Fantasy Baseball Today - Bullpen Mayhem, Logan Gilbert Injury & Waiver Wire Adds! (4/28 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Agustin Ramirez is off to a tremendous start (2:43). ... Jorge Polanco might finally be healthy (8:33). ... Eugenio Suarez had a four-homer game this weekend (16:21)! ... Devin Williams and Emmanuel Clase are out as closer (19:14). ... Logan Gilbert has a Grade 1 flexor strain (33:31). Who are the top waiver wire pitcher replacements? ... News (44:38): Cole Ragans is dealing with a groin strain. ... Noelvi Marte and Austin Hays are both on fire (51:01). ... Joe Ryan had his best start of the season and Dylan Cease is struggling (1:00:50). ... Start or sit these pitchers (1:04:32)? ... We wrap up with leftovers and daily streamers (1:09:51). Fantasy Baseball Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel: ⁠youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday⁠ Download and Follow Fantasy Baseball Today on Spotify: ⁠https://sptfy.com/QiKv⁠ Get awesome Fantasy Baseball Today merch here: ⁠http://bit.ly/3y8dUqi⁠ Follow FBT on TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod?_t=8WyMkPdKOJ1&_r=1⁠ Follow our FBT team on Twitter: ⁠@FBTPod⁠, ⁠@CPTowers⁠ ⁠@CBSScottWhite⁠, ⁠@Roto_Frank⁠ Join our Facebook group at ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday⁠ Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at ⁠https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/⁠ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit ⁠https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/⁠ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit ⁠https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/⁠ You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy. Now here's Frank, Scott, and Chris. What a crazy weekend. Logan Gilbert has heard, plus Devin Williams and Emmanuel Claucese are both out as their team's closer.

For now. We'll break it all down. Welcome into fantasy baseball today on Monday, April 28th. I am Frank Stamphle, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers. Today on the show, we will talk through those injuries and replacements. Bullpen mayhem right now. We've got waiver ads, starter sit questions, and much more. Let's just start things off players in the night.

We'll get through that, and then obviously we'll talk about all the big news right after this. Oh, my goodness gracious. All right, Chris, you are up. player of the weekend. I mean, we got to start with the greatest prospect debut in major league history. I don't know if that's actually true, but

boy, Augustine Ramirez is looking absolutely ridiculous. Frank, I know you put a thing about how to pronounce that correctly, and I think I butchered it already. It's Augustine Ramirez. Augustine Ramirez. Augustine Ramirez, okay. In his first five major,

league games. He has nine hits, four doubles, three home runs, only two strikeouts. He's attempted two steals. He has a 1682 OPS. I mean, you could not have asked for a better debut. He's hitting the ball consistently hard. He is making a ton of contact when he swings. It's only five games, but I don't know how you could say anything except Agostein Ramirez is a must roster catcher right now. I mean, like, even in a one catcher league, you look at the lower end of the top 12 of the catcher rankings and like there are guys I would rather have than him. So I'm not saying you need to drop who's a good name.

Rambuto. Yeah, I'm not saying you need to. need to drop J.T. Raimuto than for Ramirez, but I think you probably need to find a way to make room for both of them. Or, I mean, look, you can decide that it's not worth your fab budget and let someone else do it if he's available. I think he's still like only 50% roster or something. But I think if you have any questions about your catcher, you probably just need to add him. I mean, it's rare to find genuine upside like a sick catcher. And I have no idea, obviously.

I can't predict the future. I don't know what tomorrow or next week or the rest of the season certainly holds for Augustine Ramirez. But I know he obviously has a pedigree. He obviously has the skill set. He obviously doesn't seem intimidated going up against major league pitchers because he has just, like he's murdering the ball. He's straight out murdering the ball right now. The kinds of exit velocities he's delivering

and he struck out exactly twice in five games. And he's attempted two steals on top of it also. Like, he does, there's a chance for him to do something that basically no catcher does with the steals on top of all the hitting. So I'm very excited. I have him in all three of my 15 team Roto leagues, which are two catcher leagues, put down some pretty big bids for him as somebody who doesn't like investing in catcher on draft day in those two catcher leagues. And I'm very, very happy to have secured him in those leagues.

What's the range that you were paying to get him, Scott? Between a fifth and a quarter of my full season budget. Yes. I think I got him for less than that. one of those leagues more like 15% of the budget but are 18% something like that that basically that range and and obviously like if you play in that kind of league it's it's not something you're you're going to have to worry about because that's already passed your fab run but it does go to show like I was barely winning him I was these were some clutch bids I put in so

That is the amount that all of the quote-unquote experts were bidding on Augustine Ramirez. Yeah, very similar in my leagues as well. The Great Fantasy Baseball Invitational, that's a 15-team Roto with two catchers, $1,000 fad budget. Ramirez went for 222. Backup bid was 198. And in our beat FBT Roto Wire Online Championship, that is a 12-team Roto-T Roto with two catchers, he went for 175. The backup was 111.

So, yeah, right in that, you know, 18 to 22% fab range for Augustine Ramirez. I did want to just quickly ask about which players we were dropped for him. I feel like we've done this before, but, you know, he's done a lot more since the last time we talked about him. Would you guys be okay dropping Cabr Ruiz for Ramirez? Yes. Yeah. What about Gabriel Moreno? Yes.

Yeah. Austin Wells. Yeah. Yes. Sean Murphy. Murphy has plenty of ups. on his own, so I don't want to say yes to that one. But if that's the guy you have to drop,

and this is your only chance to add Augustine Ramirez, yeah, I think that's fine. I agree. I think if push comes to shove, you have to do that too. Logan O'Hoppy? Yeah? Yes.

And we mentioned J.C.R. Lumuto. Would you actually do it? Just one catcher league, no one else to drop on your bench. Would you drop them for Ramirez? If I wouldn't hurt my feelings, if somebody did. Yeah.

The league where I have J.T. Rio Muto, it's a very shallow league, 10 teams, one catcher, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. They are both probably better in Roto than points. So that that's the tough thing is like,

it's easier to say with like, Cabo Ruiz, because there's so little upside that, yeah, go ahead and go get Augustine Ramirez. But Rial Muta might still have plenty of upside of his own, especially in a roto league. So I struggle with that one. I tend to agree with Scott that I wouldn't, but I also understand that I play a little more conservative with my

drops than most people. All right, Scott, let's go over to you for your player of the weekend. Jorge Polanco, who I don't know why he's been so overlooked all season long among the early season standouts. I mean, he's been right there all along. I know there were a few days missed here in there with injuries, so maybe that kind of contained the enthusiasm. But like the guy has just been killing it all season. This weekend, the three-day weekend, he hit, he went six for 12 with three home runs and two doubles. On Sunday he had four hard hit balls, so 95 miles per hour higher.

So like the quality of the contact is there for Jorge Polanco. On the season now, he's batting 377. with a 739 slug, which are ridiculously high numbers that obviously can't be sustained. But I will point out his expected batting average is 355, 100th percentile. His expected slug is 629.

Now, those aren't any more sustainable than the surface level stats for Jorge Polanco, but they do show that, like, he's earned it. He's earned the production that he's delivered so far. And this is a guy with a pretty good, track record. Now, last year was horrible for him. It was, I think, his worst year ever, or at least since very early in his career before he was anything for fantasy. Yeah, 2020 was just as bad, but yeah, that doesn't really count. Fifty-five games, yeah. So,

last year, he was playing through a Patelor tendon injury, knee injury, left knee injury. He missed time with a couple other leg injuries as well. I think one of them was a hamstring. You can go back and look. You can find articles from Minnesota newspapers dating back to 2022, him dealing with this Pateller tendon injury in his knee. So basically three years of contending with it. And you then look at his stat line year to year. That's basically when the drop off happened.

The year before that three-year period for Jorge Polanco, he was the 33 homer season. And then two years before that, 2019, he hit 295 with 22 homers and 841 OPS. So this is a guy with a track record of being a fantasy standout at a weak position. And he's dual eligible now, second and third base since third base is what he's been playing for the Mariners this year. The strikeout rate this year, I think that's like, that's where you see most clearly the improvement, 12.9%. During the time he was contending with the Patelor tendon injury, the strikeout rate kept going up and up and up to the point.

it was 29% last year. But early in his career, he was a guy who struck out less than 20% of the time. I think this hot start for Jorge Polanco can mostly be explained by him just feeling that much better now that he's had that knee-ish address surgically. And if so, he might be back to that guy we saw in 2019 and 2021, that 800, 850 OPS guy at those two positions. There's some evidence that guys perform better in their second year in Seattle as well. So I think there's probably a confluence of factors, him just not seeing the ball that well, clearly not being 100% healthy. And it's like Scott said, it's not what he's doing right now isn't sustainable. It's also not a fluke, right?

Like this isn't a guy coming out of nowhere and being productive. This isn't a Kairn-Paris situation. it's also not a situation where he's just getting lucky. He's earning what he's doing. In addition to having a track record that suggests that being a must-start player was well within the realm of possibility for Jorge Polanco. So I do think, you know, Scott said it's basically been from the start of the season. He's played in 20 games.

He's finished 13 of them with an OPS north of 1,000. Like that's pretty good, even though granting that, that is not sustainable. He also has not had an OPS below 900 at any point so far this season. Jorge Polanco, 58% rostered on CBS. I would imagine rostered in most leagues with the middle and a corner infield spot

in some of those shallower formats, head-to-head points leagues. You only start one second, one-third baseman. Would you guys drop a Kyran Paris to pick up Jorge Polanco? Yeah, we're done with the Karen Parris thing. Yeah, I mean, they have the same roster rate. It might be a question for some people out there.

I think it's more like the Andres Semenez, Bryson Stott, Luis Renhifo, who have all been varying levels of productive in their own right. I think I'd probably drop any of those three. Stop being the least likely just because he's been good so far this season. And he's leading off. So I kind of, yeah. If it's not a situation where you need stolen bases specifically, then I think it's pretty easy. I think Polanco has more upside.

just overall upside than those three. What about just a points league in just a vacuum? Points league that are mostly measuring overall upside. What about Bryce Terrang in a points league? No, because he's been real good. And I see evidence of actual skills improvement there, Bryce Terang. What about Jackson Holiday? In a shallow enough league, yeah, I would do it.

Yeah, a shallow enough league where. holiday is just holding you back and there's a good chance you'll have another shot at him if he picks it up again. Brandon Lau was the next one. That's a good one. He is, last I checked,

he was the biggest underperformer by Ex Woba in the entire league. Brandon Lau. So that's, that one's tougher. But don't you just kind of want him to do what Polanco is doing right now? I mean, it's,

yeah, to a certain extent. It's a very different shape production. But yeah, no, that's a good point. So in a shaller format, I think I'd be alright on that one. Scott, do you give your blessing dropping Brandon Lau for Polanco?

Yes. We're going to skip my player of the night for now. It is Joe Ryan, who was awesome this weekend, and we will talk about him at some point. Before we hit the break, though, I've got to mention A. E. E. E. E. Hennio Suarez, not one, not two, not three, but four home runs in a game, the 19th four-homer game in MLB history. he was struggling mightily before this, but yeah, definitely needed a game like that.

So he homered five times in his first five games, which caused me to declare I was wrong about him. He's absolutely as good as he was in the second half. It was, I think I even said, now watch him make me regret this about face. And then so, of course, in his next 21 games, he hit 139 with one home run. and actually got dropped in some leagues, not a huge number, but some. It's funny, somebody on Twitter asked me earlier that day, earlier Saturday, if he could drop Suarez to pick up Brian Wu. Granted, Brian Wu needs to be rostered.

So I felt that that's the biggest reason I said, sure, go ahead and drop Suarez. But it's just funny that then that very day he goes and has a historic performance like this. look, he's clearly he's he's streaky but I think it's also clear that the power is still there I mean he took over the major league lead

in home runs with this performance and I think since Cal Raleigh has tied him but I think you just I don't know he's going to be all or nothing like he's going to be all or nothing the thing is though he he's going to be all or nothing

while hitting for a ton of power. He's going to drive in a bunch of runs. Like, I think he's kind of like, his swings a little wonky right now, which is a weird thing to say about someone who leads the majors in home runs. But his average launch angles way up. He's hitting a lot of like kind of weaker fly balls,

a lot fewer line drives. But that, I'm sure that changed a lot just in this one day. All four home runs hit 1001 miles per hour or more. And it's just, we know the power should be there. And you know the batting average isn't going to be great. So if you have him, hopefully you've built a team that can sustain that.

And yeah, I think he's awesome. Just a heads up that moving forward, we will only have four FBT Express episodes per week, Sunday night, Monday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday night. So those will be in the podcast feed Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Again, that's Fantasy Baseball Today Express. And big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to the channel if you haven't already. Let's take a break and we'll be back right after this.

Welcome back in fantasy at baseball today. What is going on? Bullpents have been flipped upside down this weekend. It was maybe the craziest that I can remember since working here. Just in terms of high-end closures that were removed from their role. Now, that's not set in stone. Things are going to change, obviously. But some really big names here.

Devin Williams has been removed from the closer roll quote for right now, Luke Weaver. will get, quote, a lot of the Yankees' safe chances moving forward. And you know what that means. Luke Weaver. Shout out to Adam Azer. Shout out to Chris for actually getting that soundbite and sending over.

Once I saw the news, I had to text Adam and just ask him to do it for the people. The line is, I believe you can get me through the ninth, which, of course, it has never been more applicable than right now. Because, you know, obviously, Luke Weaver was a starter in the days when Adam Azer was regularly singing that on this podcast. I believe the Yankees used that song at games when he comes in, right? Yeah, that's what he walks out to. Yep. So they have to have stolen it from us. There's no other way.

Devin Williams, by the way, why did this happen? He got the ninth inning again on Friday with a one-run lead, and he was charged with three earned runs on a hit by pitch and two hits. He did not record an out. Luke Weaver is 60% rostered. obviously you have to hold onto devon williams uh but what do you guys think about luke weaver in the interim right now so this one i i think i think this one may have more life to it than the cadesmith one which i'm sure we'll get to because i i think devon williams is more more off more there's more wrong there's more going on with devon williams than what's going on

with the manual Class A. And plus, I mean, Luke Weaver has, you know, a history of closing successfully, quite successfully for the Yankees, especially when you're including the postseason. And he's off to a great start this year. Only three hits allowed. I still think it'll be a, I still think the likeliest scenarios, it's a short-term switch just to get Devin Williams right. But I have a little less confident Devin Williams and Devin Williams turning things around.

quickly than I do in an Immanuel Class A because that that airbender change of his just isn't isn't working right. And it's like he's not going to be successful, Devin Williams, unless he can fix that. Yeah, he cannot throw strikes right now. The whiffs are way down for Devin Williams. He's giving up a lot more hard contact this season as well. So pretty much any way that you look at it, it's been a disaster thus far for Devin Williams. What about the Guardians? Manager, Stephen

Vote said Emmanuel Clossey will be used in lower leverage situations until he's, quote, back on track. And Clossey pitched the eighth inning on Saturday with Cade Smith picking up his third save of the week. Cade Smith, awesome season last year. He's been really good so far

this season as well. 129 ERA 107 whip over a strikeout per inning. Kate Smith is 45% rostered. Chris, what's your feel on the Guardians' bullpen right now? I think in both of these instances, you just, if you need saves in the short term, add those guys. I don't think anything about how you view Devin Williams or Emanuel Class A in the long run should change significantly.

And they are definite holds in all formats, right? Absolutely. And this, because we went through, if I'm remembering correctly, we went through this with Edwin-Diaz last year, right? Yeah, he got removed from the closers role for a couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah, he did. It could be one outing for both of them, right? Like, it could be that there's just some kind of mechanical flaw that the teams haven't been able to identify and they get it going. And these Devin Williams and Emmanuel Class A are both fine.

That's what I was going to say for Class A. I mean, the fact that his first appearance after the demotion was a perfect inning with two strikeouts. So apparently the problem with Class A is that he's blending his cutter, which is his primary. pitch and his his slider too much normally normally I think he locates them at different parts to kind of change the eye level of the hitter but he's kind of

locating them all in the same spot and so it's making it easier for the hit like that sounds highly correctable to me and if you look at the heat maps on baseball savant for each pitch it's clear what what

cutter is usually inside on a righty slider is usually outside. I don't know right. I think it's the best way to describe it. Right now, it's both outside to righties. And honestly, mostly both middle, middle, which is how you get terrible results.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So it wouldn't surprise me if Class A came out for the very next opportunity, to be honest. Let's take a look at the Tigers bullpen right now. Will Vest recorded the final four outs for his third save in game one of their double header on Saturday. Tommy Canley was available because he pitched in game two of that double header.

He got the ninth inning with a four-run lead. What's crazy is both of these guys have been really good this season. It's not like Tommy Canley has done anything to lose the job or anything, but they clearly have some confidence in Will Vest right now, who is 18% rostered. Yeah. What do you guys think about the Tigers Bullpen? I think it's just, this is a hair-brained idea,

but let me know if you think this makes sense. Tommy Cainley's such a weird pitcher Like has he thrown anything about a change-up this year If he has it's like what 12 times He just he just spams change-ups And I wonder if they just They just lost their nerve a little bit To stick with such a weird pitcher

As their highest leverage pitcher Am I overthinking it? Am I is that I mean there may be something to that I don't know but like I just read it is like Will Vest has been that impressive that even though Tommy Canley hasn't done anything to lose the job, AJ Hinch is recognizing,

okay, this guy is is the one. This guy is the one who we need closing out games. Because the trend is very clearly toward Will Vest at this point. Each of his last four appearances has come in the ninth to close out a game three times for the same. Well, I guess it's now five because I don't think this is updated with Sunday. that last five appearances four times for the save. And the track record's not that impressive for Will Vest.

He's been a fine middle reliever, but his slider is much harder, much straighter. It's a different pitch, basically, and its whiff rate is off the charts. His swinging strike rate this year is 18%. So, of course, it's a small sample. It's always a small sample when you're dealing with a reliever. but because of that, I think you kind of have to throw prudence out the window when you're assessing relievers and just work with what you're seeing right now, which is totally antithetical to most baseball analysis.

But that's it moves quick. Like relievers can lose their job one day, you know? It can happen to even the very best ones, as we've seen this year. And so Vest is dominating right now and he's getting the looks. in the ninth and if you need saves, I think to me, he's the highest priority of the ones we've mentioned so far. I think there's another higher priority one. And there might be two. So we can get to those. But I do want to say maybe there's like a clause in his contract that they're worried will vest. Oh, gosh. All right. Well, we've got to talk about the pirates. David Bednar picked up

the save Friday with Dennis Santana pitching the eighth inning. That did not take long. David Bednar 36% rostered. And then I'll just mention the Brewer's bullpen as well. I just, I think Trevor McGill is this on high alert right now because he gave up a walk-off home run on Saturday night. He's got a 491 ERA, a 136 whip. Abner-Aribe is pitching really well.

Obviously, Craig Yoho has put up ridiculous numbers in the miners, so perhaps he can work his way up the leverage ladder as well. But what do you guys think about, I guess, Bednar versus Will Vess, who would you rather have? And are you speculating on anybody in the Brewer's bullpen right now? I'd rather have Bednar than vest. I'd rather have vests than Bednar. A big reason why is because I think the Tigers are better.

But also if this new and improved vest is legit, he's better than any version of Bednar. And most of the versions of Bednar we've seen recently have been really bad. So I just have, like, Bednar could be fine, but I think the upside is significantly less. And, yeah, I mean, there's an outcome where he just gets sent back to the minors, I think.

I think that's all fair. The only thing is just the tigers have already seemingly changed their closer from a successful one to another one on the roster without like that guy losing the job. And so I, my, my hunch is that they're just, it's just going to be a headache all season, especially because I just, as good as Vest has been, I think he's just decent. You know, maybe the slider is a game changer and that changes it. But I, my, my hunch is that all of these guys are kind of samey. Whereas if David Bednar is right, and maybe there's just no version of David Bednar that's this guy anymore.

But if he's who he was before last season, I think he is so far and away clearly the best pitcher in Pittsburgh's bullpen that I think he runs away with it. I don't think there's any question who the closer is. So if I'm looking long term, that that's the way I would lean. But the point about to Detroit being a better team, that that's a fair one. Yeah. No, that's and your points are fair too. I mean, Hinch is known to be noncommittal with his bullpen rolls as who was the guy last year. I can't even remember his name.

He's so far off the radar now. Jason Foley. Jason Foley can attest. And now Tommy Cainley can attest. It's just hard to get a read for what his AJ Hinch will, His AJ hunch will be. Oh, my gosh. Hear him on, Chris.

You're on a roll today, Chris. My goodness. Yeah. No, I do think Bednar's absolutely worth picking up if you need saves, but I would put him, because he looked great in his minor league stint and has looked fine since returning the majors and now appears to be the closer again for now.

But I do think Vest has the potential to be a more exciting, more impactful closer. Also, just. put out a low dollar bid on Porter Hodge. You know, Ryan Presley hasn't pitched in a week. He pitched here on Sunday night. Oh, he did pitch on Sunday.

Okay, that was the first time he pitched in a week. I think if that becomes just a heads up, who's better, I think Hodge runs away with it at this point. So, sorry, that was the other one I wanted to mention.

Gotcha. Are you guys speculating on anyone in the Brewer's bullpen right now? I think that's the lowest priority. Yeah. I don't think I think Tyler McGill like the main problem for him is Trevor

Trevor Miguel yeah sorry wrong Miguel Trevor Miguel the main problem for him is just the opportunities have been so lacking and so then when he does get in a high leverage spot and allows a run or whatever it kind of amplifies it so I think he's going to I think he's far away from actually losing the job

but I do have Craig Yohel Yoho stashed in a couple leagues, hopeful that by the time, Trevor McGill loses job, if it happens, it may not happen, that Yoho will have established himself as the obvious alternative. If you guys are just, if you're just in need of saves,

how would you rank Bednar, Vest, Cade Smith, Luke Weaver, and I'll throw Camilo DeValle in this mix as well. Ryan Walker pitched the ninth inning on Friday, I believe. He wound up with the win. Deval pitched the ninth inning, I think, here on Sunday with the game tied. So I still think it's Ryan Walker's job, but it's, you know, it's shaky.

It really looks like there's nobody. It's nobody's job right now. Well, sort of the problem with Ryan Walker is what I would say, even more so than what I was saying for Trevor McGill, where like they keep using him because, okay, it's time for him to be used again. And it's not quite a safe situation. And then he's not available when they do have a safe situation come up because they used him in the non-save situations. but he's mostly pitched well. I mean, I think I said on the last time we talked about him, like he could go out Friday and strike out two in a perfect inning

and put this whole thing to rest. And he went out Friday and struck out two in a perfect inning and then struck out two on Saturday as well, which made him unavailable for Sunday. So, yeah, I think it's Walker. Deval would be at the bottom of the list for me. I think of the names you mentioned. You didn't mention anybody from the Brewer's bullpen, right?

No, Bednar Vest, Cade Smith, Weaver, and DeVal I'm most interested in Vest interesting and then I think I'd go Weaver and Smith and then Bednar part of this is

I think I think there's a lot of built in skepticism for Bednar so like you don't have to go as hard for him that's a good point yeah

so that's how I do Vest Weaver Smith Kate Smith which sounds a lot like Kate Sith I don't know if you guys notice that

any Final Fantasy fans out there. Kate Smith and then Bednar and then Camilla Deval. All right a rough weekend for pitcher injuries. The Mariners placed Logan Gilbert on the aisle Saturday due to a right elbow flexor strain and this is a grade one strain he will not throw for two weeks before being re-evaluated. So I guess that's the good news part of all this is that it could have been a lot worse for Logan Gilbert but this is another reminder that no pitcher is safe because at least in my eyes, was maybe the safest pitcher entering the seat safest pitcher entering the seat I mean Kirby and Gilbert both yeah I think had like no track record of his of injuries since

becoming professionals I don't think either of them had missed a start with an injury and now they both get hurt within the first month of the season that it's that's that's that's baseball Susan when they're throwing a hundred miles an hour 97 like those guys are It's an inherently difficult and dangerous thing to do. Yep. Tyler Glass now also left his start early on Sunday with right shoulder discomfort, and it sounds like he will also land on the IL that has not happened for sure yet, but it sounds like that is the way that it is trending.

If we're just looking within the Mariners organization who replaces Logan Gilbert, they promoted one of their pitching prospects, Logan Evans to start on Sunday against the Marlins, five innings, two runs, three strikeouts here, and he's 23 years old okay numbers the past couple years nothing that really blows you away any deep league interest in Logan Evans yeah I mean I think you kind of see it in the start

it's a start versus the Marlins in T-Mobile Park he got four whiffs you're not going to have many better situations for Logan I'm not saying he can't be good it's one start but his minor league track record is also just that I know there was a lot of of a lot of prospect towns were really hyping him up at one point last year,

and I didn't totally get it. And I still don't totally get it. He seems like one of those kitchen sink type pitchers. He's going to depend on a high ground ball rate and a low walk rate, I think, if he's going to have success, which he has, there's some evidence. There's some history for Logan Evans of doing both of those things. But it's a narrow path to success.

If we are looking for other replacements for Logan Gilbert and Tyler Glass now, Scott Sleeper Pitchers for this upcoming week. Reese Olson, Griffin Canning, Justin Verlander, Jose Soriano, Hayden Wisniewski, Andrew Heaney, J.P. Sears, Tobias Myers, Matthew Boyd, and Chad Patrick.

Justin Verlander did... What's up? It's a tough list. It's not... Thanks. No, it's not. It's not the list. I know. It's not the list makers part. Sincere thanks,

because that you are commiserating with me. Yeah. It's because we had a bunch of really interesting. I think the most interesting pictures on waiver right now. I wrote the waiver piece on Sunday. You can check it on CBSSports.com. I think by far the most interesting names that are widely available are all like stashes. Like Ryan Weathers made his first rehab start today.

He hit 99 in it. He looked really good. I would much rather have him long term than any of these guys. But obviously if you need an immediate replacement, Reese Olson's coming off his best start of the season. Gordon Canning's a two-star guy. I think Verlander has two starts or one start? Just one, but it's against Colorado and San Francisco.

And you mentioned he's third on the list, Frank. I moved him up about four spots with a start against the Rangers over the weekend. So we can get into that real quick. Two run runs in six innings, five strikeouts, no walks. 13 swinging strikes on 89 pitches for Justin Verlander. And this was two starts in a row where he was getting a lot of whiffs. And in fact, Justin Verlander's swinging strike rate on the year is now 12.9%,

which is his highest since 2019, which was really, I know he won a Cy Young. What year was that? 2021. Coming back from John surgery? 22. But 2019 was really his last year as the Justin Verlander

who's going to the Hall of Fame because he was, you know, 300 strikeout guy kind of. And I'm not saying he's going to do that. I'm just saying he's missing bats the best he has since 2019. And particularly with the incredible matchup he has coming up this week, I'm willing to take a second look at Justin Verlander. So, you know, if we're not just looking a week at a time here,

I would say Reese Olson and Justin Verlander are the most exciting from that list, leaving out Griffin Canning. Other names that pitched well this weekend, Clark Schmidt. And I'll read off the matchups as well. Clark Schmidt is home against the raise this week. week. Jameson Tyone is at the Brewers. Luis Severino is at the Rangers and Michael Walker at the Orioles. So no matchups that really stand out. I mean, Severino at the Rangers could maybe work out. But any, I guess, longer term interest in these names, Clark Schmidt, Jameson,

Tyone, Luis Severino, and Michael Waka. Tion has managed this really tough schedule pretty well, better than I expected. I still, I don't believe there's much there. Same with Severino. Schmidt is probably the most interesting, but I'm not particularly interested in him either. Clark Schmidt's sweeper, by the way, was completely different here on Sunday.

Seven more inches of vertical break, six more inches of horizontal break. And it was really good for him. It had five of his 14 whiffs. So it did look pretty good in that start. A couple other names here. Brian Beo turned into quality start. He's home against the twins this week.

Jose Cantana, home against the Cubs. Kintana has pitched well, but that matchup is just brutal. Matthew Liberator is at the Reds and Jake Irvin, who continues to pitch well. I don't really buy it, but I mean, this is three quality starts in a row. He is at the Phillies. Any interest in Irvin, Liberator, Jose Katana, or Brian Beow? Probably Liberator is the most interesting because he is.

is the least established. And so he kind of has that mystery box effect going. Though I don't really see, other than the top line results, I don't really see much different for Liberator from a year ago. He's starting to slider a lot more, right? It's also just... I don't know. I'd have to check.

But I know the whiff, the swinging strike rate is about the same. And a lot of the batted ball profile is about the same. He's just throwing a lot of strikes. He only has two walks in 31 innings. Better control, sure, which can make a big difference if it's a sustainable thing. We saw Max Meyer. He finally had a bad start because control went south on him. Everything else looked fine.

But yeah, I mean, control can make a big difference. And maybe that's making the difference for Liberator. But I don't have a lot of reason to believe it's the new normal for him is the thing. So particularly since he's RP eligible, I think there's some immediate. interest in Liberator and he of this group has the best chance of turning into somebody you hold on to, though I'm not saying that chance is especially high. I'm dropping, well, we'll see what happens, but I put in a bid to drop Jose Cantana for Griffin Canning in a points league, just swapping the guy who had the two start week for the

guy who has the two start week, which I think tells you how I feel about Jose Cantana and what he's done and how likely that is to continue, especially this week against the Cubs. Having said that, he will definitely go out and have seven one run innings with three strikeouts. One deep league name, Colin Ray, has actually pitched pretty well in Justin Steele's absence. He threw five shutoutnings with seven strikeouts against the Phillies this weekend. And he has changed the pitch mix this season. He's throwing his four-team fastball more. The velocity is up a little bit on that pitch.

And overall, the numbers have looked good. I mean, I don't think he's a great pitcher by any means, but again, this is a deep league name, 15 teams are deeper, Colin Ray at the Pirates this week. So it is a good matchup. I don't wait. I just want to add, I don't think Colin Ray is good.

I don't really care that he's throwing harder. It's a change of pitch, but that doesn't matter. Like rearranging the deck chairs on, I don't know, not the Titanic, but like a mediocre ship that I don't really care about. The Britannia, I don't know. At Pirates,

home versus San Francisco versus my, and then either versus Chicago White Sox or at Miami for his next four starts. I'm interested in Colin Ray because of those things. Yeah. It's a really good upcoming schedule. And I think he could get through it with a three six ERA or something. And pitches on a great team too. The Cubs look like one of the better teams in baseball.

So run support should be there for him as well. One name to drop, Jeffrey Springs, right? We can, are we done with this? He's still 55% rostered. get out of here Jeff yeah that's fine I mean it doesn't have to be forever but other than that that first already looks so good yeah but apart from that even counting spring draining it's been it's been awful all right let's take our final break when we return we'll go through the rest of the news and then recap the rest of this weekend's action right after this quick commercial break

welcome back in fantasy baseball today other news and notes from the weekend cole regins was diagnosed with a mild left groin strain on Friday. He was not placed on the IL, which I think means he's going to start this week. So what do you guys do? Start or sit Cole Regans against the raise? I would sit him

if I can. Obviously, if you don't have a better option, that's fine, but he looked really bad against Colorado. His velocity was down, what, two, three miles per hour? I would not that much. It was like one. But, yeah, I would also sit him because I don't think they've ruled out putting him

on the IEL. They just wanted to see how he responded to treatment after three days first. So we may find out tomorrow he's going on the IL. I would lean against starting Regans. Some good pitching news. George Kirby will throw live batting practice on Monday. He has missed the start of the season with right shoulder inflammation, but is working his way back. Luke Keishel, this stinks, suffered a fractured forearm after getting hit by a pitch on Friday. He looked great before this injury, 368 batting average, five steals, and for people that just spent Big Fab last week, we did that in our NFBC team that we're sharing together. So obviously that sucks for Luke Keishel. If you lost him, Jorge Polanco, pretty clear replacement there in a shallower

league if he needs second base. An MRI on Blake Snell's left shoulder revealed no new findings. He received an injection to help treat the inflammation. Tyler O'Neill went on the aisle with Next soreness, Dylan Carlson, was recalled by the Orioles. Kattel Marte hit a pair of home runs and played three innings in the field in an extended spring training game on Saturday. He is traveling with the debacks on their six-game road trip and sounds like he is targeting to return next weekend. Ryan Presley, as we mentioned earlier, did return here on Sunday.

He's been dealing with a knee injury. He pitched a ninth inning against the Phillies with the game tied. He gave up a walk but got out of it. He also allowed three hard hits in this game, but, you know, it's. kind of just who Ryan Presley is at this point. The race transferred Shane McClanahan to the 60-day IL on Saturday. He is out with an inflamed nerve in his left triceps, and we really haven't heard much about it.

Jordan Westberg, out of the lineup Sunday due to hamstring soreness. He's also been struggling. Do you guys start or sit Jordan Westberg this week? An excuse to sit him if you have an alternative. I mean, pick up Horeif Polanco, if you can, and start him over Westberg. Don't drop Westberg for Polanco. I have one league where I haven't been able to get Christian Campbell in the lineup yet

I might finally do it this this might be my chance so yeah Adley Rutchman was out of the lineup Sunday due to right hand soreness he suffered the injury while blocking a ball behind the plate and he's also been slumping to start the season do you guys start or sit Adley Ruchman this week I would lean towards starting him Scott. I would lean towards sitting him if I could, but it's hard to carry a second catcher in those one catcher leagues. If, like, if you've been wondering how you can pick up Augustin Ramirez, I guess this is as a replacement for Adley Rushman for a week. That might be your excuse to do it.

Kevin Gosman was ejected after two and two-thirds innings against the Yankees on Sunday. He gave up six earned runs and walked five. He was arguing balls and strikes in that start. Brandon Woodruff tossed five. innings Thursday in his latest rehab start at AAA. He is already 86% rostered on CBS. So perhaps we see Woodruff soon with the Brewers. Yuri Perez threw a scoreless inning with two strikeouts in his rehab start at high A on Saturday. And it was his first start since undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Only 40% rostered on CBS. I'm guessing we probably don't see him until late May, early June, but... Well, I mean, I mean, 30 days, they'd have to make a decision either way. Yeah. Because he's on the 40-man roster. He's not optioned to AAA.

I guess they could just choose to keep him in the minors a little bit longer if they wanted to, right? They would have to option him, yeah. Or there have been instances where they've ended, they've just stopped a rehab assignment and then started it again later, right? I feel like I remember that happening before. but sure yeah well you can pull a player off a rehab assignment yeah yeah but you that generally doesn't happen if they're healthy i guess would be the the way i would put it yeah tristan cossus has sat out two straight against a left-handed pitcher and that has kind of changed quickly here alex cora expressed confidence that cossus would be an everyday player way back in spring training

uh but yeah has not been playing against lefties recently no hasn't at all hasn't started against the left-hander all year uh managers lie who would have thunk it So, Tristan Kosses or Jonathan Oronda, based in light of this. I will know that started against a single lefty. That's what I didn't confirm it. Yeah, no, that's what I read. Yeah. He has not.

I will note that Aranda and Ben Rice are both, have both seen their numbers come down lately. They both had a bad weight. So I guess that's you know it's kind of a it's kind of a question that doesn't need to be asked anymore because they're also rostered. But if for some reason it applies in your league, that might be reason to, I don't know. I don't care anymore. Casas or Ronda. You know what's funny? Whichever one you want.

It's only nine plate appearances. So it doesn't matter. He hasn't struck out and he's five for eight against lefties. Tristan Casas has, I mean. Yeah, maybe they should blame against lefties. I mean. Yeah. I don't know. Who are they playing, like Rob Reff Snyder or Roe v. Gonzalez instead. Rob Reffsneider, I think, plays and has big games like every four days.

And it's always one of those things where I'm looking at the box around, like, man, Rob Reff Snyder had a big game. And it's just still Rob Reff Snyder, you know? Yep. Others who went to the IL this weekend, J.T. Ginn with right elbow inflammation and Garrett Mitchell with a left oblique strain. Waiverwire hitters from the weekend, Noel V Marte continues to, impressed. He had three hits on Friday. He homered on Saturday and then two for four with two steals on Sunday. He is betting 349. OPS is over 1,000. He has started seven straight. Nelvi Marte, 55% rostered guys. Should that number be closer to 100%? I think so. I mean, this is, this was one of the top breakout picks heading into last season and obviously it got

derailed by the PED suspension and he looked terrible afterward majors and minors. But he's been, he was a top prospect from the time he was 17 years old. He is obviously capable of hitting the ball extremely hard. Hit a home run over the weekend, 116.7 miles per hour. I believe that was over the weekend. Steele's bases. When he's going well, he makes contact at a high rate. We didn't see that last year.

but that appears to be back. And the opening is there for him to just take this job and run with it. So I think better late than never for Noelvi Marte, but you got to pick him up now to see where it goes because you won't get a chance if it does go somewhere beyond now. This is the last chance. Even if you don't believe in him, this is the last chance that you're going to have to add Noelvi Marte,

unless he collapses, in which case it doesn't matter, but yeah, I think I think he should be one of the top priorities this week for sure. Would you guys rather add Marte or Jorge Polanco who has third base eligibility as well? Marte in part because I think the upside's higher in part because I think there's just going to continue to be less interest than there should be in Jorge Polanco.

Marte wasn't fantasy relevant eight days ago. And he's already rostered in more leagues than Jorge Palanco. I think that tells the whole story. The upside is clearly higher for Marte because I think he has early round upside and Polanco's never been an early round guy. But I think Polanco needs to be rostered everywhere

and there's a much better chance that he's going to remain useful all season. So that's a tough one. I guess it kind of depends on whether you're speculating on a bench guy or you have like a an obvious glaring hole at second base or third base that you need filling. For me,

I think it's just one of these guys might be available next week if you don't add him right now. And it's not Marte. Whether it should be the case or not, I think we can, I think we kind of agree on that. But sorry, my lights just flickered. But I think there,

if you don't add Polanco and Marte this week, Marte is definitely getting picked up. Polanco may not. Let's talk about Austin Hayes, who had a nice weekend in Cores Field. Two for four with a double dong on Saturday. He also had two hits on Friday. And he's played 12 games hitting 375, five homers, OPS over 1100, 62% rostered is Austin Hayes. Same question.

Kind of feels like this should be closer to 100% rostered. I think so. Yeah, I guess in three outfielder leagues, but he was consistently an above average hitter every year before last year and then last year he dealt with a kidney infection yeah after joining the Phillies um

and like now he's playing in the best home park of his career so yeah i think Austin Hayes could be a like he was a 110-ish WRC plus guy in Baltimore if he's that in Cincinnati my guess is that's like that's probably worth like 50 to 60 points over of OPS over what

what Baltimore would be for a right-handed hitter in the Camden Canyon days. Camden Crater is what I called it. But you can call it the Canyon if you want. The Camden, the Camden chasm. Yeah, I think Austin Hayes may have been the player most damaged by the Camden, whatever, whatever word that starts with C that you want to use. because the final year before they pushed the fences, Lefiel fences way back, 22 home runs.

And this was a guy, got huge numbers in the minors, got a lot of attention when he first got called up, seemed like he was making good on it. Then they pushed the fences back, and he was pretty blah after that. And unlike the other two we've hyped up for this reason, Ryan Moultcastle and Jordan Westberg,

the power is fringier for Hayes. He doesn't hit the ball as hard as that. So he needs, like he can't overcome that deep fence to any degree. Well, now he's at the opposite end of the spectrum in Cincinnati with the most homer-friendly ballpark. And, you know, we thought maybe we were getting a taste of this last season when he got traded to Philadelphia, but we know now the kidney infection messed him up. So far, I mean, the proof is in the pudding.

He's got an environment that's suited for a skill set, and Austin Hayes is delivering on it. So I would say he like Jorge Polanco is one of the most overlooked players in fantasy right now. Chandler Simpson is living up to expectations thus far. He went three for four with a steal on Sunday. His first seven games batting 400 at three steals, 888 OPS. He is 59% roster that probably covers all category leagues. But do you guys think Chandler Simpson should be added in points leagues as well? I don't think we're there yet.

he has done what he's supposed to do, hit safely in every game, bad a lead off sometimes. He's not hitting the ball very hard at all, but you don't expect him to. You got to, he seems to have, he seems to understand how he needs to impact the ball

to turn it into hits and be a successful hitter, but that's not the sort of skill set that we see working the majors very often. and you got to get it just right, I think, to have points league value. You got to have a ton of steals and you can't be out of the lineup ever. It helps to head at the top of the lineup. Yeah. So I think those things still need to be, well, everything still needs to be proven for Simpson,

but especially those things that are going to make them useful in points leagues as well. Other outfielders that had big weekends, they could be available in, I would imagine, most five outfielder leagues. Jordan Beck, Trevor Larnick, Andrew McCutcheon, Andy Pahez, Alex Verdugo. Were you guys looking to add any of those names in five outfielder leagues? Honestly, it was a big weekend for hitters. So Alex Verdugo, here's the weekend he had. He went 10 for 12 in three games, a home run and three doubles,

took his batting average from 183 to 277. We're that early in the season still where a weekend can, that like suddenly and antipah's slash line looks great yeah all of a sudden and he's in the dodgers lineup uh he did have four hit hard hit balls sunday 95 miles per hour or more the overall eggs of velocity still bit lacking but we we know from his minor league days the power is there so i think in five outfielder leagues if he gave up on paas you need to buy in again i don't know i think i would give the edge to jordan beck yeah because he didn't do much saturday or or Sunday, but with the two homer game Friday, that was, what, what was it?

Like five homers in three games or something like that? Yeah. Was that it exactly? Yep. And like any time a player with some pedigree, I feel like I'm using that word a lot lately, some pedigree, obviously he was a good prospect, Jordan Beck. That's what that word means. Anytime a player with that has a stretch where he's that hot, you have to, you have to,

in an environment where you have to act quickly on emerging waiver wire pickups, you just have to act and ask questions later. I mean, I think there's a lot of reasons for skepticism with Beck still. He strikes out at a crazy high rate. But you take the shot on him now just in case this is the start of the breakout. And as long as you're not blowing out your entire fab budget for him or, you know, messing it up in a great way, you just see where it goes. that it might click. Especially in comparison to the other outfielders here,

like, do you really think there's much chance you're going to regret not adding Andrew McCutche and Trevor Larnack or Alex Verdugo? I think it's extremely like maybe Verdugo. But even then, what's the good Alex Verdugo season? Like 270, 16 homers, six steals? Like, it's just not very much upside there.

Yeah, I mean, for however long you bathe line if the runs could be high, lead off, however long he bats lead off, but we know Ronald de Kuhn, you'll be back in less than a month, or at least he should be. Yeah,

he's the one where you could see it, but even then, I don't think you're likely at all to regret passing on Alex Verdugo. He was third in my waiver priorities in the five outfielder leagues, and I would say all of these guys, just five outfielder leagues,

Beck, Pahas, and then Verdugo was a distant third, more to meet an immediate need. All right, Let's bounce around to some other players this weekend, and we had two pitchers going opposite directions here. Joe Ryan looked like a man-possessed on Sunday. Seven shutout innings, 11 strikeouts, 26 widths on 98 pitches,

18 of those on the fastball, six on the sweeper. Velocity was up a little bit here on the fastball, and that pitch in particular was just incredible for Joe Ryan. And Dylan Seas, who is off to quite a bad start. Four and a third inning, three runs allowed, four walks, six strikeouts here. It's a 576 ERA, 162 whip. All the underlying numbers still look pretty good here for Dylan Cease. But what did you guys see?

Joe Ryan, awesome start. Dylan Sees off to a pretty bad start. I think Seas just doesn't have the feel right now because like his velocities are kind of all over the place. And I mean, within his individual pitches, his fourth seamer velocity. right smack dab where it was last year. He's down. 0.3 miles per hour. That's effectively nothing.

His slider's up 1.3 miles per hour. His knuckle curve is down 1.7 miles per hour. So that just that tells me that it's a feel thing more than anything. And I think this is just normal Dylan C's variance. And if you don't want to ride the Dillan Seas ride,

I totally get it. I never want him on my teams. I never want Blake Snell on my teams. These are pictures. I don't really enjoy. But you got to know that going in, that there's going to be stretches like this. And I don't think there's a ton to even get into with Dillon Seas. And then with Joe Ryan.

I mean, the only thing I would say for Dillon Sees is, I mean, everything under the hood looks normal enough that he seems like a clear by low. Yeah, no, I agree with that. If the person who has him is panicking. Yeah, I was arguing against panicking. But if the press is and they are not listening. Yeah, go ahead, go try to trade for Dylan C's. Joe Ryan, four awesome starts, and then he's given up, I think, 10 runs in the other two. Most of the damage against him this season has come on his two most, his two least used pitches.

I believe that's the slider and the sinker. Everything else has an ex-wobe below 292. Everything else has whiff rates right around where they're supposed to be. I think Joe Ryan's where he's supposed to be. Yeah, a 318 ERA.91 whip 10.3K per 9. Obviously all those numbers got a lot better after this start, but, you know, when we just put everything together, this is, looks like that's who Joe Ryan should be.

Starters sit these starting pitchers this week, and Pablo Lopez returned from the IL against the Angels, five innings to run, six strikeouts. He is 46% starting. and he's at the Guardians this week. Are you guys good getting Pablo back out there? Sure. I mean, I'm not totally confident that he's who we've known him to be in recent years.

I don't know that we're going to get that ace caliber outcome from Lopez, but I don't think I saw any lingering effects of the injury here. All right. What about Robbie Ray who had his best start of the season up against the 3? Rangers, seven innings, two runs, eight strikeouts, 23 whiffs on 97 pitches, 69% started on CBS and home against the Rockies this week. Absolutely starting. This was the start we've been waiting all year for.

Changeable looked great. Yeah, that new changeup you learned from Terrick Scouble. He got five whiffs on that. He was getting whiffs on everything. And I think get back to the point I made earlier in the show about how big of a difference control makes, I think that was the biggest difference here for Robbie Ray. Now, he has enough history of control lapses that I don't think we can just assume everything's fine now, but he threw 71% of his pitches for strikes in this start versus 59% previously.

59 is horrible, 71% is amazing. So opposite ends of the spectrum there. And he dominated 23 whiffs on 97 pitches. His swinging strike rate for the season went from 11% pretty absolutely. average to 13%, which is very good. So that's how much one start can change your perspective on a guy this early in the season still. I will also say he's barely throwing his curveball this year and he threw it 12% of the time in this one and it was really good. He threw it for strikes.

I don't know why he got away from that. That was a really good pitch for him last year. So I'd like to see the expanded arsenal stick with Robbie right here. Roki Sasaki is starting to provide more length. He has gone five plus innings in three straight. He also has not exceeded four strikeouts in any start this season. What do you guys do with Roki Sasaki at the Braves this week? I'm closer to dropping him than viewing him as a must start pitcher.

He's definitely not a must start pitcher. I'm also probably not dropping him, so he's not particularly close to either. But I think he's much closer to dropable than someone who needs to be in lineups every week. Yeah, well said. Luis Castillo bounced back with a strong. start up against the Marlins, six shot out innings with five strikeouts. He had 17 whiffs on 90 pitches. Four starts at home this season, 157 ERA. Two starts on the road, 868 ERA. Luis Castillo at the

Rangers this week. Probably still start him, but yeah, yeah. Probably still start him, but he does seem like a pitcher on the decline, 11.7% swinging strike rate now, which is similar to last year, years ago was 14.6%. I just, I don't think, I don't think that version of Luis Castillo is coming back. Walker Bueller over his last four starts has a 259 ERA and a 107 whip

and he is home against the twins this week. What are you guys saying? So probably sit, like if you're even rostering him, he's reinventing himself this year pretty clearly and it's working so far. Like, in his last four starts, Walker Bueller

has a, he has a 259 ERA 107 whip 8.1K per 9 and what he's done during that time is he started throwing six pitches 10% or more so he's going with the kitchen sink approach and we contact 86th percentile average exit velocity for him

it looks like he's trying to be Seth Lugo basically at least for four starts it's worked for Walker Bueller I'm skeptical that somebody can just nap their fingers and become Seth Lugo. But it's at least worth keeping an eye on. Mitchell Parker turned back into a pumpkin here on Sunday against the Mets. Five innings, seven runs, six of those earned five walks to zero strikeouts. I have him in starter sit because he's 76% roster, but I don't know.

You guys might want to drop him. This is the problem with the like, I don't know how he's doing it, but he's doing it. He's hot right now. is like, yeah, but that can end really quickly when you're talking about these marginal type of players. And if they're still in your lineup when it ends, you can get 12 hits and six earned runs in five innings. Like that that's that's always there's a reason why like, yes, I understand Mitchell Parker was pitching well. I'm not even going to say he was just getting good results. He was pitching well.

He was executing his pitch as well. Really good command, all that stuff. The problem is the underlying skill set just wasn't strong enough to sustain it. the underlying skill set. We saw it in the second half. He just fell apart. This is why I'm always skeptical to suggest these guys even as streamers, because when it goes wrong, it can go really wrong.

So that sounds like a bench. Is that a drop? That's a, I never put a bid in for Mitchell Parker. Yeah. I actually might have in one points league. Yeah. All right. What about Jack Leiter who struggled in his return from the I.L?

He was at the Giants. and he had four walks of three strikeouts, only through 55% of his pitches for strikes. I really hope that this time on the IL didn't kind of disrupt this flow that he was in because it looked like he got off to a nice start. He's still 82% roster, 23% started. Home against the Mariners this week. I think it's a pretty clear just sit for now, but are you guys holding Jack Leiter? Yeah, I would say given the state of starting pitching on the waiver wire right now,

I mean, that uninspiring list of sleeper pitchers for next week that we talked about earlier. I think you'll hold on to Jack Leiter for now. Another starter two like this. Obviously, we're talking about dropping them, but not yet. All right, let's get into the rest of the leftovers from the weekend. And continuing on with the pitchers, some standouts. Kodi, Senga, Seth Lugo, Shane Boz, and Paul Skeens. All great starts this weekend.

Anything that stood out, anything you want to touch on for those four. Sena, Lugo, Baz, Skeens. So, I, Boz is weird. What he's doing is really weird right now. And I don't know if we have a ton of time to dive as deep as I would like to into it. And maybe we save it for another segment where we're a little less busy. I want to do a deep dive article on him as well because he has a,

an in-zone pitch rate of 55%. So 55% of his pitches are in the strike zone. his contact rate on pitches in the strike zone is 83%. That's higher than the league average. And his chase rate is 24%. So he is throwing the ball in the strike zone a ton. He is not getting swings and misses on pitches inside the strike zone. And he is not generating chases at a high rate.

And he has a 32% strike rate. Last season, there were four pitchers who had an in-zone pitch rate over 52% an in-zone contact rate over to 83% and a chase rate below 25%. They collectively had a 17% strikeout rate. He's doing a good job of getting a lot of called strikes and he's doing a good job of generating swinging strikes. He's not elite at either,

but it's leading to elite strikeout rates. That's how he's doing it. It feels pretty unsustainable to me. But he's also talented enough that I don't don't want to just flat out call him up a sell high candidate. It's just I don't think the 32% strikeout rate is sustainable. Maybe it can be 27%. And he's still doing a great job of limiting hard contact and the whole thing can work.

The change up and curveball look really good. They're getting good results so far. It's just I'm not buying the elite strikeout rate from Shane Boss. Another thing to mention here is that the high strikeout rate is really just he had two starts with double digit strikeouts. The other starts, the strikeouts were whatever. So, I mean, there could just be some small, some oversampling from just a couple different starts this early in the season.

Of course, that might also apply to the negative aspects you're viewing there. Samples are small. But some shame, Baz, we don't really know who he is yet. It's obviously worth pointing out. I know I said this all year and I got killed for and he made me look dumb. I think Seth Lugo is an even more obvious

self-high candidate than it was last year. His strikeout rates down, his walk rates up, quality of contact he's allowing his worse than it was, or better than it was last year. I think there's a lot of signs pointing to Seth Lugo not remaining a must-start pitcher.

He's going to continue to make me look dumb. I know. I'm aware. You don't have to say it. I know. Continuing on, we got great starts for us. Nathan Avaldi, Framber Valdez, Terrick Scoubel, and Hunter Brown.

Anything to add on those four? So Framber Valdez has gotten away from throwing the curveball so much. He threw it only, let's see, I think it was like about 20, was it 25% in this start? I'll find in a second. But during his successful run at the end of last season when he was missing a lot more bats, getting a lot more strikeouts. He started throwing that curve ball like 35% of the time. And that's how it started out this year too.

But I don't think he was finding the success he wanted to right away. So the curve ball was only 26% this time in this start. You see he just had five strikeouts in those eight innings. He wasn't really like a great strikeout pitcher until last year. So like we know with his elite ground ball skills, he doesn't need that to be a high-end fantasy option. And I just think, I just think the idea that he's going to be that version with the high curveball, high strike, get ready the last couple months, that that's just going to apply to this year now. I think that's probably out the window.

It doesn't mean it won't be good. It's just you can't translate that small sample success to a full season with Fromber Valdez. Three more pitching standouts. Nick Lodolo had his best start of the season and it came in Cores Field. Aranola had his best start of the season at the Cubs. and then Max Meyer turns out he is human at the Mariners. Four innings, five runs, four walks, still had six strikeouts in this one.

Anything that you guys wanted to mention on Ladolo, Max Meyer, and Aronola? I wonder if we'll see more of what the Mariners did with Max Meyer, which was stacked the lineup with Lefties. He's a four-seamer slider guy, primarily there's a change-up to Lefties only, really. And I wonder if like the slider should still be good against lefties, but obviously you'd rather throw it to same-handed pitch hitters. I also don't know if other teams can put. Yeah.

Teams have four-man benches now and one's a catcher. So I don't think that's an option for most teams. But that was the one thing I noticed from Max Meyer. I'm not particularly worried about this moving forward. And then Nicodolo, I straight up do not understand what's going on with Nicodola. I don't understand. Like, I've asked if, like, any of the Reds beatwriters have seen anything, talk to him about his curveball, because he's getting significantly less movement with it. I don't think this version of Nicodolo can work moving forward, a mediocre strikeout elite control guy.

I just don't buy it. But I don't know. I can't figure out Nicodolo at all. Does this make, oh, I didn't write down how many whiffs he had on the curb. ball on his last start. Like, you're right, the curveball movement has been unsettling, and the strikeouts weren't there for him early on. But I think the whiffs have picked up on the curveball, even though it doesn't have the old

movement profile. He got, it had a 50% whiff rate in this starts, six on 20 pitches. So I'm becoming a little more hopeful for Lodolo after his last three starts. But I share your concern about the curveball. I mean, that's always been. that's always been the make or break pitch for him. All right, some hitting leftovers from the weekend. Dylan Cruz has picked things up last nine games,

hitting 382 with four home runs and two steals. Zach Netto had himself a huge game on Saturday, three for four with a home run, and three steals in one game. Luis Robert, not doing much, but he is running. So I guess that's a good thing. He had three steals this weekend. He's up to 10 on the season.

Raphael Devers had himself a nice, weekend. He must have listened to Scottie doesn't know on Friday. Five hits, two homers, five runs, three RBI for Devers this weekend. Jaron, seven hits and two steals. And then Geraldo Pardomo had another huge game on Sunday.

One for four with a sock in two shoes. He is up to four homers, six steals, 3.76 on base percentage for Pardomo. Before this game, he was slowing down quite a bit, but it's been a great start for

Perdomo. Anything else that you guys wanted to mention here with these hitters? I mean, if Perdomo is going to run like this, then there may be something here. I guess we've had this conversation before, right?

And we talked about maybe he could be Andres Jimenez. Or was that him we were talking about or was that somebody else? That sounds right. Yeah, I mean, he hasn't run like this before in his career, already up to six steals. And only once has he ever gotten to double

digits at nine last year. So I'm not totally dismissive of Pardomo being useful, but I think there is more regression to come, particularly the home run pace. I don't think he can sustain or the walk pace. I mean, he's getting on base at kind of a crazy rate so far. So that's what I'd say about him. And Dylan Cruz, I just looked up. So it's actually a 12-game stretch.

he's hit safely in 11 of 12. His strikeout rate during that 11 for 12, 11, hitting safely in 11 of 12, three home runs, I'm sorry, four home runs, three steals during that time. But most importantly, the strikeout rate is 13%.

So even that seems to have corrected itself for Dylan Cruz after those early struggles. During that, Scott, he doesn't know, Segment for Raphael Devers. We talked about how the strikeouts really had corrected for him, too, even though, you know, he had a bad week or whatever in terms of production.

It's not like the strikeouts were escalating again. So I thought you had reason to be optimistic about him. And I think this weekend showed that for Raphael Devers. I think Raphael Devers is just himself. I have zero concerns about him moving forward. I've actually moved him back ahead of Jazz Chisholm, the rest of the way in my rankings. And then Dylan Cruz, I'm buying. he struck out 10 times in his first four games.

He has 24 strikeouts on the season. It was just a bad weekend. And I understand that we didn't have a lot to go on there. And it's not like the production has been unbelievable since then. But as far as the most troubling aspects of his profile, it was literally a bad weekend for Dylan Cruz. I think he's going to be fine. All right.

We spoke about all the bullpens earlier. Really, one of the biggest stories of the week. So let's just wrap up with to stream or not to stream on Monday. We have Griffin Canning who was at the Nationals. Nick Martinez home against the Cardinals J.P. Sears at the Rangers will Warren and Tomoyuki Sugano are facing each other. Uh, buddy, I I want no part of any part of this. I know Tomoyuki Sagano's had two two seven innings starts in a row. Yeah. Yeah, no, no, no way. I'm

starting him against the Yankees. I think the amount of contact he gives up and the amount of loud contact he gives up, this is definitely going to end in seven one run innings. So the two pitchers on here who are part of my weekly stream options are J.P. Sears at Texas and Griffin Canning at Washington. Oh, I missed Canning. I would start him. Probably had, yeah, Canning Overseers, I would say.

Yeah. But those are weekly streamer options because partly because they're in line. for two starts. Obviously, that doesn't matter on a daily streamer segment. But I still think they're probably the best two here. Canning and Sears just rather not have to do that. Well, Tuesday is not great either. The two names that are probably best here, Reese Olson at the Astros and Eduardo Rodriguez at the Mets, but even that, it's kind of shaky. I don't love the matchups, yeah. I mean, Olson, Houston hasn't been great this season.

I like what he's doing, but I don't love that as a streamer. I think it's okay. You can go Ryan Gusto against the Tigers. I'd rather have resource. Olson is the best streamer for either Monday or Tuesday, I would say, Houston, even though it's still not ideal. I might go canning over him. I might.

Okay. All right. We are going to wrap there for Scott Chris. I am Frank. Thanks, as always, for tuning into fantasy baseball today. Please make sure to follow and leave a five-star rating on Apple or Spotify. and we will be back again tomorrow. Bye-bye.

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