Fantasy Baseball Today - Carlos Rodon NO-NO! Rankings Movers & Dropometer (4/15 Fantasy Baseball Podcast)

Episode Date: April 15, 2021

Happy Carlos Rodon Day! How far is Rodon moving up the rankings after his no-hitter (1:00)? Should you try to sell high? ... Just how good can Jazz Chisholm be (9:27)? Is Corbin Burnes a top-10 starting pitcher now for Fantasy? ... The Houston Astros placed five players on the IL Wednesday (18:26). Max Fried and Julian Merryweather were also placed on the IL for their respective teams. ... Which players have been rising or falling the most in our rankings (27:02)? ... Let's find out which starting pitchers should be added after Wednesday (38:57). ... Let's fire up the DROPOMETER (44:42)! Is it time to drop Aaron Hicks and/or Tommy Pham? ... Do we have any interest in Andrew Benintendi or Travis Shaw off the waiver wire (50:23)? ... We recap the rest of Wednesday plus 'To Stream or Not To Stream' for Friday (54:50)! ... Email us at [e-mail]. 'Fantasy Baseball Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox and wherever else you listen to podcasts.  Follow our FBT team on Twitter: @FBTPod, @CTowersCBS, @CBSScottWhite, @Roto_Frank, @AdamAizer Join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/fantasybaseballtoday Sign up for the FBT Newsletter at https://www.cbssports.com/newsletters/fantasy-baseball-today/ For more fantasy baseball coverage from CBS Sports, visit https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/ To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/FantasyBaseballToday You can listen to Fantasy Baseball Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the Fantasy Baseball Today podcast from CBS Sports. I drive, center field, and swing. This is magnificent. Got a fantasy question? Email Fantasy Baseball at CBSI.com. Get ready to win your league. Well, fantasy becomes reality. Now here's Frank, Scott, Chris, and Adam.

You know, I was going to start today's podcast teasing Chris about Byron Buckson's hamstring, but something a little bit more important happened on Wednesday. Today. Welcome into fantasy baseball today. Frank Stamphill joined by Chris Towers. Obviously the biggest story was David Peterson who struck out 10 Phillies. Chris, what do you think about Peterson, man? Okay. All right, obviously. I guess that's the biggest story. Sure. JK, obviously it's Carlos Rodonde and let's talk about it, man. Oh my goodness gracious. Look, it's better than, oh my goodness gracious. All you heard tonight was obviously an ode to Hawk Harrelson.

He gone. He's gone. And he gone and he gone. Over and over and over. He gone, he gone, he gone. Carlos Rodon, no hitter against Cleveland, seven strikeouts, 19 whiffs on 114 pitches. His fastball velocity, Chris, remains up 95 miles per hour. We are waiting to see this second start to see. All right, is Carlos Rodon for real?

And he looks for real. Yeah, I mean, the most impressive thing might have been the fact that, his hardest thrown pitch came on his 110th. He had 98.9.8 miles per hour with his 110th pitch. He was routinely hitting 98 in the ninth inning. And, you know, his velocity basically just kept going up all game. He started at like 92, 93. I think he only had three swinging strikes through the first three innings,

only five through the first five or something like that. He, but I mean, he was generating a ton of, context, so you're okay with it. But when he needed it, he was able to reach back and really rack up with 19 on 114, including 12 with that four seamer. Yeah, and it's awesome for so many reasons, obviously. He's dealt with a ton of injuries.

If you're watching the broadcast, you know, the White Sox team was talking about it over and over. And rightfully so, right? This is someone who has had Tommy John surgery. He's dealt with a bunch of shoulder injuries as well. I got pretty emotional watching that last inning. Like when he put it away, I got a little teary-eyed. I'm not going to, not going to lie.

It was a really cool moment. I've always been a big Carlos Rodon fan. So I, you know, love seeing him do that after, you know, everything that he's been through. I don't know that you've ever revealed this on the podcast, but I know that- Crier, guys. We cry. We talk before the podcast. We talk after the podcast and Chris-

It comes up all the time. I mean, you put inside out on and I'm just crying the entire running time of the movie. Basically, if I see that stupid lamp before Pixar movie, I'm going to start crying, basically. So, I'm a crier, but this was a, I think this was a reason. This was a good one. No, it was, it was awesome. It was awesome to watch for Carlos Rodan. And he is, I believe I saw it was 83% rostered on CBS that needs to be 100%. It doesn't matter. You play in an 18 league, a 10 team league. He needs to be 100% rostered, obviously. And something else the White Sox broadcast was talking about is that Yasmani Grandeau wants Carlos Rodon to be a four pitch pitch, pitch. Now, all right, let's take a one step at a time here, Granda. I mean, if we could just have this fastball slider and change up working as well as it has for Rodon,

he's throwing his change up 23% of the time this year, which is by far the most of his career. I think we'll be good. I think we'll be just fine there with three pitches. Carlos Rodon looks awesome. So, Chris, look, we're going to talk about Rankies Movers on today's podcast. We're going to have the drop o meter and recap everything that happened on Wednesday. but how far do we move Carlos Rodon up? Obviously, you know, we haven't really had time to move him up yet,

but the range that I was looking at was SP-45-ish, which would be right around Tyler Malley, Marcus Stroman, two pitchers who I also really like. But, you know, this would get Rodon inside my top 50. What do you think about that ranking? Should he be even higher than that? I'm going to move him. Actually, funny you mentioned Tyler Malley.

I moved him along with Carlos Rodon. and I moved both of them just behind Trevor Rogers. I do think Trevor Rogers has been a little more impressive. I mean, obviously Carlos Rodon through a no hitter, but, you know, Rogers, uh, Rogers stuff just looks incredible. I mean, it looks like some of the best stuff in the game. He's got the second highest swinging strike rate in baseball. So I moved both of them up to, or I moved that group.

It's Rogers, Malley, Rodon, you say Kukuchi and Zach Affle, and they're 48 through 52. I like that. And I could. fairly easily move them above. I mean, I've got Aaron Savale, Josea, Cotty, Kevin Gosman, Denelson Lamek, Carlos Carrasco, Frankie Montas,

ahead of them. I could very easily move any of those guys ahead of the ones that they're behind. So, you know, it's definitely, they could move very quickly from here. Carlos Rodon inside the top 50 now for both Chris and myself. And with the

opportunity to be even better than this, he is quickly on the rise and if he can stay healthy and throw deep into starts, obviously we're not expecting a complete game every time. But there is real potential here for Callos Rodon. Go ahead. Just I'm going to keep in mind if you play in the Daily League, is he, no, he's not a two-star pitcher.

So next week, he'll likely be a two-star pitcher. But I think like Joe Musgrove today, you can probably expect him to be pretty limited in his next start, 114 pitches. I would imagine that's the most he's thrown in a long time, maybe ever. And so I would guess he'll be limited to about 80. in his first start next week,

but if he's a two-star pitcher, you're still going to keep him out there. But just something to keep in mind if you're in a daily league, but he looks really awesome. And the rising velocity as he went on in the game is what really stands out, I think.

Last question, because I know some people are going to ask it, do we sell high on Carlos Rod? Do you at least entertain it because, you know, as emotional of a moment as it was, I mentioned all the injuries that he's had in his past.

So something like, you if you can trade him for Hazerz Lozardo, who we had ranked much higher coming into the season. Is that something you would try to do? If I could do that, yeah.

I mean, I was, I was kind of looking into Hazer's Lazzardo's numbers yesterday, and I don't really see any reason to be concerned. The velocity's there. The spin rate is a little lower,

you know, I think 80 to 100 r pms right now, but I still think Lizardo is a more talented pitcher, although obviously Rodon. was number three pick in the in the draft he's been you know a top prospect maybe it's taken him a while to figure out that third pitch um but yeah i i think if you can sell high i would here's an interesting one would you sell him for the other oh my goodness gracious pitcher in that white

socks cleveland game i was man you're good chris you're good because that was my next question That was my next. Zach Plissack recorded two outs against the White Sox, allowed seven hits and six earned runs. And he did deliver a quality start in each of his first two starts, but both of those came against the Detroit Tigers. So a little bit of a better matchup there. And I watched his last start against the Tigers.

He was missing his spots, was not hitting where the catcher was setting up. This is supposed to be one of the calling cards for Pleasak, right? I mean, at least based on last years, he doesn't walk anyone. He has great command, yada, yada. I haven't seen that command so far and he got absolutely bombed.

The Eerminator hit a moon rocket off of this guy. It's a good question. Straight up. I'd rather have Pleasack still, but... Yeah. This is... So last night I asked Scott

if he would trade Trevor Rogers for Jesus Lazzardo. And I'm going to say the same thing that I said last night about that for this. I'm still going to have Zach Plesack ranked ahead of Carlos Rodon, but if I had Rodan

and someone offered me Zach Plesack right now, I would not accept that trade. I don't think I could accept it. Yeah, but I mean, I'm also, you know,

much more skeptical about PLEZAC in general. And even in the first two games, the strikeouts weren't there. You know, he only had like a 17% strikeout rate, the first two starts.

I use this as an example of why K percentage is better than K per 9 and small sample sizes because Zach Pizak, because he only had two innings or two outs today. his K per 9 only dropped from like 6.8 to 6.6. But his strikeout rate dropped from 17.9 to 14.7%.

So just goes to show K percentage, better stat. I think Zach Pleazac will be better moving forward. But I still think he's more like a high 3 ZRA guy. And I think Rodon probably has more upside. Yep. He really might. So again, am I offering Myrhodon for Zach Plessag? I don't think so, but still going to have Plessac ranked a little bit higher for now. Let's get into, oh my goodness gracious, outside of Carlos Rodan, which obviously dominated Wednesday's action.

Oh my goodness gracious! I'm just going to start off with jazz chisholm, Chris, because I know you're probably, I'm not going to let you have the Marlins. You can't have the Marlins all the time. I have to have some Marlins, you know, every now and then as well. And I will point this out. He had a sweet and savory on Wednesday, but we are officially changing the name. I mentioned it last week. Yes, I made a tally of all,

if you're watching on video, I made a tally of all the different things that people sent in over the weekend. And the winner is, for a home run and a steal in the same game, a smash and dash. So that is what we're going with. It's no longer a sweet and savory.

We're putting the sweet and savory to rest. Maybe I'll bring it up here and there as like an old time kind of thing. But smash and dash is what we are going with. And Jasim had one on Wednesday. He went two for four, a three run, bomb. Straightaway center field off of Charlie Morton, and he Euro stepped across home plate.

The kid is just, he is oozing with swag. He is fun to watch, man. And I'm rooting for him because I really, I just don't want the Marlins to get hosed into Zach Gallen trade. They traded Gallen to the Diamondbacks for Jazz Chisholm. And look, Chisholm is only 44% rostered. He is crushing the ball so far this year. He has a 50% hard contact rate entering,

Wednesday night, 94 mile per hour average exit velocity. The strikeouts have actually been better this year. He's striking out 27% of the time. He's walking a ton. The launch angle is very high. He's hitting, it's like 50% fly ball rate entering Wednesday. I'm pretty excited about Chisholm. I need to move him way up my rankings. And I want to ask you, Chris, what do you think his upside could be as soon as this season? Yeah, I mean, I do want to point out, like, he's swinging and missing a lot. His contact rate is pretty low. So I don't want to, you know,

get over my skis with him. But, you know, if you talk about upside, especially if you're talking about a roto league, I don't think there's any reason he can't be what Kevin Bizio has been the last couple of years.

You know, I think in terms of physical tools, he's, I would argue probably more talented, although I think Bidio might actually be a little faster. I don't know. about that. Biggio's weirdly, like he always rates out

really well by the sprint speed metric. He's like 93rd percentile this year, Chisholm's 88th, but either way, they're both very fast. You know, I would expect, like, batting average is going to be an issue for, for Chisholm. He's hitting, what is it, 260 right now. I would think that's, you know, probably on the higher end.

But, you know, he did walk in the minors. He did, you know, show flashes of power. I think he had a 27 homer season or something like that in 2019. He could be a 2020 guy and, you know, with a decent on-base percentage. And I would expect at some point the Marlon is going to move him up the lineup. He's batting six now. But, I mean, why not try him at leadoff? See if you can get Jazz Chisholm and Starling Marte at the top of your order and, you know, see if they can make things happen.

That'd be really fun. So I think there's a lot to like about him. I think I moved him up to 17th at 17th. second baseman, second base. He's behind Gene Cigar and Dylan Moore, one guy who's very boring and another guy who, you know, has a similar profile, but might actually be

an even worse bet for batting average than Chishol and Dylan Moore. I could see fairly quickly moving him up into the top, you know, up to 14 behind a head of Nick Madrigal behind Marcus Simeon. It's a little harder to see him getting ahead of

Simeon. Who's also off to a great start. Yeah. I will, you know, I'll call myself out for that. I wasn't in on Simeon, and he's looked really good so far. Yeah, he's going to score a ton of runs in that lineup. They're not even a full strength yet. So I think there's a lot to like about Marcus Simeon as well.

But I have Gavin Lucks 12th right now. You know, two weeks from now, if Gavin Lucks hasn't started hitting yet, I could see myself moving Gavin Lucks down. And I could see Jazz with another couple of good weeks. You know, let's say we get to the end of April. He's got, what's he at three home runs now, two home runs now. I think he gets to five home runs and four steals by the end of April and is not killing you with batting average.

I could see potentially moving him up. This is, you know, one of the things that I mentioned with, you know, guys like Taylor Tremal and, Akil Badoo and a couple others, since we didn't get to see them last year,

you know, these very talented, raw, young players, we don't know if they figured it out. We did get to see jazz a little bit in the majors, but it was very sparingly. but you know something kind of click this offseason for him he's super talented so uh i i think he's definitely worth adding if he's available in any categories league chris your oh my goodness gracious

player from wednesday yeah i mean we're going to reach a point where we probably have to stop talking about corbin burns every time he pitches just because it's going to become ho-hum but right i mean it doesn't really look like there's a better pitcher in baseball right now than corbin burns if there is maybe it's Shane beaver or tyler glasnow or jay of Graeme, but there's not that many. 10 strikeouts, six innings pitch, two hits allowed. He's allowed, I think seven hits in his first

three starts. He's the first pitcher. I know that stat said since 1906 with 30 strikeouts and no walks. Was there actually a pitcher in 1906 who did that? Or was it just like we don't have the records before that? Yeah, 30 strikeouts, no walks.

There's first three starts. He's using his cutter more than half the time as his primary pitch. He's throwing it 95 to 96 miles an hour on average, getting it up to 98. I don't know. I don't know if there's any reason to doubt him at this point. Like, it's not like he has a long track record of injuries. It's really just, he was really bad in 2019 in a relief role where he got crushed.

But he's looked like one of the best pitchers in baseball since. His only downside, Corbyn Burns, is workload. But, and I've said this before already about him, if the brewers have any shot of winning the National League Central, they are not going to be able to limit Corbyn Burns. It's just they can't. They can't afford to. I mean, Freddie Peralta has looked great so far,

but even Freddie Peralta is probably going to be on an endings limit at some point, even more so than those other two guys. So, like, they need these guys to perform. I don't think they're going to be able to limit Corbyn Burns. Chris, how far did you move them up the ranks? Because I haven't met SP15 now, and that was before today's start. I just, I didn't like Scherzer coming in, but it just kind of feels weird for me

to move Corbyn Burns ahead of names like Scherzer, Kershaw, and Bueller. Should we be doing that? I moved him ahead of Bueller, whose velocity is down, although I did notice today, Bueller's velocities down, but his spin rate is way up.

So, uh, it, you know, it seems like Trevor Bauer is, uh, sharing with his teammates. So that's a good sign.

Um, I moved Tyler Glass now and Corbyn's up to 8 and 9 in my starting. in my starting pitcher rankings, respectively. So I moved them ahead of Bueller, Flaherty, Woodruff, Nola, Castillo, Kershaw, just behind Gialito, I couldn't go that far, and still behind Scherzer, Darvish, and Bauer. So I think they're right there, though. And I don't know, if you told me Tyler Glassnow

and Max Scher were going to throw the same amount of innings and Corbyn Burns was going to throw the same amount of innings, I'd probably pick Glassnow and Burns. That's fair. I mean, we probably expect Scherzer to be more of a workforce at this point. But if you have any injury concerns with him, which I did. Yeah, you know what? You talk me into it, man. I'm going to make that swap. I'm probably going to put Corbyn Burns inside my top 10 as well. He's looked way better than Luis Castillo thus far. He's been way better. Even with the velocity up the last couple starts, it's still about a mile and a half hour per hour down from last year. I would still try to buy low on Castillo if anyone in your league is freaking out. FBT listeners, March Madness, and the Masters may be over, but the sports calendar never

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If you're more of a YouTube person, subscribe to CBS Sports HQ on YouTube for all the latest sports news videos on demand. Some news and notes. The Astros placed Jose Altova, Alex Bregman, Yerdon Alvarez, Martine Maldonado, and Robel Garcia on the aisle for undisclosed reasons,

though it's safe to assume it's for health and safety protocols related to COVID-19. Aledmas Diaz started at second base with Abraham Toro at third base, and a fellow named Ronnie Dawson at D.H. on Wednesday. And Chris, I know you mentioned right before we started, Lance McCullors got bombed in his start. He was very bad, and it was against the Detroit Tigers, three and two-thirds, six earned runs, three walks.

And apparently, he didn't feel well, so there might be something related to those other guys. Rusty Baker said it's a bug that's going around. And players can be placed on the IL with COVID-like symptoms even without a positive test. So maybe that's what happened there. You know, it doesn't necessarily mean that they contracted COVID or that they're positive or anything like that. But, you know, it doesn't seem great right now. Yeah. No, it definitely doesn't.

And it's also possible that they had, they all recently received the vaccine. and had to take a personal day because of some side effects from the vaccine, which we've seen happen. Laris Garreal was one. It happened to geo. I happened to Geo or Shello last weekend as well. Yeah, there you go.

So, yeah. It's possible. We just don't know. Yeah, it's very ambiguous, too. Like, these guys can be activated out of nowhere. So, you know, just pay attention to what's going on with the Houston Astros. I think we, at least based on that report that McCullors wasn't feeling well, just kind of give him a pass for the start on Wednesday.

Speaking of which, we talked a lot about Strasberg yesterday. Obviously, his velocity was, down. Someone pointed out afterwards that the nationals, their entire team, got the vaccine, I think it was two or three days ago. Um, so apparently like it could have affected Trosburgh's arm. I don't know if he got the shot in his right arm. I would hope he didn't get the shot in his right arm. I made sure to get it in my left. Um, because you're obviously a Cy Young award winning with a ball pitcher. I mean, yeah, if you've seen me out there, you know, my, I've got a golden arm. Um, and it, you know, my arm was sore. I would not.

have been able to like throw things. So hopefully he didn't get in his right arm. But like there's also it's not just the arm soreness. You know, a lot of people report fatigue, dehydration, general body soreness, chills, other,

you know, symptoms like that, usually with the second shot. So, you know, it's entirely possible. Like this is, this is a,

another weird season where there's a lot of variables that we're not used to going on. And it's entirely. possible if that was what was going on with Strausberg, but I mean, he's also got a history of injuries and had surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome in the offseason and had a, has a torn ligament in his legament that he's pitching through. So, you know, we kind of don't know. It's just a wait and see. I don't feel great about him right now, though. That's for sure. Yeah, I moved Strassburg down, I think it was to SP29, so he's falling quite a bit, and I think rightfully so for

now. And we spoke about this before the season as well, lasting on the COVID situation, but you and your commissioner should have laid out some kind of rules where if this happens midweek, you have a player replacement that you designate that can enter your lineup in case one of your players randomly lands on the IL or has a COVID situation midweek. If you play in a daily league, it doesn't really matter much for you, but in a weekly league, you know, obviously we're going to have a lot of these things happening all throughout the course of the season. Speaking of the IL, Max Fried landed on it with a right hamstring strain, which we found out after his start last night. He got rocked by the Miami Marlins, so might explain that a little bit.

We'll probably see one of Kyle Wright or Bryce Wilson enter the rotation, and this also guarantees that Wascar I Noah will get at least a few more starts with the Atlanta Brave. So he was awesome his last time out. Let's see what happens there. Victor Robles was dropped to ninth in the lineup Wednesday for the Nationals. Manager Dave Martinez said he wanted Trey Turner at the top of the lineup, given his past success against Adam Wainwright. And it actually worked out because Trey Turner, I think, had two doubles in that game. So hopefully Robles doesn't just stay at nine for now because that would affect his value quite a bit.

This is the problem is, you know, their best lineup probably doesn't include Victor Robles hitting at the top of the lineup. So you kind of just have to hope that they are willing to stick with it and keep him there and hope that he shows something. He's getting on base at a decent clip right now, 3.42, but we're not doing anything else. What's that? That's not terrible. No, yeah, he has five walks. But I think it was like three walks in the first, two walks in the first game, two walks in the third game.

I think he had another walk today. And he's been hit by two pitches. So, you know, it's, I don't know if there's necessarily anything there with that, but he's also, you know, he's not striking out a ton. So, you know, it's possible that there's still room for him to grow. I still believe that he's a talented player. So hopefully this isn't the start of them burying him. That is Victor Robles that we are talking about again,

batting ninth for the nationals on Wednesday. The Brewers placed Lorenzo Kane on the 10-day IL with a left quad-strain. Avicayel Garcia will get more playing time now as a result, so you don't have to worry about that. He does have six hits, including two home runs over his last five games, only 19% rostered in CBS leagues. So if you do play in five outfield or leagues, Garcia is someone that I would be looking to add. He has six games next week. Christian Yelich was out of the lineup again for the Brewers for a third straight day with that back injury. The Blue Jays plays Julian Merriweather on the 10-day I yell with a left oblique strain.

I would assume Jordan Romano is the closer, but. but we also assume that coming into the season as well. So, yeah. I would assume so, yeah, but I'm not 100% confident in it, for sure. Alex Kierloff was the 27th man for the Twins doubleheader on Wednesday. He went 0 for 3 with a strikeout. Chris, I think the fact that he was used in this role tells me that they are close to just calling him up for real and hopefully letting him play every day.

I can't say that for certain. but Alex Kirloff was up, and I don't think it's for good. I think he was just a 27th man. They designated him as that on Wednesday. The Giants will activate and start Alex Wood this Sunday against the Marlins. Logan Webb was moved back to the bullpen, but Johnny Quedo left Wednesday start with a lat injury. So I'll keep you updated there.

Maybe Logan Webb gets right back in the rotation. Jose de Leon was moved to the Reds bullpen to make room for Sunny Gray, who will start either Friday or Saturday this week for the Reds, and Jeff Hoffman will remain in their rotation. Will Myers was diagnosed with Pateller tendonitis and was out of the lineup Wednesday, though the Padres said they expect him back on Thursday. Not a doctor, but Patelor tendonitis sounds kind of bad.

Yeah, it's just like a kind of chronic injury. It doesn't necessarily mean that he's like injured right now. It just might be something that they have to manage. It'll be something they have to manage over the course of the season. from what I understand. The White Sox plays Dylan Sees on the IL with COVID symptoms, though he has not tested positive. We talked about that a little bit earlier, how that's possible. The Twins placed shortstop, Andrewson Simmons on the COVID IL as well.

The Cubs optioned Adbert Aalai to their alternate training site on Wednesday. But Chris, I wonder if this is a situation similar to the Yankees where they optioned Domingo Hermann just because they need an extra bullpen arm. I couldn't find anything concrete on that situation with Aalai. they were called Shelby Miller and I'm pretty sure he got rocked on Wednesday. Yeah, he was really bad. Yeah, I mean, looking at the schedule,

they're off tomorrow, they're off Monday. They probably don't need a fifth starter. Yeah, I think that's probably what it is. They just don't need a fifth starter until probably, well, I don't know when he started Monday. So, you know, they probably don't need another one until like Friday. of next week or something like that. So that's probably what it is.

Let's talk about a few other rankings movers. We already talked about Corbyn Burns, climbing inside the top 10 of Chris's starting pitcher ranks. Let's talk about another pitcher, Corey Kluber, and we've mentioned his name a lot recently, potentially as a drop candidate. And on Wednesday against the Blue Jays, wasn't much better.

Four innings pitch, six hits, three earned, two walks, four strikeouts for Kluber. But, with a capital B, but, 15 whiffs on 77 pitches, And the velocity on all of his pitches was up nearly two miles per hour. So how far did you lower him, Chris? Did the start do anything for you today in terms of confidence for Kluber? I dropped him to 55 before this start.

And I don't feel a need to move him up at this point. I don't know. Like, it's good that he had 10 whiffs with the cutter. That's really impressive. He only threw 30 of them. So that's a really, really high rate. I just, I don't think the command is there. And that's the biggest thing.

Even if he's throwing like 91, that's still lower than his peak. But going back to the start of spring training, the command just has not been there for him. I think it's five hit batters in six starts over the course of that stretch with I think like 12 or 13 walks in about 21 innings. So, you know, Kluber at his best was a great strike.

out pitcher, he was a great, you know, great at getting whiffs, but he was, you know, especially great with command. And so that's not there yet for him. And I'm skeptical, it will be. And if it is, I'm skeptical, the upside will be particularly high either way. So I can't, my closet's right here. I can't reach my Yankee hat. But if I could, I would put it on. And this is Homer Frank talking here. And I didn't like Cory Klober coming into the season. I was skeptical all long. I think he's probably shaking off some rust in these early starts here. And he is typically a very slow starter. I think it was in starts in March and April in his career as a 3.90 ERA in every other month combined in every other start. He has exactly a three ERA. So those things combined with

Rust, I think that he's probably just off to a slow start again. I think you could drop him for some of the names that we've been talking about a lot. Obviously like Rodon, Trevor Rogers, you can make that move. You say Kukuchi, I think you could probably make that move as well. But if someone drops Klobber, I, I might look to pick him up, man. I don't know. I was kind of encouraged by this today. Although the command was not good, I agree. The whiffs and the velocity being up, I was pleasantly surprised by that when it came to Cory Klober. Tyler Glass now, he is a riser. We already mentioned, you move him inside your top 10 starting pitchers as well. He is up to number eight. Andrew Vaughn is a faller for you. He did start on

Wednesday. I believe he had one hit. I don't know. I think it was one for three or one for four. It was a double. He had another hard hit ball over 100 miles per hour, but that was a flyout. How far did you did you drop Andrew Vaughn, Chris? Would you drop him for someone like Joey Votto right now who I would rather have Votto, yes. Okay. How far did you drop Vaughn? I dropped him to 19th and I've got Votto 18th. So that's a good line for him. But I've got Vaughn ahead of Carlos Santana and I don't really think that makes sense. I just, the question is,

at some point, are they going to start playing him every day? I don't know. I would hope so. They shockingly left him in to play defense in the late innings of a perfect game, which just like, I don't know if Tony LaRousseff fell asleep

or if he just didn't want to upset anyone, and just like, we're rolling, let's not mess this up, but like that was a wild decision. Yeah, like Joey Votto is hitting the ball really, really hard. I wrote about 10 surprising hitter stats from the early season earlier today. And Votto is ninth in average fly ball and line drive exit velocity.

He's got he's swinging a lot more. He's got a really high ex-WOBA. So I think what we're seeing from Votto now, in addition to what we saw at the second half of last season. Makes me think he's better than Vaughn. I have him behind Dominic Smith, Miguel Snow and Reese Hoskins as well. I think Miguel Snow is, you know,

certainly a little riskier than those other guys. So that's where I'm at. JD Martinez is a riser for you and rightfully. So, Chris, he is off to a great start. 378 batting average, five homers, 16 RBI, an OPS over 1,300 for J.D. Martinez. is he the number one utility bat at this point?

Or would you still rather have Nelson Cruz? Nelson Cruz and Yard Navarez still ahead of him. Okay. I like what J.D. Martinez is doing a lot. It's very good to see. But like it's not like Nelson Cruz hasn't been hitting the crap out of the ball either. So I'll still stick with him. But yeah, I mean, this is, J.D. Martinez has a 593 Wobah.

he's outperforming his ex-Woba by 112 points, and he's still in the 93rd percentile in ex-Woba this season. So that tells you how good he's been. So, yeah, I think Jannie Martinez, it sure looks like he's back. If he has outfield eligibility, Chris, where would you slot him into your outfield ranks? Oh, that's interesting. Let me take a look.

So just immediately, what I'm thinking is, right around the Nick Cassiano's Aaron Judge range. Does that sound right? That's exactly it. I'm looking at the trade chart from yesterday that I put out. That's basically an overall ranking. And he is valued

at the same price as Nick Castellanos just ahead of Austin Meadows and Michael Conforto. So, sorry about that. So that would make if JD has outfield eligibility, which he still might get. I think he's only played one game the outfield. But that would make him a top 15-ish outfielder. So,

nice little... It looks like he'd be 17 for me. Nice. Marco Gonzalez, I think it's pretty self-explanatory, so we don't really have to talk much about him. He's off to a slow start, more of a contact picture. I kind of think Cory Klobber's best case scenario is probably pretty similar to Marker Gonzalez. I still think Kluber could give you more strikeouts, though. Yeah, maybe. You would certainly hope so. And the fact that he was able to get so many whiffs with his cutter today is a good sign there. But, like, I think

if he figures it out, it probably looks like a lot like Mark Gonzalez, maybe with more strike hits. Ramon Luriano, we were talking about him on yesterday's podcast, up to eight steals, which is double the next closest person. Garrett Hampton has four. And I moved Ramon Luriano, Chris, all the way up to

outfieler 24 in Roto leagues just ahead of names like Will Myers, Michael Brantley, Brendan Lau, Kevin Bigio. Is that too aggressive in Roto? No, I don't think so. I'm trying to figure out

Roto, he is 26. So I moved him and Trent Grisham up together. I think they're going to be very similar players. Maybe Grisham has more power, Lariana, more speed. And I moved them into the top 26. So just ahead of Jeff McNeil,

ahead of Kevin Bigio, just behind Randy Rosarena, Brandon Lowe, and Joey Gallo. A few other names here that I wanted to mention as rankings movers. Obviously, Trevor Rogers is on the rise for all of us. And Chris has him at SP 48. I have men SP 47. So ha, take that, Chris. I like him more than you.

You're the Marlins Homer. No, no, no. Scott is the Marlins homer. He has Trevor Rogers at SP 43. So inside of the top 50 for all of us. And last been at least, Andres Jimenez, who we did like as a potential steel source coming into the season. He is stuck in a platoon with

Medo Rosario. Jimenez is not playing against left-handed pitching. He was not in the lineup on Wednesday against Carlos Rodon. Chris, fair to say at this point that you would rather have Jazz Chisham over Andres Jimenez? Yeah, I have Jimenez 22nd at shortstop.

Not sure exactly where I have him at second base, but let me see. He is 20th at second base. Chisholm is. 17th, so yeah, I would rather have Chisholm. I'm not sure. I was skeptical about him and has bat coming in. And so, like, I think he should be playing every day. I think it's silly that they're not playing him every day,

but, you know, I'm not sure he's a guarantee to hit well, even if he does get that opportunity. Only Cleveland can trade for two players that play the same position where you can't get both of them in the lineup at the same time. They traded a superstar player, by the way, to get, you know, we can't just combine Jimenez and Rosario and hope that he becomes Francisco Indora.

It's not how this works, Cleveland. So I don't know. Yeah, and what they're saying, Cesar Hernandez making it so that they couldn't play both of them at the same time. Exactly. Unless they played Amid Rosario in Center Field. So, yeah, I don't know what's up. What are you doing?

Let's quickly promote a few more things. The Fantasy Baseball Today Newsletter. If you are not subscribed to the newsletter, you should change that because it is awesome. It is in your inbox every single morning. You just go to CBSports.com slash newsletters slash fantasy baseball today. You punch your email in and you will get that delivered to you every morning. It has links to our podcast and it also has a lot of information that we deliver on the podcast.

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smart questions right now regarding trades, waiver wire moves, some dynasty discussion I've seen on there as well. So Facebook.com slash groups slash fantasy. Fantasy Baseball today. Go check it out. We're going to take a quick break if you are watching on the video side. Don't go anywhere. If you are listening on the audio side, we'll be right back. When we return, we will have Waver Wire starting pitchers here on Fantasy Baseball today. So I jokingly started the podcast with David Peterson, but he actually was pretty damn good. So let's talk about him. He went up against the Phillies on Wednesday, six innings of one-run ball, 10 strikeouts to just to zero walks. So you love to see that. But only nine,

whiffs. So he had nine whiffs, but 10 strikeouts. Okay, that's interesting. Um, he used a sinker a lot more in the start. Chris, only 35% rostered for David Peterson. He's at the Cubs next week. What is your interest level here? Uh, pretty middling. I don't think there's a ton in his track record to make me think that he's, he's someone to get super excited about. Um, something that we need to keep in mind as we move forward through the season and, you know, consider waiver wire pitchers and, you know, these, oh, he's, oh, he's, he's, oh, he's He's had 10 strikeouts and, you know, it was a really good game is strikeouts are up yet again. It's a entering play on Wednesday. There is a league record 24.7% strikeout rate league wide. Last year, it was 23.4%, I believe. And it's not just because pitchers are hitting. Even the non-pitcher strikeout rate is a league record right now. So, you know, starting pitchers entering play Wednesday had more.

strikeouts than innings pitch so far. That has never happened before. I believe last season or the season, I think it was 2019. It was like 8.3K per 9.9. Right now, it's 9.3. So 10 strikeouts in six innings is always going to be very impressive. But when the underlying, you know, only nine swinging strikes, that doesn't really back it up.

He doesn't really have super great stuff. So I don't think there's much reason to be particularly excited about David Peterson. I would look at him in anything deeper than a 12-team league, but a points league or even a 12-team roto, I think there's probably enough other pitchers out there that you don't need to target someone like David Peterson. How about two guys that went up against each other on Wednesday? Griffin-Cannning and Brad Keller,

Griffin-Cannning, five innings of two-run ball with five strikeouts, did have 15 whiffs on 92 pitches. He has two starts next week. One of those is at home against Texas. The other one is on the road against the Houston Astros. Brad Keller finally put together a decent start. Five and two-thirds of one-run ball. Five strikeouts also has a two-start week next week versus Tampa Bay and at Detroit. So really nice matchups there for Keller. Chris, if you were picking up one of these guys

just for the two-start week, which one do you like more? What were Canning's matchups? They are versus Texas at home and at the Houston Astros. So worse matchups, although versus Texas is a pretty good one. I think Canning's a better pitcher. I think he's more likely to get strikeout. So I would go with him. he's just using his slider as his primary pitch. He's barely throwing his fastball 27% of the time. But it's a lot of sliders, a lot of changeups. And he brought back that curveball that we saw him using early last season.

So legit four pitch mix, three whiffs on 10 curveballs is pretty good. So yeah, I think Griffin Canning's pretty impressive right now. Obviously, there's a lot of interesting starting pitchers right now. And as I said before, five strikeouts and five innings, technically slightly below average for a starting pitcher in the year of 2021 but I'd rather have him than Keller

I think he's just a better pitcher. Yep, I agree. Rather have Canning. But if you do play in a points league and canning is already on someone's team, I really do like those matchups quite a bit for Brad Keller. Chris, three pitchers in deeper formats.

Joe Ross is only 27% rostered six shutout on Wednesday against the Cardinals. Michael Fulmer, who we spoke about a little bit the other day and I'm trying not to get too excited. If anyone's followed my work, before I was here at CBS, for years, Chris, I was a Michael former stand.

I was all over this guy. I thought he was like the next big thing. And obviously, it was derailed by injuries. And even before then, I mean, he was starting to fall off a little bit. Now his second season back from Tommy John surgery, five innings of two run ball, only two strikeouts against the Astros, but the velocity way up for Michael former,

back to when he was fantasy relevant in like 2016, 2017. He is, I don't have his roster rate here, but I'm pretty sure it's less than, 20%. And Cohe Ariara, who was at the Tampa Bay raise, five and two-thirds shutout with five Ks.

So he doesn't usually get a lot of strikeouts, but... Yeah, he had two in his first two starts combined. Yeah, 13 whiffs on 85 pitches. We'll take that. In deeper leagues, Chris,

Joe Ross versus Mike Fulmer versus Cohe Arihara. I think I would rank them. Let me just check one thing really quickly because I think Joe Ross is RP eligible. He is. Fulmer is 10% rostered on CBS.

And Ross is 27, right? Yes. And Arijara is 8%. Yeah. And Points League, I would rather have Ross. In a Roto League, I would rather have Fulmer. Yeah. Arihara is last among them all.

I think he can be decent, but I don't see a ton of upside there. Or at least with Fulmer and Ross, you could potentially maybe see them, you know, being solidly above average starting pitchers moving forward. I don't think it's likely for either, but it's possible. How about this, Chris? Fulmer's two-star week next week, at home for both, against the pirates and against the royals. Yeah, so must add in a points league probably. You're going to want to have him on your team.

That's pretty good. Yeah. Joe Ross is in line for two-starts next week, but going up against the Cardinals. And I don't really like when starting pitchers face the same team back-to-back starts because obviously they just saw them. So he goes up against the Cardinals and at the Mets. I think Joe Ross is interesting, but just for next week, maybe for rest of of season two. I think Fullmer might have more upside.

The dropometer, we haven't used the dropometer all season long, but these are all kind of questionable players. So I just kind of, I want to figure out where we're at in terms of should we be dropping players of this stature this early in the season. So obviously 10 is, okay, you could drop this player everywhere.

It doesn't matter. They don't need to be on your team. One, no, we're definitely holding this guy. Aaron Hicks, Chris, is now batting 179 on the season. He is 78% rostered on CBS. The dropometer. I would say like a six for Aaron Hicks. I still think he can be a very valuable player,

but I guess at this point, one big question is, is he going to run much anymore? Probably not, but really good for OBP. And for some reason, the Yankees like having him in the middle of the lineup. Yeah,

that's the one thing is I'm looking at his average sprint speed over the years and he's fallen. I mean, it's very early on. And there's a lot of factors that go on and small sample size, but his average sprint speed has fallen from 66% down in 2020 to 42nd percent in 2021. So if he's not really going to be a stolen base threat and a regular roto league,

I think it makes him dropable. I would, I'm looking at CBS roster rate right now. Akeel Badoo is rostered in less leagues than Hicks. I would rather have Badoo. I would rather have Victor. I would rather have Victor Robles is rostered in less leagues than Aaron Hicks. That's so weird. I mean, that's probably a point.

league thing. Right. Is a better points league player, but I don't think he's a starter in a points league right now for sure.

I would rather have Nick Senzel than Hicks. Yeah, in a Rotar League. Yeah. Yeah, I think six seems like

a good number for Aaron Hicks. Ian Hap, Chris, someone that you were excited about coming into the season, he went 04 3 on Wednesday with two strikeouts. He is batting 143 with a 531 OPS.

And the Cubs just like, I don't know, what deity they pissed off at the start of the 2020 season, but they just, they cannot hit right now. I think he's better than this. I think he's going to turn it around. He's not striking out much. He's still hitting the ball. You know, reasonably hard, 43.5 percent hard hit rate. So I think he'll figure it out. And as long as he's not, you know, moved out of the lead off spot, uh, I would say I'm like a three on half. I'm still sticking with

him. The Chicago Cubs have a collective 198 Babbup as a team this season. The next closest team is the Cleveland Indians at 2.30. The Cleveland Indians don't have good hitters, so you would expect them to have a lower batip. Yeah, it's, man, the Cubs are just really, really unlucky right now. Tommy Fam, Chris, is batting 143, but did pick up his second steal of the season on Wednesday. Some people have actually been asking whether they can cut bait with Tommy Fam.

What do you think, the dropometer? I don't think I would do it. His underlying numbers are still really solid. He's not striking out at all. He has more walks than strikeouts, has a 47.1% hard hit rate. I think you want to hang on to Tommy fam. One, numero uno, do not drop Tommy fan.

One or two. Nick Solek went 0 for four on Wednesday. He is batting 209, Chris. Nick Solek. Yeah, he's probably like a seven for me. I know you like him quite a bit. And I can see... More so for Roto.

If you haven't been a points league, you could drop him. Yeah, I think for sure in a points league. And even in a Roto league, like, I think if I had to drop, him to add Akil Badu, I would do that. Yeah, I think that's fair. Adam Wainwright has a 7.11 ERA through three starts and is 39 years old. He's still 83% rostered, Chris,

so the dropometer on Wainwright. Says he already twice what it was, double what it was last year? Something like that? Yeah, 315, it's more than double. You hate to see it. Yeah, like I wouldn't say he's a must roster. I wouldn't say he's a must drop, but

probably like a five or a six. Would you drop him for any of the pitchers we named before, Griffin Canning, Brad Keller? Yeah, I would drop him for Canning. I don't know about Keller, maybe because of the two-start week. I don't know if Wayne Wright's a two-start. They're kind of the same pitcher, I feel like, at this point. Yeah, that one's just kind of,

and it doesn't really make a big difference to me. A few other names here that, I don't know, they probably will have pretty low numbers. Andrew McCutcheon. Well, maybe that's a four. O for four, batting 139. That's a four. Yeah.

How about Jeff McNeil? He went one for three on Wednesday. He's betting 174. One. Maybe zero. Typically a slow starter. Yeah. And if the thing Jeff McNeil is not doing is hitting for average,

I have a strong degree of faith that Jeff McNeil will hit for average. Michael Kinfordo went 0 for two with the walk on Wednesday. He got hit by a pitch recently on his wrist. So I wonder if that's something that's hampering him. He's betting 120 to start the season, Chris. I think if there's any team that deserves a break, it's probably the Mets right now, given how their season has gone. They had their first series canceled. I think they've had two or three rainouts so far. Yeah, I'm not going to drop Conforto. I'd say

still a one. He's still around my top 20 in outfield. So I wouldn't even consider dropping him. Last but not least, we already mentioned the name. Zach Plesack got rocked on Wednesday against the White Sox. Is he dropable anywhere, Chris? Like 10-team league, would you consider dropping him? Probably not, but maybe in a 10 team league if you like, if Trevor Rogers was still out there, maybe just because maybe there's a chance Rogers gets picked up this weekend and please that doesn't because he's got the ugly IRA and he won't show up in the sortable stats. But no, I wouldn't say I'm looking to drop him anywhere. A few waiver wire hitters. Let's run through these quickly. Andrew Benintendi went two for five on Wednesday with his third steal in the last four games. He's only 44% rostered. The stat cast data is. is quite bad, however, and he is striking out a lot. So any interest in Benintending? I guess, yeah, no, this is weird.

His sprint speed has just collapsed the last couple of years. He was at 87 to 80 percent, 87 to 80th percentile in sprint speed in his first couple of seasons. Last couple of seasons in Boston, dipped down into like the 60th percentile range. He's under 45th percentile each of the last two seasons. So I'm not sure I expect. those stolen bases to continue to be a thing. Yeah. Poor Benintendi, man.

The guy is just completely broken. Chris, what did, what did Heath used to call Travis Shaw? Is that the mayor of Ding Dong City? Is that what that was? Well, that wasn't just a Heath thing. That's his nickname.

Travis Shaw, I believe they made a bobblehead. Oh, okay. Of Travis Shaw, when he was with the Brewers, the first time that said mayor of Ding Dong City. Yes.

I'm looking at it now. He's wearing a, a suit. That's awesome. A little suit. He's got a little bat. He's at a podium. And the seal says

seal of the mayor of Ding Dong City. All right. I thought it was just a he thing, but I remember he used to always refer to him as the mayor of Ding Dong City. Travis Shaw is, I'm going to tell him he said that.

Travis Shaw, he's playing well. He went two for five on Wednesday. He's his third home run of the season. And he's basically going to play every day now that Orlando Arcea is, was traded away to the Atlanta Braves. Shaw's only 20% rostered.

I kind of feel like, I've seen him around in some of my like 15 team roto leagues with corner infielders. Travis Shaw should be higher than 20% rostered. Yeah. Got at him in any 15 team league, 14 team league, I think for sure.

Beyond that, I guess in some 12 or, you know, 12 team leagues, especially roto with the deeper roster. Because he is hitting very well right now. His average egg's velocity is not super high, but pretty much everything else looks pretty good,

including his expected stats. So, yeah, maybe he's figured something out. Maybe he's, you know, fixed the contact issues that he had the last couple of seasons. You can see that with his contact rate, both pitches inside of the zone and outside of the zone.

He's got his contact rate back up to where it was in 2018. So, uh, yeah, I would say 12 team leagues. Go look at Travis Shaw. A few final names here. Alejandro Kirk picked up his first hit of the season.

It was a two-run home run off of Corey Klobber. Kirk is only 24% rostered on CBS. And I think he should be rostered in two-catchel leagues. The playing time is going to be a little bit wonky. But if he starts to hit and Danny Jansen doesn't, then Alejandro Kirk can take over that job. And I think there's quite a bit of upside. In Alejandro Kirk's favor,

he might be next. to maybe like Rowdy Telez, the premier big, beefy baseball boy of 2021. No, no, no, no. He is listed at 5-8-265 pounds. He is fantastic. I mean, the Eurminator, Chris,

is, he's a beefy boy. He's pretty beefy as well. It's a good year for big, beefy baseball boys so far. Alejandro Kirk, I think he should be a better hitter than Danny Jansen. I'm just not sure he's going

to get enough opportunities to prove that right away. And obviously, he's not doing much with the opportunities he's getting right now. But I do like him. And certainly in anything deeper than 12 team two catcher, he should be rostered. Let's show the buckos of some love here. Adam Frazier went three for five with two RBI on Wednesday. He is now batting 300, 22% rostered. He does have second base and outfield eligibility.

And could be a source of batting average, maybe give you a few steals. That, again, is Adam Frazier. Gregory Polanco. What did I name this thing? He had a smash and dash on Wednesday. He's 15% rostered. It was his first home run and first steal of the season. The home run came off of his former teammate, Joe Musgrove.

Polanco had a great spring. He really has done nothing else so far this season. Only the deepest leagues, but I thought I'd bring up the name because it was a good game. Some other stuff from Wednesday, Aaron Judge went three for four with a double dong. Chris is now the time to trade Judge. No, you know my answer. You know my, like I'm not worried about him getting a good.

injured. If he gets injured, okay, you live with it. But I'm not going to, I'm not going to try to sell Aaron Judge for, for anything less than full value, sure. And I would trade him for J.D. Martinez right now. I think Aaron Judge is a better hitter. And I don't think he's less likely to stay healthy than J.D. Martinez at this point in their careers. So I would, uh, I've got Judge 13th in Roto. I would, I would stick with him. 13th in the outfield, right? In outfield. Yeah. Okay. And he was already dealing. He would have been 17th if he was outfield eligible. Judge is already dealing with a, they called it a left side thing, discomfort,

and he had that oblique a couple of years ago. I just, I really do not have a lot of faith in him staying healthy rest of season. Boba Chet had an extra smash and dash on Wednesday. Two home runs, including a walk-off and a steal. He's now up to four home runs and two steals on the season. So doing his best to make us look quite bad here on this podcast. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. I've watched a lot of him early in the season

because it feels like every game the Yankees have played has been against the Blue Jays. Every single thing off of Vlad's bat is loud, Chris. It is very loud. And the launch angle is already starting to drop a little bit. Hit a few more ground ball singles on Wednesday. But the one thing that I did say about Vlad,

the way that he can still break out, even with hitting a lot of ground balls, is the way that Juan Soto has done it is that every time you put the ball in the air, you are just crushing it, and so far, Vlad Guerrero's average exit velocity on fly balls and line drives

is 17th in baseball. So if he can maintain that, even if he hits the ball on the ground 50% of the time, he can still hit 30 plus home runs, if he maintains that. Yeah, I will, let me, I guess I would want to compare that to where he was last year,

because I would imagine he was, he ranked pretty well by that same. No, he didn't. Oh, no, okay, he was 46. So yeah, still good,

but not elite. So yeah, if he can sustain that, he could be, you know, he certainly profiles as someone who could be like a consistent 25% home run to fly ball rate guy.

And that's what he's, he is right now. He's been like 14% before this. So that's worth keeping an eye on. And it is entirely possible. But I looked this up earlier today. His first six games of the season, and he had an average launch angle of 20 degrees.

The last six, including today, his average launch angle is 0.1 degrees. So basically zero. He's essentially had no launch angle. That's prime Wilson Ramos right there. Yeah, yeah,

that's, but yeah, I mean, what I will say is there is evidence that Vladimir Guerrero is breaking out, but it's not as convincing as the overall numbers indicate. His ISO is actually,

it's not far from where it, was last season now. It's actually slightly below where it was last season. Obviously, we're talking about a very small sample size, but for as well as he's hit the ball, he only has four extra base hits. And it's not like his expected stats say that he's

been unlucky in that regard. So I think the jury's still out on whether Vlad's broken out. But I think he's going to be really good moving forward, especially if he can sustain his really good plate discipline so far. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't be looking to trade him necessarily. I don't think I would have the courage to

trade him at this point is what I would say. We've already mentioned the Yerminator. You're mean Mercedes a few times already tonight, but three for five on Wednesday. He's now betting 500. It was his third home run of the season. And I don't want to overreact to this, Chris, because I feel like we've seen so many players in the history of baseball. The first couple of weeks, okay, they get off to this great start and then they just fizzle out. But what I've seen from this guy so far, his approach. people have highlighted how with two strikes, he just completely changed his approach at the plate.

He just looks like a professional hitter so far. I think if you can sell him high for like a proven talent that you think he's going to bounce back, who's off to a slow start, sure. But don't just trade your mean Mercedes for the sake of trading him is basically what I'm getting at. Yeah, no, I mean, he's doing everything you want a hitter to do right now. He's got good plate discipline.

He's making a ton of contact, the 87% zone contact rate, 84.6% contact rate on balls outside of the strike zone. And he's hitting the ball incredibly hard. I mean, his average egg velocity is only 86%. But Max Exevalo's been there. He's hit a lot of really hard batted balls, even if he's also got some pretty soft ones that are dragging the average down. Let's wrap up with the call to the pen and to stream or not to stream. So some bullpen update, Jake McGee picked up his sixth save of the season, just like we all drew it up.

Gabe Kapler sticking with one closer. The Boston Red Sox, Matt Barnes picked up his second save. He is the guy there. And the Marlins, Yimi Garcia picked up his second save this time. It was in the 10th inning with a runner starting on second base in a one-run game against the Atlanta Braves, which is one of the best lineups in baseball.

So Yemi Garcia is undoubtedly the guy for the Marlins. He is only 38% rostered. To stream or not to stream for, Friday. This is for daily lineup leagues, people who are trying to stream starting pitchers. If you need some help in that department, if you have a stacked pitching staff, you probably don't need this. But apparently I was doing this wrong, Chris, because I didn't really factor in that we record the podcast the night before. So this podcast is coming out on Thursday morning. People are picking up pitchers for the following day, for Friday. So I have been doing this wrong

all along. And someone emailed in and told me like, hey dude, you need to do it this way. I was like, Actually, you're right. So thanks for the heads up. I appreciate it. To stream or not to stream for Friday? Drew Smiley at the Cubs. What do you think, Chris? Yeah, or nay?

Nay. Dylan Cis, well, this isn't going to happen anymore, probably, because he is on the IL, so we're going to skip him. Mike Minor going up. He could be off tomorrow. You know, it could just be a non-COVID illness. If he is off, would you start Dylan Cs at Boston? Probably know, he's sick.

Mike Minor versus the Blue Jays. No. There's some good stuff under the hood for Mike Minor, though. The velocity is up and the swinging strike rate is up as well. So I'm interested, but I wouldn't start him in this start either. Tough matchup. Adrian Houser at home against the pirates who all of a sudden are swinging hot bats. No, and not necessarily because it's the pirates swinging hot bats.

Matt Shoemaker at the Angels. Revenge game. I don't want to say no to everything. You can. If it's bad, it's bad. Yeah. Shoemaker's interesting, but no, I wouldn't do it. Nick Pavetta versus the White Sox

No Logan Allen at the Reds Probably not This one isn't going to be the case anymore either Because I have Logan Webb written down at the Marlins So Yeah, it'd be Alex Wood Well Alex Wood is starting on Sunday

So Who are they pushing up? I don't know All right, sorry I will say Alex Wood RP eligible I'm interested in him in a Roto League Or a points league

If he pitches well Jorge Lopez is... No. Going up against the Rangers. He's at the Rangers now. Mike Fultenevich versus the Orioles at home? No, I mean, he hasn't been awful, but he has the lowest swinging strike rate

among all starters right now. Carlos Martinez at the Phillies. No. J.T. Brubaker at the Brewers. No. Matt Moore versus the Cardinals. No. Taylor Whedender at the Nationalist.

Come on. Break the street, Chris. Okay. in a head-to-head points league where you play with daily lineups Taylor Widener is RP eligible and I would not mind streaming him if you don't have a good

two good closers so get there if you play in a head-to-head categories league do not start Taylor Widener for Chris I and Frank thank you all for listening and watching Fantasy Baseball today we'll be back and again tomorrow

bye bye