Fantasy Baseball Today - Buy, Sell or Hold, Ronald Acuña Update & Cubs Promote Moises Ballesteros! (5/13 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Merrill Kelly is on a roll right now (2:20). ... Zach Neto looks like a stud since coming off the IL (7:38). ... Drop Tanner Houck (11:51)! ... The Tigers destroyed the Red Sox, led by Gleyber Torres (14:22). ... News (21:19): Ronald Acuña is starting his rehab assignment and the Cubs are promoting Moises Ballesteros! ... Ivan Herrera needs to be rostered in all one-catcher leagues (32:06). ... Can Clarke Schmidt climb the rankings (43:42)? ... Buy, sell or hold these starting pitchers (46:07)? ... These hitters have had some ups and downs (53:45). ... We wrap up with leftovers, bullpens and streamers (1:01:55). 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's up and welcome into Fantasy Baseball today on Tuesday, May 13th. I am Frank Stample, joined by Scott White and Chris Towers.

Today on the show, we finally have an update on Ronald. De Cunia, the Cubs are promoting Moises by Asteroes. We'll do a little buy, sell, or hold, and much more. Let's jump in. I don't believe what I just saw. All right, Scott, you are up, player of the night. Merrill Kelly. Merrill Kelly. Great start for Merrill Kelly here at the Giants, one-and-run and seven innings. He walked nobody. He struck out eight. And pretty much every starts been good, except for one terrible one against the Yankees where I gave up nine earned runs on April 3rd. You take that out. Merrill Kelly has a 22080RA.8-8-8-8-Wip on the year. It looks like a grand return to form for this guy who was so bad last year. And yet, here I'm,

here I am, what am I going to do when there's a good start from an unexpected source? I'm going to crap all over it because that's what I do. Merrill Kelly, so there was a velocity drop for him that coincided with his struggles. And it's remained there. It hasn't come back. Furthermore, he had a 494 XERA last year. It's actually 495 this year, at least coming into the start, probably a little lower now. But it's not good.

It's not like we saw from him in 2023, 413 XERA, and 2022. 362 XERA. So I don't know how he's getting away with it, but I don't, I think it is getting away with the situation. I don't think Merrill Kelly's going to keep this up. And I think if you can sell high on him, that's something to explore. It's not, I don't know that anybody thinks of him is particularly high end, so it might not be possible and you maybe just write out the hot streak or whatever.

But the point is, I don't think Merrill Kelly is going to be a reliable. part of your fantasy staff all season long. I will say there is something about Merrill Kelly, and I don't know what it is. But there is something that has helped him outperform his expected stats throughout his career. You know, we're talking about probably what, like an 800 inning sample size, 875 innings since 2019. He has a 303 Wobah against compared to a 322X Woba. That's a really large sample size to have a gap that big. What that translates to in terms of outperforming the XERA,

you know, you look in most years, he does outperform. It fluctuates, but it's been pretty consistently about a half a run or better. Most years, of course, if the XERA is 495,

that would suggest a low force ERA rather than the... I mean, I'm just saying, like the underlying stats, he looks like last year, even though he's getting better results. Yeah, no, and that's what I'm saying is that he's probably a four-ish ERA starter, which means there will be stretches where he has a three ERA for six to eight starts. And there will be stretches where he has an eight or a five ERA for six to eight starts. Whether that will be predictable, I tend to think not.

you know, he's put up three good starts in a row against the Phillies, Mets, and Giants. Well, the Giants aren't a tough matchup, but the Phillies and Mets sure are. So I don't necessarily think, like, he had a one earned run in five and two thirds innings against the Cubs also. So I don't necessarily think this is a situation where you can just play the matchups and feel confident that you're going to get good stuff out of Merrill Kelly. It's just, I'm fine streaming him. I'm also totally fine dropping him.

He's one of those just in that large middle where I think Tomi Yuki Sagano, who we talked about yesterday probably is. He's much more rostered than Sugano, which is why I brought in high possibility, at least in CBS leagues, 89% rostered. So almost as high as a starting pitcher can be. Yeah, so no, I agree.

Yeah. I think he's, if you can get someone to buy in, totally fine selling on Moises biased or sorry I'm Merrill Kelly. Whoa, whoa, don't jump ahead. That means just looking at the rundown and you know. I know for sure that there are going to be comments and we're going to get tweets about how we don't like any pitchers and every pitcher is bad. But again, we're just keeping it real with you. Entering the start, Merrill Kelly had an 8.8% swinging strike rate, meaning he doesn't get whiffs.

And his average exit velocity against was 90. 4 miles per hour. So typically, you want your pitcher to, I mean, if they're really good, get WIFs and limit hard contact. If they can't do both, then you want one of those things. And right now, Merrill Kelly isn't really doing either of those things. And he still is getting... He is getting great results.

So it's like we said with Sagano and you guys have talked about this, like ride it while it's hot. Obviously Merrill Kelly's pitching well right now. He's hot. You could just kind of go with it as long as this last. But just know, you know, again, you might get caught. holding the bag at some point here. Merrill Kelly has another one of those like blow-up starts

like he did against the Yankees earlier this season. Over my player, then I want to talk about Zach Netto, who has just been fantastic since returning, right? Coming back from shoulder surgery, and I was scared to death of Zach Netto because, A, I didn't know when he would return the season. And B, he's not really someone that generates so far in his career. He hadn't generated hard contact.

So, you know, it was really kind of just that. pulled fly ball approach and just really squeezing the most out of his power potential so far in his career. And I didn't know how much of that would be here coming back from a shoulder injury. But, I mean, he has just been so, so good. I mean, he's hitting 279, five home runs, 16 runs scored seven steals, 845 OPS in 22 games. Strikeout rate a little bit elevated, but he is hitting the ball incredibly hard. 94.4 average exit velocity. the barrels are there, pulling the ball a ton again this season,

tons of line drives as well, and the expected stats were just tremendous entering this one. 292XBA, 582 X-Lug. He's up to 90% rostered, so there's not really anything actionable here. But I just wanted to, I guess, confirm that if you have Zach Netto on your team, you might just have a stud shortstop on your hands,

because that's how it looks right now. Yeah, I mean, I thought it was clear from his, first week back from the injury. Okay, this shoulder's not really a problem. He looked great on the rehab assignment too. I wrote about it a couple weeks ago in one of my weekly articles, rankings movers, and put Zach Netto up to 13th at shortstop right away. This is a guy, of course, who had 23 homers and 30 steals.

So that kind of makes the case on its own, the 23 homers, 30 steals last year. I don't totally buy the expected stats. the plate discipline is still pretty horrible. I think any time you have an average exit velocity of 94 miles per hour, the expected stats are going to look pretty good. But I don't think, I don't think Netto is going to maintain a near-judgean level of average exit velocity.

It'll probably regress a little bit, but I think he'll be fine. I think he'll be similar to last year, if not a little better. And that'll make him, like I said, I have him 13th at shortstop. I might be on the verge of moving in the head of Willie Adomis and Matt McLean, who are 12 and 11. I think Netto belongs in the same discussion as those two at least. I'm looking at the rankings now, and I just thought maybe he deserves to be ranked 10th at the position, right?

It feels like there's a pretty clear top nine that ends with, in some order, O'Neill Cruz, Corey Seeger, C.J. Abrams. Seeger went on the I.L. again, unfortunately. But then you get into Adamas, who's off to a very slow start in San Francisco. Boba Chet, who we all love. liked coming into the season, but it has been a pretty slow start for him as well. And Matt McLean, he batting average, yeah. Matt McLean, who's hitting 170 so far this season. So, yeah, like, why can't Zach Netto just be right after that group of nine?

Why can he just be the 10th shortstop? I don't know. I might move him up that high. Kind of feels like he deserves it. I'll still take Bo Bichette over him. I think better days are ahead for Bichette. I think much better days are ahead for Adamas, Bichette, and McLean. And I think worst days are ahead for Netto.

So I think we're we're kind of catching them passing each other. But I don't think I've seen enough from any of those guys to dramatically change my preseason ranking of them yet. But, you know, Netto in my most recent ranking was already up to 14. One spot behind Danesby Fonson, that would be a pretty easy one to jump him. I think 13 is probably. Swanson's hot. He's pretty good himself. He is hot.

He is hot. Up to nine home runs. But I don't think he's a 30 home. Homer guy, and I don't think he's going to be nearly as good in stolen bases as Zach Netto. So I, I, um, that, that's one swap I think would be fairly easy to make. Last 13 games for Danesby Swanson, 422 with five home runs, 12 runs scored and OPS over 1300 during that time. Chris, over to you for your player of the night. Tanner Halk.

Traumatic sigh. I just, I didn't like him coming into the season. What did he do to you? And then as a player, I'm sure he's fine as a person. But as a player, I didn't like him. And it was a really bad start to the season. Then he gave up 11 runs and two into third innings. And I tried to drop him in one league and whatever I had tried to add him for, didn't go through.

So he ended up just sticking on my team. And then at some point, he showed a little glimpse of something. You know, that velocity was up like two, three miles per hour in one start. and it was even still up last time. And I actually started him this week. Oh, Chris. And I started him for the previous blow up. Oh, my.

Those two starts alone. So you didn't like Tanner Howe coming into the season, but you are now his biggest fan. I had him in the no thanks section of the two-star pitchy. Don't blame me. If I hadn't started Tanner Howick, my season ERA would be 371, which isn't great,

but is competitive. Instead, it's 431. Oh, my God. Just two-star. I wanted my home league. How many teams? 12. I shouldn't have started Tanner Huck.

I get it. I understand. We're all on the same page there. We don't need to. It's just, man, like there's nothing to say, right? Like, I think Tanner Halk will probably be something like a low fours ERA pitcher moving forward if he

even gets the chance. But these two starts have been so disastrous that, I don't see how you leave him in the rotation. Like once you can write off. Twice, no. And he now has a 460A and a 134 whip over the past calendar year. Because remember, he was pretty bad in the second half. So yeah, that, um, bad decisions by me.

Bad, bad, bad, bad decisions. Would you guys like to, we've all been there? Would you guys like to guess how, what he finished with on CBS in a, in a points League. Minus 24. Yeah, I was going to say minus 23. Minus 22 for Tanner Halk.

And Scott, Scott, you are the lucky recipient of going against Tanner Halk in the Dynasty League. So congrats to you. I didn't notice that. I did see I was up by a lot, but I didn't see why. Yeah, that would be the reason. Let's talk about who did all of this damage

against Tanner Halk. The Tigers destroyed the Red Sox. They put up 14 runs on 18 hits. How about those tigers, They have had a great start to the season. Glaber Torres has had a great start. Three for three with his fifth home run. He is batting 304, five homers, 24 RBI, four steals, 857 OPS.

He has more walks and strikeouts. He has a 9% strikeout rate on the season. I don't think that's going to last, but obviously that has helped him with the great start here. Trey Sweeney had a nice game, three for five with his fourth home run. In 10 May games, he is hitting 425 with 300. homers and an OPS over 1100.

And then Javier Baez, three more hits. Last 13 games for him, hitting 388, three home runs, 17 RBI, OPS over 1100 during that 13 game stretch. For every day that goes by, do you guys maybe start to buy Glaver Torres a little bit more in Detroit? So, I don't have like a good explanation for it. and so much of what he's doing is really out of the norm for him. But I don't know, Scott, maybe you have some explanation for it. I wrote about Glaber Torres a week ago. He was one of five early season standouts who I thought was deserving of skepticism.

And I probably wrote the most about him because it was a little, It was a little hard to break down. So his average and max exit velocity is Glabertores, which I think would be the clearest sign of him turning a corner as a hitter. They're pretty much in line with career norms. But then again, they also were last year when he was terrible. So it was kind of confounding then, like what's going on with Glabre Torres if he's hitting the ball basically as hard as normal.

His strikeout rate is way down this year. It's only 9%, which is honestly too low to believe, given his track record. But it also was down quite a bit last year, too. It was like 15%. And obviously it didn't work out very well for him. I will point out that his pull air rate is up this year to 19%. That's the highest since his first two years in the league, 2018, 2019, when Claibor Torres was at the high.

height of his home run powers. So that's probably the single thing. Well, that and the ridiculously low strikeout rate are probably the two main things driving this hot start for Glabertores. And while I could see him sustaining the pole air rate is really the strikeout rate. I just don't give him any chance of sustaining one that low because it's so such an outlier league wide and such a departure from the rest of his career. Not that he's ever been like a high strikeout guy,

but that's a ridiculously low level. You can't expect anyone who's never shown that capability in the past to sustain it. And then with the pull air rate, the thing that hangs over all of this for Glaber Torres is that he wound up in maybe the worst venue for him. Historically, you look at his expected home run numbers over the years playing. at Comerica Park just bottoms out. Like he would have lost upward of 30 home runs

for his entire career if he'd played every game. 40 or closer to 40? Yeah. Compared to a Yankee Stadium, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think I was just comparing it to the career number. But yeah, a lot is the point.

So I think that's the single factor that makes him deserving of the most skepticism. When the strikeout rate normalizes, let's say the polar rate regresses a little bit too what's he going to be left with and I don't think it's going to to be especially impactful in fantasy

maybe it'll end up being like where we expect Jonathan India to end up and so Gleiber Torres will be usable enough but I don't think he's going to be especially high end and I don't think you need to be feel like you're tied to him if you

want to do something else with that roster spot. A couple other big performances here. I just wanted to mention real quick. Corbyn Carroll, two for three with two more home runs. He is up to 13 and 42 games. That is a 50 homer pace. His career high is 25, which he had back in 2023. So looks like we might be getting a career year out of Corbyn Carroll.

And then Robert Suarez, complete other end of the spectrum, imploded in the ninth inning. he entered with a two-run lead, he gave up a single, and then walked four in a row. He was eventually charged with five runs because the next reliever allowed a grand slam to Taylor Ward. So just a complete implosion there by the Padres bullpen and a very rough outing for Robert Swares. Before we hit our first break,

big thanks to those watching us live. Make sure to hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube if you haven't already. Let's take that break, and we'll be back right after this. Welcome back in fantasy baseball today. News and notes, it is time for Ronald O'Cunia, who is scheduled to begin a minor league rehab assignment in the rookie level Florida Complex League on Tuesday.

There is no timeline as of now for how long he will be on a rehab assignment, but just based on it being May 13th, my guess is they'll give them at least a couple of weeks. I think late May, early June, assuming no setbacks, right? Ron Lecuna? Yeah, probably. I think it'll, I think they're not putting a timeline on it because they want to see how it goes. How good he looks in the field, how good he looks at the plate, just however long it takes him to convince them, they're ready.

And I would think at least two weeks, though. I would be shocked if it was less than two weeks, yeah, because, you know, you look at like a normal spring training and you're probably getting, what, 50 to 60 played a place? appearances, that's probably about 15 games, I would guess. So that would be something around there would be what I would expect. Sticking with the Braves, Spencer Shrider is scheduled to throw 70 to 75 pitches in a simulated game on Wednesday, assuming that goes well. I think maybe we can get him back as soon as next week. The Cubs are reportedly calling up prospect Moises by Astero. It sounds like Ian Hap will go on the IL. So that does open up the DH spot. could put Seiz Suzuki in the outfield.

I don't know if Byesteros will just play every day at D.H because obviously the Cubs have Carson Kelly and Miguel Amaya as well. Miguel Amaya's got an A15 OPS. He's been really good this season. Yes, it is a great problem for them to have. Byosteros, a 21-year-old catcher who was hitting 368 with four home runs, a 942 OPS in the minors this season. He has 13% rostered.

Scott, obviously two catcher leagues. I think you can take a crack here. anything shallower than that where you'd be looking to add Moises by Asteroz right now. I mean, it's such a, it's such a difficult spot because, you know,

with the DH spot opening up, Ian Hapert, say a Suzuki shifting to the outfield, it gave them an opportunity to give Amaya the abats he needed. And they had both Amaya and Kelly in the lineup, and I thought they would just stick with that. But calling up by Asteros,

who is one of the prospects who's risen the most this year, was the top 100 guy to begin with, but he's just been so good at AAA. And at such a young age that I think he's now considered like a premier prospect. They got to find a bad for him. 368. Right. And he's struck out in less than half his games there, 16th strikeouts in 34 games.

He, his line drive rate is 28%. He hits it to the opposite field as much as he pulls it. So this guy is really built for batting average. And unlike other guys who we've, seen built for batting average, he actually makes high quality contact. And he's doing all this as, I think he's 21 still. Yes. So there's, there's, there's plenty of room for growth there too. It's, uh, like he can definitely hit by Esteros. But DH might be his future as a major leaguer, particularly with the Cubs having a catcher surplus. That's, he's also played first base in the

miners, but he's 5 foot 8. You really don't want a guy that short at first base. It obviously makes for more misthrows and whatnot. And also, Michael Bush is a good. He's a good left-handed hitting first baseman who has played a third of an inning at third base since getting to the Cubs. He has played more in the minors. I kind of wish they'd just do that, shift Bush back to third base, but I don't think that's.

I just don't think they're going to, yeah. Plus, they want Matt Chaw to come back eventually, too. So, so, yeah, it's like Bayesteros is stuck in, with Carson Kelly's emergence this year, he's stuck in like the worst organization for him because he can't even really be their backup catcher. And so now they got this opening at DH and we'll see how it goes. I would guess since he's a left-handed batter, he'll sit against lefties and they'll use that opportunity to get Kelly and Amaya in the lineup at the same time. But otherwise, Byesteros is going to play. against Rite, he's at D.H.

And they'll continue to split-catcher duties between Kelly and Amaya like they already were. And we'll see how it goes. We'll reassess once Ian Hap is ready to return. But it's hard to imagine if everyone's healthy that they could justify keeping Biosteros belong around after that. I really want to be excited about Moises Biosteros. He is, after all, a big, beefy baseball boy. and just an exciting like I love watching a dude shaped like that

hit like this I just think that is one of the most fun things about baseball but I just I can't see look life finds away he could force their hand it's really hard to see a scenario where he like

if he's just gotten a thousand OPS in two weeks then it won't matter right they're not going to send him down he's got OPS probably a lot more likely he's probably going down as soon as he enhap's ready

the only way they could keep him around with a thousand OPS if everybody's healthy it would they would have to shift push to third yeah no like what other choice is there

to give everybody if he's if he's clearly a difference maker I think he's just got to figure out a way to make it work yeah

I just he can't play he can't play anywhere else is the point. He's just not, he doesn't have an athletic enough build to try in the outfield. I've seen some talk. I've seen some talk of him playing third base, but he's never done it. Other than myself raising that in a recent prospects report, I haven't seen talk of it. I raised it because he, the whole profile kind of reminds me of Pablo Sandival and he went from catcher to third base. But I, I don't know that anybody with any real authority has, has speculated that for, by Estero. Bush would make far more sense. All right. Well, for anybody listening, if you have any contacts in the Cubs organization,

make sure to send Scott's article that way, and maybe we can, you know, make some moves. Logan Gilbert is scheduled to throw a bullpen on Tuesday. He's on the IL with a right elbow flexor strain. George Kirby is expected to make another rehab start at AAA Friday. Corey Seeger is likely headed back to the IL with that right hamstring injury. As expected, the Rangers were called Jake Berger from AAA. he is 52% roster. Do you think that number needs to be much higher? Yes.

Whatever number of categories-based leagues there are. I think Jake Berger should be rostered in at least that many. And then a decent number of points leagues. He's worse and points. But this was a top 100 pick in a lot of leagues a month and a half ago. And a top 120 pick in basically everything. I didn't have him rank that high. but I don't think what we saw in the first 28,

9, 29 games, whenever it was from him, should change your expectation about Jake Berger at all. I remember his first 29 games last year. Oh, it was way. He was terrible for the first three months of the season. He finished June with a 245 Wobah for the season at the end of June and then hit 22 homers over the final three months.

Like this is just. the normal Jake Burger experience, it's just that he was on a team that couldn't afford to let him play. So I think all your upside expectations, all your upside hopes for Jake Burger are still very much in play. And I'll take him at whatever he costs in fab

compared to the top 10 round pick he was before the season. Sticking with the Rangers, Luke Jackson exited after getting hit by a line drive comebacker. He was relieved by Jacob Webb, who gave up a hit and walked and walked, but converted his first save of the season. We'll have to wait and see more, but I believe they already kind of ruled out anything major being wrong with Luke Jackson. If there were, I assume maybe Chris Martin would get an opportunity,

but we'll have to wait for more information there. Jackson Merrill was back in the lineup after missing Sunday with an illness, and I believe he had three hits in that game, so just continues to hit. Jose Altuvae returned to the lineup on Monday. Neil Cruz has missed two straight with lower back tightness. Ian Hat missed three straight with oblique discomfort. We mentioned he's likely to go on the aisle. Sounds like the plan is for Jordan Loller to play four to five games per week,

shuffling through second base, third base, and shortstop. So it's kind of annoying for some of those other players too because they might lose out on a game here or there. The Yankees have had the same problem where they're, you know, they have to find a way to get Trent Grisham in the lineup. So Bellinger loses a game. Jason Dominguez loses a game here or there. Ben Rice will lose a D.H.

game, so it's kind of annoying. It's a good problem for the Major League team to have, but obviously we want as much volume as humanly possible. So, you know, Jordan Lawler, four to five times per week. That's what it sounds like for now. Brandon Woodruff won't be reinstated this week as he's now dealing with right ankle tendonitis.

Ben lively left to start Monday due to right forearm inflammation. Jose Cantana felt shoulder soreness after his last start. plans to throw a bullpen on Wednesday, and if that goes well, he will start Friday against the twins. Justin Martinez will throw to live hitters on Wednesday after a successful bullpen this past weekend. AJ Puck, expect to begin a throwing program in the coming week. He's on the 60-day aisle with elbow inflammation.

The Guardians option, Brian Rokio to AAA, Gabriel Arias, started at shortstop with Daniel Schneeman at second, and a pretty nasty injury late in the Yankees game. Oswaldo Cabrera had to be driven off the field in an ambulance. It wasn't just like they brought out the cart and that wasn't enough. Like they had, he had to go in an ambulance. It looked like a broken ankle, kind of a gruesome replay. So if you're not into that kind of stuff, don't look it up.

He was obviously really shaking up. You feel for the guy. Sounds like DJ LaMayhew will return on Tuesday for the Yankees and so maybe a pretty natural replacement there at third base. Let's get into some Waverwire hitters here from Monday's action. And in one catcher leagues, Yvonne Herrera, just picking up where he left off, hit his fifth home run here.

He has at least one hit in each of the three games since coming off the IEL. 355 batting average, five home runs in 10 games played this season. He's 71% rostered. And I wanted to mention Austin Wells, who hit his eighth home run as well. He's just playing a lot,

a lot of volume here for the Yankees catcher. He's got four home runs in the past 10 games. 215 batting average. You don't love that. But 28 RBI, eight home runs, 760 OPS. It sounds pretty good there. And he is 77% rostered. And in one catcher league, who do you guys like more?

Austin Wells or Yvonne Herrera. Oh, Herrera, easily. Herrera has, I don't know if it's overstating it to say the Herrera has best hitting catcher and baseball upside. Like his career ex-Wob, I believe, is 362, which is higher than willing Petraeus. It's higher than Adley Ruchman's career. like what he has shown and he was a good hitter in the minors,

it gives real William Contreras vibes. I don't think Austin Wells has that kind of upside. And the thing I'm worried about with how much he's playing, he broke down last year. His last like 40 or so games, 50 or so games, including the playoffs, he was brutal. Remember, he had like a 400 OPS in the postseason as well. So I'm just a little worried about how Austin Wells is going to age.

I guess this season, but he's only 25 years old. I think he's good. Yeah. I just, I think Yvonne Herrera is clearly the better overall player. Yeah, I'm struggling with how high to, I'm going to do my big rankings update tomorrow. And I'm struggling how high to put Ivan Herrera.

At this point, it's, I think I could put him past Sean Murphy. Sean Murphy's backup is just too good, unfortunately. Yeah. That's been the story of his entire Braves career. I might move Hunter Goodman past Sean Murphy at this point, frankly. But Herrera, would you move him ahead of Augustine Ramirez? I know he loves.

He's already is. Ramirez. Yeah, I think so. So that gets him in the top 10 for me. For me, it's like Tyler Stevenson. I think that's a pretty easy call. Stevenson's fine, but he's never much more than fine. Yeah, he's already blown for me.

Then you've got like Logan O'Hoppy and Shea Langellango. Langelliers. Yeah. I think he has more upside than them. If I had Langleyers on my team, I wouldn't drop him for her. I wouldn't drop him, no. I have Langellors a few spots ahead of O'Hoppy. So they're kind of a different category for me.

But I may need to look at that closer. I may be, like, I may have just planted Languiliers in that nine spot right away and not budged on him. when maybe he deserved to be budged. O'Hopi's got like a 34% strikeout. It's bad, but he has nine home runs. Nine home runs at the catcher position is really good.

How many does Austin Wells have? Eight, yeah. Yeah, so I think I'd probably take Austin Wells over Logan O'Hopi at this point. But O'Hopi's hitting 264. Austin Wells is hitting 215. Right, but if you're striking out 35% of the time, you're not going to keep hitting

264. All right. So looking at it a little more, I think, yes, Oh, no Hoppe, it just, that batting average is going to collapse at some point. His XBA is 249. I'm surprised it's that. Yeah, better than I expect it. I would still take the under on the XBA from it. He's just crushing the ball.

I mean, when he puts it in him, yeah, it's, it's hard to maintain extremes like that. Yeah, O'Hoppy is a very extreme on both ends of the spectrum. He's crushing the ball, but he's also got some. the worst plate discipline in baseball. Langalears just kind of looks good at everything right now. So I have a little more faith in him than I do O'Hopi. Yeah. So I would think between. So that would be number 10 for me.

Yeah. So Langalears, Langalears Herrera and then O'Hopi after that, right? And then Austin Wells behind both of those guys. You know, I might take Goodman over O'Hoppy. and I already said I take Wells over. I'm just down on Oh Hoppy. Yeah, all right.

Well, get him out of here. Too sloppy, Oh, Hoppy. You're o' hopping off the train. Let's talk about some outfielders. Trent Grisham will not stop. Three for six with a double dong. He is up to 12 home runs. He is hitting 288.

He has a 1036 OPS. His career high was 17 home runs in 152 games. Back in 2022, he already has 12 in 30. four games this season. Chris, you made what I thought was a pretty good cop before. Like, maybe he's just this year's jerks and pro far. Trent Grisham. Yeah, I mean, remember, like, at Trent Grisham's best, quote unquote best,

he had to really lean into like the lift and pull approach to get to those 17 homers, which led to a 184 batting average that season. Huge strikeout rates, huge infield fly rates. Well, he still pops the ball up quite a bit. But he's cut the strikeout rate from 27% to 29% the previous three seasons to just 18%. With really good underlying plate discipline metrics, chase rate is one of the lowest I've ever seen at 17%. Zone contact rate up to 88%. he's also just crushing the ball.

91.7 mile per hour average exit velocity, 10.7% barrel rate, or 15.4% barrel rate, excuse me, those are by far the best marks of his career. I think it's just a hot streak that ends at some point. But he's already forced the Yankees to play him a lot more. The plan was not the plan was not to have this much Trent Grisham in our lives. He's been leading off. Yeah, he's been probably, has he been their second best player this season?

I think it's pretty clearly, like with the defense that he plays in center field as well. Well, I mean, how many players in the entire league have more than 12 home runs? How many players have been better than a 1038 OPS and really good defense in center field? That's a good point, yeah. I think it probably doesn't last,

but yeah, I'm at, this point, just add him and see. Like, maybe it's a total fluke, but maybe this jerks and pro far. How do you guys rank, uh, Trent Grisham, South Freelich, and Evan Carter? They're all between like 50 and 60% rostered right now. Grisham Gap, Carter, Freelick. I, I might put Freelick over Carter. Carter has more upside.

Yeah. He led off today, too. Yeah. I attempted a steal as well. It's really just a weekend of... He got the seal. Numbers that make me think, eh, maybe Carter's coming around.

Well, Freelick, I think, is going to be a pretty good base dealer. And even for points leagues, like the plate discipline's so good there. That I think I have more faith than Freelick being useful all season. And then Mason Wynn hit his fourth home run. 18 games since coming off the aisle.

He is hitting 279. Three homers, two steals, and OPS near 900. He is 58% rostered. If we talk about adding win in more leagues than that, it's probably points leagues at that point. I'm not sure Mason Winne needs to be rostered in points leagues. I will say I almost went with win for my oh my goodness gracious player,

not for what he did today, one for three with a home run, right? That's not that impressive. But since his, remember, he struck out, I think, eight times in his first five games of the season and was dreadful in spring training as well. since those first five games. So since the sixth game of the season, Mason win is hitting 307

with a 25 homer 112 run pace. And there was an IL stint in there. And now he's betting second in the lineup. It's 26 or 27 games, I think. So small sample size, but. More than I thought, though. Yeah, no. Like he started turning it around before he went on the IL.

And it's a 23% strikeout rate, so, you know, the 307 batting average is going to be hard to sustain. But he's been pretty good for most of the seasons so far, which is impressive. I don't know if it means like, look, shortstop is deep with difference makers. And I'm not sure Mason Wynn is a difference maker. I can't. I can't even get him in the top 25. But I think he's showing some really interesting stuff right now.

How would you guys rank Mason win, Jordan Lawler, and Hobb? your bias bias at the bottom yeah win luller bias for me i told someone they were asking me if they could drop win for luller yesterday and i it was like a head-to-head league i said and yeah and something that shallow i don't think win is enough of a difference maker sure i think you could chase the upside of luller but you know if we're playing the probabilities game who has the higher probability of finishing higher in the fantasy rankings from today for probably when.

All right, let's take our final break. When we return, we'll talk about some waiver wire pitchers and the rest of Monday's action right after this. Welcome back in Fantasy Baseball today. Quickly run through some Waverwire pitchers from Monday's action. Verlander turned in a quality start against the debacks. Clark Schmidt, also a quality start at the Mariners. And Colin Ray, quality start against the Marlins.

All are right around 60 to 70% rostered. Do any of those three jump off the page for you guys, or are they just streaming the right matchups types? They were all sleeper pitchers for this week. So, yay. Ray's next matchup this week is against the White Sox, and it was really just a matchups-related choice there with Marlins and White Sox.

So after this week, I will have basically no interest in Ray. I don't think there is a lot to get excited about there. Verlander, I've pointed out a couple times, has his highest swinging strike rate since 2019. I don't know that that's doing much for him. He's had four quality starts in five, so he's been usable. But apart from the swinging strike rate, I'm not seen a lot to get excited about with Verlander.

So I think he's probably just going to be a streamable option this year. I like him more than Ray, but still pretty low end for standard-sized leagues. Schmidt might be the one with hope of, ascending to something higher, which is probably, there's probably a more efficient way to say that, but that's the wording I landed on.

Schmidt obviously had pretty good results last year. He entered this start with two pitches, having better than a 45% whiff rate, and kind of switched things up a little bit in this start, and it still went great. So he's had three good starts in a row. I think he's trending up. I think Clark Schmidt deserves,

to be rostered, not universally, but more than Verlander, and certainly more than Ray. And then Chase Dolander had a strong start at the Rangers, six innings, one hit, two runs, three walks, seven strikeouts, only eight whiffs on 85 pitches here. He's allowed two earned runs or fewer in two of his last three outings. He also has had some big blow-up starts as well. So I think we need to see more, obviously, pitching in Corse Field on a terrible team. I think The Rockies only have like seven wins on the season. It's not great. I think it's a name to watch, a name to monitor with Chase Dolander,

but not looking to act on that just yet. Let's get into some buy, sell, or hold on these starting pitchers. Matthew Liberator, just okay at the Phillies, five and a third, two runs allowed, four strikeouts, had 11 whiffs on 80 pitches. Actually did not have his slider working in this one, which is typically his best pitch this season. but overall, man, it has been a very nice start to the season for Matthew Libertor. Were you guys at buy, sell, or hold?

I'd more likely sell them by, but I'd have to have a pretty good offer. So the most likely scenario was Hold. It kind of reminds me of Ranger Suarez at the start of last year where it's going to rely on Libertore maintaining elite control, which he's had so far, even in this start, 70% of his pitches for strikes, that's great. It's hard to sustain. It's hard to sustain, yeah, particularly when we don't have repeated instances of him doing it.

This same knock on Ranger Suarez last year. So I think Liberator definitely must roster at this point. Can probably start him with most matchups right now, but I would be hesitant to get too comfortable with him. And if a good offer did come your way, I would seriously consider it. Jackson Job had a mixed start up against the Red Sox, 5 and 2 thirds, one run, seven strikeouts, which were a season high. You like all those things.

15 whiffs on 100 pitches, very nice. Five walks. Not nice. It's not what you want to see from Jackson Job. Mixed in more fastballs and changeups in this one. And, man, entering this start, the changeup was actually his best start this season for Jackson Job. He's still 84% rostered. What do you guys think here? Buy, sell, or hold on Jackson Joe?

If anybody's buying sell, I just don't think anybody is buying. So would you be looking to buy, buy low, I guess. No, not really. It's hard to get that excited when he issues five walks. Yeah, even the good starts. His most encouraging start at the scene. This was his ninth appearance. It was his first time with double digit swinging strikes.

So that's already Like yeah His fastball Had an 8% Whiff rate Coming into this game Which is like like Reese Olson

I actually I think Reese Olson's four seamer is better than that It's the sinker that has a whiff rate that low So he did throw more Changeups and fewer sliders And so I'm wondering if that helped If that played better with the fastball and that's why the fastball became more effective.

But like it's too thin of a reasoning. The reasoning there's too thin for me to, for me to declare Jackson Jope has figured it out and you can trust him going forward. I would still be pretty skeptical. I'm okay holding him. Like I still think the upside is high, but he's clearly not a finished product.

I don't know if it's the pitch mix, if it's a tipping issue, what it is. but even after this start, I just don't think there's very much encouraging to go on. So if you're holding Job, it's solely as a kind of blind faith flyer, which is, I think, very similar to Roki Sasaki,

where it's just you're hanging on mostly out of name value. I think Job is more promising than Sasaki so far, but that's not really saying much. So I, yeah, I'm not super enthused about it. Grant Holmes had a solid outing up against the national six and a third, one run, four strikeouts, had 11 whiffs on 79 pitches. He also allowed 11 hard hits in this one where you guys at on Grant Holmes, buy seller, hold. I don't know that you could sell them for much, so that doesn't make sense.

I'm holding. It's always a mixed bag, right? It's always like, oh, I can get encouraged by how many bats is slider. missing and how efficient he was in this start 79 pitches to get through six and a third hasn't been efficient at all before this though he's had moments but even in this start it's weird he was that efficient but he threw only 62% strikes and as you mentioned the hard hits were there so i think he's just a guy like there's a spectrum of guys and he's probably on the higher end of that spectrum but like I don't see much reason to think Grant Holmes is a top 60 starter right now.

Yeah, I don't think I have him that high. I think that's fair. And so like hang on to him. He's fine. He's useful. But I think the hopes of Grant Holmes like taking this big step forward and being a difference maker, I think we can pretty much write that off. Frank and I have him 65th.

I can't find where you have him, Chris. how far down do you have Grant Holmes? You know what? I don't think you've added him to SP yet. Oh, you do. You have him 55th. Chris is the high guy. That's too high.

That's too high. Wow, Chris. Wow. Let's talk about David Peterson who had a quality start against the Pirates, six innings, one run, seven strikeouts, 17 whiffs on 100 pitches. Pretty nice outing here for Peterson. Velocity actually being down a little bit in this one,

but he's been pretty consistent. Tour and runs are fewer in six of eight starts. He's got a 284 ERA that also comes with a 135 whip. Where are you guys at on Peterson by Sell or Hold on him? I mean, he's clearly just a guy. The best thing he does is keep the ball on the ground, but it's not going to miss a lot of bats. He's going to walk a bunch of guys rarely going to go six innings.

He did in this start against the pirates. He's a little better than Colin Ray, but he's closer to that end of the spectrum. Yeah, I think he's low-end guy. All right, so Grant Holmes, high-end JAG, David Peterson, low-end JAG. Something like that, yeah. Okay.

There's lower end than Peterson, but, yeah, I prefer Holmes. Middling JAG, okay. Tyler Malley had a strong start-up against the Rockies. This one was in Texas, not in Corse Field. Six and a third, one-run, five strikeouts had 11 whiffs on 88 pitches here. the splitter looked much better here. Six of those 11 whiffs on the splitter. He is allowed eight earned runs all season.

It's a 147 ERA and a 0.96 whip for Tyler Malley. Buy, sell, or hold? This is the most clear sell high candidate in baseball. Like, I think he's, again, probably on the higher end of the JAG spectrum, but I think he is just a guy. Like the fastball can limit damage on contact, but there's going to be Homer problems at some point. The splitter is good but not incredible.

It's just 6.8K per 9, 2.9 walks per 9 and a 147 ERA, that just doesn't work out. So I think he's more like a high 3s ERA guy at best. And I think we'll see that at some point. I agree. Yeah, he's at least the clear a cell high at starting pitcher. All right, let's talk about some hitter ebbs and flows, some hitters who have either been hot or cold recently,

and Marcel O'Zuna hit his sixth home run. His previous 12 games before this, he was hitting 163 with zero homers, one RBI, and a 517 OPS. Scott, Resident Braves fan, where are we at on Marcel Ozuna, who I believe has 15 total RBI on the season? Yeah, I mean, that's kind of,

when he was at his hottest, nobody else was doing anything. And so his RPI total got limited. But he's in a prominent spot in the lineup. So I don't think that's going to be a season long affliction. He hopefully snapped out of the cold spell with this big game here on Monday. I think part of the problem is he's being pitched around so much. His walk rate is through the roof. He has more walks and strikeout.

this season. And that started back early in the year when he was the only brave who was hitting. So it made sense. I think he's fine. I think of the long run you're going to be happy with Marcelo Zuna. I haven't even considered looking at Marcelo Zuna yet. Sayas Suzuki broke out of a mini slump here on Monday, one for three with his 10th home run. His previous nine games before this. He was hitting 100 with one extra base hit. 14 strikeouts, a 225 OPS. Strikeout rate slightly elevated this season. But, but still hitting the crap out of the ball right now. Chris, any thoughts to say a Suzuki? He is a mid-800s OPS bat with an 816 OPS, so I guess moderately better days are ahead, but I kind of think he just is what he is. All right. Danesby Swanson, we mentioned earlier.

Last 13 games, he's been awesome. 422, five home runs, OPS over 1,300. Elliot Ramos has really picked things up as well. He had three hits on Monday. The last 14 games hitting 447 with four homers and OPS near 1,300. And part of what I was worried about entering the season was that he mashed lefties last season.

He was not good against righties. He has an 873 OPS with six of his seven home runs against right-handed pitching this season. So I am kind of starting to believe that this is just who Elliot Ramos is. He's just really good. Yeah. He's really good in a number three outfielders sort of way.

I think good batting. Yeah, I guess. I think that's fine. Good batting average, 25 to 30 home runs, like 800 plus OPS. It feels like a pretty solid bet there for Elliot Ramos. What is up with Ozzy Albies and Dylan Cruz? Ozzy Albies dropped his seventh in the Braves lineup. He went 0 for 4 here.

And look, five home runs, five steals. That's fine. He's on pace to go 2020 this season. He also is hitting 207 with a 5-4. 87 OPS. Scott, what is up with Ozzy Albies? Well, he's cold. He's not striking out any more than usual.

He's always a player. Like somebody just tweeted at me his, you know, the different sliders, the red and blue or blue sliders from his, his baseball savant page. And just with like an hug. And it's like, okay, yeah, Ozzy Albi's baseball savant page is usually blue. It's kind of the same story for the, him and the other two. mainstays at second base over the years Jose Altuve and Marcus Simme. They're all kind of the same in that way, where by the metrics, they're not impressive,

but then the numbers always end up there. And one of the concerns I've had for Ozzy Albies over the past few years is what if what if he gets in a, what if we're in like more of a dead ball year? will his ability to overcome those very modest exit velocities, will it carry over to a dead ball year? I don't think we're in a dead ball year. So I don't think that's what's going on here. And if that's not what's going on here,

I trust that Ozzy Albiz will eventually come around. All right, what about Dylan Cruz, who is giving us power and a good amount of speed, but the batting average, man, it is just atrocious. 179, 552 OPS, but he's got five homers he's got the 10 steals. The strikeout rate still high here and still 85% rostered. Chris, I know we spoke a lot about Dylan Cruz earlier in the season, but we're now,

six, seven weeks into the season. Where are you at now on Dylan Cruz? The one thing I will say is there's a little bit of the Raphael Devers thing going on with Dylan Cruz where the overall strike rate, strikeout rate is extremely high, but 10 of his 42 strikeouts came in the first four games of the season. And his strikeout rate is in the eyeballing it, he has 32 strikeouts in 135 plate appearances since the start of April. That sounds like a 25-ish percent strikeout rate, which is manageable.

It's not great, but it's... It's been a lot higher lately for what it's worth. 19 and 56 plate appearances coming in to that. I guess it depends how we're defining. because it's 11 and 43 played appearances in May. So yeah, yeah. I look at the whole picture, and I think it's a young player who's still developing,

still has some clear weaknesses, probably in like a 10-team league, doesn't need to be rostered. And most points leagues, I think he's pretty limited, but any 12-team categories league, especially any five-outfeeler league, I don't think there's any way.

I'd be dropping Dylan Cruz. he has a 251 Wobo right now, which is bad, a 331 expected Woba, which is above average. With his speed, I think that would be great. And so I think better days are ahead for Dillon Cruz. If you don't agree, that that's reasonable, but I'm still willing to bet on the talent. You know, it would I drop Dillon Cruz for Trent Grissom in a 12-Team 3 outfielder categories League maybe, but I would hope I have a player with less upside than Dylan Cruz that I could drop. The expected stats still look good for what it's worth for Dylan Cruz. And you spoke about

the expected well, but it's a 255XBA with a 179 actual batting average. So that is, I'm willing to bet one of the biggest underachievers in baseball right now. Also a 459 X slug and a 314 slugging percentage. So again, it's just, it feels like Cruz while striking out a good amount, It has kind of hit into some bad luck so far the season. And a 363 expected wob over his past 100 plate appearances too. That's really good. Yeah. So Dylan Cruz is the second biggest underachiever by expected batting average.

You know who number one is? Salvador Perez. I was going to say it. A number, you were going to say it's sorry. Sorry for denying you the glory. Adley Rushman is third, by the way. I will say we are 70 games in Dylan Cruz's career. So it's a very small sample size.

He has underperformed his expected stats by a huge amount. His expected Wobah for his career is 328. His actual Wobah is 266. There might just be something about Dylan Cruz that makes him underperform consistently. I don't know if it's, you know, he kind of has an all-fields approach. He doesn't really pull the ball in the air very much. All those things. maybe could be holding him back,

but I still think it's too small of a sample says to draw that kind of conclusion about a player. So I'm going to bet on the performance reaching the underlying stats before I bet on the underlying stats, just not being indicative of talent. All right, let's wrap up with some leftovers here. On the pitching side, we got a quality start from Christopher Sanchez,

the same from Paul Skeens, and the same from Michael Walker. Three quality starts in a row. Anything to add on those three. It is just mildly concerning that it's now been three straight starts with three walks for Christopher Sanchez. It's not a ton of walks. I thought you were going to say that for Paul Skeens because it's been the same exact thing. Yeah, that I honestly have like almost zero concern about Paul Skeens.

Look, if you took Paul Seen's in the first round, you should probably be pretty concerned that you're not going to get a good return on investment in that. I think that's like he seems to have made some adjustments to his approach to pitch to contact a little more. He's lowered his arm slot. I think it's affected the movement of his pitches. But then you look at each individual pitch and they're all generating tons of weak contact and they're all generating really strong whiff rates. And he's never really had control issues before the most recent three starts. So I'm inclined to write it off. I haven't moved Paul Skeens down at all in my rankings.

Sanchez, his track record is limited enough, especially as like a top 20 type pitcher, which is I think where we started to move him before the forearm injury that, you know, three straight starts with three walks coming right off the forearm injury. It's just a little concerning. I'm not panicking. I'm not moving Chris Sanchez down, but it's not what I want to see from him. Mm-hmm. One more point on Skeens, too.

You mentioned you might not get a return on Vesman in the first round, especially if you took him over Terrick Scoobel, man, because Scoobel has just, we talked about it yesterday. He looks better this season than he did last year in his Cy Young season. So look, both guys are awesome, but Scoobel has still been better than Skeens this year. I would still take Wheeler over Skeens, but that's... I mean, Wheeler's been great, too. That's the list, right?

Like, I'm not moving. I don't know, who would even... Who's number four right now? Cole Reagan's not taking him over Paul Skeens, not taking Chris Sale over Paul Skeens, not taking Gary Crochet over Paul Skeens. So I think he's still clearly in that number three spot. I did want to mention Freddie Peralta,

who on paper had a not so great start, five and a third, four hits, four runs, three walks, four strikeouts here. He also had a fly ball to center field with the bases loaded. It was a running catch for Jackson Turyo. So like, take with that what you will. But according to Stackcast had a 95% catch probability

and Truro just whiffed it. He just completely missed it. All three runners scored and they were charged to Peralta on a play that looks like it should have been made by Jackson Trio. So it's unfortunate like you don't get anything out of that. Maybe you feel a little bit better but it doesn't make the line look any better

for Freddie Peralta. But yeah, just kind of an unfortunate one there for him. On the hitting side of the leftovers, Jose Ramirez ran wild against the Brewers. He had three steals in this game. Williare-Brayu continues his breakout, hit his 11th home run of the season. And Wyatt Langford, he's been up and down.

Seven homers, seven steals. Obviously, you like that in 842 OPS, but I noticed batting average trending down a little bit recently. Still 263, but yeah, I think overall, you know, we're happy with what we've got from Wyatt Langford thus far. Quality of contact has taken a hit since the industry. which is not surprising obliques are tricky. Yeah, but that's the one thing I want to keep monitoring for him.

Call to the bullpen for the Cardinals Ryan Helsley struck out two for his eighth save for the Braves, Rysel Iglesias. Just some like weird defense for closers today where just like some errors behind them that caused, you know, blown saves was kind of annoying, but uh, Rysel Iglesias got the ninth inning with a two run lead. He gave up two unearned runs on two hits, took his third blown save, wound up with the win in the bottom of the ninth? The third out was there,

and Nick Allen just double clutched the throw and ended up missing the target on the ground out. So that's why Iglesias ended up with a blown save. But Iglesias has been pretty shaky. This was his third straight outing, allowing at least one run, and velocity's been down a little bit this year. I'm mildly concerned about it.

I don't think there's an obvious choice. to replace him in Atlanta if it comes to that. What's Craig Kimball up to in the Myers? Yeah, I... He did go save recently. Last I saw he was walking too many guys, but I haven't checked in a while. If I had to speculate,

it would probably be a combination of Pierce Johnson and Dylan Lee, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. I don't think Iglesi's job is in jeopardy at the moment. I will say someone in the chat brought up a great point. there are too many obvious errors being ruled hits. This is actually, I think, a real problem in Major League Baseball, and it needs to stop.

Or we just get rid of errors. I think the whole idea is kind of stupid. But if errors are going to exist, we are way too generous with not giving defensive players errors, and it's got to stop. For the Mets, Edwin Diaz was unavailable. Wascar Brazaban got the 9th. inning with a one-run lead and he gave up an unearned run on two hits, took his second blown save,

but wound up with a win because, on the other side, the pirates, David Bednar, got the ninth thing with the game tied, let off the inning with an error behind him, followed by a single and then a sack fly, boom, game over. Mets win. For the Cubs, Porter Hodge was unavailable and it seems like the Cubs are just opting not to use Ryan Presley and save opportunities right now. Drew Pomeranz got the ninth inning with a three-run lead. He gave up a half. hit but truck out two for his first save and pomerans has made eight appearances seven and two thirds shutout innings two walks eight strikeouts he is zero percent rostered but man if you're looking for who might next might be next up for the cubs it might be drew pomerance it might be

i think it's a committee until until they sort out presley so apparently they're not worried about Presley's stuff, but they think he is not hiding the ball well enough in his delivery. So they want to get him on a more consistent pitching schedule so that he's not, so that he's able to work on it. So that's the plan right now is he's going to go on days when he's scheduled to go.

And if it happens to be in a safe chance or a high leverage spot, fine. If it doesn't, fine. And they're going to try and, they're going to try and get them missing more bats by having him hide the ball better. We can rebuild him. We have the technology. For the Royals, Carlos Estevez picked up his 12 save,

and then for the debacks, Shelby Miller got the ninth inning with a one-run lead. He struck out one for his second save of the season. To stream or not to stream on Tuesday, and we have Ben Brown up against the Marlins. Jack Leiter hasn't been good, but he gets the Rockies on the road. Brian Beaux is at the tie.

Tigers, Soroka at the Braves. We lost Andrew Abbott because he's two rostered now. It's Brown and lighter for me. I think those are the only two I would really consider. If Abbott isn't two rostered in your league, though, definitely him over these others. And yeah, I don't, I don't, I guess Brown, his last couple starts have been good.

I don't really trust lighter as bad as the Rockies are. And then on Wednesday, we have Eric Fettie. Scott, I would start. against the Rockies on the round. Thank you. That's nice. I did hit 69 on a radar gun once. Nice.

Nice. Jinks, you'll be soda, Chris. On Wednesday, Eric Fetty is at the Phillies. We have, ooh, anybody else? Hunter Dobbins, we talked about yesterday. He's at the Tigers.

Eduardo Rodriguez still has really good, like, XERA numbers, but he's been getting box. The actual ERA, yeah, that hasn't worked out. Tyone against the Marlins. Yeah, Tyone against the Marlins, I think is a fine one. Weather's, I want to watch it, but I don't want to have him in my lineup. I like Dobbins.

It's not a great matchup, but it's a good home. It's a good park to pitch in. I think he's pretty talented. So I might go Dobbins second. And then I don't have to pick a third one, right? It was first time. Yeah. If I don't have to pick a third one, then I won't.

I won't make you. Scott? I don't have anything. All right. All right. I guess we're going with Tyone. I'd assume never. I just assumed never say anything in this segment.

All right. Well, Tyone and Dobbins, it is on Wednesday. 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. Paramount Podcasts.