the majors last year.

And it could still be a major hurdle for him. him. But obviously the stuff is good, the strikeout potential. This is, you know, he kind of underwhelmed me with the strikeout potential last year. This is more in line with what we were hoping for, with what we've seen in the minors from him. I don't know that that change up deserves to be called a change up. Maybe it should be classified as something else. But bottom line is, it was getting a lot of drop, even at Coors Field, where you expect the ball to move less. And it was impressive. It was impressive. And I think most importantly is that I don't see any reason why

Edward Cabrera can't stick around. Currently, of course, Jesus Lazzardo is recovering from a strained forearm. There's no timetable for his return. He's not started building up again yet. So Cody Petit was taking his place in the rotation. That obviously is not something that needs to continue.

Plus, I think Petit himself is hurt. Yep. Also, you know, even if, let's say Jesus Lazzardo, was to suddenly come back.

Well, they could always boot Eliezer Hernandez. So I think Cabrera is going to get a long leash here. And based on the results of this first start, he'll hopefully make good on it. So yeah, pretty exciting pickup there. All right, Scott, how would you rank these three waiver wire pitchers from Wednesday? Jeffrey Springs was in action once again at the Rangers, five innings, two runs, seven strikeouts, 20 swinging strikes on 85 pitches. I know you've referenced his swinging strike rate quite a bit.

it was 14.6% entering this start, so it's only going to go up. Even higher. Yeah. That's a lot of swinging strikes. Yeah, he's only 43% rostered. That number needs to be higher. And then John Gray, with the best start of his season, obviously it hasn't been a great season so far for John Gray,

but seven innings of one-run ball, 12 strikeouts to just two walks in this one against Tampa Bay. How do you rank Cabrera Springs, John Gray? I want Springs most. I want them more than Cabrera. his top 10 swinging strike rate, as you said, just got better. It might be top five at this point. I'm not sure he has the innings to qualify,

but presuming he did. That's where he would rank in that very important category. And yeah, three starts of five plus innings in a row. No signs of slowing down. I think Jeffrey Springs is the real deal. The reason John Gray is last for me. So I'd go Springs, then Cabrera, then Gray. as good as this performance was, 12 strikeouts against the race.

He had 12 swinging strikes on 95 pitches, which is fine. He had seven on the fastball, I think only two on the slider. Like the slider is supposed to be his big bat missing pitch, and it wasn't in this game. So I don't really trust it. I don't know where it came from. Obviously, it's not like there were a lot of encouraging signs leading up to the start for John Gray.

So I'm treating it as a fluke right now. I'm not saying if you're desperate for pitching and all those other guys are picked up, you can't put in a flyer for John Gray, see where it goes. But I wouldn't paint myself as optimistic. Something I noticed with John Gray in this start, he threw more changeup and curve, change up and curves, and he usually just goes fastball slider. He's had good results on the change up this season on balls and play. He doesn't get a lot of whiffs with the pitch,

but maybe, you know, adding in these third and fourth offerings is something that could help John Gray. I don't think you need to absolutely add him, but, you know, let's see if he keeps using those pitches. I mean, even if he doesn't get a lot of wifts on the change-up, it might have helped him get whiffs on the slider.

That's what the majority of the whiffs. I'm sorry, not on the slider, on the fastball. Yeah. That's what the majority of the wiffs came on in this start. So that could be something, sure. Last thing on Springs, Scott, I mean, I assume it would be Ryan Yarbrough who gets to boot, but it sounds like Shane Boz is getting closer to returning. Any concern there that they might move Springs back into the bullpen?

Because it's the raise, I think you have to have some concern, because they just don't respect pitching roles in that way. But obviously, Springs has been a lot better than Yarbrough. and, you know, Yarbrose bounced between the bullpen and the rotation before in his career. So that shouldn't be what happens. It should be spring stays in and Yarbrough gets bumped. But I can't guarantee it.

All right. Let's fire up the drop-o meter for these starting pitchers and whether or not you would drop them for the ads that we just mentioned here. Trevor Rogers goes into Corse Field. Obviously, it's a very tough place to pitch, even though Edward Carrera did not make it look that way. and he does not escape the fourth inning.

He gives up five runs on five hits, five walks, just absolutely brutal. The ERA is now 5.80 for Trevor Rogers. He looks like he's in line for two starts next week, but do you really want to throw him out there? The other one is Hunter Green, who had a strikeouts today,

and he didn't walk anybody, and he had 15 swinging strikes, but he was not good. And the ERA is now up to 6.19. So Scott, what do you think about dropping Trevor Rogers and or Hunter Green for any of the names we've mentioned? I would...

What would I do? I would drop green for Springs but not in either of the other two, not Gray or not Cabrera. I would drop Rogers, I guess, for none of them. Springs would obviously be the closest.

Like if I for sure knew Springs was staying at the rotation, then I might be close to dropping Rogers for him, but Rogers, as always, every pitcher deserves a pass for a course field start that goes south. And I did, remember I pointed out after Rogers weekend start that the changeup finally got whiffs at a rate like we saw last year. It did not in this start. Again, course field start, the physics are all off. But, you know, it's obviously not a good sign that the change up progressed even so.

but I'll give Rogers another turn or two before I seriously start talking about dropping him and see how the change it performs in those. Yeah, in addition to the whiffs being down for Trevor Rogers this season, his fastball is absolutely getting crushed this year too. If you look at the results against it over on Stackass, it's been a very bad pitch for him.

It's basically night and day for what it was last year with Trevor Rogers. I think Green versus Cabrera is really close. I think I might give the edge Cabrera just because of his home park that he pitches in. But I think they're kind of similar pitches. Pitchers. It's close there.

I'll take Edward Cabrera. I mean, I like, if you just take what they've done in the majors so far, I think it looks better for green. Obviously, this start from Cabrera was a really good one. But it was awful last year what we saw from him in the majors. So that's, you know, I'm keeping that in mind and not being careful not to overrate this one start. Greens look pretty impressive at times. So I want to be so quick to give up on him.

All right. These pitchers are not nearly as exciting as the previous ones, but they are available, and it looks like at least two of them could be two-star pitchers for next week. Obviously, we'll talk more about that on tomorrow's podcast, but Dakota Hudson, with his best start of the season, seven innings, one run, three strikeouts up against the Padres.

Colt Irvin has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in three starts since returning from the I.L. And then Mad Bum turns in a quality start up against the Atlanta Braves. Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts there. Scott, any interest here? Hudson, Irving, Irvin, and Matt Madison, Bob Gardner. You know, I was actually comparing the numbers between Cabrera, who made seven starts last year.

So this was his eighth, and Green is now 10 starts in the majors, and is pretty similar. Green definitely has a lower walk rate and a better K-per-9. So I guess what I said is technically true, but it's similar. Anyway, I wasn't listening to your question because I was looking that out. So can you repeat the question? Do you have any interest in Dakota Hudson, Cole Irvin, Madison, Bob Gunter? No, not really.

Dakota Hudson has the elite ground ball skills. So he's the most interesting of them, but still in a fringy sort of way. Cole Irvin, his ERA is below three, but I don't see how he's getting it done. And Chris has been pretty hard on Martin Perez. And I think Martin Perez is going to regress too. But I'm much more confident Cole Irvin's going to regress. At least for Perez, some of the underlying numbers look pretty good. It's, you know, Cole Irvin, he's got a sub-3 ERA,

but his ex-fip is currently 4.31. So not great there. Garrett Whitlock is kind of somewhere in between. I think he's better than the pitcher, as I just mentioned. But I don't think he's as exciting as like an Edward Cabrera or a Jeffrey Springs. he has turned in back-to-back quality starts and this one up against the red six innings, one unearned run

zero walks, zero strikeouts. Very weird line here. Throws a lot more sinkers in this one so maybe pitching the contact and they only let him throw 70 pitches overall so still kind of being cautious and the velocity was down for Garrett Whitlock in this one.

Scott, what did you see? He's 65% rostered and could be in line for two starts next week at the Angels and at the Mariners. That is Garrett Whitlock. Yeah, I don't like the way things have been trending for him recently. I get the feeling he might be overextended as a starter. And he's getting away with it because the ground ball skills are good.

Pretty good anyway. But we've seen the whiffs begin to go down. We've seen the fastball, like the velocity begin to go down. And he only threw, what was it, 70 pitches in this start? So he managed to go six innings, but it wasn't. It was kind of a misleading six innings in terms of how hard he worked. So, yeah, I'd probably use him in two-star week. I don't know what the matchups are offhand.

It looks like at Angels and at the Mariners. Pretty tough. But I still think I'd lean yes on that, certainly in a points league. And I'm not saying he's, I'm not saying, like, Whitlock, you need to drive. He still has a 302 ERA, but I'm saying he's fringier. He's looking fringier to me than we were talking about him when he first joined the rotation. Yeah, I'd be looking to hold Garrett Whitlock. In a points league, he has a SPARP eligibility, so you can use him as a relief pitcher.

And even in a Categories league, this is just kind of my feeling, my hunch on the situation. But once Chris Sale is closer to returning, I could see Whitlock transition back into the Red Sox bullpen and maybe even be their closer. They have been searching and searching and searching for someone to kind of lock it down at the back end and nobody's been able to do it. I think Garrett Whitlock could actually be that guy, but they need to get Chris Sale back in the rotation and, you know, we're still probably, I don't know. A few weeks away. A few weeks away at least. Yeah, maybe late June, something like that. So I would hold Garrett Whitlock. A deep name just to watch for now, Connor Pilkington, who kind of sounds like, I don't know, some kind of aristocrat or something like

that, but awesome name. He strikes out eight against the Royals over five shutout innings, 17 swinging strikes on 91 pitches. He's had an okay minor league career. He's two percent rostered, so just a name to pay attention to Connor with a K. Yeah. By the way, it's like he's one of Roger Clemens kids or something. Speaking of which, didn't Roger Clemens, one of his kids get called up on, I think it was Tuesday, made his debut for the Tigers? Sounds right. I think he played second or Shortstop. Just random.

I did not see that. Yeah, I kind of like Pilkington, too. He had like, his minor league numbers are pretty good. He was only Cleveland's 30th prospect coming into the season, according to baseball America. Anyway. But just kind of knows how to pitch. He's one of those guys who gets the most out of the stuff he has. And then, by the way, his stuff ratches it up in this start.

a fastball is up like two miles per hour. It's still not a blistering fastball, but if it's going to play like that, there could be something to see here with Connor Pilkington. Obviously, that organization has a good track record with pitchers. I do think he might not have, there might not be an opening for him for very long, if even another turn,

because Aaron Savale is close to returning from that glute injury. So I don't know that any, anybody needs to put in a claim for Connor Pilkington, but this obviously isn't going to be the last we see of him. Aaron Savali, I saw most recently, this was on May 31st. He revealed a pocket of blood in his left glute

that needs to be drained before he's able to resume baseball activities. So I don't know what the timeline for that process looks like, but I don't know. I don't know how close he has, Scott. You might be right. thought I'd ready was closer than that. Yeah. Fair enough.

So Connor Pilkington, somebody throw on the scout list or maybe even add in some deeper leagues. Let's take a look at some May leaders. And we've really only talked about Brenda Rogers and a bunch of pitching. So let's get back into hitters and the home run leaders in the month of May. Mookie Betts hit 12. Aaron Judge hit 12 as well. Paul Gulchman hit 10 home runs in the month of May. Yeah, I kind of just felt like don't let the month end for Mookiee Betts because he was just so ridiculously awesome, and then he goes out and hits a home run on June 1st. So probably doesn't matter. He's really, really good.

Speaking of Mookie Betts, he was also your runs leader. He scored 31 runs over 31 days in the month of May. He's just on another level right now. Tommy Edmund was second in that category with 26 runs scored. The batting average, the home runs have taken a bit of a backseat for Edmund, but still leading off for the Cardinals, and he is running with reckless abandon. I think he has like 12 steals already, something like that for Edmund. So even though the power has come down, he's still been really, really good.

Paul Goldschmidt, we know he's had an awesome, he had an awesome May as well. The RBI leader for the month, 33. Trevor Story, a close second with 32. We get to steals. And Cedric Mullen, Scott, someone we haven't really talked much about this season. It's been a little bit of up and down, but eight steals for the month of May. He was the leader. There were seven others who had seven steals, Jose Ramirez, Kyle Tucker.

Tommy Edmund, Ronald Cooney, Gene Seguerra, Eli White, and Harrison Bader. How would you grade Cedric Mullins' season so far following up his breakout 2021? I would grade it a B. I think he's been must-start, but at the same time,

he has a sub-700 OPS. So, like, it's, all those steals are doing him some favors. his power hasn't completely evaporated on him, but it's, you know, like many players, it hasn't been the same. It's on pace for about half as many home runs as last year. I did expect the batting average to decline. That was the one part of his profile that I thought he clearly overachieved with last year.

But, you know, we're not catching him at his hottest either. It's worth noting a couple weeks ago his batting average. was in the 260s, which is about where I expected it to be. So things are still fluid. At least he's stealing a bunch of bases. Yeah. I mean, look, the home runs, the RBI,

not great, and they're probably, you know, the RBI specifically not going to be great with Baltimore, but still has 25 runs, 11 steals. I think the batting average will be better, as you mentioned, Scott. On May 10th, which was, you know, on the one hand, seems like a long time ago, on the other hand, doesn't. On May 10th, Cedric Mullins was batting 262 with a 796 OPS.

And so if that's where he ends up, then I think it'll be a pretty clear success, what you invested in him. But yeah, he's been pretty cold since then. Yeah, even if he winds up with 15 to 20 homers, but gets you 30 plus steals with a 250 to 260 batting average, I would say that's a pretty successful season, especially in a Roto or Categories League for Cedric Mons.

The batting average leader in the month of May, no surprise. J.D. Martinez, 406 batting average, Paul Goldschmidt, just behind him with a 404 batting average. On the pitching side of things, good thing Chris is in here. The ERA leader, Martin Perez, 0.65. And I would say a close second, but it really wasn't close. Chey McClanahan was second with a 1.15 ERA. That's just how ridiculously awesome Martin Perez was last month. the whip leader. Someone we haven't really talked much about recently either. Tristan McKenzie, 0.74. And I've noticed this, Scott, with Tristan McKenzie, he's always been really good in the whip category.

If nothing else, I know he's kind of jumped around with his consistency, and ERA has kind of ballooned at times, and strikeouts have been inconsistent. But the one thing that remains is the whip. He gives up a lot of fly balls, does not give up a lot of base runners. His batting average against, since he really has, coming to the league is

minuscule compared to like other starting pitchers. So if nothing else, I think that Trista McKenzie is going to be a lock for being a plus whip contributor. Yeah, that's an interesting observation.

Even last year, it was 118 despite 4.4 walks per nine. And remember early last year, he was walking everybody in sight. So that got a lot better over the course of last season. But that's hard to do to walk that many guys and still have a 118 whip.

And yeah, career hits per nine, six. That's amazing. His career batting average against God is 187. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, it is. That's a good point. I've been a little reluctant to endorse him

during this impressive stretch that he's been on. I think it's like three straight seven-inning starts in a row for Tristan McKenzie. Yep. Which is nice to see from somebody still breaking in as a major leaker. I've been reluctant because he's kind of, It's kind of jerked us around in the past, right? And the strikeouts really haven't been there like we expect them to be. But, yeah, you're right.

He has shown a rare ability to prevent hits. That's not normally something you put a lot of stock in, but over a season's worth of full season's worth of data in the majors where he's given up just six hits per nine innings. Over his last six starts, this is Trista McKenzie. He's got a 2.72 ERA, a 0.81 whip, 34 strikeouts over 39 and two-thirds, endings pitched. Only seven walks.

That's 1.6 walks per nine during that time. And I think more strikeouts could be coming, a 12% swinging strike rate during those six starts for Trista McKenzie. I'm liking what I'm seeing. And, you know, I think one of my first iterations of breakouts, like 1.0 back in February, I wrote up Trista McKenzie. I think he's got the stuff. He's just, he's got to stay on the field. So looking really good right now.

The strikeouts leader in the month of May, Dylan Sees with 48, Corbin Burns and Garrett Cole just behind him with 45. For the wins leaders, I say leaders, because 14 were tied with four wins, and I don't know,

I don't really want to read off all these, but Martin Perez stands out. Tony Gonselin was much better in the month. Nick Povetta has come around recently. Framber Valdez going very deep. his starts. Tyler Anderson has been awesome. I know the matchups have been great for him. And then Drew Rasmussen, you know, he's been a little up and down, but overall solid there. And he had four wins in the month. Your saves leader, Liam Hendricks, got off to a slow start

for the season overall, but he had 10 saves in the month of May. Taylor Rogers had nine just behind him. I have a few other things that I want to do just comparing April to May, but I think we could do that on tomorrow's podcast. Look at OPS in April versus OPS in May. And players you might not realize really fell off. Like Nolan Aeronado, Anthony Rizzo, you know, we just kind of assume those guys have been good because their overall season lines look okay. But man, they've really taken a step back.

So I'll save that for tomorrow, but something to look forward to there. Good start to June for Nolan Aeronado, though. Yeah, that's for sure. I think he would have three hits and hit his 10th home run of the season here on Wednesday. So we'll see if he can get back. on track, but let's take a quick break and we'll be back right after this. All right, let's step into the news and notes. Bryce Harper was scratched on Wednesday due to right forearm soreness, the same arm

with his partially torn UCL. And unfortunately, Scott, I mean, this is part of the downside. I don't, you know, I don't think it's a bigger situation that it needs to be yet, but obviously same arm, same kind of vicinity. It's a little scary. Yeah, I don't know how this is going to play. for Bryce Harper. Obviously, you're enjoying the production when he's in the lineup, but when we did that redrafting the first two rounds on Memorial Day, he ended up going high

because Chris took him pretty high. But I pointed out I didn't even have him in my first round, not because I don't like what he's doing, but because, yeah, this elbow injury, I could see it, it's more likely to get worse than better, his playing time. And there's obviously a chance he just gets shut down at some point. So does that make Bryce Harper a sell high candidate? Well, I don't know that today is the day to try that, but if he gets back and starts a few games in a row and is still producing, that's something to consider.

Have to be really high, obviously. I did have him as the 13th player rest of season. But there's some definite risk to banking your season on him. And others have pointed this out as well. The Phillies are currently seven games under 500, and they are 12 and a half games out of the division. I mean, I think there's, what, an extra wild card or two now? I can't even keep up.

They keep changing the playoffs. But, you know, look, they're not out of it, but they're falling behind. And if they fall too far behind, then, you know, maybe they choose to shut down their prized asset there with Bryce Harper. Also, another is just completely random. The pirates are the best team in Pennsylvania right now, Scott.

How about that? That will not last. They are 22 and 27. They are five games under 500. They just went into L.A. and swept the Dodgers. I was watching that game. Apparently the first time

the Dodgers have been swept at home in a three-game series since August of 2018. That's pretty crazy. All kinds of crazy stats. Yeah. Pulling out here, Frank. Yeah, you know, it's kind of part of the job.

But yeah, thanks, man. Ronald Le Cunia, Miss Wednesday's game due to general soreness and is considered day to day. He just feels like he's kind of always dealing with something right now. And when he plays, he's still awesome. But I just, I don't know. I'm not really sure what's up with Ronald Lucuna. Jack Flaherty will do one more side session on Thursday

before heading out on a rehab assignment. So we could see Jack Flaherty back in the next two to three weeks, something like that. John Carlos Stanton may be activated when he is first eligible to return from the IL on Saturday. Craig Kimberl was unavailable Wednesday while attempting to clean up some of his mechanics.

So I know he's kind of been battling it recently. Scott, who do you think is the handcuff there? Daniel Hudson. Yeah, handcuff is... Daniel Hudson's clearly been the backup closer. He has, I think, like, four saves already. Yeah.

Would you consider adding Daniel Hudson if you have Craig Kimbril in a deeper categories league? Oh, yeah. I mean, I might consider it anyway. You know, if you're in one, one of those leagues where anybody who emerges as a save source goes for Bucco Bucks. Is that the expression Bucco Bucco Bucks?

Something I've heard people say, but I've never actually tried saying it myself. Bucco Bucks. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm pulling up the urban. Maybe I said the wrong thing. I'm pulling up the urban dictionary, which is always a scary thing because you don't know what's going to pop up. But yeah, it seems to mean a lot of money.

Buku books. Buku books. Not Bucco. Yeah, Buku sounds right. Okay. What were we talking about? Yeah, if you play in a league like that where closer safe sources go for a lot

off the waiver wire, then you kind of have to get ahead with guys like Daniel Hudson or Rafael Montero. He's another guy. I've been trying to stash in those leagues. we, you know, we've seen Kimbril kind of retreat to work on his mechanics before, and it usually seems to go well. He comes back looking like a shutdown force again.

So hopefully that happens in this case too. But yeah, Daniel Hudson's the clear backup for the Dodgers. Another one of those dash candidates I would include in the mix, Sir Anthony Dominguez with the Phillies. Corey Kenebel has kind of been inconsistent. He's blown some saves. He converted one on Wednesday, but just the name to watch there, Sir Anthony Dominguez. Clayton Kershaw threw 30 to 35 pitches in his latest bullpen session, and he could start a rehab assignment as soon as this weekend.

Max Muncie took part in early batting practice Wednesday. He's on the IL with left elbow inflammation. Gene Segura needs surgery to repair his fractured right index finger and will require 10 to 12 weeks to recover. So we are looking at mid to late August, maybe September. and, you know, Gene Seguerl was actually one of the second baseman who was hitting, so it's not, it's not great to see, but I guess this should mean everyday playing time for Bryson Stott, so maybe he can make the most of this opportunity. Heung Jin Ryu was pulled from Wednesday start due to left forearm tightness. Josh Donaldson could be activated from the IL when first eligible later this week.

Sunny Gray's pectoral soreness has improved, and he played catch on Wednesday, but could still wind up on the IL. Speaking of the IL, some names that were placed there, Kyle Lewis on the seven-day concussion IL, Matt Barnes with right shoulder inflammation, Drew Smiley with a right oblique strain, Tyler Naquin with a quad injury, Joey Wendell with a right hamstring strain, and Brian Anderson with back spasms.

Some prospect news. Scott, I'm sorry, buddy. But Orioles pitching prospect, Grayson Rodriguez, was removed from Wednesday's start at AAA due to right-latte discomfort and I know you were someone who recently traded for him in our Dynasty League so. Yeah, I did and I trade a lot to get him. You know, when it was first removed,

they were talking like, it seemed like it felt like a cramp in his back. That's how they were classifying. And it officially came down with, as you said, lap discomfort. Discomfort's obviously a very vague term. He's going to have more testing.

If he has a strain, then we're probably not going to see him for a long time. Not a season-ending injury in all likelihood, but it could be, it could be, it could be an injury that causes us to worry about the trajectory of his career. Or it could just be, maybe he misses a turn, you know? So we just got to, we got to find out the severity. A couple of their prospect notes.

Cubs outfield prospect, Nelson Velasquez, was optioned back to AAA with J.C. Jason Hayward reinstated from the COVID-IL and Giants outfield prospect, Elliot Ramos, optioned back to AAA with Jason Vossler being recalled. Let's take a look at some. That's Gene Seguera, that 10 to 12 week timetable, if we're a broken finger. That really surprised me. Obviously, it's bad timing because he had emerged as somebody,

everybody wanted starting at second base. So that's a pretty big blow. I just don't want to breeze by it too quickly. Yeah, no, it definitely is a rough one. I picked him up in our podcast points league. I think I was just using him as my utility hitter because he's been that awesome. It's a big blow for sure.

Bryson Stott is the one that I mentioned. Maybe Ernst more consistent playing time. I think he was playing anyway, but yeah, he went two for four with two runs scored on Wednesday, a prospect name to watch there. Maybe this is your reason to pick up Brendan Rogers. Yeah, definitely. He could be your Gene Cigura replacement.

Potentially. Let's talk about some other waiver wire hitters who did something of note on a Wednesday. Nate Lowe, you know, I just, Nate Lowe is like my corner infield version of Andres Jimenez. I just, I can't quit him. These are my guys. He went two for five with his fourth home run. His last 12 games, kind of interesting. 349 batting average, three homers, 90 mile per hour average exit velocity, a 17% barrel rate. And the ground ball rate is way down for Nate Lowe during that time period. Small sample size, but I'm kind of interested. And Luke Void was the other one, Scott. One for three, hit his fourth home run. Obviously has not lived up to the expectations we had for him. But he's also been better recently. His last 17 games, 274 batting average, four homers, also a 90

mile per hour average exit velocity. Strikeouts are still very high, but hitting a lot of line drives. Both are under 50% rostered. If you need a corner infielder, anything here on these two, Scott, Voight or Nate Lo? I mean, I still like VoIP better. The strikeout rate has been so high that it's hard for me to get excited about, you know, the modest production over the past couple weeks. But I just, I don't know that I'm still skeptical of Nate Lowe's upside. At least we've seen Void's ceiling obviously has them in must-start range if you can ever get back to that. And we haven't seen that kind of ceiling from Lowe before.

That is fair. The next one up is Danny Jansen, Catcher with the Blue Jays. He's still been consistently playing, even though Alejandro Kirk has picked it up. They've been using Kirk at DH. They've been using Janssen at catcher. He went one for four,

hit his seventh home run in just 16 games played this season. He's 26% rostered. And look, Scott, I mean, catchers, especially in a two-catcher league, there's, it's pretty unexciting. So I've moved him inside of my top 20 catchers. and I don't see him in your rankings at all, Scott. Do you really hate Danny Jansen that bad?

That seems like an oversight. Yeah, he should probably be in the top 20. As I was talking about on yesterday's show, the top 12 is looking pretty stacked, maybe even the top 15. I'm not sure I could get Danny Jansen in there. But when the drop-off comes, it is steep and sudden. And so obviously, Jansen is someone who probably needs to be in the top 20.

like his barrel rate is just absurd right it's like a 25% barrel rate so uh you know he's obviously a bunch of fly balls right now yeah i mean i don't know that i don't know that you could look at a stack house page and take anything seriously i just don't think the sample's big enough yet at one point in time danny jansen was a catcher everybody was excited about and uh you know sometimes it takes those guys a few years to to find their footing yeah some names i've moved him ahead of Omar Narvaez, Alessinola, Yadir Malina, Elias Diaz is losing playing time,

so I wouldn't have an issue dropping any of those names for Danny Janssen. That's the dispensable range of catchers, for sure. In some deeper league, Scott, Oduble Herrera went two for three with his second stolen base, and he has multiple hits in four of his last seven games. He's 8% rostered, and a couple of Oreos here. They smashed four home runs as a team, including one from each of Rugnett Odor and Ramon Arias. And Odor's last 15 games, 278 batting average, four homers, 16 RBI over an RBI per game during that stretch.

And Ramon Arreus last 15, 271 batting average, 14 home runs. 14 home runs and 15 games would be astronomical for Ramon Arias. But is there anything here in deeper league, Scott? Arias, Odore, Oduble Herrera. hard for me to take either of them that seriously by the way what did you call them a couple of what did i don't know what did i call them i don't know i thought i heard a couple of orioes maybe yeah i like orios i take a couple right now what's your favorite variant of orio with the classic Oreo

I myself pretty fond of the mint mint yeah I'm not big on like mint chocolate that combination not even peanut butter chocolate really either

with the peanut butter Oreos are good too I would take both over the original myself I like a good double stuff you just throw it in the milk it's

pretty sweet and pretty hard to consume, but those are, those are pretty awesome. Yeah, I never really got the milk thing. It's just like, it just turns the cookie to mush. Like, yeah, like, I want, I want to have a proper cookie texture. What are we doing here? And I'll drink the milk with it, but is this, is this another one of those, you know, you can't, you don't need to dip your chicken fingers and in dressing kind of things? No, I think, I think the majority, uh, probably not. because it's such a cliche

dipping the milk in the cookies, but this is different. This is texture. You're actually compromising the texture of the cookie by dipping it in the milk. And like, texture is nearly as important as flavor. Right? Yeah.

What flavors the milk adding to it? I don't know, man. You want a cookie mush? You want a bowl full of cookie mush? Why don't you just? Yeah, I kind of do. I kind of do. pour some Oreos in a bowl

pour some milk on it and just mush it up there you go there's your dessert I'm also one of those freaks got where I like all I like my cereal to be submerged in milk I don't like it when it's just completely hard and there's like no I need every bit of cereal to be under the milk before I eat any of it sounds wasteful yeah be honest

it's a milk shortage Frank yeah well I do drink the milk afterwards I don't let it go to waste So I'm not one of those people. All right, so we're passing on Herrera and the Orioles, but some names there in deeper leagues. Brian Servant, I mentioned the name. He has been playing much better as of late, and it's kind of supplanting Elias Diaz right now.

So we spoke about him last week. He's also a name to watch in two catcher leagues. He went three for six with two RBI across the double header. His batting average is up to 308. JD Davis, just someone I wanted to mention, back-to-back multi-hit games for the Mets. Impressive statcast numbers so far this season and hitting the bowl really hard.

It seems like they only play him against lefties, even though he has better career splits against righties. So they recently optioned Dominic Smith down. There might be more playing time for D. Davis. So just a name to watch. And let's see where it goes from here. A couple other hitters just waiting for the calendar to turn to June.

I mentioned Nolan Aronado had a rough May. He went three for four, hit his 10th home run of the season. Jazz Chisholm gets back on track. He went two for four, hit his eighth home run in Coors Field. He added 4 RBI in game one of that doubleheader. He stole a base in game two. So kind of a modified sock and shoe there,

but we'll definitely take it. And then Kyle Swarber went two for four hit his 12th home run of the season, still batting under 200, but all the other counting stats look actually pretty good for Kyle Swarber. Did you mention Brian Reynolds' sock and shoe today? I had it on here a little bit later on.

But yeah, while we're talking about it, he went two for three, hit his eighth home run, his third steal, his last 14 games. Brian Reynolds is hitting 259, four homers, two steals, hitting the ball harder, line drives. Ground ball rate is still too high, 52% during that stretch. So, I mean, batting average is the thing he's supposed to be best at. So if during this so-called hot stretch, he's still batting, would you say, 259? Yeah.

But, I mean, he's off to a. a good start this week. I was telling you before the show, in separate leagues, I sat, I sat Kyle Schwabre in a league, I sat Brian Reynolds in a league, and I sat, who was the other guy I mentioned? To Oscar Hernandez, I think. To Oscar Hernandez, yes. And they're all off to a great start this week. So that's, this is why you don't sit your studs. You know, June 1st gets here and I'm, I'm abandoning all my principles and it's coming back to bite me already. To Oscar Hernandez, by the way, back-to-back multi-hit games, he's now on a modest six-game hitting streak.

Vlad Jr., also loves to see it, turn to June. He hits his 10th home run. He's got three homers over his last seven games. Jose Ibrahim, another one, went two for four with his sixth homer. Ty France went three for four. His batting average is now 355 on June 2nd. So that is pretty awesome. And Austin Riley went two for five, hit his 13th home run.

he's on fire. His last 10 games, he's hitting 390, five homers, his average exit velocity. You know, a good average exit velocity, 901, 92, 101.3 for Austin Riley during this 10 game stretch. So that is ridiculous. Killing it. Absolutely crushing the ball right now.

Let's move back over to some pitchers, SP studs or borderline studs, delivering strong outings on Wednesday. Justin Verlander took a no-hitter into the seventh inning at the Oakland A's. He winds up going seven, gives up three runs, six strikeouts in that one. Kyle Wright posted his seventh quality start in 10 tries this season. He goes six shutout with five strikeouts to five walks. The walks are kind of creeping up.

16 walks over his last five starts. That is Kyle Wright. Terrick Scuba, another seven shutout innings. He was awesome. Gives up just two hits, one walk, six strikeouts in this one. The ERA is down to two point. 1-5 for Scoobel. And then Carlos Rodon, solid outing at the Phillies,

five innings, two runs, six strikeouts to one walk, lowers his ERA to 3.44. Scott, anything you'd like to add on Verlander, Wright, Scoobel, Carlos Rodon? Yeah, so Wright is kind of making me uneasy. He only had seven swinging strikes in this one. He had like 15 in his last start. So I don't know that that's,

a continuing problem for him. But as you mentioned, the walks are creeping up. And it just seems like he's become a little less effective. And of course, every pitcher goes through good stretches, bad stretches during the season. If this is what his bad stretch looks like, he's going to be fine. And that's where I'm leaning right now that if they are signs of decline, they're pretty weak. So it's just that reluctance to be fully on board with Kyle Wright, knowing what his Major League career looked like up to this point.

It makes you kind of nitpick a little more. So that's where I am with him. There is that incentive to maybe try shopping him and just making him somebody else's problem. But obviously you have to be careful about that because Kyle Wright's been really good. he could remain really good, I think, more likely than not, he's going to be a really good pitcher for you.

So it's just, you know, don't go overboard with that. Also, Carlos Rodon has gone six innings only once in his past three starts. So he's another one who's like, do we get ahead of ourselves here, making him a top 10 pitcher? You know, and the swinging strikes, they were fine in this start, but the previous three, they were not. It's just like, yeah, he looks good, but how good? That's what I think we're still sorting out with both of these pitchers, right, and Rodon.

Yeah, and we just always have that obvious risk with Carl Srodon in the back of our minds. Felt with a ton of injuries, and last year the shoulder was an issue, and the velocity started to fall off as the season went along. So that would not surprise me. And I think in that same conversation, Scott, in trying to sell high on Kyle Wright, obviously I would ask for even more for Carl Sordawn, but just something to think about if you've got some pitching depth on your team. I did want to ask you about Scoobel, Scott. Why can't Terrick Scubel be ranked in a similar spot as a Kyle Wright or an Eric Lauer?

Because I noticed that you have Scoobled down at SP 49, so barely inside of your top 50, but he's made adjustments this season. He's changed the pitch mix. The control has been awesome two walks or fewer in nine of ten starts, he's getting more ground balls a season. So, you know, obviously we don't have a big track record with him, but we didn't really either for Kyle Wright. So why not scuba? Yeah, I just think it's more of a tight rope walk, tight rope walk for scuba. He doesn't have that dominant pitch. He doesn't, he doesn't, his ground ball rate's pretty good, but it's not as good as

rights. And his control has been unbelievably good. good. But I don't think he can sustain his current walk rate. And so when that necessarily regresses, what does the rest of his production look like? So it's kind of a modest swinging strike rate for Terrick Scoobal, a walk rate that's too good to be true. And the lack of a real put-away pitch makes me a little more skeptical of him.

You know, I would call it a breakout season up to this point. I'd be happy to have Terrick Scoobel. But, yeah, like I said, a little, it seems like more of a tightrope walk that he's on than those others. All right, I got a few other pitching left over here, Scott, and it's kind of all over the place. So I'll just throw out these performances,

and if you'd like to touch on any, feel free to do so. Carlos Carrasco, five shutout, despite five walks up against the Nationals. He did have 15 swinging strikes in this start. You Darvish continues just this up and down season. He is, Scott, he's one of the hardest pitchers for me to rank. I never know what to do with you, Darvish, and I just leave him inside of my top 30.

I don't think it's the right thing. Maybe I start to actually drop him down now, but he goes seven and two thirds in this one. All right, he gives you a length, but he gives up five runs. He only strikes out four, and that's been the issue for him this season. I mean, the ERA's over four, the strikeouts are not great. He's gotten blown up a few times. It's just been a very weird season for Darvish. I hear you.

Yeah, I hear you completely. Aaron Nola was hit hard his third time through the order up against the Giants, and that's been a struggle for him this season. 7.90 ERA third time through the lineup, entering Wednesday, so it's probably just going to go up. And then Robbie Ray, just getting some old Robbie Ray vibes got, you know, the walks haven't been an issue, but he's giving a strikeouts and swinging strikes,

but he's also giving up home runs and a lot of runs consistently. So he's got an ERA that's approaching five. The X-Fib looks much better. better, but when will we actually start to see the results? I guess that's the question there. So Robbie Ray, Nola, Darvish, Carrasco. If I would rank them in terms of level of concern, I would say Darvish highest than Ray than Nola.

As you, I mean, you summed it up pretty well with Darvish. Like, he's given you length. He's, I guess, preventing hits well enough that the whip is good. And he's pitching for a team that's winning a lot. lot so that combined with the link that he has a he has a good win loss record but there's not a lot else that you can look at and say yeah i like you darvish i think he's good so you know obviously we're just relying a lot on track record here with him and the fact that he hasn't been bad enough for that to supersede the track record you know so i i'm kind of waiting for it to all fall apart

with you Darvish and yet I don't think you could sell them high enough to make that worth your while because the ERA is a round four but yeah definite worries there about whether or not he's even a good pitcher

anymore Ray and Nola I think are I mean they miss so many bats you mentioned walks haven't been a problem for Ray well he hasn't gone back to walking guys like he did at his worst but the

walk rate is definitely up from last year oh yeah and I think that that is a big part of my concern for him because he has had such extensive, severe issues with that. And really last year is the only exception. He's always been good at missing paths. That wasn't new for him last year. But the walk rate being way down was. So it's still pretty close to must start, I would say.

But again, it's a question of how good is he? And I would say he's definitely top 20. 25 good, rest of season, I think. But, you know, coming into the year, we were saying he's top 10 good. Last year, he was top five good, right? So, not there with him anymore. I don't know if you feel this way, Scott, but it feels like ranking pitchers this year has been much harder. Maybe I'm just kind of like living in the moment too much, but it feels like for a lot of these pitchers, it's been one step forward,

one step back. One step forward, two steps back. Something like, you know, something that gives us a little bit of optimism, and then something happens where, you know, I'm like, ah, well, now I want to move this guy back down the rankings. And I just, I felt that way about so many pitchers

so far this season, outside of Shane McClanhan. I guess he just keeps rising. But like, Robbie Ray, it's happened with Beaver. It's happened with Julio or Rius. It's like, okay, I don't really have much confidence in him. And like, Darvish, the same one. it's Charlie Morton,

it's been tough. I mean, ranking everybody's been hard this year. I don't know, I don't know that I could trust the same processes

anymore. That's part of the issue. The ball doesn't play the same. How important is a ground ball rate versus a fly ball rate? Yeah. How important, you know,

strikeouts are down league wide. So how important is it to have this many strikeouts per nine innings? You see a lot of high-end pitchers where maybe either their K-per-9 or their swinging strike rate is way down. But then the other is okay. And you're like, what's going on with that? Given all the landscape changes,

you don't really know how to reconcile those. So, yeah, I just think it's, I think the league's kind of been turned upside down this year. and we're still trying to figure out what it all means. The call to the bullpen, some bullpen updates for the Astros. Ryan Presley gave up two hits and a run, but picked up his 10th save. On the other side for the Oakland A's, Danny Jimenez. In the ninth inning, with a two-run lead,

he gives up four runs on two hits and two walks. He takes his third loss of the season. For the Phillies, Corey Canable, clean ninth inning for his ninth save for the Rocky. Daniel Bard pitched in the ninth and 10th innings. He walked four and gave up an unheard run and I believe he wound up with the win

because, on the other side, Cole Sulcer entered with a one-run lead and he gave up a two-run homer to the first batter he faced who was Brendan Rogers. The ERA is now up to five for Cole Solcer and I believe Anthony Bass pitched a two innings before

that and they were both clean innings so I think it's about that time. I didn't get scored upon. They weren't perfect. I don't know what clean means technically. Yeah. But they weren't that messy.

He recorded eight outs, two and two thirds. He gave up one hit, one strikeout. The ERA's down to 2.18. I just think it's time. I think, like, let's see what Anthony Bass can do and save situations. And he's the Marlins reliever I would most want to roster right now in that bullpen.

To stream or not to stream, let's start with Thursday. Chris Archer at the Tigers, Alex Fayetteau versus the twins. Johnny Quato at the Blue Jays, Graham Ashcraft versus the Nationals, Chris Flexen at the Oreos, Jordan Lyles versus the...

It sounded like Oreos again. You got another verbal tick here, Frank. Oreos, Orioles. Adrian Houser versus S. Who's that? You just deleted it. Did I? I think you did do a Control Z.

No, I didn't just delete it. I don't know. He's... Adrian Houser is versing somebody. Anyway, who else do we have here? And the last one is Matthew Liberator at the Cubs. That's Adrian Houser versus the Padres, by the way. Okay, there you go.

Not loving any of these. I would say Chris Flexen at Baltimore. He's been pretty bad this year, though. It was good at his last start. Liberator at the Cubs. Probably just steer clear on Thursday. Yeah, don't love those. And then Friday we have Zach Ethlin.

versus the Angels, J.T. Brubaker versus Arizona, Dane Dunning versus Seattle, and James Capillian versus the Red Sox. Boo. Gosh, don't love that either. Not great.

No. I'd steer clear on that day, too. If you have to start somebody, maybe Brewbaker, but it's not great. Yeah, it's, Chase Silseth at the Phillies. Don't love that. Cacucci versus the twins

I don't know how rostered he is but probably over 70, right? I don't know that I love it anyway. 69% so he's right there on the cutoff. All right, well Thursday and Friday, probably not the best days to stream pitchers. We're going to wrap there for Scott. I am Frank.

Thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today. We'll be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.