Fantasy Baseball Today - Brett Baty, Zach Neto Promoted! Manoah Concerns & Weekend Waivers (4/17 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 17, 2023

Brett Baty is getting called up by the Mets (1:25)! Zach Neto was called up by the Angels this weekend (7:55). Add Neto or Vaughn Grissom? ... Johan Oviedo has looked great over his past two starts (16:10). ... Jarred Kelenic hit a home run off a lefty this weekend (21:40). ... Sandy Alcantara and Alek Manoah have struggled (26:22). ... Which pitchers are we adding after this weekend (32:52)? ... News (41:41): Brandon Woodruff will miss more time than we thought. ... Which hitters are available on the waiver wire (53:15). ... We wrap up with bullpen updates and streamers (59:50). 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 lead. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What's up, and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Monday, April 17th. Frank Stamphill joined by the gang. We're all back together, Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we're going to recap all of the. this weekend's action. We'll hit on the WaiverWire ads, what is going on with Alec Manoa, and more prospects. Who doesn't love prospects? Make sure to like this video and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already.

And if you're listening on the audio side, download, follow, and leave a five-star rating. We really appreciate it and it really helps. So thank you. Let's start off guys, I mean, the end of last week we had like Edward Julian and seems like Taj Bradley might be getting called back up and now we get even more over the weekend.

Zach Netto was called up by the Angels on Saturday. And we get news on Sunday that Brett Beatty is likely to be called up by the New York Mets as well. Seems like that will happen here on Monday. Eduardo Esquire is off to a brutal start. And we will begin there, Scott, with Brett Beatty, who I know was very high in your prospects to stash on the site. And we saw him. We saw him for a bit last year. And a former first round pick back in 2019, absolutely crushing it this year in the minors.

nine games at AAA, batting 400 with five homers, an OPS over 1,300, 66% rostered. Is Brett Bady just a must add wherever he's available? Yeah, pretty close. You know, anytime I bring up a prospect, I always get questions on Twitter. I say, oh, look, this guy's coming up, and it's like, oh, should I drop this guy for him? Should I drop that guy for him?

And, you know, sometimes when you're actually lining up names, it gets a little hard to say I would prefer Brett Beatty over Spencer Steer I'd rather have them than Spencer Steer I'm trying to think of some of the examples people were actually giving me

but yes ultimately I think Brett Beatty is somebody you want to pick up if you can at all manage it regardless of what position you'd be dropping I think there's a lot of offensive upside here I think we saw it in a little bit he was up last year

he got 42 plate appearances only struck out 19% of the time. Average exit velocity, 91 miles per hour. He hit a ball 113 miles per hour. He was putting up premium exit velocities even against left-handed pitchers. And imagine what he was doing in AAA, Frank. I saw a tweet over the weekend

before news of him coming up that among average exit velocity leaders in the miners, and I don't think every venue is able to record that. So it's, you know, it's kind of spotty data we're using here. But Brett Beatty, among all minor leaguers, had the top average exit velocity so far. And it was over 100 miles per hour, average exit velocity. Yeah, he had a 73% hard hit rate.

And all but one of his batted balls had been over 90 miles per hour was the status. So that was Mike Petriello, I think, that tweeted that one. So, like, good plate discipline. just really impacts the ball as hard as you'd want a player to. And though he bats left-handed, he seems like he should be capable of handling left-handers. There is a question, particularly with the way the Mets have handled Francisco Alvarez. And Brett Beatty has some defensive question marks himself.

Like, are they kind of play games with that? Are they going to only start them against Ritees and have Eduardo Escobar interfere with the playing time? Ultimately, it comes down to how well Beatty performs. But if there is any hesitation to pick up Beatty in a shallower league, let's say. Okay, so here's some examples. Somebody was asking Miguel Vargas or Brett Beatty, when I dropped Miguel Vargas for Brett Beatty.

And I'd have a hard time doing that. Somebody asked would I drop Jordan Walker for Brett Baby? No, I can't see. Gunner Henderson, would you drop him? I wouldn't do that either. So, like, somebody asked Christian Walker. I think that would be hard to justify as well. So.

Christian Walker, Jordan Walker, Gunner Henderson. Who was the other one he said? Miguel Vargas. Miguel Vargas, yes. I mean, in our drafts, those were all top 150 picks. And, you know, outside of Vargas, the rest of those guys were all top 120 in ADP. So, like, that's not a knock on Brett Beatty to say you wouldn't drop him, drop those guys for him. It's just when the rubber meets the road, the kinds of comparisons I was getting on Twitter.

It always makes me a little hesitant to say, oh, Adam, at all costs. Not at all costs. But, you know, you should try really hard to add Brett Beatty. Let's try and just figure out right now on the fly where we're going to move Brett Beatty up to in our rankings. Because Scott, I have yours open right now. And I think you can make the case he should be as high as like 14 or 15. I mean, that's keep Brian Hayes and Brendan Donovan in your rankings. Yep, I'd take them over those two. Yep.

So then we get into like Alec Bohm and Eugenio Suarez and Matt Chapman. I don't think I would take Beatty over any of those three, but it is really close. Yeah, I think that's the, so where does that put him in my rankings? 13th. That would put him at 14. 14. I might take him over Suarez strictly in a points league because Suarez and all. all the strikeouts.

But otherwise, yeah, I think, I think we've, I think we found the right point in the rankings to put Beatty. So that puts them outside the top 12 at third base. That's why, like, okay, maybe if you're talking like a 10-team league with standard head-to-head lineups, no extra corner infield, maybe it would be a struggle to get them on your roster. But like, you may end up regretting it because there is serious upside here. Chris, in terms of Fab, I had waivers run in my Tout Wars League at 8 p.m.

on Sunday night. And this is a head-toe points league with Roto style lineup, so it is a little bit deeper. You know, we go five outfielders, corner, middle, two catchers. And Brett Beatty went for 154 out of a thousand dollar budget.

So right around 15%. Does that sound right? That's way less than I expected. I was thinking he was going to be a guy who you'd have to drop at least 25% and potentially, you know, 40 or 50% in some leagues.

You know, obviously if you really, really need him, especially in a 15-team league. That would be my expectation. He was rostered in all the leagues where Fab has run so far for me, which is only two TGFBI and Tout Wars. But that is surprising, even with the, you know, at 12, because like Zach Netto went for 361.

We'll talk about him shortly in Tout Wars. And I got him for 212 in TGFBI. So I would have thought Beatty would go for more than that. Yep. Badey wasn't available in any of my 15 team leagues, but I agree with you. If he was available there, he probably would go for up over 20%.

12-team points league, even with Roto-style lineups. I think 15-18-percent, something like that makes sense for Brett Bady. I was actually the backup bid at 43. I just didn't really need corner infielder, so I don't know. Maybe everyone just kind of forgot that he was available,

and that's how that happened. Let's talk about Zach Netto, who was called up by the Angels. David Fletcher was optioned down to the minors, and Netto was last year's, first round pick, 13th overall. So the Angels are being pretty aggressive in calling him up already. Only 44 games played in the minors for Netto. And we've seen this in the past with guys like Redemurs, Chase Silseth. The Angels draft guys that are near Major League Ready and then they pushed him,

like rather quickly through the system. He hit 8th on Saturday in his debut. And then he was lead off Sunday with Taylor Ward out of the lineup. Chris will start with you this time. Zach Netto, he went hitlist in both of his first two games, but what are your thoughts on what he'll provide for fantasy and the same kind of fab conversation? How much are you trying to put down for him? I mean, how do you project a guy who has 44 professional games under his belt? Who went to a small school.

He went to Campbell University. So it's not like we're talking about like this dude was dominating the SEC or anything. This was a situation where he went high, but there were still some questions about, you know, the quality of competition he faced and how he'd fare going up a level. And then he did really well in the Cape Cod League and held his own, more than held his own last year in his professional debut. So it's really hard to know how to value this guy because it,

is this a situation where it's just like, yeah, he's a high floor guy who moved quickly because they think he can be a two-win player right away. Or is this a case where they weren't, they had no plans on. calling him up in 2023 when they drafted him. And he's just so advanced and so skilled and took a bigger leap than expected that there's a superstar outcome here. I kind of think even if the likelier outcome is it's just this is a team that needs to make the playoffs and they think he can help them do that. I think you kind of have to give him a chance to show that he can be a star.

because with how aggressive they moved him up, with how productive he's been in the small sample size, it's within the realm of possibilities that, you know, we're looking at a guy who could go 2020 over the course of a full season. I think the likelier outcome is like, I don't know, like a Josh Rojas type player,

you know, maybe a little more balanced on the power speed, but not someone who's like a must start player by any means. Yeah. But given the way the angels have handled him, I do think you have to at least account for the possibility that they just, you know, really on earth the gem here. So he was a consensus top 100 guy, but it was like just reading the scouting reports for Zach Netto this preseason. It was kind of a surprise that he performed as well as he did.

13th overall pick last year, which, you know, first rounder, but not an especially high first rounder. and the consensus seem to be that though he doesn't have a lot of raw power the way Brett Beatty does he maximizes what he has because he has like this big leg kick in his swing and he tones it down with two strikes so he's able to avoid striking out

and like Zach Netto just seems to be this really interesting sort of prospect who nobody knows how to evaluate that well because he just kind of has manipulated his skill set in such a way that he gets maximum productivity out it and will that translate to the majors? Well, the angels are optimistic that it will. I think what's most exciting about the Netto call-up

as opposed to like Edward Julian last week or some of the other prospects we've seen called up recently Francisco Alvarez is this was entirely merit-based. It's not like a shortstop went down and so they were forced to call Netto up to replace him. He forced their hand. Right, right. And he was batting lead off his second game in the major.

So they seem pretty optimistic about him. I would rather have Beatty if I'm investing dollars in one of them. But shortstop is a position that's become a glaring need in a lot of leagues. And Netto could be just what the doctor ordered as far as that goes if it works out. I'd rather have Vaughn Grissom, who isn't shortstop eligible yet. Of course, we saw him call it. up at the end of last week and he's been playing

shortstop for the Braves and I have more confidence in his ability to perform at the major league level. Well, he's played more games at the major league level than Zach Netto has played as a professional.

There you go. That does help. But if Grissom's already gone and shortstop is just a mess for you, I think Netto's definitely worth a shot. And we're all in agreement. Oswald Paraza is way below.

the rest of the guys we're talking about, right? Yeah, because he did get called up with John Carlos Stan going on the Iowa, right? So he doesn't have a clear place to play. That's the biggest reason. That's the biggest separator between him and Netto for me. It's like, Parazza's

wasn't merit-based. He's like, he might just be... He might be up for four days, yeah. Yeah, it's not based on, if we're just talking about like prospect pedigree and talent, I mean, I think, you know, Paraza might even be ranked higher than Zach Netto, but I don't think he's going to be around for long.

It sounds like Josh Donaldson will be back at some point this week. So it seems like a short stay coming for Paraza. Zach Neto, in terms of Fab in the leagues where it's run so far for me, in 215 team leagues, 133 and 97 out of 1,000. So between around 10 to 13%. I got him in my Tout Wars League for $43. So 4%. That's what I bid.

Yeah. I didn't win him, but that I think is closer to a reasonable bid. depending on how badly you need a shortstop. If you're desperate, then you got to act desperate. Yeah, I did get him in TGFBI, like I said, for 212. The backup bid there, the number two, was 189. So, you know, someone else wanted him. Right.

Along with me. So who did you have a shortstop that you went that high? Who did I? Ezekiel Tovar and Luis Garcia. So not great. Yeah. But like just from a, if, Would we all still take Tovar over Netto?

I think I would. I would. I wouldn't drop Tovar for Netto, but given what we've seen from Tovar and how low he's batting in the lineup especially, you know, it wouldn't surprise me if Netto played various. Like I think the skill sets could be pretty similar, at least in a neutral context, obviously, you know, if Netto played at Coarse Field, I might like him more.

Scott, you said that you would take Von Grissom over Netto. Would you take Netto over Edward, Julian if you're just talking about a middle infielder. I like Julian's skill set a lot more, but Joey Gallo is set to come off the aisle like Wednesday, I think, midweek. Yeah. And I don't know what happens then. Trevor Larnock slowed down, so maybe they sent him down instead of Julian.

I mean, clearly they've been batting Julian leadoff against right-handers. So they, it seems like they value him more, his bat more than Larnik. But I don't know. I'm kind of in, I'm kind of stuck in neutral, kind of frozen, not really. knowing what to do with Edward Julian right now. I think it would come down to do I need a shortstop specifically or do I just need a middle infielder who can hit? And if it's the latter, I probably lean Julian slightly.

I tweeted out Saturday that I would rank at Grissom, Netto, and Edward Julian. I agree with you that I like the offensive skill set, I think more than for Julian than I do Netto. But the uncertainty about Jorge Polanco returning soon and just what are they going to do with Julian, just that slight stuff. liver of doubt. I think I would probably lean with Zach Netto over

Edward Julianne and myself. Let's get into some of this weekend's action. Oh my goodness gracious, players of the night. The impossible has happened. Yeah, so that was the New York Mets broadcast. That was when Bartolo Colon hit a home run. Give a shout to the Mets. You know, Brett Beatty just got called up. So why not?

Let's start with Scott. Oh my goodness gracious. All right. So this seemed pretty impossible too. Not so long ago that we'd be talking about Johann Oviedo as a potential pickup in fantasy. He caught my attention late in spring training. I noticed how many whiffs he was getting once stack cast data became available for him

and his slider was up three miles per hour. And I mean, just from the context, okay, let me first get what him do, Johann Oviedo did this week. And at St. Louis on Friday, seven innings, one earn, run allowed, 10 strikeouts in those seven innings, six hits, one walk. Really good start. And that was after having a good outing in his previous start, too, against the White Sox. Now, when Oviedo, six and two-thirds shutout innings, five strikeouts in the six-and-two-thirds innings.

But 18 whiffs on 89 pitches, he had 13 whiffs in that St. Louis start. So just from, okay, he's from the perspective of he's Johan Oviedo and why are we doing this. Okay, put that aside. if I just told you a guy has a fastball that regularly hits 99 and a slider that regularly hits 91, and he's not struggling to throw strikes, that would be reason enough to be interested in him, right? Forgetting his name is Johan Oviedo. He's like a big guy who you wouldn't suspect would have obvious durability issues and has just looked really nasty. And I don't know what happened to his slider that caused it to gain so much life, but ultimately it's, you know, it is what it is.

He's throwing a slider 91 miles per hour, and it was, you know, he was the star of pitching ninja for the night with the way he was getting, the kinds of swings he was getting from the St. Louis lineup against that slider. So I'm pretty excited about this. He also, Oviedo is eligible at RP, if that matters to you in a points league, for instance. He does pitch for the pirates. That's not so great. But exciting enough that I'm going to take a shot on him everywhere I can and hope it goes better than it did for Chris Boubich last Sunday. Mostly I'm hoping I don't talk him up so much here that I price him out of my own range,

which happened with Boobitch. I only got him in two leagues after being so excited about him last Sunday. But maybe it was all a common. because now boo bitch is hurts. I mean, look, the boobitch thing like, let's address it. Because it's like, people were like, oh,

boobitch was a bus and it's like, he got hurt. Like, it wasn't even like, because originally we thought, oh, well, the weather was bad.

Like, he was pitching with a forearm strain. So we don't know if that was a bad advice situation or not. I mean, like, I guess if you thought we could have predicted he would get hurt,

maybe, but like, that's kind of silly. So like... I do imagine he's going to wind up on waivers, right back on waivers in a lot of reasons, because there are so many players hurt. And even if you have IL spots, do you really want to use it on Boo bitch? I think it's fine to drop Bubich for Johan Oviedo.

We have like a good start and a half from Chris Bubich, basically in his career to go off. That's not the point. The point is that it wasn't necessarily bad process to add and be excited about Chris Bubich based on what he looked like. I will say, Oviato's not a high priority in my 12 team leagues. Based on, I like, you know, you said you're not sure what he did to his slider to that it's, that he's starting it so hard. I think it's probably that it's just more like a cutter now than a slider.

He's traded some. A lot of movement on that pitch. Yeah, he's kind of, but he's, he's throwing it harder and he's sacrificed a little bit of movement as a result, which is fine. It's working for him. He's got a 36% whiff rate. He's got good results on balls and play. There's nothing wrong with it. I worry that he might just be a one-pitch pitcher.

And hey, I mean, if he can throw a slider slash cutter 40% of the time and get good results with it, it might be enough. I just, I'm skeptical. But hey, I'm a skeptical guy. I don't know that we have enough data to say whether he's just a one-pitch pitcher or not. But I noticed that his curve ball has performed really well this year. Curveball, yeah, has decent results as well, yeah. He's only thrown it 64 times, so I mean, we're still kind of learning, but a 0.056 batting average against on it, nearly a 30% whiff rate on the curveball.

And he throws hard with the fastball. So, I mean, yeah, I'm pretty. Okay, I mean, hitters getting crushed, but he's getting whiff with it. Yeah, he has a 25% whiff rate on the four seamer, which is a high whip rate for four seamer. Yeah. So, Johan Oviedo, 31% rostered. Obviously, team context, not great with the. Pittsburgh Pirates, but 15 strikeouts, just one walk over his last two starts.

The problem if you pick him up this week is that he's at Coorsfield, so you probably too not want to start him the first time you pick him up. But if he goes out and performs well in Colorado, then he probably would go for even more money in fab than he would go tonight. So if you're just thinking about picking him up, I think that's a good reason. I'll compare him to a few other waiver wire pitchers in just a little bit when we get to those names. Chris, oh my goodness gracious for you from the weekend. I'm struggling between a player who was good and a player who was bad.

But since you're going to go to the player who was bad, and I assume we're going to talk about Sandy O'Contra in a little while, I would go with Jared Kellnick, who we talked a lot about at the end of last week when he had the three homer streak. But the one thing I pointed out, he hadn't really played against lefties. And he hadn't hit any lefties. And then he went out and extended his streak to four straight games with the homer on Friday

with a home run off a left-handed pitcher. now it was Austin Gomber, so not the best left-handed pitcher in baseball, certainly. But still a home runoff of lefty, and that was one of the knocks against Jared Kelnick. So he did the thing. And then, hey, on Saturday, he didn't get a hit. Sunday, he drew a walk and stole a base. So I certainly think he remains a must-add player. I certainly think that skepticism is worthwhile when it comes to his apparent breakout.

but he did one of the things that we wanted to see him do. And that was hit a home run off a lefty. So, Jared Kalman. Way to go. Just check to see if he's available in any leagues. He's up to 90% rostered. So, I mean, it would have to be the show list of leagues. It was 68% on Wednesday.

So, yeah, he got scooped up pretty much everywhere. So maybe not today. But when do we start doing the cell high conversation for Jared Kilnick? we did get an email saying now that Jared Kelnick's better than Juan Soto, but I don't think that's actually a thing anybody believes. Look, it all depends on how people are viewing him. If someone views him, you know, like we mentioned Christian Walker as a guy that someone might want to drop for Brett Beatty. If someone offered me a Christian Walker type, like a top 120 pick, top 100-ish player from the preseason,

I would sell Jared Kelnick because that's truly selling high. But I think if you have Jared Kelnick as a top 150 player overall, and I know you guys aren't keeping top overall player rankings anymore, but if that was the range you put him in, I think that'd be reasonable. Ian Hap, a player who was probably drafted ahead of Kelnick and is off to a nice start himself, would,

so valuable in a shallow league. His upside is only so high. And Kellnicks is, who knows? So I think the shallower of the league, the more likely I'd be to hold on to Kelnick in that scenario. And for most of the audience, I think, that translates to hold on to Kelnick over like an E and a half. In a 15-team league, I would definitely rather have HAP.

Yeah. I think in a 12-team Roto, I would rather have HAP, although it might depend on what we need, because I do think, you know, Calnick's probably going to steal more bases. But I think that's a good comp, actually, for the kind of player Calnick could end up being. You know, you look at what Hap's done the past few seasons,

and it's been, you'd think more power, I think would be the thing with Calnick, but probably sacrificing more batting average. So that's probably a decent call. And I honestly hate when people do this, but, Scott, I will allow you at some point soon. if Kelnick continues to crush it, to do a victory lap here on the podcast

and just slam dunk all those Twitter losers that were bashing you during spring training because, like, you were saying to take a chance on a former top prospect who is going outside the top 200 and might have upside. You know, what's funny is I priced Kelnick out of my range, too. I didn't draft him anywhere. Yeah, he ended up, he ended up the last week

before the season started at NFC. He was like right around the top 200. I think it was like $195. Yeah, I didn't wind up with him anyway. I was not as bullish as you were, Scott. So, I mean, that's on me. We'll see if he can continue to keep it up. But, man, so far, so good with Jared Kelnick.

Let's take our first break here. And when we return, we'll get into a few pitchers that didn't look too good on Sunday right after this. CBS Sports Galazzo Network, the first of its kind. Free 24-7 channel dedicated exclusively to global soccer coverage is now streaming on the CBS Sports app, Pluto TV, and Paramount Plus. your morning started off on the right foot with morning footy, our weekday soccer culture-driven morning show beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern Time.

Plus, don't miss the rest of our top-notch programming, including live matches and re-airs, original studio shows, highlights, documentaries, and much more. CBS Sports Galazzo Network is the ultimate year-round streaming destination for fans of the beautiful game. Chris, before we get into Alec Manoa, you brought up the name, Sandale O'Connor. I actually don't have him on the rundown because I didn't think he was, like, bad enough. to actually warrant talking about. But if you want to talk him up as a buy low, I have absolutely no problem with doing that.

Yeah, well, I mentioned him here just because he, I think it's probably the combination of how bad he was the previous start when he gave up, what, nine runs against the Philly? Was it the Phillies? Yeah, and then people pointed this out to me that apparently the Phillies have been really good against Sandial O'Conster throughout his career. Yeah, but then he gave up five runs,

I think four earned against the Diamondbacks today. there was a little bit of bad luck there. Brian Dela Cruz got hit in the face by a line drive. It was one of the worst defensive plays you're likely to see by now field are all season. And then Sandy dropped a play at first base that wouldn't have gotten him out of the inning, but could have, he would have been in line to get out of the inning before the Corby and Carroll home run. He's giving up a career high, 89.1 mile per hour average exit velocity. So I don't want to just say that it's all bad luck.

It's probably mostly bad luck. I think, you know, Sandy Alcantra is really, really good. He's earned the benefit of the doubt. And I think Alec Manoa has earned the benefit of the doubt. I frankly, and I don't know if you guys agree, I don't know what to say about Alec Manoa right now. Like,

I know the listeners and the people in the comments and on Twitter want us to have some explanations. Some like, this is why Alec Manoa is being, you know, one of the worst pitchers in baseball right now. And really it's just like he's really pitching poorly. But I don't like, like maybe he's hurt and he's trying to pitch through something. And it's not showing up in the velocity for some reason.

But he's, you know, overcompensating. But it's just he's just thrown a ton of walks right now is the biggest issue. And that's never really been an issue for him. So I don't know. Like I wish I could tell you what was going on with Alec Manow, but I don't really have a good answer. So, yeah, I mean, that's that's fair enough. I mean, my answer is, yeah, he needs to stop walking so many hitters, which... Pitch better.

Right. I mean, maybe that's not good enough reasoning because why is he walking? Yeah. You could go deeper and deeper into the Y's if you want to. But like the point of me saying that is I don't see anything else that's especially wrong with him. I mean, even in today's start, you know, he gave up nine hits in four and two-thirds innings. average exit velocity, 85.7, which is really good. That's what you want to see from any pitcher.

His velocities seem fine. They were down in his previous. They were back more or less in this start. I don't know why he's walking so many guys. Four walks or more in three straight starts. And that's not something we've seen from him in the majors before. He's always been a, he's been a. good control pitcher, especially last year.

The biggest change, I guess, is he's throwing his four seam fastball less. It was 36% of the time last year. It's 28% of the time this year. That's not been a bad pitch for him. It's not like his sinker has been so much better that it's a change you would want to make, but

maybe he's struggling to control the sinker relative to the four seamer. And I don't know. It's not a compelling case, I think. The little bit of explanation that the Blue Jays coaching staff was offering, looking at the team's official site, the write-up for Alec Manoa's start today, is that he feels like he's behind stuff-wise, like he wasn't quite ready to go at the start

of the season, and he's trying too hard to compensate for it. That's the Blue Jays team excuse. And they're saying, you know, all the positive things you'd want to hear, like, they think he's going to be fine. They think it's just a short-term issue. And, you know, We heard the brewer saying something similar for Corbyn Burns, and then he turned things around very quickly. So my hope is the same thing happens to Alec Manoa. I want to blame anybody for sitting him right now until we see that first good start. I'm about to that point myself with him.

But we're nowhere close to dropping, Alec Manoa. No, no. I don't, I think we have to get to, I know, Scott, usually the cutoff is like Memorial Day. If we're two months in and Alec Manoa has an ERA over five, then. But, well, it depends on what way he's trending. Yeah, it's so tough because, like Luis Castillo, I think two years ago, was in a very similar spot where he was awful for the first like month and a half, two months of the season and then was mostly fine.

So it's, it's tough when there isn't an actionable explanation. There isn't like a thing with Alec Manoa that I can say, well, if he starts throwing this pitch, you know, that that's what's so tough about it. And that's what it was with, you know, Luis Castillo a couple years ago where it was like, everything mostly looks fine. Like it was kind of everything was a little off, but it wasn't so off that it was easy to pinpoint the turnaround, you know?

You guys already mentioned the walks with Alec Minowah. Something that stood out to me, he's always been a flyball pitcher. His home run's a fly ball ratio so far is 14.8%. And in his career, he's done a good job of limiting home runs despite being a flyball pitcher. So for his career, that number is 8.7%. So we're talking about it's nearly double.

So he's walking guys and he's giving up more home runs with a hit on base. Yeah. It probably all relates to location. Just he's not. It just has to pitch better. Yeah, that's what it comes down to. At the Yankees this week, so you guys said you're most likely to bench him. And I think that's fair right now with Alec Manoa.

Go out and try and buy low if you have faith that he'll get it back on track. Wanted to give a shout out to two pitchers that have actually done well this year and have actually been consistent. You can't say that for many pitchers. But Garrett Cole threw a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts on Sunday against the Twins, 18 swinging strikes. He is 4-0 with a 0.95 ERA, 0.74 whip, 32 strikeouts over 28 and a third. And the other one is Luis Castillo.

Fantastic on Sunday against the Rockies, seven shutout, two hits allowed, zero walks, nine strikeouts, 19 swinging strikes, 0.73 ERA, 0.6-1 whip, 26 strikeouts over 24 and two-thirds. Two pitchers actually helping us. Gary Cole and Louise Castillo, you'd love to see it. Let's talk about some waiver wire pitchers, and I got a group here that are all over 50% rostered, so perhaps in some shallower leagues.

Garrett Whitlock, awesome in his second start on Sunday against the Angels, seven innings, one run, five strikeouts, and that one, 61% rostered at the Brewers this week. Taiwan Walker turned in his first quality start at the Reds this weekend, six innings, one run, four strikeouts for him. He's at the White Sox later this week. Trevor Rogers turned in his first quality start up against the debacks, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts there,

and he's up against the Giants this week. Mike Clevenger, kind of tough to figure out so far. I mean, he's become just a two-pitch pitcher, and his swinging strike rate is not good. His walks are up, so I don't think I really buy it at all, but he only allowed one hit and he had five strikeouts against Baltimore. He is 68% rostered. Chris, how would you rank this group?

Whitlock, Taiwan Walker, Trevor Rogers. Mike Clevenger. I think I would go Rogers, Whitlock, then there's a gap, and I think I'd probably go Walker over Clevenger. I haven't found

Mike Clevenger to be particularly impressive in the early going, not that Taiwan Walker is ever particularly impressive, but feels a little safer for me, but I think Rogers and Whitlock have a clear edge on the other two and upside alone. And Garrett Whitlock is

Spark eligible. So if you're playing a points league and you're looking to get that little cheat code relief pitcher, that is Garrett Whitlock. How about Waverwire pitchers part two? Eric Lauer turned in his first quality start of the season at the Padres this weekend. Six innings, one run,

five strikeouts for him. You say Kukuchi bounced back in a big way up against Tampa Bay. Six innings, one run, nine strikeouts for him. His nine strikeouts most in a start since July of 2021 for Kikuchi. Carlos Carrascoe bounced back at the Oakland A's.

five innings, two runs, three strikeouts for him. And James and Tyone had his best start of the season so far with the Cubs. He was at the Dodgers, five shutout with seven strikeouts in that one. Scott, you get this group. Eric Lauer, Kukuchi, Carrasco, Tyone. How would you rank them? And are you taking Oviedo over all of them? Oh, yeah, I'm taking Oviedo over these guys.

And I'm taking them over the previous group, too. I'm not, I wasn't, I'm not that excited about anyone from the Whitlock Walker, Rogers, Clevenger group. But getting back to the group you gave me here, I would rank them, Kukuchi, Tyone, I guess, Lauer and then Karrasco, though Lauer and Karrasco are basically just streamer types in my mind. Yeah, Kukuchi, I might take a flyer on Kukuchi over the previous group too because I'm, like he's had two good starts and one terrible start. And what the two good starts have had in common is that he's really faded his fastball in those two starts. And this most recent starts Saturday, he threw the fastball just 35% of the time,

leaned a lot more on the slider and change up. And by the way, the velocity is up on all three of those pitches. So Kikuchi is throwing a lot harder this year on top of everything else. The start where he struggled, he used his fastball more like 50% at the time. And so that, the formula to success for him might be as simple as that. just the fastball gets crushed. Stop throwing it so much. You have pretty good secondary stuff.

The problem is it's a lot harder to command the secondary stuff. And if you can't throw strikes with them, things are going to go off the rails pretty quickly. Which I would imagine is how things tend to go wrong for you, say, Kikuchi, when they do go wrong, because they tend to go spectacularly wrong. They do. And I don't, again, I don't want Kukuchi as much as Oviato. I did not put in a bid for Kikuchi.

in every league where he was available like I did Oviedo. But I do think he's more interesting than most of the pitchers we're talking about here. He is SPARP eligible, right? Cacucci is. Yeah. Just like Oviato. I think the like, feed those cats, Chris. That is the preferred place that I would want.

You say Cacucci. I think he's the kind of guy that I really can't quit him. And I need to like steal myself against it. And so I don't really want him in a road to. League especially, even like a deeper one just because he has such, he has the ability to just ruin your ratios, just single-handedly with a couple of bad start. So I try to avoid him in any kind of season-long context. All right. So points leagues, it is for Usaikuchi. This next group includes Wade Miley. Awesome start Sunday. And honestly, he's been really good all season long, too. So I guess

shout out to him. He's in that same group as Gary Cole and Luis Cascio. Seven shout-out with eight strikeouts for Wade Miley. He's 34. percent rostered. Domingo Hermann put up a career high, 11 strikeouts against the twins on Saturday. But a very suspicious outing, if those who checked in or watched or were following it on Twitter, Domingo Hermann's hands were checked for quite some time by the umpires in that game. And he was given some kind of warning going into the dugout, like after the inning was over. And then we- The ump clearly said, you have to wash your hands.

Yes. Which I've never seen an umpire say. He came, Domingo Raman. came back out and they had another really long conversation. And then they just let him pitch. So it was very weird and Rocco Baldelli wound up getting ejected. I don't blame him. It was just a very weird situation.

35% rostered is Domingo Hermann. Rwanzi Contreras, we kind of know the deal. He's been up and down so far. I don't want to completely write him off. He's still young enough where he could figure it out. But he looked good in this one, turned in his first quality start at the Cardinals. Six innings, two runs, six strikeouts for him. Chris, what do you think of this group?

Wait, Miley. It's just the V-Los down. Yeah. Contreras. And that's kind of my issue with Trevor Rogers, too, even though he finally had a good start. Like, both of their velocities are down more than a mile per hour on average. And that's not showing any improvement.

The thing with Rogers is he is starting that sinker, the new sinker that is generating a lot of ground balls. So I think that's a good change for him. His slider remains a work in progress. Contreras, I wanted to believe in coming into the season, I've pretty much given up. I've pretty much dropped him everywhere. and this start doesn't really change that for me.

I mean, Wade Miley, like we saw in 2021, he had a 337 ERA and 163 endings. He's not going to get you many strikeouts. He's, it's going to be hard to buy in, but he generates a lot of weak contact. And that is one thing that he truly is a standout. It's 25% right now, which is not sustainable. But, you know, he's been in 2021, he was a 34% hard hit rate. That's really, really good. So he can, you know, have that Martin Perez, Merrill Kelly type of season.

And it wouldn't, it shouldn't shock any of us. It's not someone you're going to run out and add at any point. But it wouldn't surprise me if in three weeks he's up to like 75% rostered. And he's just a useful pitcher all season. All right. That is Wade Miley. I definitely want to keep an eye on Domingo Hermon and see what happens. If there isn't so much drama with whatever's going on with his hands.

Because his swinging strike rate for the year now is 17.1. That's ridiculous. And he had the 18 whiffs on 78 pitches in this start. So, like, if that continues, well, 17.1 is not going to continue. But if something over 13 can continue, then Domingo Hermann might be a pretty nice pickup. In deeper leagues, Scott, a few names that stood out this weekend. Ryan Nelson, Braxton, Garrett, Michael Grove, J.P. Sears.

We're talking, you know, 15 teamers, anything deeper than 12, honestly. I picked up Ryan Nelson in my main event league for like 53 out of 1,000. There's just not much pitching to go around there. So he's looked okay, these past two starts. Anything on this group, Nelson, Garrett, Grove, and Sears. Yeah, the most interesting is probably Nelson, just because we've seen him fail the least. he did throw a lot more cutters in this start,

which might help him to induce more weak contact. It seems like with Nelson, unlike Drey Jameson and unlike we hope Brandon Fott will be, like Nelson's not going to be able to rely on strikeouts as much. So it's a trickier profile in fantasy always, but if you can find a way to generate weak contact, you can get around that. All right, let's take our second break here,

and when we return, we'll hit some news and notes. I've got some waiver wire hitters I want to hit later on as well. We'll do that right after this. Welcome back and let's talk about some news and notes. Brandon Woodruff has been diagnosed with a sub-scapular strain in his right shoulder. The good news is that he won't require surgery. The bad news is that he's going to miss more than 15 days. Have you guys seen a timetable because I could not find anything on Woodruff?

No. I saw just, you know, random people researching how long this injury takes to heal and they were coming up with figures ranging from six weeks. weeks to two months. I think six weeks is a good default expectation when you don't know anything more. You just know it's not going to be a minimal stint. So that's kind of what I'm thinking with Woodruff six to eight weeks. But it's, you know, that's not official. That's just how I'm operating when forced to operate with not enough information. Gosh, my NL only labor team, I've got Brandon Woodruff and I had Reese Hoskins. So it's not really off to a great start.

Springs is expected to miss a minimum of two months with nerve discomfort in his left arm. Yanni Chorinos was recalled. And does that mean Tage Bradley gets another look? Chris, what do you think? I would expect so. Yeah. I mean, he hasn't, they haven't said anything one way or the other. But that seems likely given that they're already down three starting pitchers. And, you know, Zach Afflin and Tyler Glass now are probably still a couple of weeks away. So I would assume I'm, I'm operating under the assumption that Taj Bradley will get an opportunity within the next turn rotation. And I think there's a chance that Taj Bradley could stick around even once. Everyone's healthy, not including Jeffrey Springs, because they had the Brazier using this combination of like jail and beaks and usually an opener.

Or Josh Fleming to follow him rather. And yeah, so I think if Todd Bradley pitches well, he could just take that spot in the rotation, even with Eflin, even with Glassnow back. because then they'd have Rasmussen and McClanahan as well. And that gives you five pitchers. So if Todge Bradley gets recalled and he pitches well, I think he could stick around. I think there's a really good chance of that. The leagues where Fab ran already for me,

Tage Bradley went for 135 and 1.356 in another. So, yeah, those were 15-team leagues. I wanted to see how much he went for my Tout Wars League. He went for 178, so that's a 12-team head-ed points league. So I'm putting Oviato over him too. Oh. Bridge too far for you guys. But look, we just saw Oveedo go seven innings.

I don't know how often Taj, uh, Tosh Bradley. I always want to say Todge Gibson. Todd Bradley. Now we're talking. Former Nick's great. Yeah. I don't know if you realized, Scott, but when you said that you would take Oviato over Tage Bradley,

I hit you with the Sopranos. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed. Yeah. We were talking the other day.

I wish that was something that took off culturally. That's one of my favorites. Maybe we'll. The way they use, oh, is like kind of admonishing, like halfway admonishing, like halfway, like, surprised. Yeah. Yeah. Maybe we may get a segment here on the podcast.

Oh. Oh. Max Scherzer had his next start push back to Wednesday due to right side slash back's tightness. Do you start this week at the Dodgers? I don't love that, but yeah, I'm going to keep them in my lineup where I've got them. Yeah, especially because that's stuff that he's dealt with in the past as well, so, oh, not great. Jordan Romano was struck in the ribs by a line drive on Saturday. X-rays came back negative.

Justin Verlander threw a successful bullpen session on Saturday. It was his first time throwing off a mound since suffering that muscle strain in his shoulder. Carlos Redan will throw a two-inning bullpen session. It was either Sunday or it's going to be Monday, so I didn't really see it. Maybe it already happened, but there's just so much going on. I didn't get to check up on that. he could progress to facing live hitters soon after. Joe Musgrove made another rehab start at Singley on Sunday, as long as there were no setbacks.

He should be clear to join the Padres rotation later this week. Let's say we get confirmation on Monday that Musgrove will start next weekend. Are you guys just throwing them back in the lineup? I'd be fine waiting. If the matchup's good, I don't know what the matchup is off the top of my head. I think it's fine, but... It is Arizona. When there's enough, when there's that much time, there's always an opportunity for something to go wrong.

And I think you can just let it go another week. Rob Eray will be re-evaluated Monday after which a throwing program could be mapped out. He's on the IL with a grade one flexor strain. Michael Harris has yet to be clear to take live batting practice as of Saturday. And he's on the IL with that lower backstream. Tim Anderson is trending towards a late April return. He's on the IL with a sprain left knee. Philly's manager Rob Thompson said

Bryce Harper may not need a rehab assignment in the minors. Perhaps this pushes Harper's timetable up a tad, but it still kind of seems like late May early June is the earliest we'll see Harper back. Ameta Rosario is day-to-day with a back issue. Drej Jameson

may make multiple starts as a fill-in for Zach Davies, whose oblique strain is expected to take several weeks to heal. Madison Bumgarner will remain in the D-back's rotation and is scheduled to start Wednesday against the Cardinals. He's made three rough starts to open the season, and Brandon Fott is lined up with Bumgarner

and has looked better over his past couple of starts. And Scott, I know Brandon Fott ranks very highly in your prospects to stash as well. Yeah, it might be number one next week because this past week, Brett Bady and Vaughn Grissom were the top, too. No reason to call them prospect stashes anymore. Of course, Chrisom not technically a prospect anymore.

Yeah. Max Kepler was activated by the Twins on Saturday. Matt Walner was option to AAA. Joey Gallo appears likely to be activated on Wednesday. Again, not really sure what this is going to mean for Edward Julian yet. Brian Beow is expected to make his season debut Monday against the Angels. Chris, any interest, 30% rostered is Brian Beow. Yeah, he's rostered in most of the deeper leagues where I would be interested in him.

But yeah, he's an interesting pitcher. His FIP last year was actually pretty good. It was in like the low three range. His ERA was like 4-7. But he's shown some really good things at AAA. So yeah, I'm interested to see what Brian Bella looks like. And he is making that start early on Monday. So keep that in mind.

Oh, yeah, 11 a.m. start. Lineups lock. Yep, 11 a.m. Oh, man. So He'll get O'Hawai-Otani going up against Brian Bezos. Wake up bright and early. This week always screws me up because I don't wake up that early. I don't.

I don't usually either. Yeah. Well, it's like waivers. I'm going to have to stay up until after waivers run just to set my lineups. That makes three of us because you know I'm not waking up early. Michael Conforto has missed three straight due to left cap tightness, but is hopeful he'll return on Monday. Will Smith,

the catcher for the Dodgers, has missed three straight with an undisclosed illness. It's a concussion. He was placed on the seven-day concussion I. Oh, on Sunday. All right, so make sure to avoid him. John Gray was removed from his start Saturday after getting hit in the forearm by line drive. He told reporters that he does not expect to miss his next start.

Other players who went to the IL this weekend, Giancarlo Stanton with a strained hamstring, and just the manner in which it happened is that he hit the ball so hard. Everyone thought it was a home run, including him, and then he realized, oh crap, it's not a home run. He had to start running, and he pulled his hamstring that way. It's just like, oh, yeah, yeah, it's never ends.

Yoan Moncada, with lower back soreness, he was sent to the IL retroactive to April 11th. Jake Berger hit a home run in three straight this weekend. and he's only 5% rostered. Any interest in Jake Berger and deeper league's got? Well, he's filling in for Yoan Moncada, and it doesn't sound like Moncada's going to be out long. So that's really the main issue there.

Berger's always made high-quality contact, and I'd like to see him get a more consistent opportunity. But you're looking for a third basement off the waiver right right now, JD-Martin. JD-Davis is the way to go. Yeah. Not Jake Berger. Well, it's Brett Bates.

way at the top, but yes. I mean, he's probably not available in most leagues. Right. But after that, yeah. What's Davis is at right now? I think he's, so Davis is only 27% rostered. So he's probably out there for you. And he's doing some, he's doing some good things. He's made you start a 9 to 10 for the Giants. He's he's having the 20, 21 season or what year was it? I guess it was the 2020 season that I was so high on, uh, on, uh, J.D. Davis and it didn't work out. He's doing it for the Giants. There you go. Connor Overton with a right elbow strain.

Luke Weaver is set to join the Reds rotation. G-Man Choi went to the I-L with a left Achilles strain retroactive to April 20th. Jock Peterson with right-risk inflammation. Matt Bady and Darren Ruff look like they'll share D.H. duties in the meantime for the Giants. And Ryan Tepera with right-shoulder inflammation. I do want to mention, like, Joe Adele is off to an insane start in the minors this year. I mean, he's hitting home runs basically every day. Yeah, I wish they would.

I was talking to the Welsh about it too. He said the same exact thing. He's like, just trade him away, let him. He's a disaster on defense and they have Shohei Otani. Well, he's more than a disaster on defense. I think he's just a quadruple A player because he swings and misses too much on pitches in the zone. That's really the deal break. That's been the deal breaker in the major so far.

And I don't know that that's changed, even though he's sending a lot of home runs at AAA. That's totally fair. But I'd like to see him get a real opportunity and it's just not going to happen with the way the Angels organization is set up right now. One news item that wasn't in here, Frank, Max Fried, supposed to be activated Monday for a two-star week. So you don't want to get him in your lineup right away. Very nice. I wanted to ask you about a prospects guy.

Everyone is raving about him on Twitter right now. Mason Miller, a starting pitcher with the Oakland A's, 19 strikeouts in 8 and 2 thirds innings in the minors this season. And I think his latest was like five innings with like double-ditches strikeouts. 11 strikeouts, no hits. And he had, I think it was 23 pitches over 100 miles per hour. So there's a lot of hype with this guy right now. Scott, is there any chance Mason Miller gets into the top five prospects to Sash?

I'll have to look into him more because he has 28 and two-thirds professional innings. So it's, you know, he wasn't high on the radar for me coming into the season. But yeah, the strikeout numbers have been ridiculous so far. And it's not like the Hayes couldn't use another pitcher. And Mason Miller's already 24. So how long would they keep him in the minors, you know? This season is the first time he's faced more than 10 batters in a game as a professional. So to be, but fully honest, I didn't even know who he was before, like, Saturday when everyone was freaking out.

That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Average, average 99.6 miles per hour with his fastball last year at AAA. Oakland can use him too. I mean, it's not like they've got great pitchers that are. It's not like they're trying to win games either. That's true. I think they walked them at 17 times on Friday night.

It was absolutely disaster. The run differential, they are such an outlier for negative run differential. The rays are just as much for positive run differential. It's like they're both 60-something and the next closest team is 20-something and whether you're talking positive or negative. Yeah, bad start for the A's. So bad. All right, we've got like five, ten minutes left.

So I'm going to hit some waiver wire hitters here and then we'll probably wrap up with some streamers. But the names that stood out to me this weekend, just check to see if they're available. Jorge Mateo, this guy is red hot right. now three for four with a sock and a shoe on Saturday. He picked up two more hits and another steal on Sunday. Go ahead, Scott. I'm going to have to maybe sing a different tune here on Jorge Mateo because I was pretty dismissive of it.

But the strikeout rate is remaining much improved, still below 20%. The exit velocities have been fantastic. He hit three, just Saturday, between Saturday and Sunday. Jorge Mateo hit three balls more than 111 miles per hour. He has eight steals already, as you pointed out, I think, Frank. If you watch him, I'm not a swing guy. There are people who make that part of their analysis, and I'm not that guy.

I'm not trained in it. But just watching him, like, he looks a lot more well-balanced. When he's swinging, if you watch, you know, look at like any home runs he hit last season, it kind of looks like he's falling out over the plate. And this year he's got a more subdued leg kick. He's got kind of a little double tap, but he's like staying more upright. And he looked at least a little bit more in control. I'm just looking at, you know, reasons why what Jorge Mateo is doing might be for real.

And that's the thing that stood out to me is just that there seems to be a little more quiet as a hitter. He's 82% roster. So that's why I said, just check to see. I mean, he's likely not available in your league. But in Chalora heads head points leagues or even, you know, 10 or 12 team category leagues, Mateo could be out there. I like to create these scenarios in my head too. The Orioles have all these prospects coming.

There's probably some level of motivation there, right? Like, this guy doesn't want to lose his job. He wants to play as long as he possibly can, and the Orioles have a lot of names coming. So that wouldn't surprise me if a little extra motivation there for him. Roddy Telez had a double dong on Friday, and he's picking it up after a slow start, 75% rostered. And I know he's one of your top sleeper hitters this week, Scott.

So check to see. Number 0. Yeah. My man. Talas if he's out there. For those in 12-team leagues or deeper, Miles Straw, five more hits with another steal this weekend, now up to seven steals.

Will Myers went four-for-five with a double dong on Saturday. He added a stolen base on Friday as well. He's got seven games this week, three at home, four at the Pirates, so some nice matchups there. Shea Langalears had a big game on Friday, three-for-five with his third home run, two runs, two RBI. He now has catcher eligibility,

26% rostered. Probably rostered in two casual leagues already, but maybe you lost Will Smith. You need a catcher. Shea Langalears is out there. And J.D. Davis, who we spoke about back-to-back multi-hit games, a home run in each of Saturday and Sunday's games,

and he's only 27% rostered. Scott, any thoughts on this group? Maybe what size leagues they should be added in. Straw, Myers, Shea Langalears, J.D. Davis. I think just straight up, J.D. Davis is the one I'm most excited about because he's getting the playing time in San Francisco because I thought he had considerable talent in the past and the Giants have done so well with retreads before

that, yeah, clearly he's getting the results I wanted to see from him. It's actually nothing special. It's actually better the past two years, but whatever. He's producing. He's at a weak position. He's in a good situation with the Giants. And I think he's worth adding anywhere you need a hitter of any kind. I'm definitely curious about straw.

as well. Of course, mostly just a steel specialist. Not going to be any power there. But he has maintained a batting average over 300 going back to the start of spring training. I know he talked about some changes he made with the Guardians'

coaching staff. Didn't go into a lot of specifics, but it was, you know, hitting was something he put a lot of focus on this offseason. Two years ago, he was a 270 hitter. So if he can do that again, then he'll probably be worth starting in five outfield or roto leagues. Okay. In deeper leagues, Chris, some names that stood out to me this weekend. Jamer Candelario had a big game on Sunday,

four for five with his third home run. He's got nine hits over his last four games and is only 14% rostered. Your boy, Luis Garcia, I know. We've tried for a couple of years now to make it happen. Five hits, two home runs this weekend for him. Will Brennan has started seven straight for the Guardians. He's got eight hits, seven RBI and a stolen base during that time as well. Seven percent rostered for Brennan. The problem for the Nats is that. They only have five games this week. Yeah, only five games this week. I don't love that, but I don't know. Any kind of long-term potential in deeper leagues here, Chris?

I want to believe in Luis Garcia. The league as a whole has a 946 OPS when swinging at the first pitch. Luis Garcia, when putting the first pitch in play, excuse me. Luis Garcia has put the first pitch in play nine times. Would you like to know what his OPS is on those nine played appearances where he's put the ball in play? on the first pitch. Remember, league average, 946 OPS. Typically very good things happen when you swing at the first pitch. 646. That is 646 points of OPS too high for Luis Garcia when he puts the ball in play on the first pitch. I don't know what to do with that

information. I just thought it was remarkable. All right. I wanted to bring up the pirates because their matchups were pretty interesting for me this week. They've got seven games this week. in Cores, Andrew McCutcheon, 26% rostered, Carlos Santana, 23% rostered. Rodolfo Castro, if you lost a shortstop recently in a deeper league, he's 10% roster, he's got second, third, and shortstop eligibility. Scott, I noticed that the Pirates were not

in your best hitter matchups this week. Nope. Are they facing tough pitchers, or what's going on there? Well, yeah, they do open the week in Colorado, so that's good. But then they get Ashcraft, Hunter Green, and Nick Lodolo in the Red Series to end the week. so middle of the road matchups, I would say.

All right. Those games in Cincinnati, I think they are, right? I don't have that information pulled up, but they are not. They're in Pittsburgh. All right. Well, yeah, that probably does lean it closer to the middle of the pack, but hey, games in course field, can't argue with that. Let's see, where else did I want to go?

Oh, my gosh, I had so much stuff on here that we are not even going to talk about whatsoever. I guess we'll just wrap up with some bullpen things. and the latest here. The Minnesota Twins, Joanne Duran, he just kind of looks like the guy for now. He got his fourth save over the weekend. For the White Sox,

Ronaldo Lopez on Friday, he entered the seventh inning with a three-run lead, two runners on. He gave up a single, a walk, and then a basis clearing double to Adley Rutchman.

I still think he's their best option, but he's kind of been hit or missed for them so far. For the Cardinals, Ryan Heldsley pitched Tuesday and Wednesday this past week, and so they gave him Thursday and Friday off Giovanni Gallegos picked up his first save.

Paul Sewell picked up two saves this weekend. For the Tigers on Saturday with the game tied, Trey Wingenter pitched the 8th, Alex Lang in the 9th, Jason Foley in the 10th, and Jason Shreve in the 11th. Alex Lang, his last three or four outings, has looked really good,

so I kind of think he's going to get the next couple of save opportunities for them, or at least he should, if they're trying to win games. For the Mets on Saturday, one-run lead, Adamadovino was used in the 8th. David Robertson was used in the 9th, picked up his third save.

For the D-backs, Scott McGuff entered on Saturday in the seventh inning with a one-run lead. They quickly had a one-run deficit. He gave up two runs in that one. The Diamondbacks are probably the hardest to figure out right now. It's probably chafing, right? Like, that's what it is. Let's just not. Yeah, I guess.

I just, I think the problem is it's not a good team and they're all bad pitchers. Yeah. I think for the most part when I do this, I'm talking about like, 15 team roto leagues if you're chasing saves, but if you play in a 12 team league, this I just, I feel like anyone you're trying to chase within the Diamondbacks is probably going to hurt you more than they help you. I think I think Chafin's the guy to have. I'd rather have Chafin than like Rinaldo Lopez at this point, I think. Okay. What about the Cubs? This was interesting. On Saturday, Michael Fulmer pitched a ninth inning with a one-run lead and he actually

gave up two runs and took the loss in that one. Then on Sunday, Fulmer was using the eighth inning in a one-run game, and Brad Boxberger got the save opportunity. He struck out three for his first save. Scott, do you think maybe Boxberger just kind of works his way in more moving forward? I mean, they said going in, it was basically between Fulmer and Boxburger. I think Fulmer's in more of the high leverage role where he'll probably get the majority of the save chances, but might work the eighth inning sometimes. I mean, kind of like we saw with David Robertson for the Mets last week, or he worked the seventh inning at a game. And Ottavino got his first save,

but then they were right back this weekend going Robertson in the ninth inning. And I think that's just, unless you have a, like an obvious closer type, that's just the way more and more teams are handling it. Brad Boxburger, 11% rostered

for those who play in deeper leagues and are chasing saves. Got to mention the Royals on Sunday. I rolled his Chapman, pitching the eighth inning with the game tied. He struck out three. Scott Barlow got the ninth. But the game still tied at the time.

He gave up a run and took the loss. I think we're one step closer to getting a role as Chapman in that role. And I know that's the way that you guys were leaning last week as well. To stream or not to stream, we'll start with Monday. Brian Beow, bright and early. Up against the Angels. Nope. All right, Hunter Gaddis at the Tigers.

Nope. I don't know if this has actually been confirmed, but Matthew Boyd was supposed to pitch on Sunday. He now pitches, probably will pitch Monday against the Guardians. Yeah, that's what I've seen. but I don't think it's been confirmed either. I could maybe do that. I'm looking ahead at who else you have here,

and Boyd's probably going to be my first choice for Monday to stream, but it's not with a lot of enthusiasm because he's been okay, but he hasn't really been working deep into starts. What about Kyle Freeland versus the Pirates? That game is in Corse Field. No. I don't care what Freeland's done so far now. Hayden was Neskey at the A's.

No, even against the A's, he's been, his whip is like 2.3 right now. Gosh, spring training was such a long, long time ago. Kyle Muller versus the Cubs. No. Chris Flexen versus the Brewers. No. Ryan Weathers versus the Braves. No.

David Peterson at the Dodgers. No, I don't think so. I mean, West Neskey's probably my second choice from this group after Boyd. It's just, it's not a good group. I don't like, I would prefer not to use Boyd or Wes Esky. And looking at Tuesday, it doesn't get that much better. Eduardo Rodriguez versus the Guardians. That's okay.

Yeah, I probably like that better than any of the other ones. Peyton, Baton Field, at the Tigers. Nah. Too risky. Edward Cabrera versus the Giants. Like him any more than any of the Monday ones. But I'm still going to say. Say no.

Jose Suarez at the Yankees? Nope. No. Clark Schmidt versus the Angels. No. Josiah Gray versus the Orioles. I don't think so. Dean Kramer at the Nationals.

Nope. Bailey Falter at the White Sox. I don't think so. Ray Jameson at the Cardinals. I'd be more likely to do him than I think anyone else. between Monday and Tuesday. Because I think he's pretty good. But will he go more than four innings?

Hopefully. And it is the Cardinals lineup, which is dangerous. So it's not a good couple days for streaming pitchers, clearly. Not so dangerous when they're facing Johann Oviedo. I'll tell you that's good. Ken Waldochuk versus the Cubs.

No way. And Tyler McGill at the Dodgers. No. All right. We're going to wrap there for Scott and Chris. I am Frank. Thanks for tuning in to fantasy baseball today. Make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify.

We'll be back again tomorrow. And I swear we're going to get to Team Name Tuesday. Bye-bye.